Transcript

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 : and welcome to the Dr. Nurse Mama show prescribing Hope for Healthy Families here on American Family Radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Well hey there friends and welcome to my favorite time of day getting to spend time with you prescribing Hope for Healthy Families. And listen, we are living in a world where there are a lot of messages throughout thrown at us. We constantly see messages from political realms, from cultural realms, from social realms. I mean everywhere you go we are on information overload. We have access to more information than at any point during human history. And you know that is really amazing to me because I don't think that I'm that old, but I am old enough to remember reading the back of the cereal box at breakfast if you're bored because there was no phone to scroll through. There was certainly no cartoons because those were just on Saturday morning. But we have information coming at us from everywhere. One of the things I've been concerned about and following is the rise of something I'm calling, I don't even know if it has an official term, but I'm calling it influencer discipleship. Being con at being discipled by content creators and there are content creators and there are, there's content such as what is here for you on American Family Radio. That is so great, that is so encouraging. But, but I am concerned about how do we vet if this information is true. How do you know if someone that you is someone you're listening to is theologically sound? And are you walking in community with a church? Are you sitting under the teaching of a Bible believing Bible preaching pastor who has good sound theology? And are you in a life group? Are you walking along with other people in your life who are discipling you? And is this content supplementary? And sometimes as families I think we can be really intimidating and think, thinking, well, I don't know if I can talk to my, to my kids about this issue because I didn't go to seminary. And then I was just saying right before the show starts, sometimes you hear Someone who did go to seminary and they say something really out there and you think, well, I didn't go to seminary, but I don't know about that. It can be really intimidating. But in the same, at the same time, we're living in a moment where our kids are asking really big questions. Who am I? What is truth? Does faith still matter in our everyday life? And does faith in inform everything that I do? And so we're doing that in the face of information overload and very divergent messages about the Bible, about who Jesus was, who Jesus is, what the Bible says, God's word, and a culture that treats faith as, hey, that's you know, your private faith journey or it's based on emotion or what you think or your truth. And it is really difficult. Yes. Scripture tells us that what we believe is shapes how we live, how we parent, how we endure and run our race with perseverance. And so what if theology was something that was for every person? Well, that's what we're going to talk about today.

Malcolm Yarnell writes Word Theology for Every Person

And our guest today is Malcolm B. Yarnell III He is a respected biblical and systematic theologian, a pastor, a teacher who has spent decades helping believers understand who God is and why that matters for everyday life. And Dr. Yarnell serves as research professor of theology at ah, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is editor of the Southwestern Journal of Theology and also serves faithfully as a teaching pastor in the local church. And his newest book, which I have here in my hand, is Word Theology for Every Person. And it starts with a clear conviction that right theology is essential for right living. And this isn't something like, for the ivory towers of academic institutions. We're going to bring this down to the kitchen table, to the church pews, to those interactions we have with our parents and everyday discipleship. And Dr. Yarnell we're so grateful to have you here today. Thank you for joining us.

Malcolm B. Yarnell III: Thank you for having me and do please call me Malcolm. I really feel what you're talking about, about making sure that we speak to our families and lead our families, at the level of each person within the family that's so important. If I could share a short story. One time my, my niece who was four year old years old, called to me from one room and asked me and my wife heard her call me and she called me and she said, can you explain to me what it means, that I'm saved? And so I started talking to her and before I knew it, as a young theologian, I was throwing out words like Justification and sanctification. And I remember the look on my wife's face. She was like, malcolm, no, you have to. You have to tote it down. And so out of that conversation and many others through the years, I've learned that we have to meet people where they are. And, you know, not everybody is intended to attend, a seminary. We are all, however, intended, to hear the Word of God daily. And God himself speaks to us at our level through His Word.

Dr. Jessica Peck: I'm so grateful to have access to God's Word. I'm a little bit of a history nerd, Malcolm. And when I look back at history and we see, you know, the, the advent of the Gutenberg Press, that made the Bible just go around the world and put it in the hands of everyday people that we could read it ourselves. And such a gift that we have. And even now, today in so many other countries, the Bible is something, is even illegal. And I have spoken with, recipients of Operation Christmas Child who. One who described having a Bible hidden in the floorboard of her home and. And her family being so worried about somebody finding that and her. Her and brother finding it one day, her parents being worried for their safety. And I just think about this gift that we have in the Word of God. And sometimes I do think that as everyday people who aren't in professional ministry, we're not pastors, we're not ministers, we're not going to se. You just kind of feel like, oh, I can't really talk about that. But God's Word is for everyone. So before we dive into the specifics of that, I want to know about how God's word became real to you. How did you come to know the Lord, Malcolm? And, and how did he give you this? How did that become this ministry?

Malcolm B. Yarnell III: Yeah, so when I was, about seven years old, I was already learning to read. And I received a Bible through vacation Bible school. And I wanted to read that Bible. And as I was reading the Bible, and I remember this, clearly because my parents didn't want me to have the light on. And so I, I hid with a flashlight under my covers and was reading the Bible. And, I heard Jesus speak to me clearly through His Word as I was reading Scripture. I didn't understand everything that I was reading, but I knew that in my heart I heard the voice of God. I knew that God was real, that he loved me, and that, no matter how bad I felt about myself, he still loved me. And that stuck with me. And soon I confess my sin confessed. Confess My faith in Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and that's how my journey began.

Dr. Jessica Peck: And then that goes through. You know, I love the story you told about your niece. How, you know, we try to walk out our faith, and I see this so often, Malcolm, is that sometimes when somebody asks us about our faith, it's like we feel like all of a sudden we have this pop quiz. Like, oh, am I going to have the right answers? Am I going to say the right thing? Like, and you feel like it's an evaluation of your performance instead of thinking this is an opportunity to share hope with somebod somebody else. How do we, how do we make that transition and, and sharing the gospel in a way that is accessible and not focused on us, but focused on others.

Malcolm B. Yarnell III: I think we have to learn to just be real and speak out of our own hearts, out of our own experiences with God. And I think it's important especially to start with our own families. my wife, and I intentionally raised our children so that when we were not in church in, on an evening, we would gather as a family and just take a few minutes and calm everyone down and read the Bible together and then pray together and you know, address any issues that anybody wanted to talk about in the family. And those fan. We called them family Bible times. Those family Bible times became so important. All that we that mom and dad were taking and in their own lives. We were listening to God's word and even confessing when we were not in our hearts right with God's Word and then asking for God for. To God for forgiveness or even asking one another for forgiveness and being just real, not trying to play a game, not trying to be religious, but just to hear God's word together. And so our children to this day will often mention about those family and they're in their, you know, 20s and 30s now, but they will often mention about how that family Bible time of just opening the word of God together, praying, sometimes singing a hymn together, that, that just shaped their whole way of seeing God, of seeing the family, of seeing the world, of seeing one another. I'm a big believer in just opening and reading the word of God. We don't have to have all the answers and but what we do have to have is just a willingness to listen to God speak to us through the Bible.

Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, I've had some guests on recently who have been talking about the shift in our culture that we rely on secondary sources much more than reading the primary source. Going to our Bible and actually reading our Bible. We may have a good habit of reading a daily devotional, which I, I've talked about and addressed on this show, like how to fight, find one and vet it for theological soundness and how to use that in addition to your Bible reading. Or we may listen to a podcast, hopefully one like this, which is, which is encouraging. Or they may listen to an online sermon. But there is something that cannot be replaced by us going directly to God's Word. How would you encourage people to understand the importance of that, the importance of reading the text yourself?

Malcolm B. Yarnell III: You know, it is really important, so important that if we do not hear the Word of God, we cannot have access to salvation. So Romans 10, 9 and 10 and so many other texts, tell us that it is the Word of God coming near to us. So when we hear the Word of God, the Word of God comes and rests near our hearts and near our tongues, and it is ready to be believed within and confessed without. But the, the power in salvation depends on the Word of God. And the Word of God, is focused on the Gospel itself. And that Gospel, that good news is that Jesus Christ is Lord, that he is God who became a man to die on the cross for our sins and to rise from the dead so that whoever believes in him can have eternal life. And it is only through that message that one can be saved. And as one is saved by believing in the gospel, as you go on to live the Christian life, you have to be reminded of that basic truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And it is through Scripture itself that we receive this message. One of my favorite stories from Christian history. And you can find this in the first volume of Theology for Every Person. And it concerns, a young man named William Tyndale. In the days of William Tyndale in the early 16th century, so this is the 1500s in England, the Bible was not available in the English language. And God laid it on his heart to translate the Bible into the English language so that every plow boy and maid, he said, could know the Word of God. And I don't think a lot of people realize that his conviction, which he carried out, and he translated the NewSong Testament and much of the Old Testament before he was caught by the Roman authorities and, put to death because he was translating the Bible into the English language. He paid a price, but he did it willingly. And out of his sacrifice, the Bibles that we have today in such great numbers in the English language, the Bible, the English Bibles, that really shaped our entire culture, all of that is due in. In a profound way to one man deciding that he wanted to get the Bible into the hands and before the eyes and into the ears of every person. And that includes the children, Malcolm. The young children.

Dr. Jessica Peck: That's amazing. We're already at our first break. I cannot believe that I really. I literally have chills. When we come back, we're gonna talk about the fact that you've said, right theology is essential for right living. We're gonna talk about some of those different interpretive lenses. How do we interpret what we're hearing? other people's interpretations. We'll be right back.

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Any More by CAIN: You got a voice in your head The same old guilt and regret you heard a thousand times before. After the choices you made, you waiting for me to say I couldn't love you anymore? The enemy has lied to you. But listen to me. Here's the truth. I couldn't love you any more than I do right now. There's no way I wouldn't. Gotta get to you, my child. Take a look at the cross. then you'll know it for sure I couldn't love you. I couldn't love you anymore Anymore anymore than I do right now Anymore, anymore Welcome back, friends.

Dr. Jessica Peck: That is any more by Cain. And that is a rich spiritual truth that God loves you. God loves you so much. And we are talking about reading the Bible for yourself and theology for every person. I'm here with Dr. Malcolm B. Yarnell III and author of the book Theology for Every Person Word. And we're talking about that today. And we are, as we're talking about it, I am very aware of the fact that we are living In a culture that is very suspicious of truth claims, and there's all kinds of changing interpretations of truth. What is truth? Truth is changing. Truth is relative. Live your truth, Speak your truth, you know, feel your truth. And we are overwhelmed by competing voices. And, and we were talking, Malcolm, during the break about how there are a lot of people who speak about theology in a way that is not right. And we see them presenting it or twisting the gospel to fit it through their specific social lens, their political lens, their cultural lens. And we hear these messages, and they're given. They're delivered from a place of authority. They're delivered with an attitude of authority. But. But they're really, really. There's so many that I've heard recently that are very, very misguided. How do we be on guard against that and hold fast to the Word of God, the truth of God? How do we even begin to help our family navigate those competing cultural voices?

Malcolm B. Yarnell III: You know, I. I'm glad you asked that. I would argue that we need a couple of things that need to be before us at all times. Number one, you're right. We need to be in the Word of God. We need to be reading the Bible on our own, in the church, as a family, with other people. So constantly having the Bible and its message ringing through your heart, through your ears, and remembering, by the way, that the Bible has two major messages. One is the law of God, that which God requires of humanity. And the other is the good news of God, that God has a way of forgiveness and salvation. So we have to keep the law and the gospel before us when we're considering what we're reading in Scripture. But we don't just need to read Scripture alone. What I mean by that is you read the Bible with God. You must have the Holy Spirit who inspired the text in the first place, the Holy Spirit who preserved that text and made sure that Bible came to you. You have to have the Holy Spirit to open our eyes, illumine our hearts, to make sure that we understand what the Word of God is saying. And so we have to be in an attitude of prayer, of humility, of asking God in his Spirit to make sure that we're interpreting the Bible correctly. But that also means that there is the church, the church. Other Christians also have the Holy Spirit. And so we have to help one another to stay right. And this is a constant task. It's one that ought to. And let me say something that might sound a bit frightening, but it's nevertheless true. Jesus warned us that the evil one and false teachers and false Christs would try to lead astray, even the elect, if it were possible. And he calls us to be diligent. And that means staying in the word, staying in prayer, asking for God's spirit to guide us, and, helping one another to interpret the text. So I would say you have to have the Bible, you have to have the Holy Spirit, and you have to have the Church.

Dr. Jessica Peck: That is a great answer and really encouraging because those three things are all things that are very accessible for families today. It is something that's absolutely doable, and it is a little bit countercultural to some of the trends that we're seeing of, you know, people who are hurt by the church, who are disillusioned by the church, and think, you know, I still believe in Jesus, but I'm just going to have my faith be a personal thing is what we see a lot. But there really is no biblical model for that. And walking with the church and having these discussions and learning and under the, under the, the, teaching of the Holy Spirit, you know, that is so important. So I'm so glad that you said that. And really, what I see emerging, and this is just. This is just me from my seat where I am sitting as a pediatric nurse practitioner who's deeply invested in the influences on children today. And what I see, Malcolm, is almost like we are trying to. Everything in this world is marketed. It's like we're trying to market Christianity and there's different brands emerging, like, oh, well, I identify with this brand of Christianity because this is what I'm. This is the theology I'm going to accept, because that's, you know, how I'm going to see the world and make it feel more comfortable. And then, you know, you have other brands that are saying, nope, that's the wrong brand of Christianity. And I, you know, I may be totally off, and I am open to that, but that's kind of what I see children trying to navigate is this Christianity as a product that's being marketed to them, and they're trying to decide which brand to buy in. Do you. Do you see that? Am I losing my mind?

Malcolm B. Yarnell III: Oh, no, you're not losing your mind. You're absolutely right. And I've found with my children, and they are finding with their children that it is within the family in particular, that the children will be prepared to face the future. So our children learn to read the Bible as we read it with them, as we talk with them, as we interpret the Bible together, they learn to read The Bible as they hear the word of God, preached in church services or, talked about in Sunday, school classes, in Bible study groups. And so we have to make sure that we are constantly bringing the Bible and its message, and that includes proper interpretation, to our families. And that's just necessity. We will have to do that the rest of our lives. But it is a great joy. If I could give some practical.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Yeah.

Malcolm B. Yarnell III: Ideas how to do this.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Yeah.

Malcolm B. Yarnell III: So when you pray, find a prayer like the Lord's Prayer and teach your children to pray that prayer. Walk through some of the great teachings of the Bible, the great commission of Jesus Christ, the Great Commandments, the Ten Commandments. walk through some of the great stories of the Bible from creation all the way to the Gospel, the death and the resurrection of Christ to the very end. Read them Revelation 21 and 22, and let them know what happens in the end. And when you are reading scripture together in an intentional way, then you will find that their hearts and minds and your heart and mind are better prepared to face and to hear, what is truth out there? God himself is truth, and he gives us his spirit. And sometimes we'll hear a teaching out there. And we may not be able to know exactly why there's a problem there, but there's a check that is put in our spirit. And the reason that there's a check in the spirit, of our spirit is because the Holy Spirit is reminding us of a text we once read that kind of works against that. And you may not be able to know exactly then what the problem is. But if you give it some thought and discussion with other Christians, pretty soon you'll figure it out.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Those are great practical tips. And, you know, I think as a, as a mom, it's really important for families to open that door for discussion to welcome those theological questions. And sometimes that can be hard for parents because they think, I don't have all the answers. I don't want them asking me these really uncomfortable questions, like, about losing your salvation. I'll just put it out there and say it. You know, when kids come home and they start asking these things and you think, okay, can we go back to why is the sky blue? Like, that seems a little more accessible now. But, you know, one of my children, oh, my goodness, Malcolm, he. He had some really big questions, starting when he was going through about elementary school age. I've shared this before, but we just started having him write down all of the questions that he had in a notebook. And we were friends with a pastor and a seminary professor. So you know, don't get to be too good of friends with me because I'll do this too, but I will buy you lunch. We bought him lunch and took him out and said, hey, can you just start walking through these questions with him? And just we modeled like we don't know all the answers, we don't know everything. And I say this quote all the time that I heard when I was a teenager that if God was small enough to be understood, he wouldn't be big enough to be worshiped. And there's just some things that will be beyond our grasp. But what you focus on here, this book right here that I'm holding in my hands, is about Jesus as the Word. And you know, we hear that Word all the time. Where, where does that come in to this spiritual grounding, to this theological grounding, to this, this foundation that we can build that will not be shaken.

Malcolm B. Yarnell III: You know, that's such a great question. And let me just also say this before I get to that question. We Are all on a journey as human beings. No human being has every answer. And you know, I have been studying the Bible FOR over 55 years now. And you know, I have several master's degrees, a doctoral degree from a prestigious university. I read the Bible, I write about the Bible. I don't have all the answers. Nobody does. And if you meet somebody who says that they do have all the answers, you know, they warning, yeah. And so we're all on a journey. And that's why in these books I took the approach that theology, rightly understood, is a journey. So we start with the basic truths, then we grow further into that truth. We go down the road of life. And as we learn more about God, about ourselves and our relationship with God, we get deeper into theology. So it's a journey and we're not there. When we get to the divine throne, we'll be there. And even then we'll learn that there's so much more to learn about God. And he's beautiful and he's good and he's. And our lives are going to be so much better than they already are. So it is a journey. Now I wrote the first book, it was entitled God and it was really an attempt to just introduce people to the journey. Here's what the Bible is, here's a bit of truth about God. And so God was written in that way. Volume one, entitled God was written to just really introduce the basics. Volume two is Entitled Word. Word. And before I go on, volume three will be entitled Spirits Excited.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Perfect.

Malcolm B. Yarnell III: Yeah. And so. But Word is about who Christ is, who the eternal Son of God is, the one who became a human being that we celebrate at Christmas. His incarnation, about what he did when he was on this earth, about what he did on the cross, about the truth of his resurrection, about his ascension to the right hand of the Father, about his future second coming. And what does all of that mean? And how do we get our minds around the truth of the Word of God, understood as the eternal Word of God, Jesus Christ? And as we consider who he is, we discover we're never going, to totally understand all the truth about Him. For not only is he a man, and he truly is a human being, he is God. He is God who assumed or took our humanity, or as the Gospel of John says, he became flesh. And so we know God in the face of Jesus Christ and in knowing him, we can know our salvation.

Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, when I think about my, you know, my world and my own personal life, and I'm working in academic spheres, a lot of secular spheres, and if I talk about my faith in God, Malcolm, there's polite nodding, there's smiling, there's. Oh, isn't that nice? You know, that, that's, that's great. That's wonderful. The minute you start to talk about Jesus, it's like the eyebrow gets lifted, you know, and it's just kind of this little side eye like m. Okay, this is interesting. Where is this going to go? And it is so interesting because, you know, the Jesus is such a widely known person as far as, even from a historical context, you know, there's, there's an American culture, there's. Most people are going to be, have some level of familiarity. But when we really start talking about Jesus as the center of our faith and some of those things that you're talking about, there are some wild interpretations that go around. What do you think are some of the, the misconceptions, things that, that people get wrong? And in popular culture, you know, you,

Malcolm B. Yarnell III: if you did some study, you could find that there are a number of different Jesuses and Christs out there, all the way from, Jesus Christ, superstar, to the Christ who is worshiped along with many other gods in, in Hinduism. And so, you know, you've got to be careful to make sure that you know who Christ is according to the written word. And especially for instance, a couple of places in, this book Word, I actually, show where the true Christ was challenged by various false Christs, especially, chapter four and the final chapter of this book. I work through how both in the ancient church and in the modern church, there have been different, Christs that have been put forward that are not the true Christ. I think maybe one of the best ways to approach the question about how,

Dr. Jessica Peck: you know, who will I'm hold you right there. Actually, that's going to be a cliffhanger for our next segment. One of the best ways to approach this, you won't want to miss it. You'll want the answer and want to know how to defend your faith and how to speak about it. What to know about the Word. We are going to be right back with more talking about theology for every person. We've talked about God and Word with Malcolm B. Yarnell III We'll be right back with more. On the other side of this break,

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God Is Good (All The Time) by Austin French: Cause everything seems hard been caught up in the worry and anxiety keeps tearing me apart but I've been down and out before and every time I cry out to the Lord he meets me in my need I've seen and I believe God is good all the Time, Faithful as the sun to rise Walk with me every day of my life I'll sing it again I'll sing it again God is good yes, he is through it all I'm sure of this safe Inside my Father's hands I'll sing it again God is good all the time

Dr. Jessica Peck: welcome back, friends. That is God Is Good all the Time by Austin French. And you know, when I hear that song, I just feel like for all you old church souls out there, let me just do it for you, okay? We'll. I'll say God is good. And you'll say, you know what you're going to say? You're going to say all the time. And then I say all the time, and you say, God is good. It is so true. And that is such a powerful reminder in this world. As I was just listening to those lyrics about. Lately, I've been wrestling with everything because everything seems hard. It feels like we live in a world where everything just seems hard. It just seems like there is just constantly something to be worried about, something that makes us sad. And we get all of the world's bad news delivered to us at the speed of a smartphone, and it can just be overwhelming. So let, let me encourage you today. Walk away from the news feed. Walk away from the doom scroll. Just take a little break. If it's five minutes, 10 minutes, an hour, the evening, maybe it's forever. I don't know. I'm just gonna put it out there. But I am encouraging you to take that time that we have worrying about everything and put that into reading about the. Reading the word of God and about the Word. I'm talking today with Dr. Malcolm B. Yarnell III about his book Theology for Every Person. He wrote Volume one, which is entitled God Volume Two, which is out. I have it right here in my hands. It's entitled word And we. He has volume three. He told us that's coming, which is spirit.

One of the best ways to understand Jesus is to go to the biblical text

So, Malcolm, before the break, we were just about to break down who is the Word? How do we tell our family so that they know, that they know, that they know who Jesus was, who he is, who he always will be.

Malcolm B. Yarnell III: You know, that's such a great question. And I think one of the best ways to understand who Jesus is, was, and will be is to go to the biblical text. And as you're reading it, ask yourself, what is this saying to me about who Jesus is? What is this saying to me about what he does? What does. What do the various authors say? What does he himself say about himself? And what does he allow people, to, call him? And he accepts their truth? one. I think one of the most important things to recognize is you could find much of this. For instance, in the Gospel of John. It begins with this profound claim. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then in verse 14, it says, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And so we know that even by those verses, we know that Jesus Christ is God and with God, because his name is Word in that text. And so he is one with God. After all, he says in John 10:30, I and the Father are one.

Dr. Jessica Peck: One.

Malcolm B. Yarnell III: he. He told, others before Abraham was, I am. And that's a name. He's taking to himself the name of God, Yahweh in the Old Testament, and saying, I am the Lord God. And so we know he's God. We also know that he became a human being. And we know that he lived among us and caused miracles. And only God can cause a miracle. After all, he healed people. He raised people from the dead. And so we know these truths that he claims to be God. He acts as God. He seeks. He speaks God's words, and his words are all true. And through that, we come to learn that Jesus is God. And so we have to hold that truth. He's one person who is God. But another truth really challenges us, because not only is he God, we learn that he is human. He's a man. And that he is born of a virgin named Mary, and that he lives a righteous life, and that he. He dies even though he didn't know sin. He died for our sins. And we know that he arose from the dead. Now, his death, his birth, his resurrection are what happens to him as a human being. And so we have to hold on to two major truths as we think of who is Jesus Christ? He is God. He is man. And we can never let either one of those truths together. Now our minds get expanded, and we really don't even know how to understand that except to continually hold to that biblical set of truths. He is one person who is truly God and truly man. And all of Christian theology flows out from that. Now you ask the question, how can I know when there's a false Christ being taught? If somebody diminishes the unity of his person or diminishes his deity or diminishes his humanity, that's when you know that it's a false teaching. And so we know the true teaching by reading the Scripture. And we know the false teaching because it doesn't. It doesn't line up with the biblical text. And the biblical text, again, teaches us he is one person who is truly God and truly man. You know what I. That is going to hold it all together for us.

Dr. Jessica Peck: It's so true.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Influencer culture can be dangerous to young Christian faith

And what I see a lot is what I talked about a little bit earlier is this influencer culture. And, this is my term that I've used is, is something I'm calling vicarious credibility. It's if you're following somebody on social media and you see, oh, this person that I know, this person I like, this person I respect, oh, they follow this person too. So therefore, this person must be credible. Right? Because my friends follow them, but they don't realize, like, there's this domino effect happening. And I see kids, and I talk to kids all the time who will say, you know, that they watch some influencer online, somebody they don't know, somebody who is not accountable to a local church, is only accountable to followers. and. And there are some great influencers out there. I don't want to say that that is all bad. There are some people who are really doing some fantastic Bible teaching and making Bible teaching accessible in a way that we haven't had it before. So I want to make sure that I say that, but I am really just, I don't want to say surprised. I guess I'm dismayed by how quickly kids will adopt what they say. They'll say things like, well, you know, Jesus never said, or, oh, Jesus said. And then they say something that is not in the Bible. Or if they say, oh, Jesus didn't say this, it's like, yeah, actually he did. It's right there in the Bible. And so why is this is, dangerous? What do you see as the danger in this? When we're not verifying those things, we're not listening to the Holy Spirit, we not have those core theological truths. Maybe we don't know everything theologically, but we want to have that biblical worldview. Why is that so dangerous to especially growing faith for children?

Malcolm B. Yarnell III: You know, it's important that the parents and, the church be the greatest influencers in a young person's life. And so it's important that we involve ourselves in the lives of our children, including what they're doing online. As a matter of fact, we in our family made sure that we were much more present to our children than anyone else. And so I think that's important. I also think it's important to remind them to Always go back to the Bible and see what it actually says. So when Paul the apostle was. Went to a place named Berea and started preaching, that Jesus is Lord from the Old Testament text, the people in the synagogue were known as more noble than others because they actually went to the Bible that they had and compared what Paul was preaching with what they saw in the Bible. And then they discovered, well, that's exactly what is in the Bible is what Paul is preaching. And so Scripture says that they are more, they were more noble than the Christ, than the. Not the Christians, but the others at Thessalonica. And so the Bereans were noble because they had the practice of going to the Bible and comparing any teaching with what Scripture has to say. you know, Paul even said this in the book of Galatians. He said, listen, listen, if anybody, even an apostle comes to you and preaches any other gospel than that which you first received from us, let him be anathema. And that, that's strong language anathema, by the way. That means let there be a curse upon this person for teaching falsehood. And so the key is always to go back to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who is Lord. And this is the gospel. Let me say it again. Jesus is Lord. Jesus died for our sins. Jesus arose from the dead so that whoever believes in him can be right with God. If you believe these three things, then all of Christian theology flows out from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, on, this show for the last year, we had a series we called Worldview Wednesday. And we met with a pastor, named Dr. Josh Mulvihill, walked through his book A Biblical Worldview. And we talked about some of those core theological, tenets that what are the things that are non negotiable? Because there's a lot of things that, you know, you have great experts disagree on. I know my pastor even talked, this, this Sunday about disagreements between Billy Graham and another, you know, very prominent, pastor at the time. They had a disagreement about Calvinism and Armenianism and all of these things. Things. And, and so there are some things that are, that are being talked about, but there are some core theological truths that parents need to know. So if you're wondering what those are, I would encourage you to check out that series that we did called Biblical Worldview, Worldview Wednesday.

Malcolm Yarnell talks about delivering theological truths in a healthy relationship

But what I want to ask you about, Malcolm, is you've talked about this, you, you've demonstrated it, you've modeled it for us already on the show, talking about how you delivered these theological truths in the context of a healthy relationship. I've seen some very, some children of very prominent, spiritual leaders, pastors, theologians, seminary professors who have been leaders in the deconstruction movement and have been very critical of the, of some of these spiritual disciplines, saying that it was negative, that it impacted them poorly. You know, the legalistic view of having to read the Bible. And, you know, you could go on and on. I'm sure that, that many of our listeners have heard some of those people talking about how do we make sure that we are holding firm to the truth of Scripture in a way that does not alienate our children and make them feel like this is so rigid. It is rules based, it's not relationship based. I would love to get your perspective on that.

Malcolm B. Yarnell III: You know, that's really important. I know that when my children are almost, except for my last daughter, she's in college. but we have five children. And we noticed that there were other children of other Christian leaders who were actually turning against the faith. And you know, the first thing we did, by the way, was just pray. We prayed for the Lord, for their souls, and we still do. And we pray for our grandchildren. And so I think prayer, I also think honesty. I mentioned the Bible Times earlier. When my wife or I struggled with something, we showed a flash of anger that we shouldn't have. Or we, Karen or I, were, short with one another, we would actually apologize to one another and apologize to the children. Not a fake apology, but a heartfelt apology. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that and will you forgive me? And you know, when they saw that we knew we weren't perfect and that we needed God's grace as much as anybody, they were more willing to be honest about their need for God's grace. And so our children, I mean, you know, yes, we did say, listen, you can't hit your sister or you can't, you know, talk bad about your brother. So we did lay down laws. You can't do these things. But we also showed plenty of grace in the family. And I think it's important for us to be real human beings, real Christians, and not pretend that we have it all straight again. We are all on a journey. We're on a journey in our spiritual life. We're on a journey in theology. There are some truths that are non negotiable. There is the Trinity. We believe in God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We believe in Jesus Christ as truly God and truly man. We believe that he died and rose again. If you have these basics and all Christians around the world, doesn't matter what denomination will come back to those basics, then there are other things that, yes, there. And it's not that they're unimportant things. They are important. But if you get those basics right and you live it out of a genuine, authentic life. And by the way, I find that with children and, young people, they're very interested in authenticity. M. They. They know we're not perfect. They want to know, are we authentic and do we. We live out the faith. That's what they want to know.

Dr. Jessica Peck: They're going to be the first to call you out and call out that lack of authenticity. And, you know, I think what I see, Malcolm, is so often as Christian parents, we may want to use those spiritual rules because it gives us. When our kids do the right thing, it gives us an immediate feedback loop to say, oh, hey, well, then you're clearly doing a great. You're being a great parent. And we focus on the behaviors and not the heart. We've got to get to the heart of the issue. Well, listen, our time is over. I could have talked to you for another hour very easily. The author Malcolm B. Yarnell III Theology for every person word. And I know I just made my kids cringe when I said that, but I couldn't help saying it that way. The word became flesh and dwelt in among us. Listen, I pray wherever you are in your theology journey, the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you. And I'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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Jeff Chamblee: opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.