The Natasha Crain Podcast

The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) is a popular and fast-growing new movement of Christians who emphasize signs and wonders and teach that God is giving new revelation through new apostles and prophets today. Some churches associated with those teachings have even become household names—you’ve probably heard of the widely influential Bethel Church, for example. But are NAR teachings consistent wi...

In today’s secular culture, there is a lot of popular-level wisdom that passes as self-evident truth we should all just accept--statements like live your truth; you are enough; authenticity is everything; God just wants you to be happy; you shouldn’t judge. These are claims about reality that sound good…but are they really good when we define good by the standard of God’s Word? In today’s show, I’...

If you have followed my content for any amount of time in the last year, you have heard me talk repeatedly about the jarring statistics related to the shrinking percent of Americans who have a biblical worldview. I’ve written and talked about a lot of different studies and numbers, but two of the most pertinent data points are these: 65% of Americans self identify as Christians, but research on pe...

There is a crisis of homelessness happening across the country, and many Christians wonder what can and should be done. This is an important question because not all attempts at helping the homeless are equally beneficial nor are they equally consistent with a biblical worldview. Bryan Crain, Chief Operating Officer of the Orange County Rescue Mission, joins me to discuss what helping the homeless...

Not only is mainstream media no longer trying to be objective, but they’re also openly advocating for specific viewpoints. And not only are they openly advocating for specific viewpoints, but they’re also strategically manipulating public thought. In this episode, I break down five implicit messages that mainstream media trumpets to push culture toward a uniformity of thought that's nearly al...

There are few things more controversial than whether Christians should be involved with politics, and if so, to what degree and how that involvement should happen. In this episode, I break down two basic premises for thinking well about this subject: 1. Christians have the right, politically speaking, to advocate for our views in the public square. 2. Christians have the calling, spiritually speak...

My guest today is the best-selling author and nationally known speaker Dr. Frank Turek. Frank has a fascinating new book out called Hollywood Heroes: How Your Favorite Movies Reveal God . Hollywood Heroes shows how our culture's favorite movie heroes are patterned after the ultimate hero—Jesus of Nazareth— and how the stories we see played out on the big screen parallel the real-world fight b...

Author, speaker, and podcaster Alisa Childers joins me to discuss a series of popular ideas found in progressive Christian writings, using the recent bestselling book If God is Love, Don't Be a Jerk by John Pavlovitz as a case study. We explain why each idea is in conflict with a biblical worldview for those who accept the inspiration and authority of the Bible as God's Word.  Mentioned...

This weekend, Saturday Night Live cast member Cecily Strong played a character called Goober the Clown who had an abortion when she was 23 and now talks to people about how normal abortion is in between clown jokes. Every single one of us should be asking how on earth we, as a culture, have arrived at such a moment. Here's my answer. Mentioned in the episode: Faithfully Different launch team...

There are plenty of high profile cancel culture examples that grab sustained public attention, but it’s the everyday cancel culture that picks off person after person without national attention that’s far more insidious...because the cumulative seriousness of what’s happening isn’t obvious to many people. In this episode, I discuss a recent example and walk through three things every Christian sho...

When parents start to see the importance of teaching their kids apologetics (how to make a case for and defend the truth of Christianity), they often start reading books but then feel stuck as to HOW to pass the knowledge on to their kids. At what age do you start? What if your kids aren't interested? What subjects should you cover? What subjects should you start with? What if you can't...

Have you noticed how any view that doesn't track with the mainstream secular consensus today is considered "extreme"? Even Facebook is now encouraging people to report when they've been exposed to so-called "extremist" content. While it used to be that extremists were those who committed ideological acts of violence, today extremism is increasingly being defined with...

There’s something that often goes unsaid in discussions about the importance of critical thinking: Not everyone we interact with will actually VALUE good logic and critical thinking. Many people think emotionally rather than critically and that has a lot of implications for Christians engaging with culture. It’s not enough to learn to think well...we have to learn how to think well AND how to deal...

If you spend any time around Christians, you’ll hear about the “hope we have in Jesus.” But  we’re often trying to offer people (including our kids) something they’re not even hungry for. In this episode, I share why kids need to more fully understand the true hopelessness of the world in order to hunger for the hope we have in Jesus. Resources mentioned in this episode: My book, Talking with Your...

In an opinion piece for The New York Times titled, “ Progressive Christians Arise! Hallelujah! ” Nicholas Kristof made the case this week that “with a churchgoing Democrat in the White House, faith becomes more complicated in America”…and that that’s a good thing. In this episode, I explain why that's NOT the case, and break down Kristof's article point by point. This is an audio version...

There are a lot of competing ideas in today's culture, and it's important that Christians understand how to think critically about the nature of these ideas from a worldview perspective. In this episode, I explain THE most important thing that separates a biblical worldview from a secular worldview and give several examples of how to respond to common secular sentiments accordingly (for...

The idea that Christians need to fix a growing reputation problem in our society is becoming increasingly common in conversations on social media and even in articles by well known Christian leaders. The assumption is that we’ve collectively gone wrong in recent months (or years), and now we’ve got to quickly do something about it…before the world thinks even worse of us. In this episode, I explai...

Most people would spot a problem immediately if a Christian influencer said they didn’t believe in the Trinity. But it’s just as important to be able to identify when less obvious warning signs are present. In this episode, I share 10 subtler things to watch for. [Episode based on my viral blog post, "10 Signs the Christian Authors You're Following are (Subtly) Teaching Unbiblical Ideas....

More parents than ever are considering alternatives to public school. In particular, many are weighing the relative benefits of Christian private school and homeschool. In this episode, I share about our family's six years of experience in Christian private school and what it's like to transition from a traditional school setting to homeschool (which we did this fall). If you're con...

Skeptics often claim that the miracles in the Bible defy common sense--that any reasonable person should see that such claims are unreasonable in nature. Christians must understand how to think critically about the nature of and evidence for miracles, but this is rarely something addressed in church. In this episode, I walk through a 10-point framework for both adults and kids to better understand...

Teaching kids about non-Christian worldviews is mission critical for giving them a deeper and richer understanding of their own faith. In this episode, I explain three key things kids should know about the nature of studying world religions before you even start discussing, and three “best practices” from my own experience for how to discuss the particulars of other religions.

America is in a moral, spiritual, and political decline.  How do you share what's going on so your kids are informed and understand what's happening from a biblical perspective, but in a way that won't overwhelm them? In this episode, I share key tips for talking about issues in each area--moral, spiritual, and political.