AFA Vice President Ed Vitagliano steps into “The Corner” to discuss the Activate Summit 2025.

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. 0:07This is the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio.
4. 0:11It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite.
5. 0:15Delivery 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. 0:33Good evening, everyone.
12. 0:35Welcome to the Hamilton Corner.
13. 0:37I'm your host, Abraham Hamilton, the third,
14. 0:40joined by the corner contingent right across from me,
15. 0:43my man, 100 grand.
16. 0:45Mr. Bobby R as and then the screening room
17. 0:50produced extraordinaire, often imitated never
18. 0:55ever duplicated even if you include some Chinese
19. 0:58widgets and you sold them to Lulu limit you
20. 1:04still won't get the Rio J MAC you might have
21. 1:09duplicated something. But it is an imitation,
22. 1:15and we already the rock and roll with
23. 1:18today's edition of the program, you know, with all kinds of things happening, the United
24. 1:25Kingdoms Supreme Court does with Justice Katajibran, Jackson could not or would not do.
25. 1:32Well, you want to stick around for that one.
26. 1:34But at this very moment, many of you, if not most of you are making your transition from
27. 1:38your part time jobs where you generate an income to your full time jobs, which is outcome cultivation.
28. 1:48I describe it in this way intentionally to invite you to embrace a recalibration of how
29. 1:55we think about our lives.
30. 1:58Income generation is a very important component of our lives, but it is not the sum total of
31. 2:05our lives outcome cultivation.
32. 2:07It's what Christ followers are called to every believer.
33. 2:11It's called to be a participant in executing our Lord's commission.
34. 2:16Every believer.
35. 2:18single one of us. And so when I refer to outcome cultivation, that is what I am
36. 2:22endeavoring to describe. That is our engagement in executing our Lord's
37. 2:30great commission. Many of you, as I stated, are making your transition. And I
38. 2:37described this in this way because all of us are connected at the familial
39. 2:43level. The first human institution that God established was the family before
40. 2:48you got to before you get to the New Testament order of priests. Before you
41. 2:53get to, sorry, New Testament order priests, an order of priests.
42. 2:57Before you get to the New Testament church, before you get to
43. 2:59orders of an order of prophets, you have the Lord establishing
44. 3:02the family. It is the first human institution, the family is the
45. 3:07first human institution. And God did that intentionally, because
46. 3:10God knows that we will never out politic, out vote, or even
47. 3:14out church prevalent deficiencies in the home. And God also
48. 3:19knows that the quality of our external ministerial engagements will flow outwardly from the quality
49. 3:27of our internal responses to the conviction of the Spirit of God, as Jesus described the
50. 3:36Holy Spirit's job amongst a host of other detailed descriptions is to remind us of everything
51. 3:44that Jesus taught.
52. 3:46This is why the primary vehicle of transformation and renewal of the mind is the word of God.
53. 3:53Because the Holy Spirit draws from, that's why the Apostle Paul in Galatians 5 describes
54. 3:58the word of God as the sword of the Spirit.
55. 4:03The sword of the Spirit.
56. 4:06It is wielded by the Spirit of God.
57. 4:09And so the Lord uses that.
58. 4:10The Spirit of God uses His word really like a mirror.
59. 4:15I often describe as we read the Lord's holy word, the Lord reads us through his word and it is raised before us like a mirror to show us who we truly are.
60. 4:25And it is only as we see who we truly are in full recognition that man, if it were not for the toning work of Christ Jesus, him, the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, a toning for my sin, my right
61. 4:49and wage of eternal damnation.
62. 4:53Scripture says the wages of sin, death,
63. 4:56but Jesus, oh man, secured salvation for us,
64. 4:59taking the punishment that you and I deserve.
65. 5:02And that is the good news.
66. 5:04To the word of God, we go second Corinthians chapter 10.
67. 5:0610.
68. 5:07Second Corinthians chapter 13 is where we're gonna go.
69. 5:10Second Corinthians chapter 13,
70. 5:12Jeff is like what?
71. 5:13Chapter 10.
72. 5:14Chapter 13 verse five is where we're gonna begin
73. 5:20program. It is vitally necessary and appropriate and we welcome the Lord to align us to His
74. 5:31Word before we endeavor to navigate the issues of the day. It is a great era to attempt to
75. 5:40navigate the issues of the day by putting the Word of God aside. The Word of God must be,
76. 5:50must be central for our life and function. And that is what we apply to society.
77. 6:00Second Corinthians chapter 10, chapter 10, chapter 13.
78. 6:04What is it about chapter 10?
79. 6:06I'm gonna do it in the break, I'm gonna go back to chapter 10.
80. 6:09Second Corinthians chapter 13,
81. 6:11verse five is what I wanna focus our attention on.
82. 6:15And I wanna remind everyone that this is an epistle,
83. 6:18that the Apostle Paul is writing to Christians.
84. 6:23And this is what the word of God says,
85. 6:24test yourselves to see if you are in the faith.
86. 6:28Examine yourself.
87. 6:31Or do you not recognize this about yourselves,
88. 6:33that Jesus Christ is in you?
89. 6:35Unless indeed you fail the test.
90. 6:39Now I wanna be clear about what the Lord is saying
91. 6:42to us through the Apostle Paul and this verse,
92. 6:45because there are lots of things
93. 6:49that are swirling around us guys.
94. 6:51And it is true that there is a culture war,
95. 6:55but the culture war is not the most important war
96. 6:58that we are waging in this day and age.
97. 7:00Can I tell you what the most important war is?
98. 7:03The most important war is the one that's being waged
99. 7:05at the reflection that's staring back at us from the mirror.
100. 7:09Here, the Lord is exhorting believers
101. 7:13through the Apostle Paul to examine ourselves,
102. 7:16test yourselves, examine yourselves,
103. 7:21to see whether you're in the faith.
104. 7:22This is not an assessment of justification.
105. 7:26It is an assessment of the quality of one's life
106. 7:29as professed believers.
107. 7:31are we living up to our purported profession
108. 7:35of being faithful disciples of the Messiah?
109. 7:41The term examine is very similar to the same term
110. 7:45that the Apostle James uses.
111. 7:47When he says blessed are you perseveres under trial,
112. 7:50the Greek phrasing perseiving under trial
113. 7:53is similar to the Greek word examine here,
114. 7:56which is doki-modzo, doki-modzo.
115. 7:59The term doki-modzo, which the Apostle Paul is saying,
116. 8:02examine yourself, examine yourself.
117. 8:05The term Doki Matsu is actually a mercantile term,
118. 8:10a term of commerce, all right?
119. 8:13In the first century, I mean, if you may recall this,
120. 8:16I've explained this phenomenon before.
121. 8:18In the first century, because of the time that existed,
122. 8:22you didn't have a whole lot of,
123. 8:23well, you didn't have cars, planes, trains,
124. 8:26and automobiles.
125. 8:26So when you had commerce, usually,
126. 8:29like when Peter and his brothers were fishermen,
127. 8:32They would catch fish and sell them,
128. 8:33usually in a town where they lived.
129. 8:35So usually you had people who were doing business
130. 8:37with people who knew, with whom they were familiar.
131. 8:42When you would have from time to time
132. 8:44someone who would venture into town that wasn't local
133. 8:47and they would endeavor to purchase goods
134. 8:50or services or things, merchants would have
135. 8:54kind of like a first century version of like a Bunsen burner
136. 8:59because you had coinage at the time
137. 9:01that was precious metals, silver, gold, et cetera.
138. 9:05And so the dokey most processed what would transpire
139. 9:09is that when the unfamiliar patron
140. 9:12would come to a merchant attempting to purchase something,
141. 9:16the merchant would test a portion of the coinage
142. 9:20that is presented by the patron.
143. 9:22So let's say hypothetically, Bobby is unknown to me.
144. 9:25He comes to buy some widgets from me in the first century.
145. 9:30I don't know Bobby.
146. 9:31So I'm going to examine Bobby's currency before I complete the transaction,
147. 9:36complete the sale in the way that I examined Bobby's currency.
148. 9:39I would take a representative sample, not the whole thing, but if let's say it's seven
149. 9:43silver coins, I would take one or two of the silver coins that Bobby had.
150. 9:47And I would place them on my burner.
151. 9:50All right.
152. 9:51I would heat the metal to confirm that the external
153. 9:57presentation of the silver for my hypothetical example is confirmed by the
154. 10:01internal substance of what's in it because at that time, just like we have money counterfeiters,
155. 10:05some of you may remember the movie Catch Me If You Can, you know, we have money counterfeiters
156. 10:08in our day and age. Listen, that ain't new. You had counterfeiters in the first century. They would
157. 10:13often get stoned or get led and they would paint the external portions of it, paint it to look like
158. 10:18it's silver and make sure it weighed kind of similarly if they could do that and put it along with some
159. 10:24other real silver. And so when they were by things, they were purchasing with counterfeit coinage.
160. 10:32So if you had a patron who was unknown to the merchant,
161. 10:36that merchant would examine,
162. 10:39I'll see where I'm going here,
163. 10:39examine the coin is as presented by the patron
164. 10:43in my hypothetical with Bobby.
165. 10:44I would examine a representative sample of Bobby's coinage
166. 10:47to determine whether or not the external presentation
167. 10:50matched what the internal substance was
168. 10:53as examined by fire.
169. 10:57After Bobby's representative sample passed my test
170. 11:01as a merchant, I would then declare Bobby
171. 11:04be a dokemion. And I would also let other merchants in the vicinity know that Bobby is dokemion. What
172. 11:10is dokemion? Dokemion is one whose coinage presentation, the external presentation matches the substance
173. 11:18internally that's revealed by fire. This is what the Apostle Paul is saying when he says examine
174. 11:25yourself. Dokemazo. I know what the external presentation appears to be, but let's make sure
175. 11:31that what is represented externally is actually consistent all the way through,
176. 11:38all the way throughout what is being presented. That's what the Scripture is saying. Examine
177. 11:43yourself. That's what the Apostle James is saying. Blessed is the man who perseveres
178. 11:47under trial, the same Greek phrasing. Doki-modzo. To see whether or not we have a doki-meon amongst us.
179. 11:56So this is what the Apostle Paul is saying. Test yourselves. See if you're in the faith.
180. 12:01examine yourself, doki-modzo.
181. 12:04Let's make sure that the purported
182. 12:06and even professed presentation matches
183. 12:10what's on the inside upon further examination.
184. 12:13And then I mentioned that examination took place by fire.
185. 12:17Heh heh heh heh heh heh.
186. 12:20This is what I'm saying to us.
187. 12:21The biggest war that we're confronting
188. 12:24is not the culture war.
189. 12:26And the culture war is real.
190. 12:27Very important, but can I tell you something?
191. 12:29The culture war is subsequent to us confronting
192. 12:33the man or woman in the mirror. Where are we individually? As most of you are driving
193. 12:38home right now, where are you? Are you living lives and bearing fruit that is commensurate
194. 12:43to repentance? Are we conducting ourselves in a manner that gives evidence that bears evidence
195. 12:49that we are his? I'm not attempting to advocate for a heretical doctrine of perfectionism, but
196. 12:56I am advocating for examining ourselves and being honest with ourselves. We must never
197. 13:02Don't ever get culture is developed based on an accumulation of individuals.
198. 13:06Who are we?
199. 13:08American church culture.
200. 13:10Where are we?
201. 13:11Examine ourselves.
202. 13:12And the scripture says, or do you not recognize this about yourselves?
203. 13:18That Jesus Christ is in you or or unless indeed you fail the test.
204. 13:27Brothers and sisters, we must examine ourselves.
205. 13:29I've been saying it quite some time in my encouragement
206. 13:33for us to live locally.
207. 13:35How long are we gonna continue a whole
208. 13:36room between two opinions?
209. 13:38How long are we gonna delay between having an idea
210. 13:41of what the Lord is requiring of us
211. 13:42and then actually following through with it?
212. 13:45How long are we as husbands and fathers gonna continue
213. 13:47to export our responsibility to sharpen our family spiritually?
214. 13:50How long are we gonna remain relying upon
215. 13:53what the pastor or the youth pastor does
216. 13:55and not take the leadership roles as priests in our own homes?
217. 13:59How long are we gonna do that?
218. 14:03Examine ourselves.
219. 14:05The simple reality is that repentance transpires internally.
220. 14:09The conduct that flows outwardly
221. 14:11is the fruit of that repentance.
222. 14:13It is conduct that is consistent
223. 14:15what is transpired on the inside.
224. 14:17This is why I continually point us to
225. 14:19the Apostle Paul's explanation of Timothy.
226. 14:21That you're familiar with my teaching
227. 14:23and my manner of living.
228. 14:24You're familiar with how I talk,
229. 14:26what I've been instructed others in,
230. 14:27and you know how I live.
231. 14:29We have to mature brothers and sisters
232. 14:31to the point to where we put into practice with consistency,
233. 14:35what we profess to believe.
234. 14:36Dokimazu, examine ourselves.
235. 14:39Does our external purported presentation match
236. 14:42which truly on the inside?
237. 14:44This is something I would encourage you
238. 14:46to welcome the Spirit of God to walk us through
239. 14:49because he knows beyond what we say.
240. 14:52He knows what the substance of our internal composition
241. 14:55is truly made of.
242. 15:01A discipleship minute with Joseph Parker
243. 15:04In Exodus 1, there's a wonderful story of two little midwives,
244. 15:08Ship and Pua, who feral told them,
245. 15:12kill the baby boys when they're born.
246. 15:14And they had it in their heart.
247. 15:16They just knew this was wrong.
248. 15:17And their perspective was, we're not gonna do this,
249. 15:20because this is against God's will, and they refuse to do it.
250. 15:23What wonderful role models, Ship and Pua,
251. 15:26are not only for pastors, but for every believer
252. 15:28in every context, because it is always gonna take courage
253. 15:32to really follow Jesus accurately.
254. 15:34And it's one of those things where I believe absolutely
255. 15:37every believer should diligently say,
256. 15:39Lord, show me what you want me to do
257. 15:41to help end the slaughter of children in our country.
258. 15:45And I believe God has something for every believer
259. 15:47to do to help.
260. 15:48The devil hates grown folks and he hates children.
261. 15:51The devil can't stand children and he loves to abort them.
262. 15:55So it's important for us to understand
263. 15:57this is serious business.
264. 16:06Shining light into the darkness. This is the Hamilton corner on American family radio
265. 16:12Welcome back to the Hamilton corner Abraham Hamilton the third here and I am delighted to have in the studio with me
266. 16:19Executive vice president for the American family Association and American family radio co-host of today's issues
267. 16:26Mr. Ed Vatagliano who is married to his lovely wife. He has two adult children five grandchildren
268. 16:33He's been in ministry since
269. 16:3582. It's good to be here and just good to be alive that long. Well I am grateful
270. 16:43for you and your ministry and I am looking forward to the conference this
271. 16:49summer that AFA is having is hosting in Tupelo, Mississippi at the Cadence Bank
272. 16:54Conference Center June 12th through the 14th the activate summit. Would you please
273. 17:00share a little bit with our audience here what the activate summit is.
274. 17:05Yeah, the activate summit grew out of the activate worldview curriculum that we that
275. 17:13AFA has produced along with American family studios. That was kind of the brainchild of
276. 17:18Wesley Weilman and that developed because whenever he would go out for donor events or
277. 17:26supporters, meeting with supporters, invariably they would come up to him and say, and this
278. 17:33is kind of sad, but they would say, my pastor doesn't teach on cultural issues and the biblical
279. 17:41influence on those cultural issues. Can you provide something that will help me go a little
280. 17:47deeper to understand how the Bible speaks to issues like human sexuality, pro-life issues,
281. 17:53marriage and family and so on and so forth.
282. 17:55And so the activate worldview curriculum was created to help people kind of dig down
283. 18:02and get more learned about cultural issues.
284. 18:09So and folks can find out more about that at activate.afa.net.
285. 18:15This will be the first year that AFA is taking one of those kind of overarching topics that
286. 18:22we deal with in this curriculum and kind of even go even deeper.
287. 18:28And so we are going to start where you would think a worldview curriculum
288. 18:33would start and that is on the authority of scripture.
289. 18:36So the name of this summit,
290. 18:40a mini conference, if you will, is biblical bedrock building on the authority
291. 18:45of scripture. Now that's going to be this June, 12 through the 14th.
292. 18:50It is going to be at Cadence Bank Conference Center here in Tupelo, Mississippi, which is
293. 18:56the headquarters for American Family Association and American Family Radio.
294. 19:02And we'll have five speakers.
295. 19:03Abe, you're one of the speakers.
296. 19:06Alex McFarland, Frank, Turic, and Todd Herman.
297. 19:09I will also be speaking at this activate summit.
298. 19:15It's fascinating about the summit is we also have an activate kids program for ages six
299. 19:23through 12.
300. 19:24So we're not going to just babysit kids with families come actually going to be teaching
301. 19:29the kids as well.
302. 19:31Ages 13 through adult will be in the main sessions.
303. 19:35I think we're going to have some breakout sessions as well.
304. 19:39The special pricing, there are some special prices for individuals and families, those
305. 19:46special prices end on Friday, April 18th, good Friday.
306. 19:53So if you want to take advantage of those or you want to find out more about the activate
307. 19:56summit, go to activate.afa.net forward slash summit.
308. 20:03But the thing that's so important about this summit is the Word of God, it has authority
309. 20:11in our lives.
310. 20:13Christians are hungry to learn about why we believe it has authority.
311. 20:19How do we defend that authority?
312. 20:20How do we understand where the Bible comes from and those kinds of issues?
313. 20:25So really looking forward to it.
314. 20:28One of the things that I've been dealing with,
315. 20:32just really, and a lot off of the air,
316. 20:34is helping people to navigate the fact
317. 20:38that you have like apocryphal writings.
318. 20:40And you have things that are known forgeries,
319. 20:42like the Gospel of Thomas and other things like that.
320. 20:47But having a foundation as the description
321. 20:51is biblical bedrock on the authority of scripture,
322. 20:54the history of scripture, the trustworthiness of scripture,
323. 20:58Would you just speak a little bit about that and the impact that that can have in the life of an individual?
324. 21:03And then how that could actually contribute to shaping society as we've seen
325. 21:07Western civilization spring forward really following
326. 21:11the
327. 21:13re-establishment of things like the Amago day and the capacity of individuals to navigate the truth of scripture without having
328. 21:20To rely upon like a priestly source to interpret scripture for us. Yeah, you know, it's the Word of God is
329. 21:27is critical to the, it's, I don't wanna say,
330. 21:31it's the lifeblood, the Holy Spirit's the light,
331. 21:34kind of the life of the church in terms of helping us
332. 21:37to interact, but the Word of God is foundational to it.
333. 21:40And the Bible says in 1 Timothy 3, 15 that the church
334. 21:45is the pillar and support of the truth.
335. 21:49And that means that the church in a sense,
336. 21:52and you find this kind of wording throughout
337. 21:55New Testament. It kind of holds on to that truth and presents it to the world. Individual Christians
338. 22:03are commanded really to be witnesses of that truth and we are to bear witness to the truths that the
339. 22:10scripture teaches in terms of the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus which we will celebrate
340. 22:17this weekend. So the Word of God instructs us. We know the Scriptures say it is profitable
341. 22:27for reproof and correction and training in righteousness, exhortation, all these things.
342. 22:34Jesus teaches, and this is all through the Scriptures, but Jesus in the New Testament in Matthew chapter
343. 22:39seven, makes it clear that his word and how we respond to it is the dividing line between
344. 22:48wisdom and foolishness.
345. 22:50And whether your life will survive the trials of this life, whether you build your life upon
346. 23:00the words of Jesus and obey those words or whether you reject those and build your life
347. 23:07on shifting sand.
348. 23:08So as we look at our culture, our culture is and has been becoming a culture that is filled
349. 23:18with hostility towards the Word of God and towards God Himself.
350. 23:23Christians increasingly, as you mentioned, are being put on the spot and being asked to
351. 23:29prove, prove this and prove that and how do you explain this?
352. 23:33And we just can't simply rely on the Christian influence that the Bible has had on our culture
353. 23:42for centuries.
354. 23:43We now have to enter into the marketplace of ideas and speak the truth.
355. 23:49So in order to do that, we have to become more familiar with the scripture.
356. 23:53And I would argue that the lack of entering into the marketplace of ideas and knowing what
357. 23:58we believe and why we believe it has, has aided us getting into this place to where
358. 24:02you had lots of people relying upon kind of like a residual influence of Christianity that leaves you
359. 24:09Like a Richard Dawkins after dedicating himself for decades to literally attempting to destroy a biblical foundation for society
360. 24:16he now finds himself
361. 24:19Wanting to reach back and say oh, oh, I might I wish I might not have been so profound in my effort to dislodge people from
362. 24:25quite fancy cultural Christianity. Yes, he looks at himself as a cultural Christian and believes
363. 24:32Christianity is necessary because he sees the encroachments of Islam and that's the consequence
364. 24:41of abandoning the Christian faith and now he's looking for a lifeline. And that is on one
365. 24:47end of the spectrum and then you have on the other end of the spectrum, you know, mainline
366. 24:51denominations and we've seen several main non-denominations falter on this point
367. 24:56most recently the United Methodist Church quite frankly because you have an
368. 25:00elevation or I would argue an equation equating of certain social phenomenon with
369. 25:06the authority of scripture and even extra biblical sources and it's resulted in a
370. 25:11cataclysmic split that's frankly decimated the prevalence of what was
371. 25:16formerly the United Methodist Church in America. It's reforming around Orthodox
372. 25:21principles, but you see that schism happening and that's not anything new in terms of the
373. 25:25history of the church and the history of civilizations. Is it? No, it's not, it's not, it is not new.
374. 25:30In fact, you just have to read the book of Acts. Of course, Jesus himself warns about false prophets
375. 25:36and false Christ. And you read in the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul saying goodbye to the elders,
376. 25:42calls the elders of the church at Ephesus to himself and gives them final instructions,
377. 25:48part of which is a warning that savage wolves will come in that that there will be pressures from the
378. 25:55outside and then there will be pressures from the inside as people twist the scriptures and twist
379. 26:03sound doctrine. I mentioned I was on one of the other shows today talking about activate
380. 26:09and I mentioned that in the Sunday school class that I teach last year I taught on truth and error
381. 26:14And as I was preparing for that, going through the New Testament, I was frankly surprised at how much space the writers of the New Testament gave to false teaching.
382. 26:31And the necessity of teaching sound doctrine and false prophets and false teachers and even naming names in some of these instances.
383. 26:41So the church for 2,000 years has, in a sense, mirroring Israel.
384. 26:48Israel in the Old Testament was beset from the outside by invading powers and the Philistines and the Amalekites.
385. 26:57But from the inside, always wrestling with the tendency towards idolatry, twisting what God had taught them.
386. 27:06them. In the New Testament, it's much the same. From the outside persecution, from hostile
387. 27:13political and religious powers, from the inside, the warning is, pay heed to sound doctrine.
388. 27:22And this has been, it's gone on for 2000 years, we're warned in the New Testament. And today,
389. 27:29Christians are beset, not as much on the persecution front in this country as elsewhere in the
390. 27:36world where Christians suffer physically far more than we do here. But certainly this river of lies
391. 27:45that continues to kind of erupt out of the abyss to kind of use some book of revelation kind of
392. 27:54imagery. The church has to deal with not only biblical lies that are antithetical to the scriptures
393. 28:06but cultural lies, political lies, you teach a lot when you speak to your listeners about
394. 28:15cultural Marxism and all the, you know, the progressive movement, these are fundamentally
395. 28:21views about God and are options that are being laid before our children and our grandchildren
396. 28:30and saying consider this way of looking at the world
397. 28:33and leave your faith behind.
398. 28:36Parents have to be prepared to teach their kids.
399. 28:38Churches have to be teaching the sheep
400. 28:42and that's part of what we do here
401. 28:45in laying out the biblical framework
402. 28:47for a Christian worldview as opposed to what we're facing.
403. 28:51Hence the establishment of the activate summit.
404. 28:55Yes. June 12th through the 14th.
405. 28:58early bird pricing ends Friday, April 18th, you can go to activate.afa.net
406. 29:04slash summit to get all of the information for this. It is going to be, you know, an amazing,
407. 29:10amazing time. And you had mentioned that the church has to contend for biblical orthodoxy,
408. 29:17but also to contend against lies that come from the culture, that come from politics,
409. 29:20that come from Hollywood, that come from all over the place. And you were mentioning just
410. 29:25in preparation for your Sunday school class, how you were struck by the robust presence
411. 29:32and how much space was dedicated towards preparing the New Testament church to stand against false
412. 29:37teaching.
413. 29:38I've often said that false teachers are not limited to pulpit.
414. 29:41Right.
415. 29:42Disney offers false teaching.
416. 29:43You know, the society offers false teaching.
417. 29:46And one of the things that I've been endeavoring to communicate to our audience here is I am
418. 29:50grateful and I rejoice at President Trump's election.
419. 29:53a new president alone, even should we prevail?
420. 29:57I believe we will and I'm praying that we will prevail
421. 30:00in this trade stand off with China.
422. 30:02But those things alone will not make America great.
423. 30:04Can we be a great nation if we persist in the pernicious
424. 30:10biblical illiteracy that amounts in our culture currently?
425. 30:12No, we absolutely cannot.
426. 30:14And we learn that from Israel.
427. 30:18And we learned that from history,
428. 30:20even the history of the last 2000 years, we will fail
429. 30:26to in the great experiment that our founders initiated.
430. 30:32We will fail to live up, I believe,
431. 30:35to a divine purpose for which God has called America
432. 30:40into existence, we will fail in that.
433. 30:44And we, and look, souls will be lost, marriages will fail.
434. 30:49fail. Communities will fail. We see the great division that the hater of souls is spreading
435. 30:59in this country. And it is because I have no problem talking about justice from a biblical perspective.
436. 31:10If a country fails to uphold God's righteousness corporately, as well as individually,
437. 31:16We suffer the consequences and we all know that Donald Trump cannot save America.
438. 31:23The Republican Party cannot save America.
439. 31:26Even the church can't save America.
440. 31:29God alone can save America.
441. 31:31He does that through repentant.
442. 31:33I heard you talking about the beginning of your show.
443. 31:36We have to judge ourselves.
444. 31:38We have to engage.
445. 31:40We have to allow the scriptures to interrogate our lives.
446. 31:43We have to be faithful and dedicated Christians who pursue holiness.
447. 31:48God can use those kinds of people.
448. 31:51But if we continue to rely on broken cisterns, the Prophet Jeremiah talks about or we continue
449. 31:58to imbibe the lies that are ever present, increasingly so in entertainment, we will undermine
450. 32:08our own opportunity to be effective witnesses in this culture.
451. 32:11activate Summit 2025, go to activate.afa.net,
452. 32:16plus Summit that is activate.afa.net,
453. 32:19slash Summit it will take place June 12th through the 14th,
454. 32:232025 at the Cagnes Bank Conference Center
455. 32:25in Tupelo, Mississippi, early bird registration ends
456. 32:29Friday, April 18th.
457. 32:32You don't want to delay.
458. 32:34Activate kids ages six through 12,
459. 32:36we're going to articulate biblical bedrock
460. 32:39building on the authority of scripture and the tagliano will be a keynote presenter.
461. 32:45Dr. Alex McFarland will present Frank Turk will present Todd Herman will present and so will I.
462. 32:52More Hamilton Corner when we come back from this break. The loss of a child through abortion,
463. 33:03miscarriage or stillbirth affects the emotional health of families. Feelings of anger, sadness,
464. 33:10and regret can be overwhelming. There is hope and healing in the aftermath of a reproductive loss.
465. 33:17Call the International Helpline at 866-482-LIFE to talk with someone who has been where you are
466. 33:24and healed to help others. Your call is confidential 866-482-LIFE.
467. 33:40a nation that is ignorant of the principles that produce a free society.
468. 33:45Start where you can.
469. 33:46It's the only way I know.
470. 33:48It's a little bit at a time.
471. 33:50Join Walker Wildman and Rick Green as they tackle today's issues from a biblical and a constitutional
472. 33:56perspective at the core 1PM Central Weekdays on AFR.
473. 34:01Agony in the Garden.
474. 34:03This is David Wheaton, host of the Christian worldview.
475. 34:06This is Easter week when we remember how Jesus Christ, the Son of God, shed his blood on the cross
476. 34:13to pay God's just death penalty for the sin of all who would believe in Him.
477. 34:18The Gospel of Luke describes Jesus' state and the night of his arrest in the Garden of
478. 34:22Gethsemane.
479. 34:24Being in agony, he was praying very fervently and his sweat became like drops of blood falling
480. 34:30upon the ground.
481. 34:32Jesus Agony before the cross shows us that his greatest suffering was not physical, but
482. 34:38rather spiritual as he bore the wrath of his own father for our sin.
483. 34:43Hear our most recent program about Christ's Agony in the Garden with Pastor Travis Allen
484. 34:48at TheChristianWorldView.org and then join us this weekend for a special Easter program.
485. 34:54Listen to The Christian World View with David Wheaton, Saturday mornings at 8 Central on American
486. 34:59Family Radio.
487. 35:05Hamilton Quarter podcast and one-minute commentaries are available at aFR.net back to the Hamilton
488. 35:12Corner on American Family Radio.
489. 35:15Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton the third.
490. 35:18I am in studio with our guest AFA Executive Vice President, Ed Viteg Leano.
491. 35:23We were just talking about the activate summit that will be this summer June 12th through
492. 35:27the 14th at the Cadence Bank Arena in Tupelo, Mississippi.
493. 35:32the Berwick registration ends Friday, April 18th,
494. 35:36you do not want to miss out.
495. 35:38While we have it here, I decided I'll throw some things
496. 35:41his way in the corner to where,
497. 35:44as soon as I read this door, I say,
498. 35:45huh, well, wouldn't you know, the United Kingdom Supreme Court
499. 35:48does with Justice Kataunee Brown Jackson refused to do
500. 35:53or was unable to do during our confirmation hearing.
501. 35:57And that is the UK Supreme Court rule today
502. 36:01in a unanimous decision that the terms woman and sex and the UK's law refers to biological
503. 36:12sex. The issue in that case was whether or not, and this is what they have in the UK,
504. 36:17guys, gender recognition certificates could trump and supplant the biological terms and
505. 36:26descriptions of what women are the case was prosecuted. The plaintiffs in this case was
506. 36:33where women from Scotland for Scotland for women Scotland. I said, listen, guys, we've
507. 36:39known for millennia what a woman was. We cannot allow transcend sanity to completely
508. 36:46upend our social fabric and frankly truth in our affinity for it and adherence to it.
509. 36:52So the UK Supreme Court announces a unanimous decision today in light of that
510. 37:01Articulation a foundational truth from the UK Supreme Court. What do you think about it?
511. 37:07Well a couple things come to mind the first is that I'm guessing that none it was unanimous
512. 37:14How many are on the does it say is it like a nine zero or I didn't say I could look it up
513. 37:20Well, that's right.
514. 37:21How many are on the Lord's on the British on the UK Supreme Court?
515. 37:25I'm guessing it's since it was unanimous.
516. 37:28What's that?
517. 37:29Oh, Bobby, I'll be thinking it up for us.
518. 37:31None of them are biologists.
519. 37:33Okay, because that's what Katanji Brown Jackson said when she was asked.
520. 37:39Can you define what a woman is?
521. 37:41And she said, well, I'm not a biologist.
522. 37:43So either she was just playing 12.
523. 37:48Okay. Either she was just playing to the, to her supporters or the left wing in this country
524. 37:56or all these members of the UK Supreme Court were biologists and could give the answer of what a
525. 38:04woman is. The other thing I would note about it is leading the charge against this idea of trans
526. 38:12women, men who claim to be women in the UK, were feminist groups.
527. 38:18They, the feminist groups were leading the charge and I think that provides political cover for
528. 38:26politicians and probably some cover for the judiciary to say, listen, we're not hateful
529. 38:34towards the LGBTQ community.
530. 38:36We are listening to the feminists and the women in this country.
531. 38:41But in this country, the feminists are almost nowhere to be seen, you know?
532. 38:47You know, and of course we can speculate.
533. 38:50I think one of the major reasons why is because of the funding sources for feminist organizations
534. 38:56in America.
535. 38:57I believe that there was a tilt towards funding willingness that we had, if you recall, the
536. 39:05former head of the ACLU had a harrowing experience attempting to go to a theme park.
537. 39:13And she was in the restroom with her young daughter and she said, three, you remember this?
538. 39:17I remember three six foot plus men entered the restroom and it startled her.
539. 39:23And the ACLU at that time was attempting to advocate for transgenderism and things of that nature.
540. 39:29And this ACLU president said, I can't do that.
541. 39:35I don't agree with that. So you saw a fracturing kind of in the
542. 39:39Regressive Alliance here in our country that caused much of the feminist movement in America to basically be silent
543. 39:47Transientarism yes, and
544. 39:50What's interesting too about in this country is and I'm not familiar with politics in the UK
545. 39:57So I have no idea whether it's kind of a mirror image of our country
546. 40:02But the feminist movement by and large has been attached at the hip, if you will, to the
547. 40:09Democratic Party.
548. 40:11And the Democratic Party has made it clear they were all in to the full number of letters
549. 40:18in the LGBTQ plus, plus, plus, plus.
550. 40:21They were all in.
551. 40:24And so that is where the Democratic Party has made it stand.
552. 40:28I think that was at least in part, probably a smaller part than inflation and immigration
553. 40:33in the 2024 election.
554. 40:35But that has to play a part too in people voting Republican in 2024.
555. 40:43It's also interesting that some in the LGBT community and some on the left, I'm thinking
556. 40:50about Martina Navratilova, a lesbian, the former tennis great, women's tennis great, and JK
557. 41:00Rowling, okay, not a lesbian, but self-identified liberal or progressive, whatever she is, those
558. 41:09are individual women who broke away from the left in this country on this issue.
559. 41:18But they're not enough of them, I think, to wrench the Democratic Party away from what
560. 41:25I think is a big losing issue going forward, but they're sticking with it.
561. 41:30Yeah, and I think JK Rowling is still living in Europe.
562. 41:35Yes, you're right.
563. 41:36And so she was a lightning rod for this in Europe.
564. 41:39I need to be more specific about something I said when I referred to the former head of
565. 41:42the ACL, you have meant a state branch of the ACLU, not the national organization.
566. 41:47I believe she was the president of the state branch of the ACLU in Georgia, in particular,
567. 41:52who had that phenomenon.
568. 41:56Even without discussing the intimate details of politics in England, I think it's pretty
569. 42:01safe to say that England's culture is a bit further along in embracing leftist ideology
570. 42:09than our own culture.
571. 42:11Yet you get this unanimous decision from the Supreme Court while you have right in our nation,
572. 42:17the governor of Maine, standing her ground to defy the Trump administration on this very same issue
573. 42:22that has to be, or at least to me it strikes me as an ironic reality that that's happening in a place
574. 42:28like the UK and kind of juxtaposing it with our own society. All right, so let me ask you,
575. 42:34let me ask you a question. I know it's your show, but I want to ask you a question, get your opinion
576. 42:38because I think that the feminist movement in the UK had that had to have influenced
577. 42:45because if that one didn't exist, I don't think the UK court, again, I'm just guessing,
578. 42:52but judges can be cowards too.
579. 42:56And so I don't think they would have dared to rule in the way that they did without some
580. 43:02political cover.
581. 43:03So here's my question.
582. 43:04Do you think the growing Muslim population in the UK also provided some cover because
583. 43:11they don't play on this issue?
584. 43:14They are a lot stronger in their cultural worldview
585. 43:18that is derived from their religion
586. 43:20than Christians usually are.
587. 43:22I think you're right about that.
588. 43:24And I think you're right about that in the sense
589. 43:28of creating kind of a cross-section of UK cover
590. 43:32for this decision that you're gonna have some people
591. 43:35who are gonna screech the predictable usual suspects,
592. 43:39but by and large, I think the society in the UK
593. 43:43following things like Brexit and even the desire
594. 43:48for the Brits to no longer allow the European Union
595. 43:50to dictate policy in England,
596. 43:53you had the child abuse scandals
597. 43:56that have been going on in the UK.
598. 43:58You had this secret, saying secret
599. 44:01that the police weren't prosecuting it thoroughly
600. 44:03and they didn't wanna discuss it in the media.
601. 44:05So I think all of those things kind of coalesced
602. 44:07because when you have a unanimous decision
603. 44:09by any judicial body, it should cause some consideration
604. 44:15because you had, like I described,
605. 44:17you had a gender recognition certificate already.
606. 44:20We don't have gender recognition certificates in America,
607. 44:22but you had that in the UK.
608. 44:24So it seems that it was a retrenchment,
609. 44:26but I do believe the cross-section of the feminists
610. 44:28working there, things happening on the ground culturally
611. 44:34and the influx of Muslim immigrants and other immigrants
612. 44:37into the UK kind of created a perfect storm, if you will,
613. 44:41to kind of give coverage of the court to say,
614. 44:43hey, yeah, yeah, when we put that in,
615. 44:44when this was put in our law by our parliament,
616. 44:47they meant what they said.
617. 44:48Yeah.
618. 44:49I do think that is a big part.
619. 44:51It's a shocking moment in UK cultural history
620. 44:58and the cultural war over there,
621. 44:59because for a lot of ways,
622. 45:02my expectation was the culture war is over in the UK
623. 45:06because the LGBTQ movement and its sympathizers
624. 45:12seem to have won the day.
625. 45:13You can be prosecuted.
626. 45:14Over there just for saying something.
627. 45:16Online? Yes.
628. 45:17If you post something online, you get a knock at the door.
629. 45:21It's insane.
630. 45:23Well, I also want to toss another thing your way,
631. 45:25which I am rejoicing over.
632. 45:28Some of you might have heard this story,
633. 45:31but there was a pastor named Josh Sullivan,
634. 45:33who is from Tennessee, but he and his wife
635. 45:37became missionaries in South Africa.
636. 45:39They started by visiting the country
637. 45:43and they fell in love with the country.
638. 45:45Following spending their time there,
639. 45:48Pastor Sullivan and his wife felt like the Lord was calling them
640. 45:51to missionary church planting in South Africa.
641. 45:53So they've been there since about 2018.
642. 45:56Well, the reports were about four or five days ago.
643. 45:59Pastor Sullivan was preaching at his church
644. 46:02and armed at the church where he serves and armed to gunmen,
645. 46:05stormed the church and kidnapped him in front of the congregation.
646. 46:09And according to the reports now, several, about five days later,
647. 46:14he was found and recovered.
648. 46:16I have a clip I want to play about that.
649. 46:18I want you to listen to you and I'll toss it to you to get your reaction to this.
650. 46:21It's clip number one. It's clip one. Go.
651. 46:24American Pastor Josh Sullivan, we now know, was abducted at gunpoint in South Africa.
652. 46:30This happened during a prayer meeting at his church on the evening of April 10th.
653. 46:34So authorities right now were saying, Mugo, that Sullivan was thankfully rescued yesterday.
654. 46:40This happened amid a shootout between South African police and his captors.
655. 46:44And you mentioned during that shootout, three suspects were killed.
656. 46:48Sullivan is 45 years old.
657. 46:50He is originally from Tennessee.
658. 46:52And we're also told that he was rescued from a safe house that was being used by his captors.
659. 46:57happens to be in a coastal city in the eastern Cape province of South Africa.
660. 47:02His mother, Tanya Rinker, shared a message with CBS News, and I want to show you what she says.
661. 47:07It says, I'm not ready to talk right now. I'm out of town, staying with family, and still waiting to
662. 47:13get all the details from Joshua. But I did talk to my son for a few minutes yesterday, and he told
663. 47:18me he loved me and assured me he was unheard and happy to be with Megan and the kids.
664. 47:23All right, as for how Sullivan is doing, police are saying he was quote, miraculously unharmed
665. 47:30and immediately assessed by medical personnel also adding MUGO that he is currently in quote
666. 47:36excellent condition.
667. 47:37Well, you know, I have questions about this.
668. 47:45I'd like to, you know, and maybe this information will come out.
669. 47:48I'd like to know what the motivation was on the part of his captors.
670. 47:52If it was religion, if it was simply ransom,
671. 47:57did they know he was a poor preacher
672. 48:01when they grabbed him?
673. 48:04I said on TI today when we were talking about it,
674. 48:07I said maybe they thought he was a televangelist,
675. 48:09you know, and could sell off some properties.
676. 48:12But also it is interesting that they obviously knew
677. 48:17he was there, they didn't just go in
678. 48:19and just grab a bunch of people,
679. 48:21they came in looking for him.
680. 48:23So they knew that he was there, he was preaching,
681. 48:27and maybe that he was an American,
682. 48:29maybe that was a part of the thing they thought,
683. 48:32well, he's got to be a rich American,
684. 48:33someone's gonna cough up money.
685. 48:35It's a very dangerous country to be in right now,
686. 48:38South Africa, they've got a long way to go
687. 48:41before there's peace and stability in that country.
688. 48:45So this is a pastor and wife and kids that,
689. 48:48man, they're living it, they're living the gospel,
690. 48:51and are putting their lives on the line.
691. 48:53It's extraordinary to see.
692. 48:55Yeah, past the Sullivan and his wife, Megan,
693. 48:56they had four children biologically.
694. 48:59I believe they adopted two children in South Africa.
695. 49:02They first traveled to South Africa in 2015.
696. 49:05And then as I mentioned, they sent a lord leading them there.
697. 49:07So they moved there full time in 2018.
698. 49:09They're affiliated with a church in Tennessee.
699. 49:12Okay.
700. 49:13The name of the church there in South Africa
701. 49:14is Fellowship Baptist Church and Motherwell.
702. 49:16I'm not gonna even attempt to pronounce the township.
703. 49:20and enclosed the click, you know, I can't do that.
704. 49:22The languages in South Africa.
705. 49:24And according to the reports,
706. 49:26the motivation of the captors was ransom.
707. 49:28They, it may be a thing.
708. 49:30Anybody's traveled internationally,
709. 49:32especially in some African countries.
710. 49:34If you try to go buy something,
711. 49:35there's an American tax that's often employed.
712. 49:37Oh, is that right?
713. 49:38Oh, yeah.
714. 49:39Yeah, if you go to a market,
715. 49:40things are a certain price,
716. 49:41but if they know you're American,
717. 49:42the price tends to be a little higher.
718. 49:46So according to the reports,
719. 49:47the motivation was ransom.
720. 49:48more details I expect to come out, but thanks be to God that this pastor was rescued.
721. 49:54And he was learning their language, right?
722. 49:56Well, and he spent two years prior to planning the church, they are learning their local language.
723. 49:59So maybe he was, I'm sure he was witnessing, you know, and maybe in their own language.
724. 50:05Yeah, it's an extraordinary story how God preserved his life even in the shootout.
725. 50:09Absolutely. And as we are, you know, days away from good Friday, you know,
726. 50:13staring down the national celebration of Resurrection Sunday,
727. 50:16I'm grateful to God for this pastor, he and his family's willingness to bring the gospel
728. 50:21to the highways and byways of our world.
729. 50:24And I'm thankful for his rescue.
730. 50:26And I hope that he is an inspiration for all of our audience to not just talk the gospel,
731. 50:31but to the gospel.
732. 50:32Amen.
733. 50:33You all have a wonderful evening.
734. 50:34Lord willing, we'll be back tomorrow.
735. 50:40The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American
736. 50:45Family Association or American Family Radio.