EP 129 | Why Silence Betrays Christianity with Erwin Lutzer | Redeeming Truth

[Music] welcome to the redeeming truth podc today we have an incredibly special guest with us Dr Irwin ler I want to make sure that you understand how to live as a Christian in the current culture war that we're facing and Dr luer has written two books that are incredibly critical for you at this time as an American here in the cultureal war that we're facing those books are we will not be silent and no reason to hide and and what a treat we actually have Dr luer here with us today to help us understand these things and so Dr Lutzer would you please um introduce yourself to the people of the redeeming truth podcast well I'm glad to do that John and thank you so much for having me I was actually born in Canada so I'm a naturalized American citizen and I've had the privilege of being the pastor of Moody Church for 36 years I've transitioned now I'm Pastor Emeritus but the media Ministry continues we're so thankful for the ministry of running to win and then also I continue to write books and travel so um that's really my story and everything that I've ever done John as you well know it's because I have received it so I'm deeply grateful to God for the opportunity I've had to preach the gospel to so many people amen so these two books that you've written they're they're very similar but they have their differences and I'm wondering what was it that caused you to say I need to write these two specific books well I wrote the book we will not be silenced when I began to realize that the radical left in America does not believe that America can be fixed in their mind America has to be destroyed at least it's in institutions its Traditions its laws and a new kind of America has to emerge and this new kind of America is not subject to the Constitution necessarily it's an America that really has and I know it's an overworked term but I'm going to use it and that is cultural Marxism and all who are listening need to understand that cultural Marxism says we can have a Marxist government and a Marxist country without a bloody Revolution like they had in China and in Russia and it can happen incrementally by taking over the media by taking over laws by education by government you elect the right people by showing the wonders of the socialistic regime and how wonderful it would be if we were socialists so you can do it piece by piece when I began to realize this it became clear to me that I see this everywhere you know one of the things that I do in both books is to talk about racism yeah and um Saul Alinsky was here in Chicago he was a Marxist during the 70s and U what he saw was that he could apply Marxism to the race question he could divide people in terms of oppressor versus oppressed and he could perpetuate chaos within the Providence of God I met someone who was uh working with Saul Alinsky and he says that Alinsky used to tell them don't solve problems because they had some good solutions to the disparities of the city of Chicago but um Alinsky said don't solve problems use them so his whole thing was to create chaos and so we see that in the whole racial conflict that we have today and of course in my book um no reason to hide I take that further and show that all of this guilt that we're supposed to feel for being on territory that has been uh that was stolen uh how to handle those kinds of situations but more than that when it comes to morality and I'm sorry I'm giving such a long answer here John people need to understand that when it comes to issues of morality Marx taught that the only reason that people do evil things is because they are oppressed and if you take away their oppression they're going to be able to live in harmony if nobody owns every anything they'll be happy about it they will live together in harmony you won't even need laws even the the state will just wither away as everyone wakes up in the morning very excited to work for the state so what you have today even in the whole issue of crime you know when people break into stores here in Chicago there's Looting of course we know about the Looting elsewhere also y uh the whole issue is let's not be hard on these criminals they're doing it because they're oppressed yep so and and then you know some people open the jails and let them out and The Police become the oppressors so it's interesting to see in all of these areas one other very quickly and that has to do with history Marx taught that history basically belonged to the winners so U history was written by the winners therefore history always had a capitalistic bent so we need to rewrite the past in order to control the future and the past means that America has to be vilified it is hopelessly racist it is a country that has all of these faults and the people who criticize it why they have no Faults at all so I know I'm giving a long answer but here's my point you asked me why I wrote the book I began to see that when you look at culture through these glasses it explains so many different things including a chapter that I have on propaganda it's always been an interest of mine ever since I wrote a book on Hitler so all of that is connected Believe It or Not Dave Jeremiah who wrote the intro to we will not be silent said that what the book did for him is instead of bits and pieces as to what's happening in the culture it gave a sense of explanation and coherence and relationship and one other comment we did not ask for this culture War that's right it's not as if we went looking for a culture War the culture War John has come to us it's come to our doorstep and Christians have to respond because we have no alternative because we're living in an age in which all of these radical ideas including the whole sexuality bit has come to to us and what we need to do is to ask this question how do we respond I didn't write the books in order to reclaim the culture I wrote it to reclaim the church yeah because I see that the church often times is compromising and in some instances the church doesn't know what to do and it's not as if I have some special wisdom but I try to help think through what our response should be that is the reason why we're doing this podcast today we've done multiple interviews with multiple people to try to help the church understand how to respond to the culture where culture war that has come for them and so on that note you use the phrase radical left and it's almost like a a phrase like that would be so would would never come out of the mouth of a pastor in these days and so talk about how the church shifted from being a from being a group of people that were United on on a ton of culture War issues and were able to speak pretty much with one voice and now we we can't even identify things as radical left Progressive Marxist we can't do any of that today within the church for fear that somebody's going to think that we're too political or we we don't care about lost people or only certain kinds of lost people can you speak to that please well John you've actually asked a series of questions here but I'll try to respond to it and then you can respond to me let's talk about politics for just a moment I personally have never uh endorsed any political candidate or any political party because when you do that you're setting up unnecessary barriers and of course politics no matter which side you take is filled and run with the run with Sinners it's led by Sinners there are imperfections there are things that we can support in one party but not another and it gets too complicated but I believe that pastors do have a responsibility to speak to the issues of the culture which are deemed to be political today everything is political abortion is political transgenderism is political the whole issue of um you know how we conduct ourselves in the midst of uh the church and or shall I say the schools and what is taught in schools yeah nowadays parents trying to get involved and being told they can't or Worse all of those things are connected politically so it's not as if we can avoid politics and politics is very important it's not all important yeah the gospel is all important but to somebody who tells me oh I don't think politics is important I asked them this question would you rather live in North Korea or South Korea take your choice yep in other words if politics isn't important why not choose North Korea I thought politics was on was unimportant of course it's important but it's not all important and uh so what we have to do now getting back to terminology I can understand where we we might be um we might be criticized even if we use terms such as cultural Marxism unless we explain what we mean that's right I preached at a place uh about a year ago and received some push back some letters and so forth they were accusing me of being right-wing because I was talking about the issues I don't think I even mentioned the word cultural Marxism or the like and so what we have to do though if we use these terms we have to Define them in a way that people understand for example even the phrase that you used radical left well in the minds of some people this might just be liberalism well ancient or not so ancient liberalism was actually for free speech for example they would argue for Free Speech but nowadays the radical left is totally opposed to free Free Speech yeah and there are reasons for that because they don't want any competition when it comes to these issues so I'm giving you a roundabout answer but I'm saying we can speak to these issues if we Define the terms and help people to understand what we're referring to but Dr ler as Christians especially as pastors we're just supposed to preach the gospel right I mean that's what that's what we hear from so many Christian leaders out there just preach the gospel stay out of politics uh how do you respond to the just preach the gospel well to just preach the gospel it might come as a shock to you it shouldn't that I'm writing another book and this one is going to have to do with the whole business of the eclipse of God and America's disastrous search for a more inclusive deity yeah and one of the chapters I'm working on currently has to do with the whole business of Law and uh I'm thankful that America is not Nazi Germany but Nazi Germany gives a very clear picture of what happens when law is based on a man and the man who makes the laws wins I'm talking about Adolf Hitler of course now here's the point I want pastors to think about would you be faithful as a pastor in Germany if you did not speak about the atrocities of the regime I've actually written two books about Hitler one is entitled Hitler's cross the other when a nation forgets God you can read one or the other they aren't dependent on one another there is a slight overlap but you can read one without reading the other so it's not a matter of you know this one yeah needing to be read before this one but here's my point in each I tell the story of a ptic church in Germany that um believed only to preach the gospel to keep the gospel basically to themselves so they were very gospel centered but every Sunday or even during the week when they met there were train tracks close to them and they made sure that they were singing songs when the train came because they knew that those trains were filled with Jews on their way to a concentration camp and sometimes they could hear their screams so you know preach the gospel yes but we also have an obligation to the culture to people we have an obligation and there you go also for another term that needs definition namely social Justice because we should strive for justice and we can talk about that but at the same time it's very important to realize that what we're talking about here is an involvement in the lives of the hungry the poor the widows that all also is the responsibility of the church so we need to be able to navigate our way keeping the Gospel Center but at the same time knowing that there are implic ations of Christianity that we need to address well Dr ler there is uh there are a number of Christian leaders that are either um complicit or complacent when it comes to these things you just you just mentioned Nazi Germany that's that's the clearcase example for us when when we strip everything away you ask the the clear question what would you do would you be a faithful Pastor if you didn't speak against the the atrocities of Germany I think the rhetorical question the answer to that is no you wouldn't be um and so when it comes to the things that are going on within the Christian church today that you're seeing where Christians are not speaking up they're they're silent your book is what you know we will not be silent but so many Christians today are being told by their leaders to be silent to either stay out of politics or to be complicit with the revolution so how how do you how is you as you're seeing all of this how do you think through that well in my book um no reason to hide I make this statement and this is very important John for your church and for everyone who is listening the question that we are faced as evangelicals is this are we going to interpret the Bible through the lens of culture as many people are doing or are we going to critique the culture through the lens of the Bible that's really the issue there are many people who look at the culture and they say well we have to harmonize Christianity with the culture we have to have you know make sure that we don't offend anybody make sure that we have uh Open Arms to everyone and affirm everyone's Behavior because if not we'll be a stumbling block so what they are doing is they are actually interpreting the scripture through the lens of culture and of course the clearest example of this is when churches affirm same-sex unions or affirm homosexual relationships yeah which are so strongly condemned in scripture when you find a church that has succumbed in that area you can be quite sure that it has left the gospel behind long ago but nonetheless those are the kinds of things that are creeping into the church the Evangelical Church the other thing thing if I might talk about an explosive topic is racism it used to be in the 80s and 90s and in the early 2000s when I was pastor of Moody Church the great emphasis was on racial reconciliation yeah but critical race Theory comes and blows all that apart yep it says there can be no reconciliation because what you have is oppressed versus oppressors and the oppressed they are the ones who set the terms and unless they are no longer oppressed and unless the oppressors meet all of their requirements there cannot be Harmony yeah for all those of you who are listening I'm going to give you a single sentence about critical race Theory but first of all I'm going to quote a scripture it says in Colossians 3:1 that in Christ there's neither Jew nor Greek Bond or free syian syian barbarians but Christ is all and in all now Paul didn't say Jews become Greeks or Greeks become Jews and cians become barbarians what he was saying is there's a Transcendent Unity yep and my burden is to work toward that Unity listening to each other finding out how we can help each other trying to rectify abuses Etc but critical race Theory tears apart everything that Jesus died to bring together because critical race Theory says we have to separate on the basis of skin color what we have to do is we have to stand apart the oppressed have to demand their rights and of course the oppressors will never meet the demands of the oppressed and when oppression is your badge to power and I might say I I'd better stop there when oppression is your badge to power oppression is going to be very special to you and you'll not seek to move Beyond oppression now what am I saying the church has the responsibility of speaking to racism because racism is sin y but it has to do that biblically that's right it has to do that based on Ephesians 2 Colossians the verse that I quoted and so what's happening today though is there's division within churches because in one way or another they are accepting social justice theories which tear people apart rather than bring them together yeah social justice I've said is antisocial Injustice is what it really is when it's social justice defined by Marxist ideology that's what it ends up doing so is it is it okay as a Christian to love America because it seems like the the response for so many Christians is if if America goes down what is it matter I'm a pilgrim I'm just passing through this world is not my home I shouldn't make America Idol if God takes it out God takes it out how do you respond to that well first of all if God takes it out God takes it out but I'm so glad you asked that question because I have some very deep convictions about it in April of this year 2023 I was in Albania with my wife for a preaching tour preached in many different venues to many different audiences Albania in the 70s and 80s was as strict a communist country as North Korea is today and there is a museum dedicated to what life was like under communism and when you go through that museum you see that even in the 80s before the fall of Communism in the early 90s even in the 80s the surveillance that they had do you know that they put tape recorders in prisoners rooms in jails to listen to their conversation and if they rejoiced when a communist leader died they would get an extended sentence or maybe be put to death when I saw what communism was like I was so burdened because people have no idea of how fortunate we are in America Y and I mentioned at the beginning of this uh podcast that I was born in Canada and the more that I learn about the Constitution the Bill of Rights and so forth and the Declaration of Independence the more amazed I am at the wisdom that God gave our founding fathers and when people trash America they have no idea what it is that they are doing America is filled with faults because it's filled with Sinners right and of course we can mention slavery and all those things but I can say this I am proud to be an American even though I'm a naturalized citizen I want to stand and honor the flag because this country has given so many blessings not just to us but to the whole world John you know this go to any country of the world I've been at least in a few overseas and whether or not it's countries in Africa or India or wherever we all know that mission work is supported by American dollars that's right so if America goes under it's not just oh well too bad you know we're a bunch of Sinners yeah I know we'll deserve the justice that God gives us but at the same time we have to recognize that the whole world is going to be negatively affected y so to piously say well it doesn't matter matter whether America goes downhill people who talk like that I'm going to be very strong here I think they have no idea what they're saying yeah I agree and not only that but you made it clear in one of the two books I don't remember which one that it's not like God has not allowed Christianity to be completely Stamped Out in cultures in the past he did it in North Africa with the rise of Islam where Christianity is completely snuffed out it's it's done in in Korea when the split between North and South happened today the Christian Community is m is murdered as well as the entire family that's found out that you're a Christian so it's not like God has has said well as long as there are Christians there like it's going to be fine no he has allowed it to get snuffed out completely and you just think about what what would what would the world look like if there wasn't those millions of dollars spreading all over the world to reach people for Christ all coming from this country Christians in this country it would be a staggering loss to the to the whole world now does now can God use that of course he can use that but but God often God always uses means as well and he uses the means of the the the kind of country that we have here in order to reach the world for Christ in a way that that has never happened in history you know the Bible says that um in Romans chapter 1 when it talks about The Descent of Man into all kinds of sin it says neither were they thankful we're living at a day and age when people are simply not thankful at all all that they can do is complain and I know that there's lots to complain about and America has many faults but they have no idea what life is like in other countries yeah they often times have no idea of the poverty and the racism the fact that there are still millions of slaves especially in the middle East and in Africa millions of slaves today and they have no idea and so they trash America not knowing that despite all of our faults we are indeed unique y it's it's incredibly true incredibly true is there a connection that you see between the dismantling of America and the delegitimizing of Christianity no because we must understand that um the radical left oftentimes links up also with radical Islam and they want to destroy the institutions of America and those two institutions are linked Christianity and capitalism Y and as far as they are concerned both have to go in my book we will not be silenced I have a chapter on uh socialism and I point out all of its FS which of course are many and how it becomes a paradise for parasites and and you cannot run a country on socialistic principles and you can only do that if you have some inherited Capital that comes into the country and so that's why communism has been such a failure but people say oh well we're going to do it differently no I'm sorry there are some things that that government can do for us but in the minds of a conservative big government always means more control more money more taxes and all of us know that the government oftentimes is woefully in in inefficient and the reason is because it really has no competition right it's competition that brings out the best it's competition that keeps prices down and if you don't have that the government doesn't have that has no rival things just get out of control look at our national debt yep so there is there is a part of this revolution that I think is the most concerning for Christians but even non-christians just people who look out at the culture and say you know there's something wrong and it is the the focus of the revolution on children and and what it's seeking to do to our children can you speak to to that yes with a heavy heart I can speak to that you know I think it's in Ezekiel chapter 16 where God says that Israel was giving its children uh and sacrificing its children to mik Y to ba and God says this you have taken the children that you have borne to me and you have sacrificed them what that means is even children children that have Pagan parents belong to God and once Israel got to the point where they began to attack the children and sacrifice them to Idols that was actually the last point before a judgment came and they were taken off into captivity Etc and when you hear the radicals saying we're coming for your children you know especially that we are near ing some kind of continuing judgment people always ask me do you think America is going to be judged for its sins I point out that America is already being judged for its sins that's right right because all sins have some immediate consequences but there's also such a thing as long-term consequences that pile up and we are seeing that in the younger generation of course social media is a part of this where young people are constantly looking at their cell phones they aren't reading they're watching videos and so in answer to your question it's heartbreaking it's heartbreaking and yet you have drag queen hour and so forth and they don't want righteousness they want this kind of debauchery and when parents are foolish enough to take their children and to submit their children to the goddess of sexuality you know that we have come to the end of the line when you have compromised parents even compromised Christian parents who don't who are looking at their children saying I don't I don't want my kids to make waves in their Elementary School I don't want them to make waves on their soccer team so when they see a commercial for that that have two men kissing I'm not going to I'm not going to show them here's what the Bible says about that and say that's evil I'm going to say something less because I don't want my kid to go into those other environments and be perceived as a bigot and then get the blow back there there is a real need today to not only protect our children but but really to to be courageous and I think that as your both of your books call for this but before we get to that as you as you see Christians in a place like Chicago where it is there is a an oppression against your views specifically how is it that you're seeing Christians respond and what is it that they need to hear well it's difficult for me to answer of course throughout the years I preached here at Moody Church and tried my very best to be biblical and let the chips fall where they may yeah but I do have to say this this is the most heartbreaking thing that I can possibly say maybe not the most heartbreaking but close there are so many Christian parents who want to raise good children stay out of drugs stay out of sexuality state of trouble what they don't want or don't think about is whether or not they are raising Godly children and there's a big difference yeah there are many kids who are good kids they stay out of the things that are that negative but they have no heart for God and the challenge that God gives to us as parents and grandparents is to raise a Godly generation and you and I know that in a relay race the most dangerous time the most treacherous time is when the Baton is passed because often times the Baton is dropped so in answer to your question every family is going to have to ask themselves the question what are we doing you know frequently John I'm asked the question what should Christians be doing in the midst of this it depends a little bit on who you are what your vocation is there isn't a one answer fits all except to be faithful for the businessman that's a different question I was texted uh recently by a man who said I'm expected to sign this document in my business can a Christian sign it I said you can sign this and this and this and this but you can't sign this yeah so these are very tough decisions because these laws and these standards are not intended to protect anybody yeah they are intended to coerce everyone to agree with the woke agenda so Christians are going to have to ask themselves how much is Jesus Christ Worth to me yeah am I willing to tow the line and take the consequences with Joy or will I submit to the uh culture which is crushing our freedoms yeah I was I was pleasantly surprised to see that you had a chapter I think it's in no reason to hide on the great reset what was it that caused you to say I need to actually speak on this as well well of course that was written during the covid days and all that you have to do is to go to the World Health Forum yeah and you have to find out what it is and I also read the book entitled The Great covid reset yep and just as I'm speaking to you here John I have to say that thank thanks to my old age klous Schwab I thought I was going to have to say I forgot his name but I think it's klous Schwab it is and so I read that book and it is very clear as a matter of fact I quote him in my book directly when he says that the time is going to come when if there's another pandemic people are going to want to give up their freedoms they will give up their freedoms because the desire to live will be more important than the desire to maintain your freedom so he is saying explicitly yep that the time is going to come he says there's going to be a lot of discussion about civil rights and individual freedom but he says people will give it up under pressure which of course reminds us of uh the 13th chapter The Book of Revelation where you have you need of course to um you know have the mark of the beast to buy or S that's right so that's what interested me it is so simple now for us to see this every generation has struggled with that chapter and you know there are different ways that God could have done it in the past but today we see it with the development of the digital do dollar yep and the whole world coming together we see it so clearly that the time is coming when there is indeed going to be this great reset and the implications are huge and so when you see when you put all of the stuff that you studied in order to read these books you said that Dr Jeremiah was able to look at read your book and go it made connections across a broad spectrum of various things did you have that moment as well where everything just seemed to click into place you're like I I see what's going on now yeah I think that that certainly happened when I wrote uh we will not be silenced I began to connect some dots and began to see that there was a a Common Thread in society running throughout Society what I find very interesting is that as you know in many of our universities they don't want to study the enlightenment because these are a bunch of dead old men old white men as if to say that U being dead meant that you didn't have any wisdom right but here's the point despite the fact that some of these books are being taken out of libraries today Carl Marx's position and his books are secure nobody's going to say well Carl Marx was just a an old dead white man no yep he is the darling of the radical left and even though he is interpreted in various ways the fact is his ideas still permeate us today so when you you wrote two books this I I wanted to get to this part too which I think is critical you already mentioned it but I want to come back to it you wrote two books on Hitler and Nazi Germany and you've now written two books on the current cultural revolution happening in America do you see Trends here that are that disturb you when you when you compare the church in Germany to the Church of today yes exactly you know when you look at it this way in Nazi Germany churches wanted to make sure that everybody knew that they were a part of the Revolution and so they would have swastikas on their doors even some swastikas on their altar because what they were saying was when you come for the Christians don't come for us yeah because we are on your side it's something like churches that have uh you know black lives matter sign on their lawn y rainbow or U you know the rainbow flag yeah what they're saying is don't come for us because we are on your side so you have these compromises that are taking place the other thing that you have and we already referenced it briefly is uh the control of what is said Hitler said that they could preach the pure gospel as long as they did not insult the Germans or their decent sense of morality that's almost a direct quote well what you have today is often times such positive messages and you and I know who we are referring to because they're all over the country yeah about how wonderful the gospel is how beautiful it is but there's no emphasis on sin yeah there's no emphasis on repentance yeah and so the gospel has been muted yeah and that certainly happened also in Nazi Germany but more specifically Neer for example was tried in a court for abuse of Pulpit wow what was abuse of Pulpit he had the nerve to speak against the regime and he ended up in a concentration camp as you may know even though he did survive the concentration camp and died I think as late as 1984 but there's where you have the curtailing of freedom and you know we're so critical of the church in Germany there were many pastors who didn't submit to the regime we're so critical but what would we do if there were soup lines if our kids were hungry and a leader came along and said I'm going to suspend your civil liberties in order to restore order because Anarchy is terrible and um promised hope and then revived the economy and everything was going along so wonderfully but hidden behind all that as we know was a very terrible agenda the killing of the Jews World War II Etc so I say to the church today everybody should ask themselves where is the line that I should draw and how can I be faithful in the midst of a collapsing culture Dr ler you come you you come from a time when there was a there was a strong connection between Evangelical Christianity and the founding of our country the the documents that founded our country the ideology that founded our country that there was it was clear that there was a connection between the scriptures Evangelical Theology and many of those things that that connection is no longer here and what's happened I I don't know if you have a um if you have an opinion on this but but I wanted to get your thoughts because what's happened in our culture today is that if you're a Christian there's there's a large group of people that are saying that kind of connection between the Constitution and Christianity we should we should remove that the constitution for our country should be the Old Testament and we should have a Christian Prince we should have uh we should we should enforce things like Sunday worship and blasphemy laws and and uh kill various people that the Old Testament says should should be killed I wonder what your thought is on this growing uh reaction movement to the woke agenda which is Christian nationalism do you have any thoughts on that I sure do as a matter of fact I am smiling here because in my new book that's going to be coming out in about a year I'm writing on that I have a whole chapter on that good and um I think it's totally wrong because we don't have a theocracy America is not Israel and what you have in the transition period very clearly is is that the role of the church is entirely different in the Old Testament God was dealing with a nation so the whole nation had to come under the law of God yeah to have freedom of religion was blasphemy if you were to worship idols you are supposed to be put to death that is not true today Jesus showed us that we could live Faithfully in the midst of the Roman Empire you know when he said render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's so it's a whole new era God is doing something different instead of dealing with a nation he's dealing with a transnational community that is found in all the different countries of the world namely the church yep and the church is to be Salt and Light in the midst of that if you look at the seven churches of Revelation nowhere did Jesus suggest to them that they should take over the culture and begin to Institute Old Testament law that's right what he wrote to them was be faithful where God has planted you and I believe that that is the message that God wants us to have today and many of the things in the Old Testament for which they stoned people we have no right to do that but we do have the responsibility of church discipline for those things read 1 Corinthians chapter live and you'll see that very clearly so to wrap up our interview I have two more questions to you in both books that you wrote are are are different and they have different emphases for Christians and so what was your response what did what did you call Christians to how did you call Christians to respond to the culture war and we will not be silent well what I emphasized was that we should not be intimidated by the culture and be willing to pay the price that the culture is demanded that is demanding from us if we are to be faithful Christians and I do the same thing that's we will not be silenced I do the same thing in um no reason to hide right but I end that book differently with a whole chapter on the business of suffering for Christ because I think we as Americans have to rethink that y uh you know the average American thinks this if we were the church that we should be we'd be able to sail along have a strong economy we could get back to our good lifestyle enjoy life the good American way so forth well that's not the way the Bible teaches it Jesus said blessed are you if men revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely great is your reward in heaven he expected that we'd be persecuted you read first Peter 4 where Peter says very clearly don't think it's strange that Strange Fire is coming upon you but rather be faithful if you suffer according to the will of God You Suffer Well so in the New Testament suffering was always seen as a new opportunity to witness for Christ when Paul was in prison he used that opportunity and he said I have a new audience here I have the guards and I can witness to them so we need to recognize that um suffering has always been a part of the church and we need to rethink our view of suffering and ask ourselves to what extent are we willing to suffer for the one who died for us it's almost like the sign of blessing on our lives is not Material Prosperity but it actually is suffering for for Christ um I have one more question um you talk about the need for Heroes and how heroes are made and I think this is a is an appway to conclude our conversation is the is the call to Heroes can you speak to that yeah especially teenagers need Heroes now you don't know me well John but my teenage hero was Billy Graham most of my peers were into Elvis Presley I was into Billy I think I made the better choice actually definitely and U he inspired me in ways that we could talk about at length but I'll let it go at that and what girls need today is not the hero of um you know this very famous singer whether it's JLo or uh you know all of the teenage Heroes that are on ision that's terrible yeah and yet they imitate them so there's there's that level of Heroes for teenagers but then there's also another level and that is for faithful mature Christians you can choose here Bon Hofer you can choose um uh people like Cory ten Boom who showed what faithfulness was like in the midst of a an ant and lice infest Ed prison cell those kinds of Heroes we desperately need yeah because we need people who show us that faithfulness is possible despite the price amen well Dr ler I can't thank you enough for being on the redeeming truth podcast today I could talk to you for hours there's so many things that I want to ask you about I want to be uh I want to be cognizant of your time and also for our listeners but it is so helpful and um where can people find your books if they would like to uh learn more and read more well you know believe it or not we will not be silenced or no reason to hide probably the best place is to go online and buy it at christianbook.com christianbook.com they always have a great sale on their books there's also Amazon as everyone knows but christianbook.com I would recommend that that might be the best place to get that book and a number of others that I have written and then do you have a website you mentioned a Ministry earlier do you have a website that people could go to as well yeah you know people can go to Moody media.org that's Moody media.org and what they'll find there is blogs and sermons and other resources all for free of course and so if they want to know more about us Moody media.org well thank you for your time Dr Lutzer and thank you to all of our listeners for joining us for the redeeming truth podcast today thanks John hey don't leave yet if you're part of the 75% of people that watch our content but haven't subscribed this is your time go down and find that little subscribe button and click it that way you will know every time we come out with more content here from Redeemer Bible Church also if you would like to give to this ministry this is the only way that this ministry can happen make sure to click the link down below to the give button and you can give to the ministry here at Redeemer and then finally if you want to know more about what's going on check out this podcast right here

Channel: Redeemer Bible Church AZ

Views: 1,236

Keywords: Why Silence Betrays Christianity, erwin lutzer, Redeemer Bible Church, redeeming truth, jon benzinger, christian podcast, christian, christianity, jesus, faith, gospel, dr lutzer, culture war, woke, cultural marxism, Gilbert Arizona, radical left, antifa, blm, Sound Doctrine, swastika, nazi germany, gospel centered, great reset, wef, mesa arizona, Bible Church, local church, redeemeraz, church, defending truth, bible church in phoenix, silence, bible, Church in phoenix

Id: sL0Z_ect718

Length: 50min 35sec (3035 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 13 2023