Cal Thomas - Liberty University Convocation

again mean Fredrick's will come and introduce our honored guests I'm so thankful for our library and all that they do to me it's the coolest library in the world alright and so are you not thankful for for them and are you not thankful for our Dean Dean come on up [Applause] thank you Pastor David it is my pleasure to introduce to you today man who has worked as a syndicated columnist author and political commentator on the national scene for over 30 years mr. Cal Thomas's columns have been published in more than 500 newspapers he has written 10 books he's made appearances on NBC Nightly News Nightline Good Morning America CNN's crossfire CNBC and Fox News among others mr. Thomas has long relationship with Liberty University began under founder dr. Jerry Falwell in the early 80s and in 2014 mr. Thomas donated his personal collection of over 3,000 articles to the archives and special collections in the Jerry Falwell library several of mr. Thomas's children and grandchildren have attended Liberty so he is both friend and family to Liberty University after we hear mr. Thomas speak today we're gonna have a Q&A session so as he speaks please think of questions that you may want to ask him and there will be time for that at the end please join me in giving a warm welcome to mr. Cal Thomas [Music] thank you oh thank you very much as Elvis used to say some of you remember him I love this school you are so fortunate to be here oh man if I were your age I would be here I would have made avoided a lot of mistakes that I made in my life with the kind of education that you're getting here so god bless you 35 years ago in two weeks I wrote my first syndicated column 35 years and when I wanted to do research I had to go to my funk and Wagnalls encyclopedia which was outdated the day it was published or physically leave my house and drive to a library and research there now I can get everything I need on this little device so incredibly informative more than 35 years ago when my parents took a trip they called the three A's and got a map it was called trip tick it flipped over like a little reporters notebook and it was all outlined in a red or green or something and my mother would sit in the front seat and tell my dad where to turn and what to do and now a female voice on my GPS does the same thing so a woman tells me where to go and what to do so I haven't really missed anything but now it's all on this and the coolest thing of all is the GPS I punch in you know this you punch in where you want to go it takes you from where you are to where you want to go all on the GPS what if we had a god positioning system who would direct us through our lives to our ultimate destination safely and with strength and encouragement we do a couple of no last weekend my wife and I were in Los Angeles in Palm Springs California suffering for the Lord and I saw a commercial on television it was her McDonald's they were trying out a new product bacon fries clearly not part of the Nutrisystem diet bacon fries and I thought well you know this is what McDonald's does and others they when they introduce a new food product they test market at first to see if it would catch on if people really liked it and they'd ask for the response of people do you like these same deal that would you would you continue to eat them and buy them here and if they will then they market it across the country now we have somebody who did that who test marketed all of the ideas that are presented to us in our lifetime his name was Solomon and he wrote some of the wisest words that have ever been written in two books in Scripture one is it Cleese he ass T's and the others the Proverbs now Solomon said when he was king over Israel he had he had access to everything why and women pleasure money influence power Fame notoriety he had it all the wisest man who ever lived the scriptures say I don't know how's that how right that is because he had more than one wife it seems to me to be not too smart but anyway that was the culture at that time and so Solomon test-marketed all of the ideas available to him at that time and he found at the end of it all that it was a meaning meaningless journey and a chasing after the wind he said whoever has money never has money enough and at the end he said so I hated life so all the things I had gained under the Sun I had to leave to the one who comes after me that's called an estate sale never been to an estate sale the furniture the jewels the furs the car the paintings everything that you've worked hard to accumulate all of your life is being sold at auction at a fraction of what you paid for it to people you probably didn't know that's why when Jesus said what shall it profit a man or a woman if they gain the whole world but lose their own soul all of it you have to leave Solomon said to the one who comes after me so why do people go to college to get a good education obviously and why do they get a good education well so then get a good job and not be a problem to their parents forever why do you need a good job well so you could make money why do you need money so you buy stuff why do you need to buy stuff so you'll be happy that's the message of the American culture get a good education so you can get a good job so you can make money so you can buy stuff so you'd be happy do you know what if one of the fastest-growing institutions in America is these days public storage units I've got one you put stuff in them that you no longer have room for in your house and then you pay somebody to store it there now how crazy is that let me tell you about my life and how God positioned me to do what I do and to be what I am I grew up in a nominal Christian home my parents were good parents my dad was a World War 2 veteran and all of his brothers they all came back fortunately we went to church on Sunday for an hour and the rest of the week was you just lived like pretty much we wanted to my parents were good people I made sure they were saved before they passed away but we had no Bible reading in the home we didn't pray before meals my grandfather offered me a silver dollar once if I memorized the 23rd psalm and that was the last serious Bible study I did for many years oh I did the things you're supposed to do I walked down an aisle I signed a card apparently God needs a rolodex and went down DRI came up Wed had my fire insurance policy in my back pocket so I wouldn't fry when I died and sat down in something called a Pew very uncomfortable seating where I listen to sermons I've long since forgotten probably about do's and don'ts don't drink don't smoke don't you don't go with girls who do don't dance no play card so code a movie shut yourself away in a spiritual convent and where do you die in the funeral directors paid off 90 days same as cash then you'll go to that great pearly gates in the sky where you'll get a harp and a pair of slippers and a robe and wings and and you'll walk down streets of gold humming Amazing Grace now God was on a ceiling in Rome I'd seen his picture and I was in Washington trying to get a date on Saturday night I couldn't really relate well years later when I had set a goal for myself to be a network television correspondent at NBC News I started to find out something different about myself and about who God was I started in radio when I was 16 about two weeks after my voice changed and then I joined NBC News in Washington as a copy boy and met some of the greatest journalists I've ever known tremendous influence on me and by the way the best way to get at education is not only from your professors but to find people of integrity in the business or area of interest that you have and ask them to pour their lives into you that's free no tuition it's really great oh by the way before I forget president Falwell asked me to announce today that your tuition for this semester has been forgiven and will be rebated yeah it's a cheesy April Fool's joke I'm sorry anyway had to come up with something and by the way why am I being asked to speak on April Fool's Day I mean who came up with that one I say to my atheist friends that your name is in the Bible oh yeah yeah to the Psalms a fool has said in his heart there is no God ha I was doing crossfire once we had the American the head of the American Atheists on and I said why are you always messing with my holidays at Christmas and Easter I don't mess with yours on April 1st uh-huh anyway so I thank you very much a little late laughter over there but I do appreciate it glad I woke you up so I did all these things and the more the more I succeeded at NBC or the money and a certain amount of notoriety and the sort of thing the less happy I was well my wife began to do some volunteer work at the National Prayer Breakfast office in Washington and one day came home and said I knew I met some men you need to meet and I went to meet them and they invited me to a little thing called a Prayer Breakfast in Washington a small group of people and I heard a federal judge stand up that morning and say say there's a possibility of everybody in this room to have a personal relationship with Jesus of Nazareth now I'd never heard that phrase before and go into a building called Church I don't recall it and I said well how is that possible and later they invited me to a Bible study not again I'd never study the Bible and I heard a man living reading from a living phrase I said wow I've never heard words like that before I've got to get one of these for myself and so I did and I started finding out things about God and about myself I found out that he was holy and I'm not and that he didn't establish a religion called Christianity he came to send his son to reestablish a broken relationship difference between a religion and a relationship that was destroyed in the Garden of Eden when our first parents sinned and everyone sits has big difference we have to deconstruct I learned so much stuff that we assumed about this person named Jesus of Nazareth I'll tell you a story when I was working at CNN for a while before Fox News came along producer asked me once what are you I said tall she said no no where do you go to church I said I am the church she said look wise guy what do you do on Sunday morning I said well let's see depending on how I feel I get grab a cup of coffee take a shower read the newspaper read two things every day my Bible in the New York Times so know what each side is doing and she said look wise guy when you leave the house where do you go I gave her an address she said it was her a building there I said yes she said what's the name of the building I said what are you getting at she said I want to know what you believe I said now we can have a conversation but we have constructed so much stuff over around above and below this person named Jesus of Nazareth that people find it difficult to get to him someone else asked me wants what's your done on my national background I said five stands 20s 50s and hundreds I was on Larry King sold show one night he said now Cal we all know you're deeply religious I said no I'm not Larry he said you're not I said no I used to be deeply religious now I just love Jesus there's a difference Larry was so confused he went to a commercial but this is this is it we got a teardown we add so much you know the man who led me to Christ said if you want more than Christ you're really wanting less than Christ because Christ is God's everything now if you take a glass of coca-cola and you pour water in it pretty soon the coca-cola will be diluted and if you pour the water long enough it will be replaced by the water we are adding stuff to Jesus agendas politics the environment I'm not saying these things are not important or they shouldn't be addressed but if they replace or dilute the only person who can change a life politics can't change a life environment can't change a life I can't change a life only Jesus can change a life then we dilute him and replace him with something else because if you want more than Jesus you are subtracting from him keep that in mind it's extremely important so anyway I'm learning all of this stuff and by the time of my 30th birthday which seems like only yesterday a major event happened to me I was fired now I don't recommend that for everybody but God was forcing me to choose I was coming to know more about him but I still wanted to be a big success in starp believing that that would be ultimately fulfilling to me and so I went to the dark side of the Moon for 11 years I took an enormous pay cut moved back to Houston Texas in a local television station where I appeared for a couple of years coming up to NBC News and I felt that I had been forgotten I had been replaced my dreams had been crushed and yet God was building things into me put me in touch with people who taught me sound doctrine who gave me a foundation for my faith then he introduced me to a great philosopher theologian named dr. Francis Schaeffer who taught me how to think and to process biblical truth through and around over and above all of the things in our culture and world today and then something really amazing happened in 1983 I just decided as a lark I was still here in Lynchburg to write a column I'd never written a column before oh I've written a couple of letters to the editor all my background was in broadcast news never written a column so I wrote one and it was called tarring fundamentalist there been a lot of stuff in the news about fundamentalist christians were intolerant bigoted racist sexist home alone of stuff and I said well you know this isn't true what every other area of life football whatever it is you learned the fundamentals right so I wrote this and I said well where am I going to send this column who's going to print this oh what the heck I'll send it to the New York Times the least likely paper in the world of printed other than Pravda in the Soviet Union so I send it in the New York Times they printed it it's framed hanging on my office wall it's a rare document and I say well I was a one-off so I got another idea for a column and I wrote one and send it to the Washington Post actually it was based on senator Ted Kennedy's visit to Liberty which I helped to work it straight calling it call it was called the man who came to dinner and there was a cartoon that with it had two demons standing out the White House outside the White House gate and Medina was hell has frozen over you know when Ted Kennedy would come to Lynchburg is very funny it's a great evening he spoke on religious liberty it was a terrific speech got a very warm reception from the students every broadcast network the newspaper reporters were here it was fantastic so I sent that at the Washington Post they printed that then I sent one of the LA Times and they printed that and I'm starting to pray I said Lord what's going on here this is ruining my speech on the biased media so I decided to collect these columns and send them off to various syndicates now syndicates are you know they they sell newspapers individually and then your column has syndicated in many different cities and I got turned down by all of them and I remembered a man I had met and this is how God works this is how he positioned your life when Tom Johnson was a White House Fellow and the Lyndon Johnson administration I got to know him a little bit and I remember that he was publisher the Los Angeles Times and so I called him up and he took my call and I said Tom I think any Democrat I there's a lack of good conservative column columnist sand commentary on the opinion pages and the newspapers today and he said well you may be right next time you come out I'll introduce you to our LA Times syndicate people and they're autonomous they make up their own minds but you know you can have a shot at him so in March of 1984 I flew to Los Angeles stayed in the LAX Hilton or I always stay when I go to a Los Angeles for the reason I'm about to tell you and I literally got down on my knees that morning and asked the Lord to do a greater miracle than Moses parting the Red Sea I said I'm asking you to part the liberal mind and if you do and if you think I'm ready for it and I now seek to honor and glorify you and not myself if you will give me this platform I will seek to honor you the rest of my life and I went to lunch with a vice president of the LA Times said to go to the chief copy editor and meant for an hour they told me all the reasons they couldn't take on another columnist and you don't have a newspaper background day of the columnist is coming to an end et cetera et cetera so I try between bites of salad to respond to each of their objections and finally the vice president of the syndicate turned to me and he said hey I hear you were a Christian is that right so no no I'm quickly checking my lapels to make sure there was no giveaway jewelry I said yeah he said well tell me about that I said oh man what do I do now if I'm too forthcoming they may go back to their boss and say hey this guy's religious put him on the religion page but a remarkable piece came over me maybe recalling my prayer that morning I spent about three or four minutes telling them what Jesus of Nazareth had done for me and who he was and when I finished the vice-president of the syndicate turned to the chief copy editor and said isn't so-and-so leaving us in April and she said yes I'd forgotten that and he turned to me and said can you do two columns a week for us beginning April 17th 35 years ago never missed a deadline two per week the math over 3,000 many of them are in the library I'm proud to say and I am convinced the God was communicating with the other two immediate members of his family meaning Lassonde the Holy Spirit saying let's see if this idiots learned anything and if he has we will give him the desire of his heart and you know what had happened the desire of my heart had changed the desire of my heart had become to honor and glorify God and this is why I have engraved on the back of my watch first samuel 230 he who honors me I will honor everything in Scripture is the reverse of the way men and women think we seek to honor ourselves God opposes pride we seek to elevate ourselves God raises the humble the Widow's mite the mustard seed the last place of the table when I'm weak that I'm strong humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and I will exalt you in due time if you faint not those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint he repeats it over and over and over because we are stupid and we won't listen and we put our trust in princes and kings now sure there are certain political leaders that I like better than others of course there are because they stand for different principles but I don't put my ultimate trust in them because they can't reach the heart no politician can change your life only you can do that by the way you study and achieve by the person you ultimately marry by the parent you become only God can direct your life only he can position your life through a god positioning system now the world comes in with all kinds of promises and claims that it can never fulfill and yet the God of the universe has heard and seen it all before we are not the first this is breaking news we are not the first people to walk the earth we don't have to invent the wheel or discover the use of fire it's all been done before if you're going on a trip to a place you've never been before what do you do you need to get a guidebook or you go online you research the place you see you can afford to stay in a hotel good restaurants tourist attractions information and why do you trust that because you know that the people who have written this have been there they've done it they've stayed in the hotels they have eaten in the restaurants they have visited the tourist attractions and so you trust them because you believe them this is exactly what Scripture is about this is our God positioning system for your life and for mine he's been there he's seen it he knows your nature he knows what Jesus can do for you in repositioning your life and give you direction and hope a purpose for living on this earth and a future with him if you let him now if I take this thing out and I punch in an address and it gives me directions and I say yeah I know a better way than that I don't need that I can do my own way and you get lost that's what we do today well we're calling God a liar when we do that aren't we there was a show many years ago a Broadway show called carnival it's one of my favorite musicals of all time you'll see a little bit of the showbiz that I wanted to do coming out at me now and it was written by a guy named Bob Merrill who also wrote a funny girl for Barbra Streisand tremendously talented man and the song he wrote was I've got to find a reason for living on this earth I've got to find a reason for breathing the air I breathe taking the space I take there's more to me there's more to this something in me that needs to do more than suck the breath of life as moths and weeds and leaves do holding up my head holding down a place being worth a name to go with my face I've got to find a reason for living on this earth something to want something to be somehow to say I am me it's a beautiful lyric it's the cry of all humanity when I speak at Pregnancy Center fundraisers I usually open by asking a question who are you oh I met some of you you have nametags your name is Sally or George or Frank or Hakim or whatever it is but is that who you are there are only two answers - Who am I one is the world's answer I'm material and energy shaped by pure chance in a random universe with no author of life no purpose for living and no destination after I die a little more complex than the food you may eat on campus but of no greater moral significance eat drink and be merry or after that we die that's one answer to the question who are you the other answer is I am created in the image and likeness of an objectively existing God who loves me and has a plan for my life and I will allow him to position it I will not only find meaning and purpose in this life regardless of what I do but I will have the promise of heaven and eternity with the Lord Jesus and my friends and relatives who have gone before me those are the two answers to the question Who am I now the world throws in all kinds of things you know you we've had this debate and we're gonna have it again on the next presidential campaign about income inequality another one of these buzz words I wrote a column a few months ago and I said I have a deep dark secret that I've kept hidden for many years but I feel an obligation to share it publicly now I suffer from income inequality oh the shame the shame yes there are always people who are making and will make more than I do but I don't envy them I've found that rich people are some of the most miserable people I've ever met because not only did they have to make it they have to hold on to it and the people they know are not their real friends they just want a piece of the action you know you hear about these lottery winners if 300 million dollars a day only one ticket holder do you ever read the stories of those people after they want their their lives are so often ruined relatives they never thought they had came out of the woodwork people felt entitled that's a word I hate entitled to that money families are destroyed divorce alcoholism all kinds of things come out of this so wealth is not the answer well neither is poverty you know Tevye says in Fiddler on the Roof it's no sin to be poor but there's no great honor either so how do we help the poor we help them by helping them become unpause the difference between the right and the left in America the left wants to just give them more government programs did you know that over a trillion dollars has been spent on anti-poverty programs since the Great Society started in 1965 and that we have just as many poor people today as we did that is true look it up so that money is not the answer purpose and meaning of life is the answer and you don't find that anywhere you don't find it in Hollywood you don't find it on TV unless you listen to certain really great preachers like Charles Stanley you don't find it anywhere else except in a personal relationship with Jesus of Nazareth who again did not come to establish a religion you'll never see the word Christianity in Scripture but came to reestablish a broken relationship and he did that by living a perfect life dying on the cross shedding his blood for each of us and saying that all you have to do is acknowledge what you know deep in your heart deep in your heart you really are and that is a sinner we spent money on doctors and psychiatrists to tell us you're not a sinner you do bad things because your mother loved your sister more than you you didn't get your dog that you wanted when you were 4 years old you're depraved on account of your deprived line from West Side Story but it's true it's a condition we inherit from our first parents and Jesus says if you'll simply acknowledge that you are a sinner and repent a very important thing to do and invite Jesus not religion into your life I'll give you a new life the life I originally created you to be and that I will restore you to what God wanted you to be and then in the end when the tree of life comes back in Revelation the first thing taken away the last thing restored you will be with me forever there is a promise no politician or any other person on this earth can make again it's not religion it's a relationship I know many of you have discovered that but I also know that some of you have come to this university because you are forced to by a parent or grandparent who said they wouldn't pay for your college education unless you came to a place like Liberty but this is the way God works certainly with the way you worked in my life he puts you in circumstances in positions with his god positioning system in order that you might hear that God loves you more than anything else that anyone else ever could more than a husband a wife a boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever more more more more far more and then if you will simply you don't have to do anything he's even done salvation for you Galatians 2:20 no I'm crucified with Christ never thought I left nevertheless I live yet the life I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God it's not even my faith he gives me my own faith he gives you everything it's better than somebody paying your tuition your room and board it's better than you know living in your parents basement because you major in the wrong thing it's better than all of that it's free because he paid it all jesus paid it all all to him I owe sin had cast a crimson tide he washed me white as snow what a great promise I hope if you've never considered seriously the person of Jesus of Nazareth you will do so this morning or this semester while you're here at this great University and you've heard this not for me because I ask God to get me the words to say this morning and I trust that he has and I trust that it's been a blessing to you now we're going to take a few minutes to have some questions something that's not often done I understand here at convo will have a special line for women who want to know how they can find a husband like me that's fine just kidding just kidding and I'm very blessed to have my wife of eight months here today we have a great story if you want to if you really want to see a cool love story you google love is patient and keys press the local paper and the Florida Keys did a story on us we were highschool classmates God brought us together after 50 some years it's wonderful love it alright who we have down here are we doing the old hello David you're back he was making a second coming all right so the way we're thank you sir the way we'll do our question in format is there is a microphone on this side of the island this one you can go ahead and get in line and then we'll we'll just try to do about 15 minutes at Q&A I have an initial one you or were good friends obviously with our founder Jerry Falwell senior you probably have a thousand war stories from your moral majority days and other stories that about your personal friendship is there one story that comes to mind that you can share with us to give us a window into who he was as a leader he was a terrific preacher when he was on his game and I mean he just he he was I mean you can see his videos and stuff just a tremendous reach and a and a clown I mean we you know he would do thing I remember one morning we were going to appear on the CBS Morning News got up early and we're going down the hall of our hotel and it's like 6:00 in the morning he knocked on somebody else's door and ran to the elevator so that I'm left in front of the guy's door who thought I was quiet one time he rolled a cherry bombed on the island of the plane the aisle of the plane was terrible coming out of New York once while the plane was in the air yeah it was crazy it'd probably be in jail today if he did that and then another time we've leaving New York and he decided he told the pilot of the plane to put it into a deep dive to scare the heck out of us Ave it was really funny he was he was a character but he also you know I remember I took him to Washington once and introduced him to an inner-city pastor and there a lot of poor people there and this he he was particularly taken by this one young african-american boy and he invited him to in the car to go back to the airport with us before we came back to Lynchburg and he said here's my personal phone number when you graduated from high school I'm going to give you a scholarship to Liberty University I almost cried when I saw that he was so generous and did things like that that the media always you know ignored because the stereotype well you know if you're serious believer you're you're against everybody I remember a sermon he gave one so this was so great in Baltimore you got you say got a lot of stories in Baltimore at an african-american church and he stood up and he talked about racism and he talked about growing up in the south and how white churches wouldn't baptize black people and this is the stuff that he grew up with and he realized after his conversion and it took a while that this was a sin the black pastor got out bomb never I'm quoting him verbatim he said I'm not so much interested in where a man was 25 years ago as I am where he is today that's the power of Christ he did all kinds of stuff like that you'd never read about and he's a wonderful man and I walked into his office today at the mansion you know and just did there a moment and said some things to him he meant a lot to me he rescued me and gave me a platform that allowed my syndicated column to begin and I will forever be grateful to him for that thank you sir first question here and then we'll go to this side all right tell me who you are were you from yeah hey you're next or the price is right well all right you might be my long-lost cousin cuz my name is Steven Thomas really yeah originally from India well I was I've eaten at an Indian restaurant maybe there's some connection there a little bit so the question that I wanted to ask was just thank you again for being faithful you said you've never missed a deadline in all these years if we could read one piece of something you've written either a book or an article what would you suggest that we dive into well you go to my webpage Cal Thomas calm and you know review so well the first column I wrote for syndication was called the children of divorce I saw a little girl sitting across the aisle from me hugging a Cabbage Patch doll and which was popular at the time and you know things being where they are I wasn't going to go over and touch her or try to comfort her so I called the flight attendant and I said can you help this little girl here and she said oh we get those kinds all the time I said what do you mean those kinds she said the children of divorce and that was the title of my column and I went and you know did some research and and the consequences to children of people who divorce sin not wasn't judgmental it was just you know there's like a ripple effect like dropping a stone in the water it's gonna ripple so I do remember that I mean I've got one coming up tomorrow on the whole immigration and the president's threat to close the border which I endorsed until we get things sorted out can't have hundred thousand people a month flooding into America we don't know who they are probably terrorists among them but let's do an ancestry.com thing to see if we got anything going there okay hey who are you hey my name's Zach hey Zach where you from from North Carolina oh good yeah so I just have a question i lo to preface it I'm a musician and I've noticed over the past like 10 15 years music distribution changed completely over the course of you know computers rising digital era how working in the news industry have you seen that change over your 35 years and how like where do you see it going in the next 5-10 years when I was at NBC the evening newscasts were 15 minutes long 15 minutes then they decided to go to 30 minutes and the big concern was golly will we have enough to report now it's 24/7 which has its pluses and minuses I think you know digital streaming you know you can be your own editor you can be your own commentator on Facebook Instagram LinkedIn just about anything you know Twitter you can be your own commentator you can do your own videos you you upload them to YouTube so I think that has empowered the individual in just about every field including music and news and everything else you want to do that can be a good thing but you know like fire properly contained it warms it cooks but let out of its containment it can burn down your house so there are good and bad things a lot of bad stuff on the internet you shouldn't believe everything you read unless I write it of course yeah so can I actually just on top of that yeah so it's a really great question because as a musician he's one of our best on campus what do you play I play drums oh good he if he's gonna go do records and be a big-time musician you know meaning records what's that exactly you know what does that look like they used to be able to budget a couple million dollars and do an album and then they would sell them now with streaming the royalties are shrinking does that kind of effect walk into the life of a columnist as well you know Newsweek New York Times Time magazine their publications side is shrinking yeah and so how do they continue to be relevant continue to have big voices you know as far as writers because the money's going away in one sense as the Internet's come in well I'm in a unique position I compare myself to a multi-engine jet if one engine goes down I'm still flying so I have the column and he's speaking I do radio I used to do TV before I got to old Fox generating my contract up to 19 years I said I'm not hair blonde I'm just not having a surgery so you know they didn't buy it but anyhow so it would be good particularly in a very volatile industry like journalism music whatever to have a fallback position just in case so you don't put all your investment in one thing and then find at the end of it you don't have anything and you're back living in your parents basement as nice as your parents they're probably are they like to see you bill I mean it's tough out there I had a I had a grandson I wanted to be a drummer and you know he realized that there just wasn't enough market he wasn't good enough for something and so you got a job at Microsoft it's not too bad whenever I go to Starbucks I always ask my Rishta now what band are you in so just just for that he's like alright Nick come on ah you see lalala and there's a great thing on that hey don't tell me they asked if you played basketball right actually tennis what tennis he said Ashley's Edinson yeah that man right there played for Virginia Tech all right one of the godliest men I know he has lost threesome as big as he is he's Rita how much weight have you lost recently probably close to 70 some 70 pounds he's getting ready and he's an MMA fighter now he's getting ready to deadly well you could be on with you know what's her name on Nutrisystem but go ahead om Jillian Michaels yeah where you from I'm from Richmond Virginia oh great yes sir yes sir so my question was if you had one book to recommend right that you've read that took your breath away that kind of formed your life mantra besides the Bible what would that book be John book of John he's saying beside the Bible with sorry the Bible didn't hear that part yeah yes David Nasser's testimony [Music] it's a riveting coloring yeah yeah comes with crayons I think yeah money-back guarantee if they don't like it you guarantee not to give their money back but anyway I think it's very important to learn how to process information and the person who taught me that I mentioned him earlier was dr. Francis Schaeffer any of his books but especially the God who is there and true spirituality are the two best that I found for processing the truth of God through all of the anti God philosophies and information comes along you'll find your own but those two are really really good and I would recommend them good question yeah yeah hey hi Lou wider are you a slow student or yes I'm are you you're always a student but I'm a professor here so it's learning and I were no Steve or Pastor David in 1984 I was an intern at wash in Washington with moral majority I saw the left and the right have a mantra if you will of you do whatever it takes to get the job done and the ends justify the means so both sides had that struggle what advice would you give our students to avoid the trappings of those two philosophies now in life you know you know GPS all that's necessary is to be infinitesimally off mark it doesn't it doesn't have to be even discernible and you'll miss the target whether it's the moon or the International Space Station or whatever it has to be precise and Satan's great lie is to just he doesn't come at you at your front door ring the doorbell you open it and say want to go to hell today I mean most people would slam the door faster than if it was a Jehovah's Witness no disrespect meant so he just wants to get you off a little bit focus on the world not on the kingdom that is forever in the greatest church-state moment ever when Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate and Pilate said don't you realize I have the power of life and death over you and jesus replied you wouldn't have that power if my father hadn't given it to you and my kingdom is not of this world he said that's the most profound statement if you keep your focus on the kingdom that is not of this world where you're going to spend most of your time let's face it you're never going to be disappointed but the great the great error of all of these political religious groups was the presumption not necessarily stated but presumed that you're going to get trickle-down morality from Washington from politicians who have difficulty you may have noticed imposing it upon themselves and and it's just not going to happen a change life comes from within not from without and Jesus said don't put your trust in princes and kings and I would say that includes Republicans Democrats liberals mushy moderates and everybody else well one last question we're not gonna be able to get to all of them go ahead my name's opal I've been reading your book what works oh you're the one reader thank you yeah it's been great y'all and it really focused on a few things that work and that don't and looking at the Millennial Generation I see that they focus a lot on what you say doesn't work broken families entitlement abortion and recently in conservative media there's been this line that is the generation after Millennials is the new pro-life generation or the most conservative generation to come do you think that's the case do you think that's wishful thinking or do you think younger people are aligning with what does work well it's a great question I appreciate their plug for the book too it's hard to say hard to make generalizations I have heard and I think I've spoken enough pregnancy senator fundraisers I think those of your generation are more pro-life because they've seen after 60 million abortions and they've been plenty of women around now you can talk to who regret them tremendously many have turned to alcohol promiscuous sex you know broken relationships I've seen them I've heard from them I've known some of them some of them are clinic directors pro-life clinic directors around the country so there's a lot of evidence out there now and I think people of your generation are seeing it and seeing the destruction that is caused not only to the unborn there's this brand new movie out which I really encourage you to see if you can called unplanned it's it's about a former Planned Parenthood director who actually was called in to look at the ultrasound and this is our great pro-life weapon to over 90 percent of abortion minded women who see an ultrasound of their own child not a film not a model choose to give the child birth because they've been lied to they've been pressured by boyfriends and parents or husbands or whatever and so I just think getting the information out there and all the answers you know this is one of the things that dr. Falwell did is starting a pregnancy Help Center here in Lynchburg and back in the the 80s all the answers had all the questions have been answered who's going to care for the baby after it's born not a problem who's going to take care of the woman and help her not a problem all of these services are free of the pregnancy centers all the so-called services that the abortion clinics cost money so who really cares for women and I think we have the stronger argument you know let God be God I mean I've talked to women who very difficult circumstances became pregnant out of wedlock and decided to have their babies so I did one and Donnie was Tampa Florida some years ago as 25th anniversary and they brought back women from the 25 years that they had helped and their babies some of whom were grown and they put them up on the stage and a tableau it was unbelievable I cried it was beautiful this is we have the power with the sonograms now to tell the truth so I gotta say I'm for empowering women I'm for giving them more information so they can make informed choices but the left is against it because they know to give them more information including pictures means they'll make a different choice in Planned Parenthood be out of business which I'm all for okay preach brother hey mo beard offering make it we think how just amazing jobs for Thomas such an honor to have you with us thanks for being here today you obviously a dismissed man and the Lord bless you may keep you and may shine his face upon you thank you

Channel: Liberty University

Views: 4,095

Rating: 4.7199998 out of 5

Keywords: Liberty University, LibertyU, Liberty, Jerry Falwell

Id: sqLuCgDMr8g

Length: 46min 1sec (2761 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 01 2019