Dr. Frank Turek issued a challenge based on faith, but not to those who don’t believe. His challenge was to those who already do.
“We do not need to convince one leftist, one liberal, one socialist, one communist, one atheist to change their beliefs,” he said. “We just need to get the church to live their beliefs. We need the church to follow Jesus, who said be salt and light. Who said occupy until I come. Who said to protect the little ones. Who said to love your neighbor.”
Turek asked how to love your neighbor in politics.
“The way you love your neighbor in politics is you work to put in laws that protect innocent people from evil,” he said. “And that is what TP USA is all about. To conserve what we know is good, true and beautiful. If we could get the church to be the church, most of our political problems would be over.”
Turek said when that is proclaimed, there are at least two objections typically. One is spoken, while the second is quiet and behind the scenes.
The first objection is that the church doesn’t get involved in politics, it just preaches the gospel.
But if someone believes preaching the gospel is important, Turek said they had better believe politics is important because politics affects their ability to preach the gospel.
“If you don’t think so, go to some of the countries I’ve been to,” he said. “I’ve been to Iran. I’ve been to Saudi Arabia. I’ve been to China. You can’t preach and live the gospel in those countries. Why? Because politically they’ve ruled it out.”
While a lot of people don’t recognize it, Jesus was involved in politics. Jesus went up against the Pharisees most, who were the religious and political leaders of Israel.
“They were the politicians of Jesus’ day, and Jesus scolded them,” he said. “He said, ‘You’re neglecting the weightier matters of the law.’ And they were. In our country, we’re doing the same thing. We’re telling people what light bulbs they can and can’t use, but we won’t say don’t murder or castrate your children. We are neglecting the weightier matters of the law.”
The second objection is many people in the church actually don’t think Christianity is true.
“They’re not actually sure it’s true,” he said. “‘Why risk my kingdom for His kingdom when I don’t even know if His kingdom is real?'”
Turek, who travels the country talking about the evidence for Christianity on college campuses, said one piece of evidence that convinces him it is true is that the disciples were not making it up.
“Why were they not making it up,” he asked. “Because it’s too embarrassing.”
He said historians use a principle called the principle of embarrassment to determine if something is true. It means if something in the text is embarrassing to the author or authors, it’s probably true.
“Why? Because you’re not going to invent things that make you look bad,” he said. “You’re not going to invent things that embarrass you.”
He asked how many people have created a lie to make them look good. He then asked how many lied to make themselves look bad.
“No, you don’t do that,” he said. “You might lie to make yourself look good, but you won’t lie to embarrass yourself.”
The New Testament writers filled the New Testament with details and stories Turek said they never would have invented. Jesus told Peter to get behind Him, referring to Peter as Satan.
“Now, do you think Mark who recorded this at one point said to Peter, ‘Hey Pete, I’m going to make this a really interesting story. I’m going to have the Lord call you Satan.’ What do you think Peter would’ve said? ‘Have Him call you Satan! This doesn’t look good! It’s embarrassing.’ Or Peter says, ‘Lord, I’ll never deny you.’ What does he wind up doing? He winds up denying Him three times. And then at the crucifixion, all the disciples, maybe with the exception of one, they all run away. They’re cowards. This is like a Monty Python movie, they all run away. And who are the brave ones? Ladies? Yes, the women are the brave ones.
“Now, who wrote the New Testament documents down? Men. Now, what man is going to admit that he was hiding for fear of the Jews while the women went down and discovered the empty tomb? Would any man here invent that?”
If Turek were there, he said he would’ve written something good — like marching down there and overpowering the Roman guard. And after seeing Jesus, who congratulated them, went to comfort the trembling women.
“I wouldn’t ever say that I was Mr. Sissypants while the women went down and discovered the empty tomb,” he said. “But that’s exactly what he says.”
Besides, in that culture, one would never say the women were the first witnesses because a woman’s testimony wasn’t considered on par with that of a man.
“So if you’re making this up, you would never have the women be the first witnesses,” he said. “And certainly not a formerly demon-possessed woman. Gee, what a great witness, right?”
Yet all four gospels say women were the first witnesses.
He said people need to have more confidence in the Bible and when they do they’ll realize Jesus didn’t just die and rise but gave marching orders to love our neighbors, be salt and light, occupy until He comes, protect the little ones, etc.
“That’s why we’re here,” he said.
Turek referenced an email TP USA founder Charlie Kirk mentioned earlier. Kirk said he got an email from a donor who said they were not going to vote anymore because we don’t win when we vote.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you’re not commanded to win,” Turek said. “You’re commanded to be faithful. You’re commanded to do what’s right and leave the results to God. You just do what’s right and leave the results to God. That’s what we need to do.
“If the Scriptures are true, we can no longer be cowards. We don’t have to change the Left, we just need to activate the church We need to get busy. We need to get out there. We need to actually activate the church. If we activate the church, then everybody wins. By the ay, including people that don’t agree with us. Why?
Because we’re going to protect the innocent. We’re going to protect the rights of the young. We’re going to protect people that are in the most vulnerable places in our society.”
James warned us to say it is a sin when they know the right thing to do but doesn’t do it.
“The church cannot remain a bunch of cowards,” Turek said. “You know the disciples were cowards before Jesus rose from the dead? They were scared, scattered and skeptical. Yet as soon as they realized Jesus had risen from the dead, they became the most successful, peaceful, missionary force in the history of the world. They turned around the Roman Empire. We can turn around this great country if we activate the church. We’ve got to get involved. Even God can’t steer a parked car. We can no longer be cowards. We actually have to be Christians.”
