Guest Host, Alex McFarland, is joined by Frank Figueroa of Reasons for Hope

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. 0:02It 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. 0:15Delivery 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. 0:23Even in this dark moment.
9. 0:26Let's not miss our moment.
10. 0:28And now, the Hamilton Corner.
11. 0:33Do young people care about truth?
12. 0:36Do you think teenagers, young adults,
13. 0:39do they really care about spiritual issues?
14. 0:43And do they think about God?
15. 0:45Hi, Alex McFarland, here.
16. 0:47Welcome to the American Family Radio Network.
17. 0:49This is a pre-recorded show.
18. 0:51We can't take calls.
19. 0:52And I want to say what an honor it
20. 0:54is to be sitting in for attorney, pastor, and broadcaster
21. 0:58Abe Hamilton the third.
22. 1:00And as we record this show moments ago,
23. 1:04I was in a high school doing an assembly on the Constitution
24. 1:08and really the moral foundation of the Constitution.
25. 1:11What's pretty exciting is that even after I finished
26. 1:16for a good half hour till the administration really
27. 1:20made the students go back to class,
28. 1:22we had probably 100 students standing around
29. 1:24wanting to ask questions, just fantastic young people
30. 1:29enthusiastically talking about God, America.
31. 1:33And so I submit, and maybe this is encouraging
32. 1:36to some listeners, that young people do think about truth.
33. 1:40They do think about God, and they're pretty spiritually hungry.
34. 1:44And so we'll talk about that.
35. 1:45And for all ages, folks, we'll talk about some of the ways
36. 1:49of defending truth, defending, yes, the Christian gospel
37. 1:54and the Bible.
38. 1:55And with me to talk about this and much more of valued friend and colleague Frank Figueroa,
39. 2:02Frank is with a ministry that I've partnered with much, much over the last 15 years, reasons
40. 2:08for hope.
41. 2:09We do camps together in the summer.
42. 2:11We'll get into that.
43. 2:12But I've just come to trust and appreciate Frank as just a very wise voice on apologetics,
44. 2:20biblical worldview, and the spiritual state of America's young people.
45. 2:23with us now and we're grateful for it. Welcome to the American Family Radio Network, Frank
46. 2:30Figueroa.
47. 2:31Aloha. Thank you for having me on today, Alex. Looking forward to having some good conversations.
48. 2:37Indeed. Now, the only other Figueroa that I've known was Bobby Figueroa from the Beach Boys.
49. 2:45And that's a group that I've had a long time friendship with. He was originally from Hawaii.
50. 2:51might Bobby Figueroa be related to Frank Figueroa?
51. 2:55I don't know, meaning if he's from Hawaii, very possibly.
52. 3:02My dad was raised on the west side of the island of Oahu in Hawaii, and that's where
53. 3:08I was raised and lived all my life until the past two years.
54. 3:11So there might be some family connection, but I don't know him personally.
55. 3:16So, well Frank, introduce yourself and tell us not only what you do, but how you came
56. 3:22to know the Lord.
57. 3:24Oh, well, like mentioned, my name is Frank, born and raised on the island of Oahu, and
58. 3:31I was the typical teen that I try to reach now.
59. 3:35I was the kid who was doing things I shouldn't do and believing in systems that are just faulty
60. 3:42And just didn't I didn't want to know God.
61. 3:46I didn't want to know the things of the Bible and just kind of live my life in a way that
62. 3:51exemplified that idea until the point where I actually had a couple of things happen in
63. 3:59big ways that really got me thinking.
64. 4:01I got expelled from a couple of high schools because I was a very different person.
65. 4:05And then I saw a couple of people die within a couple of weeks.
66. 4:12And so it really put a dilemma in my soul.
67. 4:16I guess for the first time in my life, at age 15 and a half, 16, I knew that I was going to die.
68. 4:23And I came, you know, I had to come to grips with that.
69. 4:26Where am I going to go? What's going to happen?
70. 4:28And I was raised in a church system that I would consider largely
71. 4:34problematic. And when I say raised, I was mean to go, but not
72. 4:40really. My parents didn't go. Nobody else went. It was just a
73. 4:44good thing to do. And I put that years before, long story short,
74. 4:49my friend's mom, her name is Peggy Midliaro. I ended up going
75. 4:54to a couple Bible studies that her husband taught. So a guy's name
76. 4:59is John. My friend's name was Eric. He went home to be with the
77. 5:02Lord, sadly, a couple years ago. But first place I ever remember anybody opening their Bible and
78. 5:10having me read from it. And the passage was in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 about the people who don't
79. 5:16inherit the Kingdom of God. And I was in part of that list. And I got mad. I said, I gave her to,
80. 5:22who are you to judge me speech? And she said, I didn't judge you. I just had you read it. If you
81. 5:27you feel judged just between you and the Lord.
82. 5:30And so God did His thing, saved my soul.
83. 5:34And from that point, I guess my big thing was
84. 5:36I never wanted anybody to not hear the gospel
85. 5:40and not have the opportunity at heaven.
86. 5:42And so that's kind of became my life mission.
87. 5:46Amen.
88. 5:47Amen.
89. 5:48How did you from finding Jesus and becoming a believer,
90. 5:52how did you get into apologetics?
91. 5:54And as you answer that also, if you would, please Frank,
92. 5:57define for us what is apologetics?
93. 6:01Apologetics comes from the Greek word apology,
94. 6:04which means to give a reason for why we believe
95. 6:08what we believe, to give a reasoned response.
96. 6:12And my first initiation into it was by a book
97. 6:17by Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands of Verdict,
98. 6:20in which when I first got saved, and I was reading it,
99. 6:24He said that if I could explain to people,
100. 6:27and he went on college campuses and asked some people,
101. 6:29if I could explain to you beyond a shadow of a doubt
102. 6:31that Jesus Christ was who he claimed to be,
103. 6:33and that he came, lived the life that we should have lived
104. 6:38and didn't, died and rose again from the dead,
105. 6:41would we accept him as Lord and Savior?
106. 6:44And 80 plus percentile of people still said no.
107. 6:48And so the idea was that it's not a matter
108. 6:51always giving reasons or answers, but the Holy Spirit drawing, but when he does draw to be able
109. 6:58to give the reasons and answers that people are looking for. So that was my introduction into
110. 7:04apologetics and then I, as someone who is a science major, started getting into question and the thing,
111. 7:12well, how did the world come to be? You know, the big questions and started reading the Genesis
112. 7:18record and other books like that.
113. 7:21But Henry Morris.
114. 7:22Yeah, Henry Morris really got me squared away as far as the Bible needing to be the authority
115. 7:28behind everything that we give an answer for.
116. 7:31And so many other books along the way, but that's where it started.
117. 7:35And for me, it's not what I think or feel that matters is what God has said.
118. 7:42And therefore, I need to be minded of what the scripture tells us.
119. 7:46Amen. You know, to God be the glory. By the way, if you're just tuning in, Alex McFarland
120. 7:52here along with a longtime friend and colleague Frank Figueroa of Reasons for Hope. By the
121. 7:57way, America's teens can hear Frank Figueroa this summer along with myself and people like
122. 8:04Carl Kirby and Holly Vornum. We do things called equip camps. The website is equipretreat.org
123. 8:13And all around incredible places like Montana, where it's just so beautiful.
124. 8:19And upstate New Jersey and the Hudson River Valley, just only a couple of miles from where
125. 8:26Jonathan Edwards ministered.
126. 8:28We're going to be in Florida this summer.
127. 8:30It's for middle school and high schoolers.
128. 8:32And we talk about Jesus and how to know the Lord and how to be a disciple.
129. 8:36But we really drill down deeply and we go over the mechanics of a biblical worldview and defending
130. 8:43the Christian faith. And folks, there is still time. I realize that, you know, we're well
131. 8:48into spring. Summer is just upon us almost. But go check out the website, equipretreat.org.
132. 8:55And if nothing else, please pray. Every summer, every summer we see teenagers give their life
133. 9:02to Christ. Many of the kids, they'll come two and three summers, multiple times. And we
134. 9:09We do all the fun stuff.
135. 9:10We go on hikes.
136. 9:12We play volleyball.
137. 9:13We roast marshmallows.
138. 9:14But we also, at the equip retreat, more so than any other camp I know.
139. 9:19I've spoken to it.
140. 9:21I couldn't tell you how many camps and events throughout all 50 states.
141. 9:26But, Frank, I think reasons for hope.
142. 9:30One of the reasons that I resonate so much with Carl Kirby, the founder, for one thing
143. 9:35we agree on creation.
144. 9:38And I believe what Genesis says that God created in six days rested on the seventh.
145. 9:46But the science background, I've seen it how kids, they get excited when they realize that
146. 9:55biblical cosmology is defensible.
147. 9:59The Christian gospel can be defended.
148. 10:03And no matter the question or the objection, there's a good, plausible, in fact, compelling
149. 10:09answer.
150. 10:10And there's so much I want to ask you, but don't you always get excited right about now
151. 10:15when we're just a few weeks away from the start of all of our camps?
152. 10:19I get excited because I know what we're going to see the Lord do in the lives of fantastic
153. 10:24young people.
154. 10:25It's pretty uplifting, isn't it?
155. 10:28Yeah, and I can very blown away with the relationships that have developed over the years.
156. 10:35We've seen many of the youth come to camp and they want to come back and they want to learn more.
157. 10:41Four lessons per day on average and question and answer time.
158. 10:47It's a place like no other that we can drill down into the Word of God and form relationships.
159. 10:53are put on the side and we can develop relationships with the Lord and with each other.
160. 11:00And it's really neat. In fact, you bring up the creation thing. One of the things that
161. 11:05I love talking about is irreducible complexity. And looking at the idea that when God created,
162. 11:10he created specifically and in such a way that it's mind blowing to us as people. And
163. 11:17as we look out at creation, we should, Isaiah 45 says, we should know that he is the Lord
164. 11:23and there is no other. And it's just an amazing thing. And last year at a camp, I'll throw this in
165. 11:30now in New Jersey. Met a young man who came to camp and he wasn't there for Christian apologetics.
166. 11:39He was there because he was sweet on a young lady. And so he wasn't a believer and he acknowledged
167. 11:44that. But because he forgot his toothbrush, I was the guy who went in Gautama toothbrush and
168. 11:50you know, we developed a relationship with Vertooth Brush.
169. 11:53And then he heard me speak the first night and he said,
170. 11:56you know what?
171. 11:58I like how you present it, but I can't agree with you
172. 12:01because of the science.
173. 12:03And I said, well, that's pretty neat.
174. 12:04I was a science teacher, so let's sit down and let's talk.
175. 12:08And so we talked a lot that night,
176. 12:10and he talked to the other speakers as well as they spoke.
177. 12:14And by Wednesday night, something radical happened.
178. 12:19He, he, you seen his life start to change a right before your eyes.
179. 12:23And on Thursday, he received Christ as his Lord and Savior.
180. 12:27And so it was short of incredible.
181. 12:30Uh, and, and he later told us it was because of the defenses of things
182. 12:36within the scientific realm that he didn't realize that he could actually, um,
183. 12:41trust the Bible and trust scientific truth at the same time that he felt that
184. 12:45they were mutually exclusive. I'll wrap the story up. We get a call six weeks after that
185. 12:54camp that this young man went home to be with the Lord. Oh my goodness. He got on his motorcycle
186. 13:01and rode to work and a car hit him and he never survived the hit. Goodness. And yet I know where
187. 13:08he is. And I know that I will see him again someday. And I'm not naming his name for the
188. 13:13the sake of just being kind to his parents and such,
189. 13:18what's pretty interesting is we recorded his testimony
190. 13:22that he shared on a Friday,
191. 13:24and we shared it with his family after the fact,
192. 13:27and they played it at his celebration of life service.
193. 13:32And many of his family members came to Christ.
194. 13:35Amen.
195. 13:35Because of that 92nd video of a life change
196. 13:39because of equipped camps and not because of us at the camps,
197. 13:44but because of what the law is doing at the camps.
198. 13:47So yeah, it starts with the relationship
199. 13:52and then conversations happen and truth flows from that
200. 13:55and some remarkably amazing things transpire,
201. 14:00including the many who got saved and one
202. 14:02who shortly thereafter went to meet the Lord Eddie surrender to.
203. 14:06Indeed.
204. 14:07The voice you're hearing is Frank Figueroa, Alex McFarland here.
205. 14:10When we come back, we've got a brief break.
206. 14:11We're going to drill down into some of the questions
207. 14:14about the Christian faith.
208. 14:15But hey, Frank, last fall, we had a big event
209. 14:19on the coast of North Carolina in November, end of year.
210. 14:222,000 teenagers, many equip alumni.
211. 14:27And we, 9 o'clock on a Saturday night, was free time.
212. 14:32But 500 of the 2,000 stayed for two more hours of Q&A.
213. 14:37kids do care about truth. Folks, I assure you that's why the church needs to do
214. 14:41worldview apologetics because they've got questions. Fortunately, God's Word has
215. 14:46answers. Stay tuned. Alex and Frank back after this brief break. When dad passed away
216. 15:01in 07, he left uninheritance and they had saved and saved through the years.
217. 15:08I was just wondering what I could do with that money invested or whatever. I knew
218. 15:15that I would like to help the Lord somehow in his work.
219. 15:19And then I kept hearing about the charitable gift in Newity,
220. 15:22and I thought, well, that really sounds good.
221. 15:25And I knew that AFR would just be the best,
222. 15:28because they're in my home all day, all day long.
223. 15:33And I kind of wanted to partner with the Lord
224. 15:35through AFR and AFA and give back.
225. 15:39And I just felt like I knew that's what I wanted to do.
226. 15:42Like I say, it's just so easy.
227. 15:47I would just highly recommend the foundation.
228. 16:05Shiting light into the darkness,
229. 16:07this is the Hamilton Corner, an American family radio.
230. 16:12Welcome back to the program, Alex McFarland.
231. 16:14We're gonna resume our conversation with Frank Figueroa.
232. 16:17Just a brazen, shameless commercial.
233. 16:20My website is alexmakfarland.com.
234. 16:24The camps that Frank and I are speaking of
235. 16:26is equipretreat.org.
236. 16:29By the way, I'm on tour in addition to all the youth
237. 16:32events that we do.
238. 16:33We've got really a tour called Revive US.
239. 16:38You can learn about that at alexmickfarlane.com.
240. 16:42We're all over the country promoting spiritual awakening.
241. 16:46And that's vitally important.
242. 16:48And so if you would like a Revive US event in your city,
243. 16:53won't cost you anything.
244. 16:55We will ask you to gather people around and pray,
245. 16:57but you can learn about all that we're doing
246. 16:59at alexmikfarlane.com.
247. 17:02Frank, how about you?
248. 17:02Where may people find you online and the work you do, brother?
249. 17:07Oh, reasonsforhope.com, R-4-H, R-F-L-R-H.com.
250. 17:14It has all of my speaking schedule and everything.
251. 17:17If you click on my name and you go to speakers,
252. 17:19you'll see Carl Wan, myself, Holly, I mean, all of us.
253. 17:22and it'll list out all the different places that we're speaking,
254. 17:25upcoming for the summer, bunch of camps,
255. 17:28and actually I have a pretty cool opportunity
256. 17:31to be one of the speakers at Rise Fest in Iowa this year.
257. 17:36You have Josiah Queen is going to be playing
258. 17:39as well as other musicians,
259. 17:43and they have a big festival,
260. 17:45and one of the, they have speakers that speak in between.
261. 17:50And so Phil Wickham will be another one that will be there.
262. 17:55Yeah, but they allowed me opportunity to share the gospel.
263. 18:00And I will be talking about how we are,
264. 18:04everyone is allowed approximately 40 million minutes.
265. 18:07That's the average lifespan.
266. 18:09And so the question that we're going to add,
267. 18:12try to answer is what are we spending our minutes on?
268. 18:14And is it, are we doing the right thing by those minutes?
269. 18:17Because they're running out.
270. 18:19So that's what I'll be speaking on, but they're expecting 25,000 to 30,000 people there.
271. 18:24So I'm a little bit nervous, but pretty excited.
272. 18:27Well, we will be praying for you that God will really speak through you, and I know you'll
273. 18:31do a fantastic job.
274. 18:33I just want to say, Frank, no flattery here.
275. 18:37I've heard a lot of speakers work with a lot of speakers, including, you mentioned Josh
276. 18:42McDowell, really kind of my hero and mentor, and he and I toured together extensively.
277. 18:49I've been blessed to work with a lot of people, but you really are one of maybe the best speaker
278. 18:57that I've heard on creation versus evolution. There's a talk you do, you mentioned the term
279. 19:03irreducible complexity, and I want you to define what that is, but you do a talk where
280. 19:10you show a tape measure and you show a woodpecker and you show a Venus fly trap plant and you're
281. 19:21talking about design and nature and how these functionality, specificity could not have
282. 19:28come about randomly, accidentally.
283. 19:32Tell us a little bit about that because from a science background, you very powerfully
284. 19:39defend creation and the fact that there is a creator designer, God.
285. 19:46But give us a little taste of that talk if you would, Frank.
286. 19:51Yeah.
287. 19:52That one I call the creator and the little blue dot and the idea that we are in the
288. 19:58perfect, they call it the habitable zone.
289. 20:01have named it the Goldilocks Zone. We're in a place that's not too hot, not too cold,
290. 20:05but just right. So what are the chances that we're in the perfect place to not only have life on this
291. 20:11planet, but the perfect situations within this planet to allow life to be had, a gravitational force that
292. 20:20keep the molecules that we need closer to the Earth, like oxygen, for instance, to sustain life.
293. 20:30and yet not so strong as to keep some of the ones
294. 20:33that are dangerous to us farther away from the earth.
295. 20:36What are the chances that God created these animals
296. 20:41and plants the way that he did?
297. 20:44Michael Beihy, Dr. Michael Beihy,
298. 20:46when he wrote his book, Darwin's Black Box.
299. 20:49He talked about irreducible complexity
300. 20:50and how ultimately when you do not have bottom-up building,
301. 20:56we don't see that scientifically.
302. 20:57what we see is things coming to be with all of their distinct parts at one time,
303. 21:03because without all of the parts, it ceases to function.
304. 21:05For instance, the woodpecker, it has not only the thickest bone per body weight of
305. 21:13any creature on the planet in its skull, but it comes with a shock absorber between
306. 21:17its beak and its skull.
307. 21:18Its tongue actually wraps from its mouth around its skull back into its mouth.
308. 21:25Much like a tape measure.
309. 21:26Yeah, to be able to take the impact of his pecking, he's able to then have a glue factory in his
310. 21:33mouth that sticks the bugs that he's trying to get to his tongue, which would be awesome
311. 21:38except for when he goes to swallow his food, he should swallow his tongue in the process.
312. 21:43But that doesn't happen because he has a solvent factory at the base of his jaws for only that
313. 21:48type of glue.
314. 21:49What are the chances that all of these things come into place by random chance acts?
315. 21:56is it's impossible. And so therefore, it's one of the things I love to talk about, the Venus fly trap.
316. 22:05It knows the difference between bugs that will pollinate it and bugs that won't.
317. 22:12A notch tip, a flower, long horn, beetles, green sweat bees,
318. 22:15these different things that pollinate it. The bug, the plant doesn't eat those bugs.
319. 22:19But it does eat almost every other type of bug.
320. 22:22It has three hairs on each pad,
321. 22:25and ultimately they start a timer when the bug touches it,
322. 22:29that if the bug touches a second trigger hair
323. 22:34within the 20 seconds, the plant will close and eat the bug.
324. 22:38So you've got timer, you've got memory,
325. 22:40you've got all kinds of a non-tooth carnivore,
326. 22:43and yet all these things come together in one plant,
327. 22:46and my argument is to give God glory.
328. 22:48That's why you did it.
329. 22:50You know, Frank, when you did the talk
330. 22:53on the Venus fly trap plant,
331. 22:55that raised my attention because I'm from North Carolina
332. 22:59and that plant is really native to North Carolina
333. 23:02down on the coastal plain way down east
334. 23:05and sometimes perhaps you and I can take a hike.
335. 23:08I can show you places where it grows in the wild.
336. 23:12It's pretty rare.
337. 23:13That would be amazing.
338. 23:14Yeah, you can go to like a pet store
339. 23:17and you can buy a Venus fly trap that was maybe grown in a lab.
340. 23:22But I have many hikes down on the coast.
341. 23:25I know where you can find these in the wild.
342. 23:29What else is really a trip is you see these cilia
343. 23:34or these little fibers.
344. 23:36And if the right kind of bug disturbs those,
345. 23:40it'll close on that.
346. 23:41And yet it doesn't close on raindrops.
347. 23:44Raindrops can hit those very same cilia, and somehow another, the Venus flytrap plant,
348. 23:51knows, quote unquote, the raindrop hitting the cilia is not the same as a bug hitting the cilia.
349. 23:59I mean, it's just fascinating, and that's one of millions of botanical wonders created by God,
350. 24:07and there's, you know, plant life, animal life, human life, angelic life.
351. 24:12If God created those four categories of life.
352. 24:16And I guess the point of chasing this little rabbit trail is just when I look at the creation,
353. 24:23I ponder on it the infinitesimally small percentage of what we actually know.
354. 24:29I just have to bow my head and I say, God, I give you glory.
355. 24:33God, you're an amazing creator, an artist, and a merciful savior.
356. 24:40This same God that hung the planets operates the solar system, sustains planet Earth.
357. 24:49This same Almighty God loves us enough that He sent His Son Jesus to be our forgiver and
358. 24:55our Savior.
359. 24:57It really is just about overwhelming for the human mind to ponder, isn't it, Frank?
360. 25:03Yeah, and the next generation loves it.
361. 25:07I mean, what I mean by that is I've given that presentation at dozens of places.
362. 25:14Every single time you have people coming up, oh, I love what you said about this, but you
363. 25:18always bring it back to the emphasis that he is the creator of all things, according to
364. 25:25Colossians, according to book John, the first chapter that by him all things were created.
365. 25:35And therefore, we can not only know that someone created these things, because you need
366. 25:40intelligence to be able to create, but we can actually know the one, the exact person
367. 25:46who created these things as our Lord and our Savior, not just as an intelligent designer,
368. 25:52because of the way that he makes eternal life possible through what he did on the cross.
369. 25:58So it's nothing short of incredible and youth love the idea of tying the real world into
370. 26:07the Bible.
371. 26:08And ultimately, I love bringing up this point, you can use both.
372. 26:12Jesus, when he taught, for instance, when he was giving the Sermon on the Mount, he said,
373. 26:19consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air to think or consider.
374. 26:27These are scientific terms to study, to understand, because he even goes as far as to tell people
375. 26:33the Pharisees at the time that they could discern the signs of the times of the weather by using
376. 26:39scientific methods.
377. 26:41How could they not understand the scriptural principles?
378. 26:44So it's okay to use solid, accurate science along with the Bible to bring people to a conclusion.
379. 26:52And I think that we're just fortunate to have opportunities to do that, especially with the
380. 26:57next generation.
381. 26:58Amen.
382. 26:59Amen.
383. 27:00And Frank, I've got to do this.
384. 27:05And I can't believe we're having this conversation.
385. 27:07By the way, Alex McFarland here along with the apologist, author, speaker, Frank Figueroa,
386. 27:13who I would encourage that you bring him to your city.
387. 27:18The subject of flat earth.
388. 27:20I can't believe we're having to talk about this, but this is real.
389. 27:25You know, a couple of months ago, I think it was January actually, I was speaking at a
390. 27:29university and a young man came up to me very, he was completely serious, and he had
391. 27:34just about abandoned the Christian faith because he saw a YouTube video arguing that the earth
392. 27:41is flat, not spherical.
393. 27:44And we talked and I did what any good apologists would do.
394. 27:49I called Frank Figueroa and I said, hey, Frank, please talk to this student, which you graciously
395. 27:54did.
396. 27:55But can't believe I'm saying it.
397. 27:59Talk to us about the issue of the return of belief.
398. 28:05Lord help us in a flat earth.
399. 28:08Yeah.
400. 28:09You had Orlando Ferguson was probably the springboard for the modern flat earth push.
401. 28:18That was in 1893.
402. 28:19He came out with a map and within that map, he had a lot of scripture validating the flat
403. 28:26earth idea.
404. 28:29Now bring that to today.
405. 28:31You have people who have bought into that idea of that the earth is flat, that because
406. 28:39the Bible mentions the word foundation, that it ultimately is a flat surface.
407. 28:45people because they post videos on YouTube, YouTube has become the biggest
408. 28:50proponent of the flat earth theory. In fact, their algorithms, once you watch one,
409. 28:55it sends you more and so it keeps feeding you this idea over and over and over
410. 28:59again. But the bottom line is, is that ultimately the earth is not flat, it is a
411. 29:07sphere or a globe. And so how would you defend that against somebody who has all
412. 29:13of these verses. Well, you need to look up things like what the passages mean literally.
413. 29:19What I mean by that is, in their context, is it written from certain language perspectives
414. 29:28that remember when we translate words from Hebrew or Greek into English, those are called
415. 29:36transliterations. And what happens is, you got meaning gets lost within those transliterations.
416. 29:44For instance, I'll give you an idea. Phenomenological language, it's something that's written so that
417. 29:50we understand it from our perspective. So when you read the book of Joshua and you see that the sun
418. 29:56stood still, for those of us who know good science, we know that the sun always stands still.
419. 30:02It's not like the sun was moving in that all of a sudden stood still, but what is being
420. 30:08used there is phenomenological language that the sun stood still from our perspective.
421. 30:14And so understanding these literary principles, and you can look through many of the scriptures
422. 30:21and debunk them as far as many of the ideas.
423. 30:28You have cognates, which are words that mean the same thing.
424. 30:32They sound the same in different languages, but they have different meanings.
425. 30:36Right.
426. 30:37And so let me say this, Frank, because folks, whenever the Bible is translated, there's what's
427. 30:42called the donor language and there's the recipient language.
428. 30:46The donor language is Hebrew and Greek with a little bit of Aramaic.
429. 30:51The recipient language, at least in our case, is English or it could be Spanish or Cantonese
430. 30:57or Hindi or Bimba. God's word is translated into, well, it's, they're attempting to put
431. 31:05it in every dialect on earth. And folks, the reason I digress momentarily is because every
432. 31:13now and then people will say, well, there's been so many translations, you know, who knows
433. 31:17what the Bible means. Well, war, you know, biblical translation is a word exchange program.
434. 31:24And when it says, Jesus rose from the dead, you know, regardless of the language, it means
435. 31:31Jesus rose from the dead.
436. 31:33And so Frank, I'll throw it back to you, but the, you know, there are words that, like
437. 31:38you say, sound similar or the same, but have different meanings.
438. 31:42But actually, biblical translation is one of the most exacting sciences in the world.
439. 31:51And my point is, folks, you can know what God's Word says, and it says you must be born again,
440. 31:59and there's no ambiguity on that point.
441. 32:03Is there, Frank?
442. 32:04No.
443. 32:05And if the Holy Spirit is working in us, he is the explainer of truth.
444. 32:10And so there is an answer to be had.
445. 32:12It's just understanding what I would argue can be helped with a basic understanding of
446. 32:18biblical hermeneutics.
447. 32:20Why, what is that passage saying?
448. 32:23And what does it mean?
449. 32:25And I noticed I didn't say what does it mean to me?
450. 32:30Because the church has got into isegesis rather than exegesis.
451. 32:36What I mean by that is,
452. 32:37we've gotten away from what does the passage mean,
453. 32:40which is the primary into what does the passage mean to me?
454. 32:44Which there can be-
455. 32:45Well, that's far.
456. 32:46We gotta pull away, folks.
457. 32:47We're talking with Frank Figueroa about God's truth, how to know it, how to defend it.
458. 32:52Stay tuned, we've got a brief break and we'll be back.
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472. 34:10Back to the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio.
473. 34:16Welcome back to the program, Alex McFarland here along with our friend and colleague, Frank
474. 34:21Figaroa, Reasons for Hope. By the way, if you like this program, it's archived as all the
475. 34:26shows are at aFR.net as in AmericanFamilyRadio.net, AFR.net. And maybe you want to listen again,
476. 34:36maybe you want to share it with somebody, because even though we're talking about a number of
477. 34:41different subjects, the bottom line is this, Jesus Christ loves you. The most verifiable
478. 34:48life of the ancient world, the life of Christ, that he rose from the dead, and he did that
479. 34:54after having paid our sin debt. And we always say this, but it's really true, folks. If you're
480. 34:59thinking about where you stand with God, or maybe at one point in your life you considered yourself
481. 35:05a Christian, but now maybe not, there's questions, there's issues. Look, Jesus is as close by as a
482. 35:12prayer. That is really, really true. And I can prove it because in a number of verses like John 6,
483. 35:20verse 37, Christ said, the one who comes to me, I will in no way reject. Jesus really is as close by
484. 35:28as a prayer. Maybe you're listening to this show and maybe you need to come to Christ. Maybe you
485. 35:33You need to come back to Christ.
486. 35:37Jesus is real.
487. 35:39I guarantee Frank Figaro and I, we could do 100 hours of content on the reality of God,
488. 35:47the trustworthiness of the Bible, the absolute reality, the historicity of Jesus, his death,
489. 35:54burial, resurrection.
490. 35:55And he did that because he loves you.
491. 35:57I'm going to say this, I'm going to throw it to Frank, but listen, whatever you're going
492. 36:01through.
493. 36:03We get easily a hundred emails a day and we love to hear from all of the listeners.
494. 36:08People are going through things and there's stress and finances and family and just life,
495. 36:15right?
496. 36:16Jesus Christ cares for you.
497. 36:18Jesus Christ sees you where you are in the journey.
498. 36:22He loves you supremely.
499. 36:23He really does.
500. 36:25Turn to Him today.
501. 36:26That's truly where life begins.
502. 36:29Frank, I was in California in O6 with a man that had just won a Grammy award.
503. 36:39He ultimately came to Christ.
504. 36:40He was a friend.
505. 36:42He was holding in his hand a Grammy.
506. 36:47Most people would say that, oh, that's the top of the mountain.
507. 36:50He looked at me and said, I'd give everything I've ever done to know that my Father loved
508. 36:54me.
509. 36:55We told him about the Heavenly Father.
510. 36:57He opens his heart to Jesus.
511. 36:59And Frank, that's what the human heart really craves, isn't it?
512. 37:03It's not money, it's not stuff, it's not the bling of life.
513. 37:08I really believe the human heart is unfulfilled until we have a relationship with Almighty
514. 37:15God and that's through Jesus Christ.
515. 37:18Amen.
516. 37:19the world that we're in today, it pushes us to be intellectually smart people to really know things
517. 37:28and to be able to defend or argue a position or a point. In fact, one of the things we use in our
518. 37:37in our ministry is called debunk videos. It's looking at something that the world pushes and
519. 37:41debunking that idea. But even if we could debunk every false logical notion out there,
520. 37:49and we have not embraced Christ as Lord and Savior,
521. 37:52we really have nothing.
522. 37:53In fact, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
523. 37:59that if we have not believed that Jesus came, died,
524. 38:03and what it's speaking of as resurrected from the dead,
525. 38:06that we are the most pitiable of all people,
526. 38:10because really we have nothing.
527. 38:13And so therefore, to me, it's not only able to,
528. 38:18being able to defend truths, but being able to introduce people to the author of truth, Jesus himself.
529. 38:26It would do no good to be able to prove to a scientist even that evolution is a false model.
530. 38:35If I don't introduce that person to Christ and at least give them an opportunity to repent of their sins and turn to Him,
531. 38:42because the knowledge does it save.
532. 38:45What saves is the Holy Spirit working in the heart,
533. 38:48convicting us of sin and trying to exalt
534. 38:51ourself above the knowledge of God.
535. 38:54And so yeah, the importance and the primary
536. 38:58is making sure that we get to talk to people about Jesus.
537. 39:02Indeed.
538. 39:02Before the break, you were talking about,
539. 39:05and I've heard this many times,
540. 39:07maybe you're in Sunday school or Bible study
541. 39:10and somebody reads a verse.
542. 39:11And the leader will say, Frank, tell us what that means to you.
543. 39:17And that's not really the right question.
544. 39:20It's not what does it mean to me, quote unquote, what does it mean?
545. 39:24So if you would talk about objectivity in handling the word of God, not subjective spin,
546. 39:32but objective truth, comment on the objective nature of God's written revelation, if you
547. 39:39would.
548. 39:41Yeah, because when we read a passage, we should want to know what was actually said,
549. 39:48who it was said to, and why was it said. And so therefore, we can know that using proper
550. 39:55biblical harmonetics, understanding who it was written to, why it was written, and what the author's
551. 40:03intended purpose was to the hearer of that particular passage. And that is understandable
552. 40:11and it's knowable. And so we should be people who are striving to understand that. We have
553. 40:16gotten into the isogenic mindset, what does it mean to you? But I have believed and falsely
554. 40:23so a lot of times all kinds of ideas that ended up not being true, no matter what I believe.
555. 40:29And so therefore, my belief in something, my feeling that it's true for me is all relativism.
556. 40:40It really means nothing.
557. 40:41When it comes to what we want to know, it's what God has said and ultimately what he wants
558. 40:47us to know from what he said.
559. 40:49And so it's knowing the scripture but knowing why he gave that scripture.
560. 40:53And it's of utmost importance for sure.
561. 40:57Frank, as you're on the road, and by the way, you've got a big event coming up. Tell people about
562. 41:04that because it might be something people could attend. You're going to be sharing the gospel
563. 41:09at a major, major happening this summer, aren't you? Yeah, Phil Wickham, Josiah Queen, a bunch of
564. 41:17other people. What happens is in Iowa, from what I understand, they have a festival called the Rise
565. 41:24Fest. This rise fest was developed because the largest gathering in Iowa, as far as the record goes,
566. 41:33was for a former long time ago Ku Klux Klan meeting. And so, Iowa desires to have that record taken
567. 41:42from them, at least some of the Christians in Iowa, and that record honor be given to something else.
568. 41:48And so their desire is to get at least 26,000 people
569. 41:52to gather to worship Jesus.
570. 41:55And so I will be fortunate to be the one
571. 41:58who will be there at the,
572. 42:01well, there will be other speakers as well at the rise fest.
573. 42:04It'll be actually June 12th and 13th in Sheldon, Iowa.
574. 42:09And so I would, if you're able to come, come on out
575. 42:13in between each band, there will be guest speakers.
576. 42:15I'm just one of them.
577. 42:16But it would be a great opportunity to not only set a record that proclaims the name of Jesus,
578. 42:21but that we can worship the Lord and we can fellowship together and hear people and encourage us in God's work.
579. 42:28So it's a great opportunity in that way.
580. 42:30Do you know the dates of that again?
581. 42:33The 12th and the 13th of June.
582. 42:36Of June.
583. 42:37In Egypt.
584. 42:38In Egypt.
585. 42:38In Iowa.
586. 42:39We'll be praying for you in that regard.
587. 42:42Let me ask you this.
588. 42:44As you travel, what are the top one or two questions
589. 42:49that you are hearing that people grapple with?
590. 42:54Well, both of them actually came out in Hawaii,
591. 42:59in Hawaii, I'm fortunate because I was a licensed teacher there.
592. 43:03I go into schools and I'm still allowed to share.
593. 43:06I just went into a school Hawaii Tech Academy
594. 43:09and they allowed me to share during their lunch time.
595. 43:11So therefore nobody was forced to attend.
596. 43:13And we had a pretty decent crowd of youth that came out.
597. 43:15We had pizza and talked and the two main questions
598. 43:19that came up was number one,
599. 43:22how can I believe your Bible?
600. 43:25What makes your Bible trustworthy?
601. 43:27What makes what you believe as a Christian different
602. 43:30than the other religions?
603. 43:31Cause there are many religious practices
604. 43:34that go on in Hawaii.
605. 43:36And we have many different religions.
606. 43:37And so therefore what makes your stand apart?
607. 43:41to which one of my answers always focuses on the resurrection,
608. 43:45that Jesus Christ is the only person who claimed to be God
609. 43:47who died, who actually rose himself from the dead.
610. 43:51The other one is, if God is so good,
611. 43:55why would he allow so much pain and suffering?
612. 43:58Yeah, yeah.
613. 43:59If it is good, why would he allow bad?
614. 44:02And so the bottom line is it brings me to the conclusion
615. 44:06that the youth know about suffering.
616. 44:08They know what it is to feel pain.
617. 44:10They know what it is to want to weigh out of it.
618. 44:13And what they're saying in the first question,
619. 44:16by wanting to know what makes me so sure the Bible is true,
620. 44:19is that their system isn't working.
621. 44:22Because if it was working, they would know that's true.
622. 44:25And they would be seeking that information from that source.
623. 44:29But they're not.
624. 44:30And so therefore, we have an amazing opportunity
625. 44:33to let people know of a savior that came and suffered
626. 44:38and that he not only suffered and died and rose himself in the dead, but he offered a direct line of
627. 44:44truth from God the Father. And so we can actually meet the two greatest needs for the greatest
628. 44:52questions at least that I'm seeing in what was it? Jesus. And it starts with just having a conversation
629. 44:58with people and let him know that because he lives, I can live too and ultimately you can as well.
630. 45:10And so we need to, that's why I love the title of our ministry, Reasons for Hope. Our desire is to
631. 45:16give people an actual hope based on reason that is in the person of Jesus Christ and that's absolutely
632. 45:24doable when we combine what the Holy Spirit is doing in us and the Word of God as He speaks
633. 45:29it to the souls of men.
634. 45:31I love 2 Peter 1, 16 through 21, but let me just focus in on verse 16.
635. 45:38Regarding the Gospel, Peter says this, we have not followed cleverly devised fables when
636. 45:45we've made none under you the power and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
637. 45:50Folks, this gospel, it's reality.
638. 45:52It's not a myth, it's not a legend, it's not a fairy tale.
639. 45:56It is the most historically documentable life of the ancient world, Jesus and His resurrection.
640. 46:03And oh my goodness, we could talk endlessly.
641. 46:06I give God the glory.
642. 46:08I've personally written 21 original books on the evidences for the gospel.
643. 46:13Frank, it's such a blessing to be with you.
644. 46:15I've got to ask you this as we time just ticks away here.
645. 46:21We have the Bible.
646. 46:22We call it the Canon of Scripture, the 66 canonical books, Genesis through Malachi, Matthew through
647. 46:30Revelation.
648. 46:32And for centuries, centuries, we've known this is the Bible.
649. 46:37In recent years, there have been ancient works.
650. 46:42were not contemporary with the Bible. In fact, they came several hundred years later. Sometimes
651. 46:47they're called the Gnostic writings, pseudopigrifica. One in particular that gets all kind of PR is
652. 46:56called the book of Enoch. And it's kind of fascinating, talks about giants and things like that.
653. 47:03Here's my question. What is your view on the the apocryphal writings? And why do you think it is that
654. 47:11that people will be obsessed with these
655. 47:16when they actually could and should be reading
656. 47:19the actual Bible, which is the documentable word of God.
657. 47:23What's the buzz around all the apocryphal books, Frank?
658. 47:28Real quick, I think it goes back to the Garden of Eden.
659. 47:33You have the two trees, the knowledge of good and evil,
660. 47:35and the tree of life, and God laid out his plan
661. 47:40for Adam and Eve, he gave them boundaries to live within,
662. 47:43but they wanted knowledge above and beyond what he gave.
663. 47:47And they chose and they chose poorly
664. 47:49and they suffered the consequences of their choice,
665. 47:52but ultimately God wanted to give them directly,
666. 47:57being a conversation with them
667. 48:00because we have record of him walking in the garden
668. 48:02with them and talking with them.
669. 48:03And so we know ultimately that his desire
670. 48:07was to be in a relationship with them,
671. 48:08but they wanted more, they wanted something else.
672. 48:12And so I think a lot of these apocryphal writings
673. 48:14and these different books,
674. 48:17they get into things that is a little bit more detailed,
675. 48:22nuanced, whatever you wanna call it,
676. 48:24on some things that really don't matter,
677. 48:26but people we get obsessed with that, giants,
678. 48:29one of the other questions that I always get asked about
679. 48:32is a nephilim, and I'm not gonna spend time going into it,
680. 48:35But the idea being that because that's something
681. 48:38that a lot of people see as almost unanswerable,
682. 48:42they wanna know more because they feel
683. 48:44that God is holding out.
684. 48:46But God actually gave us exactly what we need.
685. 48:49In the 66 books, all pointing to one person,
686. 48:55Christ, one central theme,
687. 48:58and no coercion in the writing styles of people
688. 49:03of people and what they said, you see the nuances of each individual writer coming out,
689. 49:09but in ways that God is directing.
690. 49:11Is this the ultimate screenplay?
691. 49:12And so my thing is if we have the ultimate, why would we settle for less than that?
692. 49:17Well said, Frank Figueroa.
693. 49:19You'll see him this summer on tour, the equip camps.
694. 49:22I'll be there too.
695. 49:23The website is equipretreat.org.
696. 49:26Thanks for listening.
697. 49:27Stay bold, stand strong, speak truth, and may the Lord bless you in all things.
698. 49:31Thanks for listening.
699. 49:39The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American
700. 49:44Family Association or American Family Radio.