transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] Wretched Radio begins in 3, 2, 1. I identify as a transgender woman.

Speaker 2:
[00:08] I identify as a straight transgender female. There is no such thing as transgender. You're either XX or XY.

Speaker 3:
[00:16] But honestly, I don't really identify as human.

Speaker 1:
[00:19] I'm tired of being humanized for the comfort of other people.

Speaker 2:
[00:22] God made men male and female. That is determined genetically. That is physiology. That is science. That is reality.

Speaker 1:
[00:33] It's time for Wretched Radio with Todd Friel.

Speaker 4:
[00:36] Common and cruel. This is Wretched Radio. Scrupulosity. If you don't struggle with it, you know somebody who does. Why? Because it's so common. How do I know? Well, I took a big old book off of my shelf, opened it up to read page after page after page after page regarding the subject of scrupulosity, persistent thoughts, intrusive thoughts, repetitive thoughts that just don't go away. The book was written about 300 years ago. Richard Baxter's A Christian Theology. It is considered still in the biblical counseling world to be the DSM of biblical counseling. This man pastorily addresses the issue of those who struggle with the common malady of scrupulosity. It ain't nothing new. It was going on persistently in Puritan times, and it lingers to this day. Why? Well, it's a part of the fall where we just struggle, all of us, with varying issues. But this particular issue, not just common, but it is cruel. And I didn't choose that word just for the sake of Southern Baptists who must have alliteration. It's cruel because it is unimaginably difficult to deal with. If you struggle with scrupulosity, with thoughts that just, you can't get them out of your brain. You know how cruel it is, how joy-robbing it is, how it can keep you on the sidelines of Christianity, how assurance-robbing it is. If you don't have scrupulosity, just do your best to try to imagine, it never goes, it never goes, it never goes, it never goes, it never goes. And not only, it's not just a simple sentence, like it never goes. It could be something that is convicting, it could just downright condemning. You're not saved, you're not saved, you're not saved. Or just something about your person, something threatening, something that is sinful that you don't want there, something that is blasphemous. Try to imagine that for a moment. You have a thought about your savior whom you love, but it is the opposite of the sentiment of love. It's downright vicious about Jesus. And it just keeps dripping through your brain. How long would you endure with that? You would get weary very quickly. And that is why I say the issue of scrupulosity, it is common and it is cruel. Let me share with you a definition from, this is Thomas Brooks, actually his definition of scrupulosity, because all of the Puritans wrote on this, by the way, it wasn't just Baxter. We'll hear from him, but it was Thomas Brooks, Thomas Watson. Why? Because they were bastards and they were regularly meeting with men and women who confessed to them, I can't get this thought out of my brain. Scrupulosity, a conscience misled to overestimate sin. Well, there's one for you. I just thought, I don't like my boss. Oh, no, I'm sinning, I'm not saved. Now, just imagine that persistently happening. So, it's an overestimation of sin. It's a sense that you can't be forgiven. Everybody else might, but not me. I just, I just keep doing it because I'm confused about the distinction between a thought and a sin. Thomas Brooks, you also are underestimating Christ and you're misinterpreting spiritual experience in that you might not be rightly understanding the Christian life. This could be a confusion about justification and sanctification. You are not being as sanctified as you think that you should be and therefore you do not have justification. That's to be confused about those two very distinct related, but distinct doctrines. If you think that what you do is keeping you justified, that's confusion. And that's what Thomas Brooks is identifying. Now, Richard Baxter, a scrupulous conscience is one that is apt to be perplexed with needless doubts and to make more sins and duties than God has made and to be questioning whether that be lawful, which God has not forbidden. It's a hyper conscience. You want your conscience to be sharp, but you don't want it to be so sharp that everything becomes a condemning, convicting sin, because that's scrupulosity. He describes a fundamental distortion that is going on inside of the heart. The conscience overproduces guilt. The person mislabels experiences as sins, and the distinction between presence of a thought versus a sin, and what the difference of these distinct realms is. A thought, even if it's a tempting thought, is not the same as sin. Temptations will hit you, whether you have scrupulosity or not. You're going to be tempted. The one with scrupulosity thinks the temptation is actually the committing of a sin, and it's an endless cycle. This is Richard Baxter. It is the nature of a scrupulous person to be still questioning and never satisfied. And when one doubt is resolved, another one arises so that they live in continual, here's a great word for you, disquietness. Heard that word lately? Me neither. Disquietness, I don't ever have this. I'm always this. I'd like to have this. But it won't leave me alone. That is scrupulosity. And you can only imagine how challenging it is. So let's dive into what these Puritans had to say about the subject. Knowing full well, this is not a total treatment of the subject of scrupulosity. It demands patience of the individual with it and the individual who is discipling this person through it. So if you're a pastor or a parent or a friend of somebody who has scrupulosity, don't think this is a take a Bible verse and call me in the morning sort of affair. It's a deep one. It's a persistent one. And it requires an awful lot of patience. So hang in there with the person with scrupulosity. And if you have scrupulosity, you hang in there too. Let's see if we can learn some stuff from the Puritans. Starting with misreading God is one of the reasons that people struggle with scrupulosity. They see him as justice without mercy. He's a more severe God. He's primarily condemning. Yeah, I get mercy, but, and anytime there's a conjunction, you're in trouble. I understand it theoretically, but it means then you're denying it. That you somehow are the exception to grace. That's to be confused about the nature of God. Number two, the role of temperament. This is fascinating. That Richard Baxter identifies there is a personality type that often is one who is more likely to struggle with scrupulosity. Quote, melancholy persons are usually troubled with such doubts. They are very prone to a scrupulous conscience. For their distempered imagination represents all things to them in a sad and dreadful manner. In other words, you are just kind of bent that way. It's your inclination. If that describes you, that might be some comfort to you because it's something that is common for a particular personality type. Now, for instance, my personality type, I'm just annoying. Hey, hey, why are you shaking your head in there?

Speaker 3:
[09:07] I didn't say anything.

Speaker 4:
[09:08] First time I've seen you move. Confusion of temptation, feeling and sin. This is a biggie if you have scrupulosity. Thomas Watson said, Temptations are not sins unless they're consented to. Temptations are not sins unless they are consented to. So, Mr. or Ms. Scrupulosity, the thought comes in. What do you do with it? If you stop it in its tracks, you're not sinning. You're dealing with temptation. Intrusive thoughts do not necessarily equal sin. Now, they can, of course, if you let them in, and you take it and you run with it. But just to have the intrusive thought, you're not sinning. You say, but you don't understand how vulgar and grotesque my intrusive thoughts is. Perhaps, but it's still not sin. Just a streamer thought is not sin. Presence of a thought does not equal consent. And feeling guilty does not mean you are guilty. Make sure you understand the distinction between temptation and actual sin. So that putting all of that together, you would say that the scrupulous one multiplies sin, feeds on doubt, misreads God, and then turns inwardly. And that's a problem. Because anytime you turn inwardly to look for the solution for your scrupulosity, you're looking in the wrong direction. You will just continue down the spiral. You need to look outward. You need a better source of truth. You need to be able to fix your gaze, not on yourself, not on your performance, not on your sanctification, not on how pure your thoughts are, but you need to fix your thoughts on Christ. That's just the beginning. If you struggle with scrupulosity, please know, oodles of biblical counseling resources on this subject. I would turn your attention toward the Puritans because they wrote on it a lot. And we will keep dipping into their well of wisdom for the scrupulous one next on Wretched Radio.

Speaker 3:
[11:31] Thanks for listening to Wretched Radio today. Look, here's something that I've noticed, and maybe you have too, but it's really easy for us to treat our faith sometimes like a category. As Sunday is Sunday, work is work, parenting is parenting, and somewhere in there you try to be a Christian, but it doesn't always feel like it's all connected. That's why Dr. John Crotz and his podcast Integrated is so incredibly important. Dr. Crotz is a pastor, he's an author, he's a biblical counselor, and he's a Fortis Institute fellow and the host of Integrated. And he is helping people see how scripture speaks to every part of their life. Not just the spiritual stuff, but the practical, every day, how do I actually live this stuff out stuff. And if what we're doing at Fortis Institute has been a source of encouragement for you, I want to ask you to consider joining us as an ongoing monthly gospel partner, help us continue producing content just like Integrated that connects the dots. Go to fortisinstitute.org right now and find out how to join us. Wretched, amazing grace, amazing gospel.

Speaker 4:
[12:31] Perhaps you've been wondering, is there a Christian university that isn't woke? Or that hasn't compromised on important biblical doctrines like, you know, the age of the earth? There is. It's the Masters University in Southern California. Beautiful campus. All of the athletics and activities that you've come to expect from universities. But it's more than that. The academic programs are most excellent, preparing students for the future. The Washington Post just said, number six for preparing students for the real world. All that plus, the Masters University isn't woke, and it is thoroughly biblical. Would you like to learn more? I encourage you to visit the Masters University at masters.edu/wretched, masters.edu/wretched.

Speaker 3:
[13:31] No Retreat. That's the name of Fortis Institute's Spring Match Campaign, and we chose that name for a reason. It means something. See, the church has been quietly backing up for years. A doctrine gets uncomfortable. A truth sounds a little bit too exclusive, so we set them aside. And before long, you realize the gospel your church is preaching sounds more like an apology than an announcement. Fortis Institute exists to advance the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the actual gospel. And right now, through the end of May, every dollar you give to the No Retreat Spring Matching Campaign will be matched, dollar for dollar. Our goal is $250,000, and your gift will help launch two new podcasts. Publish Todd Friel's book Go Serve Your King through Harper Collins. Build biblical resources the church desperately needs and fund gospel proclamation on college campuses. The gospel doesn't move backwards, and neither should we. You can find out more right now at fordusinstitute.org/donate.

Speaker 1:
[14:36] The Titles of Christ. In the Bible, Jesus is given many titles that teaches us about who He is and what He has done. Jesus is called the true vine. The Old Testament describes Israel as a vine planted in the desert. Jesus is the true vine, and those who trust in Him are grafted in to receive life and nourishment from Christ. This is Wretched Radio with Todd Friel.

Speaker 4:
[15:04] Thank you very much. Jimmy, do you know how that was sincere? I didn't do it like Elvis, man. Thank you very much. See, that would have not been the... This is Wretched Radio. Thank you very much to those who have already joined the No Retreat Spring Matching Gift Campaign here at Fortis Institute. Super grateful if you have not yet participated, would be super grateful if you would consider doing so. You can learn about some, not all, but some of our plans at fortisinstitute.org/donate. There's plenty there that I think you'll see. All right, those people are, they're serious about reaching people with the gospel and they're serious about supporting the local church. Oofta, we have got some announcements to make about supporting the local church that are gonna be so groovy. If you have the ability to support this here ministry that supports the local church, we'd be grateful. Please consider doing so at fortisinstitute.org/donate. And speaking of the local church, your congregation is filled. Okay, filled. It has more people inside of it that struggle with the issue of scrupulosity than you can imagine. And that is why this subject, it is, I don't think it's addressed enough. The Puritans addressed it more than we do today. They were constantly dealing with this subject. Maybe it's because back then, people would go to their pastors for spiritual help for this persistent malady. They didn't go down the street to the professionals. They went to their pastor. This was a part of soul care. And so Richard Baxter in his Christian dictionary, he talks a lot about this, all of these guys did. I mean, a lot of ink was spilled on this subject. So let's benefit from some of that ink spilling so that we can help those in our midst who struggle with scrupulosity, which is repetitive thoughts. Yeah, that's one. Just get out of here. Excessive introspection, constantly trying to examine oneself to see if they're in the faith, constantly doubting salvation, always. And they can have evidence to the contrary, but it simply gets dismissed. They just can't believe that they're a believer. They fear that their sin is unforgivable. Perhaps they understand, yeah, God's merciful, but not to me. That this repetitive thought, this blasphemous thought, this sexual thought is so persistent, there's no sin available for me. They confuse feelings with reality, feelings with truth. And it distorts God's character, that God's mercy is not big enough to include me. It magnifies sin, it minimizes Christ, it confuses temptation with sin, and it turns self-examination into perpetual self-accusation. Hey, that's tweetable right there. It turns self-examination, which you should do on occasion, into persistent accusation. I'm not saved, I'm not doing enough. That's a confusion between justification and sanctification. So what are the remites? Here's the big categories. Look more at Christ than at yourself. Distinguish indwelling versus reigning sin. There's a difference. You can and you will be tempted the rest of your life, but is it reigning in you? Does it constantly have its way with you? Are you just at its mercy constantly? That's reigning sin. But to have indwelling sin in that, your members still war against you, well, that's Christianity. You've got to recognize that temptation is not the same as sin. You've got to build your life on facts instead of feelings. And you've got to constantly be reminding yourself of what God says about you instead of you. Thomas Brooks, he offered some remedies against Satan's devices. He said, Scrupulosity comes from distorted views of God's justice and mercy. You're focusing too much on sin. It's a misdirected attention. Your assurance is not based on strength of feeling. I was thinking about this this morning. I had a big decision to make. And I'm not quite settled about it. And in evangelical Christianity, we would say, do you have a piece about it? Now, there is some truth about that, because if something is kind of like nattering inside of you, then maybe you miss something. Maybe you haven't balanced your scales rightly, and you need to rethink it. But even so, if I base my decision at all on my feelings, good, bad, or otherwise, I've made a mistake. Because if I make a decision, it's like I can have peace about it, but I'm oblivious. I haven't thought it through. I haven't considered all angles. On the other hand, I can think that I've got peace, or I don't have peace, and so I make the opposite decision. And that's a horrible way to make decisions. Now, should you have peace about a decision? Let's say yes. I think that's wise to make sure, okay, I feel settled about this because I've considered everything, not I just have a feeling, therefore I don't have to consider anything. I'd make the decision because I've got a peace about it. It's a tricky thing, the sense of peace. I don't want to just put it down the garbage disposal and say, it just has no place in decision making. But I will say this, it is not the foundation of decision making and it cannot be the primary driver of your decision making, nor can it be the primary determiner of the status of your soul. You feel like that. It doesn't matter how you feel. There's a mantra, you should just repeat, it doesn't matter how I feel, doesn't matter how I feel. What matters is what God says. What matters is what God says. That will help you with your scrupulosity. Again, reminder, it is a long process. Awareness of sin should drive you toward Christ, not an inward spiral. Furthermore, make sure you are understanding the expansive nature of God's grace, that it is an ocean of mercy. You've got to puddle a sin. God has an ocean of grace. Remember that. Christians, this is Baxter quoting, I believe, Christians many times look upon themselves through Satan's spectacles. And so they judge themselves worse than God judges them. So you've got a distorted self-perception. Thomas Watson in the Doctrine of Repentance, he took time on the subject. Sorrow for sin must be such as makes sin more odious and simultaneously Christ more precious. But not such as makes Christ less precious. That's life-changing. You've got to understand that sin stinks. But Jesus Christ is able to consume your sin. He is able to handle your sin. And that should cause you not just to hate your sin. If you stop with just hating your sin, you haven't gone far enough as a Christian. You've got to recognize that Jesus Christ is the one who paid for that sin, making him more precious to me. And if you're not doing that, I would encourage you to get on. And that goes for all of us, by the way, scrupulosity or not. Confessing sin is one thing. That's good and that's right. But if you don't take the time to realize you actually are forgiven, and it's because of the spilt blood of Jesus Christ, He will not grow in His spectacular everything. His exaltation will never become exalted to you. You'll never see Him increasing in His greatness. Now, He doesn't increase in greatness, of course, but our understanding of His greatness increases. But only if we remember, wow, He really did pay for all of those sins. Another quote, despair is a sin against God's goodness. It casts a slur upon His mercy, as if it were not infinite. That's a theological error. Furthermore, faith may be weak where it is true. Assurance is not measured by your feelings, by your emotional certainty. Faith may be weak where it is true. How big does your faith need to be? Well, according to Jesus, real small. But if it's a genuine faith, it's enough. If it's a mustard seed sized faith, it's enough. The saints are more sensible of sin than others because they have more light to see it. So sensitivity to sin, it's not actually a sign that you're not saved. It's the very sign that you are saved. The scrupulous, now there could be some scrupulous people who aren't saved. We need to recognize that. But I would suggest that if you're a scrupulous one, that's actually a good sign you are saved. Why? Because you're sensitive to sin. Now you're over sensitive, but nevertheless you are sensitive to sin. The sense of sin is not the same as the state of sin. So all of those observations conclude with you need an authority shift. You got to move from feelings to scripture. You've got to resist the doubt cycle. You've got to resist and reject over analysis. Don't feed the loop. You need to mark the line between potential sin and actual sin. You don't need to be perfect because Jesus was perfect for you. How do you get all of those things rightly ordered in your brain? Spend more time staring at Jesus than at yourself. This is Wretched Radio.

Speaker 3:
[26:01] And it's now time for your daily Fortis news break. A production of Fortis Institute. Federal agents arrested a Chinese national earlier this month for photographing military aircraft near an Air Force base in Nebraska. The 21-year-old was called at JFK trying to board a flight to Frankfurt. And the Air Force base isn't just any Air Force base, it houses US Strategic Command and the Doomsday plane that would carry the president through a nuclear war. The Chinese national was visiting the US on a tourist visa and had also planned a stop at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. A new study in the Journal of American Medical Association reports that 97% of abortion pill prescriptions are now filled by mail order pharmacies. That's the direct result of the Biden FDA scrapping the in-person dispensing rule in 2023. The Trump administration promised a year ago to review the safety data and reverse course. Nothing has yet happened. Senator Josh Hawley is now asking whether the review is even under way. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood just posted its biggest year ever, more than 434,000 abortions, most of them by pill and most shipped through the mail. In Canada, 84-year-old Miriam Lancaster went to the ER with excruciating back pain. And before anyone even told her what was wrong, a young doctor leaned over to her bed and offered to help her end her life. Turns out she just had a fractured pelvis. She since healed. A little over a year later, nearly 16,500 Canadians took the government up on their offer to end their life early. Also in Canada, a judge handed down just six months in jail to a man who kicked and choked his girlfriend's 28-month-old toddler on camera twice. The judge pointed to his remorse, his sobriety, and his distant indigenous ancestor on his mother's side. A beaten toddler, it appears, weighs less than a bloodline. Some good news from Texas. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled 9-8 that the state can require public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. The court set a poster on a wall is not an establishment of religion. Meanwhile, in Minnesota, a high school is building a prayer room and a foot washing station for its Muslim students. And Hollywood seems to be trying very hard to resurrect the woke corpse. Netflix's new Sacha Baron Cohen comedy Ladies First plays like a 2020 time capsule, and the new Star Trek Starfleet Academy got mocked into cancellation. Hulu's Malcolm in the Middle Revival tossed in a non-binary child for good measure, and HBO's The Pit features a doctor offering to fudge their record so a pregnant teenager could skirt the Pennsylvania abortion cutoff. The box office continues to tell them no, but they keep writing the same scripts anyway. And that wraps up today's Fortis News break. I'm Jimmy Hicks. If you want more, you can download Fortis Plus or sign up to become a Fortis insider for exclusive daily content. Both can be done at fortisinstitute.org. And don't forget, you can also subscribe to Fortis News on your favorite podcast app in order to get these updates daily. And until tomorrow, go serve your king.

Speaker 1:
[29:03] Important dates in Christian history. 590 AD, Gregory becomes Pope Gregory I, known as the Great. He made treaties with Germanic tribes, independent of the emperor, and declared the bishop of Rome's primacy over the whole church, increasing the political and spiritual power of the papacy significantly. This is Wretched Radio with Todd Friel.

Speaker 4:
[29:29] Gotta draw a line somewhere, don't we? This is Wretched Radio, Grant. Too many people are drawing unnecessary lines. A lot of lines of division need to be erased these days. Somebody says something, it's a word choice. Hey, wait a second. This isn't my understanding of the global economy. You're out of here. And we're dividing too frequently. But there are folks on the other side of the spectrum who seem to refuse to draw lines at all. They seem to be reticent. I say reticent to say that ain't Christian. That's outside of orthodoxy. That is not acceptable. A case in point number one, David French. David French sat down with Allie Beth Stuckey. He's a New York Times journalist. He's an author. He's a professing evangelical, and yet increasingly bending to the left. Good on Allie Beth for sitting down with him. She's very gracious. I don't think I've ever seen her crabby. And she sat down with somebody. Clearly, she disagrees with him on the issue of James Talarico. What's a James Talarico? If you haven't been following him, you should. Because this young man, he's Bill Clinton like. When Bill Clinton ran for office, was it 88? That seems about was it 80? No, no, it had to be 90 something like that. Because I was married at the time. And I remember Mrs. Friel came home. I was watching the Democratic debates and she was like, Well, you're a better man than I am. Well said, honey. And I was watching the debates and she said, Was there anybody who stood out? And I said, Yeah, actually, there was a guy from Arkansas. Governor, he just had a presence about him. And the way that he comported himself was just different than the other guys. Well, that of course was Bill Clinton. James Talarico, not the same. I don't think that he has the same type of presence, but he has that same sort of air about him where he seems very calm and yet very confident, but he's very wrong, because that's what he's being taught at his Presbyterian Seminary where he's getting apparently his master's degree in theology. Not sure they actually use the Bible for that degree, but his theology is horrible. Jimmy, did you just lick up Bill Clinton's first election?

Speaker 3:
[31:53] I did not, no.

Speaker 4:
[31:54] Oh, I thought that's what you were doing.

Speaker 3:
[31:56] Okay, I will, I will.

Speaker 4:
[31:58] Oh, good, because it's driving me nuts. David French, sitting down with Allie Beth Stuckey, refused to say that James Talarico is outside of orthodoxy. Really? Really? Oh, how hard is this? This is, this is what David French said. His kindness towards opponents, his openness toward opponents, in that to me, that's acting like a Christian. Fair enough. Okay. I'm not sure exactly what he means by openness toward opponents, because Christianity is shut. We don't have an open door theological policy. The door is shut. But can we be nice to people? Of course we can. Of course we should. Of course we even need to honor those in political places. I know that's a hard word. In fact, if I could just take a little discursus, apparently Friel, you're about to. On Sunday at Alfredo Bible Church, the text was, Government, Submitting to the Government. That's the beauty of expository preaching. It is not a subject I would have chosen, but the text chose the subject because we're preaching all the way through a Bible book, and you just don't have a choice. You can't just gloss over it. And so you need to preach on something that apparently God has decided is the subject du jour. And afterwards, some people brought up a really good question because I didn't dive into this particular aspect of 1 Peter. I think it's 219-ish in that neighborhood. Honor all people, all people. Honor them all. Okay, we can kind of handle that. And then it tells us to fear God, love the brethren, and honor the king. And suddenly we go, hey, how am I supposed to do that when the dude's a scoundrel? That's a great question, isn't it? And so I did a little dive in into the word honor. I think the reason, because as soon as there are several people brought it up after church, how do you honor these people when their policies are so wicked? That's a real, and I had to go, you know, that's worthy of a little study, isn't it? And as I, and as I noodled it, I think that the issue is our understanding of what it means to honor. So if we did a word association game and I said honor that guy, you would think, okay, so like ticker tape parade, I need to say like good things about that person. So it's not just a neutral position, it's an affirming position. I think that that's the baggage that we bring with the word honor. And I don't think that it has to, I think that it can. I think the semantic range of the word allows for that. But I don't think that it has to. The word that he used, to ma'o, it's to value, to esteem, to assign worth. This is the semantic range, to treat as weighty or significant or worthy of recognition. Now you say, that's the problem right there. How do I recognize what they're doing? Because what they're doing is so bad. Well, I think first of all, it means you don't necessarily have to say positive things that don't exist, but you can find something positive to say, something, even if it's how they tie their shoes. But more than that, I think it's simply not saying the nasty stuff. Does that mean you can't criticize? Didn't say that. But it is honoring them by not blasting them, by not speaking in pejoratives toward them, no ad hominems against them. We just have to practice restraint. Now again, that does not mean that you can't say anything about their policies, but personal attacks, that would be to not honor them. And so by withholding those, even if they're fair observations about the person, that's to honor them. You honor them by not dishonoring them, by practicing self-control. So honoring all people, we don't have an issue with that. But I would ask you a question. Let's just say it's somebody who's not a politician, it's not a famous person. You're supposed to honor that person. It's the person who lives down the street. So does that mean that you need to put up posters in your front yard saying, he's a really great guy? No, that doesn't. You can if you want to. That would be honoring. But if it's somebody who's not a good neighbor, how do you honor them? Well, you don't gossip with the other neighbors about the neighbor. You don't say things against him. You don't even mutter them amongst family. You honor them by not saying disparaging things. That's a part of it. I grant you. Doesn't mean that we agree with everyone. Doesn't mean that we're approving behavior, but it does mean that we can be civil. And I think that is to honor them. Furthermore, when it is not commanding us to sin or forbidding us from obeying a command or a violation of jurisdictional authority, we do what we're told. That's to honor them. So we have respectful speech. About them. We obey when we can. We are not cynical. We're not contemptuous toward them. Gulp. We acknowledge their authority. Even when they're flawed, we acknowledge their authority. And we pray for them. I think that's how we honor them. And again, to honor them, if your heart is just filled with malice, well, then you're sinning in your heart. You need to work on that. But I think that when we understand that honor doesn't necessarily mean agreement. That's hard, isn't it? Doesn't mean agreement. We feel like if I'm not saying something, that's an affirmation. And there are instances where that can actually happen. But in general, honor doesn't mean agreement. You can still strongly oppose. You don't have to flatter. You don't have to make things up that aren't true. And honor doesn't just apply to worthy people. It applies to them because God has placed them there. And it's an acknowledgement that God is using them. That's a perspective changer. When you think of a really rotten bunch of rulers, like the potential rulers I was watching on the Democratic debate, was that last night? I don't know why. Why just some... There were actually, they had three or four Democrats and two Republicans. I don't know who those Republicans are, but everything they said, I was like, Yeah! Yeah! They were really good because they kept pointing back to, let's not talk about the gas tax, let's talk about how the Democrats have been running this place. They were really on point. And then the Democrats, of course, basically one degree of socialism versus the other. And I'm watching it and I'm thinking to myself, Oh, those people are just going to inflict more pain on people. So how do I still honor them? I recognize that they are instruments in the Redeemer's hands. He's using them as ministers. He's using them to accomplish much grander things than political. It's not about temporal, it's about eternal in God's economy. Not that temporal isn't at all significant, but it's insignificant compared to eternal things. And that can then cause me to honor them because God has them there because God is using them. Jimmy, what year did Bill Clinton, was it 92?

Speaker 3:
[40:00] Yeah, it was, it was 92.

Speaker 4:
[40:03] And now, all right, this is going to hurt a little bit. Kind of missed those Clinton years, don't you? Compared to... Yep. The Democrats of these days. Speaking of Democrats, James Talarico, should we be drawing a line with him? David French can't. I'll make the case we ought to. Next on Wretched Radio.

Speaker 3:
[40:27] Remember when the craziest cultural ideas stayed in dystopian novels? Yeah, those days are over. We're living in the brave new world now, and it showed up faster than anyone expected it to. Social media didn't just change how we communicate, it changed how everyone thinks. And if you're not ready as a Christian to defend what you believe about gender and sexuality and race and entertainment and a dozen other hot button issues, you're going to get steamrolled. Wretched Worldview 2 picks up where the first one left off. Todd Friel and Dr. Nathan Boosnitz tackled 22 more issues through a biblical lens. Critical race theory, modesty, persecution, environmentalism, secular entertainment and more. The stuff you're actually seeing in the headlines and hearing at your dinner table. Because the Christian worldview is under assault and, I don't know, isn't going to cut it anymore. Wretched Worldview 2 is available and streaming right now for free on Fortis Plus. You can download the app on your smartphone, on your smart TV, or simply visit fortisplus.org. Most men don't make one big decision that takes them off course. No, it happens gradually. And eventually you look up and you realize, I've been coasting for years. Well, Dr. Adam Tyson has created Walk Like a Man. It's available now on Fortis Plus. Dr. Tyson knows that's the story for way too many guys right now. And so he gets into God's Word and he lays out what it actually looks like to walk with wisdom and live with real conviction. And the way he teaches it, you'll walk away from every episode knowing exactly what to do and why it matters. This is biblical teaching that puts solid ground under your feet and gives you a clear path forward. It's streaming right now with new episodes dropping every Monday on Fortis Plus for free. Download the Fortis Plus app right now, wherever you download apps on your smartphone, your smart TV, or just go to fortisplus.org and walk like a man. Well, you can't judge me. Yeah, you've heard that a thousand times. It's the verse people quote when they don't want to be corrected, even people who've never opened a Bible. But here's the question, is that actually what scripture teaches? Or have we been misreading one of the most misunderstood commands in the entire Bible? Thou Shall Judge is a 13 lesson series with Todd Friel and Justin Peters that sets the record straight. They demonstrate why failing to discern truth from error doesn't make you loving, it makes you dangerous. Righteous judgment isn't hateful. It's one of the most loving things you can do because it protects people from the damage of false teaching. This series even includes a free study guide. It's perfect for your family, your youth group or just working through yourself. If you've ever been told that calling something wrong makes you the problem, this is one you'll want to watch. It's streaming free on Fortis Plus right now. Download the app where you download apps on your smartphone, your smart TV or just simply go to fortisplus.org.

Speaker 1:
[43:29] Books of the Bible The Gospel of Matthew is an account of the life of Christ written by one of Jesus' disciples. Matthew's Gospel shows Jesus as the promised Messiah, God's anointed King and Savior. When you hear of the Kingdom of Heaven, remember that there is no kingdom without a king. Only those who bow before Jesus will enter his kingdom. This is Wretched Radio with Todd Friel.

Speaker 4:
[43:57] David French can't draw a line, but we can and should. This is Wretched Radio appearing on the Allie Beth Stuckey program, journalist David French defending James Talarico, his policies, no, his Christianity. And you say, what? Allie Beth Stuckey, she wasn't giving David French any quarter, she was polite, she was gracious, but she just kept asking, how can he, James Talarico, qualify as a Christian when he uses the Bible to endorse abortion, transgender surgeries for children, the LGBTQ issues? How's about his thinking that God is non-binary? David French, listen to the reasoning, because this could catch on to a degree. This is basically, David French. He's just expressing classic liberalism. He said, too many people are very eager to write people out of Christianity based on their political positions. Well, that's a little bit of a sleight of hand, because he's got more than political positions that are awful. And don't forget that political positions are always based on worldview, whether it's a secular worldview, a Christian, Judeo worldview, doesn't matter. It's always grounded in worldview. And so if an individual has a position, we can track it to their theology. And James Talarico, he falls far short. He's a universalist. We listen to his Easter sermon. He couldn't find the doctrine of justification if it fell on top of his noggin, apparently. So David French kind of does a little shell game with us. Hey, don't judge him based on his political positions. Well, I'm gonna. That would be okay. It would be like saying that somebody, they robbed a grocery store. Well, don't judge him based on that. Why not? That's an action. It's a belief. Quote, I'm just really not willing to say that James Talarico is not a Christian. I'm just not going to do it. I would ask David French, tell me, give me an example. Name three people that you would. Three people. Tell me, would you name three? And I wonder that if he could come up with three. Speaking of those that are apparently not willing to draw lines, we'll be releasing a video on this. There was a snippet that was making its way around social media. It was Dallas Jenkins sitting inside of a BYU, Brigham Young University studio. Todd, we know what BYU is. And he was being interviewed by two Mormon professors. And he called himself, it was joking. So I think that he was trying to be funny. That he's the designated ambassador for Mormonism. I think he meant that tongue in cheek. Nevertheless, he affirmed the Mormon understanding of Jesus Christ. In fact, he actually criticized his fellow evangelicals for not being as reverential as Mormons are. What? And so, we're doing a lengthy treatise on what Mormons believe about Jesus Christ, because Christology is important. And in doing so, I went and grabbed my old book. It's yellow. The pages are yellow. It's Walter Martin's The Kingdom of the Cults. This thing had to have been written, what, in the 60s? Wow! Hank Hanegraaff was the general editor. Where's Hank these days? Is he still doing radio? Is he still orthodox or has he moved on to the next denomination? Okay, it was copyrighted in 1965. I'm sure it's been updated since then. It's a best seller. It's worth having on your bookshelf. It covers all of the cults and he includes Mormonism. And I had dog eared this page when I read this book, however, many years ago, the truth about the God of the Mormons. And I started reading it again and I went, wow! We're gonna just trust that Dallas Jenkins has no idea about any of this because there's no way that he can confirm the Mormon religion as being within Christian orthodoxy when you understand the Mormon view of God, of Jesus, of salvation, of the Bible. Let me share with you from the book, The Kingdom of the Cults. This is about Mormonism. In the beginning, and by the way, I won't cite all of the references, but it's all from Mormon literature. In the beginning, the head of the gods, I'm sorry, what? In the beginning, the head of the gods called a council of the gods, and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world and people in it. That's teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, by the way. God himself was once as we are now. Huh? And is an exalted man. Huh? Hello? How can we not draw line with this? How can Dallas Jenkins say, they're good to go? Then they honor Jesus more than we do. So in other words, Jesus, by the way, too, is just an exalted man. He's a man just like you and I are. He's just preeminent. He's been elevated to a higher status, but he's ontologically the same. Huh? The father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's, the son also. But the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of spirit. That's from doctrines and covenants. That's one of their esteemed books on the same level as the Bible. That's not Trinitarian theology. God is spirit. Jesus is the God man. And why they distinguish the Holy Ghost as not having being corporeal and yet a person, but not the father and the son is, well, it's a little suspicious, isn't it? God exists and we had better strive to be prepared to be one with them. Gods exist and we had better strive to be prepared to be one with them. Gods? Gods exist? No. God exists. See, that's what makes Mormonism attractive to some. You if you do enough good, if you don't sin very much, you one day can be your own God on your own planet, making your own spirit babies. As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become. That's Prophet Lorenzo Snow in a book called The Gospel Through the Ages. From Mormon literature, each of these gods, including Jesus Christ and his father, being in possession of not merely an organized spirit, but a glorious immortal body of flesh and bones. That's Harris. Every one of these statements has been heretical. Every single one of them. Seven, quote, this is the seventh quote from Kingdom of the Cults. And then the Lord said, let us go down. And they went down at the beginning. And they, that is the gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth. Hmm, that's interesting. That's not what Genesis says. Remember that God, our heavenly father, was perhaps once a child and mortal, like we ourselves, and rose step by step in the scale of progress in the school of advancement, has moved forward and overcome until he has arrived at the point where he is now. That's heresy. Can we not draw a line on this? Can we not say that's outside of orthodoxy? And it's not because we're snooty, and it's not because we're cruel, we're concerned. And the point of the video that we made on this subject is we should be concerned about those who defend Mormonism. Because they either have to be really, really ignorant, or they really, really don't understand correctly about Jesus Christ and who he is and the necessity of getting our Trinitarian theology correct. Historically, it's always been determined, you got to have this right, or you are anathema. This is from another one of their prophets. Mormon prophets have continuously taught the sublime truth that God the Eternal Father was once a mortal man who passed through a school of earth life similar so that through which we are now passed, or similar to that which we are now passing, he became God an exalted being through obedience to the same eternal gospel truths that we are given opportunity today to obey. So in other words, God was once a sinner. How's that sitting with you? Can we not draw a line on this? Christ was the God, the father of all things. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the father and the son. No, he's the son. He's a distinct person. The father is another distinct person. This would then enter into the realm of patra-passionism, that the father then suffered on the cross for our sins. No, Jesus suffered on the cross for our sins. This is a complete confusion of Trinitarian theology. Quote, when our father Adam came into the Garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body and brought Eve, one of his wives with him. He helped to make and organize the world. He is Michael, the Archangel, the Ancient of Days about whom holy men have written and spoken. He is our father and our God and the only God with whom we have to do. You say, well, that must be an obscure person in Mormonism. No, that was Brigham Young of the university, by the way. Last quote, historically the doctrine of Adam dash God was hard for even faithful Mormons to believe. As a result, June 8th, 1873, Brigham Young stated how much unbelief exists in the minds of the Latter-day Saints in regard to one particular doctrine, which I revealed to them and which God revealed to me, namely that Adam is our father and God. I don't know how they handle Romans 5, but that's Mormon dogma. That's the belief of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And that is now being overlooked. And I think Dallas Jenkins has some slain to do, because not only is he allowing Mormons to stay in their confusion, but he's allowing Christians to be confused about correct Christology and Trinitarian Theology. If we can't draw a line on Mormonism, then put your pencil away, because no lines can be drawn at all. And until tomorrow, go serve your King!