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[Music]
1:09
This is Undaunted Life of Man's Podcast.
1:12
I'm your host Kyle Thompson, let's get into it.
1:14
All right, guys, the name of today's podcast is the state of theology.
1:18
I want to acknowledge something right off the top.
1:20
This is not the start of like a series of things called the state of whatever the word is.
1:25
So last week, so episode 48 of this was called the state of civility.
1:29
This is a complete happenstance kind of an occurrence here, okay?
1:33
So this was not the plan to do two in a row that were the state of something,
1:37
but this is just the way the cookie crumble, all right?
1:40
So don't anybody at me, don't tweet me, don't let me know that this was weird.
1:43
I know that it's weird.
1:44
I'm acknowledging that it's weird right off the top.
1:46
So the state of theology is something that I've wanted to talk about for several weeks,
1:49
but I haven't really known where it would fit best to kind of fit in.
1:53
There seemed to be a lot of stuff going on in culture and a lot of stuff going on in the news.
1:57
And so some other things just hit around those times.
2:00
And so this is just the way the cookie crumbled again.
2:02
Last week, we talked about the state of civility.
2:04
If you haven't heard that episode, go back one week to episode 48.
2:06
But here we are talking about episode 49.
2:08
So what in the world am I talking about the state of theology?
2:11
Now, some of you are probably aware, but most of you are not aware that there is a state of theology survey
2:18
that is done every two years.
2:20
So if you're familiar, you might be familiar with LifeWay or Ligonier Ministries.
2:24
That was R.C. Sproul's ministry.
2:26
Well, still technically is his ministry, even though he passed away at the end of last year.
2:30
But this is something that's done every two years to kind of get the theological temperature
2:35
of what is currently going on in America.
2:38
And so it's a really interesting study.
2:42
The last one was released here in, I think it was September, October of this year.
2:46
And it was the third one of its kinds.
2:48
So spread out by two years.
2:49
The one this year was conducted during April and May of 2018.
2:54
And they got just over 3000 respondents.
2:57
And this is really, really important, especially when we get into what this found, what the study found,
3:03
is how the study was broken into categories.
3:05
Okay.
3:06
So it looked at two different groups of people.
3:08
So the other, so let me just kind of get in.
3:11
I was trying to think of the best way to break this down, but we'll just keep it simple.
3:14
So the first group is just Americans in general.
3:17
So that's obviously really easy.
3:18
So anyone that's currently living here, currently a citizen, Americans in general.
3:22
And then the second category are evangelical Americans.
3:26
Okay.
3:27
And that was about 581 was the number of people that considered themselves to be evangelicals
3:33
out of that group of 3000 or so respondents.
3:36
Okay.
3:37
Now, before we get into all the things that this found and what this is going to show us,
3:41
I do want to kind of go into a little bit about what they meant when they talked about evangelicals,
3:46
because you hear that term on the news, you may have used it yourself.
3:49
Maybe it's used at your church, but we don't know exactly what that is, right?
3:53
So we don't always have a definition.
3:54
But for this survey and for league and your ministries, they were very, very, very specific
3:59
about what this meant.
4:01
So I want to go over the kind of the four things that they put in for you to self-identify
4:06
as an evangelical in order to self-identify in this survey.
4:10
To be an evangelical, you had to agree with the four following statements.
4:14
Number one, the Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.
4:18
Number two, it is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus
4:25
Christ as their savior.
4:27
That's number two.
4:28
Here's number three, Jesus Christ's death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could
4:32
remove the penalty of my sin.
4:34
And number four, only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their savior receive God's
4:39
free gift of eternal salvation.
4:42
So that's very important.
4:43
So keep that in mind as we're talking about the different ways that this breaks down.
4:47
And guys, I tried to, I spent a lot of time really thinking about this.
4:50
I've been thinking about this for the last couple of months, about the best way to,
4:53
to give this information to you.
4:55
So I thought about just summarizing the data in my own way.
4:58
I thought about basically getting a lot of things from other articles and trying to,
5:03
I don't know, piecemeal those together in a way that would be interesting to you.
5:06
Um, I know a lot of you are deeply theological people, but then a lot.
5:10
There are some of you out there that really are.
5:12
And so you don't, you don't want to be talked to with kid gloves on and all those different
5:15
things.
5:16
Like I get it.
5:17
And what I decided to do was that the best thing for me to do is that I was going to
5:20
go through the summary of the state of theology directly from the state of theology.com.
5:25
Okay.
5:26
Again, I'll provide the links here at the end.
5:28
I know I'm pretty specific when it comes to stuff like that.
5:30
But I just want to walk through the things that were said during this because it shouldn't
5:35
take too terribly long because it's not, it's not incredibly exhaustive in terms of its text.
5:40
But the context is really, really exhaustive.
5:43
I feel like, and when you go to the website, which I'm sure you'll do, make sure you're
5:46
not doing it while you're driving.
5:47
Please guys, but it's got a lot of really cool graphics and it kind of helps you understand
5:52
where, where things have shifted from the last time they did this survey, kind of the interesting
5:57
things about the different generations of the people that they pulled.
6:00
But I'm just going to basically walk you through this.
6:02
And so I'll be reading different sections and kind of giving you more of an idea where
6:07
we're at.
6:08
But just to kind of set the stage of this, the 3000 or so respondents, again, the two
6:12
groups, evangelical Americans or just Americans in general, they were asked a series of questions.
6:17
It was several dozen questions and they had to give themselves a response of, you know,
6:22
strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree or strongly disagree.
6:26
Okay.
6:27
And then they basically put all the stuff together through there.
6:30
So I want to go ahead and get into what that looks like now.
6:32
So let me go ahead and start with reading from the state of theology.com.
6:36
What do Americans think about God, Jesus Christ, sin and eternity?
6:41
Legionnaire ministries state of theology survey helps uncover the answers.
6:45
Every two years we take the theological temperature of the United States to help Christians better
6:48
understand today's culture and equip the church with better insights for discipleship.
6:53
Read some of our key findings from the 2018 from 2018 below and explore the data for yourself.
6:59
So I'm going to go ahead and get into the very first part here.
7:02
So this part, I just want to be very clear.
7:04
This is talking specifically about evangelicals.
7:07
Okay.
7:08
So this is not America in general.
7:09
This is not your regular run of the mill.
7:11
You know, pseudo Christian or whatever they consider themselves American.
7:15
These are evangelicals that hit those four standards from here earlier.
7:18
So here we go.
7:20
Evangelicals have a great concern for the gospel, the evangel.
7:24
Yet a majority of them also express some views that are contrary to the truth of the Bible.
7:29
For example, although evangelicals believe that Jesus died on the cross for their salvation,
7:35
many do not fully understand the gravity of sin.
7:38
Okay.
7:39
So again, I told you there were several dozen statements or questions that were made.
7:42
So here was statement number 11.
7:44
And it was everyone sends a little, but most people are good by nature.
7:49
Again, I'll repeat that because this is one of the most incredibly surprising findings
7:52
from this.
7:53
And everyone sends a little, but most people are good by nature.
7:58
This idea flatly contradicts the Bible, which teaches the radical corruption of every human
8:03
being and declares that no one does good by nature.
8:06
So obviously here, I'll just kind of cut in right here.
8:08
It's talking about Romans three, and this is verses 10 through 12.
8:11
So I'll read that to you here from the ESV as it is written, none is righteous.
8:16
No, not one.
8:17
No one understands.
8:18
No one seeks for God.
8:20
People have turned aside together, they have become worthless.
8:23
No one does good, not even one.
8:26
I'll go back into the reading from state of theology here.
8:28
This is why we need the gospel in the first place, because none of us is good.
8:33
So the thing that was most, I guess, crazy about this was that evangelicals, only 52%
8:41
of people that called themselves evangelicals agree with the statement.
8:46
Everyone sends a little, but most people are good by nature.
8:49
I mean, coming from a kid who didn't go to church, who didn't grow up with all these
8:54
Bible stories, that was one of the things that was the most surprising thing in the
8:57
world to me.
8:58
Now I would have expected something along the lines of 52% from maybe just Americans
9:03
in general, but 52% of evangelicals think that most people are good by nature.
9:10
And I guess, you know, I'm sure we'll get into a bunch of different definitional arguments
9:15
throughout this.
9:16
And I guess it's really coming down to one word, which is good.
9:19
Like what do we see as good?
9:22
And guys, I know this is kind of a heavy start, but man, 52% of evangelicals think that most
9:28
people are pretty good.
9:29
Yeah, that's crazy.
9:30
All right, we'll get back into the reading here.
9:32
Evangelicals are also confused about the exclusivity of Christianity and its objective
9:36
claims to truth.
9:38
There has been a slight increase in people who agree with this unorthodox view since
9:42
2016, those future surveys will need to confirm this trend.
9:47
So this is going into statement number three.
9:49
So I'll read statement number three here.
9:52
God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
9:58
Okay.
9:59
So back in 2016, 49% of evangelicals agreed with this to only 43% disagreeing.
10:06
And this year, it's up to 51% agree versus 42% disagree.
10:10
So 51% over half of evangelicals in United States believe that the worship of all religions
10:17
is accepted by God to include Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
10:21
So that's got to be pretty concerning because again, this goes in the face of what we know
10:26
to be true, you know, specifically within John 424.
10:30
So I'll go ahead and read that here.
10:32
God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
10:36
Okay.
10:37
So we're talking about truth here.
10:38
So let me go back into reading from state of theology.
10:40
The Bible is clear that the gospel is the only way of salvation and God will not accept
10:45
the worship of other face.
10:47
It is only through Jesus Christ and by his spirit that we are able to worship the father
10:50
in spirit and in truth, again, going back to John 424.
10:55
So this kind of gives you a sense.
10:57
We're only two statements in and we're going to go over several more throughout this podcast.
11:01
But man, just think about that.
11:04
And I know I'm kind of talking from a different point of view, but think about you guys.
11:07
I mean, we want you to be thinking about the things that you believe as you go through
11:11
this and whether or not you've wrestled with some of these things because, you know, we'll
11:15
kind of get into objective truth and some different things later, especially when we
11:18
work with Americans and not just evangelical Americans, but over 50% of people think that
11:24
God accepts your worship.
11:26
If you were worshiping, you know, using Islam, using being a Muslim, right?
11:32
And I think that's really, really interesting, especially considering what most of us now
11:36
know about what's in those seras, what's in the Quran.
11:40
So man, just crazy, but we'll keep it going.
11:43
However, on an encouraging note, evangelicals overwhelmingly agree that justification is
11:48
by faith alone.
11:49
Okay.
11:50
So this goes into statement number 13, which I'll read now, God counts a person as righteous
11:55
not because of one's works, but only because of one's faith in Jesus Christ.
12:00
So 91% agree with that and only 7% disagree like, well, I don't know, I got to understand.
12:09
I just absolutely don't understand this one.
12:12
So if we look at these, these back, these two back to back.
12:15
So over 50% of them think that God accepts the worship of all religions, including Judaism
12:20
and Islam.
12:21
And the next one is God counts a person as righteous, not because of one's works, but
12:25
only because of one's faith in Jesus Christ.
12:27
So let's go ahead and talk about that a little bit.
12:29
The Jews believe that Jesus was a rabbi, but they also think that he pretty much was a
12:34
heretic.
12:35
Right?
12:36
That's why they killed him.
12:37
And then if you look at Islam, they, they believe that Jesus was, was, was a great teacher.
12:42
He's in the Quran, but they also think that he didn't die on the cross.
12:46
If you don't believe me, look up swoon theory, right?
12:49
This is they don't think that Jesus actually died.
12:52
There's a whole bunch of theories as to what actually happened to him, but none of them
12:54
have him dying and then being resurrected three days later.
12:58
How can you coalesce these two things together?
13:00
91% of people of Christian evangelicals believe that God counts a person as righteous, not
13:07
because of one's works, but only because of one's faith in Jesus Christ.
13:11
But then how can he accept the worship of, of a Muslim or somebody that is Jewish?
13:18
Right?
13:19
And I mean, not Jewish, just in terms of where they were born or what their family is, but
13:22
in terms of their actual Orthodox faith or something.
13:26
And then what about Sikhs, what about, you know, naturalists, what about those people?
13:30
So, all right, let's keep going.
13:33
Strangely, while mostly evangelicals strongly believe in just a case justification by faith
13:38
alone, they are confused about the person of Jesus Christ.
13:41
On one hand, virtually all evangelicals express support for Trinitarian doctrine, yet at
13:46
the same time, most agree that Jesus is the first and greatest created being by God, which
13:54
was a view espoused by the ancient heretic areas.
13:57
Okay?
13:58
So one thing I'm not going to do right here before I go into this section, I'm not going
14:01
to explain to you who Arias is.
14:02
If you don't know who that is, that's A-R-I-U-S, just go and look them up.
14:06
Okay, guys, there are just mountains and mountains of research on this guy.
14:11
And I could do an entire separate podcast on the things that he taught and kind of why
14:14
it was popular in his day, why he was eventually deemed a heretic at the Council of Nicaea.
14:20
Now the Council of Nicaea is not how it was depicted in the Da Vinci Code, the movie or
14:24
the book, like all that stuff.
14:25
Maybe I'll do that for another day, but I'm just going to save that for now and we're
14:28
going to go ahead and go into statement number two.
14:30
I know these are a little bit out of sync, but it just kind of paints a narrative for
14:33
us.
14:34
Okay?
14:35
So statement number two is this.
14:36
There is one true God in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
14:41
Spirit.
14:42
Okay?
14:43
So amazingly, 97% of people agree with this to only 3% disagree.
14:47
So okay, we're working there, we're getting close, but yeah, okay, there is one true God
14:52
in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, okay?
14:55
Now this dove tells us into the next statement, which is statement number six, which is Jesus
15:00
is the first and greatest being created by God.
15:04
So this is just concerning in terms of what the findings are.
15:07
So back in 2016, 71% of people agreed with a statement to 23% disagreeing.
15:14
Now it's 78% of people agree with the statement versus 18% disagree.
15:19
So 78% of evangelicals believe that Jesus is the first and greatest being created by
15:24
God.
15:25
Like whoa, like that, that's really, really bad stuff.
15:29
Like I don't really, it's really hard to fathom how people believe that Jesus was the first
15:34
created being.
15:35
We just don't see that within Christology, we don't, we don't see that in terms of reality
15:40
and it just shows a real lack of the things that, that we're seeing.
15:47
Man, it's, it's just really, really tough whenever you look at things through that lens
15:52
and through that perspective, because it really goes back into what people believe about Jesus
15:57
to begin with, because there was kind of this convoluted thing before where, you know, they
16:01
believe that God accepts the worship of all these different religions, but Jesus is the
16:04
only way.
16:05
Again, let's go back to John 14 six, so that in John 14 six, we see Jesus say this, I'm
16:11
the way the truth in the life.
16:13
No one comes to the father except through me.
16:17
If you had known me, you would have known my father also from now on, you do know him
16:22
and have seen him.
16:24
So again, it just, it's really confusing to me where this stuff comes from and will maybe
16:29
tease us out a little bit later when it talks about how we got to this point, but let me
16:33
go and wrap up the section here about evangelicals.
16:36
These results show the pressing need for Christians to be taught Christology, especially as the
16:40
outcome has gotten worse since 2016.
16:44
There is a general lack of teaching today on the person of Christ, a doctrine for which
16:49
the early church fought so hard.
16:51
The Ligonier statement on Christology has been carefully formulated to restate historic
16:56
Orthodox biblical Christology.
16:59
So that link will be here so you can click on that the Ligonier statement on Christology.
17:03
So again, these were some of the more concerning things and that's because we're looking at
17:07
things inside the church.
17:09
So this is what people believe inside the church.
17:12
That is the biggest thing that we really, really need to look at.
17:15
And so, but now as we transition to the next part of the podcast, we're going to look at
17:19
what just Americans think.
17:20
So to be more specific, these are US adults.
17:23
And so again, we can assume that some of these are going to be a little bit different in terms
17:28
of how they're worded and how people view them because again, you're might you're maybe
17:32
dealing with nominal Christians, people that have some sort of a belief in some sort of
17:38
a deity that they kind of call God.
17:40
And so they might consider themselves Christians, but maybe they wouldn't consider themselves
17:44
to be evangelicals because they can't check the four boxes of the statements that we looked
17:48
at earlier.
17:49
But it's very interesting to see what we see nonetheless.
17:52
And so there's quite a few more responses and statements that we're going to be going
17:55
through on this section.
17:56
So let's go back to the site here.
17:59
The holiness of God, when it comes to us adults overall, a clear majority agree with well-known
18:04
doctrines of the Christian faith.
18:06
But beneath the surface, they hold these truths loosely.
18:10
In particular, Americans do not seem to grasp the reality of God's holiness and alarming
18:16
69% of people disagree that even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation with 58% strongly
18:25
disagreeing.
18:26
So this is statement number 12, even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation.
18:31
Only 23% of Americans agree with that to 69% disagreeing.
18:38
So obviously these are people that they think of a loving God and they think of sin as being
18:43
a bad thing, but not the smallest sins, not white lies, not hating people, not jerking
18:51
off and looking at porn because everyone does that, right, not that stuff.
18:56
We're talking about the big stuff.
18:57
Yeah, if you murder somebody, if you rape somebody, if you're a gang rapist, like Judge
19:01
Kavanaugh, apparently, if you're any of those things, that's really bad.
19:05
But all these little things, we're not really going to count those.
19:07
So again, it's kind of a loose sense here.
19:10
So let's get back to the website.
19:12
If God is not holy, then sin is not a big deal.
19:15
It is because our understanding of God's holiness that we understand how significant sin
19:19
is.
19:20
And moreover, a majority of Americans downplay the importance of the church's gathering
19:24
together to worship God.
19:26
This shows a characteristic American emphasis on individuality and individuality that runs
19:31
counter to the Bible's teaching.
19:33
This dovetails right into statement number 20.
19:36
Worshipping alone or with one's family is a valid replacement for regularly attending
19:41
church.
19:42
59% of Americans agree with this statement to only 30% disagreeing with this.
19:47
So it's just kind of one of those things where we've seen this happen.
19:52
We've seen a lot of people go through this and I'll just be 100% honest with you.
19:56
I've kind of gone through this in my head before as well.
19:59
Ignoring what the Bible says about the body of Christ, ignoring what Jesus himself said
20:03
about his bride, ignoring everything I know to be true about the ecclesia.
20:08
I thought about it, man, you know, what if I just did a home church, right?
20:12
Even my wife has said, you know, how are we just stay here and maybe watch, you know, watch
20:15
one of the pastors you really like and we'll just kind of do our own thing and everyone
20:20
kind of goes through things like that and to be honest with you, for all the good things
20:23
that, you know, the rap artist, LaCray has done, which, you know, he's kind of fallen
20:29
out of my good graces for some things that I may talk about on a later episode.
20:33
But you know, when he released church clothes, so this was a little mixed tape that he released
20:39
several years ago, it may have been like, you know, six, seven years ago now.
20:43
But when he released that, there were a lot of people that kind of, you know, they were
20:46
into that movement.
20:47
They liked, you know, because Christian hip hip hop was so whack for so long that finally
20:51
there was some guys out there with actual talent.
20:54
And you know, LaCray was one of the guys basically pushing that forward.
20:57
And he released that and I feel like it gave a lot of people a license to not go to church
21:02
and to not be part of the body.
21:04
But even if people don't know who LaCray is or reach records or the one one six click
21:07
or any of that kind of stuff, it's still something that was really, really interesting
21:11
to see that a lot of people think that you just don't need church.
21:13
I mean, I've sat across people at the, at the dinner table or across from coffee or something
21:17
like that.
21:18
And they're like, yeah, we just don't need that, you know, anymore like that's just kind
21:20
of like an old school thing like that was something our parents did like, oh, when was
21:24
the declaration?
21:26
When was the second, you know, basically revelation that came through that we didn't need any
21:31
of that stuff?
21:32
Now, now believe me, I know for a lot of you guys, maybe you're in a community where a
21:36
lot of your churches suck.
21:38
And I know it's like, oh, did he just say that that a church can suck?
21:41
Yeah, a church can suck like hard, like really hard.
21:45
Churches that don't really have great environments for men, churches that don't have great environments
21:51
for kids.
21:52
So your kids are literally kicking and screaming as they're trying, as you're trying to get
21:55
them out the door to go to church, churches that you don't like that you and your wife
21:59
aren't being fed.
22:00
Like I understand that now churches are not just depots for you to be fed.
22:05
They're not troughs that, you know, all the pastors are supposed to fill with all this
22:08
goodness.
22:09
So you can get in there and I'm going to get after it.
22:11
That's not necessarily what the church is there for.
22:13
But not every church is created equal.
22:15
Not all of them do things correctly, not all of them are following the Bible.
22:18
Not all of them are teaching you in the right way.
22:20
And we'll certainly get more into that later.
22:22
But those weren't the declarations that we saw.
22:26
Like Jesus didn't die for just the good churches.
22:30
He didn't just die for his bride where the music's really awesome.
22:35
You know what I mean?
22:36
He didn't just die for the one where all the single women are really good looking.
22:40
He didn't die for all those and none of the others.
22:43
Like come on guys, he died for all of them.
22:45
The church is a body, not a place.
22:48
Okay.
22:49
So let's move along here.
22:50
Why do so many people have this casual outlook?
22:53
Perhaps because of relativism, the popular idea that religious beliefs are purely personal
22:58
opinion.
22:59
So this one's really, really important.
23:00
So let's go into statement number 30.
23:02
Religious belief is a matter of personal opinion.
23:06
It is not about objective truth.
23:09
This one might be the most important one that we see.
23:12
The most important one that we see because 60% of Americans surveyed believe that religious
23:20
belief is a matter of personal opinion, not about objective truth.
23:25
Okay.
23:27
This is a big problem, a huge problem.
23:30
And some of you listening to this may be fall into that category.
23:34
And let me just say to you, there are certain things that are opinions.
23:38
And then there are certain things that are just true or not true.
23:41
And you've heard me talk about this before, okay?
23:45
If in your opinion, the color blue is the best color there is.
23:50
That is not something that can be true, proven true or false.
23:54
It can't be because it's an opinion and let's say your best friend's favorite color is green
24:00
and we surveyed all the people on the planet and more people agree with him, that green
24:04
is better than blue.
24:05
That does not make him right.
24:07
It just means more people agree with his opinion.
24:09
I've used the same anecdote or something close to it before, right?
24:12
I think I did it with Michael Jordan and the Brown James or something like that.
24:16
But that is the reality here is things either happened or they didn't.
24:22
So if you look at the historical accounts of what happened in the Old Testament in the
24:26
New Testament and the Quran and any of the other ancient texts that are used to be the
24:32
undergirding of any other ancient religion or even new religion, those things either happened
24:37
or they didn't, right?
24:40
They were either written down correctly or they weren't.
24:43
They were either passed down accurately or they weren't.
24:48
And most importantly, most importantly, Jesus either died on the cross and was resurrected
24:55
three days later or he wasn't.
24:59
So let me just put it to you this way.
25:01
So I had a good buddy of mine.
25:02
I may have talked about this on the podcast before, but if you haven't heard this before,
25:05
just come along for the ride.
25:06
So a really good friend of mine who's stuck somewhere between atheists and agnostic, right?
25:10
He doesn't really know exactly what he is.
25:12
But all he knows is growing up in junior high and high school, the worst people that he
25:17
knew were Christians, the people that were drinking and sleeping around and sucking
25:21
D's on the weekend, they'd be the first ones on the front pews, crying and raising their
25:25
hands to Jesus on Wednesday, right?
25:27
Pretending to be all holy, judging their classmates and going out and doing the same
25:31
thing that weekend, right?
25:33
Those people and the best people that he knew were people like his parents that had no religious
25:38
background, they were just quote unquote good people, right?
25:41
They just did good stuff, gave to charity, give you the shirt off their back, that type
25:44
of thing.
25:45
So I was working with this guy and he and I were, I just wanted to talk to him about Jesus,
25:50
but also I knew that I couldn't just come at him and show him the Bible because everyone
25:54
that had ever put the Bible in front of him was a horrible person in his eyes.
25:59
And so I took a different tact.
26:01
I wanted to come at him using, using argumentation that wasn't based on the Bible, not because
26:07
the Bible is not sufficient, don't anybody email me, but I just wanted him to see a different
26:11
type of argument for why Jesus was real and why he should believe in the gospel.
26:16
And so he and I went through the Tim Keller book, Reason for God, which you've heard me
26:20
talk about on this podcast several times, it's probably my second favorite book behind
26:23
Fearless, just an excellent, excellent book.
26:26
And it's a book that looks at, you know, the seven biggest arguments for why God couldn't
26:30
exist.
26:31
But then the second half of the book is the seven biggest reasons why it is reasonable
26:35
to believe in a God.
26:36
And the thing that was really important about doing it this way is through weeks and weeks
26:42
and weeks of doing lunch and talking through this book and, you know, dealing with some
26:45
of his objections and all those things, we had great, great conversations and he asked
26:49
me questions.
26:50
I didn't know the answer to it.
26:51
And it was all good because we could research it together.
26:53
It all came down to one seeing goal thing because by the time we got done with this book,
27:03
and I finally said, bro, it's crap or get off the pot time.
27:06
That's where we're at.
27:07
There's not, not a whole lot else to think about.
27:10
He goes, you know what?
27:12
I want to do the same thing I've done with you and Christianity with somebody else about,
27:18
you know, Islam, and I want to do it with somebody else about Buddhism and somebody else
27:23
about Hinduism and Sikhism and Judaism and all these other isms.
27:29
And I understood why you would say that because it was like he was a kid doing a book report,
27:33
right?
27:34
And so if he's doing a book report on the wonders of the world and he only looked at
27:37
one of them, well, clearly you would want to go complete your research and collect all
27:41
the other ones.
27:42
But I told him this, I said the best place to start with your research is to figure out
27:51
if you believe that Jesus died on a cross and was resurrected on the third day.
27:57
Is it not?
27:59
I mean, literally just think about that because if that didn't happen, then bro, open up
28:05
the floodgates.
28:07
Let's bring in all the research we can because there is one religion that is putting up Jesus
28:13
as the guy.
28:15
There are other religions where he's mentioned, but only one has him as the guy that can take
28:19
care of all of our sins, right?
28:21
One dude.
28:23
So you got to start there.
28:25
And so I know that took me a while to spin that web for you, but just understand that
28:29
that was the thing I had to tell him is you don't need to spend weeks and weeks and weeks
28:34
and months and months and months looking into Islam and then move on to the next one because
28:37
guess what?
28:39
Islam is bunk if Jesus died and was raised three days later because then that means he's
28:45
our savior.
28:46
He's everything that we see shown in the Old Testament.
28:50
That's pointing towards something, everything that was prophesied.
28:53
All that's true.
28:54
And it was fulfilled in one man, Jesus of Nazareth.
28:59
So start there.
29:00
So when we come to this statement again, religious belief is a matter of personal opinion.
29:06
It is not about objective truth.
29:08
What in the world 60% of people agree with that.
29:11
And it goes right back to what was mentioned right before I read that statement.
29:14
It's about moral relativism because it is seen as offensive now to say something with
29:20
any definitive nature aside from the fact that saying anything with definitive nature
29:26
is bad.
29:27
You can say that that's like a truth claim without claiming to be true, right?
29:31
But that's something that's got to be incredibly disheartening for people as you're operating.
29:35
And for some of you listening to this year in ministry, how's this working out for you?
29:40
All this relativism.
29:42
You don't think that seeps into the church guys?
29:45
It's absolutely seeking him into the church.
29:48
The church is becoming downstream of culture.
29:50
It has been for a while, but man, it's just incredible.
29:54
We'll get more into that here in just a little bit.
29:55
So let's get back into the website.
29:58
Even 32% of evangelicals say their religious beliefs are not objectively true.
30:03
So this is related to the last thing.
30:05
So we just talked about the percentage of Americans.
30:07
So 60% of Americans think that, you know, it's not about objective truth, but let's
30:11
look at evangelicals statement number 30, religious belief is a matter of personal opinion.
30:16
It is not about objective truth, 32% of evangelicals agree with that.
30:21
So we're going out from both sides here.
30:23
I know I spent a lot of time talking about the Americans, 60% of Americans believe that.
30:27
You can kind of feel like it because they're, you know, steeped in culture, but 32%, about
30:32
a third of American evangelicals believe the same thing that there's no objective truth.
30:38
These are people that say the Bible is their highest authority.
30:41
And yet we have no objective truth, like no objective truth.
30:45
That was a sound to me hitting myself in the forehead.
30:47
This is so frustrating.
30:48
Like I'm going to lose my voice from like freaking out.
30:50
I've already read this stuff.
30:51
I knew it was going to talk about it, but are you kidding?
30:55
Come on, people, pastors, where you at?
30:59
This is your fault to a large degree.
31:02
What kind of nonsense are you teaching from the pulpit?
31:05
This is ridiculous.
31:06
Okay.
31:07
We're going to move on.
31:08
We're going to keep going.
31:09
All right.
31:10
If Christianity and his doctrines such as the holiness of God and the resurrection of Christ
31:13
are merely matters of personal opinion, then we are truly lost.
31:18
This statistic is a reminder that Christians must contend for the quote unquote true truth
31:24
of Christianity when engaging with the culture.
31:27
Jesus believed in absolute truth.
31:29
And he said that the truth would set people free.
31:31
Obviously, that's making, you know, it's alluding to John 832.
31:35
So man, like the just think about that one of all the things we talked about.
31:40
That's probably the thing that's the most concerning, got to say that's the most concerning
31:43
and there's a lot of stuff that's concerning in here, but let's keep going and now let's
31:46
go ahead and get into ethics.
31:49
This year, for the first time, more Americans agree that the Bible's teaching on same sex
31:54
relationships is outdated than disagree.
31:57
So let's look at statement number 29.
32:00
The Bible's condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn't apply today.
32:04
Again, the Bible's condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn't apply today.
32:10
43 or 44% of Americans agree to only 41% disagree.
32:16
So it will just keep in the website here.
32:18
And only a few short decades, Americans sexual ethic has changed significantly and it continues
32:24
to move away from a Christian ethic to a secular and relativistic one.
32:28
So this is something that is incredibly, incredibly concerning for us.
32:35
And it's something that's become harder and harder to traverse because when the Obama administration
32:41
and when the Supreme Court literally just shoved gay marriage down our throats, that
32:46
was something where the conversation essentially ended that you can no longer have a debate
32:51
because if people can get married, then clearly their relationship is okay.
32:55
It's morally acceptable.
32:57
It's natural, right?
32:59
And then you have all these people saying that, okay, what about polyamory?
33:02
What about, you know, basically people with multiple husbands, multiple eyes?
33:05
What if people that want to get married to their favorite horse or goat or something
33:08
like that?
33:09
Oh, that's not the same thing.
33:11
You can't call that the same thing, but that's the track that we're on.
33:14
If we're being honest, we're just expanding into different things because if, if love
33:19
is love, hashtag love is love, hashtag love wins, then who gets to define the parameters
33:25
of love?
33:26
You, the new culture warrior, social justice warrior, you're a dude.
33:33
You think you're in love with a dude.
33:34
You marry a dude.
33:35
Well, I have a wife.
33:37
What if I want two more?
33:39
What if I can convince two more on chicks to marry me in addition to the one I'm keeping?
33:45
Really?
33:46
Is that going to be acceptable?
33:48
You can't define my love.
33:50
I love all three of these women.
33:52
They also love me and we're all going to be married, but that's currently not legal.
33:56
Right?
33:57
That's a problem.
33:58
Can we really stop my definition of love?
34:01
What if it's an animate object?
34:03
Can I marry my coffee cup?
34:06
I don't know how responsive of a sexual object that's going to be.
34:08
But can I marry it?
34:11
Can I get some legal ramifications for that?
34:13
I know I'm being a little bit ridiculous, but some of these arguments go that exact direction.
34:17
But just think about where that's coming from.
34:19
I know, guys, I'm 31.
34:21
I know a lot of you are.
34:22
I think I'm 32.
34:23
Sorry.
34:24
Can't even count these days.
34:25
I'm 32.
34:26
But for a lot of people listening to this podcast, you're a little bit older than I am.
34:29
Think about how much this issue has changed in society just during our lifespan, especially
34:36
your parents or grandparents' lifespan.
34:38
I mean, just remember back this.
34:40
I've mentioned this before.
34:41
Back in 2007, 2008, when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were vying for the Democratic
34:47
ticket, again, then go what the Democratic Party is today 10 years later.
34:52
But let's go back to that time.
34:54
Both of them were against gay marriage.
34:57
Both of them, right?
35:00
Hillary Clinton trying to be all new wave and new left and all these things in Barack
35:04
Obama being the great savior, let's light up the White House with the rainbow flag.
35:08
Let's do all those different things and all the lights and all the nonsense.
35:11
He was against it until it was politically untenable to have that opinion.
35:16
He didn't give a crap about gay people.
35:19
Come on.
35:20
Now, this is nonsense.
35:22
But just think about where the ethic is shifted.
35:25
It shifted so far and so significantly in the other direction.
35:28
It's certainly not going to snap back.
35:31
So think about how you're going to act and how you're going to go as this continues
35:35
to go because I mean, you're going to have to contend with that opinion.
35:39
All right.
35:40
Let's keep going here.
35:41
However, the medium may be exaggerating the extent of this upheaval to referring to the
35:45
upheaval in the opinion about sexual ethics.
35:49
Many Americans continue to agree with biblical ethics.
35:52
Our 2018 survey finds a slim majority in the United States now agree that abortion is a
35:58
sin up from 49% in 2016.
36:01
So this is something that makes me incredibly happy.
36:04
Okay.
36:05
Because this is looking at statement number 27, which is abortion is a sin.
36:09
And these are people that are not considering themselves to be evangelicals.
36:12
These are just Americans 52% of people agree that this is a sin.
36:17
So again, I've talked about this a lot.
36:20
Abortion's my one issue.
36:22
Go back to episode six of this podcast abortion is my one issue.
36:25
You're never going to move me off of that issue.
36:27
Okay.
36:28
So if abortion is sinful, if people think that it is morally reprehensible, that it is
36:34
wrong, that it is murder, if that becomes the overwhelming majority opinion, then we
36:40
will see laws in this country and we will see the next generation be downstream of that.
36:47
Okay.
36:48
Roe v. Wade didn't end the debate.
36:52
It just opened up the floodgates for more murder.
36:54
That's all it did.
36:56
So let's continue that discussion and let's keep that momentum going because here's the
37:00
interesting thing about Gen Z Gen Z is more conservative than people realize and they're
37:06
also more pro more pro life than people realize everyone just assumes that every generation
37:11
is going to keep getting more and more liberal and more and more secular and all those different
37:15
things.
37:16
And there are certainly going to be pockets of truth and elements of truth within that.
37:19
But science is way different today than it was 40 years ago when Roe v. Wade shoved
37:25
a abortion down her necks way different.
37:28
You can literally see your baby, a 3D version of your baby right in front of you.
37:33
Like you know how many how many human beings have been saved from murder in the womb simply
37:38
because there were like mobile units that were showing pay showing these women, these
37:43
babies, like, you know, looking inside their stomachs and going, look what's growing inside
37:47
of there.
37:48
It's not a useless compa cells like your favorite democratic politician says.
37:52
It's not a meaningless nothing worth nothing.
37:55
Man, so so I'm really, really jazzed about that because at first whenever I read this,
38:02
I thought it just said 52% of evangelicals and I was ready to flip my crap again.
38:07
But this is just Americans in general.
38:09
So it seems as if the tide may be shifting just a little bit when it comes to abortion,
38:14
which I got to say I'm pretty excited about.
38:16
Okay, now let's go into age because this is something I mentioned earlier kind of breaking
38:19
down between different generations kind of where different generations landing on a lot
38:23
of these issues.
38:24
So let's pick back up with the website here.
38:26
The survey picks up some fascinating and perhaps unexpected results in the millennial age range,
38:31
which is ages 18 to 34.
38:33
The views of millennials will eventually shape the future of America.
38:37
The 2018 results indicate strong confusion among millennials and it will be important
38:42
to monitor these trends in future surveys.
38:45
There has been a significant change for the better among millennials across a range of
38:48
questions when compared to the previous state of theology surveys.
38:52
So much so that they score higher than any other age group in several areas, whether
38:57
this is an anomaly or will continue unabated in future years remains to be seen.
39:02
The percentage of those in this age range having evangelical beliefs rose significantly
39:08
to 18% in 2018, which was up from 14% in 2016.
39:14
There was also a large increase in the percentage of millennials affirming that salvation is
39:18
found in Christ alone in that Jesus Christ will return to judge the world.
39:23
So let's look at statement number 34 here.
39:25
Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior received God's free gift of
39:30
eternal salvation.
39:32
So 62% of evangelical participants ages 18 to 34.
39:37
So millennials agree with this, which is up from 53% in 2016.
39:42
That is a huge jump.
39:44
In this survey, you don't really see a lot of almost double digit jumps.
39:47
So that jumped 10%.
39:49
So that's really, really encouraging.
39:51
Now let's go into statement number 19.
39:53
There will be a time when Jesus Christ returns to judge all the people who have lived 64%
39:59
of evangelical millennials agree with this up from 55% in 2016.
40:04
Again, almost a 10% jump.
40:06
At the same time, young adults appear to be drifting away from the Christian worldview
40:10
in other areas.
40:11
Obviously you knew this was coming.
40:13
Individuals are most likely to agree that the Bible is not literally true.
40:17
So here we go.
40:19
Statement number 14.
40:21
The Bible like all sacred writings contains helpful accounts of ancient myths, but is
40:26
not literally true.
40:29
So 53% of millennials agree with that.
40:32
And that's higher than in 2016 and in 2014, which were 46% and 44%.
40:39
Okay.
40:40
So obviously that is taken a nose dive.
40:43
So the thing you have to think about when it comes to this is why are millennials believing
40:48
this way?
40:50
Why is there a detachment away from the Bible and any of the stories within it being literally
40:55
true?
40:56
Because like I've said, many times with each year that goes by, if the stories in the Bible
41:00
weren't real and if they were fabricated or fake, then the Bible would become less and
41:05
less tenable every year, become less and less reliable every year.
41:08
Every year that there were archeological fines or historical findings or different things
41:13
that were dug up, we would see like, oh, this couldn't possibly happen or this could have
41:18
happened the way that it was depicted in the Bible.
41:20
But literally the exact opposite is true.
41:22
We see that a lot.
41:24
The exact opposite is true.
41:25
They're like, wow, we never thought that these, this people group was in this area during
41:30
this time because we've never found anything that would, that would agree with that statement
41:34
until we find it.
41:35
And then it's like, oh, well, that was true, crap, ha ha, we had it wrong, moving on, you're
41:40
never going to see that on CNN, there's not going to be a little blurb that pops up on
41:43
Fox News.
41:44
No one's ever going to show you that, right?
41:46
But it happens, happens quite a bit.
41:48
So that's something that's really important to think about.
41:51
So why are millennials going this direction?
41:53
And to be honest with you, if I was to come up with my own hypothesis, I would come up,
41:57
I would come at it in terms of what they're, they're seeing in higher education.
42:01
So maybe they didn't have a great theological upbringing from their church, their home church.
42:06
Maybe they didn't really pay attention.
42:08
Maybe they didn't go to a private Christian school school or maybe something like that.
42:14
And the thing that we have to think about is who's influencing them and at what times?
42:19
So your brains aren't fully developed until you're 25, but from the ages of 18 till about
42:23
23, you're basically being taught by people that all think the same thing.
42:28
Those college professors would align with the political left and the secular left, right?
42:33
So I remember one of my, my freshman roommate, he was in a, it was like a PR class.
42:40
I think it was like the first class that you take whenever you're wanting to go into PR.
42:45
And he had a professor basically shake his faith at the very beginning because he said
42:51
he just talked about how important words were and how important shifting one word in one
42:56
direction or even one letter in one direction could change the meaning of somebody's entire
43:00
life.
43:01
And the example that he used probably not accidentally was Jesus walking on water versus Jesus walking
43:10
in water.
43:12
Obviously, that only changes one letter walking on versus walking in.
43:17
And he's like, if you heard the story of Jesus as a guy that walked in water, would you have
43:23
thought him to be some, some magical person?
43:26
Probably not.
43:27
Probably not, right?
43:29
And so that was the thing is from him, that, that shook his faith as an 18 year old freshman
43:34
at the University of Central Oklahoma, right?
43:38
Not exactly like some crazy left wing university, but you know, those people are there.
43:44
And so these are the people that are influencing our young, our young minds are millennials.
43:48
And it's the same people that are going to be influenced in Gen Z.
43:51
And so if their head is filled with nonsense, or with what they deem to be fairytales, then
43:57
it's going to be easy for them to be influenced.
43:58
So let's keep going back in here.
44:01
And a growing minority of millennials see God as removed from their daily lives.
44:06
So let's look at statement number 24.
44:08
God is unconcerned with my day to day decisions, 60 or sorry, 36% of participants that are
44:15
millennials agree with this, which is up from 30% in 2016 and 21% in 2014.
44:22
So a growing number of millennials think that God is unconcerned with their day to day decisions.
44:27
Obviously, I don't really need to go into too much detail there.
44:29
Obviously, we know that that is pretty dad gum ridiculous.
44:32
So moving on here, these results overall may indicate an increasingly stark polarization
44:37
of views among young adults.
44:39
Finally, the views of millennials on ethical issues are noteworthy.
44:44
millennials are most likely to say abortion is a sin and increase from 2016.
44:48
So we talked about that in terms of millennial evangelicals, abortion is a sin earlier.
44:53
We were talking about just Americans.
44:55
So statement number 27 abortion is a sin 57% of millennials agree with this, which is
45:00
up from 50% in 2016.
45:02
So for all the things millennials have been maligned for, and you know, for a lot of things,
45:08
we deserve it for in large part, almost a 10% jump in the number of millennials that think
45:13
that abortion is a sin that that would consider themselves to be millennial evangelicals.
45:17
So it's concerning that these evangelicals didn't consider that to be the true before,
45:22
but this is even better that it is that high now, and I hope it continues in that trend.
45:26
So back to the website, there are also most likely to disagree with sexual relationships
45:31
outside of marriage.
45:32
So this is again, talking about evangelicals that are millennials.
45:36
So we're going back to statement number 26 here, which is, or we're not going back to
45:40
it, really introducing it for the first time, excuse me, statement 26 sex outside of traditional
45:44
marriage is a sin, okay, 54% of participants that are millennials agree with that, which
45:50
is up from 47% in 2016.
45:53
So with the sexually promiscuous culture that we're living in and all the different things
45:56
about sex is okay, anytime, anywhere, you know, where protection if it's convenient.
46:00
You know, this is saying that millennials that are evangelicals are starting not to
46:04
really agree with that, which is encouraging back to the website.
46:07
However, at the same time, this age group has the most liberal views on homosexual behavior
46:12
and gender identity, showing the powerful impact of our increasingly secular culture
46:17
on people's thinking this is getting back to what I was talking about earlier.
46:20
So let's look at statement number 29.
46:22
This is something that we did talk about earlier.
46:24
The Bible's condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn't apply today.
46:29
51% of evangelical millennials agree with that.
46:33
So again, downstream of culture, and the next thing, which is statement number 28 is gender
46:38
identity is a matter of choice.
46:41
46% of evangelical millennials agree with this statement.
46:45
So we're not going to get into gender identity and gender dysphoria or any of those things
46:51
on this podcast.
46:52
I promise you, I know I've been promising it for probably 50 episodes now.
46:56
We are going to do an entire podcast on that subject alone.
46:59
I just want to make sure that it's a narrative that is appropriate for everybody because I
47:03
know I'm not going to ever delete it.
47:04
So I want to make sure that everything's all squared away and that you're all getting
47:07
kind of the full accounting of what you should in terms of what you should be looking at
47:11
there.
47:12
But that is a concerning thing to be looking at.
47:16
I mean, 40% think that gender identity is a matter of choice going completely against
47:22
biology, completely against everything that we know about chromosomes.
47:26
But like I said, I almost went into it.
47:28
All right.
47:29
I'm going to get out of it before I get into it.
47:30
All right.
47:31
So here we go.
47:32
We're going to wrap this up with the conclusion from the website here.
47:34
The 2018 state of theology survey reveals deep confusion about the Bible's teaching, not
47:40
only among Americans as a whole, but also among evangelicals.
47:44
There is something very wrong when a majority of Americans can give the correct answers
47:48
to basic Bible questions and at the same time say that their beliefs are purely a matter
47:53
of personal opinion.
47:55
That's that's great.
47:56
That's really, really good line right there.
47:57
These results show the urgent need for sound biblical teaching and the bold preaching of
48:03
the gospel.
48:04
Amen.
48:05
Millions of people do not understand the holiness of God, the reality of sin and the one way
48:10
of salvation in Jesus Christ.
48:13
There is much work to be done, but it is our hope that these findings will serve the church
48:17
in its efforts to reach more people with the faithful proclamation of the truth of God's
48:23
word.
48:24
Obviously, I'm in full support of what this ministry is doing.
48:27
I know that this the results of this finding have been reviewed by hundreds, if not thousands
48:33
and thousands of church leaders, I would assume thousands of church leaders around the United
48:37
States.
48:38
And I hope it's something that they're taking seriously, because again, as I was thinking
48:42
through over the last couple of months of how it would present this material to you and
48:45
how I would try to make it discouraging while at the same time being encouraging and telling
48:50
you the right story, but also giving you a prescriptive path.
48:53
The thing that kind of came down to me is that there's just a bunch of questions that
48:57
you have to ask yourself.
48:58
Okay.
48:59
I'm going to obviously encourage you to go back and read this stuff on your own and make
49:02
some of your own declarations and your own opinions on some of these things that can
49:06
be opinionated.
49:07
But here's just a few questions that you need to be able to ask yourself, okay?
49:11
The first is how's your theology?
49:14
How's your individual theology?
49:16
Yes, dude.
49:17
I'm talking to you, the guy listening to this podcast right now, how's your theology?
49:23
Do you have any?
49:24
Do you feel like you have a theological underpinning for the things that you believe within Christianity?
49:31
So there's you something to really chew on.
49:33
The second question, who's teaching you your theology?
49:38
This one's really important.
49:40
Who's teaching you your theology?
49:42
Like I said, not every pastor is a good one.
49:46
Not every church is a good one.
49:47
Some of them suck.
49:49
They may have been called, but they might suck at their job, just kind of what it is.
49:54
Are they teaching you the right theology?
49:57
Like, who's teaching you your theology?
50:01
Are they qualified to do that?
50:03
Think about that one.
50:04
Next question, who's influencing your theology?
50:10
There's a lot of people that talk about Oprah and the things that she's done to kind of
50:13
influence women and kind of give them this sort of like pseudo Christianity thing, but
50:18
do you listen to Rob Bell?
50:22
Do you listen to Steven Furtick?
50:25
How about Carl Lynch?
50:28
Brian Houston, do you listen to those guys?
50:31
Are they influencing your theology?
50:33
What about that dope down in Houston?
50:35
I can't even remember his name, the, oh, Joel Osteen, is he influencing your theology?
50:42
Are these the opinions that you're letting get in your ear?
50:46
The other question here is, is your theological knowledge correct?
50:49
Oh, I just use them.
50:52
The crazy bad word, right?
50:54
The 2018 number one curse word, correct.
50:58
Is your theological knowledge correct?
51:00
Because here's the thing that's knowable because if you believe something theologically, it
51:06
can be proven true or false without a doubt, unequivocally, because if it's part of doctrinal
51:15
theology, then it can be proven.
51:19
But here's the other thing is I just ask you to ask yourself four questions.
51:26
How's your theology?
51:28
Who's teaching you your theology?
51:29
Who's influencing your theology?
51:31
And is your theological knowledge correct?
51:34
And now I want you to ask the same questions about your wife and kids.
51:41
How's your wife's theology?
51:44
How are your kids theology?
51:47
Who's teaching your wife theology?
51:50
Who's teaching your kids theology?
51:53
Who's influencing your wife's theology?
51:55
Who is influencing your kids theology?
51:59
Is your wife's theological knowledge correct?
52:03
Use your kids' theological knowledge correct.
52:07
And guys, maybe it didn't click with you when I had you ask yourself those questions because
52:11
you can kind of self select out of even doing that.
52:14
But I just up the stakes a little bit, didn't I?
52:18
Because guess what?
52:20
If you're not helping them, dad, husband, someone is, it might be Oprah, it might be
52:28
Joe Rogan, it might be PewDiePie, that YouTube guy, somebody's helping him.
52:36
And guess what?
52:37
If Jolie's Osteen is teaching you and your wife, that's a problem.
52:43
And I'm not saying you have to just find a bunch of reformed guys not saying they're
52:47
bad either, but it's just like, man, you got to find some real substantive places for that.
52:55
And that's my encouragement to you guys here, guys, I didn't go to a seminary, like I don't
53:00
have a theological degree, I don't have an MDiv, I don't have any of those things.
53:05
I got some solid dudes that are in, they're in seminary right now that listen to this
53:10
podcast and I'm like super grateful and thankful for those guys.
53:14
But man, there are so many, so many resources out there for you, you just have to seek them
53:19
out.
53:20
And we'll talk about that more here.
53:21
Guys, let's do a quick resilience boost before I let you out of here, as you know, by now,
53:25
we are immense ministry and our mission is cultivating manly resilience.
53:29
Specifically, we do that by providing content that for just spiritual, mental and physical
53:33
toughness.
53:34
So today, you know, drumroll, please, you obviously know we're going to talk about this.
53:38
Let's get into spiritual resilience.
53:39
So I have the link here for you for the key findings of the state of theology, which is
53:43
what I read through, but also I have the link for the data explorer of the state of theology,
53:49
which basically gets more into what each of the different questions look like.
53:53
And I thought about a lot of things here as well, like, what am I going to give you as
53:56
resources on, you know, different sermons or different this or that or different books
54:02
that you can read.
54:03
But the thing is guys, I'm going to challenge you here.
54:05
Like, you have super computer in your pocket, your product, you might be listening to this
54:09
on an actual super computer, like, this is the deal, like, you can find this stuff.
54:14
The version is one of the most amazing things that could have ever been brought into Christendom.
54:19
I mean that wholeheartedly, not just because it was invented in my backyard, right?
54:24
But the number of devotionals, I mean, like, like daddy devotionals, like real ones, like
54:31
super dense devotionals that you can get on that website for free.
54:34
It's incredible.
54:35
There's a bunch of dopey ones on there as well as to be expected.
54:39
But there's also, there's so much theological knowledge out there as well, free resources
54:44
on websites all over the place, like different ministries, like Ligonier Ministries, right?
54:50
Some of you guys are maybe eventually will go to a divinity school of some kind to all
54:55
my guys out there listening to this that either went through seminary or are in it now, please
55:00
send me anything that you can.
55:03
So tag tag us in any of our social media posts, hit me up at info@undaunted.live, you can email
55:08
me there info@undaunted.live, anything that I can share with the guys on this podcast,
55:13
I will always be willing to do that.
55:15
I'll certainly look at it and test it out myself first, but then I'll send it out to
55:18
everybody else because guys, I just can't underestimate or undersell this to you enough.
55:25
Like this is so incredibly important.
55:27
Like I would just want to make sure that this is something that is at the top of your brain,
55:32
especially when it comes to your family because that is your responsibility.
55:35
You don't think it is, and maybe somebody convinced you it's not, and you watch this
55:38
TED Talk once, and it's like, ah, you know, I think I'll be all right, nope, this is your
55:42
responsibility.
55:43
You need to take care of your household.
55:44
All right, guys, thank you as always for listening.
55:46
This far into the episode, I really do appreciate it.
55:49
Please subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Google Play and refer your friends to listen,
55:53
and please share this on social media.
55:55
If you use the hashtag #undauntedlife, we'll be sure to find your post and give it a thumbs
55:59
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56:00
Guys, if we deserve a five-star review, please leave us five-star reviews.
56:03
Please, please, please.
56:04
We are currently still five-star reviewed, and make sure when you leave the review, you
56:08
leave us two or three sentences that let us know what you like about the podcast.
56:12
I'm currently booking speaking engagements for the entirety of 2019, so if you want me
56:16
to come speak to your church, to your Sunday school, to your men's event, to your camp,
56:20
to your retreat, whatever, hit me up at info@undaunted.life.
56:24
The email again is info@undaunted.life.
56:27
The website is www.undaunted.life, and you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter @undauntedlife
56:33
or Facebook.com/undauntedlife.
56:36
You can check out our free devotionals on the U-Virgin Bible app.
56:38
Just search "undaunted life" under plans, and as always, we want to thank the band August
56:42
Burns Red for allowing us to use their entire music library for our content.
56:47
The intro outro track on this podcast is our song "King of Sorrow," which is off their
56:50
latest record entitled "Thanthum" anthem.
56:53
The links to all of this are in the description.
56:55
I'm your host, Kyle Thompson.
56:57
Remember, keep cultivating manly resilience, keep forging spiritual, mental, and physical
57:03
toughness.
57:04
Keep seeking the Lion of Judah.