the Proclaim & Defend Podcast

Should Mariann Budde have the only voice? Religious leaders have been clamoring to influence the newly sworn-in President of the United States. Mariann Budde, Bishop of the National Cathedral, in a public address at Trump’s inaugural prayer service , spoke directly to him asking him to have mercy on illegal immigrants, and transgender children. Catholic Archbishop Timothy Broglio publicly called s...

We are still discussing the November/December edition of FrontLine, The Thinking Christian: Biblical Wisdom in an Emotionally Driven World . Our guest this time is Steve Love, a long-time pastor who now teaches at Maranatha Baptist University. His article was called "How Wisdom Should Produce Discernment," focused on lessons from the Book of Proverbs. I enjoyed speaking with Steve and hope you fin...

As I write, we are a week into the LA wildfires and the official containment level is still under 20% in most of the breakouts. The political/media class has exploded with finger-pointing and pontificating while the fires still roar. Surely, short-sighted political decisions have had disastrous consequences. LA saved $17 million in the fire budget last summer, but the reduced revenue from property...

We are working on interviews with the authors for our November/December edition of FrontLine magazine. We still have a few outstanding conversations to go through before we get to the soon to be published next issue. Today's guest is Benjamin Flegal who teaches at Maranatha Baptist University. I'll let him introduce himself to you, but I'll mention here that his article is called: Biblical Decisio...

DEI in the Local Church? The discussion about Equity and Inclusion has been a roller coaster ride for the last eight years. The conversation usually centers on work, education, and government, and this election has revealed a huge nationwide backlash against the concept. But what about the concepts of equity and inclusion in the local church? Is there anything biblical or unbiblical about what mig...

We are back from our holiday break with new podcasts based on the articles in our magazine, FrontLine. We left off with an interview with the associate editor for the November/December edition of the magazine, Dr. David Anderson. We did that interview just before Christmas. You can check our feed to catch up on that one if you missed it. Today we have an interview with a husband and wife team who...

The recent shooting at Abundant Life Christian School brings, again, the subject of school violence to the minds of Christian School parents. In the years since the pandemic, school shootings have skyrocketed across the country. In 2000, there were 31 school shooting events nationwide—which was a fairly average year for the time period. In 2020, there were 116– In 2021, 257—in 2022, 308—in 2023, 3...

This is our pre-Christmas edition of the podcast. We will take a break for a couple of weeks because most of us have family business to take care of just now. We will be back in January with more interviews from the November/December edition of FrontLine. Today we have the Associate Editor for that edition, Dr. David Anderson, the president of Maranatha Baptist University. He joins us to discuss t...

Santa Claus is everywhere around Christmas. But did you know that there was a real Saint Nicholas? He was the pastor of a local church that was likely founded by the Apostle Paul on one of his early missionary journeys. Most of the information we have about Nicholas of Myra comes from a history of his life written 500 years after his death. However, this history claims to be based upon much earlie...

This week we have a unique opportunity for our interview. I'm talking to authors from the November/December 2024 edition of FrontLine. Mostly we are discussing the theme of The Thinking Christian, but this time I am focusing on a regular feature of the magazine, our Chaplain's Report. Our chaplain for this edition is Troy Shoaf who serves with several law enforcement agencies, and you will guess w...

Jordan Petersen is doing a series on the Gospels on the Daily Wire. The discussion panel consists of Jordan Peterson (a Canadian psychologist and social philosopher who admittedly is not a born-again believer), Dennis Prager (a religious Jew, founder of Prager U), Robert Barron (Roman Catholic bishop, philosopher, and evangelist for the Catholic Church), Johnathan Pageau (Christian thinker and lit...

Our episode this time turns to the November/December edition of FrontLine, which came out on this theme: The Thinking Christian. Our first interview is with a man who is a long-time friend of mine, David Potter. Our first meeting was almost thirty years ago in Alameda, California. He served with the same mission board as I did, Baptist World Mission, and we've kept in touch over the years. He has...

Many people will be giving thanks this week—and probably a number who refuse to do so depending on their view of the recent elections.  Believers always have reason to give thanks regardless of how the circumstances of life turn.  It is such a renewing and invigorating exercise when we take the time to meditate on our Lord and give thanks to Him.  This is what Psalm 118 is intended to do for Israe...

In today's session we are talking to Mark Swedberg, veteran missionary in Brazil. He wrote an article for our September/October FrontLine called "Revelation: When Does God's Wrath Begin?" What he is addressing is the challenge to the pretribulation rapture brought on by those who teach a "pre-wrath rapture" position. The article fits in to the FrontLine theme, "the Rapture," and it addresses a que...

It was news nationwide, The elders at Trinity Bible Church of Dallas announced this week that lead preacher Steven J. Lawson had been removed from all ministry responsibilities after he confessed to having an "inappropriate relationship" with a woman.   This one was a shocker, and a deep disappointment to many in conservative evangelicalism and fundamentalism.  Lawson is the founder and President...

All the hype is over, all the counting is done—except for Arizona which will probably still be counting when the next election rolls around. How should we feel about what happened in the 2024 election? Most importantly we must remember that our hope is not in political candidates or in secular leaders. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lo...

I'm talking to some of our men who wrote articles for the September/October 2024 FrontLine magazine. The subject of the magazine was, "The Rapture." Some of our interviews are with authors dealing directly with the theme of the magazine, but for this interview, I want to do something a little different. In each issue of FrontLine we have a section called "the Pastor's Insert." It includes articles...

If you have not mailed in your ballot already, go to the polls on Tuesday and cast your ballot. Do not let anything stop you. Wait in lines if necessary. Battle the weather, traffic, or whatever is necessary to get your ballot in. If true Christians would vote for their biblical values, we would live in a very different country today. Some Christians have biblical values but do not vote. Some Chri...

I'm talking to some of our men who wrote articles for the September/October 2024 FrontLine magazine. The subject of the magazine was, "The Rapture." You'll want to get a copy and dig in to what our authors say. Today's guest is Michael Riley, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Wakefield, Michigan. Mike is a frequent contributor to FrontLine and consequently a frequent guest on the podcast. His ar...

Stop trying to negotiate with God!  Just stop it. People going through trials often respond to those trials by trying to negotiate with the Divine One.  This type of negotiation often arises from a lifestyle that is characterized by sin and disobedience to God. Let me first say that this discussion is about Christian living, it is not about how to become a Christian.  Becoming a Christian is by fa...

The September/October 2024 FrontLine is on the topic, “The Rapture.” The topic is one Christians always are interested in, no matter what position on end-time events they hold. On the podcast, I am joined by a young pastor from Albion, NY, Brandon Carmichael. I'll let him introduce himself to you shortly. His article is called “The Believer's Hope,” focusing on the Rapture teaching especially in 1...

A recent article by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian Univeristy is shocking. Barna’s latest research shows that only 51% of all faith voters are likely to vote in November. That means a full 104 million faith voters are unlikely to vote this election—including 41 million born-again Christians (defined by their beliefs regarding sin and salvation, not self-identification), 32 milli...

We are talking about the July/August FrontLine on the theme, "God, the Christian, and Human Government." For this interview I am speaking with Chaplain Gary Fisher. We've known each other for several years through the FBFI and we had a very interesting conversation about a Christian philosophy of what is called "just war." Gary's article was called, "War and the Just War: A Christian Perspective."...

Elon Musk calls himself a cultural Christian , so does famous atheist Richard Dawkins . This term—cultural Christian—means different things depending on who is using the term. For many years, those in evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity called cultural Christians those that were tied to the historic and more conservative standards associated with Christian behavior and choices—in particula...

We are talking about the July/August FrontLine on the theme, "God, the Christian, and Human Government." For this interview I am speaking with Brian Collins who works for BJU Press. He'll tell you a little bit about what he does when we start. Brian's article is called "A Christian Approach to Political Change." We are in the middle of election season, so this topic is very appropriate. In our kin...