← Wretched Radio with Todd Friel
Wretched Radio with Todd Friel
They Waited Years for Baptism, Forgotten Preaching Power, Cultural Madness
00:54:59
Segment 1 • What did it actually cost to join the early church—and would you qualify today? • Membership wasn’t casual: years of catechesis, believer’s baptism, and rigorous accountability defined entry.
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- [00:04]
Todd Friel
Wretched radio begins in 3, 2, 1. Now, I can preach it like this,
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Jimmy Hicks
okay, Repent, or I can tell you change your mind. Preaching repentance in the area of consciousness of sins is dishonoring the work of Jesus. Repentance means you realize you're guilty, that you deserve the wrath and punishment of God. You begin to realize that sin is in you and you turn your back on it in every shape and form. You renounce the world, whatever the cost, and you deny yourself and take up the cross and go after Christ.
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Todd Friel
It's time for Wretched Repentance Radio with Todd Friel.
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Jimmy Hicks
Story time. The Front door and the back door. This is Wretched Radio. Question how did you become a member of your local church? You did become a member of your local church, didn't you? What was the process? How did it happen? Did you go through interview? Were you examined? Did you have to share your testimony? What was the process? Question did it include baptism? Let me take you back in time, courtesy of an unnamed article. What is with I got this from ninemarks.org they don't put the author's name on the article, so sorry, I can't give you attribution. Joining the Church the Ancient Way describes how the first few centuries would welcome somebody into church membership. You're probably not going to be shocked. It involved baptism. Let me take you back in time, believers. Baptism was the church's rite of entry from the first down to the early fourth century. So for give or take 300 years, you became a member of a local church via baptism because people were getting saved, they were getting baptized, and they would be added to the church. You say that sounds like Acts, Chapter two. That is exactly the chapter and verse where they got the order of membership. You had to be baptized to become a member. Then you were welcomed in and you could take the Lord's table. That was the order of membership, baptism. It was the act that actually brought you into the church. That was the one that said you are now a member. That act did more than just show a picture of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Your death to self, your resurrection, a new life. It also was the rite that brought you into church membership. Acts Chapter two, the Pentecost. We see the preaching of the Word, the Holy Spirit fell. People got convicted, they got saved, they got baptized, they were added to the church. And then we see church life described where they were taking the Lord's table. And so the early church said, we'll just do it that way. Now does that mean, however, that There was no process to it. It appears that there was. And it had to do with catechesis. It had to do with catechizing people. From the article, in order to join a church, a person had to formally confess a body of truth. They called it the faith, which included the essential beliefs and the return of Jesus Christ that you heartily affirm, he's coming back. And it appears that that would happen at the time of baptism. At the time of baptism, an individual would recite a creedal statement that contained key elements of the Christian faith and would give their assent. They would get dunked. They would then get added to the church. However, interestingly, it appears, as best I understand, the timeline from this presentation, that people who were new to the faith, who came seeking baptism, oftentimes were delayed for up to three years while they were being catechized. The church needed to instruct people in the fundamentals. And so there's evidence in the writings of Hippolytus of Rome, that would be about 200 A.D. that catechizing would take up to three years. So while the person was being instructed, they were called. They were actually given a label, catechumen. They were considered to be a Christian, but couldn't receive the Lord's Supper until baptism. So it appears for some, I don't know, that this was the practice of every church. You would say, hey, I'm a believer. I want to become a member. And they would catechize them first for up to three years in the essentials of the faith. Then they would say, I affirm these doctrines, they get dunked, and then they would be added to the church via baptism. It was the initiation rite, if you will, into church membership. Then they could take the Lord's table. Guess what? It didn't stay that way. That wasn't always the pattern of the church. Now, a lot of those elements exist, I think probably more so in mainline Protestant denominations. All the elements that we saw in the early church, they exist maybe in different order in Protestant churches, but it always included somewhere along the line. And it was definitely the first few centuries of the early church baptism. Not only was it an ordinance, but it was also your entrance into membership in the local church. Now, of course, that gets a little bit limited in its use, because what if you get baptized, you're a member of a church, and then you transfer churches, you become a member of another church. No, you don't get baptized again. Would you get catechized again? No, they would probably do what? Interview you to see if you've got the essentials down. So for the most part, I think the way that we're doing it these days, it's certainly not sinful. But the one element that I do think that is worthy of our interest. Does baptism make you a member of the local church? And this probably has, I, I think implications for two groups of people, teenagers that are now making up their first profession of faith and they want to get baptized. Does that make them a member? And of course, somebody who's a new believer. Does baptism serve as the entrance into church membership? That's the front door. Let's go visit the back door of the church. Church discipline again from nine Marks. It appears the first several centuries of the church consistently sought to apply church discipline. It was a much bigger deal then than it appears to be now. They were rather high on the subject. They understood the book of Second Peter, they understood the book of Jude. Hey, we got to watch out for false doctrine. Hey, we need to keep the church pure. It is a testimony about our Savior. So they were worried about moral purity. So what did they do? They actually practiced church discipline a lot. Most churches recognize two kinds of repentance. The one time repentance, when you get saved, and continual repentance of sin throughout one's life. Christians who sinned would confess their sin before the church to be restored to fellowship. But by the third and fourth centuries, restoration of the church became kind of difficult. They would undergo something called penitential discipline. Those people that wanted to repent, they were first required to come to the place where they met for church services, but not enter the place of worship. They had to beg for the prayers of those going inside. Jimmy, can you think of what Bible verse that is? Because I'm coming up short on that particular one right there. They couldn't enter. They had to beg for prayers of the people who could go into the church. And after a period of time, they were allowed to listen to the service in a designated area. So there was like an adult cry room. Apparently the penitents would eventually be allowed to remain during the entire service, though they couldn't partake in communion. Only after those steps were taken could an individual be restored to full membership. I would say not only is that not in the Bible, that's anti biblical. That process isn't described. Furthermore, I think it fails to really fully appreciate grace. You don't earn your way into the church, you don't earn your way back into the church. It's a gift. Now, that's the early church. Let's go 500 to 1500, shall we? The practice of church discipline declined during those years. Public strict discipline withered in the Latin speaking churches of the west just like it did Greek speaking East. In its place emerged a system of private confession and individual penance. In other words, the Catholic system took over. It wasn't church discipline. You go visit, as Michael Knowles said, the man in a box who then gives you stuff to do where your sins are temporarily washed away. That seemed to supplant church discipline now. The emphasis on penance changed church discipline into a private affair between the priest and the layperson, rather than involving whom? The priesthood of all believers, those who hold the kingdom of the keys, which is the entire congregation. The sinner gets brought before the body to hear whether or not the person has genuinely repented or not. If they hadn't, well then they would not be allowed into the church. If they had, they would of course be welcomed into the church. But it was a public process. The system of penance made it all private between a person and a priest. So church discipline basically for the most part disappeared. Private confession, works of merit, that is what was the mainstay practice leading up to the Protestant Reformation. So now let's jump to 1500-1750. Martin Luther. This was a big deal for him because he lived under the penitential system and he felt the weight of that. And so he was the one who really started to focus on church discipline. He advocated for the keys of the kingdom to be exercised by the church rather than by the Pope. In other words, the people of the church Repentance. As Luther viewed it, church discipline was restorative in nature, intending for it to serve as a deterrent to sin for others. And it most certainly does that. John Calvin, he advocated for discipline in Geneva in the Institutes. Discipline was necessary in local churches so that the high honor of God's name would not be blasphemed, especially at the Lord's table. And he advocated for it to be a public affair. And that's pretty much the way we do it now. At least that's the way that we're supposed to do it now. But most churches don't practice church discipline anymore. And I think this was a statement. I think John MacArthur said this. A church that never practices discipline. A church. This is wretched radio.
- [11:47]
Fortis Institute Announcer
No retreat. That's the name of Fortis Institute's Spring Match campaign. And here's why. The culture we live in right now has made it pretty clear it has very little interest in the true gospel of our Lord Jesus. Christ. We're being told to keep our faith quiet in public or to soften what we believe so it goes down easier. Fortis Institute has no intention of doing either one. We exist to advance the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and this spring we're doing it as loudly and as boldly as we know how. Your gift will help launch two new podcasts. It puts Todd Friel's new book, Go Serve youe King into print through HarperCollins, and it puts the gospel back onto college campuses where it's least welcome and most, most needed. Our goal is $250,000, and we're asking if you would prayerfully consider helping us get there. You can find out more right now@fortisinstitute.org donate
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Jimmy Hicks
is it possible a Christian university can actually be ranked high when it comes to preparing students for the real world world? Hat tip to Master's University. You want to send your kids someplace where they actually still teach the Bible, not just based on a document that they may be having a file cabinet someplace, but they actually use the Bible there. The education at the Master's University, not only biblical, but oh so practical courses, diplomas, degrees, they can be achieved online or of course, on their beautiful, beautiful campus in Southern California. Would you like to learn more about the Master's University? To prepare you or your child for the future, I encourage you to visit Masters. Edu Wretched Masters Edu Wretched.
- [13:47]
Fortis Institute Announcer
Most men don't make one big decision that takes them off course. No, it happens gradually and eventually you look up and you realize you I've been coasting for years. Well, Dr. Adam Tyson has created Walk Like a Man. It's available now on Fortis Plus. Dr. Tyson knows that's the story for way too many guys right now. And so he gets into God's word and he lays out what it actually looks like to walk with wisdom and live with real conviction. And the way he teaches it, you'll walk away from every episode knowing exactly what to do and why it matters. This is biblical teaching that puts solid ground under your feet and and gives you a clear path forward. It's streaming right now, with new episodes dropping every Monday on Fortis for free. Download the Fortis app right now. Wherever you download apps on your smartphone, your smart TV, or just go to fortis plus.org and walk like a man.
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Todd Friel
God has given the church many gifts for the building up of the body. One gift is exhortation, the spiritual ability to encourage, comfort, and admonish God's people. Whether God's people are oppressed, confused, or in error. God has provided the gift of exhortation to comfort, urge and correct them. This is Wretched Radio with Todd Friel.
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Jimmy Hicks
Does your pastor pray? Preach like a Puritan? This is Wretched Radio. You might be thinking, no, anything but Puritan preaching. Hold the phone, Henrietta. Puritan preaching. I don't think it was as dull and dry and boring as the caricature presents it to us. I don't think that it was dull. I don't think that it was without application. And we've got plenty of sermon manuscripts to prove that very thing. They were big fans of opening up the Bible, but I think we need to acknowledge those of us who love expositional preaching. It was, in fact, I would say, rarely, verse by verse, line by line, chapter by chapter, opening up the word. Now that doesn't mean they weren't expositors. They typically would take a verse or a couple of verses that were together and wow, would they ever bore into them. But they wouldn't go lying just chapter after chapter after chapter. Expository preaching for the Puritans doesn't look exactly the way that it does for us today. In fact, there might be some things that the Puritans were doing that could serve as a corrective for our contemporary preaching. This is an article. Again, don't know who wrote it. From 9 marks he's writing about Puritan preachers and what we can learn from their prescriptions on preaching. Richard Sibbes. He lived from 1577 to 1635. And this was an individual, an individual named Humphrey Mills. He spent three years trying to calm his conscience because he was one of those individuals who experienced those intrusive thoughts, lacking assurance. And he was just wrestling with it for three years. And then he heard a sermon from Richard Sibbes and his description was surprising. His sweet soul melting gospel sermons. Let's just exposit that for a moment, shall we? His sweet soul melting gospel sermons. When was the last time you heard a sweet soul melting sermon about Jesus? Thinking about the movie A Great Awakening. I wish they had longer clips of that posted on the Internet, on the YouTube, so that you could hear some of that sweet soul melting gospel preaching. That George Whitefield his oratory. It soared not just in volume, but just its poetic nature and how gripping and how vivid it was and how it made you want to run to the Savior. Which is why in America we did experience a first great awakening. His preaching was sweet soul melting gospel sermons. I would challenge every preacher who might be hearing my voice to ask yourself the question, do you preach the gospel in a sweet soul melting kind of way? Is it maybe our pattern today that we have consumed our way of preaching and just assumed that we can present the gospel in a rather clinical kind of way? Here's the facts, ma'. Am, you're a sinner. Jesus died for sinners. He rose from the dead. Repent and believe the gospel. But are they lacking soul melting that it causes somebody to go, he did what? He did that for me. When there's. I think there's a number of ways that we can go about the business of presenting sweet soul melting gospel preaching. It doesn't necessarily have to be like Whitfield, loud and just, passionate and dramatic. But I think it can be done with the pen. The way that you write about it, the way that you describe could be done with the simple. The emotion in your voice. Not to manipulate, but to communicate. This was an emotion. May he sing thing that our God did for us. Do you preach in a way that somebody's soul could be melted by the gospel? And please note that he's talking about a Puritan preacher. Sweet soul melting. They preached that it wasn't all just. And you better stop that sinning or you'll be damned to perdition. Dante's third ring is waiting for you. It's not the way they preached, not according to this one Humphrey Mills, who heard Richard Sibbes. He won my heart and refreshed me much. For by him I saw and had much of God and was confident in Christ. J.I. packer said that the Puritans called a minute acquaintance with the human heart. In other words, they did preach toward the heart. Now they did it via the head, but the destination was the heart. While historical caricatures tend to emphasize their external scrupulosity, in reality the Puritans aimed at the inner person by means of what they called the plain style of preaching. There was an expositor named William Perkins. He died in 1602. He encouraged preachers to explain. Here's number one. Explain the text, then describe its doctrinal significance. And finally, guess what? Apply it. Apply to the particular experiences and condition of the church. Now, I think that perhaps we've gotten a little bit more sophisticated in that those three things don't have to happen in that order. In fact, oftentimes I think we kind of fall into that pattern. Please open up your Bible. Here's the text. Here's the explanation. This is what it means to you. Now this is what you do. Have a good day at Cracker barrel. The application can be woven throughout. The weight of the verse can be woven throughout. It doesn't need to be that neat and tidy. But I do think that it does need to explain the text. It needs to explain the significance, the weight and import of the text and then what you're supposed to do with the text. That is what the Puritans sought to do. The best of the Puritans weren't content to just defend doctrine from the pulpit. They wanted to apply it to the hearts of their hearers. And they gave five key strategies. We'll do these lickety split. One, let scripture illustrate scripture. They were masterful at this. So often, the illustrations that you hear think of it like this. You're making s' mores by the fireplace. No, the fire pit at the camp, when suddenly a marshmallow falls into the. Okay, the Puritans would do that. Typically, they would reach back to the Old Testament and say, look at that guy. He's doing what this text is describing. They let scripture illustrate Scripture, which will always be more powerful than any illustration. Number two, make use of memorable images. So Richard Sibbes, for instance, this is what he didn't say. See great things in little beginnings. Okay, well, that makes sense. You get that statement, see great things in little beginnings. But that's not how he said it. This is how he expressed the same sentiment. See a flame in a spark, a tree in a seed. Oh, well, that colors it, doesn't it? I don't have to use my imagination. He painted it flowers for me. He didn't call weary Christians to look to Christ. Instead, he would say, when we feel ourselves cold in affection and duty, the best way is to warm oursel at this fire of his love and mercy. Way more vivid. In other words, they took time to just write better than we do. I think for believers who wanted to maintain a tender heart, Sibs said, quote, use the means of grace. Be always under the sunshine of the gospel. That's just vivid. Writing the sunshine of the gospel. These days we say, preach the gospel to yourself every day. And that's true. Sit under the sunshine of the gospel daily. It's different, isn't it? It engaged the imagination. Sibbes knew that. He said, the way to come to the heart is often to pass through the fancy or through the imagination. Number three, good preaching is tender and tactful. Sibbes was counseling pastors constantly to handle young believers with gentleness and to not be overbearing and not to be too strong, because a tender savior shouldn't inspire ill tempered shepherds. We should be tender. You don't have to throttle people from the pulpit sometimes. Yep. But be mindful. There's bruised reeds that are sitting there. Number four Puritan Preaching Involved Practical Points of Application. This is what it looks like this week in your life. And then finally, number five, Keep Christ at the the Center. I got to tell you, oh it's killing me right now because I'd love to announce that that's something we're going to be focusing on in 2027 with a lot of pastors. Which actually reminds me if and you don't mind, we've got our no Retreat Matching Gift campaign going on right now. We've got big plans for pastoral preaching next year. Would you please consider supporting us this year at this time so that we can launch that initiative and about a thousand other things we're doing here at Fortis Institute. You can learn more about the Matching Gift campaign. It's called no Retreat. It is available all of the details@fortisinstitute.org donatesibs recognize the importance of both engaging the mind and stirring the affections with truths about Jesus. Because knowledge and affection mutually help one another. It's good to keep up our affections of love and delight by all sweet inducements and divine encouragements for what the heart likes best, the mind studies most. His preaching aimed to inspire hearts to love Christ above all. For my money, that should always be the preeminent goal of every single sermon. This is Wretched Radio.
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Fortis Institute Announcer
And it's now time for your daily Ford is news break of production of Fortis Institute. Mark Hawke is a millionaire Now. You may remember Hawke as the Catholic father of seven who was dragged from his home in a pre dawn FBI SWAT raid over a Face act charge. All because he pushed a Planned Parenthood activist who had gotten in his son's face. Merrick Garland's Justice Department prosecuted him like a dangerous criminal and a jury acquitted him anyway. Now the Department of Justice has settled with the Hawk family for more than a million. And while that family is celebrating in Louisiana, two bills are moving through the legislature that pro lifers say are specifically designed to strangle pregnancy centers, one by burying them in the healthcare licensing requirements, another by restricting what they can say to the women they serve. Louisiana Right to Life warns the language mirrors a coordinated national campaign to regulate these centers out of existence. Meanwhile, in Colorado, Democrats advanced a bill required requiring all universities, including private religious ones, to distribute abortion pills on campus. There's a religious exemption for the institutions themselves but nothing in the bill protects an individual nurse or pharmacist who objects on conscious grounds. And at Albion College in Michigan, Students for Life set up their Cemetery of the Innocence display, a field of small red flags representing the 1100 babies Planned Parenthood kills every single night. On a public road sign just off campus, a professor reportedly canceled class so students could come out and protest that display. One of those students tried to steal a handful of flags. While the head of campus security watched without intervening, another spit on their table. When campus security finally got involved, they called local police, who showed up and told the pro lifers they needed a city permit to be there. And the Trump administration made its most significant shift in federal drug policy in decades recently by rescheduling state licensed medical marijuana from Schedule 1 down to Schedule III, which covers substances with moderate to low potential for dependence. The move doesn't recognize legal marijuana, but it opens the door for more serious research and gives cannabis businesses access to standard tax deductions for the first time. Finally, finally, a brief civics lesson from New York City. The East Village, a neighborhood that voted overwhelmingly for socialist mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani, is now suing him for relocating a men's homeless shelter into their community. Residents say the neighborhood is already saturated with shelters and that the city's own officials admit that there was no emergency, justifying the rush decision. All of that may be true, but these are the same voters who who put Mamdani in office, knowing exactly who he was. That wraps up today's Fortis newsbreak. I am Jimmy Hicks. If you want more, you can download Fortis or sign up to become a Fortis Insider for exclusive daily content, both of which you can do@fortisinstitute.org and don't forget, you can subscribe to Fortis News on your favorite podcast app in order to get these updates daily. And until tomorrow, go serve your king.
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Todd Friel
Lexicon There are many words to help us understand the nature of the Bible. Words like sufficiency. The Bible tells us everything we need to know about God, salvation, doctrine, and life. We do not need any additional revelation to know who God is and what he requires of us. This is Wretched Radio with Todd Friel.
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Jimmy Hicks
The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know you got a bunch of stories you couldn't use anywhere else. So you slap them together. You put on a dated theme song from abc where we see a guy fall off of a ski jump and totally trash his ankle. Oh, I still remember that image. All so that you can share the stories that you think might be of interest to the Christian audience. And then you slap it with a label that's rather lame and you call it Wide World of Christian Stories. That was a little long. Yeah, that was. This is wretched radio. Let's go to Washington, D.C. shall we? We are celebrating. Oh. Oh, boy. Jimmy, tell everybody what we're celebrating that's marking 250 years.
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Fortis Institute Announcer
That's America 250.
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Jimmy Hicks
No, that's not the word.
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Fortis Institute Announcer
Well, that's not the official word.
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Jimmy Hicks
Yeah. What is the word? If you got a centennial for 100, you got a bicentennial, which we're all a little uncomfortable with these days. But now for. For 250, what is that called?
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Fortis Institute Announcer
Semi quincentennial.
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Jimmy Hicks
Stop it.
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Fortis Institute Announcer
Nope.
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Jimmy Hicks
Semi quincentennial.
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Fortis Institute Announcer
That's it.
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Jimmy Hicks
Yeah. America 250 is better. The marketing department knew what they were doing with that on May 17th in Washington, D.C. rededicate. 250. Rededicate. 250. So who did the first dedicating? Nevertheless, it's a national jubilee of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. Jimmy, let's see how much of a curmudgeon you are these days, shall we?
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Fortis Institute Announcer
Okay.
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Jimmy Hicks
This is done in conjunction with the semi quincentennial. Exactly. The semi quincentennial just rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it? And it's being held in Washington. Would this be too much of a mingling of church and state for your taste? Come on.
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Fortis Institute Announcer
You probably.
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Jimmy Hicks
Curmudgeon.
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Fortis Institute Announcer
Yeah, probably. Yeah.
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Jimmy Hicks
Have you ever gone to one of these clam bakes?
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Fortis Institute Announcer
Nope.
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Jimmy Hicks
Why not?
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Fortis Institute Announcer
I've just never been interested.
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Jimmy Hicks
All right, Mike, I guess my question. I see these regularly, and I wouldn't say it's not a sin. I don't think we want to go that far. But why do we seem to do events like this at political centers like State Capitol, Washington, D.C. why does it have to be done in conjunction with. I'm just thinking if we really believe in the power of prayer and that it really does require God to fall on this nation and to regenerate countless souls, if we believe we can we do that praying right where we are, can we do that praying right inside of the church? And by the way, speaking of praying. All right, this was one of those articles that I had from 9 marks. They were talking about prayer. Looking to the past for lessons about prayer. This is. This is just going to make you go glunk. This is a puritan worship service. They met twice on Sundays. In addition to weekday Meetings and home based fellowships and prayer gatherings. So that they did home church too? No, they did small groups is what they did. And we think we're so clever. It wasn't unusual for the Sunday morning meeting to last three hours or even more. The meeting would typically open with a pastoral prayer that would last around. You ready for this, Jimmy?
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Fortis Institute Announcer
Yeah.
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Jimmy Hicks
15 minutes. Wow. 15 minutes.
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Fortis Institute Announcer
15 minutes.
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Jimmy Hicks
And back then, people loved it. They really did. And it's not necessarily because they were super spiritual compared to us. It was because, for the most part, they didn't have. This was like a big deal. This was the community of believers coming together. Because the rest of the week was basically consumed with work and being a Bee Gee. You were just. Ha, ha, ha ha, staying alive. That's what you did all the time. And so when you got to come to church together, it was a really big deal. And you'd spend hours together. Oh, this is interesting. This is an idea that I like too. We can swipe this idea from the Puritans right here. This. Apparently there's evidence of something called prayer bids. Bids. No, you. You didn't have to pay people to not make that request. This would be a prayer bid. These were papers that Jonathan Edwards had saved. The congregants gave him small slips of paper during the week, and he would refer to them during his congregational prayers the next Saturday or the next Sunday, rather. So this would eliminate. Okay, do we have any prayer requests tonight? Anybody? Anybody got anything? Anybody? Anybody got anything for prayer? Jimmy, I see that you've got a prayer. What do you got there? Jimmy?
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Fortis Institute Announcer
That's actually a really good idea.
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Jimmy Hicks
What, the prayer bid?
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Fortis Institute Announcer
Yeah.
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Jimmy Hicks
Yeah. But you were supposed to play along with me.
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Fortis Institute Announcer
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
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Jimmy Hicks
Yeah. So you were supposed to play the guy who goes. Yeah, so, like. Yeah, so my boss, he's got this
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Fortis Institute Announcer
song stuck in his head.
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Jimmy Hicks
He's got.
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Fortis Institute Announcer
And he's making everyone else suffer.
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Jimmy Hicks
Pray for women who smoke Virginia Slims. Where did that prayer request come from? Exactly. And they would just eliminate all of that. Wouldn't that just. That's efficient. The Puritans, they were masters of efficiency. They were. So they used prayer bids for that. Interesting. Get them in advance because that would indicate too, they're actually important. Rather than people going, oh, somebody better offer a prayer request or the poor guy's just going to be standing there all day. Instead, we've got them in advance and we incorporate them into the prayer rededicate. 250. Coming to semi quintessential.
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Fortis Institute Announcer
You got it semi quincentennial.
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Jimmy Hicks
Department of justice, perhaps you've heard this story as long as we're in Washington. Going back now to the Biden administration. Oh, cool. Turns out the DOJ really was targeting Christians. Anybody shocked? Anybody? Anybody shocked? Do I see a hand? Do I? Nope, I don't see a hand. You're just scratching your ear. Nobody shocked that the. The Department of Justice was genuinely going after Christians? There was a lengthy report. It had 14 accusations. Key finding one, the Biden DOJ pursued aggressive prosecutions against non violent pro life Christian demonstrators under the FACE act, but responded less aggressively to actual violent attacks against pregnancy resource centers. We covered those stories. You remember those. It was intentional and now we're discovering it. They regularly clashed with a Christian worldview and burdened traditional religious practices. This is from the report. These conflicts frequently arose over, you guessed it, abortion, gender ideology, sexual orientation. The Biden administration penalized Christians who lived in accordance with their beliefs. Good thing we've got the book of one Peter to tell us how to deal with this because this is nothing new. And really, if history teaches us anything, right now we have an administration that's blocking this type of aggressive acting toward Christians. But they aren't going to be the administration forever. What will the next administration be like when. When. Ao. Aoc? Is that aoc?
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Fortis Institute Announcer
That's her, yeah.
- [37:05]
Jimmy Hicks
I wonder if she's going to be celebrating America 250. Probably she'll be with her husband, brother. The point is the, the politicians of the Biden administration, they were coming down on Christians. And we have every reason to believe if this current defense system that we have called the Trump administration does not get reelected, we better be ready for more of this. The early church saw a ramping up of prosecution. The early church into the second and third centuries, it waxed and it waned. It wasn't really constant. It wasn't until Constantinople actually, that the, the Christian religion was made a legal religion. There were seasons of serious persecution, but then another emperor and it wasn't so bad. Then another emperor. And that would be the pattern that we might be following too. Key finding number two. The Federal Bureau of Investigation under the Biden administration investigated, monitored, tracked and scrutinized traditional Catholics who had engaged in no criminal misconduct. Here's one more. No, two more. The Biden IRS investigated churches because of what their pastors preached and Christian organizations because they applied biblical teachings to daily life. The good news is there aren't many Christian organizations that do that. Actually, that's bad news. Come to think of it, the point of this is they went after them because they were opposed to their radical ideologies. The Biden administration denied Christians and faith based organizations equal access to government services, benefits and programs, regulated and suppressed religious speech. If they did not like that, they did not like and curtailed Christians ability to jointly worship and study the Bible. Speaking of politics, there's a Methodist who's running for office for Senate, actually from Kansas if I'm not mistaken. 61 year old United Methodist Church pastor, you maybe know this name. He's a mega church pastor. His name is Adam Hamilton and he's got a very, very big following. Very. It's one of the largest if not the largest Methodist church in America and he's been past, he's 61 years old, he's been pastoring there for forever and he's running as a Democrat. He says it's just strategic because he wants to lead from the center. Okay, if you really want to lead from the center, call yourself an independent, but the reality is you're a Democrat so you're running as a Democrat. How do I know? Well, this was the Methodist, one of the early advocates for the UMC to change its position on same sex marriage. Sir, just be honest. Just say you're a progressive. Just, just, just say that you're a liberal. Just be honest and then people will either vote for you or they won't. But to call you. I'm just calling myself a Democrat because it's strategic but I'm really going to be, be leading from the center. If you believe in a total undermining of traditional marriage. Sir, that ain't the center. This is wretched radio.
- [40:26]
Fortis Institute Announcer
You've tried everything. You've sent articles, you've had the conversations, you've probably argued more than you wanted to, but you have a loved one who is still neck deep in the Prosperity Gospel or the new Apostolic Reformation and nothing you seem to say gets through. It's exhausting, I know, and it's also heartbreaking. Snatch Them from the Flames was made for exactly this reason. Todd Friel and Justin Peters sit down and they tackle why your loved one is attracted to these movements in the first place. Because until you actually understand that, you're just going to be swinging in the dark. Then they walk through the things that you can actually say and do to help pull them toward Christianity. This isn't about winning an argument. It's about understanding someone you love and pointing them to something real. If you've got a family member or friend caught up in a false gospel and you don't know what else to try. Snatch Them from the Flames is for you. It's streaming for free right now on Fortis. Download the app on your smartphone, your smart TV, or simply go to fortisplus.org thanks for listening to Wretched Radio today. Finding Bible teachers you can actually trust is not as easy as it used to be. There is a lot of content out there, but not all of it is faithful. That's what Fortis Institute is building. We've brought together a team of fellows, people like Tim Challis, Dr. Jason Lyle, Dr. Andrew Walker, Dr. Greg Gifford, Pastor Brad Bigny, Todd Friel, Dr. John Kratz, Libby Glossin, Dr. Adam Tyson, and they're all committed to teaching the Word without apology. These aren't influencers. They're not chasing trends. These are serious teachers doing serious work. And the reason that we've been able to bring voices like this together in one place is because of our gospel partners, men and women just like you, who find value in what we're doing at Fortis Institute. And if you appreciate what we're doing and you want to be a part of it, would you consider joining us as an ongoing monthly gospel partner? Help us to continue building something that matters? Just go to fortisinstitute.org right now. Wretched Amazing Grace Amazing Gospel As a Christian, at some point you're going to be in a conversation about abortion. Maybe it's at work, maybe it's at Thanksgiving dinner, or maybe even with your own kids. And when that moment comes, you're either going to be ready for the conversation or you're not. Life is best get you ready. It's hosted by Scott Klusendorf, one of, if not the sharpest pro life apologists in the world. This 13 episode series walks through every major argument you'll hear and shows you you how to respond with clarity and compassion. You'll also hear from voices like Paul Washer and Dr. John MacArthur, bringing the weight of scripture to an issue the world wants to keep shallow. You won't find angry debate tactics or gotcha moments. This is thoughtful teaching that engages the mind and the heart. Because the goal isn't to win an argument, it's to change minds and point people to Christ. Life is best. All 13 episodes should streaming now on Fortis for free. Download the app on your smartphone, on your smart TV, or just simply go to fortisplus.org.
- [43:29]
Todd Friel
Hermeneutics A vital part of biblical hermeneutics is an understanding of genre. One genre we find in Scripture is an epistle. Epistles are letters written by to the church at large or to a specific church which contained doctrine, theological arguments and practical application. God uses first century correspondence to deliver his timeless truth. This is Wretched Radio with Todd Friel
- [43:58]
Jimmy Hicks
and one more reason to focus on evangelism. Actually, we have every reason to focus on evangelism. This is Wretched Radio. Isn't that what God is about? Isn't that at God's purpose in creating the planet? To bring glory to himself through the redemptive work of His Son. And we are enlisted to proclaim his excellency so that he might receive glory on the day of visitation. That is why we are here. That is what God is doing. Everything else, window dressing, everything else, it's bells and whistles. But the sole purpose of the planet is singular. That God would be praised forever for being the God who so loved the world he gave his only begotten, begotten Son. That's what we are supposed to be doing. Proclaiming His Excellencies. To this we are called. Why do we have the impression that we get to slide when our Savior was maliciously brutalized, beaten and murdered? And we think that this life is really just about enjoying fine things. That is so delusional. We are actually called to submit, to suffer and to be sanctified. That is what we are called to so that the world will see our response to their wicked deeds and wonder, huh? Who do those people believe in? Because their response is supernatural. I would like to hear about the hope that lies within you. That should be our. It's not that we, we. We suddenly give up and on everything and every responsibility that we have in life and just evangelize. But shouldn't it be on our priority list? Let's go to Colorado. I think you'll see one more reason why. Did you hear about the Colorado School District? Specifically Elizabeth School District in Elbert County? They had to exempt a student from their digital campus management platform. Now apparently this is being used in campuses across the US When a kid leaves the classroom, they get a little thing, a digital campus disk or some sort of a card so that they can track their movement. When they go to the bathroom, they go to the library. Well, this young lady is a Satanist and she asked for an exemption because she said it violated her religious beliefs. And the Elizabeth School district said, okay, we'll give it to you. They argued the bathroom access rules conflicted with her sincerely held religious beliefs as a member of the Satanic Temple. Citing a tenet of the satanic group which states, quote, one's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone. Well, if that's the case, you don't have to obey any laws. If you're a Satanist. You don't have to drive the speed limit because that's telling your body what to do. You don't have to sit at your desk in the classroom because that's telling your body what to do. Nevertheless, who needs consistency? In a letter to the district, the legal counsel argued the school's bathroom monitoring system burdened the student's religious exercise by placing authority over the bodily autonomy of this particular student. Now, we know the government took it. You're constantly told what to do with your body. Do you wear a seat belt? You're told what to do with your body. Do you use a car safety seat for your child? Do you put on a helmet when you ride a motorcycle? We're constantly told what to do with our bodies. Nevertheless, the school bowed because they were probably threatened. Dan Barker, the Freedom from Religion association probably had something to do with this. And so now the student uses physical hall passes for restroom access instead of logging departures in this tracking system. Well, I don't know how that's any different. But nevertheless, does that get your goat? No satanic pun intended. Does that bother you that they actually had to, they suffered right, wrong or indifferent? They applied religious liberty principles to the Satan student. No. You don't like that? I don't like that. How do you change that? If it is a genuinely held, horribly held religious belief, how do we argue that religious liberty doesn't apply to them? How do we argue that? How do we argue it regarding Islam with prayer time? How do we argue it against any religion if it's going to be applied equally, which is another principle of the American Constitution, the equal application of the law? How do we argue that? And that's why I come back to this is why we need to evangelize. If this little Satanist were a Christian, she wouldn't be getting this satanic exemption. That's why if we don't like the stuff that we are seeing in America and we don't like it, look, I could be wrong and maybe somebody far more clever than I, it doesn't take much could argue. Well, no, this is how Christians can argue that shouldn't be allowed. Okay, I don't see it, but I do see this. If individuals are born again, we don't have to deal with these issues. It won't be an issue or if nothing else, the peer pressure would be so great she'd never even think about doing it. Although I suspect the parents are probably behind this. If we don't like, if we don't like the underwriting of marriage, if we don't like how children are being treated and these, these, these parents that are manipulating their children. What was, Jimmy, you were telling, Were you the one that was telling me about the woman who was pregnant who put ABBA music or something?
- [50:06]
Fortis Institute Announcer
Yeah, she played abba, abba, abba. Because she wanted her, her son, who she was pregnant with, she wanted her son to turn out gay.
- [50:17]
Jimmy Hicks
And it takes ABBA music. Now the question though is which comes first? Are you gay and you like ABBA music or you like ABBA music and you become gay? That has to be sorted. Even so, if that mother got saved, and it's always a mom, if that mother got saved, that dopiness wouldn't be happening. We should take all of this angst and anger that we have about what's going on in our culture and channel it into something that can actually make a difference. It can make an impact. And incidentally, sorry to share from Sunday's sermon again, but if you want to be countercultural, if you want to be going against the grain of the world system, you can do that. That's what Peter is advising. This is what I encouraged women who, perhaps they bristle underneath the. The term submission to a husband, because that is so anti feminist. It is so countercultural. A woman in the first century who didn't submit, she would be a big problem. A woman in the 21st century who does submit, she's countercultural. Madam, when you are being submissive rightly defined, we need to understand it rightly. We're not patriarchal here at Redshirt. Rightly understood what that means and what that looks like when you do that. You know what you're doing. You're being a culture warrior. That's right. You actually are shining a light. You are making a difference because the world does watch. That's one of Peter's persistent points. The world is watching you. Your husband is watching you. Your boss is watching you. The government sees how you act, and it leads them to getting saved. So if we don't like the story out of Colorado, and I don't know any of us who does, there's something we can actually do. Share the gospel report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Jimmy, I don't know if you covered this one. Nine out of ten new jobs in the United States since 20, 20 have gone to foreign born workers. Oh, nine out of ten.
- [52:30]
Fortis Institute Announcer
Wow.
- [52:31]
Jimmy Hicks
And maybe that explains why there's so many university students coming out going, I can't get a job. I can't get a job. Oklahoma. Oh, did you see this video, dude? This was, this was one that got buried in the, in the news coverage somehow. This is about a week ago. His name is Kirk Moore. He's an Oklahoma principal. There was a dude broke into Paul's Valley Public School in Oklahoma and he had a gun and I think he popped a couple of rounds off. The principal comes running out, tackles him, takes a shot to the leg. You go, dude, well done. You know, this actually got me thinking. The assassination, the latest assassination attempt in Washington at the Hilton. Do you remember seeing the footage? What did everybody do now? They started yelling at them, I grant you that. Get down. Get down. And everybody but one got down. And I don't mean with their bad selves. They got underneath the table. One guy, he was actually an agent from Creative Artist Agency. He just sat there eating his salad. I thought it was because he was being like, dude, way to go. You're not being a coward. Well, it turns out he was like a germaphobe and he just didn't want to get on the floor and he had a bad knee and he didn't think that he'd be able to get back up, so he just sat there watching the Secret Service run around. Now, I grant you, in that particular setting, some wisdom needed to be employed. But it did get me to thinking all of the men were hiding under tables. And again, I grant you, every circumstance is different. But maybe we could use that as a catalyst to consider men. How will you react if that happens? You're the principal. School shooting happens, you're going to take a bullet. Somebody bursts into a restaurant, or better, more likely a church, are we all willing to take a bullet for the women and for the children? Look, I don't know the circumstance, I don't know everything that went down at the Hilton shooting. So I don't think we can make a blanket statement that they were all cowards. But I do think that it gives us a good reason to consider when something like that happens, will we be men who are willing to let our own lives be given for the sake of others? Because it seems to me that is what we are called to as men. And wouldn't that be modeling? Oh, who am I thinking of here? Oh, yeah. Our savior. Until tomorrow. Go serve your king.