Hamilton: God has called us to be ambassadors even in this dark moment
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Darkness is not an affirmative force. It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light. This is the, Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio. It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite, delivering people
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: out of the bondage of mainstream media
>> Abraham Hamilton III: and the philosophies of this world. God has called you and me to be his ambassadors even in this dark moment. Let's not miss our moment.
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: And now the Hamilton Corner.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Good evening everyone.
Abraham Hamilton urges a combination of calm and clinging to God's word
What a week. What a week. What a time to be alive. If you haven't recognized it yet, we are living in pivotal, pivotal times. civilization, civilizational shaping times. I truly believe that there is a major rebalancing happening, in our world. I think that some of the chaos now will be seen a bit more clearly as the dust settles. I would urge a combination of calm and clinging to God's word. And the calm, actually I should do it opposite, in the opposite order, cling to God's word which will produce a calm. And I'm saying that because when Jesus calmed the storm, or should I say not even when he calmed the storm, but when the storm was raging, Jesus is able to be asleep in the boat. because the reality of being the God man produces a supernatural quotient of peace. And as a result of being his people, he is the prince of peace. And he indwells us and he says his peace will be with us always. Thank you for tuning into the program. You're listening to the Hamilton Corner or watching the Hamilton Corner. My name is Abraham Hamilton iii. I am the host of this program, joined by the always dapper Mr. J. Mack, ladies and gentlemen. He doesn't have his hood on today, but and he's always dapper. You know, you might find us on the road quite a bit. The an intensification of the travel season is right up right around the corner. We'll be doing a lot of broadcasting remotely, on site, on location as we're traveling and ministering in different events. So if you're there, here's another perk to come into the events. You'll get to meet J. Mac in person. I probably shouldn't have said that, Jeff. You may. You have a line now brother. A line of a particular sort I might add. At this very moment, many of you, if not most of you, are making your transition from your part time jobs to your full time jobs. And as you do doing so, I want to remind you to do so with intentionality, understanding the primacy that God is placing that God has placed on the family and welcoming that primacy to govern, to guard and to guide your engagement. We will never, as a society, outpace the deficiencies that are bound in the home. We won't outvote it. We won't out politic it. we won't save America, act our way out of it. We must be salt and light. And it must start in the home. It must start in the homes. And as we batten down the hatches at home, we work outward from there into our communities and into our cities, into our churches. And as we welcome the Lord to transform us inside of our homes, there's no question as to what will and can transpire in our societies. But we must, we must, we must embrace our king's commission. We must understand that the family is God's primary mission station. It's the first institution that he established. It's the one that he's given ultimate responsibility and accountability with the father as the head of the family. For the paideia and euthesia of the children that God entrusts to our care. We have to take that seriously. Because the failure to do so is in many ways, I believe that's what we're experiencing. And I'll often say that we talk about some of the deficiencies that are present in young people. But I like to remind folks that young people all come from somewhere. They didn't just pop up, you know, they didn't just bring forth ex nihilo. They've come from somewhere. And we will either affirmatively invest in what God has called us to, or we'll have a byproduct that's the result of ceding our responsibility and authority to someone else. The Scripture teaches. Jesus said it specifically himself. The student, when fully trained, will be like his teacher. That should cause us to soberly reflect on who we allow to do the teaching. All right? And the reality is that discipleship is a constant. It is going to take place. The question is, who's going to do it? And what is the qualitative form of that discipleship? Because disciples are being made in America. They simply are being made to in an Antichrist ideology. But we can reverse that trend. If we will reverse that trend. And the only way forward is through discipleship to the word of God we go. Would you say, Jeff, what kind of sort of people will be lining up to see you on the road? That what you said? Oh, you didn't say that. Oh, okay. Inquiring minds want to know.
Romans 1 is an epistle written by the apostle Paul to the saints
Romans, chapter one is where we're going to go, ladies and gentlemen, Romans 1, verses 18 through, let's see, 23. We'll also look at verse 25. Not skipping over, I'm going to read 24, but 25 is something I want to highlight as well. this is an epistle written by the apostle Paul to the saints of God in Rome. Verse 18 reads thusly, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks. But they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man, and of birds and four footed animals and crawling creatures. When we read Romans 1 oftentimes, and I think this is because of Hollywood and media, social media and other things, there are certain aspects of Romans one that are highlighted which rightly to, be highlighted. The things like the sexual deviancy, abusing one's bodies with one another, doing working, that which is unseemly, the Bible says homosexuality, lesbianism, you know, idolatry, all of those things are right to be pointed out. But I think we fail sometimes to recognize what the Lord is trying to help us to see as the most egregious indictment in Romans 1. I often refer to Romans 1 as God's, case against mankind. All right, God's indictment, the most egregious portion, of this indictment against mankind. The most egregious portion of this indictment is actually verse 21 when it reads, for even though they knew God, even though they knew God, they did not honor him, nor were they thankful. The reason why I'm saying this is the most egregious component of this indictment is because Paul explains that, there is clarity in terms of insight, there is understanding concerning what and who is being refused. Yet they persist in the rejection and the refusal nonetheless. Although they knew God, they did not honor him. Because the implied presumption is that when God is revealed, when he is beheld, there is truly only one appropriate response, that is to honor him, that is to be thankful when we behold him as he is to be, be seen as he is to, as we are to behold Him. Thankfulness, gratitude and honor to him are the inevitable reasonable responses. But when there is a volitional rejection of him in that fashion, the remainder of the indictment are the byproduct of that initial egregious phenomenon. Beholding him, yet refusing him, beholding him, yet refusing to honor him, beholding him, yet refusing to be grateful to him. It's no surprise that in our society, one of the most traded currencies is the currency of entitlement, social currency of entitlement. Isn't it amazing that all kinds of chicanery and wickedness is foisted and thrusted forward with the engine that is, well, I deserve that. And so then the indictment proceeds. Because mankind refused to honor God and refused to be thankful, the most immediate byproduct is that they became futile in their reasoning capacity. The intellectual capacity deteriorated. When we look around, you know, this is embarrassing to say, but some of you might have saw the video circulating on social media when you, had kind of a man on the street kind of interview. And, the issue was presented forward that, President Trump is leading a blockade of the strait of her moves. And there was a young lady responded, well, why is he always concerned about the straights of her moves? What about the gaze of her moves? Guys, it would be one thing if that was a unique phenomenon, but many of you, as I have experienced that we are living in an age where it's not only a, prevalent, I'll say it this way, reasoning futility, but it seems to be ubiquitous. It's so widespread. I want to submit to you that this is not merely, an intellectual phenomenon. I would submit to you that it's a spiritual phenomenon. That the refusal to honor God as God and the refusal to be thankful to him as God has resulted in widespread futility in our reasoning capacities. Then that is compounded by foolish hearts that are darkened, compounded even further by these same people that are, that are reeling from this futility in the region of capacity, and reeling from the darkened heart that that is compounded from the Adamic darkness that is inherited in the sin nature. Yet these same folks profess to be wise, will mock faith, will have statements like, what do you mean you believe that? I never forget Joe Rogan's expression when he was describing Charlie Kirk. You mean to tell me that, a man as smart as he is, is a Christian, like he believes Jesus resurrected? Yeah, but our society has people that Profess. To be wise, who reject the objective truth of the resurrection and then the additional compounded reality. And they exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man. And I highlight that because we often think about, you know, earth worship and you know, I'll never forget I was in Washington with my friend J. St. John and Heidi Saint, my friends Heidi St. John, J. St. John, and there are portions of the of Washington state where you have people, sometimes people who are impoverished, but they own land and they have timber on their own land, but the state government will not allow them to harvest the timber on their own land because they're trying to preserve a habitat for a particular owl. I forgot the specific owl. I'm saying. So y' all would rather have people to be dependent upon government welfare than to be able to use their own natural resources? It's absurd. But before you got to the worship of the creatures, the scripture says that they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man. The creature worship follows man worship. And then verse 25 tells us for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who was blessed forever. Amen. Guys, we are witnessing what the Bible told us would occur. We're witnessing, witnessing that play out before our very eyes. And the only way to press forward is to repent is to turn metanoia. It has to transpire. And the people of God must have the boldness and the love of Christ in our heart sufficient to compel us to tell this truth.
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: Presenting AFA Stream, an online platform that hosts all AFA produced video content including documentaries, church curriculum, American family radio shows and our Cultural Institute series.
>> Jeff King: I would submit that we are a Christian nation and the proof of that is in our founding documents and in the US Constitution itself. Because our founders recognized for the first time in world history that our rights come from God our Creator, not our government.
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: AFA Stream is a vital step that we are taking to fulfill our vision to be a leading organization in biblical worldview training for cultural transformation. You'll find top notch resources that address the issues of our day related to marriage, family, the sanctity of life and many others. Start streaming today. Stream.aca.net.
American Family Radio welcomes Dr. Cal Beisner to the Hamilton Corner
Shining Light into the Darkness this is
>> Abraham Hamilton III: the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio. Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner. Abraham Hamilton III here. I'm delighted to have on the program with me now. who A man who is a Friend of the program, who is a friend of mine personally. A man who I respect, who has been able to share insights with me, that has aided me frankly, in being able to rightly divide the word of truth and to apply God's word to culture in an even more, appropriate fashion. I'm speaking of none other than Dr. E. Cal Beisner, the founder and president and national spokesman for the Cornwall alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, which is a network of Christian theologians, natural scientists, economists and other scholars and educating for biblical earth stewardship, economic development for the poor, and the proclamation and defense of the good news of salvation. By God's grace. By God's grace received through faith in Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. He was an associate professor of history and theology and social ethics at ah, Knox Theological Seminary. He was also in interdisciplinary studies and. Oh, I missed it. Interdisciplinary studies focusing on the application of a biblical worldview, theology and ethics to econ, economics, government and public policy. At Covenant Theology. Sorry, at Covenant College. He's an author of 15 books. He's contributed to. To 35, over 35 books. He's edited over 30 books, published thousands of articles, popular and scholarly. Has lectured at universities, seminaries, conferences and churches in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Dr. Beisner, thank you for joining me again here on the Hamilton corner.
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: Come on, Abe, that's way too much, too much time. Well, thanks very much for all of that.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Well, it's all true.
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: Glad to be back with you.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Yes, it's all true. And I wanted to make sure everybody understands why they need to pay attention when you speak.
Cornwall Alliance is hosting a conference on climate change and creation stewardship
So without further ado, I want to begin our conversation because you, are hosting a profound conference May 1st and 2nd in Memphis, Tennessee at Union University. In its main chapel, it's titled the Heaven and Earth Conference. The Struggle for Faith and Science in the Public Square. Would you just share a little bit of what is your heart behind this conference and why is this necessary to have now and why should people come?
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: Well, there are a lot of different things that are going to be addressed in this conference, Abe. And I think the primary thing that we want for people to take away from this is a confidence that what the scriptures teach us about, science, about the earth itself, about creation, about family, about government, about our community life, all of these things. This is all, true. And if we live by the scriptures, we will promote a larger society, even for unbelievers, that is one that thrives much better. we're going to be Addressing some of the basic myths of our age. for instance, the myth of catastrophic man made global warming and the notion that we need to substitute wind and solar energy for the abundant, affordable, reliable energy that we get from fossil fuels, let alone the tremendous benefit that we have from nuclear energy. We'll be looking at the evangelistic value of creation stewardship in a scientific age and at the apologetic value of beauty in science and a variety of other things that we can get into as we progress, in today's program. But we're excited about this and people can register, @cornwallalliance.org conference. That's cornwall alliance.org conference m we have.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: We'll have a link to that in our show notes for today's program as well. and yeah, and I told you, this is a conference I believe everybody should attend. because you're speaking to, the issues from a biblically clear and sound perspective. And I would say equally. Well, not equally, but I would say, in addition to that, you're speaking to issues that are prevalent right now. People need to understand how we navigate these issues right now. So when you talk about confronting the lie of catastrophic, catastrophic climate alarmism, would you just, expound on that a little bit more? Obviously I don't want you to give away the entirety of the conference, but, this is something people may not be aware that they need to be able to have a cogent response to, because ready or not, it's all around us. The vernacular is all around us, the reasoning is all around us. And we need to be able to give a reasonable answer as to why we can cling to God's word in responding to this as an issue.
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: Yeah. And as I say, that will be just one piece of this conference. By the way, the conference is May 1 and 2, Friday and Saturday, May 1and 2 here in Memphis. yeah, the, the climate catastrophism has become an excuse for all kinds of increases in government control over people's lives, as well as for forcing the switch from abundant, affordable, reliable energy from fossil fuels to not abundant, definitely not reliable, and very unaffordable energy from wind and solar. there are all sorts of reasons why that is the case. but it's hurting people. And you know, from my perspective as an American, we live in a very wealthy country. you know, the poorest of us will be badly hurt by this kind of thing, but frankly, we're less vulnerable than people in the developing world, people in places like Sub Saharan Africa and many parts of Asia and Latin America. For them, this makes the difference between rising and staying out of poverty and staying in it or even falling farther back into it. And so that's one reason why we're addressing this so much. this is actually a part of an ongoing effort of the Marxist socialist movement toward global control over people's lives, which is why another of our talks will be addressing the issue. Marx is back in green.
Patricia Engler and Vijay Jayaraj speak on climate colonialism
So now we'll have Patricia Engler, who is with the, Answers in Genesis Ministry. She's author of the book Modern Marxism, A Guide for Christians in a Woke World. She and Vijay Jayaraj. Vijay is an Indian Christian climate scientist. works with the Cornwall alliance as our research associate for developing countries. Vijay is going to be speaking on freeing the two thirds world from Western climate colonialism, because that's really what's happening. We've got a bunch of, frankly, Marxists, whether hard Marxists or soft Marxists in Western countries, rich Western countries, telling people in poor developing countries you can't use the most abundant, affordable, reliable energy sources to rise out of poverty. You're just stuck. M. Well, that's a colonialist attitude and totally oppressive. And we want to help people understand how to free people around the world from that kind of stuff.
Environmentalist movement is basically Marxism disguised as environmentalism
>> Abraham Hamilton III: You m mentioned something just now, and I have actually two questions, but, I'll do one at a time. you, you mentioned Marx is now, Did you say dressed in green?
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: Back in green.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Back in green. What do you mean by that? I think I know what you mean. I'm pretty sure I do. but what do you mean by that?
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: Yeah, well, back in the 1960s, it became very, very clear that communism could not compete with the free market, with capitalism, in lifting people out of poverty and keeping them out of poverty. It couldn't create wealth the way capitalism does. So what happened then was that in the late 60s and throughout the 1970s and the early 1980s, an awful lot of adherents of communist ideology around the world thought, okay, we can't persuade people to embrace our Marxism by telling them that will make them richer. What we have to do is tell them, well, okay, capitalism makes more wealth, but in the process, it destroys the planet. And so you need to embrace communism. You need to embrace Marxism, socialism, m In order to protect the natural world. So they started the Green parties around the world, starting off in Europe, but then expanding to North America, to NewSong Zealand, to Australia and other places. These things are basically Marxism disguised as environmentalism, which is why so much of the environmental movement is actually hostile to human thriving and by the way, hostile to the biblical worldview, theology and ethics, you know, and in environmentalism, most of it's either materialist, naturalist, denying the existence of God or pantheistic saying that God is the universe. So we need as Christians to be able to recognize the uniting of the environmentalist movement with the Marxist movement and to see what's wrong with both aspects of that. And that's what we are really excited to be, hearing Patricia Engler talk about for us.
World Economic Forum is moving away from fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy
>> Abraham Hamilton III: You also mentioned, about the contrast between the reliable renewability, I'm sorry, the reliability, the enduring nature of energy that's derived from what's commonly described as fossil fuels, contrasted with things like wind, solar and things of that nature. because I know you, I know you were cued in, in listening when those wonderful folks at the World Economic Forum all of a sudden announced, hey, by the way, we have these data center things that we need to power AI, so how about we are now going to embrace the necessity for utilization of fossil fuels and things of that nature. First, did you notice that? And second, why do you think the pivot is taking place?
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: Oh, yeah, surely. And excuse me, what they're recognizing is that the, the strain on the world's energy systems from AI data centers is enormous. It's going to probably within a decade triple all by itself, triple the total amount of electricity demanded just in the United States, for example. So they're realizing, hey, wind and solar won't cut it for all of this. Nevertheless, they still see their long term goal as transitioning from fossil fuels to wind and solar. That's going to be disastrous. but I think they saw the handwriting on the wall when the Trump administration reversed the 2009 carbon dioxide endangerment found, ah, finding which was the basis of all US regulation of CO2 emissions around our economy. They saw the handwriting on the wall and realized, okay, we've got to at least look like we are going along with this. And I think frankly they're waiting for a change in administration to try to get everything back the way it was. Which is a good point to realize, you know, executive orders are wonderful and changes in regulation by agencies can be wonderful, but unless we see Congress adopting real legislation to further these things, they can all be overturned within, you know, a few weeks of a new administration coming in.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: And this is a lesson we should have, should have learned first and foremost in civics. But secondarily we saw it most immediately with the contrast, with the policies concerning our own southern border as it pertains to illegal immigration. How the Trump policies of the first term were, with a blink of an eye and a snap of the finger, immediately rescinded when the Biden administration took office, thereafter then how it switched back so quickly, once again, so quickly. executive orders are not a means for enduring governance. And that's something that we talk about consistently here on, on this program.
There will be a presentation on creation stewardship in an age of science
Now I also wanted to mention, and you alluded to this earlier, there's a presentation that's going to be made at the Heaven and Earth Conference. Again it's going to be May 1st and 2nd in Memphis, Tennessee at Union University's main chapel was formerly Mid America, Mid America Baptist Theological Seminary. But it's, It's Union University May 1st and 2nd. You can get all of the information at the Cornwall Alliance.org the website Cornwall Alliance.org it's heaven and Earth, the Struggle for Faith and Science in the public square. There's going to be a presentation, concerning the evangelistic value of creation stewardship in an age of Science. That title alone intrigues me. Would you just share a bit about that? How can we understand that there is a value towards evangelistic offering, as a result of a proper understanding of creation stewardship in this scientific age?
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: Yeah, well, you know, clear back in 1967, a medieval historian, not, not a biologist, not a scientist of any sort, a medieval historian by the name of Linne White Jr. Published an article in Science magazine called the Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis. And in that he blamed Judaism and Christianity based on Genesis 1:28, where God tells us to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. He said, Judaism and Christianity are to blame for all the environmental devastation in the world. Now that was crazy anyway, in terms of the meaning of that verse in the Bible, it doesn't mean that at all. But also it was crazy in terms of basic history. You can look all over the world and the places that have been best stewarded in terms of nature are the places that have been most influenced by Judaism and Christianity. The worst have been the places influenced by Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Daoism, and especially communism, which is another religion by the way, not just a political idea.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Yes.
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: So in, in looking at this, what we can can do is address the many people who are concerned about environmental degradation and there is plenty in the world around us. Although, I'll tell you a little secret here. over, over long haul, the environment is actually getting better and Better, that's a different subject. But if we can help people to understand that it's actually the Christian faith, the Christian worldview, the Christian understanding of God's call for us to be good stewards of his world, that is what gives the promise of better environmental quality, of, reversing environmental degradation where it is. So there are people who have rejected Christianity because they think it's an enemy to the environment. We can answer that by showing how it is, in fact, a friend to the environment. That means that creation stewardship has an evangelistic value. I would put it this way. When we really understand Genesis 1:28, what it calls for is for us to, enhance the fruitfulness and the beauty and the safety of the earth to the glory of God and the benefit of our neighbors. Which means we're addressing the two great commandments, to love God and to love neighbor. When I put it that way, the critics of Christianity suddenly go, oh, wait a minute, is that what it's really all about? That sounds good to me.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Amen. It sounds good to me, too.
Dr. Cal Beisner founded the Cornwall Alliance to help with charitable giving
You're listening to the Hamilton Corner. My guest is Dr. Cal Beisner, founder, president and spokesperson, spokesman for the Cornwall Alliance. Stay with us as we round out this program.
>> Jeff King: When dad passed away, in 07, he left an inheritance, and they had saved and saved through the years. I was just wondering what I could do with that money invested or whatever. I knew that I would like to help the Lord somehow in his work. And then I kept hearing about the charitable gift annuity, and I thought, well, that really sounds good. And I knew that AFR would just be the best because they're in my home all day, all day long. And I kind of wanted to partner with the Lord through AFR and AFA and give back. And I just felt like I knew that's what I wanted to do. Like I say, it's just so easy. I would just highly recommend the foundation.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: The Hamilton Corner podcast and one minute commentaries are available at afr.net back to the Hamilton Corner on, American Family Radio.
Dr. Cal Beisner is founder, president, national spokesman for the Cornwall Alliance
Welcome back to the Hamilton corner. Abraham Hamilton III. Here my guest is Dr. Cal Beisner, founder, president, national spokesman for the Cornwall Alliance. There's a conference coming May 1st and 2nd titled Heaven and Earth. The Struggle for Faith and Science in the Public Square. I didn't even mention. One of your speakers is going to be Meg Basham, Megan Basham, the, the author of Shepherds for Sale. And actually in her book, Shepherds for Sale, she gives you a shout out directly the Cornwall Alliance. But you by name. In her book, she says that if you don't mind, I'll read a little bit of the quote that she. She did. She said, quote the Cornwall.
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: This is almost embarrassing, Abe.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Well, you know, just. Just blush and you can blush in silence. And I'll take it from here for about 10, 15 seconds. The Cornwall alliance is what Megan Basham wrote. The Cornwall alliance is well known, well respected, and virtually the only evangelical game in town when it comes to offering a counter view to climate change alarmism. Like Moses facing down Pharaoh's magicians or Narnia's puddle glum stomping his marsh wiggle foot on the witch's fire. The. The truth, referring to Cornwall alliance president Cal Bisner spoke the truth. Beisner spoke dumped a massive bucket of ice water on the spell that all Christians sloganeering. That all. I'm sorry, that all Christianese sloganeering was casting. Beisner destroyed the arguments raised against the knowledge of God by clinging to the word no matter who might accuse him of being foolish. People woke up. Beisner's courage gave them courage to. Beisner's wisdom gave them wisdom. That's a quote from Megan Basham's book about the Dr. Cal Beisner.
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: Well, and we are tremendously grateful for Megan's coverage of our work, and, we're grateful to be able to have her come and speak for us. You know, there was a time when because of her cancer, it, was really questionable whether she'd be able to make. It looks like everything's going to be just fine. And we are very excited to have her speak for us, March, May 1 and 2 here in Memphis.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Praise God. Praise God.
America is increasingly deeply divided over cultural and political and moral subjects
Now, before we came on the program, I mentioned to you long time no see, because you and I were both together in Fort Lauderdale, about maybe three or four weeks ago now. And while we were there, you had an opportunity to present to the attendees a project that you're working on titled the Whole Council Project. You're also planning to have a presentation concerning the whole Council, at the conference May 1st and 2nd. but for our audience here, what is the Whole Council Project?
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: Well, you know, America is just increasingly deeply divided over cultural and political and moral subjects and many of the issues about which there once was broad consensus. Marriage and family, religion and its role in the public square, sexuality, economic order, the reach and legitimacy of government, policing, immigration, human life and dignity, all of these things, these once were areas of pretty constant consensus among us, but now they've become major culture war, flashpoints over the past five, even 10 decades with accelerating disintegration of that consensus. But Abe Christians who pray for God's kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Christians who are committed to making disciples of all nations by teaching them to obey all that he has commanded. Christians who believe that God breathes scripture can train men, women and children in righteousness so that they're equipped for every good work. Such people should recognize the need for the church of Jesus Christ to speak knowledgeably, clearly and confidently to such issues in a way genuinely shaped by biblical worldview, theology and ethics. But very few Christians, even pastors, are well equipped to do that. And so what whole council is designed to do is to equip pastors, especially because they're the ones who see their flocks every week, week in and week out, but also other Christian educators and parents to equip them to teach and to preach what we're framing as the whole counsel of God, from the whole word of God to the whole people of God for the whole of life, not just a narrow, let's, get them into heaven sort of a gospel, which that's the primary gospel, and it's absolutely important. It needs to remain central, but also the gospel of the kingdom. In the NewSong Testament, the word gospel is more frequently used related to the kingdom of God than to individual salvation. We need to be teaching and preaching the whole counsel of God, the gospel of the kingdom, to our people. And so our aim is to help facilitate the equipping of pastors, teachers, parents and others in the Christian community to do this, to teach the whole counsel of God from the whole word of God to the whole people of God for the whole of life,
>> Abraham Hamilton III: as you've rightly diagnosed this and the deficiencies in terms of the whole counsel of God being proclaimed. there has, over time, there have been concerted efforts to produce a kind of truncated understanding of the gospel. what are the sorts of things that, that you have discerned that have kind of been effective broadsides against the full counsel of God's word being proclaimed and being comprehended and being applied? What are some of the things that have occurred that have kind of truncated, the full counsel of God's word being proclaimed to his people?
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: Well, one of them is, I think, a very understandable objection that especially that will come from pastors. That is, hey, you know, I'm not an expert on economics. I'm not an expert on international relations. I'm not an expert on Law enforcement, et cetera. Right? that's understandable. But imagine for a minute that a pastor devotes, say, three hours a week, just three hours a week, to studying one particular topic, say economics, right. 50 weeks out of the year. So he takes two weeks off, right? And he does that for three hours, three weeks, three years. Pardon me. That means he's got 150 hours of study. That's roughly three times the hours required, the credit hours required for a normal master degree. Now, that doesn't mean he is an absolute expert, but it does mean that he can speak credibly to that and to how the Bible itself addresses that. We could multiply that times many different topics. And, you know, suppose you've got a town where there are 200 pastors. If, if five pastors took on one subject and five pastors another subject and five pastors another subject in three years, you'd have pastors there prepared to speak credibly to 40 different topics that all of them used to think, well, I can't speak to that. That would be wonderful. So we want to try to promote the collaboration, the cooperation among pastors and other educators to make people, not necessarily experts, but credible in addressing such things.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: That makes me think two things immediately. First, it makes me think of 1 Corinthians 12, when the Lord, through the apostle Paul, explains that the body of Christ is comprised of multiple members but one body. And we can avail ourselves, like in the hypothetical you presented, for example, there's a pastor who may not be conversant in the discipline of economics, but investing, in study in that particular way, we can avail ourselves of another portion of the body of Christ who is equipped in the economic sphere and glean from them in order to build our competency. And as you mentioned, not necessarily to be, for expert level, comprehension, but to become, competent sufficiently to be credible within the discipline. And the second thing immediately, makes me think about Second Peter, chapter one. You know, when Peter, warns the body of Christ that if these qualities are yours and they are increasing, they're abounding, they'll fortify you against being useless and unfruitful in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And one of the things he highlighted was knowledge. Knowledge is one of those things that will fortify. Y' all often said the Satan strategy is two pronged to keep as many people as possible from receiving the gospel and being regenerate, being born again as a result of it. And the second prong is to cause a Christian to be barren and unproductive in our knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ so that our faith doesn't impact anybody else. And so what you seem to be presenting is that the whole council project is promulgated to help us in that aspect of developing competencies to be increasingly effective in the kingdom assertion that you're describing that was proclaimed in the NewSong Testament. Is that accurate?
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: Yeah, it is. And what we want to do is we want to identify the resources that are already out there that do this well and help more and more people become aware of those. We also want to identify the topics where there are not already good resources and then identify the people who have the capacity to address those well and to provide for them the encouragement and perhaps even the financial support that they need to dedicate some of their lives to. All right, going ahead and writing that book on a Christian understanding of immigration, or going ahead and writing that book on a Christian understanding of energy policy, this is, this is the kind of thing that we want to do. And we believe this is important because as, as the great Dutch theologian, Abraham Kuyper put it, there is not one square inch of all reality over which Christ does not say mine.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Amen.
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: We as his servants need to be prepared to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. That's, that's the job of whole counsel.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Oh, man, that. This excites me. This excites me.
What shape do you envision this taking in terms of your development of council project
So, so what shape will this take as, as you continue to build it as God is leading you to do? So some of our, our listeners and viewers right now maybe may be familiar with, you know, Francis Schaefer's labrie, for example. You bet, during his time period, what, what shape do you envision this taking place take. what shape do you envision this taking in terms of your development of the whole council project?
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: Well, as I said, it's at this point, it's pretty much in the visionary stage.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Yeah.
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: Ah, we haven't really mapped out a lot of the practical steps, but what we foresee is, for one thing, developing a whole series of, of, short books, as in 30 pages, something like that. Right. So few people have the time to read big fat books anymore. But if we can develop a series of short books, like 25, 30 pages a piece addressing all of these different topics that are so full of controversy in our world right now from a biblical worldview perspective and with real knowledge of the, you know, the, the, the research that's been done on them already around us, if we can, if we can produce that or if we can find things already existing and then, use. Frankly, one of the things we're looking forward to is a series of pastors seminars and teachers seminars in various metro areas where you can bring together 40, 100, 200 pastors and expose them all to this good information, to this usable information, this step by step. Here's how you do this kind of information. Not just kind of inspiration. And then you go away and say, well, but what can I do? Right? this is the kind of thing that we have in mind down the road. We have to see how the Lord blesses this. It's, it's in very much the, the initial thought stages. If the Lord blesses it, it'll be wonderful. If he doesn't, we don't want to keep working on it. We want only to do what he blesses.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Amen. This is. And, I alluded to Francis Chavez Libris. some people, as I mentioned, may be familiar with that. how would this be similar or contrast, from Frankster Schaefer's efforts that have been, you know, it's impacted me, so I know it's had enduring impact.
>> Dr. E. Calvin Beisner: well, you know, Labri was one particular place to which people could go. Now, of course, there are a number of labris in various places around the world, but not a lot. And none, of them is really big. They don't have a lot of people every time. What we're looking forward to is being able to have people collaborating, working together, who live far from each other, you know, and they don't necessarily have to all be gathered into one place, but to be able to take the message and to bring those scholars who are working in this to this city at this time and that city at that time and so on. that I think will allow us to reach out very widely. There are also some earlier sort of models for this kind of thing. The International Council on Biblical Inerrancy developed its Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy and its Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics. The Coalition on Revival developed its Essentials of the Christian WorldView and then 17 different documents addressing how you apply that worldview to various different spheres of life. We have those models. We have the Ratio Christi, the, the ministry that works on university and college campuses all over America, presenting basic Christian understanding of a wide variety of different issues in an apologetic way. So there are those models and we can incorporate bits and pieces of the different models.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: I love it. The whole counsel of God from the whole Word of God to the whole people of God for the whole of life. This is Matthew 28 all day long and twice on Sunday for me. Dr. Meisner, thank you so much guys. You need to stay up with all that the Cornwall alliance is doing. They are my go to for all things biblical, Earth stewardship, climate, energy. They are my primary resource. I encourage you to go to their website CornwallAlliance.org if you can't be in Waco at, ah, the Entrusted homeschool conference on May 2nd, then you need to be in Memphis at, Dr. Beisner's Heaven and Earth Conference. The Struggle for Faith and Science in the Public Square the views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
