the Proclaim & Defend Podcast

The Jewish Curse “His blood be upon us and upon our children.” In the past week, the ousted President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, blamed his election loss on cheating and interference by Israel. At the same time, he had repeatedly called his opponents fascists . And no, it doesn’t make sense. It seems popular today to blame nearly everything bad in the world on Israel, and sometimes the Jews broad...

Today we are going to begin discussing the July/August edition of FrontLine, it is coming out in a few days, but I feel the need to keep the podcast going so we will get started a little ahead of publication. The early summer is challenging for the podcast as summer travel schedules get in the way of conducting interviews with our authors. I still have a couple of conversations to record from the...

Beware the lies of theological liberalism — or, as they like to call themselves today, progressive Christianity. While most theologically conservative pastors would prefer to focus on teaching the Word faithfully and avoid directly addressing political controversies from the pulpit, there are times when the discussion is unavoidable. This is one of those times. Andrew Daugherty, a pastor writing f...

Today I’m joined by my friend, pastor Mike Ascher, who serves as pastor of Good News Baptist Church in Chesapeake, Virginia. Mike is also an FBFI-endorsed police chaplain. His article appeared in the May/June edition of FrontLine and was called: “No Kings”? A Christian Perspective on Government “Rulers” This article appeared in the middle section of the magazine, the part we call the “Pastor’s Ins...

If you are truly Christians—both bride and groom—then you should plan a Christian wedding. And both bride and groom should be Christians, but that is another article. The idea that wedding magazines, Pinterest, and bridal websites set the standards and practices for Christian weddings is an abomination. Brides to be (and moms!), stop letting that stuff form your view of what a Christian wedding sh...

We are picking up again with an interview from the May/June edition of FrontLIne, which is on the theme, “The Future of Missions.” Our conversation today is with Keith Kobelia, one of the professors at Faith Baptist Bible College and Seminary in Ankeny, Iowa. His article is called “Is Missions Work ‘Kingdom Building’?” We’ll get into the details of that in the discussion. What Keith is doing is la...

“In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful” (2 Samuel 11:1–2). What was David thinking...

“Pastor, pastor—I just met my surgeon, and guess what? He is a CHRISTIAN!” I must bite my tongue in the moment, but I’m thinking to myself,“But is he a good surgeon?” I have heard similar comments about mechanics, real estate agents, dentists, financial managers, and more. Don’t get me wrong, there are advantages, in many instances, to consulting a professional who shares your values. But there is...

With this episode we begin a look at the May/June edition of FrontLIne, which is on the theme, “The Future of Missions.” We are getting a few interviews together but will be posting on two week intervals at the moment. Some of our writers are traveling and our conversations with them will be delayed. Our first interview is with veteran missionary, Glen Galbraith. He spent around twenty years in Br...

The idea is nothing new. The French mathematician and philosopher Rene DeCartes questioned everything because he surmised that insane people cannot distinguish between reality and fantasy—and maybe we are all insane. The only thing he knew for sure was that he had the ability to doubt. That meant his only certainty was that he alone existed. Everything else was uncertain. Pilate asked the famous q...

Growing up in church, I heard this parable preached often. There were good applications made from the text such as the fact that there will be accountability one day for what God has entrusted to us, and that God only expects us to work with what He has given us. All of these are applications made to Church Age Christians about faithful stewardship. But deeper study of the parable makes me wonder...

I had planned to publish this episode last week but we received the conversation between Mike Riley and Ryan Martin promoting the upcoming Conference on the Church for God’s Glory. We wanted to get that out to promote the conference. If you missed it, check back to last week and listen. If you are able to attend, please register now. This week we are publishing an interview with Kevin Bauder, on h...

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:30-31) This passage certainly con...

Our podcast today is another special edition. This time I invited Mike Riley and Ryan Martin to come on to promote the upcoming Conference on the Church for God’s Glory to be held in Rockford, Illinois, on Monday, May 18, 2026 from 10 AM to 7 PM. This year’s theme is Dispensationalism, Israel, and the Nations . The topic is relevant to today’s headlines. You will come away from this conference wit...

How Shall We Then Live? Francis Schaeffer addressed transformed thinking in his classic film series and book. He traced changing patterns of thought through time and the impact Christianity has had on Western culture. It’s clear that God expects His people to think differently than the unredeemed populace. Paul states it clearly in Romans 12:1-2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies o...

Our podcast today is another special presentation, which is to say it is not connected to a FrontLine article. Our guest is a regular contributor, Gordon Dickson. In recent weeks, Gordon has written several articles on a concept he calls the “G.R.A.C.E. framework.” The acronym first represented to him a way of expressing the gospel to the lost, especially emphasizing a missing note that I think ca...

I saw the following story engraved on a plaque on a wall at a Christian University I toured last week. It reminded me that treating believer’s baptism as an optional step for a new Christian is a grave mistake. This is the summary of the story. Visitors have come to the Arizona desert in the wintertime for decades seeking relief from the freezing temperatures of the Northeast and Midwest. Througho...

The accounts of Resurrection Sunday morning in scripture seem to indicate that the resurrection of Jesus bodily from the tomb was a surprise—to the women who went there, to the disciples, and to Jerusalem. Mary supposed Jesus was the gardener and asked him where they had taken Jesus’ body. It’s understandable that someone rising from the dead would be an event doubted by most people, but the evide...

Today we continue discussing our latest edition of FrontLine, the March/April issue focused on the topic, “Is Conservativism Enough?” This week, we are talking to Bud Steadman, who is now a “Missions Mentor” with Baptist World Mission, previously serving as the Executive Director of the Mission and before that spending many years in the pastorate. He is also currently Chairman of the FBFI Board an...

Pharisees were the religious megastars of Jesus’ day. They were generally viewed by the populace as deeply committed, genuinely spiritual, and on fire for the Law of Moses. To us, the word Pharisee is synonymous with hypocrite or religious legalist, but much of that is the result of what the gospels later said about them, not what people thought of them at the time. In our context, they would sell...

Today we introduce our latest edition of FrontLine, the March/April issue focused on the topic, “Is Conservativism Enough?” Last week, we posted an interview with one of the authors, David Saxon. This week, we are talking to the Associate Editor of this edition, Gordon Dickson. He also contributed an article called “Christ or Conservatism?” which will be part of our discussion. We are living in tr...

“Is God for us or for them?” God is not a Republican. He is certainly not a Democrat. He is also not American. He is not Canadian, Russian, Ukrainian, British, French, Egyptian, Iraqi or Iranian. Shockingly, He is also not Israeli. Jesus was Jewish (and from the tribe of Judah) by blood, but that is different than present political nationality. Our tendency in any conflict--be it a war or politica...

We begin this week to look at our latest edition of FrontLine, the March/April issue focused on the topic, “Is Conservativism Enough?” The topic we are addressing is Christian political philosophy. Should Christians be involved in politics, trying to effect political change, and if yes, how and how much should we be involved? Should churches be involved? I had intended to interview our Associate E...

I had some difficulty getting Co-pilot to generate a theme image for this post. It seems that Microsoft considers an image depicting child-sacrifice objectionable. Shocking. One of the intellectual dilemmas about the Genesis 22 story is the issue of human sacrifice and the command of God. On one hand, God commands Abraham to make a child sacrifice, which clearly seems immoral. Yet Abraham is comme...

This, Judge Phil Ginn wrote for Realclearreligion.com on the subject of Christians and culture. He was addressing an upcoming (March 8, 2026) feature on CNN entitled The Rise of Christian Nationalism. In the article, he includes CNN’s definition of Christian Nationalism as follows: CNN is ostensibly defining Christian Nationalism as “an ideology rooted in the belief that our country was founded as...