Hawk Nelson Singer Rejects God

[00:00:00] um it just came out you’ve probably seen john steingard the lead singer of the christian rock band hawk nelson

[00:00:06] he says he’s no longer believes in god uh this happened not too long ago i i posted a quick clip on it with um

[00:00:14] joshua harris to the uh the author of i kiss dating goodbye and then um

[00:00:20] utah just recently legalized uh essentially legalized polygamy and then the everything that’s happening

[00:00:27] with kovid there’s so much happening you know uh people’s fears of socialism and

[00:00:32] communism and these sorts of things and so um i just wanted to talk a little bit about a few of these things

[00:00:38] because i think they’re important and you know i’m i’m a vice principal at a christian high school now i also teach apologetics i’ve

[00:00:45] been teaching that for 12 years and i’ve i’ve taught apologetics because

[00:00:51] i have a concern for students who are going out in the world and they have to they have to make sense of

[00:00:56] reality right they have to look at what’s happening in the world today and they are um trying to make sense of

[00:01:04] everything and go okay so do i do i follow the bible do i follow the lord um uh is this what

[00:01:12] is the best um you know way to live my life and so i wanted to talk about john

[00:01:18] steingard real quick here because he um you know a lot of people look up to

[00:01:24] uh christians who are in bands and kind of a christian celebrity here and

[00:01:29] um i read his instagram post and what i’m starting to notice in these different people that are

[00:01:34] coming out and saying you know i’m an atheist or not too long ago i debated john gleason on

[00:01:40] um on zoom he’s a he has a youtube channel called the godless engineer

[00:01:46] and he gives a little bit of his background he grew up in a family that believed in god which uh most most atheists today um

[00:01:53] they’ll say i came from a christian background and you know by and large this is because america was a christian

[00:01:59] for the longest time and so we’ve been you if you if you’re following the pew research results

[00:02:05] that’s been decreasing over time uh it was somewhere around 90 percent i believe in the late

[00:02:11] uh 1990s uh it decreased to about 85 percent then it’s decreased recently to about 75

[00:02:18] percent that claim that they believe in christianity and um it’s been a concern for people for a

[00:02:24] long time um that we’re going the way of uh britain and uh

[00:02:30] how they went from a country that was by far majority christian over 90 percent to now uh people maybe three percent two

[00:02:38] percent uh as far as i understand it so um i want to answer a couple of his questions

[00:02:44] and i i believe very firmly that fundamentally the issue we’re dealing here is that

[00:02:50] we’re dealing with with people that are walking away from christianity uh is fundamentally

[00:02:56] an intellectual one uh and i know not everybody’s gonna agree with that some people would say um that it’s other

[00:03:02] reasons and whatever the case but i believe fundamentally it’s because um our churches uh

[00:03:10] have not done a good job and i’m not knocking pastors um pastors work extremely hard uh and

[00:03:16] they’re constantly trying to share god’s love and reach out to people but i think that there has there has

[00:03:22] been a lack of an intellectual um case made for christianity by and large

[00:03:28] this is also has to do with the fact that 90 of kids go to public schools where god is not allowed to be in the

[00:03:34] schools i believe that is very very much the case and i don’t know that pastors even have

[00:03:40] the time to constantly make the intellectual case for the existence of god or for the church or for jesus christ

[00:03:48] you know the youth groups and sunday school and pastors from the pulpit they’re

[00:03:55] dealing with a lot of other issues so they’re not always going to be hitting on these intellectual arguments for the existence of god

[00:04:01] but the sad fact is and because a lot of people aren’t real interested in those arguments truth be

[00:04:06] told um they’re not interested in having that discussion or hearing it or it’s it seems kind of dry and um boring in a

[00:04:14] sense right so a lot of times when people are coming to church what they want to hear is um what what is god going to do for me

[00:04:21] how can i apply this message directly to my life and there’s nothing wrong with that

[00:04:27] the bible is a book that is meant to be applicable to each one of our lives but at the same time

[00:04:32] there are issues that if we don’t deal with them if we are not able to address them and that we and we are not able to

[00:04:38] equip uh the the church body with the answers to some of the tough

[00:04:43] questions that come up those questions in my opinion are driving a lot of the

[00:04:49] kind of statements that john steingard has made about why he is not a christian and so let me just read you this is off his

[00:04:56] instagram post here it says why does god seem so pissed off in most of the old testament

[00:05:01] and then all of a sudden he’s a loving father in the new testament i’ve heard this many times this question

[00:05:07] why does he say not to kill but then instruct israel to turn around and kill men and women and children to take the

[00:05:13] promised land another very common question why does god let jobs suffer horrible things just

[00:05:19] to win a bet with satan now this one this question i’ve seen this

[00:05:24] posted by atheists and so forth on youtube it’s a little disingenuous to me this is not to win a bet with

[00:05:32] satan this is a little bit of a kind of sarcasm sprinkled in here why does he tell

[00:05:38] abraham to kill his son and then he’s gotten quote in parentheses more killing again

[00:05:43] and then basically say just kidding this was a test again this is an atheist perspective

[00:05:49] it’s kind of this kind of bitter um criticism uh just kidding this was a test it

[00:05:55] that’s not at all god’s attitude in the bible it’s not just kidding this was a test it was a test

[00:06:00] but it wasn’t this flippant oh just kidding kind of a thing why does jesus have to die for our sins

[00:06:07] more killing again now this statement by john and keep in mind

[00:06:12] his his father is a pastor and his father-in-law is a pastor

[00:06:19] and for him to ask this question why does jesus have to die for our sins

[00:06:24] is a little bit astonishing because for him to have grown up in a

[00:06:31] christian family to be in as much ministry as he’s been in to have started in the hawk nelson ban

[00:06:37] at the age of 20 and to have gone all his life and he is now asking this question

[00:06:42] why does jesus have to die for our sins uh that’s that’s there’s something missing

[00:06:49] here this that’s a big deal um and then he adds this he says if god can do anything

[00:06:55] can’t he forgive without someone dying now right there this is a complete apologetics

[00:07:02] question um because and i’ll answer this because his premise is is false there if god can do anything

[00:07:11] so and then the last one he says i mean my parents taught me to forgive people nobody dies in that scenario now he has

[00:07:18] a lot more that he writes in his instagram post there’s a lot more to it but um to me when i read this section

[00:07:26] this is what i zeroed in on because in my opinion this is fundamentally why people and young people specifically

[00:07:34] that we’re seeing the rates of which people are leaving christianity and leaving the church this is

[00:07:40] the fundamental issue it is the intellectual questions that are eating at people over time and

[00:07:46] he talks about this he says it was it was not something he decided overnight it was a slow

[00:07:51] erosion and this is why it’s so important that we understand the bible well

[00:07:57] and we apply it well because uh if we if we do not it creates this

[00:08:03] slow decay in a person’s faith and that has to stop right so

[00:08:10] so i’m going to answer these questions very briefly um my my courses educate for life.org all deal

[00:08:17] with this these kinds of questions i have 40 classes on there dealing with this this is what i teach all year long

[00:08:22] to my 12th grade students this is what i’ve taught for 12 years this was very important to me when i debated

[00:08:28] john gleason you know he said i had questions they weren’t answered and i walked away from my faith

[00:08:34] uh i was the opposite i had questions my questions were answered and my faith in god just became

[00:08:40] stronger and really that is the difference uh in my opinion um and i can’t tell you

[00:08:46] how many young people i’ve heard that testimony who have come up to me and said thank you mr conover for teaching this class

[00:08:52] because if it weren’t for what i learned in this class i don’t think i would be a christian anymore

[00:08:58] and so let’s answer these questions real quickly why does god seem so pissed off in most of the old testament and then

[00:09:03] all of a sudden he’s a loving father in the new testament first of all jesus god is a father in

[00:09:09] the new testament because jesus is born he’s never referenced as a father in the old testament right in

[00:09:15] in the new testament the trinity the father son and holy spirit are named in that way in the old

[00:09:20] testament god is not called the father but in the new testament he is is because jesus refers to him as his

[00:09:27] father and god refers to jesus as his son that relationship is established through the

[00:09:32] incarnation and that’s why he’s called the father now his main focus is not why he’s

[00:09:38] called the father of course but it’s why does he seem angry in the old testament now i do believe this has to

[00:09:43] do with a little bit of cherry picking because the fact of the matter is is there are many cases in the old testament in which god

[00:09:50] is very loving and i’ve spent a little bit of time focused on that simply because

[00:09:56] uh this question comes up constantly about why this is the case so

[00:10:02] first nehemiah 9 17 says you are a god ready to forgive gracious and merciful slow to anger and abounding in steadfast

[00:10:10] love in jonah chapter 3 verses 8 through 10

[00:10:15] let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands who knows god may turn and relent and

[00:10:20] turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish there are the bibles clearly making a connection between the wickedness that

[00:10:27] he sees and his anger that’s why he’s angry because of the pain that is a result of disobedience

[00:10:35] then it says when god saw what they did how they turned from their evil way god relented of the disaster that he had

[00:10:40] said he would do to them and he did not do it the other issue here that’s really relevant is that jonah wanted the

[00:10:46] ninevites to die but god said how can i um abandon these people who don’t know

[00:10:53] their right hand from their left hand right they’re ignorant of right and wrong and and then he

[00:10:58] also includes the animals and he says there’s many animals as well i’m not just going to abandon them and

[00:11:04] so jonah wants them to just be abandoned and die and what does jonah say specifically to god i knew you were a

[00:11:10] god that relents when people repent and i didn’t want that to happen

[00:11:16] and that’s why i i i didn’t want to go and speak to the ninevites um and so jonah knew god’s character

[00:11:23] there god reputation was a god of love and kindness and long suffering and patience

[00:11:29] and so it’s a shame to me that uh john doesn’t understand that that he doesn’t

[00:11:35] recognize that but what’s happened is that the neo-atheists and others have popularized certain scriptures

[00:11:42] that are are emphasizing god’s anger and his judgment and his wrath

[00:11:48] in exclusion to the ones that emphasize god’s love and so god has not changed from the old

[00:11:55] testament to the new testament he’s the same he is both loving and just and so

[00:12:03] that’s the reality and if we take the time to look at the scriptures that’s what we see isaiah 43 1-3 but now thus says the lord

[00:12:09] he who created you o jacob he who formed you o israel fear not for i have redeemed you i have called you by name you are mine

[00:12:16] when you pass through the waters i will be with you and through the rivers they shall not overwhelm you when you walk through fire you shall not

[00:12:22] be burned and the flame shall not consume you for i am the lord your god the holy one of israel your savior

[00:12:28] and the entire old testament is god’s attempt to reach mankind and abraham the promise

[00:12:34] made to abraham was that god would bless all people through abraham

[00:12:40] and that that uh is brings us back to another question that

[00:12:45] that uh john asked in his instagram post which was why does he

[00:12:50] allow why does he test abraham by asking him to offer up his son and the reality here is is that and this

[00:12:58] is preached in numerous sermons all over the place so i don’t understand how john can even ask this question

[00:13:04] but the fact of the matter is is that god was going to use abraham in a very very big way but

[00:13:11] he needed to know that abraham was reliable um and so what happened there was god

[00:13:18] was actually testing him to see if he would be reliable and trustworthy with the promises that

[00:13:23] god wanted to make to him and that’s part of what that test was abraham is called the father of faith

[00:13:30] and we see this throughout the scriptures in the new testament the bible says he

[00:13:36] who is faithful with little will be faithful with much right and so this is the constant test

[00:13:43] is are you faithful with what god is giving you we see this in the parable of the talents again that god has asked giving

[00:13:50] people something and saying what are you going to do with what i’ve given you and so

[00:13:56] what god knew because it was such a huge thing that god was going to do through abraham

[00:14:01] he also gave a test that was very extreme which was if i ask you to give to me what is most

[00:14:08] precious to you will you still do that as difficult as that is going to be

[00:14:14] and so that’s a huge deal um the other thing that john asks here in in uh let’s go on

[00:14:20] to the next question that he asks um he says

[00:14:26] uh why does why does he say not to kill but then instruct israel to turn around and kill men women and children to take

[00:14:31] the promised land this is probably the most used argument against god’s goodness

[00:14:37] uh currently in in in the media and um by those who are aggressive atheists and

[00:14:44] so forth um and it i understand it makes sense but again this answer has been uh this

[00:14:50] this question has been answered many many times and the scriptures are very clear that god was very long suffering towards the

[00:14:57] canaanites it says that he actually waited 400 years before he brought judgment on them

[00:15:02] and it had nothing to do with genocide it had nothing to do with god’s you know not liking their race or

[00:15:09] something because that’s often brought up popularized by richard dawkins it has purely to do with the wickedness that

[00:15:16] was taking place and archaeology has discovered that the canaanites were one of the most wicked

[00:15:21] people you could possibly imagine they were practicing uh things like temple prostitution

[00:15:26] child sacrifice bestiality all things that were just a

[00:15:31] horrible horrible deterioration to their to the people that lived in

[00:15:37] canaan the pain and suffering involved is unbelievable you know we’re dealing with covet here

[00:15:43] which is the spread of a a disease that’s deadly and dangerous

[00:15:48] but this has been happening for a long time you have very deadly diseases and diseases are

[00:15:54] spread by a lack of good uh taking care of yourselves the the old

[00:15:59] testament and the levitical law is very clear about uh quote social distancing

[00:16:06] quarantining is all over the old testament quarantining when you saw um either even a fungus in your

[00:16:13] house you had to quarantine and get away from the house you had a quarantine if you came in contact with something that was dead

[00:16:18] you had to quarantine if you came into contact with something that was somebody that was sick all of these

[00:16:24] things were in place to bring health and well-being to people the canaanites were doing the exact

[00:16:31] opposite of everything that god was having the israelites do and the amazing thing is that any canaanite at

[00:16:37] any time could have become a jew the the jewish old testament law permitted anybody from any nation to

[00:16:44] join judaism they just had to agree that they were going to follow yahweh and they were going to follow the

[00:16:50] law laid out by god to the israelites and so

[00:16:56] it was their choice and this was all for their well-being it was all for them to be blessed if you look at the levitical

[00:17:02] laws they’re absolutely phenomenal even today if we took a lot of what is applied specifically today

[00:17:08] and began to take it and fit it for our time we would see incredible blessings

[00:17:14] take place and i don’t mean just spiritual blessings i mean pragmatic blessings because the the natural byproduct of

[00:17:21] living according to god’s standards is health and well-being that’s what happens uh so

[00:17:26] when he says why does he say not to kill but then instruct israel to turn around and kill this was not murder right murder is the

[00:17:33] taking of an innocent life he was bringing judgment uh through israel to what was going on in canaan

[00:17:41] um and there’s more to be said about that but let’s go on to his next question why does god let job suffer horrible things just to quote

[00:17:47] win a bet with satan you know this has always intrigued me the book of job is very very interesting

[00:17:54] um but there’s something in here that’s very significant first of all it looks like as far as i

[00:18:02] can tell job’s passion and love for god was absolutely phenomenal

[00:18:07] god actually credits him and says there is no one on earth that honors me like job does

[00:18:15] now satan says to him well that’s just because he gives you you give him everything he doesn’t

[00:18:20] actually love you for who you are he only loves you because you give him things now this is a

[00:18:28] mind-blowing story because nobody wants to be loved just for what they give to somebody else we want to be

[00:18:34] loved because we want to be loved right if we have a friend who who is a fair-weather friend and only

[00:18:40] loves us because of things are going well in our relationship or because they give things

[00:18:45] to us right no wealthy person wants to be loved for their money they want to be loved for who they are

[00:18:51] and so this was an interesting discussion taking place and god essentially says no job is

[00:18:58] better than that job loves me not because of what he gives me but because of who i am

[00:19:04] now this is interesting because what does it mean to love somebody because of who they are god’s very character and his very nature

[00:19:10] are goodness and we see this fleshed out in the new testament in john chapter 6.

[00:19:18] there’s a scripture um where in if this is in uh multiple gospels but

[00:19:25] it’s in matthew chapter eight luke chapter nine uh i believe luke chapter 14 and

[00:19:32] what’s happening is is god feeds the five thousand or jesus feeds the five thousand and

[00:19:37] many people start following him and there’s so many people following him

[00:19:43] that what jesus begins to to test is are you following me because

[00:19:48] you love me and you love who i am or are you following me simply because i gave you

[00:19:54] what you wanted right one is selfish and one is selfless and interestingly god is relational he

[00:20:00] wants to be loved because of who he is now uh who is he

[00:20:06] well he is goodness incarnate that’s what the bible teaches us the bible teaches us that god is not

[00:20:12] just loving but that he is love the bible teaches us that god does not just tell the truth but that he

[00:20:18] is truth god is the epitome of all things that are good and so to love

[00:20:25] him is incredibly important because when you love god you love what is right

[00:20:30] now of course there are people who will dispute this and we can have this discussion but for the sake of the the argument here um

[00:20:38] it says that jesus started throwing out these interesting statements he said

[00:20:45] he who wants to save his life must lose it for my sake he said he who wants to follow me must

[00:20:51] pick up his cross he said he who wants to follow me must hate his mother and father

[00:20:58] now this is interesting because the bible says that jesus followed the law and the law and one of

[00:21:04] the ten commandments very specifically is honor your mother and father so why would god why would christ say

[00:21:10] he who wants to follow me must hate his mother and father well what he was doing was he was provoking the crowd and those who

[00:21:17] weren’t really interested and pushing them away by them saying what i have to pick up my cross

[00:21:23] that’s crazy i’m not going to pick up my cross and they would say yeah you gave me free

[00:21:29] fish and bread but that’s not worth picking up a cross and they would leave

[00:21:35] and it says right there in in john chapter 6 66 from that time on many of his disciples

[00:21:41] turned back and no longer walked with him so jesus asked the twelve do you want to leave

[00:21:46] too and simon replied lord to whom would we go you have the words of eternal life we

[00:21:52] believe and know that you are the holy one of god you know i’ve had discussions with friends that are considering atheism or

[00:21:58] agnosticism and i said okay so what’s your alternative where are you going to go

[00:22:03] where are you going to get what you’re looking for and the fact of the matter is is that

[00:22:09] atheism and agnosticism have nothing to offer there is no hope there there is no

[00:22:14] solution there’s just a running away and it’s better to wrestle with the hard questions we have to deal with as

[00:22:20] christians than it is to run away um when those hard times approach because god has answers to those hard

[00:22:26] times and i feel bad for john because these questions to me are not

[00:22:33] well thought through to make such a major decision i i struggle to understand how he can say

[00:22:40] that this is what caused him to decide he was no longer a christian and he says you know he says to anybody

[00:22:47] who says that i need to read the bible more he says i’ve read the bible and it

[00:22:53] didn’t help me it made things worse and again i just i puzzle over this and

[00:22:58] i pray for him but i don’t understand how he could have not taken the time to look at the

[00:23:05] answers to these questions and so easily uh walked away um

[00:23:11] and maybe he would say it wasn’t easily you know um but i i just think you know for

[00:23:18] for john for josh harris for the different people that are struggling here there are very

[00:23:24] very good answers and the whole issue with job is the same

[00:23:30] question that was being asked by jesus in the new testament which is now that i’ve told you you’ve got to

[00:23:36] pick up your cross now that i’ve told you that i need to be first um are you going to abandon me and this

[00:23:43] plays out in the book of job too because his wife says specifically to job curse god and die

[00:23:50] that’s what she says his wife and job says you foolish woman shall we not

[00:23:56] accept pain or bad things from god as well as good and he’s very angry i mean read the book

[00:24:02] of job he’s very upset he’s very distraught he’s in incredible pain he says i wish i’d never been born

[00:24:08] but ultimately whether we like it or not this

[00:24:14] was necessary and paul the apostle paul says our light and momentary

[00:24:19] troubles are achieving for us a glory that far outweighs them all

[00:24:25] and you know it’s funny that paul would say are light momentary troubles because if anybody didn’t have light and momentary troubles it was the apostle

[00:24:31] paul he was like uh shipwrecked um he was beaten

[00:24:37] i believe it was three times with the the 39 lashes uh he was dragged out of a city stoned

[00:24:43] left for dead and got up and went back into the city and started preaching and so

[00:24:48] uh light and momentary troubles no that’s not light and momentary but the truth is is that um eternity

[00:24:56] in light of our lives in light of eternity are so small and so yes

[00:25:03] there is pain and that’s what jesus said in this world you’ll have trouble but take heart i have overcome the world

[00:25:09] and that’s what we have to focus on um but i we don’t focus on it with this blind

[00:25:14] adherence to faith it’s not like i’ve got to be like oh i’ve got to work myself up into having a faith in god

[00:25:21] when i achieve intellectual answers my faith in god naturally grows

[00:25:26] okay so it’s kind of like you know i can’t deny and and and john steingard

[00:25:34] uses this in his his instagram post he post he talks about this he says nobody debates the existence of the moon

[00:25:41] nobody debates the existence of uh lettuce he says which i thought was funny but you’re right

[00:25:48] they don’t but if more people knew the evidence for the truth of god then

[00:25:55] this would not be a debated issue and the fact of the matter is is that most people are not atheists they

[00:26:03] are agnostic because a belief in a creator is intuitive 98 of the

[00:26:09] world believes in some sort of god and so uh it’s interesting that you know he

[00:26:15] said uh we don’t debate the the uh belief we don’t debate the

[00:26:20] existence of the moon well you’re right because it’s very obvious and that’s another one of his questions

[00:26:26] which he asks in here which is a great question which is why doesn’t god make himself more obvious if he’s real and if he’s there

[00:26:33] he said you know i’m praying this prayer god will you show up just show up i had an atheist one time

[00:26:39] say to me that she used to be believing god but she was on this two-hour drive and she said god

[00:26:45] i want you to speak to me during this two-hour drive if you don’t i will conclude that you don’t exist uh

[00:26:52] and so um so she ended up becoming an atheist because on that two-hour drive

[00:26:58] as she said god never showed up and told her that he existed but this is putting the lord to the test

[00:27:07] right uh god i’m giving you an ultimatum so we can’t you can’t do that

[00:27:13] now i’m not saying we don’t want to practically know god exists but i am saying that the evidence for

[00:27:19] the existence of god is overwhelming it’s incredibly overwhelming we don’t have all the answers

[00:27:26] i do ask that same question sometimes hey god you know a lot of times us people down here we

[00:27:31] don’t seem too bright could you just make it a little more blatantly obvious that you

[00:27:36] are um you know doing something pop up here right and sometimes god does do that he does that in people’s lives

[00:27:43] i’ve had some pretty miraculous experiences in my own life but at the same time in romans chapter 1 it

[00:27:50] says that god has given us everything to know that god exists and i believe that i believe

[00:27:55] overwhelmingly and even the science today if you listen to some of the interviews that i’ve had with scientists

[00:28:01] on my radio show dr james tor talks about this the impossibility of

[00:28:08] evolution based on organic synthetic organic chemistry is

[00:28:14] overwhelming uh the possibility of a of a um of dna coming to existence by itself

[00:28:23] it’s not possible it’s literally a zero percent possibility uh it’s not going to happen and so the

[00:28:29] possibility of proteins forming by themselves that make up living cells not gonna happen uh and so

[00:28:35] the probability of the universe popping new existence by itself no not gonna happen it’s zero percent if

[00:28:42] we’re being honest if we’re being intellectually honest and scientifically honest it’s not gonna happen

[00:28:47] uh so um let’s go on to his next question here and this one’s the big one why does

[00:28:53] jesus have to die for our sins um if god can do anything can’t he

[00:28:59] forgive without someone dying that question right there to me

[00:29:05] is it’s it’s telling i don’t want to insult john and i that’s not my intention whatsoever

[00:29:12] but it tells me how deep he’s actually looked it doesn’t seem to me because that’s a

[00:29:18] very very shallow question if he’s really asking that question because the question the answer is very crystal clear

[00:29:25] in order for god to be a good god he must punish sin right i first learned this from you know

[00:29:31] ray comfort and it’s pretty black and white it’s pretty straightforward if you have a judge

[00:29:36] who has a a murderer in his court who killed somebody and the murderer

[00:29:43] says judge i know you’re a loving judge how about and and judge you have the power you can do this if you wish

[00:29:49] how about you let me go and i you know just let it go this time you’re

[00:29:55] a loving judge please forgive me um that judge ceases to be good if he lets that

[00:30:00] murderer walk out of his courtroom in order for god to be good and he can’t deny himself the bible says it’s his

[00:30:07] nature he must punish sin and so so there’s no way around that you he has

[00:30:14] to do that so it says right there why does jesus have to die for our sins jesus had to die for our sins so that

[00:30:21] god could continue to be good a judge that does not administer justice right the whole thing right now

[00:30:27] with with the outcry of what happened um uh to uh floyd in the in the news right

[00:30:35] now is a cry for justice a cry for justice and people are outraged over it why

[00:30:42] because that was wrong and what do they want they want justice and god is perfectly just

[00:30:50] the desire for justice is an is a inherent to human beings it is given to

[00:30:56] us by god and god is good because of his justice his anger and his

[00:31:04] outrage towards wickedness and evil people is entirely justified and if he didn’t

[00:31:10] have that he would not be a good god his goodness is demonstrated through his justice

[00:31:17] and at the same time his amazing loving compassion because he says mercy triumphs over justice is that he

[00:31:25] would then die for our sins become a man and die so that his justice

[00:31:30] could be satisfied but at the same time that he could save us and this is the miracle of god

[00:31:37] that he would do something like that for us and i pray for john steingard that he

[00:31:42] realizes how critical that is and he asked this question if god can do

[00:31:47] anything the bible actually says that god can’t do anything in fact it says he can’t lie right god also can’t die

[00:31:55] he can’t die he also can’t create a being that has existed for as long as he has

[00:32:00] there’s a variety of things god cannot do and one of those things the bible says he cannot deny himself he

[00:32:07] cannot forgive somebody without also at the same time

[00:32:13] applying justice and so the free gift of god is eternal life

[00:32:18] through jesus christ but it wasn’t free for god it wasn’t

[00:32:23] free for jesus christ um there’s a lot more that could be said about this

[00:32:29] i’ll probably make a follow-up video to talk a little bit more about it because he also then talks about a

[00:32:35] vacation he went on with his father-in-law where he finally made the decision that he was going to abandon his belief that

[00:32:41] the bible was god’s inspired word and it was a discussion he had with his his pastor-in-law

[00:32:47] his pat his pastor um father-in-law and uh his wife by the way it sounds

[00:32:52] like in his instagram post is also now not a christian also and no longer believes in god

[00:32:58] um but he says he’s open to it so uh that’s that’s good so um i also wanted to touch

[00:33:05] on utah legalizing polygamy uh this just happened recently and um it says right here

[00:33:12] utah decriminalizes polygamy with near unanimous support by legislators this is may 20th

[00:33:19] uh that this took place and it says right here many many believed it would just be a matter of time i was one of those people that

[00:33:26] believe it would just be a matter of time once same-sex marriage had been legalized it says right here uh

[00:33:31] same-sex marriage has been legalized across the nation in other alternative relational forms such as polyamory and unmarried

[00:33:37] cohabitation have become more normalized amidst this utah governor gary herbert decriminalized polygamy in his state

[00:33:44] by signing senate bill 102 into law on march 28th to very little fanfare and this is

[00:33:50] because this had already come up in their courts uh once before uh with um uh that that uh

[00:33:58] polygamy uh mormon polygamy tv show um i’m blanking on it wasn’t the there was

[00:34:03] two of them there was one called big love and then there was another one and they actually went to court because at the time utah was not

[00:34:10] allowing it they went to court and he was busted for polygamy but it ended up they kind of looked the

[00:34:18] other way and i know a lot of that’s already gone on in utah

[00:34:23] only three representatives voted against the bill and it passed unanimous unanimously in the utah senate to very

[00:34:29] little debate or discussion by lawmakers it seemed to be uncontroversial the bill does not make

[00:34:35] polygamy legal it cannot as article 3 of the utah constitution affirms polygamous or plural marriages are

[00:34:42] forever prohibited sp 102 goes right up to low line though it reduces polygamy among consenting

[00:34:47] adults from a crime previously a third degree felony to an infraction the legal punishment for an

[00:34:52] infraction in utah is the possibility of paying a fine no more than 750 and or performing

[00:34:58] community service legal analysts have equated sb 102’s punishment to that of a parking ticket

[00:35:04] now this is actually something that i bring up in my in my classes with my 12th grade seniors

[00:35:11] because you know muslims are polygamous mormons quote used to be polygamous

[00:35:18] but technically uh they’re still polygamous they’re still arranged polygamous marriages even the main warm and utah

[00:35:25] church but they’re for after they die so it’s pretty interesting but um

[00:35:32] here’s the issue with polygamy and i i want to bring it up in the in the old testament you do have polygamous right king david was a

[00:35:38] polygamist um jacob was a polygamist and of course solomon was a polygamist

[00:35:45] right he had 700 wives and 300 concubines he clearly had issues um so

[00:35:51] the the problem with polygamy is this um by the way in the new testament in

[00:35:58] the old testament it says that a king should not have many wives doesn’t say exactly how many but it says he should not have many wives

[00:36:04] uh and so polygamy king david had like 10 wives but in the new testament um the apostle

[00:36:11] paul when when giving rules for elders says that they the elder should be the husband of but

[00:36:17] one wife and so clearly this was an issue in the church people were having more than one wife um and he goes on to say uh each man

[00:36:24] should have his own wife right and each wife her own husband

[00:36:29] and it’s very specific it’s one to one um so uh i obviously you don’t go to hell

[00:36:37] for being a polygamist but this is not god’s ideal

[00:36:42] and when we go to the scriptures we’re constantly looking for the ideal because and this is hard for some people

[00:36:47] to understand we need to be very clear we are not saved by what we do or what we don’t do

[00:36:53] the apostle paul is very clear we are saved by grace through faith not by works that any man may boast and

[00:37:00] he also says very specifically that everything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial

[00:37:07] everything is permissible for me but i will not be mastered by anything and what he’s referring to here is the

[00:37:12] fact that what i do or don’t do once i know christ does not save me or send me to hell i am not

[00:37:20] saved by what i don’t do i am not saved by what i do do i i am saved only very specifically

[00:37:28] by what christ did on the cross i am saved by grace through faith and the natural byproduct is to

[00:37:35] love god with all my heart and to do my best to do what’s right jesus said all the law and the prophets

[00:37:41] can be summed up in this love your god with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself all uh over 600 different commandments

[00:37:47] specifically were meant to bless people right jesus christ said the law was not made for

[00:37:54] man was not made for the law but the law was made for man that it would be it would benefit him benefit people so

[00:38:01] when it comes to the issue of polygamy what’s the problem and the problem is this and we can see

[00:38:07] this through social science now we numerous studies social science

[00:38:12] studies have been done specifically on the impact of the two-parent family

[00:38:18] i’m going to read some stats to you that are pretty mind-blowing on single-parent family and then how it

[00:38:24] relates to the issue of polygamy if you’re not already figuring it out um despite despite widespread divorce and

[00:38:31] out of wedlock births single parent children are currently only 29 of the population now here are the stats

[00:38:38] on single parent homes and this is not a knock against single moms they’re doing the best they can they’re

[00:38:45] trying as hard as they can but that is a very very very difficult environment to raise a child in when

[00:38:50] you’re one parent alone trying to do that i i’ve talked to many parents who are struggling incredibly

[00:38:56] to try to make things work and keep their kids supervised and so forth and i pray for them all the time but

[00:39:03] here’s the facts kids are 200 as likely to be juvenile delinquents or teen moms if their father

[00:39:08] is not in their home number two 70 of long-term prison

[00:39:13] inmates grew up without fathers 70 percent 60 percent of rapists grew up

[00:39:19] in female only headed homes 75 percent of adolescents charged with

[00:39:24] murder grew up without fathers that’s three of every four person that’s ever been charged with murder

[00:39:30] grew up without a father number five fatherless children are 300 percent more likely to fail school

[00:39:36] requires psychiatric treatment and commit suicide as adults number six

[00:39:43] fatherless children are up to 40 times more likely to experience child abuse compared with children

[00:39:48] growing up in two parent families that’s 40 times more likely to experience child

[00:39:56] abuse these numbers are stunning and the sad fact that this is not talked

[00:40:03] about more often and not not more widely talked about in the media in pop

[00:40:09] culture is just so uh horrible to me the amount of kids

[00:40:17] that could be helped if we would just understand the significance of a two-parent family is incredible

[00:40:26] 70 of those describable as violent came from female-headed homes and why female-headed homes

[00:40:31] what they’re saying is is the father’s out of the picture as a deadbeat dad right

[00:40:37] number eight eighty percent of those motivated by displaced anger came from female headed home single-parent homes of the juvenile

[00:40:44] criminals were a threat to the public three-fourths came from broken homes number 10 even as far back as 1987 a

[00:40:51] study found that divorce regardless of the economic status of the disrupted family

[00:40:56] posed the strongest correlation with robbery rates in american cities larger than 100 100 000 in population

[00:41:03] there is nothing that correlates stronger with robbery than the amount of divorce

[00:41:10] in a town a city a state that’s the facts let’s keep going number

[00:41:18] 11 young men who grew up in homes without fathers are twice as likely to end up in jail as those who come from traditional

[00:41:24] two-parent families number 12 studies have shown that there is a strong correlation with the number

[00:41:30] of single-parent families in the crime rates in cities with a population over 100 000 regardless of socioeconomics or racial

[00:41:36] composition of the city number 13 a 1993 study showed that the rate of violent crime and burglary in a

[00:41:43] community is related to the number of single-parent households with children aged 12 to 20. number 14

[00:41:49] delinquency rates are 10 to 15 higher in broken homes than in intact ones

[00:42:01] i’m gonna go on to number 16 here among all possible contributing factors only divorce rates are consistently

[00:42:07] associated with suicide and with homicide rates okay so and the last one

[00:42:15] here’s the very last one a recent study of 25 000 incarcerated juveniles made by the bureau of justice statistics

[00:42:22] indicates that 72 of them came from broken homes 25 000 incarcerated juveniles since at

[00:42:29] the time 74 of the nation’s children lived with two parents and only 26 percent with one

[00:42:34] parent that meant that a child growing up in a single parent home is seven times as likely to be

[00:42:40] incarcerated that is 700 percent more likely now

[00:42:45] this issue pertains to a lot of what we’re talking about the whole race issue that’s happening

[00:42:51] right now and you’ll hear tons of people talk about this i had a former

[00:42:57] black panther on my show uh who who talked about this particular issue uh larry elder talks about this

[00:43:02] issue um all the conservative blacks are talking about this issue that the issues in the black community that are being

[00:43:08] uh that they’re dealing with uh are have far more to do with fathers fatherless homes than they

[00:43:15] do with race and even obama talked about this very specifically the the correlation

[00:43:22] with crime and all these problems uh to not having a father in the home so

[00:43:28] how does this relate to utah and polygamy well quite a while ago maybe 10 11 years ago

[00:43:34] i had a student come to me and he was asking for the opportunity to do extra credit and he said to me um what can i do i said well you can

[00:43:41] interview somebody from another religion well he ended up having a mormon friend who had just moved from utah and

[00:43:46] he said is it okay if i interviewed his friend and so he interviews a friend and during the interview the discussion

[00:43:52] of polygamy came up and it turns out this kid’s father uh was a polygamist and he had 11 wives

[00:43:59] the the kid’s father had 11 wives and had 33 kids and the kid in the video

[00:44:06] says i can count on one hand the amount of conversations meaningful conversations i’ve had with my dad

[00:44:12] and so what we see here is that he was disconnected from his father even

[00:44:18] though his father was not in a one-parent home he was in a you know 12-parent home but

[00:44:26] the fact of the matter was that he did not have a strong relationship with his father and so what the bible is advocating

[00:44:33] against is any relationship that disconnects the father from the child and this is

[00:44:40] also the same issue when it comes to the issue of homosexuality why is god opposed to same-sex marriage

[00:44:46] we i’m not going to get into it right now i have shows on this but the fact of the matter is is that what same-sex marriage does is

[00:44:52] it disconnects the child from one of their biological parents and so all of these are are nothing compared

[00:45:01] to the ideal which is not always possible but it’s always desired which is that a child has one mom

[00:45:09] and one dad who they can connect with on a regular basis and this is the problem with polygamy

[00:45:14] and if you get into it we know that there are numerous problems in polygamous relationships

[00:45:20] um we’ll probably do that for another show and you know what we’re really out of time now so uh

[00:45:25] thanks for being here if you were able to tune in i hope you enjoyed it i’m gonna be talking more about um how covet is

[00:45:32] is impacting education um we are seeing some very interesting developed developments there are kind of

[00:45:38] unforeseen consequences uh that are taking place and uh surprisingly there are actually a

[00:45:45] lot of good things that are potentially going to come out of this that changes in education that i think

[00:45:51] we’re going to find are a big blessing and a lot of kids are going to be moving in a direction that is going to be a

[00:45:57] huge blessing to them so anyway thank you so much for being here thanks for tuning in and we’ll be back with you

[00:46:04] again uh next week uh god bless you and i hope you have a great day

[00:46:12] bye

[00:46:30] you