Paterno, Tebow, and a Culture in Confusion
November 12, 2011
Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:48 — 8.7MB)
Guest: Gordon Thiessen, Dir. of Training and Resources, Fellowship of Christian Athletes
“A good name is to be more desired than great wealth; favor is better than silver and gold” (Proverbs 22:1).
Every so often a sports story makes front page news and that was the case this week when a grand jury investigation found that Penn State’s football program and its legendary coach, 84-year-old Joe Paterno, had tolerated a serial child rapist in their midst named Jerry Sandusky, a long-time assistant coach. When the decision was made on Wednesday to fire Paterno, students on campus rioted.
This explosive story at Penn State is the only thing that has been able to overshadow the incredible amount of fan and media attention devoted to Denver Broncos quarterback and committed Christian Tim Tebow. Although Tebow has only started three games for a team with a losing record, the most hotly debated topic of the NFL season continues to be: “Can Tim Tebow play quarterback in the NFL?” What do the polarized and irrational responses say about our culture?
Gordon Thiessen, director of training and resources for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, will join us this weekend to discuss these stories and what they represent culturally and spiritually.
Need to Read: Why the Heck Do We Hate Tim Tebow? (Jen Floyd Engel)
Should A Biblical Christian Vote For A Mormon (Or Any Other Unsaved Candidate)?
November 5, 2011
Podcast: Download (Duration: 49:49 — 8.6MB)
“When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when a wicked man rules, people groan” (Proverbs 29:2).
Many biblical Christians do not like the policies that our professing Christian president, Democrat Barack Obama, has implemented such as government-run health care and the expansion of abortion rights and the homosexual agenda, to name a few.
One year from now, biblical Christians will have the privilege of going to the polls to cast their vote for president. With his place near the top of the polls, large financial holdings, and lack of scandal, it is quite likely that the Republican nominee will be Mitt Romney. By most accounts, Romney is a family man and an intelligent and capable business and civic leader.
Mitt Romney is also a committed Mormon. And that is where the rub comes for many biblical Christians. The thought of voting for someone immersed in a false religion, that some call a cult, has divided biblical Christians. Some say they could never vote for a Mormon and will either vote for a 3rd party candidate or not at all. Others say they’d rather have a more conservative person be president, even if he is a Mormon, than a liberal professing Christian.
So what’s a biblical Christian to do when it comes to the possibility of voting for a Mormon? Tune in this weekend to The Christian Worldview as we discuss this topic and take your phone calls.
Program follow-up: Just to restate, in case you didn’t hear the whole program, neither David Wheaton nor The Christian Worldview are endorsing Mitt Romney for president nor saying he is the best Republican candidate nor even assuming he will be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012.
The point of today’s program is this: while it would be ideal to always have the option to vote for a viable born-again Christian candidate, based on our understanding of Scripture, a true Christian would not be sinning against God in voting for an unsaved candidate (Mormon or otherwise) but that a Christian also shouldn’t vote for any candidate if it causes him/her to violate their conscience (Romans 14).
What Happens When Joel Osteen Makes The Narrow Gate Much Wider?
October 28, 2011
Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:49 — 8.7MB)
Guest: Jason Carlson, Pastor and Director, Christian Ministries International
“Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (Jude 1:3).
Joel Osteen, pastor of America’s largest church, made the following statement this week in an interview with the Washington Times:
“I believe that [Mormons] are Christians. I don’t know if it’s the purest form of Christianity, like I grew up with. But you know what, I know Mormons. I hear Mitt Romney — and I’ve never met him — but I hear him say, ‘I believe Jesus is the son of God,’ ‘I believe he’s my savior,’ and that’s one of the core issues.”
When a prominent, professing Christian leader like Osteen emphasizes some semantic commonalities between biblical Christianity and Mormonism but draws no distinction between the substantive differences, especially as it pertains to what the Bible says about how sinful man can be reconciled to a holy God, what does this bode for the future of the church and country?
Jason Carlson, pastor and director of Christian Ministries International, will join us this weekend on the The Christian Worldview to draw clear, eternity-changing distinctions between biblical Christianity and Mormonism and to discuss a potential dilemma for biblical Christians if Mitt Romney, a Mormon, becomes the Republican nominee for President in 2012.
- Does Joel Osteen Not Know, or Does He Not Care? (Al Mohler)
- Mormonism 101 (Kevin DeYoung)
- Mormonism, Democracy, and the Urgent Need for Evangelical Thinking (Al Mohler)
What Causes People to Make a “180″ on Abortion?
October 22, 2011
Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:39 — 8.7MB)
Guest: Ray Comfort, evangelist and producer of the “180″ movie
“For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalms 139:13-14).
Two generations and 53 million abortions later, it would be natural to assume that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that made killing one’s unborn child legal, is now “water over the dam”. In other words, the United States doesn’t appear to be going back to pre-abortion days anytime soon. Not enough minds could be changed, right?
Wrong, according to respected evangelist and author Ray Comfort. He says “the cause [against abortion] has to be a hill to die on” and that people’s minds on the issue can be changed in seconds?
In seconds? How so? Comfort has just released a powerful 33-minute documentary movie (already with over 1 million views on YouTube) entitled “180” where people who were for abortion change their minds completely after being asked one question. What is that question and how can Christians help in ending our own “American holocaust”? Tune in to The Christian Worldview this weekend to find out!
What Will It Profit A Man If He Invents The iPhone But Forfeits His Soul?
October 15, 2011
Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:44 — 8.7MB)
“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:25-26)
Steve Jobs, the co-founder and CEO of Apple, the world’s most valuable company, recently died at age 56 of complications from pancreatic cancer.
Revered as being the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford of our day due to his inventing popular electronic devices that revolutionized the world, like the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, Jobs’ net worth was estimated to be over $8 billion. With this much success and acclaim, you could say that Steve Jobs had (nearly) gained the whole world.
But what about Steve Jobs’ soul? Where did he believe his soul would go after he died and on what did he base those beliefs? And what can we learn from his life and worldview?
Join us this weekend on The Christian Worldview as we discuss living to the utmost in this world yet not forfeiting your soul in the process.
Standing Strong in the Rising Tide of Homosexuality
October 8, 2011
Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:48 — 8.7MB)
Guest: Dr. Michael Brown, author, A Queer Thing Happened to America
“Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” I Corinthians 16:13-14
Have you noticed that the issue of homosexuality crops up everywhere nowadays?
Last week it was President Obama praising the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s most powerful homosexual rights group. Earlier this year, it was the U.S. Armed Forces welcoming homosexuals to serve openly in all branches of our military.
In between and all around are endless news stories such as a Christian being fired by his employer for writing a book, outside of work and unrelated to his job, defending traditional marriage. Or it might be a popular pastor or a politician being asked in a television interview “Is homosexuality a sin?” in hopes of marking them as a “bigot”.
The examples stream on and on: federal and state same-sex marriage debates, “non-bullying” curriculum in schools designed to promote acceptance of homosexuality, a sports organization giving an award to a homosexual team owner for “his willingness to be open about his sexuality.”
Why this onrush of homosexuality and what’s a Christian to do who holds to the biblical version of sexual morality? This weekend on The Christian Worldview, Dr. Michael Brown, author of A Queer Thing Happened to America
Faith Without Rest Doesn’t Work
October 1, 2011
Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:48 — 8.7MB)
“For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest (Hebrews 4:10-11a).
We live in a multi-tasking, over-stimulated society. When we’re not juggling work, home projects, kids’ events, and church activities (not to mention shopping, exercising, and traveling), we’re staring at our cell phones, checking in with our “friends” on Facebook, answering email, or watching something on TV.
Does this sound like your life? I know mine includes of lot of the above. So when are we ever going to rest from constantly doing and going?
Scripture teaches much about rest with both physical and spiritual application. After six days of creation, God rested on the seventh. The Jewish nation was commanded to keep the Sabbath holy and rest. God promised the Israelites rest when they entered the promised land in Canaan. The writer of Hebrews tells us to rest from our works and enter the rest of God through faith.
How should you as a believer in Christ be integrating rest into your life? Join us this weekend on The Christian Worldview as we discuss this important topic.
RELATED RESOURCES:
The Scourge and Purge of Evil
September 24, 2011
Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:48 — 8.7MB)
Guest: David Kupelian, author, How Evil Works
“There is none righteous, not even one … their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving … whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their path…” (Romans 3:10-16).
Most people are unwilling to consider that another person has evil within them. Okay, maybe Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot are considered evil, but aside from a handful of tyrants, most people believe that man is good, especially if placed in the right environment and given the right education.
The Bible says the opposite: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it” (Jeremiah 17:9)? And by the way, this applies to your heart and mine. Ouch.
Identifying and understanding evil and how it manifests itself, and more importantly, how it can be overcome, is the subject of The Christian Worldview this weekend. David Kupelian, managing editor of WorldNetDaily.com, will join us to discuss his insightful book, “How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America
THE (too?) YOUNG, (too?) RESTLESS, and (really?) REFORMED MOVEMENT
September 17, 2011
Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:48 — 8.7MB)
Guest: Travis Allen, Director of Internet Ministry, Grace to You
“Likewise urge the young men to be sensible; in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us” (Titus 2:6-8).
In the past decade, during the time in which the unbiblical, relativistic Emergent Church movement was gaining popularity, another movement comprised of a similar age demographic (20- and 30-somethings) was emerging as well, yet with much more sound biblical doctrine. A book was written by an editor of Christianity Today about this latter group entitled, “Young, Restless, and Reformed” (YRR).
While the Emergent Church movement appears to be going the way of the typewriter, the Young, Restless, and Reformed movement continues to gain steam, yet not without some controversy over the way they behave and engage with the unbelieving world (e.g. drinking alcohol in bars, course language, tattoos, etc.). Pastor John MacArthur for one has complimented the YRR movement but has also admonished them to “grow up, settle down, and keep reforming.”
Travis Allen, directory of internet ministry for Grace to You, teaches this same-age group at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA and will join us this weekend on The Christian Worldview Radio Program to inform us about the good and the questionable of the Young, Restless, and Reformed movement and what we need to do in our own lives in response.
Related Articles:
Grow Up. Settle Down. Keep Reforming. Advice for the Young, Restless, Reformed (John MacArthur)
Grow Up Advice for YRRs, Part 2 (John MacArthur)
Christian “Dominionism” in the Aftermath of 9/11?
September 10, 2011
Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:47 — 8.7MB)
Guest: Nancy Pearcey, author, Total Truth
God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28).
This weekend marks the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackings of four U.S. airliners by Islamic jihadists that resulted in the deaths of nearly 3000 people in New York, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania.
In His sovereign will, God allowed these heinous acts to be perpetrated against us. The question is: How would God want us to respond and have we as a people done so in the right way?
Nancy Pearcey, author of the landmark book, Total Truth
What is a Dominionist and should Christians be working towards control of America? Nancy Peacey will discuss these questions and take your phone calls.
Need to Read Columns:
Leap of Faith by Ryan Lizza (New Yorker column on Michele Bachmann)
The Dominionist Charge by Nancy Pearcey
Suspicious Minds by Nancy Pearcey
