← Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey
Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey
Ep 1322 | Netanyahu Insults Jesus?, Talarico v. Trump, & Why the Bible is Trending
00:57:44
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Did BB Netanyahu just insult Christ? Also, Trump says that James Talarico is an insult to Jesus. Some good news. More and more people are reading the Bible, but do they really believe what's in it? We've got all of this and more on today's episode of Relatable. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day so far that you had a wonderful and peaceful weekend. Hopefully wherever you live, it feels like spring has sprung and you are enjoying the warm weather we certainly got to over the weekends. All right, just one reminder at the top, we're going to skip all the administrative stuff and get right into it. God's eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch. I just sometimes am overwhelmed. This morning when I was driving in the car with just the craziness, the wickedness, the evil that goes on. Whenever I go speak somewhere, people always ask me, how do you stay joyful? How do you stay peaceful when you are plugged in to the news and you're constantly paying attention to the world's worst things in people? And honestly, I, I don't get plugged into everything. Maybe it seems like I do because I do this three times a week, but this really isn't a news show. We're not just talking about the news and all of the evil that goes on. But I do probably see it more than the person who is totally unplugged from social media. Even though I tried to get keep it balanced. But I just remind myself even when I am tempted to think, gosh, it seems like God is ignoring this. It seems like he's not doing anything. It seems like justice is never going to arrive. I just remember that God is never doing nothing, that his wrath is kindling against evil, and that he is coming back. That that day of victory is already determined. And you've heard me go back over the years to Psalm 37. It is my go to chapter. When I feel overwhelmed about evil in the world, whether it's a tumultuous circumstance in my own life and I'm distressed about something, I always go back to Psalm 37 and I wish I could just read you the entire chapter. It's a little bit long, so I encourage you today. Pull it up on your phone, read Psalm 37. I'll just read you a couple of verses right now. But the whole thing is so good. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices. Refrain from anger, forsake wrath. Fret not yourself. It lends attends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. Because we are made in the image of God, we all have this desire for wrong to be made right, for the evil to fail, and for those who are waging wickedness, especially against the vulnerable and the weak and the defenseless, to get their comeuppance. We can see that reflected in most of the books we read, most of the shows we watch, the movies we see that we want the good guy to win, and we want vengeance against those who are doing wrong. And it is really, really hard for us to as those who are lying, those who are cheating, those who are stealing, those who are gaining power by unjust means continue to be successful. I mean, that's one of the worst feelings in the world, when something that is true and right is not being seen and something that is wrong is being justified. I mean, sometimes we just feel so out of control and we just want to wake everyone up and show them, no, this is the right way, that's the wrong way. How can you not see that? But when we feel tempted to fret and distress, we go back to Psalm 37 and we remember what the ultimate fate of the universe is. That wrong will be made right, that evildoers will be exposed, that the good will inherit the earth because of Christ and because God is good, not because we are. So that is what we can trust in. That is where my peace comes from. Yes, of course my family keeps me grounded, my friends, my church, all of those wonderful things. But ultimately, I know who wins in the end, and that is where my comfort comes from. All right, we've got a lot of theological things to talk about today. Really. Two major videos that I saw circulating, that I saw a lot of Christians commenting on, that I want to give my perspective on, to try to offer as much clarity as possible. The first video comes from BB Netanyahu of Israel. A lot of people recirculating this clip and criticizing Netanyahu for what he says. Here sat one.
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Unfortunately and unhappily, Jesus Christ has no advantage over Genus Khan, because if you are strong enough, ruthless enough, powerful enough, evil will overcome good. Aggression will overcome moderation. So you have no choice. If you look at the world as it is today, you have to be blind not to see that the democracies led by the United States have to reassert their will to defend themselves.
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Commentator Owen Schroyer reacted this way. He says in this short clip Netanyahu insults Christians and Jesus Christ asserts there's no purpose in being a good person. Says we have no choice but to fight Israel's wars. Subtly threatens us if we don't. Mary Mario Nofal, I don't know how to pronounce his last name. Said on X Netanyahu went full edge. Lord bro, that's not a flex, that's a face palm. Israel's already fighting the global optics war and the Prime Minister decides to drop might. Might makes right Jesus who in the middle of it, there's another X user called the Patriot Voice who said Netanyahu has come out of hiding to mock Jesus Christ in the most blasphemous way possible. How can Christ Zionists continue to reconcile and support a man and country that literally hates and mocks our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Okay, let's give some context to what Netanyahu seems to be saying here. He's quoting an American historian, Will Durant. He was a Catholic. He turned into an agnostic as an adult. And his 1968 book, you see that actually at the beginning of the full clip that he is quoting this book called the Lessons of History. And the full quote is this. Nature and history do not agree with our conceptions of good and bad. They define good as that which survives and bad is that which goes under. And the universe has no prejudice in favor of Christ as against Genghis Khan. Netanyahu added on acts later to clarify. No offense was meant. I did not denigrate Jesus Christ at my news conference this evening. A morally superior civilization may still fall to a ruthless enemy if it does not have the power to defend itself. So what are my thoughts on this? Is he blaspheming Jesus Christ here? Are these commentators correct that he is being an edgelord that is mocking the teachings of Jesus? Well, I have lots of thoughts that might make everyone mad but hopefully for the Christian will add a lot of clarity. 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They donate items and their dollars to these pregnancy centers and you partner with them every time. You buy every life. If you go to everylife.com and you use code ALLY10, go ahead and subscribe to their box of diapers and wipes. That's what we do. You'll save 10% on your order when you use my code everylife.com code ALI10. Okay, here are my Here are my thoughts on that controversial clip. It may have been wrong for Netanyahu to use this quote as a defense of his or America's actions, basically saying it's not the peaceful, merciful and loving who conquer evil, it's the ruthless and the powerful. Victory is not necessarily rewarded to the pacifists. Now, I disagree that he is insulting Jesus Christ here. He actually seems to me to be making an effort to caveat what he's saying, that unfortunately he says unhappily, it's not the way of Jesus that wins wars. However, it was also an unfortunate way to make his point because the quote, I think, is a misunderstanding of the Christian worldview. We do serve a Jesus who tells us, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the meek, blessed are the poor in spirit. The characteristics of the Christian life are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control. But there is also the just war theory that Christian thinkers over time have taught that asserts that there are good reasons to wield violence in defense of the innocent against the wicked. Of course, we see throughout the Old Testament God's demand for war and violence waged by his people to accomplish his purposes. I'm not saying that the Old Testament is a justification for America's wars. It is to say and to point out that one cannot state that in principle, God is always against war and violence, as I've heard, for example, the Pope say, and the God of the Old Testament is the God of today and is not contradicted or negated by Jesus. Now, we don't live in ancient Israel. So we don't need to be modeled after the Old Testament Hebrews, but we can look to the Old Testament principles to see the character and the mind of God which still persists today. And so Christians hold these two views at the same time and they don't contradict one another. The quote that Netanyahu is referencing is actually correct. And the Christian worldview understands that. Christian thinkers understand that the universe, meaning earthly powers, does not here on earth always been to the will of love. Sometimes it bends to the will of force. And we can debate about when and how that force is necessary and good. But as a rule, that observation is correct because we live in a fallen world. But again, the quote, and perhaps Netanyahu misunderstand the fullness of the Christian way. It's not just isolated Sermon on the Mount teachings from Jesus that inform our entire worldview and our. In our view of war, Christians as a church do follow the peaceful, gentle, merciful way of Christ while still acknowledging the Romans 13 responsibility of the government to wield the sword against the evildoer. And I think, honestly, I think the freakout over what he said was just outsized. Like, you can be mad that maybe you don't think that he used that quote correctly or that he doesn't understand the fullness of the worldview or that you just thought it was the. The wrong time or the wrong way to use that quote. Okay, be mad about the Iran war if you want to be mad that he said Jesus's name at all. Okay, be mad that he's trying to justify violence or that you believe he's roped America into an unnecessary war, if that's your position. But I just think that much of the outrage about blasphemy here is completely misplaced. Ultimately, this is what we know. This is what we as Christians know. Ultimately, Jesus is coming back, not as a baby, but as a warrior. He will defeat evil, he will defeat evildoers. He will avenge God's people. And while maybe it seems to unbelievers like Jesus's way is the way of losers, because in a chaotic, evil world, his followers continue to love, continue to have joy, continue to make peace, because indeed these may equal loss here on earth. Ultimately, we know the meek do inherit the earth. Ultimately, because of Christ, we do win. And here's what I think is missing by these people who are so hyper critical and hypersensitive to everything Israel and its representatives do. They never seem to focus on this part that we want Bibi Netanyahu like we want Any non believer to understand who Jesus actually is, that Jesus is the promised Messiah. He is the root of Jesse, he is the Son of David. And I just want to read this passage and this is to every Jewish listener that I have out there. This is a message to Bibi, Nut and Yahoo. And that is Isaiah 53, 4, 5. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed. That is Jesus. That is the prophesied Messiah. He has already come and he is Jesus of Nazareth. I want to read this quote by Tim Keller. And I know we evangelicals, and myself included, I've talked about this, have had problems with some of the things that Tim Keller taught, especially when it came to how our Christianity should inform our, inform our politics. But gosh, he had some really, really good work, really good explanations of the gospel and I think this particular one is really pertinent. He said, jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us. Jesus is the true and better Abel, who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out not for our condemnation but for our acquittal. Jesus is the true and better Abraham, who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void, not knowing whether he went to create a new people of God. Jesus is the true and better Isaac, who was not just offered up by his father on the mount, but was truly sacrificed for us. And when God said to Abraham, now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love for me. Now we can look at God taking up his son to the mountain and sacrificing him and say, now we know that you love us, God, because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love from us. Jesus is the true and better Jacob, who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved. So we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us. Jesus is the true and better Joseph, who at the right hand of the King, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them. Jesus is the true and better Moses, who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant. Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses, who struck with the rod of God's justice, now gives us water in the desert. Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends. Jesus is the true and better David, whose victory becomes his people's victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves. He's the true and better Esther, who didn't just risk leaving an earthly palace, but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn't just risk his life, but gave his life to save his people. He's the true and better Jonah, who was cast out into the storm so that we could be brought in. He's the real rock of Moses. He's the real Passover lamb. Innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us. He's the true temple, he's the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light, the true bread. You cannot believe that. You cannot preach that. If you hate Jews. There are a lot of Jew haters out there who demonstrate their hatred not only for Jews, but for their Jewish savior by finding every single opportunity to pin every evil on Israel and Netanyahu. And. But they show no desire for Jewish people to know Christ. Our sentiment toward Jewish people should reflect that of Paul, who before he came to Christ, described himself as a Hebrew of Hebrews from the line of Benjamin, and carrying every title and accolade that a Jewish scholar could hold at the time. And he says this in Romans 9:3:5. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen. According to the flesh, they're Israelites. And to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs and from their race, according to the flesh is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. I've got just a little bit more to say about this in just a second. Let me pause. Let me tell you about our second sponsor for the day first, and that is Legacy Box. If you are trying to pass down your memories, but you're afraid that you won't be able to find all of your pictures, that you won't be able to store them correctly, that they're not orgs organized right, then you just need to take all of those pictures, all of those DVDs, all of those VHS home videos, put them in a box that's sent to you by Legacy Box Ship it all to them and they'll digitize all of it. They'll put it all in a file. They'll organize everything for you however you want it to be organized. And then they'll send the hard copies back to you and then they'll send you your digital file so you are insured to be able to pass down these precious memories forever. I know my mom needs this. She needs Legacy Box because she's got so many pictures. They're very well organized, organized and so many home videos. And it's so fun and I care about those. I want to be able to pass those down to my children and it's just peace of mind if I also have a digital copy of all of those pictures and videos. So go to legacybox.com Alli Take advantage of Legacy Box's spring cleaning sale. Preserve your family's story. Go to legacybox.com Ally. I will probably get criticized by both sides for that monologue. And that's okay. I'm not a dispensationalist. I feel no obligation to unconditionally defend Israel. I've never been to Israel. I have no connections to Israel. I'd love to go to Israel. I've just. I've just never been and I'm not connected to it. I simply refuse to play games with conspiracies. Super trendy to do that right now when it comes to Israel and Jewish people. And I just refuse to let hate toward people who share half my Bible win. Instead, I'm gonna do my best to tell the truth in love no matter whom it offends. And one commonality again that I've seen with a lot of the people who are just like fomenting so much anger and hatred and spin. All of these conspiracies is a misunderstanding and a disbelief of the gospel themselves. Like it really is a spiritual issue. In Acts 4. This is another great model for us as we Christians are speaking to non believers, but especially those who are Jewish. And this could be offensive. I think it was offensive at the time when Peter was speaking. But if God says it is true and God loves people so much more than we do, and God loves the Jewish people so much more than we do, then it bears repeating. And this is Acts 4:10 through 12 as Peter is speaking to Jewish leaders, he says, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead by him, this man is standing before you as well, or standing before you. Well, because he had just healed a crippled man. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. I think it's really important for us to remember that last thing right there, because you do, I think, have a portion of dispensationalists and some hardcore pro Israel evangelicals who are under this false impression that there is a different plan of salvation for the Jewish people. And that's just not true. There is no name under heaven by which one must be saved. And that is Jesus Christ. That is the promised Messiah who has already come and is coming back. And because of the name of Jesus, every tongue will confess and every knee will bow. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, that day is coming. And God doesn't need us and need our evangelism and need our prayers to accomplish his will. Because he is self sufficient. He can do anything that he wants to do. But by grace, he has chosen us to accomplish his will. And so we share the gospel. Boldly we tell the truth. Boldly. We try to represent God's truth in love as well as we can by the power of the Holy Spirit. And that comes to all forms of non believers, no matter how politically incorrect it may be. And one of those non believers that I want to continue to correct, not really for his sake as much as for the sake of my audience, who needs this clarity, is on the other side of the political aisle, I guess you could say, and that is James Talarico. You probably know James Talarico by now. He is a Texas state representative and he is running against the Republican candidate for Senate. So he is trying to take John Cornyn's place. He wants to represent the state of Texas. We've done several episodes on James Talarico. You should go back and listen to those if you want more examples of what he actually believes in his own words. But now he's got the attention of Trump and Trump has something to say about him. Sat, too. Let me tell you the good news. The good news is their candidate is whacked out with his six different forms of gender. And all the things that I saw. The insult to Jesus, I mean, such an insult. This guy. Binary. Yeah. I mean, Trump is obviously absolutely right about that. He's right about everything that he said. Talarico is very extreme, very kooky. He uses the name of Jesus to justify his extremism. But Talarico responded to Trump, and just from a political strategy PR perspective, he absolutely should have responded to Trump. Him setting himself against Trump as an enemy of Trump is a winning strategy for Democrats and moderates who don't like Trump. So here's what he had to say. Set three.
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The President of the United States just said that I insulted Jesus. You want to know what insults Jesus? Kicking the sick off their health care while cutting taxes for billionaires. You know what insults Jesus? Deporting the stranger and separating babies from their mothers. You know what insults Jesus? Bombing innocent school children in Iran and sending our brave men and women off to die in another forever war. You know what insults Jesus? Covering up the Epstein files and then refusing to prosecute a single person in them.
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Okay, he goes on to say, jesus told us. Jesus told us. He told us to love our neighbors as ourselves. He told us, on heaven or on earth as it is in heaven, can we imagine war in heaven? Can we imagine bigotry in heaven? Can we imagine poverty in heaven? Then why do we tolerate these things on earth? One thing I just want to point out, because he looks, it looks like he's at a predominantly black church there. People always talk about, oh, you know, white Christian nationalism, white evangelical churches. So political, so pro Trump. There is no more openly political and politically biased church than the predominantly black church in America. Not every single one. But the only reason they don't get accused of Christian nationalism or they don't get their 501C3 status threatened, or progressives aren't freaking out about the need for separation of church and state when it comes to these black churches is because they're Democrat. Is because they're something for Democrats. They're actually having politicians come in and campaign at their pulpit. And that is routinely conflated with the gospel. Am I saying every predominantly black church? No, I'm not. But it's a trend. We know that. We see that over and over again. Very popular to conflate using government mandated wealth redistribution with the gospel and these type of churches. But when evangelicals say, yeah, Psalm 139 says, we're knit in our mother's womb, therefore abortion is wrong. And gosh, if we make it illegal to murder people outside the womb, it seems like we should make it illegal to murder people inside the womb. Oh, my gosh, that's Christo fascism. So scary. I just want to point that out. Okay, I've got a couple things to say about. Well, I've got a lot of things to say actually about all of this. Surprise, surprise. Okay, first, I just don't want this is this would be my advice to Trump. I don't want Trump to talk about Talarico anymore. I don't want him to talk about Talo anymore. Even though everything he said is absolutely true. Because as I said, becoming Trump's enemy is mobilizing for Democrats and Trump hating moderates in the state of Texas. Also, I support Trump, but his realm is not theology. And so comments like he's an insult to Jesus don't really help this conversation. There are people to say that. I personally don't think Trump is one of them. There's so much going on here in what Talarico is saying. He, like Satan, always mixes lies with truth. He always makes the truth sound righteous and palatable and enticing. And so I'll just point out some of the true things that he says before I get into the complete and total lies. Jesus is saddened by sickness and death. Jesus is saddened by the killing of innocence. Always. Jesus is definitely against Jeffrey Epstein and the delay of justice. All of that is true. Here are some things that are not true. It is not true that Jesus is always against war. Romans 13 New Testament part of the inerrant Word of God says that the government bears the sword to punish the evildoer both here and abroad. Lots of debate and nuance about when and how that should be used. Absolutely. But it does mean, at least in principle, that not all government wielded violence is wrong and actually that it is at times necessary to protect the innocent and to quell evil. It is not true that to love the sick we have to have a government provided and mandated health care system. Christians have a very long rich history of caring for the sick and we should continue to do that. That does not require us to support Medicare for all. If you go back and watch Friday's episode about Canada's euthanasia program that encourages people to be murdered by their medical provider when they're too big of a burden on their family or on the healthcare system, you'll see what I'm talking about. State provided medical care is not always compassionate. It actually usually ends up victimizing the poor and the defenseless. Reminder. This is the big reminder here and you always have to keep this in mind when you're listening to anyone who calls themselves a progressive Christian. Christian generosity has nothing to do with your taxes. Christian generosity has nothing to do with your taxes. You as a Christian could support zero taxpayer funded programs and still be considered a generous Christian. Christians are called to charity. Charity by definition is voluntary. Taxes are not voluntary. Second Corinthians 9, 7. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. The early Church in Acts a lot of times you see the so called progressive Christians referencing the early church giving each other everything that they had to make sure that everyone was cared for as a justification for socialism. But these early Christians gave to one another empowered by the Holy Spirit. They did so voluntarily. They weren't forced by the government to do so. Supporting government programs that take money from one group and forcibly give it to another group. That's what Medicare for All would be. That's what all these socialist programs are. It's not charity, it's coveting, it's stealing. Forced wealth redistribution violates two of the ten Commandments. Thou shall not covet and thou shall not steal. That's why socialism never works and always ends. It's why it always ends in tyranny and misery. It's an ideology that sounds really compassionate. Care for the least of these close the wealth gap. But it is always carried out in a way that is anti God and anti human nature. It is an ideology that is built on greed and envy. And by the way, outsourcing your generosity to the government is a sin. If you're not forking over your dollars to the needy until the government threatens you with jail, then you are an unchristian miser, not a bleeding heart empath. James also quotes Jesus when he says on earth as it is in heaven, that's part of the Lord's Prayer. This is a tactic that is used by a lot of people who call themselves liberal Christians to justify progressive not only policies but also cultural views like transgenderism. And I'll explain that in just a second. Let me pause tell you about our next sponsor. First that's Concerned Women for America. Did you know this is a very Sad fact that 80% over 80% of young women in New York City voted to install a radical Islamic socialist to run the city. Zoran Mamdani. Half of American women according to one study want to abolish ice. Okay, we know all about why this is toxic empathy, propaganda, misplaced motherhood. But there is an organization that is trying to fight back against that by recruiting as many America loving God fearing women is possible and that is Concerned Women for America. For 45 years they have been leading the charge as your voice in all levels of public policy. They focus on family sanctity of life, religious liberty, parental choice and education, national sovereignty, fighting sexual exploitation. They train women to become grassroots leaders, speak into the culture, pray, testify and lobby. They've got collegiate chapters, mom chapters, professionals, mature women, all coming together to fight for future generations. Go to concerned women.org ally when you donate $20 or more, you get a copy of their booklet on socialism. Very pertinent to what we're talking about. Go to concerned women.org ally. So he quotes part of the Lord's Prayer there. May your will be done is the first part. Then he says, on earth as it is in heaven, James uses that to justify socialist policies and then to use the government to supposedly eliminate poverty. You heard him say that we need to imagine a world or we need to have a world without any poverty. And I just first want to say that has never happened in all of history anywhere. The government has never, has never created a program that has eliminated poverty. No communist country has ever been rich. Okay, that's first two he says if poverty is not in heaven, it shouldn't be here. So many things on that. Jesus says in Matthew 26:11, the poor will always be with you. Now that's not Jesus saying that poverty is great, that you shouldn't care about the poor at all, that you shouldn't try to help them and meet their material needs. That's not what he's saying. You can read the whole chapter or the whole passage in context there. But he is saying there's always going to be poor people. There's always going to be poverty for a variety of reasons. Poverty is not always the result, result of injustice. That is something that liberals believe poverty could be the result of injustice. Many such cases throughout history. But poverty sometimes is the result of choices and that is a form of agency that liberals want to rob from people who are poor. But when you rob people of their agency, you always, you also rob them of their dignity and also just what makes them image bearers of God. And that is why progressives come up with such bad policy prescriptions because they misunderstand human nature and just, just the nature of sin and autonomy in general. There is no government responsibility or possibility to eliminate poverty completely. Again, Christians and churches, we care for the poor. We don't outsource our compassion to the state. Also a couple other things that aren't in heaven that he doesn't agree with. There's no sin in heaven. There are no non Christians in heaven. Two things James doesn't even believe. James doesn't agree with Jesus's teachings. About marriage and sexuality as seen in Matthew 19:4,5. He doesn't believe in sin and salvation the way Jesus teaches. He doesn't believe in John 14:6 when Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Liberals also do not have the same view of the end times that we do. And this is something we really need to understand. What they mean by kingdom of heaven, what they mean when they say bring God's kingdom here on earth. They believe that all of Christianity is essentially a metaphor. Now there may be some disagreements within what is called progressive Christianity about what is literal in the Bible and about what is not. But in general, the grand picture of Christianity is just kind of a meta narrative of political liberation from oppression. Okay, so God's kingdom to them here on Earth means using political means to enforce equality, to they would say end racism. They would say to stop all oppression. Really what it is, it's just socialism. That's all it is. It's socialism enforced using decontextualized Bible verses, using toxic empathy via these Bible verses to manipulate you into thinking that if you don't support government mandated health care, if you don't allow abortion through all nine months, it's because you're a bad person. If you don't support open borders, it's because you're a bigot. It's actually Christian nationalism. It's a form of Christian nationalism that is much more intrusive and to people, people's lives, it's much more brutal, it's much more totalitarian than anything that's espoused by conservative evangelical. You can read anything about communism in the 20th century. The Gulag Archipelago is a good place to start. And you'll see what this ideology looks like in real life. It's death, it's destruction. And it's always brought in using a compassionate message. Because using the state to create a utopia in which no one is poor, no one has less than anyone else, everyone can abort their babies through nine months, everyone can switch their genders, everyone can marry. Their polycule is actually impossible without a brutal murderous regime working against human nature to force its ideology. And actually all of that ends up victimizing the most vulnerable. Totally or total equality of possessions will never happen on Earth. It cannot happen again without brutal force. That's why the 20th century was so deadly and bloody. It's not even supposed to happen here on Earth. That is not something that's guaranteed. That is not the biblical model that we see. We should advance the kingdom of God by sharing the gospel, by advocating for righteousness, by loving your neighbor, serving them, telling the truth, and yes, also part of what we are called to do. Although the kingdom of God will be advanced no matter what because he's sovereign, but we should also support policies that bring order and safety to those around us. One thing that he said that is true. Jesus did command us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. But James, I don't think you know what love is because we can't love our neighbors and abort them. James Talarico if you wouldn't want to be poisoned and dismembered, then why do you support that option for babies, your weakest and most oppressed neighbors? Texas babies are also your neighbors. You cannot love your neighbors and support the destruction of their bodies via wrong sex hormones and puberty blockers and double mastectomies. That gender deceived kid who was illegally rendered permanently sterile thanks to hormone medications distributed at Texas Children's Hospital is your neighbor. You can't love your neighbor and support the infiltration of illegal foreign criminals who will kill them. Jocelyn Nungary, a teen who was murdered by two illegals in Houston was your neighbor. You can't love your neighbor and call for the abolition of prisons which you have. James Talarico this is the only protection so many poor women and children have from the predators who have harmed them. Jacqueline Wilson was a Houston mom of four, 32 years old. She was reportedly murdered by her ex boyfriend who was released from prison by a progressive judge despite being a violent offender. She was your neighbor. You can't love your neighbor and deny the gospel that saves their souls as you have so many times when you've asserted that all religions point to the same truth that Jesus points to. You can't love your neighbor and support the chaos that kills them. You can't love your neighbor and lie to them. You can't love your neighbor in affirm sin. You can't love your neighbor while hating the things that God hates and loving the things that Satan loves and you do. You are an insult to Christianity. Your beliefs are an affront to the Imongo day and I look forward to Texans showing you out of politics in November and hopefully you are shown out of the pulpit as well. All right, well after all of that we do have some good news that hopefully more and more people are waking up to the false teachings that are being put forward by so many people, especially those who are within the ideology and ilk of James Talarico and the reason I Think why so many people are waking up. Why I thankfully, and this is not always something I say, but I am so thankful that pastors have really been stepping up, talking about how dangerous James Talarico's theology is. And the reason I think for just this renewed energy and speaking out against false teaching is because more people are reading their Bibles. Praise God. There is a Barna study out that shows that more and more people are reading their Bible every week. So we'll get into that in just a second. Let me tell you about our next sponsor for the day and that is Preborn y'. All. Preborn is amazing. They are saving thousands of baby lives every month. They are making sure that pregnancy centers across the country have the equipment that they need to save baby lives. We know that when a mom sees her baby on the ultrasound, when she hears that beating heart, when she sees that little baby body, she realizes that's not a clump of cells. That's not just pregnancy tissue. That's a human being. That's my baby. And she is so much more likely to choose life. We just have to tell the truth to these women. We have to show up for them, we have to love them, we have to provide what they need to help them make a life affirming choice. So many of these women simply think they're alone and that no one cares for them. We prove them wrong every day. And Preborn is in the business of proving that wrong by showing up for these women, by showing up for these pregnancy centers in order to save these lives. They need your help. And you can donate to Preborn today to help them save these little babies. Go to preborn.com ally make any donation you can. $2 helps. $2,000 helps whatever the Lord is calling you to. Preborn.com ally. Okay, great news. According to a Barna study, weekly Bible reading among US adults has climbed to 42%, up 12 points after a 15 year low in 2024. So it's still not as high as it has ever been because you can see there in the chart that's up in 2010, it reached a high, which is actually just so interesting when I think about my own life. I think I really started being interested in theology and scripture and reading the Bible more deeply around 2010, 2011. It makes me wonder what was going on in the church at the time. But that's a different subject for a different day. That is a dramatic increase. I would say that is the most dramatic increase that we've seen since the beginning of the study back in 2000. And there are so many reasons for this, I think, but one of them is the chaos of the world. I mean, especially since 2020, realizing you can't trust politicians. And a lot of people have had friends and family betray them, turn away from them because of politics, because of COVID because of so many issues, hearing the wars and the rumors of wars constantly. I think also the assassination of Charlie Kirk, I think that inspired a lot of people to start digging into their Bibles and to realize that this is a spiritual battle of good and evil. And we don't see the exact numbers there. It's easy to think with all of the online turbulence, all of the online conflict in the past several months after Charlie was murdered, that, okay, well, the revival is just gone. The revival is not going to happen because now Satan the accuser is creating all of this chaos and dissension that has just kind of quelled the awakening. But it's a battle. That's why it's called a spiritual battle. That's why in Ephesians 6, we are called to take up the full armor of God head to toe. Because there is a prince of the power of the air, as Ephesians 2 calls him, that is looking to sow confusion and is looking to sow deceit and to take people's eyes off the glory of God. But God is more powerful than that. And I think this just encourages me that God is working, he's seeking and saving the lost, and his word doesn't return. Void. So this study goes on to say so interesting. This is what we see in study after study, that young adults lead the way. With nearly half of Gen Z and millennials now engaging in scripture weekly. For specifically Gen Z and millennial men, it's over half for the first time in a decade. You. You go, men. Good job. Millennials saw a 16% increase in weekly Bible readers from 2024 to 2025, while Gen Z shot up 19 points. Gen X also increased by 12% in the same time span. Less than a third of baby boomers are weekly Bible study readers. Baby boomers? What's going on there? They peaked at 49% in 2010. Okay, still something going on in 2010. I'm just afraid that a lot of baby boomers feel that they've done enough, and I'm sure that's tempting to feel at that stage of your life, that you've gone to church enough, that you've read enough, that there's maybe not anything new, and you're just Kind of coasting at this point. But that is a wrong view of the Christian faith. That is a wrong view of the word of God. That is a wrong view of our sanctification. Gen X and millennials and Gen Z, however. This is not good. This is not good. We got work to do. Unrelatable. All lag behind in their belief that the Bible is totally accurate. You can see that they're on the chart. Oddly enough, 32% of baby boomers believe the Bible is totally accurate. One percent higher than weekly Bible readers in that generation. So maybe that's what the baby boomers are doing. They're like, it's all true. I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it. It's all true. And maybe millennials are reading it more as skeptics and that's not good. I would like for those numbers to be higher. I want everyone to be reading the Bible and everyone to believe that the Bible is totally true. Pew also reports that after many years of steady decline, the share of Americans who identify as Christians has leveled off. Actually reversed in the last two years. So that's another encouraging trend. Overall, we're still down. You see, in 2007, 78% of adults identified as Christian and now it's 63. It hit a low at, it looks like about 60 a few years ago, and now it's up 63. So any increase is good. Of course, we care less about how people identify and what people actually believe. Ligonier Ministries, they released a study recently, their 2025 State of Theology study, which shows that evangelicals. So those who say they believe the Bible to be 100% true and trustworthy, they really just don't know the basics of Christianity. They think that all people were born good and innocent, that God accepts the the worship of all kinds of religions. They just don't even know the basics of Christianity. And what that means is that we really. I know I just got done praising bold pastors and I will always praise bold pastors because I'm so thankful for them. And it's is such a hard job, way harder than the job of a podcaster. But we need more. Like we have a discipleship crisis here. We've got a bunch of people who are clearly hungry for God's word, they're clearly hungry for what Christianity offers and they don't even know the basics of the gospel. So we need pastors who are not only preaching the truth from the pulpit. That's absolutely true. It's a trickle down effect on the rest of the church unapologetically, by the way. Not just not saying false things, but saying true things about sin, about salvation. And not only that, but all of the corollaries speak into the culture. You don't have to be a newscaster. I'm not saying that you don't have to be a political cultural commentator. But as these issues come up in the word of God, which you only have to get in 27 verses to the entire Bible for them to come up, speak clearly into them. Don't beat around the bush. Don't be afraid to offend people. Say what is true, because this is what I always say. But remember pastors, as all Christians, but especially pastors, you're not nicer than God. You're not nicer than him. You don't know better than him. You can't out love him. You can't out mercy him, you can't out compassion him. If God says something is true, then the most loving thing you can do is say it too. The most loving thing you can do is agree with God, because God is love. First John 4:8. And I think the churches that are growing are the churches that are unapologetically preaching the gospel, who are not afraid to say, hey, if you are not in Christ, you're going to hell. That's the bad news. But here's the good news. The ones who are saying, hey, here's what God says about abortion and gender and marriage and sexuality in all different forms of sin, not just talking about the so called culture wars, but who are willing to offend for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of biblical truth and the sake of liberation from sin. It's not the mainline Protestant churches that are growing, although there is an effort to kind of revitalize those with the truth of the gospel. And I'm thankful for that. It's not the James Talarico churches that are growing, those are dying. Because of course, people would rather go to brunch than sit through a boring service hearing the same things they hear on msnbc. People go to church to hear what's true, to hear something different than they're hearing from the world. We have a discipleship crisis. We have, I think, a shepherding crisis. That's not only pastors, but. And I'm gonna challenge myself and all of us who have been Christians for a while, who are we discipling? Who in our lives needs to be discipled? Who in our lives needs to be mentored? Is there someone who is hungry for the truth that actually needs to be corrected. And I know we're afraid of pushing that person away, of maybe they won't come to us. Maybe they don't want to be my friend if I try to speak into their life, speak into the behavior, the beliefs that they have. But I promise that God has put those people in our lives to help advance the ball of their sanctification. Not that God needs that, but he does choose that. That's how the community of saints works. And so I just want us to also take that responsibility as Christians to disciple those in our lives with truth and not being afraid to correct in love. Very precious are the wounds of a friend, the wounds of a brother, wounding for the purpose of love and healing, not just for the sake of offense. We've got more on this in just a second. Let me pause and tell you about our last sponsor for the day, and that is Good Ranchers. Good Ranchers is a meat company that's 100% committed to America, not just in words, but in practice. Every single piece of meat that they have, their seafood, their chicken, their chicken steaks, their ground beef, all of it is from an American farmer ranch. This industry is so important to the American economy. Unfortunately, 80% of the craft beef in this country is imported from overseas. We don't even know what's going on with those cows overseas, and yet we're buying it. And a lot of it has a sticker on there that says Made in America, because that's what the policy is. You just have to be packaged in America to get a sticker that says Made in America. So if you want to know for sure where your meat comes from, get your meat from Good Ranchers. Ranchers shows up on dry ice to your front door every month to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America. They are donating proceeds to the Paralyzed Veterans of America. So join them in that effort. Get all of your meat from Good Ranchers. Go to goodranchers.com use code ALI for a discount. Goodranchers.com code ALLY. Now speaking of pastors, Barna also shows a promising trend for church attendance. They say for the first time in decades, younger adults, Gen Z and Millennial. I love that millennials are still considered young adults. They're millennials in their mid-40s, not me, but there are millennials in their mid-40s, but we're still considered young adults. It's great. Are now the most regular churchgoers outpacing older generations who once formed the backbone of church attendance. Again, interesting. I think a lot of Baby boomers. Such a baby boomer mentality. Not the baby boomers I know, but baby boomers out there who just think that once you retire from work, like, your life is basically done and like, you don't have to keep working as hard in your sanctification or just in your life in general. You don't have to be as involved, you don't have to be as diligent as you used to be. And that's just not true. That's a waste. Our life is but a mist, and every single part of it is supposed to be work for the glory of God. Not that we're never supposed to rest, but I don't think we biblically ever have a stage in life where you're just supposed to check out. Christian music has also experienced an uptick with Christian artists being one of the fastest growing sectors of music streaming in 2025. That's according to the Washington Times. Now here's some not so good news. And again, this goes to the responsibility of Christians. There's a study by Family Research Council that found that the percentage of regular churchgoers identifying as pro life plummeted from 63% to 43% in 2005. That is so unfortunate. And what happened there, I think, was just the propaganda war after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which happened in the summer of 2022. And it convinced so many people. I know people like this who are Christians who consider themselves pro life and they bought into all of these lies that these pro life laws are causing women to die from miscarriages in emergency rooms. That's a lie. It's not true. I can debunk every single story that you send me. If you send me someone who tragically died because of a miscarriage or because of something that was going on in their pregnancy, I can tell you exactly why. The legislation in that state had nothing to do with that person dying. And you even see these stories from places like California of women dying. I'm like, what does that have to do with, with pro life laws which are non existent in the state of California? So much propaganda, but clearly the propaganda works. That's exactly why I wrote Toxic Empathy. I saw that happening and I really, really want to reverse that with the truth. I mean, people, the toxic empathy manipulation tactic works so well with abortion because you tell a really sad story of a mom in distress who didn't want to have an abortion. She wanted this child and then she ended up losing her life or she ended up being being forced to have A child that died soon after birth. And as women, as moms, that understandably pulls on our heartstrings. And then it's presented in a way that if you just allowed women the choice in these extreme situations, then you could relieve her pain. And if you don't want to relieve her pain, it's because you're selfish. It's because you're closed minded and bigoted. And they never talk about the actual victim of that abortion and what happens in that abortion. That's the baby. The baby who is poisoned and dismembered and injected with the same chemical combination that is given to inmates on, on death row to be murdered to stop their heart when they're in the womb. Abortion is never the answer for a woman's problems ever, ever, ever. Delivery might be, but abortion is not. Baby murder is not. And it's like one of the most obvious things that people, even professing Christians tend to miss. And that means that it's spiritual. And so just know if you're a Christian woman that has been duped into being pro choice, like Satan has a hold of part of your mind at heart, heart, that's not me trying to condemn you. That is just me telling you the truth because I love you and I want you to stand on the right side of this very gospel centric and very biblical issue. That just goes to show again, pastors, you've got a responsibility to speak out. Abortion is not nuanced. Abortion's not nuanced. Now study after study does show that white evangelicals are the most pro life, are the most conservative on every issue. That's just true. My Catholic friends get mad at me when I say that. And you know, you can be, the Catholic Church itself can be lauded for the consistency on that issue. But that consistency and the cohesion of the actual like magisterium when it comes to abortion has not translated actually into the majority of Catholics being pro life. And so evangelicals, even with all of our disagreements in Protestantism, we are much more cohesive on really every issue, but specifically when it comes to abortion, like we are holding down the fort on these biblical positions, especially on abortion. And really like, what makes the difference. This was interesting. This was in a Barna study. What makes the difference in what Christians believe? Is it, is there a theology? Of course, that should be obvious, but unfortunately to a lot of people it's not. People think that you can be theologically solid and still be pro abortion and you just can't. So this is according to this Barna study. And we'll put up this graphic. This is full screen 8. Theology determines outcome among churchgoers. One variable predicted social positions more than any other. So marriage, gender, abortion, things like that. Spiritually active and civically engaged. 100 said the Bible informs their social positions. The most theologically grounded respondents, active in church life, engaged, civically engaged, committed to their faith, least engaged, spiritually inactive and civically engaged. 38% said the Bible informs their social positions. That was another thing in the Ligonier study that I talked about. Is that a huge percentage, I think a majority of professing evangelicals think that the Bible should not inform their politics. We've got work to do. We got work to do. That's what this whole show, this whole episode is about. Okay, Christians, we got work to do. We got work to do. On relatable. We, this community, are living in a moment where we are very needed. We are very needed to be light in the darkness. We are needed in the earthly sense. Of course, as I've said, God doesn't need us, but he is going to choose to use us to bring clarity to confusion and chaos. And so speak up. Now is the time. Like, we've got a crisis of theology going on. We've also got a crisis of. Of practice going on orthodoxy and orthopraxy. So pastors, speak up. Clergy speak up. Christians, speak up. Now is the time to know what God's word says and to live it out unapologetically. Relatable is made possible by our network home, Blaze Media. If you subscribe to BlazeTV, you not only support the show, but you get access to an immense library of shows, documentaries and original content. Subscribe@blazetv.com ally all right, that's all we got time for today. We'll be back here on Wednesday.