Judge Phil Ginn: The Bible is full of wisdom. It’s not just dos and don’ts; it’s God’s wisdom that’s there for us. And I said that, and I think it applies to you, that I wanted my mind to wrap around what my heart wanted to believe.
Alisa Childers: Yeah, that’s well put.
Judge Phil Ginn: And that’s what SES has done for several other people, and I think that’s probably true in your life as well.
Alisa Childers: Absolutely, and I’m not a science-minded person naturally. I just remember hearing so many things at the science lectures, because that was a huge topic in this class. The progressive Christians in this class were essentially saying: “We have to get on board with evolution, because that’s just where it’s going, and essentially. If the Bible doesn’t affirm evolution, then we have to change the way we see the Bible; we have to change what we think the Bible is.”
And I remember thinking: “Whoa”. And then hearing some of these amazing scientists and astrophysicists on the SES app talking about how the Bible confirms scientific conclusions, and then hearing our friend Frank Turek say science doesn’t say anything, scientists do. That was huge. I was just like, ” Oh, yes, that makes so much sense. ” And learning that philosophy is important, and a lot of scientists are very bad philosophers, and just learning how to navigate some of these questions was huge for me.
Judge Phil Ginn: It’s a tricky thing sometimes, as a Christian, to fully come to grips with what we believe. And we’re afraid sometimes, because we’re afraid that we’re going to, number one, be called out and asked to defend what we’re doing, so we shy away from being able to do that. We don’t want to do that, because if we can do it, somebody’s going to ask us to do it. But I also think that we as Christians are sometimes afraid that we will lose our faith if we really investigate it. And that’s bothersome to me now, as I look back, and particularly as my girls have grown, and now I’ve got grandchildren.
I want them to be able to put their arms around this, and not just because I said so or somebody else says so, but because they really embrace the truth. Now, one of the things that I’m very concerned about, going back to talking about your pastor and my church as well, is that George Barna’s latest statistic shows that 51% of our pastors have a biblical worldview, which means almost half don’t.
Alisa Childers: I’m surprised there are that many that do, to be honest.
Judge Phil Ginn: Well, the Lord always works with a remnant somehow. But the point I’m trying to make is, how in the world can the sheep of the pasture find their way if the shepherds are blind? And that’s what we’re up against. And another startling statistic from George Barna is that 6% of the people in the pews on any given Sunday morning have a biblical worldview. And one of the things we’re focusing on now at SES is that only 6% of our churches have discipleship programs. And that’s just, you know, the Great Commission. We get it backwards sometimes. We just think if we give them the gospel and walk away, we’ve done our job, but that’s theological malpractice.
Alisa Childers: Yeah, that’s a good phrase.
Judge Phil Ginn: Because we’re literally called to make disciples. We’re not called to just evangelize, and I certainly don’t want to stop people from proclaiming the gospel, but there’s more to it than that.
Alisa Childers: Making disciples begins with a gospel proclamation, but it’s something that continues. And I think the environment that I grew up in, and many of us in the evangelical subculture of the 90s and late 80s, there was this real emphasis, especially at a lot of the youth events I attended, on the altar call. I’m not against altar calls by any means, but it was almost like it was just to get people to sign their name on a card or say this magic prayer, and then there was just nothing that really happened after that. And that really is missing the point of the Great Commission, which is to make disciples.
Judge Phil Ginn: Yeah, I think there are two great lies from Satan. One was the initial thing that he said to Eve, and ultimately to Adam: ” Did God really say that? And so that’s why we’re so focused on the inerrancy and the infallibility of Scripture here at SES. We just will not stray from that, and that filters out to everything that we do, every position we take, everything in culture. You’ve got to go back to the source to find out what’s really true. But the other thing, and you just touched on it, that I think Satan tells us is: try harder. Growing up as a Baptist in the South, we would have revivals every spring and every fall. And ultimately, we’d have the altar call, and to get the preacher to shut up, people would go forward, thinking: “Well, maybe I’m that person, maybe if I go forward, he’ll hush.” And sometimes the only purpose you went forward for was to say, I want to try harder to be better.
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This article is based on a video transcript and does not necessarily reflect the official positions of SES. To watch the full video, click here: https://youtu.be/wLUpt4SoAHo?si=8TApGbIpniotPRx-
