Call to Christians: Engage in politics & evangelism out of love for neighbor
- Dr. Harry Reeder: The sexual revolution an ‘all-out assault’ on our culture
- British government resignations signal problems
- What Alan Dershowitz’ shunning says about snowflake culture and intolerance for debate
- Why the Supreme Court’s labor union decision is a win for freedom and education
- Parents denied access to public school sex education materials is shocking government overreach
- Leadership crucial in the church, life
- Reflecting on Independence Day and its meaning
- Justice Kennedy’s retirement and what it could mean for the direction of the country
- How the church and strong families can help adolescents deal with depression
- Should sex offenders be able to adopt?
- What the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s General Assembly prayer gets wrong
- Is it just? Farm Bill requires able-bodied on food stamps to work part-time or get job-training
- Is Alabama-founded PCA church encouraging gay people to identify by sin?
- Alabama pastor to the suicidal: ‘Banish the thought of destruction. It’s not the answer’, ‘Many’ of us want to help
- How to think about ‘human rights council’ and elitist concept of abortion as ‘human right’
- Alabama pastor’s analysis of immigrant parent-child border separation controversy
- James Comey echo of J. Edgar Hoover — amassing power, declaring himself moral authority in FBI
- Historic North Korea Summit explainer and backstory
- News Fatigue? How to think about abundance of 24-hr ‘news’
- Where do you turn when your church strays from your faith?
- Unreal — Medical how-to book for counseling ‘religious’ women that abortion is okay
- Remembering RFK
- It’s inexcusable Clinton didn’t personally apologize to Lewinsky
- Planned Parenthood ignores crime in singular pursuit of death culture
- Do we really want a society that says ANY sexual behavior is fine?
- Reflections from Israel — and how it has changed in the past 30 years
- How to think about ‘aging pastors’ and ‘scarcity’ of millennials in ministry
- What does Christian liberty mean?
- Oh boy … Americans don’t think they sin very often
- How ‘church growth at all costs’ mentality weakens worship
- Should Facebook be the ‘new church’ and ultimate hate speech judge?
- How to think about Memorial Day
- When did marriage, parenthood become about self-fulfillment?
- Government branches must hold each other accountable, not circumvent each other
- Why Christians should visit holy lands
- Making sense of Trump’s negotiations
- Why Trump was right to move embassy to Jerusalem
- Stay married through ‘hurricane’ years, struggles — it’s worth it
- Insanity: NYC mayor wants to enable drug use
- Why it’s crucial that parents examine college faculties
- Why Marxism is cool again — with people who don’t know of its horrors
- A pastor’s perspective on Alabama Attorney General’s ‘Faith Forum’ at Briarwood
- Does archaeology prove or disprove the Bible?
- Don’t get hung up on church numbers — focus on church health, not size
- In the U.K., you only have value if you are wanted
- Startling number of Christians are persecuted around the world
- What is North Korea’s motivation?
- PARENTS: Who is teaching your child, the iPad, the teacher you disagree with, or you?
- Alfie Evans and the ever-encroaching overreach of the state, diminishment of parental rights
- Randa Jarrar and free speech
- Proposed California law will lead to persecution of Christians, possible outlawing of Bible sales
- How should Christians think about Trump’s North Korea stance?
- Barbara Bush and the unique legacies First Ladies leave
- Paul Ryan is understandably ‘bone-tired’ — but I do wish he could stay
- Why the Syrian strike was justified
- Christian colleges: Will you fold under cultural pressures or actually BE what you say you are?
- Transgender chaos playing out as predicted
- Does Facebook smoosh conservative posts? YES. But regulation is not the answer
- What Toys ‘R Us, colleges, and social security have in common
- College class gets it terribly wrong. Christians aren’t privileged — Christianity produces privileges for everyone
- Gender chaos leads to societal chaos
- Cultural Marxism: Do you know what it is and how to fight it?
- How parents can combat Planned Parenthood’s shocking deviant sex education
- Sorry and all, but yes there is a Heaven and Hell
- When elected officials campaign on promises they don’t keep
- Does archeology prove the Bible is true?
- Are the millions of lives lost to abortion less important than lives lost to gun violence?
- We must not sacrifice consistent morality for political pragmatism
- Why do Christians call Christ’s death ‘Good Friday’?
- Single parenthood may be a heroic struggle, but it’s not ideal and shouldn’t be promoted
- Freedoms of speech, religion go hand in hand and are being threatened — even in Christian college classes
- States are trying to criminalize the free speech of those seeking to protect unborn life
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- Care about free speech? Keep your eyes on Supreme Court dealing with California abortion law
- Why pornography is far from ‘victimless’ and how to quit using it
- Cultural Marxists are using schools, courts to target Christianity
- No, Joy Behar, it’s not a ‘mental illness’ when the Lord speaks to us through his Word
- Despite what Washington Post writer says, Down Syndrome children are only undesirable to selfish, arrogant people
- Facebook’s ‘fact checker’ says the killing of unborn babies in abortion is a ‘disputed fact’
- Be sure your (Twitter) sins will find you out
- Reasons for pro-lifers to rejoice — and double-down — on abortion issues
- How to debate with decorum … and why profane, vulgar arguments reveal weak arguments & minds
- WAKE UP: Pornography is not victimless — it destroys lives and kills people
- Persecution, violence against Christians significantly increased world-wide in 2017
- 3 things contributing to the U.S. drop in life expectancy
- Gov’t attempted to silence this Christian who’s bringing Martin Luther King’s fight to modern times
- Iranian Christians fleeing persecution should get U.S. care and refuge
- What we can learn from the Alabama & Georgia quarterbacks’ post-game responses
- What does academic intolerance of real debate mean for free speech?
- Do you know the frivolous programs your tax dollars fund?
- Blaring Bannon coverage begs question: What’s happened to journalism?
- Call to Christians: Engage in politics & evangelism out of love for neighbor
- New York City votes to fine Biblical counselors for gender dysphoria therapy
- 10 campaign promises Donald Trump kept — or attempted to keep — in his first year
- Is it pointless to make New Year’s resolutions?
- The top 11 news, faith and culture headlines of 2017
- American attitudes about children contribute to our shrinking birth rate
- Here’s what Trump got right (and wrong) in his national security speech
- Tax reform explained: How it helps our culture, our families, our economics
- Advent and Christmas, ever wondered what’s the difference?
- Reformed Christians have lost one of their great theologians, pastors
- The 2 ungodly reactions to politics, current events that Christians must avoid
- Want our trust? The 7 things an elected official MUST do to gain it
- Christian voters faced 4 options in Senate race … only 1 is inexcusable, says Evangelical pastor
- Where the death culture leads: Lawsuits over disabled children who ‘should’ have been aborted
- What’s at stake in the Masterpiece Cakeshop Supreme Court decision
- How to put Trump’s U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem in historical and biblical perspective
- Pastor Harry Reeder: There is hope and a way forward for the Matt Lauers in our lives
- Pastor Harry Reeder: If Supreme Court gets Colorado cake baker, same-sex marriage case wrong, it will be culture tipping point
- Pastor Harry Reeder: Liberal ‘Christianity’ is antithetical to Christianity
- Pastor Harry Reeder: Abortion industry ‘doulas’ try to normalize killing of unborn, but we know abortion is not normal
- Pastor Harry Reeder: Trump’s judicial nominee list shows his commitment to originalists and constitutionalists
- Pastor Harry Reeder: Some evangelicals disagree, but here’s why it’s good to emphasize church celebrations during Christmas
- Pastor Harry Reeder: Our military is weakening and here’s why we need it strong
- Pastor Harry Reeder: Why would we be surprised when culture lives out sexual sin it has promoted for years?
- Pastor Harry Reeder: Churches must stay on-mission as evangelists, not cultural acceptance-seekers
- Pastor Harry Reeder: The Museum of the Bible is a great idea…provided we don’t worship the Bible
- Harry Reeder on sexual reckoning: Our conscience tells us ‘something’s wrong here’ even while our culture promotes sin
- Reeder: We have to be honest despite history rewrites– Pilgrims gave thanks to God
- Reeder: It is ‘absolutely ludicrous’ to think a mother’s absence in crucial first 3 years has no effect
- Reeder: Australian same-sex marriage survey a ‘profile in cowardice’ not courage
- Reeder: Believers ‘speaking up’ made real difference in adoption tax credit provision
- Reeder: Secular culture wants more than ‘tolerance’, insists upon abortion and sexual anarchy ‘celebration’
- Reeder on Roy Moore chaos: ‘Do the next right thing’
- Reeder: Here’s what Christians should say when traditional marriage views are labeled ‘bigotry’
- Reeder on church leaders not meeting privately with the other sex: ‘I’ll take the criticism….I learned it from Billy Graham’
- Reeder on LGBTQ campus activists: ‘They don’t want to debate what a marriage actually is. They want to silence those they cannot answer.’
- Yes, it’s ridiculous there’s a new religion dedicated to AI….but here’s why it matters
- Feeling any Christmas guilt? Here’s the type you should ignore and the type you should face
- Reeder on Tuesday’s elections: ‘To see this as a referendum on Trump is overstating it’
- Two terminally-ill patients who refused assisted suicide to help others & show life’s sanctity
- Lots of older pastors, not many young ones — what’s going on?
- Commercial Surrogacy: The objectification of child-bearing
- Elitist ‘gender-isn’t-real’ culture has descended into sophisticated imbecility
- Chaplain who refused marriage retreat to same-sex couple is up against elite culture enforcers
- Sen. Booker’s grilling of Pompeo prime example of ‘religious test’ to exclude evangelical Christians from office
- GENDER ABSURDITY: A nation, led by pop culture, descends into chaos
- How culture rot happens: Unthinkable –> Laughable –> Thinkable –> Accepted
- How Christians should submit to the government’s law
- How to avoid going ‘wobbly’ on the truth
Listen to the 10 min audio
Read the transcript:
REPUBLICAN COMEBACK?
TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, I remember back when it was 2008 – President Obama had just won the presidential election – and I remember hearing one political pundit say, “The Republican Party is dead. It’s over for them.” Here we are at the beginning of 2018, we look back on last year, and many would say it was a very successful year for President Trump, a Republican.
The president has indeed had some notable successes: nominating Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, the destruction of ISIS in Iraq, the repeal of HHS contraceptive mandate, the Justice Department opening an investigation into Planned Parenthood selling fetal body parts and there are other successes as well.
Harry, many Christians will look at this and say, “Hey, we’ve scored a big victory.”
DR. REEDER: Because a number of believers, while having issues with President Trump on a personal level, a number of evangelicals decided, hey, between the choice of someone who is going to promote the death culture of abortion – taxpayer support of it – and the continual dissipation of the sanctity of life as well as the enlargement of government as the savior between the two, the populist president was taken.
As a number of people would say, a number of evangelicals, on the one side, were holding their nose, on the other side, pulling the lever. And most of it was around the Supreme Court justice issue. As I have talked with various people, that seems to have been pretty consistent.
This president has fulfilled a number of his promises. We actually did a program on that, what he’s been successful at and, of course, there have been some notable failures. However, at the same time, when you note all of these “successes,” at the same time, this president’s popularity or approval rating is in the 30s and there are many, many prognosticators that are saying there’s going to be a significant loss by the Republican Party in this mid-term election.
Now, by the way, there are others that say, no, once this economic recovery takes place that everyone is expecting out of this recent tax reform and deregulations that have taken place, that it’s really going to be a substantial victory for Republicans.
CHRISTIAN ROLE IN POLITICS
I think this is the occasion that you and I can make a very simple point: The Christian world and life view calls us to be fully engaged and the Great Commandment calls us to be fully engaged in what it means to be a good citizen as a Christian citizen. I need to vote. I need to be aware of issues. I need to make prayerful decisions about who I vote for, what issues I support and what policies I support.
And, thus, we, in this program, continue to try to look at issues from a Christian world and life view knowing that each believer, the priesthood of each believer – you have the Holy Spirit, you have the Word of God – you need to make up your mind and your decision on these things because to love your neighbor is to engage in politics.
Politics is to enact good policies for the well-being of people. And, of course, the two basic philosophies that vie is the government is savior or is the government supposed to have a limited role but a very important role in a fallen world to restrain sin and to promote righteousness while protecting the freedoms of people and it’s what the people do that is the best way to develop a culture in which there is human flourishing?
FOUNDING FATHERS’ VISION AND TODAY’S REALITY
What our founding fathers understood is that the free practice of religion was a very important issue that was doing two things. No. 1 was that the government was not to pick the religion – the government was to protect the free practice of religion. The reason it didn’t institute a religion is that this is a freedom of the people – it is not a policy of the government. Good policy comes from the religious affections of people if properly influenced.
Now, that’s where we as Christians are delighted to take our place in the public square. Not only the public square to speak about policies in a Christian world and life view, but in the public square to move to another “Great” in the bible and that’s the Great Commission. And there is where the real hope of our nation lies – and every nation – and that is the progress of the Gospel in the lives of men and women, in the lives of families, in the lives of communities and that’s what we want to give ourselves to. That’s what we want to focus upon.
NEW YEAR, CALL TO REVIVAL
Tom, even as we’re still in this opening days of this new year, I would love to renew that call. We will attempt to continue to bring Today in Perspective from a Biblical world and life view on multiple issues, but the real hope of our nation is the people of God committed to prayer and committed to the Great Commission, which is to make disciples of all the nations. And, if we want disciples of Christ in all the nations, then it’s right that we begin with a priority in our own nation.
Tom, even in our own congregation – Briarwood Presbyterian Church where I serve – this last year, we have asked the Lord to give us an understanding of revival, a heaven-sent revival, a God-glorifying, Christ-exalting, Gospel-saturated, prayer-engaged revival movement.
Two things happen when God revives His people: there’s a vertical in which they love to worship and there’s a horizontal in which they love to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
They love to share the Gospel with themselves so that they stay amazed at grace, and they love to share the Gospel with each other so that we are encouraged by the grace of the Lord Jesus and His saving work and then we love to share the good news that Jesus died for sinners, He rose again and you can be right with God, we love to share that with people who have not yet come to Christ – share it with those who are seeking, share it with those who are lost and not yet seeking but we would seek them to share that with them.
WHAT IS THE CHRISTIAN’S ROLE?
Tom, can we just use this program to ask those that are there, we’re actually calling this year LEAD – a Lifestyle of Evangelism And Discipleship. Do you ever notice how Jesus would say, “Come and follow me”? Come to Christ for salvation and follow him as a disciple to be transformed in your mind.
When you come to Christ, you get a new heart, you get a new record, you get a new life, you get a new home, you get a new family. What you don’t get is a new mind but what you do get is the Holy Spirit and the Word of God whereby your mind can be transformed and you can learn to think Christianly.
First of all, if you haven’t yet come to Christ, just come to Him and put your trust in Jesus alone for salvation and just watch what happens. Your salvation is not going to be in sports, it’s not going to be in money, it’s not going to be in power, it’s not going to be in politics, but it will be in Jesus Christ and it will surely be in Jesus Christ.
And then, when you receive that gift, it’s a gift that you can give away to your family and your friends and your neighbors and your coworkers and then send it around the world. What a glorious thing to do in your life.
And then, those of you who are believers, would you join us in a lifestyle of evangelism and discipleship? Let’s share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those that are around us.
RENEWAL OF THE NATION FOUND IN CHRIST
Now, there is where the real renewal will come in our nation. It won’t come from the Republican Party, it won’t come from the Democratic Party, it will not come from the secularists, that’s for sure, and it won’t even come from Evangelicals engaged in the pragmatics of politics as well as the principles of politics.
We need to be engaged, but the solution to where our nation is headed is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
You know, Edmund Burke, an early-on commenter of culture, said this: the key to America was in its small groups of believers in their churches who were preaching the Gospel, sharing the Gospel and in what he called “the small platoons” – the small groups of discipleship was what he was looking at.
That’s what Jesus did: He turned the world upside down. How did he do it? He had the 3, He had the 12 and He had the 70.
Therefore, let’s be engaged in worship to the glory of God and bearing witness with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “He who wins souls is wise.” We have, in the Gospel, the bridge to life – now let’s build bridges in our life so that people can be brought across the bridge to life from sin to the savior.
Dr. Harry L. Reeder III is the Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.
This podcast was transcribed by Jessica Havin. Jessica is editorial assistant for Yellowhammer News. Jessica has transcribed some of the top podcasts in the country and her work has been featured in a New York Times Bestseller.
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