Category: Podcast

Satan’s Devices: A Look at the Satanic Temple

Chelsea and I talk about current news of The Satanic Temple expanding programs in elementary schools, including in a small town in Colorado.Lucien Greaves co-founded The Satanic Temple as a religious institution to claim religious rights recognized under the Constitution. The institution has seven secular humanistic tenants that sound reasonable until they are applied to political causes like abortion.We observe four of Satan’s devices from the Bible for how Satan operates as the god of this world and through organizations like The Satanic Temple:Discrete operationsMan-centerednessDeception of goodnessMyth of neutralityScriptures Referenced:2 Corinthians 2:11; 11:14-15Matthew 13:39; 16:23,26John 6:70; 12:4-8Psalm 14:1Matthew 12:30Ephesians 6:11-12Sources Consulted:Elizabeth Hernandez, “After School Satan Club launching first Colorado chapter, but organizer promises “we are not devil worshippers,”” The Denver

Revival: The First Great Awakening (part 3)

Chelsea and I continue our series about the Christian revivals in American history.George Whitefield was an Anglican deacon in Oxford, England. He met John and Charles Wesley in college and joined their Methodist movement. With his Bachelor of Arts degree, booming voice, and supreme acting ability, Whitefield would become a young traveling preacher who could command crowds of up to 20,000 people in one occasion.Whitefield would become America’s first celebrity as he traveled to the colonies seven times and toured up from Georgia to Massachusetts preaching the gospel freely to all sorts of people. He is credited for starting two orphanages mostly for African-American children. In the face of violent opposition and mockery, Whitefield would see thousands of converts, including

Revival: The First Great Awakening (part 2)

Chelsea and I continue our series about the Christian revivals in American history.Solomon Stoddard, a fiery preacher saw several revivals in his 60 years pastoring the church at Northampton, Massachusetts, but he embraced and expanded the Half-Way Covenant. Stoddard allowed open membership and open communion. The Northampton church grew to over 600 members, but over time the majority were likely unbelievers.Stoddard’s grandson Jonathan Edwards would become the new pastor of the church. He would follow in the footsteps of revivalist preaching, with his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Edwards would also see that the Half-Way Covenant and Stoddard’s church polity was enshrining the “dead religion” they were intended to solve.Scriptures Referenced:Revelation 3:161 Corinthians 11:30Sources Consulted:“Spiritual

Revival: The First Great Awakening (part 1)

Chelsea and I start a new series about the Christian revivals in American history.The controversy over the recent “Asbury revival” drove us to ask the question “What is a revival?”Using a dictionary, Scripture, and a Spurgeon quote, we come up with a working definition of a revival. Then, we dive deep into the setting of the American colonies in the 1600’s and early 1700’s.As church life was decaying since the first generation of pilgrims covenanted the first Congregational churches in the Massachusetts Bay colony, pastors begin to look for revival.Congregationalist churches practiced infant baptism but only granted church membership to attendees who could evidence regeneration. As the first generation’s children became adults but didn’t become fully covenanted members, could their

Victories Over Molech (part 2)

Chelsea and I talk about more recent victories over Molech.First, we look at the recent leaked document from the FBI targeting “traditional Catholics” as potential “terrorists.”Then, we see four cases in the UK in which police punish pro-life people for their “silent prayer” activity in a censorship zone:Isabel Vaughn-SpruceAdam Smith-ConnorSean GoghLivia Tossici-BoltAll four are challenging the charges and seeking to be cleared in a court. We believe their cooperative but steadfast battles are victories over Molech. they reveal how absurd the Public Space Protection Orders are to try to shield abortion clinics from people who must be asked “Were you praying silently in your head?”Scriptures Referenced:Matthew 6:5-6; 5:10-162 Chronicles 32:7Sources Consulted:Ewan Palmer, “FBI Under Pressure for Targeting Catholics in Leaked

Victories Over Molech (part 1)

My wife Chelsea is back with me to talk about recent victories over Molech.First, we explain the Biblical background of the pagan practice of sacrificing children to Molech. We see Satanic temples today claiming that abortion bans violate their “religious freedom” as abortions are literally a sacrament for them. The “NOW” statue at the New York supreme court looks like an idol to celebrate Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s fight for abortion “rights.”Mark Houck, a pro-life volunteer at a pregnancy center, was recently acquitted of charges that he violated the FACE Act that could have landed him in prison for up to 11 years. Chelsea and I look at the media’s narrative on his story and how they ignore all the important

How Too Many Christians Support Coveting and Stealing

I go solo in this episode to explain how political ideology can abuse the Bible’s call to charity. This episode is based on notes that were originally for part of the Truthspresso Express series “Was Jesus a Socialist?”After walking through the Sixth through the Tenth Commandment of the law, we see how coveting can be the most difficult command. Yet, too many Christians can support a backdoor to validate covetousness and stealing.Putting government-enforced welfare schemes under the microscope of the Bible, we ask ourselves this question: Is it ever a morally virtuous and Christian thing to support threatening or initiating violence on someone who has not committed a crime?We may think that coercive wealth distribution schemes are “doing God’s work,”

Marching for Life or Death (The March for Life vs. the Women’s March)

Chelsea and I actually recorded two separate parts for this episode.The annual March For Life in Washington D.C. happened on Friday, January 20th.The annual Women’s March happened Sunday afternoon, January 22nd. We recorded the first half about the March For Life on Saturday and the second half about the Women’s March on Sunday afternoon.We give our overview and observations, as well as how the messages and demeanors of these two events clash.One march seems to value life. The other march, perhaps unwittingly, values death.Scriptures Cited:Deuteronomy 30:19Psalm 26:7-12Proverbs 1:29-31Proverbs 16:27Sources Consulted:Lauren Gambino, “‘We’re not done’: abortion opponents hold first March for Life since fall of Roe,” The Guardian, January 20, 2023.Molly Olmstead and Christina Cauterucci, “The First Post-Roe March for Life

No, Congresswoman Scholten, the Bible is not pro-Abortion!

Springboarding from our Christmas is pro-Life series, we jump into a recent bill from Congress on the outskirts of the abortion debate.HR-26, also known as the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act” passed the House of Representatives with a 220-210 vote.The bill is simple and seemingly minimally common sense, yet House Democrats shrieked against it like banshees.For 100% pro-lifers, this bill is not even against abortion itself, but it’s making the radically pro-abortion opponents reveal their true colors.Newly elected Democrat Congresswoman Hillary Scholten claimed to be a “pro-choice Christian” and opposed the bill. She tried to quote Jeremiah 1:5 to support abortion, claiming that the womb belongs to the mother, not the government. Ironically, the bill itself only addresses babies once

Christmas is Pro-Life (part 3)

Chelsea and I continue a series about the deeply Pro-Life message of the Christmas story.The Jesus of the first Christmas clearly taught the value of human life as much as the Christmas story of His conception and birth was pro-life.Did Jesus address abortion in particular during His earthly ministry? No, but that doesn’t mean He wouldn’t have if the question arose.We observe some pro-life points from Jesus’ ministry:Jesus affirmed the whole Tanakh. Anything pro-life there is what Jesus believed (Mat 5:17-18; Luk 24:44).Jesus taught that God cares for birds but that we are far more valuable than many birds (Mat 6:26; Luk 12:7).We are not to despise little children (Mat 18:10; 6).It is not God’s will to kill little children