Dr. Renton Rathbun returns to “The Corner.”

Transcribed with OpenAI Whisper (base.en). Timestamps are approximate. Lightly cleaned for readability; quotations from on-air callers may include filler words. Use the audio player above for the authoritative recording.

1. 0:00Darkness is not an affirmative force.
2. 0:03It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light.
3. 0:06This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
4. 0:10It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite.
5. 0:15Delivering people out of the bondage of mainstream media.
6. 0:18And the philosophies of this world.
7. 0:20God has called you and me to be his ambassador.
8. 0:24Even in this dark moment.
9. 0:26Let's not miss our moment.
10. 0:28And now, the Hamilton Corner.
11. 0:32Good evening, everyone.
12. 0:34Welcome to the Hamilton Corner here on American Family Radio.
13. 0:37I am your host, Abraham Hamilton III.
14. 0:40Joined by a produced extraordinaire, often imitated,
15. 0:42but never duplicated.
16. 0:44The real J. Mac, ladies and gentlemen,
17. 0:46we are ready to rock and roll with today's edition
18. 0:49of the program at this very moment.
19. 0:51Many of you, if not most of you are making your transition
20. 0:54from your part-time jobs, where you generate an income
21. 0:58to your full-time jobs or you cultivate an outcome.
22. 1:01And I want to encourage you to make that transition
23. 1:03with intentionality, understanding the primacy
24. 1:07that God places on the family.
25. 1:09One of the things I've been thinking about
26. 1:12is jurisdictional sovereignty.
27. 1:18There are things that God has established,
28. 1:22for example, civil government to do, really,
29. 1:25the Lord established three primary sources of government
30. 1:28You have civil government.
31. 1:32You have church or ecclesiastical government, but you also have family government.
32. 1:37The first of those governmental structures, the first human institution that got
33. 1:42established was the family with marriage at the center.
34. 1:46And in particular, you'll find you search the scripture, especially as it
35. 1:51pertains to discipling children.
36. 1:56And when I say discipling, I don't want anyone to misconstrue what I'm saying.
37. 1:59When I say disciplining children, I'm talking about the whole training of the mind and the morals,
38. 2:06not merely what is commonly described as spiritual formation, because frankly, spiritual formation
39. 2:13includes natural phenomena.
40. 2:16It is because a person is spiritually formed that they will endeavor to be excellent in
41. 2:22the work that they pursue, whether that be physical labor, whether that be intellectual
42. 2:27labor, whatever it is, it is a byproduct of that spiritual formation.
43. 2:33So I frankly reject this notion of this severance of what's commonly described
44. 2:39as spiritual versus what's commonly described as natural.
45. 2:42All right.
46. 2:44I'm saying all of this because if we were to be frank about the affairs in our nation,
47. 2:51we would have to acknowledge that we have arrived where we are in our country as
48. 2:56result of us discipling our way into our current state of affairs.
49. 3:03Because discipleship is a constant.
50. 3:05It's going to transpire.
51. 3:07The only question or variable is the quality of that discipleship and in which
52. 3:12direction and which trajectory.
53. 3:16And so as you are making your way to your full time jobs, and I know this is a lot.
54. 3:22I know it.
55. 3:22I know it.
56. 3:23But it's necessary, man.
57. 3:25It's necessary.
58. 3:26The scripture is clear in Ephesians 4, particularly in verses 11 and 12, and saying that the church,
59. 3:32the ecclesiastical organization, if you will, the ecclesiastical government, the leadership of the church,
60. 3:38is responsible for equipping the saints to do the work of the ministry.
61. 3:43Ministerial work by and large is supposed to be conducted by everyday Christians.
62. 3:50You know, we shouldn't accept this paradigm to where we pay the experts to do what we're
63. 3:58supposed to be doing.
64. 4:03Every member is called.
65. 4:05Every member of the body is called in the ministry.
66. 4:10Family is central to God's design for His Kingdom and in and His Kingdom Building Initiative.
67. 4:18If you look at what has transpired around us, the metastasizing of the Leviathan state,
68. 4:27It has corresponded with retrenchments that have occurred in our families.
69. 4:32And if God could get a hold of us in our homes, there is no question.
70. 4:37It's no question.
71. 4:39So what could happen with our country?
72. 4:44If there's going to be a revival in our nation, a revival has to take place at home.
73. 4:52It has to take place at home.
74. 4:53To the Word of God we go.
75. 4:55Matthew chapter 22.
76. 4:58Matthew chapter 22.
77. 5:00This is a vital portion of scripture that has to be navigated, understood, embraced, recognized
78. 5:12to be the instruction of Yeshua, the Messiah Himself.
79. 5:19Matthew chapter 22 verses 34 through 40, and this is what the Word of God says, but when
80. 5:26the Pharisees heard that He, referring to Jesus, had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered
81. 5:32together. And one of them, a lawyer asked him a question to
82. 5:37test him. Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?
83. 5:46And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all
84. 5:50your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is
85. 5:56the great and first commandment. And the second is like it.
86. 6:03The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as
87. 6:08yourself on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.
88. 6:17On these two commandments depend all the law of the prophets.
89. 6:21It should be instructive to us that when answering these questions, Jesus cited Deuteronomy chapter 6, the Shma, Shma Israel Elohim Elohinu.
90. 6:43It lays out the prescription for disciple making in that passage.
91. 6:58The most enduring component, the most enduring feature, the most significant aspect of disciple
92. 7:04making and the influence development is time.
93. 7:11It's time.
94. 7:16Here when addressing the great commandment, Jesus begins with you, shall love the Lord with
95. 7:24all your heart.
96. 7:25the citation to Deuteronomy chapter six verse five in particular.
97. 7:29You shall love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
98. 7:35You shall love the Lord with all that you are.
99. 7:38When you compare this text with Deuteronomy six five, you'll find that the word mind
100. 7:45does not appear in Deuteronomy six verse five because the Hebrew word that is employed
101. 7:51that is translated into English as heart includes the notions that would be conveyed as both the mind and the heart in English.
102. 7:59All right.
103. 8:00And frankly, in Greek as well.
104. 8:03So it is an accurate translation.
105. 8:08It is noteworthy and it should be noteworthy for us that Jesus says that we are to love the Lord with our minds.
106. 8:17With our minds.
107. 8:19Christ's following was never ordained to be a mindless pursuit.
108. 8:25The cultivation of the mind is central to disciple making.
109. 8:32The touchstone of repentance is a transformation
110. 8:37that culminates in the mind.
111. 8:39The word repentance is translated from the Greek word meta noia.
112. 8:43That's a compound word in Greek meta,
113. 8:45meaning with noia knowledge, with the mind.
114. 8:50All right.
115. 8:51The conduct that is transformed in the life
116. 8:54of a repentant person is the evidence of repentance,
117. 8:58the evidence of metanoia.
118. 9:01But it begins internally,
119. 9:03and the external reality is a manifestation
120. 9:05of what transpires internally.
121. 9:10As I was saying a few moments ago,
122. 9:12if we were to query what is transpired in our nation,
123. 9:19we would have to recognize that we are reaping the harvest
124. 9:25harvest that has been sown in our nation because we've seated the territory, the discipline,
125. 9:34the process and procedure of mind cultivation, mind cultivation, by and large, we have seated
126. 9:41that ground to people who are hostile to the Lord. When you break it all down, when you
127. 9:50boil it down to its lowest common denominator, so to speak, we have seated the ground of mind
128. 9:57cultivation to those who hate God. We've offered many justifications for it. In many instances,
129. 10:08it's because that has been the prevailing system for so long. Many of us have not done what Romans
130. 10:1512 requires, refusing to be conformed, conformed to the world. Dare I say, conform to the prevailing
131. 10:22systems in the world, but be transformed by the renewing of what? Oh, that's right. The renewing
132. 10:30of our minds. Many of us have simply ascribed to the prevailing systems and allowed the world's
133. 10:39systems to shape for us our parameters, our expectations, our aspirations even. You talk to most people,
134. 10:49including many professing Christians, how would they define a successful life? You'd be hard pressed
135. 10:56define many of them who would immediately define success as a life spent in obedience to God's
136. 11:05word. As I'm even saying that some of you are being challenged well success is financial
137. 11:14stability owning a home having a family being able to retire well none of those things are bad
138. 11:21none of those things are bad you know by God's grace I'll be in a position to be able to provide
139. 11:29for my children's children, both spiritually and materially,
140. 11:33because we've been able to manage finance as well.
141. 11:37That's not a bad goal.
142. 11:39But you've heard me say before, when good rivals,
143. 11:43God, one, oh, it's got to go.
144. 11:47And when I'm talking about mind cultivation,
145. 11:50please don't limit it to academics.
146. 11:54Certainly academics is a huge part of it.
147. 11:57One of the major mechanisms for depriving,
148. 12:05succeeding generations of believers
149. 12:07from appropriate loving the Lord with our minds
150. 12:10has come through academia, make no mistake about it.
151. 12:13And many of us have ingested
152. 12:17doctrines of demons because it's come to us through academia.
153. 12:23I'm just gonna give you an example,
154. 12:24since I'm here I might as well.
155. 12:26Sister Stel was on the chat the other day
156. 12:28she said, brother, hey, you're still walking heavy.
157. 12:29Well, you know, these boots were made.
158. 12:35How many of us would voluntarily sign up to enroll our children in Islamic jihadist madrasas?
159. 12:45That's what they are. They teach Islamism and yep, so I'm going to put our children in them.
160. 12:51How many of us would put our children in and in Buddhist indoctrination system?
161. 12:58Some of you see where I'm going already. Not many of us.
162. 13:02but we have prevailing institutions of what we call schools,
163. 13:10well places of education, even higher education,
164. 13:12they have set themselves as being godless bastions
165. 13:17of mind cultivation.
166. 13:19They have established themselves by saying,
167. 13:23there is no room for God in the discourse when you're here.
168. 13:27And many believers go, yep, sign me up,
169. 13:30put my children in it.
170. 13:33And we wonder, man, how did a man
171. 13:37America becomes such a godless place.
172. 13:39How do we get the place, get to the place,
173. 13:43to slaughtering children in the womb
174. 13:44from a premeditated intentional,
175. 13:47in a premeditated intentional manner,
176. 13:49how do we get to the place for this, but accept it?
177. 13:51How do we get to the place?
178. 13:55The book of Roberts tell us one foot at a time,
179. 13:57sin grows as a man travels one foot at a time.
180. 14:02Much of that traveling has taken place
181. 14:05because we have not committed ourselves
182. 14:07to loving the Lord with our minds.
183. 14:10So we've allowed all manner of ideology
184. 14:13to have access to our minds and our hearts.
185. 14:17And it has reset the parameters
186. 14:19of our life engagement, expectation and aspiration.
187. 14:24And in many instances, we've relegated Christ following
188. 14:27to the margins of our lives.
189. 14:32It's like you get a dish, the food is on the plate,
190. 14:36then you have this little green things around the edges,
191. 14:38that's the garnish.
192. 14:38relegated Christ following to the garnish of our lives.
193. 14:42It's no wonder then that we are reaping what we're reaping.
194. 14:48But thanks be to God,
195. 14:49and they don't have to continue to be that way.
196. 14:52If you're still breathing, we can change course.
197. 14:55We can and we must repent.
198. 15:02Those who place their faith in Jesus
199. 15:04are elevated to an extraordinary position.
200. 15:06As co-heirs with Christ, we share in His inheritance.
201. 15:10The gospel is the ultimate dignity giver,
202. 15:12Elevating the unworthy to unimaginable heights our lives should reflect the dignity
203. 15:18Empowering us to extend the same grace and love to others has been so generously given to us
204. 15:23I'm Jordan Shambly and you can read the rest of the gospel signifies the undignified on the stand.net
205. 15:36Shining light into the darkness. This is the Hamilton Corner an American family radio
206. 15:41Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner Abraham Hamilton III here
207. 15:44I'm delighted to have on the program with me a returning guest
208. 15:48a brother who I am I have grown and I'm growing to just love and appreciate ever the more as
209. 15:55Much as I learn more about him get to hear him minister
210. 15:59It is so striking to me one of the things I so appreciated about him is he is clearly extremely intelligent
211. 16:06And he's self-deprecating at the same time, you know
212. 16:09So he's not one of these people who is haughty-tawty about his brilliance
213. 16:12but God has made him a brilliant man and I'm speaking of none other than Dr. Rinton Rathbun.
214. 16:18He is the director of the Center for Biblical World View at Bob Jones University. He and his wife
215. 16:24have homeschooled their son Daniel and are now homeschooling. They're two younger children,
216. 16:28Jude and Olivia. Dr. Rathbun has spoken for conventions, podcasts, homeschool meetings all over the
217. 16:35country and he holds a variety of degrees from bachelor's in English, from a bachelor's degree
218. 16:41English to a master's degrees in speech, philosophy and theology, and a PhD in
219. 16:45apologetics. Dr. Rathbun, thank you for joining me here again on the Hamilton
220. 16:49Corner. Well, thank you for having me. You're very kind. Oh, no, it's it's I wouldn't say
221. 16:55this if it weren't true. And it is true. And I really view you as one of the people
222. 17:01that God has provided by His grace for this time that we're in to in the face of
223. 17:07of all of the mounting and metastasizing wickedness
224. 17:11to put the light on the lamp stand.
225. 17:15And so I'm grateful for your work, your life,
226. 17:17and your ministry.
227. 17:18Which brings me to this light conversation topic.
228. 17:25Very light.
229. 17:27What needs to be done to prepare our children
230. 17:31to be launched into this world without apostasizing?
231. 17:35Light topic.
232. 17:36Easy peasy.
233. 17:39Well, you know, it's interesting how important this topic is as new polls are coming out,
234. 17:47finding that more young people as they leave home are beginning to be what they call nuns,
235. 17:56not the kind with a habit on, but the kind that just don't believe in anything.
236. 18:01They don't have a religion at all.
237. 18:03And now there's more kids like that that are just saying, I don't believe in anything than
238. 18:07kids that assign themselves, even if it's loosely assigned, they assign themselves to
239. 18:12a religion.
240. 18:13And so there's a lot to fear right now.
241. 18:17Yeah.
242. 18:18And it is an appropriate concern because I say often for myself that the gold that my
243. 18:26wife Marie and I are striving toward is a third John too.
244. 18:29We have no greater joy than to know that our children are walking in the truth.
245. 18:35And so any loving parent who is a Christian would be concerned about that because the world
246. 18:41forces have been very potent in really carrying off, as you know, Paul describes it as captives,
247. 18:48those who might have been church friendly or church familiar.
248. 18:53many of them have taken positions that are contrary to what they were reared near, I would say,
249. 19:01and the expectation and the desire for many parents.
250. 19:05So what should we do in the time and the place that we're in now here in 21st century to prevent
251. 19:11that from occurring within our families?
252. 19:14I think it's going to be three main areas that we need to think about.
253. 19:20The first area, of course, is my parenting.
254. 19:23How do I parent?
255. 19:25The second area is gonna be,
256. 19:27how do I educate my children?
257. 19:29And then the third area is what is happening at my church.
258. 19:35I think those three things are the three biggest things.
259. 19:38I know that now we're at, I think, 60 some percent
260. 19:45of kids that have gone to church their whole life
261. 19:47stop attending church when they leave home.
262. 19:52And so, obviously there are parenting skills
263. 19:56that you can get into, and there's a lot of people
264. 19:59that have advice on that.
265. 20:03But I wanna concentrate on how we educate our kids
266. 20:08and what's going on at church.
267. 20:12First of all, I think when we educate our kids,
268. 20:15we do the work for them a lot of times.
269. 20:18And this happens a lot in homeschooling,
270. 20:21but happens in Christian schools as well,
271. 20:23where we are doing all the work.
272. 20:26In other words, what we do is we do the critical thinking work
273. 20:29as it goes as it is towards scripture
274. 20:32or biblical worldview in the different categories
275. 20:35that we teach our children.
276. 20:37And then we present it to them
277. 20:40and they regurgitate it on a piece of paper,
278. 20:43whether it be through some kind of assessment
279. 20:45that we have chosen, but we haven't done the work
280. 20:48to help them actually go through the critical thinking process
281. 20:53of how it is that we depend on God's word
282. 20:58in order to have a place to even do math,
283. 21:01a place to even understand history and social studies
284. 21:07and all those different things, we need a place to stand.
285. 21:11have we taught our kids the work it takes
286. 21:15to trace back how it is that these things depend
287. 21:19on God's work.
288. 21:21And I just don't see that happening very much.
289. 21:23We do it and make them regurgitate it,
290. 21:26but how are we getting them to do that kind of work?
291. 21:31Can you give us an example of how we may
292. 21:38do the work in Superimpose, our work onto kind of like
293. 21:41copy and paste type of phenomenon as opposed to enabling our children to work through structurally
294. 21:52what's necessary to show how dependence upon the Lord's word enables us to navigate disciplines
295. 21:58like maths and science.
296. 22:01So let's think about history. World War II, you might be doing a lesson on World War II.
297. 22:09And you want to show your kids how God's providence is still there even in the midst of tragedy
298. 22:18and even in the midst of humans being evil.
299. 22:22You want to show that God still is in control.
300. 22:25And so what do we do as parents?
301. 22:27Well, we might find a curriculum that traces that back and finds all the Bible verses for
302. 22:32us.
303. 22:33And then what we do is we look at those Bible verses, talk about God's providence that he
304. 22:38even in calamity God is in confuse the God of calamity as well.
305. 22:43And so we kind of look at that,
306. 22:44we kind of use the curriculum to kind of help us
307. 22:47kind of figure out how that works.
308. 22:49We kind of put it on our lesson plan
309. 22:52and then we describe it to our kids.
310. 22:54This is how it works.
311. 22:56And then we have them almost in a multiple,
312. 22:59we could do multiple choice or we could do multiple answer,
313. 23:03fill in the blank to go back to see how we did that.
314. 23:08so they could see how we developed this idea of providence
315. 23:12during World War II.
316. 23:14And they understand what we said,
317. 23:16but we haven't done the work of saying to our children,
318. 23:20first of all, is God in control even in the bad things?
319. 23:24And we expect them to say yes, but if they don't know,
320. 23:27we say, well, let's find out in God's word.
321. 23:29What does this say in scripture?
322. 23:31What do you think about that?
323. 23:32How do you, and we give them, we have to give them tools
324. 23:36you can't just expect them to know things.
325. 23:38But have we given them the tools to exegete out of scripture,
326. 23:43those principles that they're supposed to understand
327. 23:46so that World War II makes sense to them?
328. 23:50Because I think one of the most dangerous terms
329. 23:53we might use is biblical integration.
330. 23:58And that becomes a dangerous term
331. 24:00because what it kind of signals to kids
332. 24:03is that we have to take the Bible and try and stuff it in the gaps of our teaching.
333. 24:09And so we need to integrate the Bible.
334. 24:12And what we really need is subject integration.
335. 24:15How does the subjects that we teach integrate itself into the reality of God's Word?
336. 24:20Mmm.
337. 24:21That's how we need to start thinking.
338. 24:24And then how do we help students step by step show us their work,
339. 24:30where we're guiding them through that work.
340. 24:32And it's going to take longer than usual, because when you do the work for them,
341. 24:38you can get through that material pretty fast because they can regurgitate what you did.
342. 24:44But it's going to take a lot more work and a lot more time to painstakingly get them to see some
343. 24:50of these principles in Scripture and see how they would apply it. And as they get older,
344. 24:56I think it's going to lead to the fact that we need to get them writing. They have to start writing
345. 25:02and that's a lot of work because you have to read all their writing and you have to grade it.
346. 25:06But if they're writing, you can see how they're thinking.
347. 25:09If you can see how they're thinking, you can really see how it is that they're putting these principles into practice.
348. 25:16That is so good.
349. 25:18Several things you said, you didn't hear the first segment, but I was talking about Matthew 22,
350. 25:24verses 34 through 40 and how when asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus begins by
351. 25:28to the R&B 65 and one of the major takeaways
352. 25:32from the necessity of training the mind and the morals,
353. 25:37also known as discipleship.
354. 25:39That's the most fundamental ingredient is time.
355. 25:41You know, this is why on the show I always say,
356. 25:44because my show comes on during drive time,
357. 25:46I always say that you're leaving your part time jobs
358. 25:49if you're employed outside the home,
359. 25:51heading to your full time jobs.
360. 25:53The most necessary ingredient of effective disciple making
361. 25:57is time.
362. 25:58It takes time.
363. 25:59We cannot have a microwave mentality when it comes
364. 26:04to engaging in this discipline.
365. 26:06And in addition to that, what you presented really
366. 26:09is a recalibration of the mindset to where
367. 26:11we're not trying to integrate the Bible
368. 26:15into the gaps of various, you know,
369. 26:17academic, subject matter, academic discipline,
370. 26:20but we're looking to see how these various disciplines
371. 26:22fit within the overarching truth conveyed to us
372. 26:26through God's Word.
373. 26:28That is a radical and necessary recalibration.
374. 26:34And that's exactly right.
375. 26:36I mean, we concentrate a lot on biblical worldview
376. 26:40and that is wonderful.
377. 26:43But the question is, have we led our children
378. 26:47to pathways to help them believe what God's word says?
379. 26:52Because we might even do a really good biblical worldview
380. 26:56where we're showing the Bible is the truth itself.
381. 26:59And so all subjects are made possible
382. 27:03because of the narrative that goes through God's Word.
383. 27:07And if we do a good job at that, that's wonderful.
384. 27:10But then we have to think about,
385. 27:12have we even convinced them that God's Word is truth?
386. 27:18I was at a conference just a little while ago
387. 27:20and I don't know what possessed this man to say this to me.
388. 27:24But when I got done speaking he came to me and said I liked what you said, but
389. 27:30But you know the Bible isn't truth itself
390. 27:34Whoa, I thought I wonder what he meant by that
391. 27:38Because you know it was one of those it was one of those fly-by comments, so there was you know and you know what that's like
392. 27:44Yes, I do it was a run by fruiting
393. 27:47Yeah, that's right.
394. 27:50And one of those moments where they said something so shocking, I almost don't know how to respond to it.
395. 27:55But when you follow God's word, Jesus says in John 1717 that he's praying to the Father and he says,
396. 28:08your word is truth.
397. 28:11Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. Well, how do we get the father's word?
398. 28:16Well, and for in first Corinthians
399. 28:18the speed it says the spirit goes into the mind of God and then and then reveals it to us through God's you know through scripture and
400. 28:28It even speaks in 2 Timothy 3 16 that God God's speech. Yes is this right here
401. 28:35This is his speech to us. Yes
402. 28:37So, you know, we can't play this game where it's like,
403. 28:41well, God is truth, but where, you know,
404. 28:43the Bible is something else.
405. 28:45If the Bible is God's speech, where the Spirit goes up
406. 28:48into the mind of God himself and brings it to us
407. 28:51because we have the mind of Christ, then this is the truth.
408. 28:55Yes. So anyway.
409. 28:58Yeah, no.
410. 28:59That point is inexhaustibly indispensable
411. 29:05indispensable. Because what the gentleman, maybe I don't know if he intended to do this or not,
412. 29:14but he did it, whether it was intentional or not, what he conveyed very simply to you
413. 29:19is that he did not either believe or had not understood that the oleusitos, that God breathed
414. 29:30that speech is truth.
415. 29:34Yes, that's right.
416. 29:37And if we don't believe that,
417. 29:42if I can put it this way, heaven help our children.
418. 29:46And so how do we get kids to start thinking
419. 29:50in terms of my dependence is on the speech of God?
420. 29:56I need this to know what's real out there.
421. 29:59because we live at a time where, like I've always said,
422. 30:03we're in a reality war and our children need to know
423. 30:07that this isn't just a useful tool.
424. 30:10This is the speech of God so that we can know truth.
425. 30:14Amen.
426. 30:15And so we need to revisit Bible class.
427. 30:19We need to say we cannot just wing this.
428. 30:22We cannot just figure out things that would be nice.
429. 30:26we need a systematic approach to Bible class,
430. 30:31whether you're homeschooling or Christian schooling,
431. 30:33whatever it is, if you don't have a systematic way
432. 30:38of presenting God's word to our children,
433. 30:41we are going to lose them.
434. 30:44It is, I'm sorry, you go ahead, go ahead.
435. 30:47And it's already happening.
436. 30:49I mean, it is happening.
437. 30:51And so we can't just sit back and say,
438. 30:54I don't know why this is and then treat Bible class like it's this extra thing we do for
439. 31:02a pat on the back from God, but it doesn't matter what we do, we can do whatever we want.
440. 31:06It's up to us.
441. 31:08It's not up to us.
442. 31:09We have to be intentional, clear, and help them understand, you know, we need to help
443. 31:14them understand how God, what God's word says, but we also need to know what is the overarching
444. 31:20narrative that helps us see the world.
445. 31:23then what are the principles that are there
446. 31:25that we need to believe that are the non-negotiables?
447. 31:28That if you don't believe this, you're not one of us.
448. 31:31Those kinds of things have to be stacked in their brain,
449. 31:36but also loved in their heart.
450. 31:41David said, I love your law.
451. 31:44And we get to, today in today's churches,
452. 31:48and this is where we can get to the churches part,
453. 31:51In today's churches, people have come to despise the law
454. 31:55and say, oh, we live by grace, not the law.
455. 31:58Well, no, grace allows us to obey the law.
456. 32:02And the law is beautiful because the law reflects
457. 32:06the very character of God.
458. 32:08That's why David loved the law.
459. 32:10Not because he was living in the Old Testament
460. 32:12because he loved God and the law reflected who God was.
461. 32:17And so we need to love the law too.
462. 32:20And so how do we love the law?
463. 32:24Well, we look at what parts of the law
464. 32:26have are still for us.
465. 32:31The following is from an article by Dr. Jessica Peck,
466. 32:34host of the Dr. Nurse Momma Show.
467. 32:37Some children feel fear in places they should feel safe
468. 32:40every day.
469. 32:41So let's be challenged to speak words
470. 32:43of life and encouragement.
471. 32:45The next time a student shares a discouragement
472. 32:48or difficulty with you, try listening first
473. 32:51and then engaging them in compassionate
474. 32:54and encouraging conversation.
475. 32:56Read the full article, School Mom Hope on thestand.net.
476. 33:05The Hamilton Quarter Podcast
477. 33:07and One-Bitted Common Terrets are available at AFR.net.
478. 33:11Back to the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio.
479. 33:16Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton.
480. 33:18The third here, my guest is Dr. Renton Rathbin,
481. 33:21Director of the Center for Biblical World View
482. 33:24at Bob Jones University.
483. 33:25Before we went to the break, Dr. Rathbun,
484. 33:27you were kind of punctuating your discourse
485. 33:33about what's happening in education
486. 33:34and how it must be employed in a manner
487. 33:38to set up a foundation and a context for our children
488. 33:42to remain faithful to the Lord even after they leave our homes.
489. 33:46And you made the statement about David's love for the law
490. 33:51not being because it was conveyed to us in an Old Testament context, but David loved the law of the
491. 34:01Lord because he loved the Lord. And you were preparing to turn to what is happening in our churches and how that
492. 34:12impacts the stick toattiveness, if you will, of our children and their fidelity to the King of glory.
493. 34:20Yes. Yes, and that is, you know, in today's show we are talking about, you know, how, you know, the three issues, how we parent, how we educate, and how we church, I guess is the three things.
494. 34:35And our issue is when we educate,
495. 34:41are we getting to the heart?
496. 34:43What's very interesting is with the kind of intentionality
497. 34:48we have with something like a science class
498. 34:51or a math class, kids rarely come to anyone saying,
499. 34:55I'm just having these doubts about math,
500. 34:58I'm having these doubts about science.
501. 35:01They tend to believe those immediately.
502. 35:03Well, why?
503. 35:04Well, some of it's because it's physical,
504. 35:05but some of it is because we take it seriously.
505. 35:09If they sense that we're not taking Bible class seriously,
506. 35:15then they won't take it seriously.
507. 35:17If they just think you can just look at the Bible
508. 35:19and just, you know, whatever is there is there,
509. 35:22we're just trying to get through that part.
510. 35:25We can really run to some trouble.
511. 35:27And especially if the kids aren't seeing us
512. 35:31love the Lord in our Bible class.
513. 35:34I mean, it's one thing for us to see David love the law because as you said, he loves the law giver.
514. 35:41Does he do our children see us loving the Lord? And in our love, we pour out God's word to these kids in a systematic,
515. 35:53clear and regimented way that builds in complexity like we would with other subjects, because we want it in them.
516. 36:04And so if we're doing that at home, excuse me, if we're doing that at home, then the next step is what's happening at church.
517. 36:17This is something I've been reading just in my personal devotions, 2 Timothy 3.
518. 36:26But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come, for men will be lovers of
519. 36:35self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful,
520. 36:44unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, ungrateful,
521. 36:56haters of good, treacherous, reckless,
522. 36:59conceded, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
523. 37:05And this is what it says in verse five,
524. 37:07holding to a form of godliness,
525. 37:10although they have denied its power.
526. 37:13Avoid such men as these.
527. 37:17When you are thinking about what church you attend,
528. 37:22there are several things you need to think about
529. 37:25in what's going on.
530. 37:26Right now, there is more pressure than ever for pastors to accept just a little bit of sin to create a welcoming environment.
531. 37:38There is advice going out there to pastors saying you need bathrooms that are unisex bathrooms, so if a trans person comes, they feel at home and welcome there.
532. 37:53There are pastors that have been given advice that same sex attraction stops saying that's
533. 38:01a sin.
534. 38:02That's just a cross people bear.
535. 38:05And even though God says there are certain desires that are forbidden, these pastors are
536. 38:12coming out saying no.
537. 38:14Even though it's a forbidden desire, you can't help it.
538. 38:17And if you can't help it, then it's not a sin.
539. 38:21And so there's this hard and fast pressure on these pastors, especially at a time where
540. 38:30people are walking away from the church to get more people to come in.
541. 38:34And so you look for men that are desirous to be welcoming to sin.
542. 38:43I'm not talking about people.
543. 38:44I mean, it's okay to be welcoming to people, but not welcoming to sin.
544. 38:49And are their children's programs designed to entertain and put the children out of the
545. 38:56way entertained so we can keep them over there while the adults have their program?
546. 39:04I'm not saying it's wrong for kids to have a different program.
547. 39:06What I'm saying is the whole point of the children's program at your church to entertain
548. 39:12those kids, to keep their mouths shut so that adults can do something else.
549. 39:17Or is the purpose to train those kids in the manner that you are training them at home?
550. 39:24You have to ask those kind of questions.
551. 39:29Very well said.
552. 39:31Very very well said.
553. 39:32And it's that's in Paul's, he put it to Timothy, you read from 2 Timothy chapter 3 in his, and
554. 39:43Paul said to Timothy, you are familiar with my aim in life, my teachings and my conduct.
555. 39:52And I often describe that as the speech and feet phenomenon to where Paul was conveying
556. 39:58to Timothy and writing, especially in Second Timothy, he's awaiting an imminent albeit uncertain
557. 40:03execution, you know, which is why he's telling Timothy, hey, remember Timothy, God has not
558. 40:10given you a spirit of fear.
559. 40:12Don't take my condition of incarceration facing execution as a basis for you now to say, you
560. 40:16know what, about that eldership and emphasis.
561. 40:22thinking again about some things. I want to go that way.
562. 40:26You know, but he says to Timothy, you're familiar with my conduct, my teaching, and my
563. 40:34aim in life. You've seen how serious this has been to me. You know that I'm not just
564. 40:41selling what I haven't purchased. And it seems what you're saying to me, which is
565. 40:46saying to us rather. I feel like it's just a conversation between you and me. But it's
566. 40:49that we need to make sure that our ecclesiastical investment
567. 40:56reflects our personal commitment and love of the law giver
568. 41:02and that our ecclesiastical investment
569. 41:06affirms for our children our love for the law giver.
570. 41:11So they recognize that we are not just attempting
571. 41:15to sell them on something, rather we're inviting them
572. 41:19to join us. What is not only worth living for, but what is worth dying for?
573. 41:26Yeah. That's what I'm getting from you. Yes.
574. 41:30We are raising a generation that wouldn't even look foolish for God's sake.
575. 41:36How do we expect them to die for God's sake? And so when we,
576. 41:41when you're looking at your church, I would say there's two things you want to make sure
577. 41:46that's happening. Number one has, this is what the world wants for your child. The world wants your
578. 41:53child to identify in some kind of victimhood so that they can be, um, find their identity.
579. 42:03And right now, a lot of churches are starting to turn to sin being a, a form of victimhood towards
580. 42:12us that we are a victim of sin and that we need to be saved from our, from, from what
581. 42:19sin is doing to us and oppressing us.
582. 42:23And that's not how God's word speaks.
583. 42:25You are not being saved from the oppression of sin.
584. 42:28You're being saved from the wrath of the Father that you deserve because sin is not something
585. 42:35that is on you.
586. 42:36It is you until you are dead in Christ and raised with Him.
587. 42:42And therefore sin does not have to be a master over you anymore.
588. 42:46And so when your pastor speaks on sin, you're always thinking, we need to make sure that
589. 42:54there isn't this compromise of, because that's what everyone wants to hear.
590. 42:58Oh, sin isn't, you know, sin is doing something to you.
591. 43:02And Jesus just wants to pull you out of your oppression.
592. 43:06It's not what's happening.
593. 43:08And so that's number one.
594. 43:10And if you see that, I'm not trying to get everyone raising their cockles against their
595. 43:18pastor, but I just want them to be aware that this is an issue that's going all through America
596. 43:25right now because people are desperate to get people through the door.
597. 43:31And then I guess the second thing I would say is how are they training the children?
598. 43:40You know what's sad about the United Methodist Church is how they have gone so left.
599. 43:47But what's interesting about the United Methodist Church is that they went out and they evangelized
600. 43:55men in Africa and they started their churches there.
601. 44:01And the people that have stood up against basically the white United Methodist Church
602. 44:07in America are the black men of Africa saying no to the wokeness of the United Methodist
603. 44:15Church.
604. 44:16That's where the split came because men stood up and said no.
605. 44:21And this has to be where we stand because we have, and I'll admit to this, in the old
606. 44:28days we may have gone too far and just taught taught taught taught taught doctor and doctor
607. 44:33and doctor and no heart and but we've we've over corrected we want all heart and no knowledge
608. 44:41and and that's where it has led us here but thank goodness in the United Methodist Church
609. 44:47you had you had brave black men from Africa saying no knowledge is still important it still
610. 44:53matters.
611. 44:54It reminds me, and again, you didn't hear this,
612. 44:57but we started out with Matthew 22,
613. 45:00when Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment,
614. 45:03and he said, love the Lord with all that you are,
615. 45:06with all your heart, your soul, your mind.
616. 45:10You know, that the faith that we have is robust
617. 45:16at the heart level and equally robust intellectually,
618. 45:20and we cannot afford to see ground on any front.
619. 45:25that they all must be fully invested
620. 45:31in the unabashed, unashamed, fully dedicated love of the Lord.
621. 45:38Boy.
622. 45:43And that's where we are.
623. 45:45I mean, what I fear is that we don't have a sense
624. 45:49of desperation to us.
625. 45:53I mean, we, you know, Ephesians six
626. 45:55does not seem to motivate us that we are at war.
627. 45:59And when you're at war, man, things change.
628. 46:03You know, it's one thing to practice war,
629. 46:07like at basic training and stuff like that.
630. 46:10But when war actually breaks out, boy,
631. 46:14you know where is the level that finds someone
632. 46:19to me as a brother?
633. 46:21And what is the level that makes someone an enemy to God?
634. 46:24I need to know those things,
635. 46:26because it is so serious that they are coming not just after me.
636. 46:31You know, the darkness that Ephesians 6 talks about,
637. 46:37the principalities and powers that Ephesians 6 is talking about,
638. 46:42is talking about this well-organized group of beings who are thinking beings,
639. 46:49who turn their back on God, and now all they want to do is destroy us.
640. 46:56And let me add and your children.
641. 46:59And let me add this, they're more interested
642. 47:01in their children than they are in our children
643. 47:03than they are in us because they know
644. 47:05that's the next generation.
645. 47:06And they can just get their hands on our children.
646. 47:10And so how are we desperate to fight?
647. 47:13Are we desperate to fight?
648. 47:16Or do we just see this as this practice?
649. 47:20I don't know that we have a sense of urgency
650. 47:23in us that we should.
651. 47:25Mm. Oh, man.
652. 47:29We'll have a couple minutes left.
653. 47:33Yeah, I was having a conversation this week, this week,
654. 47:37with, um, we're running out of time.
655. 47:41I'll just say this.
656. 47:44I think one of the great underestimations that has transpired in our context,
657. 47:48many of us look at the first century appropriately and globally at the pinnacle of the church.
658. 47:54church and we look at the church globally Nigeria Sudan China Iran, but I think we fail to recognize the pernicious insidious
659. 48:03Assault upon the people of God in America that hasn't come into form yet of overt physical persecution
660. 48:09But it that is intrinsic to
661. 48:12Abundance and luxury
662. 48:15And if Satan can get you to reject the Lord by overt physical hostility or if he can seduce you into rejecting the Lord
663. 48:22with luxury and abundance, he'll take it either way.
664. 48:25Because he doesn't care about your stuff.
665. 48:26He cares most about your fidelity to the king.
666. 48:30And I think that is what you're pointing out
667. 48:32when you say we have underestimated wartime.
668. 48:39The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast
669. 48:42may not necessarily reflect those
670. 48:44of the American Family Association
671. 48:46or American Family Radio.