Ten Commandments In Public Schools

0:01 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Good afternoon, Well not by the time I'm done with this episode, So I should just say afternoon or questionable afternoon, bad afternoon, a regrettable afternoon. I don't know, but it is afternoon. It is Thursday, June the twentieth, twenty twenty four. It is currently two eight pm Central time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now I hate I really do. I Some people may think I find great delight and pleasure, but I really do hate knowing that, Hey, you're going to turn on the microphone, You're gonna go live. You're going to put forth all of that effort, all of that time, put forth all of that thinking and consideration and work, and what's going to be the end result is ninety percent of the people are going to disagree with you. Many of that ninety percent are going to be extremely angry. They're going to either send you very negative emails, post negative things on YouTube, whatever the case may be. Because most Christians are going to disagree with you. I don't necessarily like that.

1:25 Now. I like the fact that I'm not you know that I'm willing to go against the majority. I don't apologize for that. I am glad that I'm willing to do that. But it's not always pleasurable. It's not the thing like, you know, hey, I could go do something else with my day, right, I could. I could go do anything else. It's not like I'm making you know, money doing this, so you know, but why? Then the question may be why why do you want to turn on the microphone and go against what most Christians think? Well, it's something I've basically been doing my whole Christian life. I just tend to question the way the majority thinks. I tend to challenge that, and in my perspective, there should be there should be a large number of people who like that and support that and kind of welcome it, even if they don't always agree. For this reason, you need someone who will challenge the status quo, who will challenge the majority, who will at least question it, because then that challenges the way you think, and that should benefit everyone in some way, shape or form at least. Maybe that's maybe I'm being naive and maybe I'm thinking or trying to justify my constantly going against the majority. But going against the majority look has never never gone well for me. I got kicked off Christian radio because I was going against the majority. I think in

2:57 many cases, whatever success I found in ministry, I ultimately destroyed that success by continuing to question and challenge and change and refuse to just say, well, this is the way we believe, but constantly re studying things and being willing to change my perspective and questioning and hypotheses and testing it and thesis and not just learning theology, but doing theology. That puts you in a very awkward position. And this situation I'm about to talk about is going to put me once again in the minority. But I would pray that you hear well. Yeah, I pray, and I beg and I plead that you will hear me out and at least consider it, because I'm going to challenge something that I think most Christians would be like, yes, I support that.

3:46 That needs to happen everywhere in the United States of America. Your initial response is going to be yes, I support that, But I'm going to try to challenge it, not only from just a kind of a logical perspective. My main focus here is to challenge it from a philological perspective that I think our understanding here seems to deny what I think we claim to believe philologically. All right, so are you ready? So here's the thing I don't know exactly. See. Do I have a time at four O two a M four O two am Central timers, I like to refer to it as correct time, right Texas time four O two am. I get a notification on my iPad about a news story from the Associated Press. The headline reads, new law requires all Louisiana public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. A new law acquires all public schools and Louisiana to display the Ten Commandments. So I was like, oh, that's crazy. So I don't know. At some point, I think I've probably fell back asleep, woke back up.

5:14 I don't even know the chronological order of everything. But then I started just grabbing my podcast apps and just playing different news podcasts, and I heard it on a number of news podcasts talking about, hey, this new law requires Louisiana schools to publish the Ten Commandments and the classroom and I just started shaking my head going here we go again. Why is this such a desire? Why is this such a goal for many many within the Christian world. We need the Ten Commandments published in every public school classroom and America. This is the way we need to bring God back to the classroom. We will change, change everything. And it's so bizarre because it's like, so, if we publish the law, that's the Ten Commandments would be the law of God.

6:08 If we publish the law of God in the classroom, what are you hoping to accomplish? Typically what I hear, well, this will bring back morality, this will bring back a sense of wrong and right. And in many cases, when I hear Christians start talking, it seems to me that they don't even really understand the purpose of God's law. Now, we've done over one hundred hours of teaching on this podcast about the proper distinction between law and gospel, and I think that what many Christians say when they about getting the Ten Commandments published in a public school classroom is that they don't really understand God's law in the slightest And it really frustrates me. And so what people do will get Oh, you're some liberal, you're some you're a communist, You're you're a socialist, you're you're who knows what I'm a Satanist, knows what I'll be called because I'm I'm opposed to it. I don't want the Ten Commandments published or posted in a public school. I do not. I think it's a public school. It's not a religious school. A lot of the Christians who argue about that go go to their churches and go, where's the Tin Commandments? You want them published in a public school? Where are they at? They're not even in your sanctuary. Where are they They're not at your front door. They're not in the parking lot. You got a big American flag there, But I don't see the Ten Commandments. But you want them posted in a public school? Post them in your church. You

7:42 can go door to door. You can go door to door. Yes, I'm from the first Baptist church down the street and we're just handing out copies of the Ten Commandments. Here you go, have a great day. You could put a table in front of your church when cars are driving by going free ten Commandments. You could hand them out. You can handle. I'm out on the street corner. You can go anywhere why do you need the public school to do it for you? It's a public school, it's not a church. The church seems to sometimes want the school to do what the church is unwilling to do. Oh we need the Bible taught in the public school. Why because it's not being taught in your church. You're too busy playing fun, having fun food and games for the kids. So I'm opposed to it. And here I'm just gonna break this down into two easy to follow arguments. First, if you want the Ten Commandments published, and everyone knows where I'm going with this, if you want the Ten Commandments published in a public school, you're going to have to then allow other religious documents, other religious statements of faith, other religious things to be posted and published in the same public public classroom and public school classroom. And I don't many of you can go no, this is a Christian nation. No, no, no, Look man, if you're the rights you demand are the rights you have to give. If you want the right to publish your religious text,

9:16 your religious laws, your the laws of God, then if you want them published in the classroom, then what stops a Muslim from wanting something from Islam published or or everybody knows where I've got what do I have? Many of you know you've been listening to this podcast forever. I have here in my hand the Satanic Bible. So why wouldn't the I don't know, the Church of Satan say we want published the nine Satanic statements. You've got your ten commandments, Well, we've got nine Satanic statements. Satan represents indulgence instead of Abstinencetan represents vital existence instead of spiritual pipe dreams. Satan represents undefiled wisdom instead of hypocritical self deceit. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it instead of love waste it on in grades. I could go on and on, I could go through all the nine statements. Why can't they and be no, that's not right. And Christians are so it's so insane how Christians will act.

10:26 If we want a Nativity scene put in a governmental building, well then the Temple of Satan will come and say, well, we want to publish, we want we want to set up a display. No tear it down. How dare you do that? Well, wait a minute. If you want the right, you have to give the right. If you deny them the right. Then you have to deny yourself the right. Christians want some kind of special allowance. We get to do it. You don't. The Bible, not the Koran, the Bible, not the Satanic Bible, the Ten Commandments, nothing else. We want it all our way. We want a prayer in the public school, but it better be a Christian prayer. It better not be a prayer from a Muslim. What makes you so special that you get your religion in a public school public? Do you understand the word public? It's not private. You build your own private Christian school.

11:22 Call it the School of the Ten Commandments. Make it a requirement that you cannot graduate from our school unless you can recite the Ten Commandments perfectly. When they walk across stage, you're like, I'm sorry, we cannot hand you to your diploma until you recite the Ten Commandments. I'm sorry you missed. You missed commandment number three. Go sit down. Maybe next year you can graduate. Do that. I mean, come on, you can go. You can go to town. You can have a class on the Ten Commandments Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday open to the public at your church. You can announce it everywhere. We're going to do a class on the Ten Commandments every day of the week for the next thirteen years. They know you want the public school to do it. Why the church can't get the job done? You need to help with the public school. Again, If you want it in the public school, then that's a right you demand. That's the right you must then give. If you deny, if you deny others that right, you will ultimately deny yourself.

12:26 And then the public school turns into what some kind of religious war. Public school has enough trouble teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic, do we need to add something else? I mean, come on, we criticize the public school, it's so weird. The religious typically the Christians will well criticize the public school non stop, and then turn around what the public school will somehow be responsible for, I don't know, teaching the Bible, leading prayer and posting the Ten Commandments as incompetent as we say they are, Why would you want them anywhere near that? So? Are they incompetent? Are they not?

13:07 So? That's my frustration with the whole concept, is you get the Ten Commendments in the public school. Congratulations, Now, it's only gonna be five minutes. It's only gonna be five minutes for someone's gonna knock on the door. Yes, we're from the Church of Satan down the street, or hey, we're from the mosque down the street, or we're from this or we're from that where and we want this published. Well, no, no, you can't do that. Well you've got the Tank commandments. Well, you know, and then you try to make all kinds of rules. Well it's not really religious, it's just a set of laws. Okay. Well well then okay, then what other laws can you get? I mean, like, then you know it's a religious document. You know there's religious motivation behind it. You know that, especially if you are a Christian. It's the law of God given to Moses. We believe it comes directly from God.

14:05 So my first thing is just leads to logical inconsistency and it just turns into our religious war. And then Christians get mad when someone else wants to the same thing. Happened was that in the Iowa Capitol building where the Satanic Temple put up their display and someone tore it down because oh no, we can't have Satan right and right just varying. Almost next to it was a Christian display. I think of the Nativity. Well, if you can have one, you've got to have the other. It's so weird we if any rights of a Christian seems to be even possibly infringed upon, we scream persecution, persecution, But then we want to deny other people the same rights we demand. That's just logically just it. It's incoherent, is what it becomes.

14:56 It's just ridiculous. But here here's my issue with it. And I'll just read a little bit of the news story. I know, I kind of just jumped right to my commentary. Well, let me give you a little bit of my news story or a little bit of the news story. All right, So again from the Associated Press, I quote. Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom, the latest move from the GOP dominated legislator pushing a conservative agenda under a new governor. The legislation that Republican Governor Jeff Landry signed into law on Wednesday requires a poster size display of the Ten Commandments and large, easily readable font and all public classrooms from kindergarten to state funded universities. If you want to respect the rule of law, you've got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses. Well, I thought the original lawgiver was God.

16:00 Isn't it God's law given to Moses? Okay? But all right, who got the Okay? Well he does say who got the commandments from God? So he has to acknowledge then this is from God. So this is there's a religious aspect to this. They cannot deny it. All right. So the idea is, okay, we have that we have a lack of respect for the law and society, and if we post the Ten Commandments, this will produce respect for the law and all those who read the Ten Commandments. So now I'm going to transition from my kind of logical argument against this process to now a philological one. I think many Christian parents, many churches, many programs. I can't necessarily say a wanna itself, but programs like that really emphasize teaching the Ten Commandments to the kids. We've got to teach the Ten Commandments to the kids. They need to memorize them. They need to do that. And you know, God's top ten commandments this little song and they're supposed to teach kids in church. I've heard it from in all kinds of different churches. They'll have a little kids program because after the kids learned the Ten Commandments, they learned this song God's top ten Commandments. And then their kids come up in front of the sink in front of the congregation and they sing it, and everybody's like, oh, take some pictures.

17:26 Oh how cute the kids learn the ten Commandments. Now what's interesting is if you're if you're like more philologically inclined as everyone's taking, you know, pictures and sending them to Grandma and going ooh, how cute. What I like to do is ask the kids, if I get an opportunity, so tell me about the ten Commandments. What what did you take away from the ten Commandments? What do they mean? What did you learn about the ten Commandments? Well, basically a lot of times the kids will say, well, if I'm going to be a good boy or a good little girl, I have to keep the ten commandments. And if I don't keep the ten Commandments, then I'm bad and then God will be mad at me. Right, very a moralistic understanding of it's moralism like you teach the Ten Commandments, so you want them to be good little boys and girls. This is a way for behavioral modification. But they completely miss the actual philological understanding of the law.

18:21 And this happens in churches all over. The young people are brought up into a theistic moralism. It's not Christianity because what they should say is, well, the law tells us what God demands. And what we see when we look at the law is that we do not keep it. We cannot keep it, we fall short of it. Therefore, we need Jesus, who came and kept the commandments for us. And when I put my faith in him, his obedience to the law is accredited to my account. They can't articulate that. They just know, Oh, if I do bad, then I'm bad. I've got to do good. I gotta do good. I have to do good. If I want to be a good person, I've got to do good. Doing good doesn't make you a good person because you're a sinner by nature. You can never be good enough to be good in the eyes of God, because all of our good works is nothing but filthy rags before His holiness. Because our good is tested not by other little boys and girls, but by God, and he demands perfection, and your goodness is never perfect. Therefore you're always in violation of God's law. And if you don't understand that, Jesus came and taught what is known as the Sermon on the Mount to really help us understand the very nature of the law which demands perfection, not only externally but internally. And then if you still don't understand, he had a conversation with the rich young ruler who said, what must I do to have eternal life? And just said keep the commandments?

19:52 And he's like, I kept them. And Jesus like, oh, you did well, Then go sell everything you have and give it to the poor. And he could not do it because he does not keep the law, even though he thought he did. The law is there to reveal our inability to keep it. It is to condemn us, and it's to drive us to Christ. So if you post it in the classrooms, what do you hope to accomplish? Make everyone just moral? You just want moralism, Todd, You just want morality, I thought, Christians, we're not there to promote morality. We're there to promote the Gospel, which is God's laws perfect, We're not we need Christ or do you just want moralism? I think many Christians today just want moralism. They don't really care about the Gospel, they don't care about theology, they don't care about They just want people to be good. Hey, don't do this, don't do this. It's back to what you found, what fundamentalism turned into. In many cases, don't drink, don't dance, don't listen to rock and roll, don't smoke, you know, don't It just becomes a list of rules. Don't go to the movies, don't wear a short skirt, don't do this, don't don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. Don't go mixed bathing or you know, swimming with the opposite sex and a public swimming pool, because that's mixed bathing and that's wrong. Don't do this. Don't women, don't wear pants, just do don't do don't do rules, rules, rules, rules, law, law, law, law, law, law,

21:22 law, law, law. And it turns into keeping the law, keeping the law, keeping the law, and it's even taught that you can keep it. It's a complete misunderstanding of the law of God. But it also forgets and it also overlooks an element. I know this element is somewhat controversial. We've talked about it in depth and our study of the law of the Law and Gospel, we've talked about this, and I really want you to consider this. The con that the Law of God can incite or provoke sin, I will admit, is a complex and nuanced theological notion that has been debated and interpreted various ways throughout Christian history. Now I put forth this argument all the time, the Law of God. What happens is people just turn this into a sense of moralism, and I think this absolutely defeats Like, what are we hoping to accomplish by putting the law in the public classroom just to give sense moralism? That goes against our desire really to spread the Gospel and see people say, not simply to clean people's lives up and make them a little bit better, Because what good is that if we believe that without the Gospel there is an eternity of suffering awaiting, then we should be more concerned not with cleaning them up, but with them coming to the realization of their sin and putting their faith in Christ. But I have also stated

22:56 that the law of God actually provokes and incites sinfulness. Now, this concept is complex and nuanced, and it has been debated throughout Church history. That is a fact. Now. One of the key passages in the Bible that addresses this idea is found in the New Testament, specifically the Letters of the Apostle Paul. For example, in the Book of Romans, Paul discusses the role of the Law and relation to sin and Romans chapter seven, verses seven through twenty five, Paul reflects on the function of the Law of God in revealing sin and highlighting human disobedience. He acknowledges that the Law is holy, just, and good, but he also emphasizes that the law can incite sinful desires within individuals. Paul writes that the commandments of the Law can actual stir up sinful passions and lead to transgressions rather than preventing them. Now this is a theological or you want the ten Commandment's posted everywhere. You may think it's gonna prevent things. It may actually be from a philological standpoint, actually inciting and provoking the very behavior you're seeking to stop. We read some of this

24:29 in the Book of Romans, chapter seven. What shall we say, then, is the law sin certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would have known I would not have known convestciousness unless the law said you shall not cove it. But sin taking opportunity by the commandment produced in me. Now look, but listen, sin taking opportunity. I want you to hear that, sin taking opportunity by the commandment produced in me all manner of evil desire. Sin takes the opportunity by the commandment. And then look, it produces in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law, sin was dead. The law actually provokes it, It brings it out. It produces all manner of evil desire. That's something that never is discussed. And again, because I think the Church has such a poor understanding of the Law of God. It has been so convoluted and hijacked. And I think a lot of our so called gospels are nothing more than the law in disguise. I'm gonna continue around.

25:41 I want you to hear that again. But sin taking opportunity by the commandment produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law, sin was dead I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I die. When the law came sin and the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment deceive me by it killed me. Therefore, the law is holy and the commandment holy, it just and good. How then, uh has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not but sin, that it might appear sin was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin, through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal sold under sin. For what I'm doing I do not understand. For what I will to do that I do not practice, but what I hate that I do. If then I do that which that will if I do what I will not do, I agree with the law that is good. But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me that in my flesh nothing good dwells for to will present with me. But how to perform that is good?

27:02 I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil I will not to do that I practice. Now if I do what I will not do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Paul talks about how the law actually produces this, It provokes it, it incites it. Why because we have a sinful nature. Now, if you are a Pelagian or a semi Pelagian, Now if you're approaching the world from a Pelagian perspective where men do not have a sinful nature, men men are not in a sense guilty in Adam and that sinful nature, they did not inherit from Adam.

27:45 They truly are free. Well, then yeah, by all means, publish the Ten Commandments. Then I guess now you still go back to my logical issue. Then you got to let other religions publish their things. But the point is is in maybe the Ten Commandments could actually do something because everyone is just basically morally neutral, they're basically good. Okay, well, then the ten but that's not the way it works. The Ten Commandments are going to be seen by people who possess the sinful nature, and the Ten Commandments actually and sites provokes brings it out as one source says Paul's argument about it inciting sin producing sin. His argument revolves around the idea that human nature is inherently sinful, and the law serves to expose and amplify this sinful nature.

28:37 The presence of the law reveals the depth of human depravity and our inability to perfectly fulfill its requirements. Instead of leading to our righteousness, the law can actually bring about a heightened awareness of sin and a sense of moral failure. Right, the law does not produce righteousness. The law produces death. It produces it is shame, It produces condemnation, It produces fear, it produces embarrassment, it produces discouragement because it destroys you, it breaks you, it humiliates you, it shoves your face and the mud and go loser, failure. You can't do it. But well, I teach the little kids the Ten Commandments. Oh, they see the Ten Commandments. They have no clue what's going on other than they are taught like, oooh, okay, I'm supposed to be good. I'm supposed to be good. I'm supposed to be good. And they feel shame and embarrassment and discouragement. They don't know what to do, and many of them have never really truly experienced and tasted the sweetness and the beauty of the Gospel, which says you can't keep it, but Christ kept it for you. The tension between the law and sin is further explored and the broader context of palse theology of grace and salvation. Paul asserts that while the law may incite sin, it ultimately points to the need for redemption through faith in Jesus Christ. The law serves as a tutor, highlighting our need for a savior and pointing us towards the grace of God that is found in Christ. The law's purpose is to drive you to Christ.

30:10 The law is not to make you a good little boy and girl. The law is not to produce morality. It's to demonstrate the lack of morality that exists within us, and we need Christ. Our whole understanding of the law is so broken in American evangelicalism. In summary, the teaching that the law of God can incite sin is found in the writings of the apostle Paul, particularly in his Letters to the Romans or in his Letter to the Romans, Paul's reflections on the relationship between law and sin, underscore the profound impact of the law and revealing human sinfulness and demonstrating the need of divine grace and redemption.

30:52 It produces it, it leads to it. So you're like, well, we got to post the Ten Commandments everywhere? Okay, whenever? All right here? Christians says that what do you want to accomplish? Almost inevitably, it will make people good, it will make people understand right from wrong. And it's always like it's and I'm like, do you know how to understand what the law is actually supposed to do? Have you not ever been taught in your church the actual use of the law? You are you so just confused by that? Do you not know that everyone has a sinful nature and law law and then the sin inside of us will work together only to bring about sin and sighting, sin, rebellion, and death. Do you not understand how it works at all? Some people just want Christianity to be nothing than a system of morality. Christianity gives us a morality in which we cannot keep. No one can just go to the Christian Have you been reading the Christian host recently? How we've got past two very well known prominent pastors who are in some serious trouble. Why because of sin? Now that's just But I'm telling you they're sin in every church and every congregation, and every pulpit, behind every microphone, whoever is speaking, whoever, including me,

32:22 We are sinners. We are sinners. We sin sin, sin, sin, sin, sin is the norm. If you want to say, hey, it's it's two forty pm Central Time, do you know what Christians are doing right now? They are sinning. Hey it's now three forty pm. Do you know what Christians are doing? Yes, they are sinning. Hey it's eleven pm at night. Do you know what Christians are doing? Yes, they are sinning. Hey it's Sunday morning at ten am. Do you know what Christians are doing? They are sinning because we all fall short and thought word indeed, because God, God's law demands absolute perfection. If you break one point of the law, you're guilty of all of it. You are in a perpetual state of sinfulness. You are in a perpetual state of failure. You're in a perpetual state of rebellion. And the only thing you can do is say I can't do anything, and you're great turn to Christ.

33:19 He took care of the law for you. He kept it perfectly. When you put your faith in him, positionally, you're declared to be perfect and holy, even though practically you're nothing. You're not, you're nowhere close to it. The law is there to say, guys, did you see the Ten Commandments? We're all messed up. We're in trouble, ladies and gentlemen, we're in trouble. The Ten Commandments is the iceberg that sinks our ship. Okay, we maybe think we're floating along fine, but we see ten Commandments ahead. Bloom, it goes down. Jack and Rose. They both die. There's not room on the board for either one of them. Okay, I'm quoting from the Titanic. Every every one goes down. No one survives, everyone dies. The only hope is Christ, who keeps the law. He kept the law perfectly for you, perfectly. When you put your faith in him, his obedience is accredited to your account. It doesn't make you righteous, It declares you to be righteous. So before God, you keep the law perfectly, and practice you fall short constantly. My fear is we are logically inconsistent by demanding that the Ten Commanders have put it in

34:51 a public school, but we don't want anything else, and that goes against Christianity published in the public school, because I mean, it's so weird. It's like it's like so many times something else gets p in the school, like keep your politics out of the school, keep your agenda. We don't want your LGBTQ agenda. We don't this, we want these books banned, we want this band, we don't like this, we don't like that. But hey, we want the Ten Commandments and we want the Bible. Well, keep your agenda out of it. What you take away from others, you take away from yourself. And if you demand the right, you've got to give the right. So that and then secondly, it just seems to demonstrate to me that at least the Christians who get all up in arms and look, the politicians do it to win elections. I don't care what politicians do. I don't care at all. I can't stand the political process, hate it all. But the Christians who get caught up in this as some great agenda they think they're succeeding. It's like you're literally demonstrating a complete misunderstanding of the law of God, a complete philological incompetence. So do your kids know the Ten Commandments now before you want them to go to the public school and learn it? And you do realize you can publish them in your house, right, You can post them in your house. You do realize your church can post them, right. So I don't know why you want the public school to do it. But here's the question. Do your kids know the Ten Commandments? Stop what you're doing right now and go say hey, kids, do you know the Ten Commandments? I say, okay, tell me about the ten Commandments? What does it mean? What do these commandments

36:23 teach you? What do you understand about the commandments? What are they four? And report back to me what your kids say. Now, if one of your kids says, well, they show me that I cannot keep it and that I'm a sinner and my only hope is in Jesus Christ, who kept it for me, and by putting my faith in him, his righteousness is accredited in my account. If they cannot articulate that at all, then guess what You've taught the kids the law. You've not given them the Gospel. And you know why, because it's easier to give them a list of ten things to memorize than it is to try to explain what they actually mean. And sadly, your church is probably guilty of destroying any correct understanding of the Gospel by so promoting morality. I've seen entire vacation Bible schools dedicated to the Ten Commandments. Kids walk out absolutely philologically on a path to hell.

37:24 They're going to be like the rich Im real I've kept these since I was little. We can all keep the ten Commandments, well, then they'll trust in their own righteousness. And you know what's the going to be the shocking discovery that righteousness is not good enough to get into heaven. Ask your kids, hey, someone keeps the Ten Commandments, they follow all ten, they do almost perfect in keeping them. Do they get to heaven? They understand heaven in terms of law keeping and law keeping and being good. That's utterly that didn't. That's anathema. If we understand the Gospel to be a gospel of what Christ did for us, not what we do, you're literally denying the very gospel. But go talk to your kids now. Your kids may have it down. If you do, I would love to know that.

38:32 If they don't, just be honest with it. I'm not going to call into question your parenting skills because we've all we've all made that mistake when you parent, we tend to parent from a law based mentality, not a gospel based mentality. We want behavioral modification. We typically are more worried about their behavior than we are their theological understanding. I mean, come on, let's be honest. You're a parent. I understand it, but it's something we have to at least acknowledge. And how are the kids turning out in your church? Now, that's where you should get concerned, because if your church is turning out, basically, what's going to become little Pharisees and Sadducees who understand moralism but they don't understand actually the Gospel. That's horrifying and when then they'll grow up? Want the Ten Commandments published in the public school, which is a complete demonstration of a lack of understanding the law of God. You want prayer in the public school, how about you open up your church and pray. You can open up your church twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. You can be praying there all the time. You can invite people in the neighborhood to come by and pray. We're going to have prayer at the top of each hour. No one's stopping you from praying.

39:52 You want Bible in the public school, how about you put Bible back in the church. Stop all your foolish games and your youth programs where it's fun, food and activity and the kids are biblically illiterate. You want the Ten Commandments where I can't find them anywhere in your church. News. I f at yahoo dot com news. I f at yahoo dot com. That's news. I f at Yahoo dot com. And I can hear that sound. People are already you you heretic. You don't know what you're talking about. We're gonna put God back in America. We're gonna make America great again, okay, you know. And it's just gonna turn into political nonsense, is what it's going to turn into, which are a very much a big, a spoonful of Christian nationalism. It's probably what I'm about to get in my comments section and news feed or my email, not my newsfeed, my email.

40:55 All right, thank you for listening. I know now I've become your least favorite podcaster. But you know what, sooner or later it had to happen. And trust me, Trust me, it's not you, it's me. It's okay. I know the breakup will be hard, but it's not you. It's all me. I'll take the blame. I'll take the blame. We were never meant to be. All right, have a great day. God bless