Barry Meguiar 00:00
Hi everybody. Welcome back to ignite. My new best friend, Rod Martin, who, if you haven’t read his stuff yet, you need to. That’s how I got familiar with him again. Rod, where do we go to get your your news feed? Go to rodmartin.org and as I said in the earlier podcast, just briefly, we do in depth analysis on geopolitical, technological and economic issues, you know, with a global perspective, but with a pro American Christian worldview. So we’re very intensely interested in the issues we were talking about right at the end of the last podcast, having to do with President Trump and what he’s seeking to do in these next four years. We’re also interested in things that you know people may not be thinking about yet, like the military applications of Elon Musk’s starship rocket, which are just extraordinary. You’re going to be able to deploy an entire honor division anywhere in the world in under an hour. And there are all these different things that are happening in our world that the mainstream media is never going to pull together for you. And if they did, they’d lie to you about it. So come to rodmartin.org and we’ll cover it. This is looking at our world today succinctly, I could say it brilliantly, through the eyes of a Christian with a biblical worldview, yes, a scientist, if you will. Can you believe that? But with that clinical, technical mind still coming to the truth of God, perhaps even more so, and talking about our world today, and it’s a great news feed, both from the there’s something secular for us. Everything Is Everything is ministry, and everything’s about God. Everything’s spiritual. But we do live in a crazy world that’s going in all kinds of direction today, and God’s in the midst of all of it. And in our last podcast, I was just suggesting to Rod, maybe you give us a little insight and some of how God is working today, and how, how should we be react? Be reacting as the body of Christ? Well, we have to be very realistic about where we are as a country. We have just dodged an incredible bullet, and I don’t know that we’d really be able to come back from it, and the easiest way to describe what I’m talking about is just to look at our mother country, the United Kingdom, elected a socialist government last summer, and it immediately cracked down on free speech, released like 5000 violent criminals From its prisons to make room for grandmothers who protest or post memes. Mean, this is extraordinary. The French government actually, the British government threatened to arrest Elon Musk. The French government actually arrested the CEO of telegram. And you know, they’re just cracking down on things we consider inalienable rights every day over there. JD Vance did an incredible job of calling it out in Munich the other day, and that’s where we are. We have a we have the left in America just in lockstep with and maybe about a half step behind where the socialist parties in Europe and in Canada and in Australia and New Zealand have already gotten we have our constitution to thank for that, because it allows us to throw some sand in the gear. So your activism really matters in America much more than it might elsewhere. But the but the fact is, the darkness has been in closing. So you know, for God to take this man who wasn’t supposed to win in 2016 you know, that was just absurd. Obviously Donald Trump can’t win, and then he does win. And not only that, but he keeps his promises. He puts the people on the Supreme Court. He says he will. He said he would slash two regulations for every one new one. He actually slashed 22 regulations for every one new one. You know, he actually cut taxes. He actually is getting government’s boot off the American people’s throat, and that’s what the left can’t handle. More freedom is just anathema from a socialist mindset. And I want to stress in our spiritual context, I can’t say it strongly enough, Marxism, cultural Marxism, political Marxism, however you want to define it, critical theory, and all of its subsets, critical race theory, radical feminism, queer theory, all of it are really just one big marketing scam to create an elite to rule you, and they use your aspirations and your envy against you, and then they end up in power, and it’s just like Reagan said about some of the countries in Africa. Yeah, they got one man, one vote, but they only got it one time.
Nine, because once they elected those Marxists, once they put them in power, they never had another real election ever again. Yeah, so true. So here we have four years, maybe two. But say, say we have four years if you don’t get assassinated. I pray for Trump continually that he stays alive. He’s he’s a little bit Cavalier out being in places where you know that. That’s a different subject, but, but basically, we have bullets these days. Yeah, Trump yourself. So these next four years will be the golden years for America, and my pastor, Tommy Barnett right after and said they will be if the church wakes up. Yes, yes, we can. We can clean the halls, and we can clean up a lot of the mess, but, but none of that is spiritual, per se. It certainly overlocks overlaps. But the fact the matter is, we have a spiritual problem, and it’s deadly, and most of our population going in the wrong direction. And if we just sweep the house clean and don’t fear it with the Spirit of the Lord, there’s a scripture on that. It says the last day would be worse than the than the first. The demon will come back with seven others more powerful and inhabit it everywhere, even even our Christians in in government circles today that are actively working, but it’s more focused on issues. My problem, my problem is they’re more focused on issues and politics, which we need to be but, but let’s focus on and souls. And in the day, it’s a matter how many people are getting into heaven? If we have four years, how many? How can we get as many people out of heaven in these next four years? And it’s calling, how that’s gonna I don’t know how it’s gonna play out, but, but we see a lot of successes. But having nothing to do with souls, you can, you can fight for issues like fighting against abortion or whatever. Your whole life. Can be really successful, but it becomes like you’re God and and at the end of the day, probably nobody will end up becoming a Christian because of your efforts or even yourself. You can do that even not be a Christian. But we have Christians in the game and fighting. But I’m wondering, how do we get people to focus on the issue of souls? How do we get people in the in the midst of all the chaos and all the wonder and all the agendas and all that, well Christians to get off the bench and into the game, well, not only are you correct, but the more political Christians, and I’m certainly One of them, need to understand that a lost people will not maintain Liberty period. I mean, they may manage it for a while, but eventually it always ends one way only, a spiritually awake people, a regenerate people that that serves Christ. And it doesn’t have to be everybody, but it has to be a lot of us, if you don’t have that, eventually they’re going to vote for sin. They’re just not they just can’t help themselves. They have a sin nature. It’s inborn. It’s who they are. And if they don’t turn to Christ, and if he doesn’t change them, they’re eventually going to seek that. We see that in the polling numbers with regard to liberal white women, who are just a disaster. Liberal white women, characteristically, are divorced. They are upset at the world. They’re just angry about everything, and they’re mad at their dad. They’re mad at their husband, if they have a husband, you know, maybe they’re three ex husbands, whatever, and they’re looking to government to fill that hole, because God made us in a complimentary way. You know, there should be one or more men in your life who are protecting you and creating a forgive the term, safe space in which femininity can blossom and you can become everything that you were designed to be as a woman. And you know, men, men provide some useful services. We can reach the top shelf, and we can change the tires, and you know, we can, we can take things on that are emotionally taxing for women, and when they cast off the men, they end up seeking sort of a pseudo dad or husband in the state. And that’s why we’ve got a 38% gap between liberal white women and the rest of the population when it comes when it comes to party affiliation, they’re overwhelmingly Democrat because they’re looking for the Democrat Party through the government to punish their enemies and reward their friends. That’s that’s a terrible impulse, and it comes back to.
Exactly what you’re saying a loss in much of this culture of the gospel and of healthy families that stick together and that prioritize their spouses and their children. These things are inherent to the Christian worldview, and they are anathema to the socialist worldview, and always have been. There’s it’s no accident in the fact that one of the very first things Lenin did when he took over Russia and made it the Soviet Union, one of the first things he did was abolish marriage, and it didn’t work. People actually want to stay married, and they got really upset about it, and that’s part of why you had the Russian Civil War. But so they kind of had to peel back off of that. But everything they did was aimed at atomizing individuals, because if you don’t have any supporting institutions and and virtuous relationships, the only thing between this well, actually, there’s nothing in between the state and you. And the state is huge, and you are nothing. So you become a cog in the machine, and you do it voluntarily. It’s really horrifying. It’s a satanic way of organizing the world. It really is. And I keep thinking, where’s the church? You know, we have a president who’s doing some great things. You know, he was surrounded by ladies when he signed an executive order keeping men out of women’s sports. Where was the church? Our pulpits were silent. Where’s the church in these issues? They’re not political. They’re god, they’re scriptural. You know, the church is so I take from that to the next step, and I’d like to get a little more of that personal standpoint. You’re you’re a scientist, and you Paula, you have all that knowledge, but your personal satisfaction, I know, is from coming living for God and impacting people on a personal basis. And how do we get how do we ignite Christians? You know, our goal is to ignite Christians. Yes, to ignite America with revival, one person at a time. That’s the only it’s going to work. The world’s lost. They’re not going to church. They’re lost. They’re damn excuse for being all those crazy things. They’re lost. They have excuse, and they’re going to stay lost until a Christian we come to them and explain to them God loves them. We’re not doing that.
Something in there. 40% of us are doing that. So the real challenge is, in these next four years, how do we ignite the church? We could have revival. You know, 70 80% of the unchurched already have a friend in their life that they trust who’s a Christian. We already have the influence. We’re just not using our influence. We’re sitting there quietly and almost sitting back in our armchairs. Trump’s got it now, and I can relax and say, This is our moment. This is our moment. Let’s go for it. I’ll just move everybody, every day, closer to Jesus. We can do this. What’s it going to take? I mean, you’re doing it yourself, but I want to hear about that. But also, how do we get more people doing it? I you know that’s that’s the cry of our heart. Well, the good news is that the decline in Christianity in this country has finally halted and stabilized. You know, we were losing a large number of people from the church for 25 years into the category the pollsters called the nuns, by which they mean no religious affiliation. Yeah. And that has finally halted. We’ve had five years of stability and and possibly an upswing. It’s, it’s a little early to say, but, but the encouraging part of that is, you know what I was describing earlier, about the just the horrifying effects of liberalism, of socialism on women especially, have really hit their Apogee in Gen Z, which is just a horrifying topic that maybe we can discuss another time. But the net result of it has been that Gen Z men are becoming quite conservative and they’re returning to church, which is amazing. We actually have slightly more Gen Z men in church than women, which is probably about the first time in 300 years, anything like that has happened. So yeah, so we’re seeing some positive things. And of course, it’s exactly as you would expect, and it’s exactly why we reelected Trump, you know, okay, we tried it the other way. That was a complete disaster. Let’s do what we knew were. And you probably remember Rudyard Kipling’s poem, the gods of the copy book headings. And the whole idea is that, you know, everything’s going along great. And then people kind. Give up virtue. They kind of indulge their lusts, whether it’s sexual or something completely different and and the money point is, but the gods of the copy book headings with terror and slaughter return, because you can’t get away from these things any more than you can get away from gravity. If I go out and I sleep around, I blow up my family, if I go out and I rob a bank, I probably get shot. I probably go to prison. Bad things happen. And likewise, if I jump off my balcony, bad things are going to happen. But the moral laws are no less intrinsic to the fabric of the universe than the physical laws are, because there’s one designer. And so the fact that we have messed that up for so long has encouraged, I think, from what we can see, the beginnings of a revival in our youngest generation, and we’re seeing effects of that in a lot of places. And I’ll just give you as one example, Miami, which, 15 years ago, was the second most unchurched metropolitan area in the United States. Despite a lot of nominal Catholicism, they just didn’t attend. They just weren’t involved. And over the last 15 years, we have seen a 13 point swing toward active Christianity in that area. That’s an extraordinary difference, and we had a little to do with that. I mean, the Southern Baptists put a lot of effort into that. Florida Baptist conventions put a lot of effort to that. But of course, that’s really just a work of God, and it has incredible consequences at every level of society, you said. And I’ll hush after this, but you said, at one point some Christians get really political, and that ends up being their God. Yes, some do, and I can name a few, and so can you but, but that doesn’t have to be that way. You know, what needs to be is a submission to Christ that actually informs everything you do in every area. And it’s never going to do that perfectly. But if Christ is the center, think of it as the Copernican revolution. You know, I’m not at the center of the solar system. The sun is, in this case, S O n, and if he’s at the center, then if I’m doing politics, I want to do it Christianly. You know, if I’m doing business, I want to do it Christianly. If I’m doing charity, I want to do it Christianly, because I want to give glory to Christ, yeah, well, you were like this. I spoke in December at a fabulous a fabulous group of people. Is the National Association for Christian lawmakers. Okay? And I got up and I said, so what is it you may, what’s your mission every day, passing legislation, putting people in place, getting righteous laws, all that kind of but is that your mission? I mean, think about what you’re doing here.
And then I came back to him in this Florida. I said, I got to tell you, you’re not Christian lawmakers. It’s the name of their organization, the National Advisory Board of that organization. In fact, what’s that? I’m on the National Advisory Board of that organization. Great. I love them. I was playing with them a little bit, of course, because I said, you know, but this fall, I got every eye in the room. And there’s senators and congressmen and governors or whatever. I got every eye. I mean, I had him, I knew I would, but I said that.
I said, you know, Christian is not an adjective, it’s who you are. You’re a Christian, you’re a lawmaker Christian. But in the midst of all those battles, you’re in one of the darkest places in America, the list of the charges against senators and congressmen goes on and you look at you say, is that the NFL, or is that the NBA? No, it’s our congressman. And you have to fight that battle every time. But if you, if you instead say, this is an opportunity, and you start fighting for souls, first and foremost, you’re there as a Christian to bring people over to our side, and then you won’t have to convince them anymore, because the scales we take off the rides and they’ll vote rightly. You’re wherever we are. We’re Christian first. It’s about souls. Nothing else matters when we get to heaven. It doesn’t matter what legislation we passed this year or or anything else, or how many bottles of car works? So none of that matters. Everything matters. How many people do we lead to the Lord so rod, if we could go from the macro to the to the micro for a minute? So much you do has huge audiences, but just on that personal basis, we have all those times where we’re going through life. I mean, that’s where you have some real fun just doing it on a personal basis and and making a difference in people’s lives and sharing God’s love. Can you? Can you talk a little bit about that on that before we’re gonna loop, we’re gonna run out of time. I don’t wanna miss that, that part of Ron Martin, well, in line with what we’ve been discussing. You know, if you really believe, if you really love Jesus Christ, then you care about his word and you care about what’s in it. So you don’t steal, whether you’re a government official stealing from people through taxes and fees and printing money and all the things they do, or whether you’re talking about, you know, treating your employees right, or treating your employer right if you’re an employee. I mean, there are 1000 ways that we apply the moral teaching of Scripture, and that’s worthy of many discussions. You know, the Scripture speaks to tax policy, it speaks to conscription, it speaks to property rights, all kinds of things that we don’t normally think about. So to answer your prior question, you know, how do we ignite the church? We get them in the Bible. The more time they spend in the Bible, the better off they’ll be, and the more they are like Christ, the more society will improve. It’s, it’s, it’s so true. It’s so true. And we often say and remind people everything you say and do everything from the time you get in the morning the time you go to bed, everything you say new is moving people closer to God or further away from God, and that’s a game changer for all of us. That’s why he said, If you love me and love your neighbor as yourself, it satisfies all the law, not out of legalism, not out of rote trying to be, be lawful and do everything God wants to do, but just out of the pure joy of leading people to Jesus Christ. And that’s what this ministry is all about. Ignite everybody, move everybody every day closer to Jesus. You’re doing that in such a huge way, Ryan, I so appreciate you, and I’m one of your raving fans, and maybe get a few more people to come along with us, because this podcast, God bless you, my friend, and we’ll see all of you next time.
