Jenna Ellis: The rights that our founders recognize come from God our creator
>> Alex McFarland: Jenna Ellis in the morning on American Family Radio. I love talking about the things of God. Because of truth and the biblical worldview, the U.S. constitution obligates our government to preserve and protect. The rights that our founders recognize come from God our creator, not our government. I believe that scripture in the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raised up, each of you, and God has allowed us to be brought here to this specific moment in time. Now, here's guest Host Alex.
>> Alex McFarland: Alex McFarland.
Today is the 75th National Day of Prayer
Well, good morning, America. It is the National Day of prayer today, the 75th National Day of Prayer. And I'm so thankful that we live in a nation with a congressionally sanctioned National Day of Prayer. You know, the Bible says in so many places that we are to call out to God and, pray. Let me give you a couple of verses, then we've got a fantastic show today. We really do. But in Jeremiah 33:3, the Lord said to the prophet, call unto me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things that you do not know. And that, invitation to call on the name of the Lord, it is still there. In Luke 18:1, one of my favorite verses in the NewSong Testament, the Lord Jesus said this, that men ought to always pray and not faint or give up. James 4:2 says, you have not because you ask not. And on this National Day of Prayer, personally, perhaps within your family, maybe you're praying for your church or praying for loved ones. Maybe you're praying about an economic situation or you need employment. But corporately, today, I want to challenge all of us, myself included, that we need to pray for our nation. You know, the Bible tells us that we are to pray for leaders, for those in authority, that we may live a peaceable life in all godliness. And you know what that means? That very famous, passage that Paul wrote, praying for leaders and those in authority that we may live a peaceable life in all godliness. What it really means is that we are to pray for desire, seek after a culture most conducive to the spread of the gospel, a peaceable life in all godliness. Now, we have lived for several years, on the brink of a lawless culture. And part of that has been, what's gone down in our public school classrooms for decades. and we'll talk about that with Dr. Corrie Miller in just a moment.
Today is National Day of Prayer, and hundreds of churches are open today
But let me cue this up by, reading from 1 Timothy 2. Paul says this. I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and Giving of thanks be made for all men. As we pray on this National Day of Prayer, we need to be grateful. We are to pray for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. Now listen to this. Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. It is God's will that people be saved. Now, not everybody is saved. Some people hear the gospel and reject it sadly. But as we pray, and by the way, hundreds and hundreds of churches are open today. There's going to be prayer in many, a city on the steps of the courthouse. Our colleague and friend Kathi Brenzel leads ndp. So I would encourage you go on their website, National Day of Prayer. Find the gathering point, near you and take some time. Today, I'll be at a church, from 12 to 1 Mount Pleasant Church in the Greensboro, North Carolina area. And we'll be praying there over lunchtime. But on this National Day of Prayer, one and all, let's participate and let's pray. Well, I want to segue and bring up a valued colleague. We've had a number of conversations. His name is Corrie Miller and he, is a Ph.D. university of Aberdeen, Scotland. He's an expert on really, education. But he, has been a pastor, a philosophy professor, a campus minister, and he is now the president, CEO, of Ratio Christie, a fantastic organization sharing the gospel on college and high school campuses, apologetics and worldview, which has been my passion for decades. But Dr. Corrie Miller, thanks for holding and welcome to the American Family Radio Network.
>> Alex McFarland: Fantastic to be here with you this morning, Alex.
Dr. Miller founded ratio Christi 11 years ago
>> Alex McFarland: Yes, well, there's a lot I want to talk about, about issues and culture and, the spiritual dynamics of the time in which we live. But, briefly give us your story. How did God bring you to where you are in the journey? Dr. Miller.
>> Corey Miller: Born and raised as a seventh generation Mormon in Salt Lake City, Utah. One of my ancestors was a bodyguard of Joseph Smith. So I grew up and knew only Mormonism. Eventually, one thing led to another. God's providence, brought me to himself in 1988, I got discipled for about a year and then my family started putting on the pressure, about my rereading the Book of Mormon for the sake of truth rather than tradition, which I did. But then I found it. Now, reading it with, critical eyes, for the sake of truth, I found it to be rather Wanting. And that made me glad that I'd left Mormonism, for the biblical Jesus. But now I had to start wondering, how do I know the Bible is reliable? I was always taught that it was problematic, but it didn't matter because we had living prophets. But I now no longer believe in those. What am I going to do with this Bible? And does God even exist? And if so, which God? So that sent me into about a 30 year trajectory in the pursuit of truth. Pastored for a while, got several graduate degrees, faced off with losing my first PhD attempt at Purdue University due to hostilities, against the faith, and then eventually completed it and came on board with ratio Christi 11 years ago about this month. so since then, you know, we've been, just watching God do wonders, seeing souls, saved at the universities, and seeking by God's grace to save the soul of the university.
>> Alex McFarland: Amen. Amen. How many Ratio Christi chapters are there?
>> Corey Miller: High school division RC, college prep, about 25. College about 100. PhD student and professors, another dozen or so. Those are infiltration networks that we're doing and building on the top 100 secular universities. And then we're in about, 15 countries. I think we've just landed on our sixth habitable continent.
>> Alex McFarland: Amen. Amen. well, speaking of habitable continents, let's get one down in Antarctica too.
>> Alex McFarland: We'll try.
>> Alex McFarland: Yeah, that's one of my goals. I've preached on five continents. I want to get all seven. And actually there's a church in Antarctica that I've emailed and asked if I could come preach sometime.
>> Alex McFarland: But you're not the first.
>> Alex McFarland: Yeah, I know. I'm sure there are a lot of people. there's a colleague that I had at Focus on the Family, Susie Schellenberger, some of you that if you ever grew up reading, Brio magazine, which was a Christian magazine for teen girls that we published at Focus on the Family. Susie Shellenberger was the leader of that. She's the only person I know that has preached on all seven continents. But, at any rate, Rasho Christie is exciting. I want you to give the website because folks, listen, if you're sending your son and daughter off to college as, ah, and I believe in education, I really do. I've spent my adult life in, Christian higher education. But really unless a young person is solidly equipped in apologetics and critical thinking skills, not to mention a very robust biblical worldview, college, in the Western world, in the 21st century is a really tough go. So, check out rachael Christie. Dr. Miller, if you would give the website and just, tell people what Ratio Christi is about and how the kids can plug in.
>> Alex McFarland: Yeah, ratiochristi.org, ratiochrist with an I@the end.org. it is Latin for the reason of Christ. And, we are on the presence, like I said, of 100 college campuses and high school and university professors as well. But our focus is equipping students and professors to give historical, philosophical and scientific reasons for following Jesus. had the pleasure of seeing an email last week come through. One, student from. You mentioned you're, in Greensboro, I believe.
>> Alex McFarland: Exactly.
>> Alex McFarland: The student emailed us and said, hey, I just wanted to send this message off to a, member of your staff. Ten years ago, I was an atheist campus, leader of the atheist group on campus. And we used to debate with you guys on God and morality.
>> Alex McFarland: We.
>> Alex McFarland: I've since received Christ as Lord and Savior. And I just want to say, praise God for doing what you guys are doing. Keep it up. So we get, you know, we get letters like that. Ucla, the atheist leader there, canceled the atheist club because he got saved and started meeting with our group and didn't see any reason to keep those doors open anymore over there. So it's fantastic being able to see, God work in these ways. but we're also in the midst of, you know, hiring for the next 30 or 40 or 50 years, bright young Christian PhD students that can launch Christian PhD student only ministries on campus to train a movement of missional professors so that we can, by God's grace, reclaim the universities for Christ. The universities are the institutions that we founded. And now we're lucky to get in. I mean, Alex, I've had, five federal victories, four appellate court victories, two SCOTUS assists, one department, of education victory. And it's just constant, just to have existence there, just to coexist. Yet we started these places.
>> Alex McFarland: Yeah, indeed. Indeed.
Dr. Corey Miller: How defensible is the Christian faith
Hey, let me ask you this for those just tuning in. Ah, we're talking with Dr. Corrie Miller of Rasho Christi. how defensible is the Christian faith? God, exists. Objective truth exists. God has revealed himself to the human race. the Bible is God's word. Christ Jesus is deity, rose from the dead. We can have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. These foundational claims of the Christian faith. Dr. Miller, how defensible are these claims?
>> Corey Miller: Yeah, I'm more persuaded than ever. You know, I taught at Indiana University for a dozen years in philosophy and comparative religions. And so I've had to prepare for those lectures at a secular university where I was almost forced, but I did so tactically anyway, to use non, Christian, often atheist or agnostic scholars. So I've read the best I know where the potential chinks in our armor, as it were, are at. And, my sort of coming out of the closet where I self identify as a believer after I built my credibility halfway through the semester, my signature line to students is, I think Christianity is intellectually superior to all competing religions and I'm an apprentice of Jesus.
>> Alex McFarland: That's great. You know, when you say Christianity is superior, intellectually superior, there's a quote from Thomas aquinas. It's like 800 years ago now. This is a mouthful. We could spend the whole show unpacking this. Probably should. But, Aquinas said this. He, he said, every possible argument against the claims of the doctrines of Christianity. are conclusions incorrectly derived. Some Aquinas translations will say, every possible argument against the doctrines of the Christian faith contain a rational mistake in it somewhere. But Aquinas said conclusions incorrectly derived and therefore there exists the possibility that they be answered. So let's unpack this. Every possible argument. for one thing, Dr. Miller, what are some of the arguments against theism and, or Christianity?
>> Alex McFarland: probably the most long lasting time test, that is the problem of evil. if God exists and the kinds or the amounts of evil exist, how do those things exist? Logically, how are they logically consistent? Or, more modestly, those kinds and amounts of evil and suffering and pain in the world seem to render God's existence unlikely. So that's a time tested argument. A lot of people have been impacted by that. And the problem of evil is formidable. it's got an existential rub to it. We feel it because we've all experienced, we've all seen evil, and sometimes wondered, is that pointless evil? how could God have allowed? I mean, we wonder how could God allow gnats and flies and mosquitoes to exist? That they are. But, but the problem of evil. But at the end of the day, on final analysis, even the problem of evil turned on its head is an argument for God's existence. In fact, it is the one that C.S. lewis cites that was persuasive in converting him.
>> Alex McFarland: Mm. we're gonna talk more about this. The voice that you're hearing is Dr. Corrie Miller of Rasho Christie.
American Family Radio Network celebrates National Day of Prayer with great program
Alex McFarland here, sitting in for attorney broadcaster Jenna Ellis, this is the American Family Radio Network, and we're gonna come back. We've got a great, great program here on the National Day of Prayer. Hope you're praying for America. Hope you're planning to be at a prayer gathering, at some point during this day. Take some time and pray for our country. Hey, we've got a break. We're going to come back. More with Dr. Corrie Miller after this. Stay tuned, please.
M. Ratio Christie writes on the Progressive Miseducation of America
>> Pastor Jeff Schreve: M.
>> Alex McFarland: Welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio. Welcome back to the program. Alex McFarland here talking with Dr. Corrie Miller of Russia. Christie. hey, before the break, we were talking about the fact that, aquinas, he lived 12, 20. 1225-1274. you may not realize it, folks. Every one of us is indebted to a Christian apologist. We are not Muslims today, at least in part due to the apologetics ministry, of Aquinas 800 years ago here in the 21st century. Ratio Christie is doing it along with a lot of others, myself, Frank Turek, Lee Strobel, a lot of us that have been at it for decades. But before the break, we were unpacking an Aquinas quote, and I want to segue into, Ratio Christie's vision for re, engineering our society. But Aquinas said every possible argument against the doctrines of the Christian faith has a rational mistake in it somewhere, and therefore there exists the possibility that it be answered. Dr. Corrie Miller of Rasho Christi. you use the phrase that the Christian faith is intellectually superior to other worldviews, and I thoroughly, thoroughly agree. The issue is, though, that while so many on the campus pride themselves on being, cool, logical entities, I have found so many of the visceral arguments against Christianity. One, they're not as, consistently rational as they think. they're very emotional. And, so many of the atheists and, the militant secularists with whom I have interacted, they're pretty illogical and very much irrational and emotional sometimes in their aversion to Christianity. would you comment, please?
>> Alex McFarland: Yeah. you know, as we are in this age where some are writing about, ah, toxic empathy, the sin of empathy, suicidal empathy, I think, that pathos, that, ah, emotional kind of suffering, that is the angle that a lot of people are, driving at and sometimes trying to manipulate. I mean, it's the house of cards for the entire critical race theory phenomenon that we've experienced as well. They're trying to, drive at the sentiments and make, people feel bad into ascribing to their worldview that's supposed to be, you know, injustice to justice, but in reality it's an abortion of justice. their arguments are like what Plato used to call, you know, he used to refer to the philosophers and the sophists. The sophists are sort of like a lot of the modern politicians. Their arguments sound good on the face of it, and they're crooked, on the inside oftentimes. But on final analysis, their arguments fall apart. I think, though Aquinas made that point, our arguments and our way of life, it's the most logically coherent, existentially viable, empirically adequate worldview. As Ayaan Hirsi Allie, the former Muslim and then former new Atheist, said, christianity has it all. it explains the questions about meaning and morality, and it provides the resources to combat against cultural revolution like the one that we're in. that is the topic of my present book, on the Progressive Miseducation of America. Looking at this, what I would call is the second ideological revolution to have taken over our universities since we launched them in 1636 with, with Harvard. And these things have, you know, these ideas have not just gone through academia, but into media, into the corporate world, and even into ecclesia, the church, campus M ministries and the like. They've flooded our culture. So, you know, you know, Christianity, it's high time that we got rid of this menace of mindless Christianity that we've been dealing with for the last hundred years in American Christianity. It does not represent historical Christianity for the previous 1900 years, but it has, been capitalized upon, by false philosophers that have come in and taken over our institutions. And we need to essentially repent and follow Jesus again when he said, love God with all your heart, soul and mind.
>> Alex McFarland: Indeed, indeed. the Progressive Miseducation of America. That's your current book, correct, right?
>> Alex McFarland: That's right.
Lynn: America is in a revolution and we have a choice to make
>> Alex McFarland: you said that we're in a revolution and we have a choice to make. what do you mean by that?
>> Alex McFarland: Well, not all revolutions come with tanks and guns. Not initially anyway, but. But ours is a revolution indeed. You can see it by the ground trembling under. Conservatives fill it, liberals fill it, Democrats fill it, Republicans feel it. this is a new phase we're going through in our country. And I've studied all the major literature for revolutions across the world to sort of see what kind of a revolution this is. And it is a soft revolution, I think, probably best characterized by, people who looked at it with that intent. Like Antonio Gramsci, who is considered by some to be the most dangerous of cultural Marxists. Strange, because he never got out of prison by Mussolini, but his writings got mediated to us in the English speaking world right here in my state of Indiana by a Marxist professor at Notre Dame of all places, named Joseph Buttigieg, father of Mayor Pete. And Gramsci divided society into two. He said one of the reasons why Marx classical Marxism did not succeed is because it failed to realize that in the west it's different than in the East. It's not ready, it's not primed for a frontal assault revolution like the Russian or Chinese revolution. Because there, there is what he calls political society and civil society. Political society is like government and military and law enforcement. But you can't do a frontal assault that way in the West. In the west it's this civil society. It's the soft tissue of culture. It's like a castle and a moat that is propping itself up. And every time you lob shells at it, it's like Teflon. It doesn't affect it, it's like a living cell. It just self regenerates. And so he said, until we, infiltrate these institutions of the soft tissue of the west, like academia and media and Ecclesia Church, then we will never be ready for a frontal assault in the West. And so they talked about the long march through the institutions. And I chart out the history of how we started the universities, how we lost the universities due to the first revolution, scientific naturalism, which impacted the church and gave us the social gospel and liberal Protestant theology. But then the second one came, from the other side, the humanities and social sciences, which is postmodern cultural Marxism. And I show how it happened and which universities they went into and what happened at this phase and that eventually they moved into our universities. And at a time when the ratio of liberal to conservative Professors was just 2.3 to 1 in the mid-90s. Still extreme, but there's, it's still got some element of fair and balanced, checks and balances. Anyway, you can't just get away with saying anything crazy without someone calling you on it.
>> Alex McFarland: It's no longer, I don't know, I don't know. I've heard some, crazy, and hyper crazy statements come from college professors on 200American campuses.
>> Alex McFarland: Well, and the reason why it's able to happen today is because now the ratio is no longer 2.3 to 1, it's 12 to 1. For those retiring, it's 23 to 1 for those just getting their tenure and having, like, a Supreme Court justice, a lifetime appointment ahead of them. And in the ivy Leagues, it's 27 to 1. I was just lecturing at Princeton, two months ago, about within, a week after I saw you in person in Tennessee. And, you know, that's where Jonathan Edwards was at. One of the great American theologians and philosophers. But today, when we think about the big three. Harvard, Yale, Princeton. Well, Harvard started out with the motto Truth, and then quickly changed it to Truth for Christ in the Church, which went for 300 years, 1636 to 1936, Yale. And now they have a professor named, Lahore Vajastan, a trans, professor teaching on that kind of stuff at Yale Divinity School. Now they have, Linne Tonstadt, a systematic theologian in the Divinity School, who is lesbian and has a book called Queer Theology Beyond Apologetics. And she says, this is based on a class I teach. And I tell my students early on, we are not going to be reading books on theology. We're going to be reading texts on critical queer theory, talking about queering God and queering Christianity. And then we go down the road to Princeton, where I lectured. And you have Peter Singer, who, you know is the most dangerous, perhaps moral philosopher alive. but his. He had an article out called Dearest Pet is so Long as it's mutually consensual and there's no harm inflicted on the animal. What's wrong with a nice romantic date with Fido the dog on Friday night? Yeah. bestiality. crazy things are now coming out of the university campuses like we could never have imagined before. We have a Supreme Court justice who, to this day, doesn't know. How can she know that she's a woman? Because she doesn't know what a woman is until she goes and earns a biology degree. Who would have thought we would have ever arrived at a time like this? It comes from the campus. It moves to the culture.
>> Alex McFarland: Yeah. And, folks, all of this, if you really want a primer on how to understand the culture, read Romans 1 and 2. I mean, honestly, this is the slippery slope, the downward slide of a Christless culture. You know, it's like. And by the way, Dr. Miller, we did an apologetics event 20 years ago at Yale University. my ministry took, Josh McDowell, Gary Habermas, Norm Geisler, Ravi Zacharias, Lee Strobel, Jon Ankerberg, Crawford Laritz of Campus Crusade. And we worked about a year and a half. We had about 2,500 students actually had 187 people pray to accept Christ. At the end. I had Ravi Zacharias rest his soul. Ravi was a friend. That's, a whole nother story. but I asked Ravi to do an altar call, which he doesn't usually do, and he and I did it together. We had 187 people pray to accept Christ. Several professors on the campus of Yale University. It's got to be, probably the biggest, one day evangelism in the history of NewSong, Haven, Connecticut, probably. But, you know, it was amazing prepping for this, for one, how hungry people are. They really are hungry. But how messed up people's minds are. And, you know, talking about, you know, women, that don't know what a female is and atheism and all these things. It's Almost like Romans 1:22. Professing themselves to be wise. They became fools. And, you know, it's unthinkable. Like you mentioned, bestiality, the human soul untethered from God and truth. It's really. There's no limit to how dark, debased, and reprobate humans can be apart from God. am I right, Dr. Miller?
>> Alex McFarland: Yeah, that's right on. and we see the problem really, beginning with our churches, where, statistics show that those who hold to a biblical worldview in 2022 was just 6% of Americans. A year later, it dropped to 4%. And then, among pastors, it's 37%. But among evangelical pastors, I guess we're supposed to celebrate because it's 51 to 57%.
If you have a graduate degree, you are twice as likely to do political violence
And so here we are, not equipping our people because we're so engaged in skinny jeans and fog machines in our churches instead of training them in good, sound Christian theology and philosophy and biblical studies and how to understand the culture. It's no wonder that now, and I go back to this Princeton philosopher who wrote the book the Unsanctifying of Human Life. He said, if there is no God, and we now know that there isn't a God, there can't be a sanctifier of human life. So there can be no sanctity of human life. And here we are now living after the year when it was first pronounced, living in an assassination culture, where beginning with, you know, that got people's attention. Luigi Mangione, who assassinated Brian Thompson. Well, he was a grad student of UPenn. And what was scary is that about, one third of, all of those ages, 45, I think 45 and under to 18, 18 to 45, about a third of them said statistically they were more sympathetic with the assassinator than the assassin. And we find this statistics coming out again just this past couple weeks. President Trump, was facing another attempted assassination, again by another graduate student. And the statistics bear it out that if you have a graduate degree, you are twice as likely to be inclined to do political violence than with, say, just a high school degree. Why does that matter? Because the closer, and I can just give stat after stat after stat, the closer you are in respect to the, epicenter the university, the more your ideas have been formed in these revolutionary ways. If you've not been on the university campus in the last five years, you will not recognize it. It is not the same.
>> Alex McFarland: Yeah, well, you're absolutely right. And even in the late 80s when I was at my undergrad, at UNC Greensboro, which has a ratio Christie chapter, by the way, I remember my professors hated America, hated Ronald Reagan, were always quick to make fun of Christians. This was in the late 80s. And I remember as a brand new believer even then. And look, I love education, I'm not bashing education, but, I just remember my little antenna went up because I was like everything good and true. Traditional marriage, family, the flag, the church. They denigrate, marginalize and just criticize everything that seems like sanity, morals, truth. Hey, we got a break. Dr. Mirandola, you and I have to talk further. give your website again. We've got to pull away for a break, but I want to thank you for your time this morning.
>> Alex McFarland: Your website is, it is ratiochristi.org and personally it is Dr. Coreymiller.com if you want to invite me to your campus church or conference.
>> Alex McFarland: Thanks for your time, folks. Stay tuned. We're going to come back. We've got more on the Jenna Ellis Show. Jeff, Shreif, who is also one of the key speakers at the Activate Summit, coming up in July. Stay tuned. We'll talk with Jeff Schrieve after this brief break. Alex McFarland on this national day of prayer. May the Lord bless you. Stay tuned.
Jeff Shreve is guest host on American Family Radio this morning
Welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the
>> Alex McFarland: Morning on American Family Radio.
>> Alex McFarland: Welcome back to the program. Alex McFarlane Harland here. Very honored to be sitting in for Jenna Ellis. by the way, if the previous, segment sounded kind of lofty and, up there and out there, well, you know, we are in a battle of worldviews. You know, the Bible talks about in Colossians 2. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, by the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. And so you know, the devil. One of the things the devil has always done to try to lure people away from Jesus is to spread falsehood. It goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, where the serpent said to Adam and Eve has. God said, and I would say this. there was a great minister, in Colonial America, C.H. macintosh, and he said, it has ever been the desire of Satan to lure man away from that golden sentence, that divine motto. It is written, our cultural slide began with the abandonment of God's word. And, look where we are. But there is restoration. And one of the people God is using to help people know truth and to not, only be saved, but to walk in the. The precepts and the truth of God is, Jeff Schrieve. And, Jeff, it's good to have you on. I want to say thank you for being on with us today, but thank you. A number of times when you've been traveling, you've allowed me to guest host for you, and I appreciate that, and it's always a great honor. I spend a lot of time in prayer and preparation whenever I'm sitting in on your program. But, welcome, Pastor Jeff Schrieve.
>> Pastor Jeff Schreve: Thank you, Alex. I appreciate it so much.
You host Real Truth for Today, which started in 2022
>> Alex McFarland: Yeah. and real, Truth for Today. How long has, that been on AFR?
>> Pastor Jeff Schreve: I think we started in 2022. as you know, you've been doing this a long time. It all starts to blend together. But I think we're in, our third year of doing Real Truth for today.
>> Alex McFarland: Well, that is great. Well, it's a great show. I love listening. I always benefit from your teaching. And, I do want to say it's great honor whenever you have entrusted the mic to me when you've been, traveling.
Jeff Peck came to know Christ when he was 17 years old
But, a lot of things I want to ask you. I want to ask you about what you're going to speak about at the ACTIVATE Summit. But for those that, may be new to you, tell us about yourself and the work you do and how God brought you to this part in your journey.
>> Pastor Jeff Schreve: Yeah. So I, came to know Christ when I was 17 years old. I grew up Catholic, and I knew a lot about God.
>> Alex McFarland: Good.
>> Pastor Jeff Schreve: things I was taught in the Catholic Church as far as, foundational things, that Jesus is God in the flesh, who died on the cross and rose again from the dead. But I Was never taught about a personal relationship with Jesus. I wasn't taught what it meant to be born again. started to date this girl when I was a senior in high school. And she would challenge me, have you ever been saved? I was like, I don't know what that is. And, so she would take me to some meetings, Young Life meetings. And it was at my second Young Life meeting where, the Lord really spoke to my heart and showed me I didn't have a relationship with him. And I prayed that night in my bedroom and asked Jesus to save me. And he did. And my life began to change and went off to the University of Texas. And, Alex, as you know, lots of guys, when they go off to college, especially a college like that University, of Texas in Austin, you go nuts and you lose yourself in sin. But I didn't. I really plugged into a good church and Christian friends. I really grew and came back home to Houston, met my wife at church. And, we got married in 1986. And it was in. We had been married about, 10 years or so when the Lord called me to preach. And I had three little kids. And I was thinking, man, Lord, I prayed about this when I was in college. That would have been a better time to call me. Now I got a wife and kids, and it's going to be hard, but, the Lord knew exactly what he was doing, as he always does. And, so I was, in seminary a year, before, my pastor, Damon Schuck at Champion Forrest Baptist Church in Houston, called me to come back on staff, be his assistant. He would train me. I finished up seminary at the extension school of Southwestern Seminary. And then I came to First Baptist Texarkana in 2003. Started from His Heart Ministries in late 2004. And then, ah, the Lord has blessed. And then came on with American Family Radio. We had been broadcasting on American Family Radio for a number of years. and then Tim Wildmon asked me, when Dan Celia got sick with COVID and passed away, he asked me if I would take over Dan's, spot. And so, that's what we've been doing. We love American Family Association, American Family Radio. We're very blessed to be a part of the family.
>> Alex McFarland: Amen. You know, Dan Celia was a dear, dear friend, an amazing man of God. Some of you listening will remember Dan Celia. And, Tim asked me, it's really just one of the greatest honors of my life. Shortly after Dan Celia passed, he was on the board of the American Family Association. And Tim Wildmon asked me if I would take his seat on the board, which, you know, Tim and I have talked on the phone countless numbers of times. But the phone call where Tim asked me to be on the board of afa, I was speechless. Because of the great honor, that is. But, you know, Jeff, I'm thrilled that, God has raised you up to broadcast as you do, and, in that slot, that came available upon Dan Celia's passing. So, you are one of the keynote speakers at the upcoming Activate Summit. And by the way, folks, 7-16-18 in Tupelo, Mississippi. last year it was my great joy to speak. It's a biblical worldview gathering, and there's sessions for children, for adults. It was a real honor, to speak last year. But this year, people like, Dr. Jessica Peck, that you hear daily on Dr. Nurse Mama, Bert Harper, who for more than 15 years has been my co host on Exploring the Word. But you too. Jeff Schrieve, you're one of the keynote speakers. And, what will you be presenting at the Activate Summit?
>> Pastor Jeff Schreve: Yeah, they've asked me to talk about, fathers and leaving a legacy. And, so it's a marriage and family conference, no doubt. We'll talk about, you know, one of the greatest things a father can do is to love his children's mother. And, we want to talk about marriage, family, leaving a legacy. And, you know, those things that, are so important, you know, the father, as it says in the book of Malachi, you know, to bring back fathers with their children and children to their fathers. And, we have a tremendous problem in America, as you know, Alex, with absentee fathers, fathers that aren't engaged in their children's lives, fathers that aren't being the example that their kids need to see, what does a man of God look like? And so I hope to hit on those points and encourage, encourage and inspire people, especially the dads, to stand up and be counted and for all of us to be the men God wants us to be and to be. First Corinthians, chapter 16. You know, be tough and tender and act like men. Let all that you do be done in love.
>> Alex McFarland: You know, thank God for the Christian moms.
Pastor Jeff says dads need to be the godly husband in the home
but, Pastor Jeff, I mean, what is the, the impact, though, when the dad, is the godly husband, godly father, the priest in the home as God designed? how significant can that be?
>> Pastor Jeff Schreve: Well, it's just huge. You know, dad sets the tone. The Lord has set up the home to be, led by the husband and by the dad, just as he sets up the church to be led by a man. Women are critically important. Alex, as you know, we can't do this without our wives. But we're responsible for team family, and she helps us tremendously. but we are the, head coach, and she's the assistant coach. And if team, family's not doing good, the owner of team family, God, he wants to talk to the head coach. What is going on here? And what's so sad is you see so many guys that, they just kind of abdicate or they point to the wife. Well, I'll handle everything outside the home. You handle everything inside the home. And it's like, no, you can't do that because you have the responsibility before God. And I think that, you know, lots of guys don't realize that. And it doesn't mean that you're a dictator in the home, but you need to be the loving leader. As, the Lord is the loving leader in our lives. We need to be the loving leader in the home and set the example and discipline our kids and let them know this is inbounds, this is out of bounds. Support our wives, as many have wives that are staying home with the children. support them in that. Alex, I've said for a long time the hardest job on the planet is being a, stay at home mom. Because with little kids, that is a difficult, difficult job. And we as husbands and dads need to support our wives in that.
>> Alex McFarland: Amen.
>> Pastor Jeff Schreve: And we need to teach our kids, hey, your mom is a special, special person, and we're going to treat her with utmost respect. And, you know, just be there and love on our kids and do fun stuff together. That's the job of a dad.
>> Alex McFarland: Amen. Amen.
Jeff Shreve writes a lot about discernment and parenting
You know, you've written, how many books? I'm aware of. I think two books you've written. How many have you written, Jeff?
>> Pastor Jeff Schreve: I think it's about four or five.
>> Alex McFarland: Okay. You write a lot about discernment and, biblically, what, is discernment? Pastor Jeff Schrieve.
>> Pastor Jeff Schreve: So, you know, the Bible tells us in Hebrews, chapter 5, verse 14, solid food is for the mature who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern, judge between good and evil, between good kalos and evil. Kakos. those words in Greek are very similar. One letter off. And so discernment is to be able to, judge with righteous judgment. As Jesus said, do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. And so when we can discern things, the more time we spend in the word of God, I encourage our listeners this way. Your senses can be trained. You know, Alex, we talk about spidey senses in the. Yes, you know, with Spider man. But really as a Christian you can have your senses trained where you can sense that something is off with this teaching, something is off with, this person. And you know, I'm practicing discernment. So I, you know, the naive, the Bible says in the book of Proverbs, the naive believes everything. we need to be bereans when it comes to spiritual things. We need to go to the source material and, and examine the scriptures daily to see whether these things are so. And I heard one preacher say just the other day, this is so true. He said, parents, when it comes to your kids and their friends, you need to choose them. don't let your kids get hooked up with the wrong crowd because bad company corrupts good morals. And so we need to be praying, we need to be spending time in the word of God. And as we do that, we build up our, our senses to discern good and evil.
>> Alex McFarland: You know, in Psalm 119, verses 53 and 54, Psalm 11953 says in the King James, horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law. we're not horrified by the lost world that doesn't know Christ anymore. Doesn't seem like we're horrified or troubled as we should be by the egregious false teaching. I mean, you know, there have always been sin and sinners, but I mean we're in a world today where people, they don't even know what a male or a female is. is it possible to really get our kids equipped to navigate the incredibly dark times in which we live? Jeff?
>> Pastor Jeff Schreve: Well, it is, but it's increasingly more difficult. Alex, you and I are not too far from the same age and ah, we didn't grow up with the same temptations that kids grow up with today. I think when I was raising my kids we didn't have social media and cell phones and things like that. the Internet was just getting started and we thank Al Gore for that.
>> Alex McFarland: But I recognize that reference.
>> Pastor Jeff Schreve: so it is much more difficult and I think it takes much more vigilance and diligence and it takes a lot more prayer, to keep your family intact and going in the right direction. is it impossible? Of course not. But the Bible makes it clear in the last days, difficult times will come. And so the temptations are really off the charts for kids. And so we need to be that much more, diligent in praying for them, in getting to know what's going on in their lives and setting boundaries for them. Healthy boundaries. I know Jessica Beck is going to be talking about that with the world of AI and cell phones and things like that. How do parents, parent in that situation and protect their kids from things that will destroy them? Because the devil is out there. He prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to dev. And he's wanting to devour you, to devour me, to devour our kids. And we have to resist him, firm in our faith.
>> Alex McFarland: now the website of your ministry is from hisheart.org is that right?
>> Pastor Jeff Schreve: Yes, from hisheart.org spelled just like it
>> Alex McFarland: sounds from his heart.org. jeff Schrieve is one of the keynote speakers at the Activate summit that's coming up, which, I want to give that website. Listen up if you would folks. Activate. Check it out. It's coming up July 16 through 18 in Tupelo, Mississippi. By the way, Tupelo is a fantastic place. Lots of good restaurants, plus a life changing conference. And hey, by the way, what time is your show on AFR every day, Jeff?
>> Pastor Jeff Schreve: It's on 8:05 to 9. So I'm on, I'm up next.
>> Alex McFarland: Okay, Central time, right?
>> Pastor Jeff Schreve: Yes, Central time.
>> Alex McFarland: This is Alex McFarland. Thanks for listening. The shows are archived@afr.net, you can listen again. Great programming all day on this national day of prayer. Find a place to pray and please pray for our nation. May God bless you. Thanks for listening and I'll be back tomorrow on the Jenna Ellis Show. Sam.
