0:02 cliff and Stuart connal welcome guys
0:05 thank you Char Charlie so uh for some
0:07 audience members that might not be aware introduce
0:08 introduce
0:10 yourselves go ahead all right so I'm
0:13 Stuart Conley I am associate pastor at
0:15 Grace Community Church in new Kanan
0:16 Connecticut I get the pleasure of
0:18 working with this guy he's nice enough
0:20 to have me on his team and then we also
0:23 do apologetics Outreach evangelism
0:25 together on University
0:28 campuses across the country and
0:31 sometimes I notice we overlap like UT I
0:32 think where you got the water bottle
0:33 thrown at you like the West Mall steps
0:36 right there he's been there for like 55 years
0:38 years
0:40 so and then we combine those together so
0:42 I I've got a master in Psychology and
0:45 Divinity so I try and use those to
0:47 really do Outreach at our church and
0:49 Beyond so that's kind of come from and
0:51 you've been doing this for 42 years yeah easy
0:53 easy
0:54 Charlie got the number yeah brother
0:57 you're right I'm I'm getting up there
1:00 I'm Cliff kle I'm an obnoxious twit who
1:02 the holy spirit is changing and I try
1:05 and combine the grace and love and truth
1:07 of Christ and communicate on University
1:09 campuses and at the church where steuart
1:11 and I get to pastor and I get to be this
1:14 guy's dad so I'm an awful proud dad
1:16 that's that's amazing so you've been
1:19 doing this on campuses for a while kind
1:21 of similar to what I do somewhat from a
1:23 political standpoint but we're unafraid
1:25 to to talk about the deeper things more
1:28 important things talk talk about that I
1:30 mean that's yeah sure I will you know
1:33 why I like
1:35 him because he hasn't made the mistake
1:38 of elevating politics over faith in Christ
1:46 okay obviously we can slip into a type
1:49 of nationalism that is raw raw raw
1:50 country and leave God out of the
1:53 equation that is lethal and what Charlie
1:55 does in a way that I've come to respect
1:56 is because I've
1:58 been uh confronted by more and more of
2:00 this type of issue is he puts Christ at
2:03 the center God is the basis of your
2:06 world view and then because of that you
2:07 respect your country you're very
2:09 grateful for what our foremothers and
2:11 forefathers have done in putting this
2:13 country together and you want to return
2:15 it to the judeo-christian ethic that was
2:16 the foundation of this family this
2:18 country even though we're well aware of
2:19 the fact that many of the founding
2:22 mothers and fathers were Das and no
2:24 we're not deas we believe in a personal
2:26 God Who's involved in our lives today
2:28 not in a distant God who remains aloof
2:30 so we disagree with thas Jefferson with
2:32 a Jeffersonian Bible but we're very
2:34 grateful for the judeo-christian ethic
2:36 ethics that our forefathers and
2:39 foremothers held to so tightly well
2:41 thank you for that and
2:44 so I I have you seen let's just talk in
2:46 the last couple of years both of you
2:48 visiting campuses be interesting to hear
2:50 you say what are you hearing what are
2:52 you seeing have things changed in recent
2:55 years talk about Trends I think our
2:58 audience would be interested in that so
3:00 30 years ago I was a little young but
3:04 from what I hear it was is there truth
3:06 and then 20 years ago it was okay
3:09 there's truth maybe lowercase maybe
3:11 uppercase but what is this truth let's
3:13 have a dialogue today it's all right I'm
3:15 in a lot of pain I think you may have
3:17 mentioned it and your one of your talks
3:20 divorce rates death from despair
3:21 depression anxiety
3:24 skyrocketing and so that's the trend
3:25 I've seen some of the very similar
3:28 questions is God a moral monster slavery
3:30 why does God allow suffering all of
3:32 those are are pretty much the same and
3:35 similar but I think I think the growth
3:37 again in pain whether that's
3:39 psychological relational oftentimes
3:41 that's connected to nihilism because
3:43 somebody who doesn't believe in God it's
3:45 I have no objective meaning and purpose
3:47 I came on was an accident accidental
3:50 birth and I'm going nowhere and my
3:52 favorite is when I actually see happy
3:54 nius because it's the biggest
3:55 contradiction probably out there that we
3:58 see on college campuses but literally we
3:59 will have students come up to us and say
4:01 I'm anilist I have no meaning and
4:03 purpose in my life but hey I'm here you
4:05 know YOLO I'm here for a good time not a
4:08 long time and so that's that's the new
4:11 narrative I think we see so can you want
4:12 to comment on that Cliff as far as
4:15 Trends things you've seen sure and and
4:17 talk about the process of how you do
4:19 this on campuses I I'd just be
4:20 personally interested to hear that you
4:23 bet um I am not here to butter him up
4:25 okay in fact I don't like talking about
4:29 people all right but but guys for 44
4:30 years I've been staying standing up on
4:32 University campuses dialoguing with
4:36 students now I am committed to pointing
4:37 people to God's
4:40 existence therefore morality is not
4:43 subjective there are few moral absolutes
4:45 therefore The Logical conclusion is not
4:48 despair There's Hope because there's a
4:49 God who has eternal life in heaven for
4:53 all who trust in his son Jesus all right
4:55 now I don't feel comfortable going into
4:57 the political
4:59 Arena that's why I respect what he's
5:03 doing it's very hard to communicate
5:05 Christ and then also to challenge people
5:07 to think okay what are the ramifications
5:09 of your belief in Christ especially
5:11 politically especially culturally that
5:14 gets real hard and one of the reasons
5:17 it's hard is because we don't all agree
5:19 right you go around in this room and I
5:20 don't think we're all going to agree on
5:22 everything that's where tolerance comes
5:24 in tolerance is not an atheist and I
5:28 agree no we don't agree tolerance is
5:29 although you are an atheist I respect
5:30 you and we're going to have an
5:32 intelligent dialogue now that's what he
5:34 does and that's what we try and do
5:36 intelligent dialogue guys that's what a
5:38 liberal arts education is all about a
5:40 free exchange of ideas where we don't
5:42 necessarily agree but we communicate
5:44 respectfully and we explain why we
5:46 believe what we believe what's the
5:47 evidence of whatever it is you believe
5:49 is true so that's the kind of thing that
5:51 we want the most important thing is
5:53 always Jesus the second most important
5:55 thing is making sure that we could talk
5:57 about Jesus and worship Jesus which is
6:00 increasingly more difficult so so talk
6:01 about the process you guys set up a
6:04 table on campus people come up and talk
6:06 to you um for the audience that might
6:09 not be aware yes so we've never set up a
6:11 table we get invited by different
6:14 student organizations and we go back in
6:16 the day he would have to start which is
6:18 that's that's the Bold part right you
6:20 have to speak and somehow find a way to
6:22 get people to stop and actually engage
6:24 but now thankfully God has used social
6:26 media in a big way so when we go there's
6:28 already a very big crowd even at very
6:31 secular schools like Yukon very hostile
6:33 crowd so that that's how we start we get
6:35 invited by different organizations we
6:37 show up they often times will start the
6:38 crowd but then it'll gather and grow
6:42 very quickly then we go about debate and
6:44 then we go about connecting with as many
6:45 students as possible but the important
6:46 part I think you were kind of getting to
6:48 there in your second part is
6:50 discipleship we don't want to go sadly
6:51 Billy Graham we're huge Billy Graham
6:53 fans but if you look statistically when
6:56 he would do his Crusades a very high
6:58 percentage of people after three weeks
7:00 would turn away from the faith the alter
7:02 calls fruit so what we try and do is we
7:04 make sure these organizations on their
7:06 Outreach nights where we speak at and
7:08 that'll have a lot of students show up
7:09 but we don't want there just to be an
7:11 event that we speak at at at the end of
7:14 the week we say guys we are here not
7:17 just to evangelize we need discipleship
7:20 so these students will stay in the faith
7:22 and understand what real scripture is
7:24 when you went to Genesis 22 for example
7:26 last night like specific scripture this
7:27 is what we need it can't just be this
7:29 type of higher power oh yeah I'm a
7:30 Christian now now but I just never read
7:32 the Bible so that that's part of the
7:35 process so um the it's very important
7:38 you went on Logan Paul's podcast which
7:40 I'm sure you you got a couple emails and
7:42 things from that talk about that
7:43 experience what an amazing way that God
7:47 used you to reach a population that has
7:49 not heard the
7:51 gospel all right so here are some of the
7:54 challenges I really respect Logan Paul
7:57 he began our time together by saying I
7:59 am not a Christian but maybe by the to
8:03 this podcast I will be no pressure yeah
8:05 yeah I mean that kind of honesty and
8:07 vulnerability goodness gracious that's
8:10 cool I found him to be a very nice guy
8:11 and it was fascinating his sticking
8:14 point his sticking point was you got to
8:17 be kidding me good Jews and good Muslims
8:19 and good Hindus they need to accept
8:22 Christ I mean that just is too narrow
8:25 that's just too bigoted it's too
8:27 intolerant and so what I was trying to
8:30 help him see was if I say that every
8:33 path leads to God that's a truth claim
8:35 I'm saying majority of Muslims the
8:37 majority of humanity which is Muslims
8:39 Christians and Jews they're wrong every
8:41 path leads to Heaven that's a truth
8:44 claim if I say you half the religions
8:46 and philosophies of the world lead to
8:48 Heaven that's a truth claim I'm saying
8:49 half are right and half are wrong that
8:52 is a truth claim and when Jesus says I
8:54 am the way the truth and the life no one
8:55 comes to the father except through me
8:57 that's also a truth claim he's saying
8:59 you've got to put your faith in me I am
9:01 the way to heaven so let's be real
9:04 honest we all make truth claims let's
9:06 not sit back sit back and act like Oh
9:08 I'm a really open-minded really tolerant
9:11 person because I say all paths lead to
9:14 Heaven All paths lead to God no you're
9:16 making a truth claim and I can promise
9:19 you if I say that 1 plus 1 equals 2 I'm
9:21 not necessarily being arrogant now I
9:23 might be arrogant but just to make a
9:25 truth claim does not mean you're being
9:28 arrogant and intolerant it means this is
9:30 my take on reality you better ask me
9:32 what's the evidence that your take on
9:34 reality is true and I'm going to ask you
9:36 the same question and what is your take
9:38 on reality what's the evidence that your
9:41 take on reality is true so so kind of
9:43 tell us about the discussion you had
9:45 with him and either one of you the
9:46 response that you
9:49 received I thought he was really genuine
9:51 he gets pegged for trying to just to
9:53 poke holes and then walk away but I
9:55 thought he was genuine I mean he did ask
9:58 questions like will animals be in heaven
10:00 and you know the lion will lie down with
10:02 the Sheep so I believe that animals will
10:04 be in heaven literally he would ask
10:07 questions like why Jesus amongst other
10:10 religions he would he said he got burned
10:13 a few times by Christians who were so
10:16 judgmental about other faiths and so we
10:19 dug into that a little bit but you know
10:20 his mom was sitting there the whole time
10:22 and I guess his mom typically doesn't
10:25 show up but she showed up for us and she
10:28 held her cross out the entire time kind
10:31 of pointing it to pointing it to us and
10:34 I I think that shows her obvious desire
10:37 to get her sons him and Jake really
10:39 thinking about the faith and moving
10:43 towards the faith so that was a very
10:45 very interesting part of it because he
10:47 would he would really come after mainly
10:48 really went after you I tried to more of
10:51 the emotional connection and and yet at
10:53 the same time I think at at the end of
10:54 the time he was a genuine he was
10:57 genuinely wrestling and and yet he would
10:59 turn to his mom and try and again push
11:01 back on her faith so it's fascinating
11:04 Dynamics but offset yet again there was
11:06 still an hour of time where he wanted to
11:09 connect so but the his his objection was
11:11 that Christianity is too true or
11:14 something or that too narrow too narrow
11:16 yeah I'm I'm being fous I just that's
11:19 good I mean like to too narrow I I
11:22 don't understand the the objection
11:25 there like what what what would that
11:28 that apparently he's just saying that
11:30 God no way that God would allow this to
11:34 happen that God would not send a son or
11:36 what what would his CU I didn't watch
11:39 the entire either interview all right
11:41 who here has a problem with the idea of
11:43 God being
11:46 angry all right well Logan has a problem
11:49 with God being angry and guess what so
11:51 do a lot of Americans you know God is
11:54 love God doesn't get angry the wrath of
11:56 God I mean how primitive you really
11:58 believe that yeah I sure do believe that
11:59 you know why
12:02 because I promise you that if one of you
12:04 kidnaps one of my little
12:06 granddaughters I'm going to be real
12:09 angry and guess what if I'm not angry my
12:11 granddaughter doesn't matter to me not
12:13 with a selfish anger but with a
12:16 righteous indignation is God angry yes
12:18 he is not with a selfish anger oh you've
12:21 offended me oh you reigned on my party
12:23 no none of that with a righteous
12:25 indignation of how we dehumanize each
12:30 other that's sin racism is dehumanizing
12:32 sexism is
12:34 dehumanizing sexually exploiting someone
12:37 is dehumanizing she's not a Barbie doll
12:39 she's a human being created in the image
12:42 of God don't use her
12:44 sexually greed
12:46 dehumanizing your money is more
12:48 important than you are I want your money
12:51 coveting dehumanizing and so God is
12:53 angry because we dehumanize each other
12:55 and God has created us not to dehumanize
12:57 each other but to respect each other to
12:59 love each other so when you visit
13:01 campuses is that the most common
13:02 sticking point that the path is too
13:04 narrow if you had to really bring it
13:07 down what is the limiting current belief
13:10 of gen Z when confronted with the truth
13:12 that prevents them from accepting Jesus
13:14 what would that be yeah moral relativism
13:18 for sure and this white Western adopted
13:20 philosophy which is all religions are
13:22 true and how dare you say that you have
13:24 the right religion so they will say look
13:27 at the elephant look at all paths lead
13:28 up to the Mountaintop so all religions
13:30 are are just grabbing one's grabbing the
13:32 ear one's grabbing the foot of the
13:33 elephant one's grabbing the trunk and
13:35 see you guys are all just grabbing part
13:38 of God and yet what they don't get is
13:39 well those people are blind so they
13:41 don't realize they're grabbing parts of
13:44 the elephant well okay then someone has
13:47 tremendous vigilance and spiritual
13:50 superiority to say I'm the one who's not
13:53 blind and I see Charlie grabbing the
13:56 trunk so he's Buddhist I see Cliff
13:58 grabbing the foot so he's Hindu so you
14:00 guys are all idiot
14:02 all gods are the same what you don't
14:05 realize is you are not only spiritually
14:09 elitist but you are also rejecting the
14:12 exclusive truth claims of 95% of the
14:14 world so that's one of the biggest
14:15 challenges would you agree with that is
14:17 that the the core objection you got you
14:19 receive yeah and now let's be real
14:21 honest I think it really comes down to I
14:22 want to sleep with whoever I want to
14:24 sleep with well that's a separate issue
14:27 though but the meaning that they don't
14:28 meaning that they won't believe it if
14:29 it's true that's turx line would you
14:31 believe Christianity if it was true
14:33 right and most people would not because
14:35 it would change their life correct and
14:37 so therefore the reason I reject Christ
14:40 is for a moral reason and then I hide
14:42 behind the intellectual reason but if
14:44 you push comes to shove I mean my
14:45 younger brother went to Princeton
14:47 University and at Princeton he used to
14:49 share Christ with his roommates late
14:50 into the night around about midnight he
14:51 turned to his Princeton classmates and
14:53 say guys if you're just going to ask
14:54 these questions we'll pull on all
14:56 nighter if if this is honest but if the
14:58 real issue is I want to sleep around and
14:59 I want to Che she on my next exam
15:00 because the pressure to get into mid
15:03 school is intense let's be honest and
15:04 every single time his Prince and
15:05 classmates would say Stuart you're
15:07 correct this is not an intellectual
15:09 problem it's a moral issue course and he
15:10 would say guys wait we don't have to
15:11 pull an all nighter good night have a
15:15 good night's sleep so then how then do
15:18 you overcome that if at
15:21 all I think it's for me it's it's
15:23 getting rather simple the older the
15:25 older I
15:29 get you know morality is relative which
15:30 means the guy who took a whack at
15:34 president Trump and killed another guy
15:35 it's all relative that's his definition
15:38 of truth and the trade traffic well you
15:41 know it's all relative so if you don't
15:43 if you're upset about it fine but I kind
15:45 of enjoy it and Truth is
15:47 relative you know something you can't
15:49 live that out because even when you were
15:52 a little kid if your sibling got more
15:54 ice cream in their ice cream bowl than
15:55 you did in your ice cream bowl what
15:59 would you say oh that's cool no You' say
16:02 that's not fair and if you're married
16:04 and your spouse takes a whack at you you
16:05 don't say oh that felt good honey why
16:08 don't you do that again no you say you
16:10 should not do that you ought not to do
16:13 that it is impossible to live out moral
16:16 relativism doesn't work is do you find
16:18 that to be persuasive to the students
16:20 you talk to I take a different route
16:22 that's probably the better route I take
16:25 the roote though of look statistically
16:26 two guys from Yale wrote this book
16:28 premarital sex in America and
16:30 promiscuity is is directly correlated
16:32 with serious mental health problems
16:33 especially for women men for some reason
16:35 are able to cut off their emotion
16:37 sexually from the physical side and just
16:39 live out their their physical well-being
16:42 of of shagging any woman they possibly
16:45 can but there's clear breakdown as well
16:48 these Yale authors are writing showing
16:50 that there's a drastic increase in
16:52 divorce if you're sleeping around as
16:55 well but again you can go there yeah but
16:57 the best answer is making Christ more
17:00 attractive than just I'm going to Shag
17:03 the next thing or person with a pulse
17:05 that I possibly can and if Jesus is more
17:08 attractive in the way where he says I
17:11 love you unconditionally no matter your
17:13 failings I offer you Grace you know it's
17:15 the whole idea of your job can't die for
17:18 you your job if you find your identity
17:19 in it you're going to be ultimately
17:20 crushed if you find your identity in
17:22 your wife you're going to be ultimately
17:24 crushed it's St Augustine's ordered
17:26 loves if you put God at the top you will
17:30 live a life of incredible flourishing so
17:31 that's that's kind of where I going yeah
17:33 and I I want to get some questions here
17:35 in a second I visit college campuses as
17:37 you guys do and I get the spicier
17:39 encounters at times I'm sure you you
17:42 guys get them as well but but what's so
17:44 fascinating is that I'll come and talk
17:45 primarily about politics but as you well
17:47 know I always share the gospel whenever
17:50 it comes up but inevitably almost always
17:53 if I go and I have a a table and that
17:55 what I want to talk about for the day
17:57 never remains and whe it could be about
17:59 immigration it could be about about that
18:02 there are no genders and two Sexes and
18:03 unlimited personalities you know
18:06 whatever it is within minutes they are
18:09 asking me well are you
18:11 religious because they have been so
18:12 trained and conditioned because they
18:15 want to get down into where is this
18:18 coming from because if if you're saying
18:20 something that's true and they think
18:22 about it they say
18:25 well is is there do you think there's a
18:28 God that's telling you this because they
18:30 they want a moral license to live as
18:33 they want to live um but what I found is
18:36 that almost all of these conversations
18:39 yield back to some moral standard at
18:42 some point and they'll many college
18:43 students and even College professors
18:46 will deny the fact that there is a moral
18:48 standard but they're living up to some
18:50 standard at some point so someone tells
18:52 them that murder is wrong or murder is
18:54 evil or theft is wrong they say oh
18:56 that's just common sense I we just know
18:59 that I I I I I know that murder is wrong
19:02 I I I I understand that why we have so
19:03 many murderers then if everyone knows
19:06 that it's wrong so do you guys encounter
19:08 that as well that it gets down to the
19:10 deeper issues rather
19:12 quickly yes it definitely gets down to
19:15 the deeper issues rather quickly when
19:16 you have the privilege of talking with thinking
19:17 thinking
19:20 people and people have to think I mean I
19:23 very grateful that over 290 times in the
19:26 gospels Jesus asks questions and this
19:28 whole idea that faith is
19:31 anti-intellectual faith is anti-rational
19:33 Faith is antil
19:36 logical that's a naive Blind Faith and
19:38 Christ does not call us to a naive Blind
19:41 Faith does he call us to a something you
19:44 can prove no to prove means to show it
19:47 cannot be another way I can't prove
19:48 Charlie that I'm not just a bad dream
19:49 you're having right now maybe your
19:50 eyesight is flipping out on you and
19:53 you're having this weird dream of Cliff
19:55 so I can't prove it but the overwhelming
19:56 evidence is you're having and I are
19:57 having this conversation now that's why
20:02 we behave the way we do so we've got to
20:04 use our minds and ask ourselves what
20:07 does the evidence point to as being true
20:09 I do not think the universe is religiously
20:10 religiously
20:13 ambiguous I think God has left more than
20:15 enough evidence for any thinking person
20:17 to believe in him that's why
20:19 anthropology shows us that around the
20:21 world every culture has some type of
20:25 religion yeah atheism is is the vast
20:27 minority of a new age belief oh yeah so
20:29 Daisy let's start doing some questions
20:31 here um how can people uh who who has
20:33 questions by the way Daisy will find you
20:34 um how can first just plug how guys
20:37 people can support you on the podcast oh
20:40 yeah okay so Instagram uh it's just
20:43 Stuart connly so Stuart unor connly s to
20:45 u a t and then KN and
20:48 ctle and then Tik Tok is Stuart connly
20:51 and then um YouTube our main channel is
20:52 give me an answer with Stuart and Cliff
20:56 connly so those are our main three um so
20:57 thank you for the support we haven't
20:59 started a podcast yet but we got to do
21:07 ma'am hi my name is Jordan huge fan um
21:10 so my question is that first I am not a
21:12 cessationist and I do think that it is
21:14 important to study to show yourself
21:16 approved and I'm curious to know how do
21:18 we test the spirit and allow God to
21:20 minister through the apostolic and the
21:22 prophetic while also studying and
21:23 ensuring that we do not become super
21:25 like religious and
21:28 legalistic so um can you repeat the
21:30 question sorry the audio is kind of
21:32 funny so no worries I'm basically trying
21:34 to understand how we test the spirit
21:37 allow God to move in the apostolic and
21:39 the prophetic while also studying our
21:42 word and not becoming overly religious and
21:43 and
21:45 legalistic so how do we test the spirit
21:48 did you get did you get that yeah yeah
21:49 so in order to test the spirit you
21:52 always have to remain tied to scripture
21:56 as well as prayer and it has to be done
21:58 humbly because to your point you're kind
22:00 of going there we immediately so so I've
22:02 had I I lead our small groups at our
22:04 church and one time this person stepped
22:05 into our small group she came from
22:08 another church and she said oh you guys
22:10 don't speak in tongues here you guys are
22:12 barely Believers you're B you know baby
22:15 Believers I speak in tongues and I got a
22:18 clear pathway and direct call to God the
22:21 father so obviously the testing of the
22:23 spirit has to start with the greatest
22:26 Christian virtue which I believe is
22:29 humility and you are asking of scripture
22:30 you're asking of God but then you have
22:32 to be in a healthy Christian Community
22:34 and I believe a small group as well to
22:36 hold you accountable to say yes you're
22:38 walking in line with the spirit or
22:40 you're walking in line with the Flesh
22:41 and I love that you went here in terms
22:44 of the pride issue too because I
22:47 personally believe that when neber for
22:50 example the great Theologian said that
22:53 you will grow quickest in going against
22:55 the spirit and quickest in Pride if you
22:57 become religious more so than any
22:59 atheist but because there's something
23:01 about religion that if it's in a Petri
23:03 dish it will make you a person who's
23:04 fundamentalist and always looking down
23:06 on others and we see this with the
23:08 Pharisees right as opposed to the god of
23:09 the universe sending his one and only
23:12 son becoming a slave dying on a cross
23:15 for us then we respond in such a way
23:17 we're walking in line of the
23:28 yes well it's awesome to have hello it's
23:30 awesome to have so you know so many
23:32 goats in the same room so thank you for
23:38 being here um so I was articulated
23:40 Yesterday by a couple of my friends that
23:42 our country was not founded on Christian
23:45 principles um so I I want to see how
23:46 like an argument that you guys can give
23:49 me to combat that so essentially they
23:51 articulated to me that our country was
23:54 found on common law uh because the
23:56 Declaration only refers to God four
23:58 times and the Constitution doesn't refer
24:00 to God at all and it only articulates
24:05 the structure of government um and does
24:09 is common law chrisan in nature or is it
24:12 not I I can take it first
24:14 so I this guy does whoever said that
24:15 doesn't really know what they're talking
24:17 about so first of all um remember that
24:18 we were a collection of states and
24:21 colonies and you need to read the state
24:22 constitutions before anything else N Out
24:24 of 13 of the original states required
24:26 you to be a Bible believing Christian to
24:26 serve in
24:29 government at the time the founding you
24:32 could even in P actually 13 out of 13
24:34 required a declaration of Faith 9 out of
24:36 13 required you to be a Protestant
24:37 except Maryland which was Catholic which
24:41 still required a declaration of faith in
24:42 almost every single one of the original
24:44 state constitutions Pennsylvania
24:47 included they had I profess Lord and
24:48 Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior in
24:51 the original state constitutions so you
24:52 remember we're collection of States
24:56 before that secondly 55 out of 56 of the
24:57 original signers of the Declaration were
24:58 Bible believing Church attending
25:00 Christians you ask about common law so
25:02 common law is inherited from Blackstone
25:05 who was Christian a common law is an
25:06 outgrowth of the scriptures so let's go
25:08 to three principles of common law
25:11 presumption of innocence due process and
25:12 jury of your peers all three are
25:15 biblical principles so and all wrapped
25:17 into the ultimate biblical principle
25:19 that you shall not favor Justice if you
25:20 are rich or or poor which is in
25:22 Leviticus 19 right before most famous
25:24 part of Leviticus 19 which is that you
25:26 should love your neighbor as yourself
25:28 but before that is that in the administ
25:30 ation of Justice you shall not favor the
25:31 rich or the poor which is the idea of
25:33 Blind Justice we get that in the west
25:35 which is incorporated also in the New
25:37 Testament ideal neither slave nor Greek
25:38 nor Jew you are all one in Jesus Christ
25:40 which we got the idea of human equality
25:41 these are all biblical ideas they're not
25:43 Enlightenment ideas which is they kind
25:45 of get conflated at the time but more
25:46 importantly than that they say that God
25:48 was only mentioned four times in the
25:50 Declaration of Independence well that's
25:52 a big deal okay laws of nature and
25:53 Nature's God the last paragraph of the
25:56 Declaration reads as a prayer it says we
25:58 appeal to the Supreme judge of the
26:00 universe who's the judge of the universe
26:02 Jesus Christ as it says in Revelation
26:04 that Jesus Will judge the Earth on his
26:06 throne this so in the Declaration they
26:09 were praying to Christ Our Lord as a
26:11 prayer very specifically thirdly as I
26:14 set on stage yesterday Deuteronomy was
26:16 by far the most quoted book religious or
26:18 non-religious in the time of the
26:19 founding when they were putting together
26:21 Constitution more than John Lock more
26:23 than montue more than Blackstone so the
26:26 book of Deuteronomy which talked about
26:27 laws Customs Traditions it was Moses
26:30 Fair address as he's you know about to
26:32 say goodbye say hey good luck in Canaan
26:33 guys here's how you should set up your
26:36 form of government but finally and most
26:37 importantly let's look at actually what
26:40 the founders said John Adams seemlessly
26:42 said the Constitution was only written
26:43 for a moral and religious people it was
26:45 wholly inadequate for the people of any
26:47 other the body politic of America was so
26:49 Christian and was so Protestant that our
26:50 form and structure of government was
26:53 built for the people that believed in
26:54 Christ Our Lord one of the reasons we're
26:56 living through a constitutional crisis
26:58 is that we no longer have a Christian
27:00 Nation but we have a Christian form of
27:01 government and they're incompatible so
27:03 you cannot have Liberty if you do not
27:06 have a Christian population so that
27:09 that's just that's just a surface level
27:11 belief so then they'll go to the First
27:13 Amendment which is has two two parts of
27:14 the First Amendment which get conflated
27:16 first of all separation church and state
27:18 is not in the US Constitution that is a
27:19 single letter that Thomas Jefferson
27:21 wrote in 1807 to the danur Baptist
27:23 convention in Massachusetts assuring
27:24 them that the government would not come
27:26 after the church okay which is the
27:28 opposite of what they would say however
27:29 That Was Then resurrected by the Warren
27:31 courtt and the burger Court in the 60s
27:33 where they said hey you know all of a
27:34 sudden we're now going to make this as
27:35 if it's the Constitution it does say in
27:37 the Constitution two things which is The
27:38 Establishment Clause and the free free
27:40 expression Clause The Establishment
27:41 Clause is that Congress shall make no
27:44 law prohibiting the free exercise
27:45 thereof what they were most worried
27:50 about was a presbyterian or a Anglican
27:52 or a Quaker type religion taking over
27:54 the federal government instead it was
27:55 that there is not going to be a
27:57 state-run religion or a state-run
27:59 government did you know that one of the
28:01 first acts of Congress was taxpayer
28:03 funded Bible Printing and
28:05 distribution did you know that there
28:07 were church services held in the Supreme
28:10 Court building as late as the Jackson
28:12 presidency in the 1820s but going back
28:14 to this idea of separation church and
28:16 state and again I could Riff on this at
28:17 at nauseum because it's just so
28:20 ridiculous right is that it's not
28:22 biblical because first it's not biblical
28:24 it's not constitutional because you go a
28:26 layer deeper people that even say that
28:28 do you believe in separation of moral
28:30 Morality In State nobody does so all
28:32 laws are reflection of morality and all
28:33 morality comes from somewhere there is
28:35 no such thing as neutral morality and we
28:37 believe what the founders believed
28:38 because they put it in the halls of
28:39 Congress they put it in the Supreme
28:41 Court and they put it all throughout the
28:42 country which is that the decalogue The
28:44 Ten Commandments is the core morality of
28:46 how a society and a civilization should
28:48 exist right the the Ten Commandments of
28:50 every person and finally and this is the
28:52 kicker if the founding fathers were not
28:54 Bible believing Church churchend
28:56 Christians why did they put Leviticus on
28:59 the Liberty Bell not John not Psalms not
29:01 Proverbs not Genesis Leviticus most
29:04 Americans can't spell Leviticus
29:06 Leviticus 2519 Proclaim Liberty
29:07 throughout the land of which you are in
29:10 it is one of the most Sinister most
29:12 unsubstantiated lies that does not come
29:14 up against any sort of academic scrutiny
29:15 this idea that founding fathers were a
29:18 bunch of Enlightenment common law deists
29:20 the reason they hate it is because if
29:22 they the reason they must say this is
29:23 that if we actually go back to our
29:26 Christian Roots and we go back to where
29:28 we once were it's America's best hope
29:29 for Revival and for a great [Applause]
29:33 [Applause]
29:35 future you want to add to that anything
29:37 that sorry that covered it that was
29:39 pretty impressive I can't touch that
29:51 okay is it working yeah okay hey guys
29:54 big fan I know I ran into my name is
29:56 Ridge I'm here with my wife and my
29:58 younger brother and some of my our best
30:00 friends I know I ran into you too last
30:02 night but just want to elaborate on that
30:04 a little bit about that tragedy and ask
30:08 a question um and Charlie I haven't had
30:11 the pleasure of meeting you yet but I we
30:13 lost our uh 18-year-old brother back in
30:16 October to an accident in our front yard
30:18 and we're constantly told like oh you
30:20 guys might be might have to move on you
30:22 guys might need to kind of like put it
30:25 in the past it happened get over it and
30:26 we do have really good days where we get
30:29 to share his story share the gospel but
30:31 with those good days there's also some
30:34 really really bad days where anger comes
30:35 out and I mean I might get mad at my
30:38 wife I might get mad at the family at the
30:38 the
30:41 kids what's your advice and what do you
30:45 have to say about how to cope with those
30:47 really bad days that we have all of us
30:49 collectively being really close to him
30:51 after his
30:53 loss all right I'm really sorry for your
30:56 lost brother it stinks and that's one of
30:57 the reasons I'm so glad that in 1
31:00 Corinthians 15 Paul writes death is The
31:02 Last Enemy I am sick and tired of
31:05 hearing people say oh death is just part
31:07 of nature so just accept it no I don't
31:09 accept death that's why we fund
31:12 hospitals that's why we do medicine
31:14 because we are against death and we're
31:16 for life and that's what Jesus said I've
31:18 come that you might have life and have
31:19 it to the
31:24 full second Point all right wife and
31:27 brother and family you've heard the man say
31:28 say
31:31 I'm hurting and at time I'm okay but at
31:34 other times I get really angry okay he's
31:36 been honest right he's been honest with
31:38 all of us he's been
31:40 vulnerable so now we got to be patient
31:42 with each other right we got to love
31:43 each other through the hard times and
31:46 it's a hard time you're passing through
31:48 the most difficult day of my life was
31:50 when my 7-year-old niece was knocked
31:53 into a early grave in a horrible car
31:55 accident and I had to go out to Madison
31:56 Wisconsin where my brother who's a
31:59 transplant surgeon at W Madison was
32:02 transplanting kidneys and livers and I
32:03 had to walk with him around a field
32:05 behind his home in Madison
32:07 Wisconsin and he's pouring out his heart
32:10 to me about the death of his seven-year-old
32:11 seven-year-old
32:13 daughter and if anybody thinks they got
32:16 an easy answer for that question they're
32:19 nuts the answer the honest answer first
32:22 is I do not know why the babysitter
32:24 didn't see the stop sign why she went
32:26 right through the stop sign in a TR
32:28 pickup truck at 55 miles an hour came
32:30 careening down the road smashing into
32:32 the car sending my seven-year-old niece
32:36 into an early grave I don't know why God
32:37 allowed that to
32:39 happen and so therefore we got to be
32:40 patient with each other we got to love
32:42 each other we got to be committed to
32:43 each other as we go through these
32:46 painful difficult times the third point
32:50 is what's Comfort Comfort is
32:52 presence so you being together as a
32:56 family with your presence is crucial and
32:58 even more important is God God's
33:00 presence with you the presence of Jesus
33:03 Christ and that's where all of this talk
33:04 and all of these answers to all these
33:06 difficult questions gets real
33:09 practical it's not an issue of a good
33:11 answer to a difficult question now it's
33:14 an issue of presence I need you to be
33:17 with me because I'm hurting my loved one
33:20 died and it
33:22 stinks and now all of a sudden Faith
33:24 becomes real personal because now it's
33:27 an issue of do I know the presence of
33:29 God and brother I'm 70 years old so
33:31 you're a lot younger than me and I'm
33:34 still working on that I want to know the
33:37 presence of God because it's hard and I
33:39 was really ticked when Time Magazine
33:40 came out with Mother Teresa on the cover
33:42 saying oh the woman struggle with doubt
33:44 see she didn't really have real Faith
33:47 all baloney give me a break there is
33:49 such a thing as depression there is such
33:52 a thing as loneliness as the snut gets
33:54 kicked out of You by life so now we got
33:57 to know Christ and I find great comfort
33:59 that infl Philippians 3:10 Paul writes I
34:02 want to know Christ and the power of his
34:03 resurrection and the fellowship of
34:07 sharing in his suffering remember you
34:09 worship a suffering God who got the snot
34:11 kicked out of him and he was nailed to
34:14 wen cross so you can connect with this
34:16 God this God can connect with you he's a
34:19 suffering God and then ultimately
34:21 brother we have the solution to
34:22 suffering we're going to go through good
34:24 times we're going to go through hard
34:25 times in this life and you're going
34:27 through them now both of them and yet we
34:29 have the ultimate solution for suffering
34:33 and death and that solution is eternal
34:35 life in a heaven where there will be no
34:38 more still birth no more cancer no more
34:40 heart failure no more little kids
34:42 getting knocked into early Graves by
34:45 ridiculous car accidents but eternal
34:49 life in the presence of God so come on
34:50 my atheist agnostic friend let's go into
34:52 the hospital come on my atheist agnostic
34:54 friend let's go into the room where the
34:55 baby lies whose body's being shredded by
34:58 termina cancer what are you going to do
34:59 you're going to wave your fist in God's
35:02 face and blame God that's a copout
35:03 that's misplaced
35:06 blame I as a follow of Christ walk to
35:07 the other side of that bed and I too
35:10 will held that child's hand and seek to
35:12 comfort that child but in Jesus Christ
35:15 I've got a suffering God who gives a rip
35:18 about death about grieving people who
35:20 wants to comfort us and wrap his arms
35:24 around us that my friend is the solution
35:26 to the very real problem of suffering
35:45 more thank you uh my name is Darlene saw
35:48 for beautiful explanation earlier about
35:50 the foundation of our country uh under
35:53 the Trump Administration the 1776
35:55 commission was really focused on
35:58 instilling patriotism for students
36:00 um and I wanted to know your thoughts on
36:03 a new agenda I think it's called project
36:05 2025 where many conservative
36:07 organizations were focusing on the
36:11 solution of uh helping Americans
36:14 understand uh the true goal of how our
36:16 country is supposed to serve us what are
36:18 your thoughts on that agenda or that
36:20 project yeah I I we're one of the listed
36:22 organizations on Project 2025 I don't
36:23 know all the details the the Democrats
36:26 are losing their minds over this thing I
36:28 mean it's unbelievable uh it's it's
36:31 actually like her core message right now
36:33 um it's not officially part of the
36:35 campaign that's important to note it's a
36:36 900 page document I haven't read it I
36:39 don't think anyone's going to read it um
36:40 but yes if the essence is to bring back
36:43 patriotic education I was on the 1776
36:46 commission and the First Act Biden gets
36:50 sworn into office he walks 100 feet into
36:52 a side room in the halls of Congress
36:53 does he even wait to get to the White
36:56 House and signs an executive order
36:59 nullifying the 1776 commission it was
37:02 within seconds of getting sworn in which
37:04 was a commission all about American
37:07 patriotism our American founding it was
37:09 literally the first thing he did as
37:11 president was to make sure that our kids
37:12 uh wouldn't learn to love
37:15 America all right one more question yes
37:16 let's go to the back Daisy let's give uh
37:18 some love back there and we have by the
37:20 way we have interviews all day guys so
37:27 so thank you Charlie so good to meet
37:29 these other s that are here um I had
37:32 dinner with George Bara not too long ago
37:34 and I said some of the biggest concerns
37:38 I pedor just outside of Detroit and uh I
37:41 realized that it's hard to keep college
37:45 kids engaged it's a hard demographic to
37:47 reach and it seems like my pastor
37:50 friends are all asking the same question
37:53 so I asked George Bara I said what is
37:55 the solution he said you think you're
37:58 losing them in the college year years
38:00 but you're losing them much
38:03 earlier the world view is developed by
38:06 time they're 11 so knowing god designed three
38:07 three
38:09 institutions but he gave the
38:12 responsibility to parents to rear their
38:15 children how do these three institutions
38:18 come alongside parents in God's design
38:22 to help them establish a Biblical
38:24 worldview in their children before
38:28 yes
38:32 75% of Christian high schoolers turn
38:33 away from the faith when they go to
38:37 college fortunately 40% come back after
38:40 college but that 75% is astronomical in
38:45 my mind and the reason why we go after
38:47 college students is because they weren't
38:50 prepared like you put beautifully they
38:52 weren't prepared by their parents in
38:54 high school and that's not just because
38:56 they weren't given the intellectual
38:58 tools to defend their faith that is one
39:00 of the biggest but it's also often
39:02 because their parents didn't just they
39:04 didn't Mentor them especially the father
39:06 of the household they didn't Mentor
39:08 their child and they didn't show their
39:12 child what objective right and wrong is
39:15 the reason why 80% of Pastor kids turn
39:17 away from the faith and never come back
39:19 to the faith is because their fathers
39:21 who are the pastors usually spend more
39:23 time with the congregants then they do
39:25 their kids and they also don't practice
39:27 what they preach I'm fortunately one of
39:30 the 20% who has retained my faith
39:32 because my dad has done a fantastic job
39:34 practicing what he preaches and spending
39:36 a ton of time with us he actually was
39:38 invited by endless amounts of
39:40 organizations to speak all over the
39:43 country and internationally but he chose
39:44 because of his love for me and my
39:47 brothers to actually become a pastor and
39:49 to spend time with us and not just leave
39:51 us and travel all over the country and
39:53 and internationally so I think it starts
39:55 with the father absolutely the mother
39:56 and it starts with that mentoring
39:59 process loving them and giving them a
40:01 firm foundation of what is true right
40:02 and wrong like the founders of our
40:04 country clearly did with liberalism now
40:06 you clearly see that there's no
40:07 objective right and wrong so what do
40:09 they do they come out screaming and they
40:11 don't even know what they're screaming
40:13 about they don't know what's right or
40:14 wrong they're just screaming and oh yeah
40:17 drug use is is healthy for you and they
40:18 just go on and on down the line and it
40:20 just becomes a total excuse my language
40:23 poop show and so that that that's one
40:25 way I I I I won't speak to the
40:26 government side and some of these other
40:28 institutions because this is our kind of
40:31 Lane but but really loving mentoring and
40:33 then giving the intellectual tools to
40:34 defend their faith which is not that
40:37 hard because in the philosophical realm
40:40 about 50% now and it's growing of
40:42 philosophers at the top schools are
40:45 saying there is a God 20 years ago is
40:47 10% now we have to go up to the
40:48 religious departments because you would
40:49 think the religious departments are
40:50 pretty high in their belief of God and
40:53 teaching it no they're not they're the
40:55 opposite even in the Bible Belt schools
40:56 like we were just at Mississippi State
40:58 some of the nicest professors I talked
41:01 to and yet they were secular liberals in
41:03 the Bible Belt and they were in the
41:05 religious departments saying oh no maybe
41:07 there's a higher power but but let's be
41:09 agnostic so pushing back against them is
41:12 important uh I would just say this that
41:16 um we we need and it's very fixable we
41:18 need a Renaissance of homeschooling and
41:19 not just sending your kids to private
41:22 school but homeschooling itself um the
41:25 excuses people give to not homeschool uh
41:27 is the following is that I don't know
41:29 how to do it that's a really bad answer
41:31 uh that's like that's unbelievably bad
41:33 you taught your kid how to talk and you
41:36 taught your kid the fundamental stuff uh
41:37 there's so many organizations that can
41:39 supplement or and this is understandable
41:40 is that it's too expensive because I
41:42 have to go back in the workforce so and
41:44 here's the contradiction if you're
41:46 willing for for you or your kid to go
41:48 into debt to send them to college why
41:50 would you not be willing to go into debt
41:51 to homeschool your
41:55 kid and no one has a good answer to that
41:56 because they're willing to send their
41:57 kid to go study study North African
42:00 lesbian poetry at Arizona State
42:02 University but they're not willing to
42:04 make Financial sacrifices so that they
42:06 could educate their kid the third thing
42:08 is that um and I know this doesn't fall
42:11 into anyone at this conference but gen
42:14 the general population parents are lazy
42:15 today they just are they just aren't
42:17 doing their job they're just they want
42:19 someone else to do it for them uh it's
42:21 the I'm more important than my kid a
42:23 parent is like a part-time job I want my own
42:24 own
42:26 career and uh we're seeing the
42:29 ramification that can I just add how
42:31 would you respond to because I I'm
42:33 pretty strong believer in this
42:36 1929 what happens when the obvious
42:38 biblical homeschool movement occurred
42:40 and we left the halls of power at the
42:41 big universities because we were
42:43 terrified all of a sudden Christian
42:44 parents especially more the
42:47 fundamentalists of Daris yes
42:49 evolutionism I mean how do you balance
42:50 because I was homeschooled through the
42:51 sixth grade but how do you take this
42:53 balance of let's congregate together
42:56 grow our faith but then make sure we
42:58 don't do what we did in 19 29 and get
43:01 terrified of the culture and lose power
43:04 in the halls of power yeah I I'm a big
43:06 believer that up to a certain age the
43:08 child should be protected and nurtured
43:10 and I don't know what that age is sixth
43:13 grade might be the right time but I I
43:14 wouldn't put an eight-year-old in a
43:18 government school and so in the current
43:20 in the current
43:22 configuration I I think that it's okay
43:24 for us to domicile our children away
43:28 from the current um
43:30 uh culture and then but prepare them
43:32 that they're going to be going to war
43:35 and then you send them out and so I
43:38 think both can be equally true and once
43:41 they get sent out they must be really
43:42 deep in their faith and understand
43:44 what's coming to them because it's not a
43:46 matter of cloistering them for the rest
43:48 of their life but protecting the
43:50 innocence of a child is biblical it's
43:53 necessary and you know we have we've
43:56 seen the ramifications of throwing these
43:58 kids to the Lions as you say by 11 their
44:01 worldview is is formed sixth grade is 13
44:03 years old 12 13 years old right so it's
44:05 that's probably you know good uh good
44:06 CAU off there we're out of time
44:08 everybody give it up for The Connect
