Cursing the darkness is not Great Commission execution.

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18. 1:23me to be his ambassador. Even in this dark moment. Let's not miss our moment. And now the Hamilton
19. 1:32Corner. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Hamilton Corner here on American Family Radio.
20. 1:39I'm your host Abraham Hamilton the third joined by our produced extraordinaire, Mr. Jeff McIntosh,
21. 1:45the real Jay Mac. And we're ready to rock and roll with today's edition of the program.
22. 1:50as we are here, 25 years after the worst terrorist attack to ever occur on
23. 2:00American soil. I remember just like it was yesterday where I was when this
24. 2:05happened. I was coming out of my dorm room because I was in college at the
25. 2:11time and walking by the lobby, the lobby in my dorm room at my university had a
26. 2:18big screen TV in the lobby and I saw the news coverage and then saw the news
27. 2:28reporting the planes slamming into the towers and it's it's it's always been
28. 2:36something that has grieved me deeply but for some reason it's hitting me a bit
29. 2:43harder today looking at our nation I mean it's obvious that the locations that
30. 2:55were selected to attack the Pentagon and the World Trade Center towers were selected intentionally
31. 3:06to make a statement.
32. 3:08As to what they thought represented the United States of America and by they I mean the
33. 3:15Muslim terrorists.
34. 3:17And part of the reason why it's hitting me harder today is because on this day, the
35. 3:2625th year of memorial observance of that
36. 3:31Evil attack and I'm saying evil intentionally because
37. 3:35Islamic terrorism is is demonically inspired and I know that's not a politically correct thing to say but I'm gonna say it anyway because it's true and
38. 3:49There are some who
39. 3:52Seek or let me say it this way when you have terrorists who are
40. 3:57acting on
41. 4:00Muhammadan instruction, they engage in their acts of terrorism in an effort to
42. 4:07ultimately move toward having the world submit to Islam. That's their
43. 4:13ultimate objective. And I look at our nation then, you know, I remember, and some
44. 4:24of you will remember this because I was in college at the time, I would I would
45. 4:27fly often from back and forth from New Orleans to my college and and I
46. 4:32I remember my parents walking me to the gate.
47. 4:36Y'all remember that?
48. 4:36When you could actually walk to the gate in the airport
49. 4:42and you could pretty much park your car
50. 4:44right outside of the front of the airport,
51. 4:46take your keys, go inside and hang out with your family
52. 4:49literally until you board.
53. 4:50The family didn't have to have a boarding pass
54. 4:54or a ticket and just our entire way of life
55. 4:58has been adjusted now following that.
56. 5:01And as I am talking to you now, we have the things that have transpired in our nation
57. 5:06since then.
58. 5:09We have the Islamianist in New York City.
59. 5:12We have the squad in Congress that includes Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar.
60. 5:20We have Abdul Syed attempting to secure the US Senate, a seat in the US Senate from the
61. 5:28state of Michigan.
62. 5:29we have what's happened with the infusion of the transformation of the Twin Cities area
63. 5:36or significant portions of it into something similar to Mogadishu. In Minnesota, we have
64. 5:43the ascendancy of a Shiite Islamic population in Hamtramic and Dearborn, Michigan, with
65. 5:52Hamtramic being the first majority Muslim city in the United States of America, Dearborn,
66. 5:58increasingly, if not already achieving that status as a second.
67. 6:03And it is grieving to me because we have some children who have not even learned what transpired on September 11.
68. 6:16I mean, you just had legislation passed in the state of Texas to allow the radical idea that the trade tower attack was related to Islamic terrorism.
69. 6:28Like, that was a controversial thing to say, even though we know the motivation of the
70. 6:37terrorist attackers themselves and how in Gaza, there was massive celebrations on the streets
71. 6:48on September 11th. Candy was being distributed. Women were handing out cakes and pieces of cakes
72. 6:54and they celebrated as our fellow countrymen were murdered in that terrorist attack.
73. 7:01I'm heavy-hearted about this because, as I said a few moments ago, some have never even
74. 7:09learned what happened on September 11th and some have conveniently forgotten. And both of those,
75. 7:19in my estimation, reflect a sad, but sobering reality that they are features of what occurs
76. 7:29when people turn away from the Lord.
77. 7:33And so my hope and prayer for our nation is that we find our way back to the Lord in repentance
78. 7:42and faith.
79. 7:43Not saying that we don't have a remnant, praise God, I know there's a remnant in our nation.
80. 7:48But if our nation is going to be great, that greatness must be the result of us humbly submitting
81. 7:55ourselves and repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
82. 8:01So the word of God we go, judge us chapter six.
83. 8:04Judge us chapter six verses 11 through 14.
84. 8:10This portion of scripture is where the angel of the Lord
85. 8:14encounters Gideon as the scripture bears out.
86. 8:18Gideon did not yet know the Lord
87. 8:20when he was intentionally encountered there.
88. 8:23But this encounter began the development
89. 8:26of Gideon's personal relationship with Yahweh.
90. 8:29And this is what the text says.
91. 8:30Judge us chapter six verse 11.
92. 8:33It says, now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the
93. 8:36terabents at Ophra, which belonged to Joash the Abizarite.
94. 8:43While his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press
95. 8:46to hide it from the Midianites.
96. 8:48And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him,
97. 8:52the Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.
98. 8:56And Gideon said to him, please, my Lord, or please, sir,
99. 9:01if the Lord, and most of your Bible you'll see Lord is in all caps there, right?
100. 9:09If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all
101. 9:20His wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us saying, did not the Lord
102. 9:28bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the
103. 9:34hand of Midian. As I mentioned, Gideon did not yet know the Lord himself in personal relationship
104. 9:42at this juncture at this stage of his life. But I want you to notice something here. Gideon poses
105. 9:52a question to the angel of the Lord. That question is, was several questions. The first was, if the
106. 10:00Lord is with us, why then has all this happened? Because this is at a time when the Midianites were
107. 10:06pressing the Israelites. But then the second question was, and where are all the Lord's
108. 10:11wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us saying, did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?
109. 10:23That second question is what I want to present to you for consideration, because you'll notice
110. 10:27it was not that Gideon was unaware of the testimonies of Yahweh provided to him
111. 10:36by his father's plural.
112. 10:39And I will remind you reading later on in this chapter,
113. 10:42you'll find that as this encounter is transpiring,
114. 10:45Gideon's own dad, Joash, the Abiza right,
115. 10:49has altered to bail and the astral pole in his front yard
116. 10:55at this very junction.
117. 10:56So in Gideon says that where all of YAH was wonderful deeds
118. 11:00that our fathers recounted to us,
119. 11:03he's including the ancestral heritage in Israel.
120. 11:09In other words, with Gideon is saying he's heard all of these stories about God, these stories.
121. 11:19But God's going to tell you something hearing about God's historical record is not synonymous
122. 11:25with walking with the Lord yourself, serving him yourself, worshiping him yourself.
123. 11:34This passage of scripture really struck me in preparation for today's show because in many
124. 11:39Anyways, people talk about America being a Christian nation.
125. 11:42And is it that we have a critical mass of Christians in America?
126. 11:51Or is it that we've just, we've heard and recounted the stories our fathers have told
127. 11:56us in other generations?
128. 12:00In this example from the scripture, Gideon is saying, yeah, we've heard about Yahweh and
129. 12:06who he is and what he does.
130. 12:09But we at though, I don't see that.
131. 12:12I don't see it.
132. 12:13I don't see it.
133. 12:14I don't see it happening now.
134. 12:15I mean, I'm searching a week behind a wine press.
135. 12:18Pops has the ashrapole in the front yard, you know.
136. 12:22I heard about it, but what does that mean to me?
137. 12:25And my concern is that we're in a similar place
138. 12:27in our nation in the sense that we haven't got,
139. 12:30we trust on our Federal Reserve notes,
140. 12:33you know, and God we trust is our national motto.
141. 12:35We have a First Amendment that allows for religious freedom
142. 12:39to which I often consider what is religious freedom
143. 12:42if we truly believe what the scripture says,
144. 12:44only one name unto heaven by which men must be saved, which means if that is true, the
145. 12:52claim to the way of salvation is exclusive. Well, that means in an environment where religious
146. 13:01freedom is available and people are placing their trust in a name other than the name of Jesus Christ,
147. 13:09then they are believing errantly in that errant disposition as John 3 17 says well
148. 13:19they're condemned already I know this isn't this isn't comfortable you know for
149. 13:27the syncretists among us you know for the is funny Oprah Winfrey's name is
150. 13:34taken from this phrase her mom misspelled Oprah and Orpa from the book of Ruth
151. 13:42the name of Oprah.
152. 13:44But she's the one that was one of the most prominent figures
153. 13:49to popularize that there are many ways to God.
154. 13:51Well, that sounds enticing in soothing
155. 13:57until you contrast that with what Jesus said.
156. 13:59Jesus said he is the way, not the way.
157. 14:02So if we pound our fist to the table
158. 14:10and lynch our wagons, so to speak to religious freedom,
159. 14:13are we lynching our wagons to a disposition that says,
160. 14:15says, well, yeah, you're free to believe your way or say it better to reject Jesus and in
161. 14:21your route to eternal damnation.
162. 14:23I'm not saying that we need to challenge that constitutional framework.
163. 14:28I'm digging deeper into the theological reality.
164. 14:31Now, Jesus said there's only one way.
165. 14:36Gideon represents an example of a people who had historical exposure to the ways, word,
166. 14:45works of God that did not extend to a current relationship.
167. 14:52Just because, as Gideon says this, the Father told him about, told him about Yahweh, doesn't
168. 15:03mean getting to him.
169. 15:06Doesn't mean that he's individual, by and large at this stage in the scripture.
170. 15:10We're walking in relationship with him.
171. 15:14My prayer for myself, thanks be to God that the Lord has saved me.
172. 15:21Thank you, Lord.
173. 15:23My prayer for my fellow countrymen is that we turn to the Christ in faith and repentance
174. 15:33and faith because a robust military booming stock market, societal freedoms, those things
175. 15:44do not make a nation great.
176. 15:47As the Lord said, as the Matthew recorded in Matthew 633, what is the prophet of man?
177. 15:51to gain the whole world, yet lose his soul.
178. 15:56The Word of God must be taken seriously
179. 15:58if we're going to have a great nation.
180. 16:02Are you ready to put your faith in action
181. 16:04to impact our culture?
182. 16:06For the first time in decades, younger generations
183. 16:08are becoming more open to Jesus Christ
184. 16:10and living out their faith.
185. 16:12On Friday, October 2, believers of all ages
186. 16:14will gather in Rogers, Arkansas
187. 16:16for counteract USA's two-day resolve to stand conference
188. 16:20to learn how to stand for the truth of God's Word.
189. 16:23There's not a moment to lose.
190. 16:24Visit counteractusa.org to learn more and register.
191. 16:28That's counteractusa.org.
192. 16:37Shiting light into the darkness.
193. 16:39This is the Hamilton Corner, an American family radio.
194. 16:43Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton III
195. 16:46here and I'm delighted to have back on the program again,
196. 16:49the host of the provocative new podcast.
197. 16:53The Renton Rathbund show a podcast for parents
198. 16:55with over 25 years of experience as a college professor
199. 16:59in both secular and Christian institutions.
200. 17:01Dr. Rathman is a renowned, I'm sorry expert in apologetics,
201. 17:06sharing insights on biblical worldview training
202. 17:08across the nation.
203. 17:09He frequently appears on various podcasts,
204. 17:12radio shows and television programs throughout our nation
205. 17:16and he has a litany of degrees,
206. 17:18then I'm not going through all your degrees,
207. 17:20but you got a lot of them.
208. 17:22But I'm grateful that you have submitted your intellectual capacity, your life, your devotion
209. 17:28to the Lord.
210. 17:29And I'll tell you, meaning the audience here, one of the things I appreciate the most is
211. 17:34that you know you have people who will profess to be Christians, but when you meet them, not
212. 17:38so sure.
213. 17:39Well, I'm grateful that that's not the case with Dr. Rathman because one of the things I
214. 17:43personally appreciate is your humility and transparency, you know, to where you're not, you not only
215. 17:48celebrate the Goliath decapitations, but you're willing to share, man.
216. 17:52Hey, listen, these are the war wounds, these are the scars, and if this can help you, I'm
217. 17:56willing to show you all of them.
218. 17:58So I'm grateful for that.
219. 18:00Thank you for joining me here on the program again, Dr. Rathbun.
220. 18:03Thanks for having me.
221. 18:04It's good to be here.
222. 18:05Yes, sir.
223. 18:06Well, I want to have this conversation with you.
224. 18:08I told you a little bit about it already because we are in a weird place in our country.
225. 18:13we are 25 years after 9-11, yet Islam seems to be on the rise in our nation.
226. 18:20We also have, there was a time when there were people who kind of were Marxist, but they
227. 18:25wouldn't say it out loud.
228. 18:26They wouldn't say it out loud.
229. 18:27But now you have people loudly, you know, pounding their chest.
230. 18:31We are Marxist and we are here.
231. 18:33And then you also have this effort to cultivate a form of kind of political conservatism, but
232. 18:41it's godless.
233. 18:42With all of those things, it's very easy to want to highlight and to despise the darkness.
234. 18:51But there has to be something available to us beyond merely identifying what's wrong.
235. 18:55There has to be the ability to present an affirmative vision for what we need to pursue.
236. 19:01In light of that, how do you distill all of those competing forces that are vying for
237. 19:06devotion and affection and attention that would dare rival the truth with the capital
238. 19:11Well, we're I'm a pastor here in town in South Carolina and sorry I left that out I should have mentioned that because I knew that
239. 19:21Well, we're we're starting the book of John and took us a year to get through Ephesians
240. 19:29So I don't know John's 21 chapters was might be longer
241. 19:33to get a year.
242. 19:34As we, six chapters, man, come on.
243. 19:36I'm just kidding.
244. 19:37I understand that very well.
245. 19:40Yeah.
246. 19:42Well, John starts off with Christ,
247. 19:46of course, at the very beginning Christ, right?
248. 19:50And he's not just with God in this intimate,
249. 19:53you know, relationship with the Father,
250. 19:55but he is God, and he made all things,
251. 19:59and in him is life and the life is the light.
252. 20:03And from then on, you have this theme of light
253. 20:07and the darkness can't and the,
254. 20:09if you look at the Greek there,
255. 20:12it could be, couldn't comprehend it,
256. 20:16but the idea of the Greek there is to grasp
257. 20:19or to try and master it.
258. 20:22And so another way to look at that
259. 20:24is that the darkness could not master the light,
260. 20:27could not overcome it. And that is important because if we just concentrate on the darkness
261. 20:36and say how terrible the darkness is, what we're losing is the whole point of Christ and the
262. 20:44Father loving us so much that He gives us Christ that we're not seeing what the light is about.
263. 20:53And what the light is about, it's about the truth, but we got to be careful that we don't
264. 20:58think of the truth as we do in 2026.
265. 21:02Oftentimes we think of the truth in 2026 as the right facts, right?
266. 21:07The right data.
267. 21:09And so, you know, AI, you know, might have some good data, but we got to be careful.
268. 21:13We got to have the right data and everything's come down to data points.
269. 21:17Christ did not come into the world to give us the right data points.
270. 21:22He came to give us the light.
271. 21:23And what does that mean?
272. 21:24Well, it means that he is able to give us an understanding of the reality context we
273. 21:35live in and the reality future we are to have and the reality now.
274. 21:41What is the reality?
275. 21:43And so even with John using the word logos for Christ, in the beginning was the word,
276. 21:50Greek word, there's Lagos. That word was, was used and John knew that, especially by the Greeks. The
277. 21:59Lagos was what is the underlining reality that holds all this stuff together? And you had philosophers
278. 22:07everywhere trying to guess what's the underlining thing? If we could just figure out the thing,
279. 22:13maybe it's water, maybe it's fire, maybe it's, you know, logic itself. And you had all these people
280. 22:19coming up with these ideas. But John says, no, the underlining thing that's holding all this together
281. 22:26that is reality itself is the light. And what's the light? It's Christ. And so I fear, and I just
282. 22:34got back from a conference, you know, we get back from a conference here all psyched up.
283. 22:38But I fear that we talk about how to be good people, we talk about what's wrong with the world,
284. 22:45But our vision, you know, rarely includes the light of the world, which is Christ.
285. 22:54We know Christ is there, we know Christ is important, but our vision for our children,
286. 23:00our vision for our churches, is our vision Christ?
287. 23:06And how do we distill that, I think, is going to be the real question.
288. 23:11Man, I'm thinking so many different things because, you know, Romans talks about the earth
289. 23:19groaning and quaking anticipation of the revelation of the the sons of God and
290. 23:25what it seems, what seems to be happening within our nation,
291. 23:30around the world certainly in different ways, but specifically in our countries that people are
292. 23:34trying to grapple with their perception of life and reality, their perception of loss,
293. 23:41There's lots of conversations about, you know,
294. 23:44affordability and, you know, arguments.
295. 23:46Yeah, boomer and I'm young and all of these other kinds of things.
296. 23:54At the expense though of what you just described as, but what is true?
297. 24:00You know, we have a nation that has a historical reality of the application
298. 24:07of biblical truth in various ways.
299. 24:09But I was reading before you came on from the book of Judges to where Gideon when he first
300. 24:14encounters the angel of the Lord, he says, well, where is Yahweh?
301. 24:18And all of these wonderful works and deeds that our fathers told us about.
302. 24:24So it's not like Gideon was unaware of descriptions of Yahweh historically, but they were not synonymous
303. 24:31with him having an anchor in confidence and truth.
304. 24:34And there I say relationship rooted in him currently.
305. 24:38is what we're facing similar to that in some sense in that we have this historical notions,
306. 24:45these things back way, way, way, way back, you know, 250 years, you know, but they're not
307. 24:51current currently being grasped as truth and a proper valuation as to what truly we should
308. 25:00value in a society.
309. 25:01Yeah, we, you know, when you look at, you brought up Romans, Romans really does give us
310. 25:07an insight into what this is all about.
311. 25:10You see, Christ is the light for all mankind.
312. 25:15So everyone has this notion of the truth. Everybody does.
313. 25:20Romans one is clear about this. So it says that everyone knows who God is.
314. 25:26They know that he created all this stuff. They know it.
315. 25:30The problem is they're suppressing it with their own unrighteousness.
316. 25:33They hate it. So it's not ignorance.
317. 25:36It's this hatred for the reality that they know is there,
318. 25:41which is God made this, you're accountable to him.
319. 25:44And that's why in Romans one, it's very clear,
320. 25:49there's no one that has an excuse.
321. 25:50Everyone in hell is absolutely guilty.
322. 25:55If I can put it this way,
323. 25:56there is no one in hell that says,
324. 25:58if I just knew, everyone knows, everybody.
325. 26:04And here's the problem.
326. 26:05And let me make it more clear, I think, this way.
327. 26:10One of the most evil feats of skill,
328. 26:15I think, that Satan has cast upon us,
329. 26:19is he has messed with even the church's view of reality.
330. 26:24This is how we view reality.
331. 26:26We view reality as, okay, well, I'm living
332. 26:29with a bunch of problems.
333. 26:31I have my family that I'm trying to deal with.
334. 26:33I have a job I'm trying to deal with.
335. 26:35And of course, yes, Sunday, we come on Sunday,
336. 26:38and yes, I love Jesus.
337. 26:40Jesus is a part of my life.
338. 26:45The light is a part of my otherwise reality
339. 26:51that I'm sure of.
340. 26:52So I'm sure that I have problems in my life.
341. 26:56I'm sure of what I can see with my eyes.
342. 26:59I'm sure of all the issues that are going on.
343. 27:04that's what I'm sure of, and Jesus becomes this part of my life, that I'm kind of sure of,
344. 27:11I have faith, and he's there as part. And that is the big lie, that Jesus is part of your life.
345. 27:21Christ is our life. In fact, in him is life, and that life is the light. And so what we have is this
346. 27:32this delusion we have that Christ has come and joined us in this reality.
347. 27:41And the truth is we have been created into the reality Christ made.
348. 27:47And so the reality is there is these principalities and powers we can't see.
349. 27:53The reality is there is a God we can't see and the only things that we can know about
350. 27:58God are through Christ.
351. 28:00And so he is everything about reality.
352. 28:04There is nothing that God adds to reality.
353. 28:08God is the reality that we live in in Christ.
354. 28:13And so I think we have tried to segment things.
355. 28:17And that has been the big lie that we've accepted,
356. 28:21not that we, every single part of our life is in Christ.
357. 28:26we have not accepted that.
358. 28:28So what would be the practical outworking of that segmented,
359. 28:34even compartmentalized approach that would probably be accompanied
360. 28:40by a kind of a self-soothing salve that results from my consistent church attendance?
361. 28:48You know, I make a distinction between churchy entity and Christianity,
362. 28:54which I think this would apply to that we sometimes can conflate church familiarity with
363. 29:01that with actually being in Christ. So what would be the practical outworkings of that segmented segmented type of compartmentalized approach?
364. 29:11Well, it's great. A scripture gives us an outline. It doesn't say to find time to pray. It says to pray without ceasing.
365. 29:19It doesn't say that worship is to be exclusive to a Sunday.
366. 29:26It requires us to worship at home with our family.
367. 29:29It requires us to worship in our work.
368. 29:31It requires us to worship at all times our God.
369. 29:36And so that means work changes, what we do with our family changes.
370. 29:42And this is another thing.
371. 29:44I think we believe that we are here for the job that we have in life.
372. 29:52And then on the weekends, we have a little break with church.
373. 29:56And I think we need to reverse that.
374. 29:59That church is the centerpiece of our life.
375. 30:04And we work so that we can support that centerpiece.
376. 30:10Is that, think about, and this is Americans, right?
377. 30:15Americans are so practical.
378. 30:17We are so practical that we think, well, we got to make a living, we got to make money,
379. 30:24we got to relax, we got to have a TV, we got to do these things, and then we add the church,
380. 30:31and we add a prayer here and there, or we'll add some Bible reading.
381. 30:36And we don't realize that the truth came into the world, took on flesh.
382. 30:46And the truth was again, not segments of our life.
383. 30:49The truth was the real.
384. 30:52If I can put it that way.
385. 30:53And what's the real?
386. 30:54The real is my family isn't here for me merely to enjoy.
387. 30:59My family is here that I might, if I'm a man, head of my home is to lead them into worship.
388. 31:06My work is here so that I can support this very important centerpiece of my life, which
389. 31:11is the church.
390. 31:13Praying is not something I do when I'm worried about something merely.
391. 31:18Prayer is the constant thing I'm doing because I know the reality isn't that I'm just getting
392. 31:25in a car going to work.
393. 31:26The reality is I am fighting principalities and powers.
394. 31:32I am in a world where everything is Christ.
395. 31:35So if I'm going to listen to a talking head, and that talking head might be very, very conservative
396. 31:44and say things just the right way and the conservative way, we know we really love.
397. 31:50But he doesn't believe in Christ as God.
398. 31:54Well, that's a small issue.
399. 31:58The big issue is that he really has his eye on Marxism.
400. 32:03And of course, I'm talking about the talking heads that everyone loves like Ben Shapiro,
401. 32:09you know, the, the blaze TV, you know, all the different things that we have, we have come
402. 32:16to see as precious, we have come to see being Republican as precious or being conservative
403. 32:24in the, in America as precious.
404. 32:27And we see Christ as an add on.
405. 32:30In fact, oftentimes we have to steer Christ
406. 32:32towards our conservatism,
407. 32:35instead of accepting the truth of Christ
408. 32:38that may clash with our conservatism,
409. 32:42might, will always clash with the left,
410. 32:45but may not always be popular
411. 32:48and may not always have to,
412. 32:51may not always drive us to what makes us feel best
413. 32:54when we're frustrated.
414. 32:56And I think that, you know, we do not want to live in a world where the light has come into the world.
415. 33:04And that light is to give us the true reality and context we're supposed to live in.
416. 33:11We want other people to tell us that.
417. 33:15Well, the music is disrespectful, so we have to come to a break.
418. 33:19But what it seems like you're describing is a normalization and a comfortability with that
419. 33:25age old word
420. 33:27Idolatry
421. 33:32Building a strong biblical worldview can help our kids understand Christian values that are currently under attack and the best time to start building
422. 33:40Their worldview is now
423. 33:42Activate kids as an in-depth worldview training course to help kids stand on the truth of God's word each unit includes
424. 33:48video lessons, student workbook, parent leader guide, games, crafts and memory
425. 33:53verses, activate kids as designed for kids six to twelve and it's available at
426. 33:58activatekids.afa.net. The Hamilton Quarter podcast and one-minute common
427. 34:09territories are available at afr.net back to the Hamilton Quarter on American
428. 34:15Family Radio. Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton the third year.
429. 34:20Dr. Rinton Rathbun is my guest and before we went to the break, I asked him a question
430. 34:26as to what would be the practical outworking of having this segmented and compartmentalized
431. 34:31view and approach to Christ and his description really, really made me think of, as I said
432. 34:39it right before we got to the break of the age old biblical notion of idolatry.
433. 34:46idolatry is not merely bowing down in front of statutes or worshiping relics, but ascribing
434. 34:55devotion and commitment and veneration to anything other than Christ that would should be directed
435. 35:02to Christ and Christ alone.
436. 35:04And I say alone intentionally because Old Testament depiction of that idolatry is that the people
437. 35:10of God didn't really completely renounce and denounce Yahweh worship, but they simply added
438. 35:18to their concept of devotion a little bit of Baal and Asherah and the things that the
439. 35:25Canaanites and the others did and put them all in one big pot and approached.
440. 35:31Like Aaron said all the way back, oh, here's what behold, this is your God that delivered
441. 35:37Jew from Egypt, you know, but the description you provided is, I believe, accurately provided,
442. 35:47and it is a modern 21st century depiction of the biblical notion of idolatry. Is that an
443. 35:54oversimplification of what you just described?
444. 35:57No, that is right on. If you look at Colossians chapter 3 verse 5, boy, it was written in the
445. 36:08and I believe specifically for Americans.
446. 36:12Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you?
447. 36:17This is the constant mantra
448. 36:21of both old and New Testament.
449. 36:24This constant mantra of stop believing
450. 36:27in the stuff of the world.
451. 36:31There's someone that made all that.
452. 36:33That's the one.
453. 36:34Keep your eyes on the one that made it,
454. 36:36not the stuff.
455. 36:38I mean, that is Colossians five,
456. 36:42put to death therefore, what is earthly in you.
457. 36:45Sexual immorality, impurity, passion,
458. 36:50evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry.
459. 36:56Now, I know a lot of that sounded like,
460. 36:58well, I don't, I'm not dealing with those things.
461. 37:02But when you think of your passions,
462. 37:05See, this is, you know, obviously we start thinking about what is, you know, what is it
463. 37:11that's, you know, do I have sexual issues and things like that?
464. 37:15But that, that word there is what is it that you are fully focused on as this is what life
465. 37:24is about.
466. 37:26You know, we, you see guys on, you know, talking heads that have their own podcasts, hundreds
467. 37:33of thousands of subscribers who have made an idol out of their skin where they have they
468. 37:41have revolted over the the what they think is the tedium of this racial back and forth
469. 37:50of everything and so now they're going to take it back.
470. 37:53They've made an idol out of some eschatology that they like and now they are you know the
471. 37:59So the wights, the sins of the whites weren't as bad as the sins of any other culture that's
472. 38:05out there.
473. 38:07And you have that kind of thing.
474. 38:08But then you have people that also are in their passions, what they care about, what they
475. 38:15focus on is what is really important to me, what makes this whole world go.
476. 38:22And it usually goes into some politics.
477. 38:25And they take on a modern day Pharisee, and I know I'm using words that are charged, but
478. 38:35you look at Ben Shapiro and you see a guy that is a modern day Pharisee, and the modern
479. 38:44day Pharisee is like the Pharisee of the past.
480. 38:46They are very conservative, culturally conservative people that say Christ is not God.
481. 38:54If they are saying that Christ is not God, any solution you have to the problems they're
482. 39:00bringing up quite articulately and well said.
483. 39:03And I, you know, I like Ben Shapiro, but no matter how articulate the problems that he
484. 39:09is developing in our nation are, as a Pharisee, the, the answer will never be the light of
485. 39:16the world.
486. 39:17You will never say the answer is Jesus Christ.
487. 39:21Because he cannot.
488. 39:23He does not believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
489. 39:27The light that came into the world.
490. 39:29He is part of the darkness that wants to overcome it.
491. 39:33Even though it is a conservative overcoming, he wants to overcome it in some other way.
492. 39:41And I think if you start looking at things like that, there are talking heads that will
493. 39:46no longer really be attractive to you any longer.
494. 39:50When you look at Glenn Beck, who can articulate things so well, that makes me think, yeah,
495. 39:58that is the problem.
496. 39:59That is the problem.
497. 40:00But Jesus Christ is not a created being who lived on this earth and lived a good enough
498. 40:05life that he got to be a God too, just like you, if you live a good life.
499. 40:11Mormonism is evil.
500. 40:12It's an evil, horrible view of the world that makes God less.
501. 40:19I can put it that way.
502. 40:21And we fall for it and I'll tell you,
503. 40:25if we start thinking this way,
504. 40:27we will be a people run by our passions.
505. 40:31And what does James, chapter four,
506. 40:34tell us about people whose passions have been pushing them?
507. 40:39Well, they become very quarrelsome even within the church.
508. 40:42Their passions become so strong that they are desires,
509. 40:47even when they come to the Lord to ask for stuff,
510. 40:49those desires, those passions they have,
511. 40:52they're gonna ask wrongly because they wanna ask
512. 40:54according to their desires what they think,
513. 40:56what they think is gonna fix this world.
514. 40:59And what does James call them in James 4-4?
515. 41:02You adulterous people.
516. 41:04You do not know,
517. 41:06you do you not know that friendship with the world
518. 41:10is enmity with God.
519. 41:12and we would say, I am not friends with the world.
520. 41:15I'm a conservative.
521. 41:17That's what we would say.
522. 41:19But friendship with the world is saying,
523. 41:22even though they can articulate the darkness well,
524. 41:25the answer to the darkness is in Christ.
525. 41:30And if they deny that you're Christ,
526. 41:33if they say your Christ is something, your Christ is not,
527. 41:37that is not just an issue over here
528. 41:41that I know that and I'll keep that in mind as I listen to these guys.
529. 41:44It's everything because what they're doing is they're articulating the darkness
530. 41:50and that's great.
531. 41:51But the answer is more important than the articulation of the darkness.
532. 41:56The answer to all that is Jesus Christ.
533. 41:59And if we, as those who are supposed to be in the light,
534. 42:04can't bear witness of the light because we have listened to talking heads that deny the light,
535. 42:11We are going to be friends with the world.
536. 42:13Oh man.
537. 42:17What you're saying is so stirring, so stirring because I don't think anybody has intentionally
538. 42:26done this.
539. 42:27But I think many of us have unintentionally aggrandized, just to say it plainly, the creation at the
540. 42:36expense of the Creator.
541. 42:39the practical result of that is a normalization
542. 42:45of a diminished view of Christ,
543. 42:47to where Christ is not all,
544. 42:50where we're willing to sing about Him on Sundays,
545. 42:52but He doesn't govern Monday through Saturday.
546. 42:56And I remember being a young boy having preachers,
547. 43:02my pastor would talk about that.
548. 43:04But, and sometimes we would reduce that concept
549. 43:08to like behaviorally, you know, to where you'll behaviorally be devoted to Christ on Sunday,
550. 43:14but Monday through Saturday, your behavior is not. But what you're talking about is a bit
551. 43:20elevated beyond mere behavior, but dare I say worldview, the way that the world is viewed
552. 43:28is from a posture even amongst many Christians where Christ is diminished. So we end up tangling
553. 43:37jousting, if you will, on an earthly plane with no concept of the preeminence of Christ
554. 43:48and how that preeminence should be brought to bear in our real world.
555. 43:53Oh, man.
556. 43:55And it comes down to what you find attractive.
557. 43:59I mean, you know, we, Satan is very smart, if I can put it that way.
558. 44:07He's smart because he knows if I can make the evil, evil enough, where you have the LGBTQ
559. 44:14community trying to, trying to go after our children to the point where that's what they're
560. 44:21saying. They're literally saying we are going after your children. There is a reason why
561. 44:25the, the United Methodist church has doubled down on this whole thing and they have trannies
562. 44:32coming in and speaking to kids, to the children. I mean, all of this is satanic stuff. It's so
563. 44:40evil. It's so awful that when you hear someone say, yes, that is awful. You're like, yeah, that guy,
564. 44:49that guy agrees with me that it's awful. I mean, that's what makes this topic that you're bringing
565. 44:55up so important. You're bringing up the topic that even though people are able to articulate the
566. 45:01the darkness well, that makes us attracted to them because they're able to say, that's
567. 45:08the problem.
568. 45:09That's the issue.
569. 45:10And we're attracted to them immediately because someone is saying it.
570. 45:16But then what we find ourselves attracted to are people that don't even believe in Christ.
571. 45:25Jordan Peterson, does he articulate the darkness?
572. 45:29Yes, does he believe that Jesus Christ is Lord?
573. 45:33Not yet.
574. 45:35I mean, if that's coming, we're still waiting.
575. 45:38And we have all these guys and we remain attracted to them as they begin to articulate
576. 45:47the answer to all this.
577. 45:50And that is what really scares me because we, as we're listening, we should find ourselves
578. 45:55less and less attracted to their message as they spew out what the answer is. Christ did
579. 46:02not come into the world so that we could have a better life as Americans with freedom for
580. 46:09all. That is not why Christ came into the world. Christ came into the world because we
581. 46:15were all damned. If I can put it that way, just without hope in the world. That's how
582. 46:22How Abedians put it.
583. 46:24You were cast off.
584. 46:27All of you Gentiles were cast off.
585. 46:29You didn't have hope in the world.
586. 46:32But God, who was rich in mercy with his great love, with which he loved us, made us alive
587. 46:39together, not just with a magic wand.
588. 46:43He didn't make us alive together just because he snapped his fingers.
589. 46:49He made us alive together with Christ.
590. 46:52And that is not just an interesting part of our historical view of Christianity.
591. 46:59That is everything to reality.
592. 47:02If I can put it this way, a few months ago, I had a dream.
593. 47:11And as you know, my brother died a little over about a year and a half ago.
594. 47:16And I had this dream that he was still alive.
595. 47:20And in the dream, it was normal that he was still alive and that he was, you know, doing
596. 47:26that funny stuff he always did.
597. 47:28He was always funny and he always made me laugh.
598. 47:30And I remember thinking that, ah, I need to call him because of, you know, I just, I had
599. 47:37a memory of him and I need to call him and I just got to remember to call him tomorrow
600. 47:40morning and then I wake up.
601. 47:43I wake up and if you've ever had this experience, reality starts flooding in.
602. 47:50Yeah, I'm not gonna contact him. He's gone and
603. 47:54the reality of it's been a year and a half since he's been gone and the reality of
604. 48:01You know, I I won't see him again on this side of heaven and all of that floods in
605. 48:09we all want to live in a dream where
606. 48:13we get to ignore the light and
607. 48:16And we want to be able to have a set world that we get to decorate ourselves like a dream.
608. 48:25And we think that the Lord is going to ruin all that.
609. 48:30See, when I woke up, what I remembered was that as opposed to when I knew him before he died, when he was healthy, he did not know the Lord.
610. 48:42and that darkness inside my heart of,
611. 48:46I always worried about that and was scared about that.
612. 48:49When I woke up, the reality of his death reminded me
613. 48:53that towards the end of his life, he came to know the Lord.
614. 48:56And so, you know, reality does come with pain and difficulty,
615. 49:03but it comes with great mercy.
616. 49:06And we keep trying to decorate a worldview
617. 49:10that we think is going to be the answer to everything.
618. 49:14We think we can turn to Tucker Carlson for the answer to everything,
619. 49:18or Meghan Kelly for the answer to everything.
620. 49:20But I am telling you, these are the talking heads whose solutions are not Christ.
621. 49:27And we have got to let the light be the light and be the truth.
622. 49:33With all that it comes with, the truth has got to be the centerpiece of our hearts and
623. 49:39minds.
624. 49:41The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of
625. 49:46the American Family Association or American Family Radio.