Christian pastor and author Randall Mooney joins Pastor David Schultz to discuss the decline of the influence of religion in America. “If we diminish the gospel, we diminish God’s power,” Mooney says. “There is no compromise, we have to get into the Word. The Word is where the light is. The Word is where the power is.”

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Evangelical life ministries.

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Welcome to engaging truth. This is Dave Schultz, your host for this evening. I have a guest with me this evening that I've had with me many times before talking about simply the, the wonderful promises that God has in his word. And, um, Randall has done things that I have never done, and he's done some writing of some books and that's what we're interviewing in the past. And that's what we're gonna be interviewing him this evening. First of all, welcome Randall. Thank

You, pastor. Glad to be here again. Yeah.

You've been here before. We've been here together many times. Yes, sir. And I'm looking at the very book that, uh, you just recently published make America saved again. Um, I said, I'm gonna read that and I'm gonna interview him on that. Like I have on the other of books that you have written, and I found this different, but more fascinating in the sense that, um, you grab hold of the juggler vein quite a few times and bring people to their knees and say, it's time to make a decision about something in your life that you've put in the back background. So, first of all, I just wanna say welcome again to engaging truth. And, um, this make America saved again. What in the world motivated you to start pending this?

I was actually inspired to write this book when I was watching Franklin Graham in an interview on a news program. And he started talking about the need to be born again and to find salvation and to become saved. And, and I thought, you know, you sound exactly like your dad who had a great impact on the world, uh, that, that God used him in. But right now this world doesn't know what you're talking about. And when you start talking about being born again and saved and, and, and give your heart to Jesus, they really just get a blank stare at that point. They don't know what to do with it. So I wanted to write the gospel, not in a compromised way, but I wanted to write it in as clear a way as I could. So that at the end of it, of the book, someone could actually make a decision to say at that point,

What did you find? Interesting. Um, and just the thoughts that you had about what you should do that really motivated you to surge forward and start writing.

Well, when I started looking at the scriptures that you and I were familiar with and people that are churched were familiar with, I wanted to find scriptures that when you shared them with an unchurched person or a person from the culture that we're in right now, that you could actually do it in such a way that they would get it right. What did Jesus do? He, he told parables, he told stories. And so I wanted the scriptures to flow with the story. I wanted it all to tie together with what I had written and connecting the scriptures together with it. Because a lot of people in Christian writing throughout our lifetime, they'll always re refer to a Bible verse in it that you can go look up later or look up while you're reading. People don't look anything up anymore. So I wanted to eliminate the need for them to have to go look up verse. Now all of the verses are referenced in the back of the book, but the way I included the scriptures for salvation and what Christ did on the cross and that he rose from the dead. I, I did all of that within the story so that it would just read like a book the whole way through, and you would get the, the gospel story and you would get the cultural story, not only of him then, but how it connects to our culture today.

What has made it in your judgment that there's such a change from time of Billy Graham senior to Frank Graham now that has, has made the people kind of ambivalent towards spiritual things?

Well, I think they learn that from the church. And, and I hate to say that, but our churches have become so irrelevant in the culture war or in the mind of the world. It it's just, well, that's what my grandma believed and that's what my parents believe, but I, they just need to believe stuff like that. That's no different. When I got, uh, became a Christian in the early seventies, they said, oh, you just needed a crutch. You know, and my reaction then would be, well, at least I'm can stand up on this crutch and I'm no longer just laying in the mud of life and, and can't do what I can. So I, I wanna make sure that, that the world take, gives God another look that they give the gospel another look and that they don't become distracted by church. And I'm not speaking against the church.

I'm just saying that we've gotten so busy with our church business, that not all of it relates clearly to the people that we're trying to reach. And so if you want to, we try to speak to 'em in a different language. We use the internet, we use music. We, we use all kinds of stuff to speak to 'em in the language we help, they understand, but the guy gospel doesn't need all the frills. The gospel is the power of God under salvation. So if we are using the gospel as the power of God, under salvation lives are gonna change, people are gonna read it. I was handed to king James Bible when I was a kid. Uh, I didn't understand everything I read in there, but I kept reading. I kept trying to figure out what I could understand. And I spent my whole life reading the scriptures, trying to understand well in translating that message to the world around me, whether it's in business church, wherever I wanna make sure that I'm not just quoting scriptures at people that, that they don't grasp. I wanna speak the word of God to them and, and trust that the spirit of God and the word of God can do its job with, or without me.

One of the interesting things that has transpired over the past number of months, and we've all been very, very obviously curious about what the end is gonna look like was we've had a pandemic here, which has changed what the church does, and maybe in a sense, a good thing, because the church seems to be satisfied was just gathering the folks and doing some music and doing a little bit of communion and a short message, and then sending them out to pastor.

Yes, well, the church has had its schedule interrupted and we've had all of these things that we've learned to do. What we are saying is, well, Lord, we welcome you here today. We want you to move. You got 45 minutes and it has to be within this 45 minutes that you leave. We're gonna time you. Yeah, we're going, we're going to give you, we'll let you know when to start. When to stop. God is not concerned about our timeframe. He's not concerned about our schedule. He he's concerned about our soul. He's concerned about our heart. He wants to touch us where we need to be touched the most, and that's not in our schedules.

Well, maybe this pandemic then is really in many senses, a blessing because of the fact that it's, it's turned people, not in necessarily back to the church, but it's turned them to reading the word or listening to something that, um, they have known for a long time, but never have studied it. And they have the opportunity now to do just

That. I don't think people are using this time to reevaluate their religion. I think they're using this time to reevaluate or heart and where they stand with God. And then they're finding the opposition from other people. I mean, where sin of bounds, grace, much more bounds. We're seeing plenty of stuff in the news. We're seeing plenty of stuff on the internet that lets us know that sin is a bounding, but we've gotta remember that grace much more bounds. And that's, that's our message. Our message is not one of, oh no, we're being defeated. There's no hope, oh no, they're gonna win. Our message is a message of God's grace and God's love and concern for each. And every one of us, including our enemies, the church has to find its mission. Again, we have to decide what are we here for? What's our building for what was our building?

Always for our building was if necessary to get out of the reign and worship God together and pray for the sick and pray for people to come to Christ. I mean, we have, we had a whole mission with church buildings in, in earlier decades and centuries. Uh, and now we've, we've turned it into a mall. We've turned it into a store. We've turned it into something that we want people to help support and give to and stuff like that. What's it gonna happen when the government finally, to raise the restrictions off of churches? Are we just gonna go back to what we had a habit of doing, or are we gonna have used this time wisely and say, okay, we had to stop and we did this instead, now that we can, again, what do we do? Do we go back to the gospel or do we go back to procedures?

And the procedures are certainly the easiest to go back to cuz it doesn't demand any accountability or any responsibility, just show up. Mm-hmm at the very basis of our Christian faith in walkes the cross of Jesus Christ. I was reading an article the other day and I didn't know this, that during the second world war time in Hitler, in Germany, that they were oftentimes misusing the cross and reforming it into the point of AICA. Where does the cross really come into the Christian life in a way that that is so dynamic for us to consider,

How did the cross come into our life? Let's start with that. Uh, many of us, our first exposure to the cross is the story of Jesus, carrying it to the hill, to lose his life on that cross and the cross. Uh, we see it on church buildings. We see it on steeples and stuff like that. Now we see it on the back pan back seat of pants. Now we see people wearing clothes and all kinds of decorated crosses and all kinds of clothes with the crosses on their rear end and stuff like that. Well, that's fine. I understand jewelry. I understand out, but when it no longer means anything to our culture, we're not showing the culture, uh, what the cross means. We're showing 'em that it's a fashion statement. Yep. And they come into our buildings and they see another fashion statement, you know, just in the way we live and the way we act and stuff like that.

I'm not trying saying that we need to return to being a monk or something, you know, hiding out in a mountain somewhere, not being interacting with the culture. The, the reason that the, the, the Christians left Jerusalem was because of persecution. I heard somebody say the other day, yes, brother. And they took the gospel with them when they got, uh, right outta Jerusalem. I said, no, they were running for their lives. When they left Jerusalem, the gospel was in them. And whenever they got to the next town where they were comfortable and didn't feel like they had to run for their lives anymore, started doing what they were, which was Christians, whose lives had been changed by the gospel. We're, we're afraid we're hiding in fear. We won't, we're afraid we'll run into Antifa or somebody else out there. If we get out and spread the gospel.

The good thing that we're seeing right now in, in, in the news and in different places of the country, some of that we sin is abound and grace is a bounding. We're seeing brave souls going out there and doing things that we haven't seen done in a couple of decades. And it's really good to start seeing Christians venturing out again and saying, enough is enough. We're gonna go out there and we're gonna share the gospel. We're gonna go out and worship in the streets. We're gonna go out and preach. Jesus Christ really is. We're gonna make a difference and we're not gonna hide in our homes and in our church buildings any longer. I think that that is a great accomplishment for the spirit of God. And if it took shutting our buildings down to do that, I think that we have our marching orders. When these buildings come open again,

I have a friend that's, uh, passed, sir, uh, about a hundred miles from here, maybe a little bit further than that. Uh, in a very, a very sophisticated Texas town, uh, got a small college there. And, um, he said his attendance on the Sunday morning with even some of the students, there is less than what fills the building of a hundred, but he says during this pandemic time, uh, he said, we have been online sharing the gospel to 10 times the amount of people that attend this particular church. And I say, technology then becomes a blessing for us. Uh, even before we have to open the building again.

Right? I think that technology is a great blessing. I think that every tool that God gives us to use throughout history, uh, are incredible tools. I've read stories about when the locomotive train was invented. Christian preachers were out there saying it was from hell because it went 35 miles an hour. So, uh, every time the church does one or two things with, with, with invention, with technology, they either reject it or then embrace it and embrace it for getting everything else. They know at that point, everything is a tool for one purpose and that's to glorify God that's to bring people to Christ Jesus died so that we could come to him so that we could live. And that message is always the same. I've done everything that I knew how to do. I've I've had concerts and played guitar in the thing I've, I've written books, I've done whatever I thought I could do, uh, to preach the gospel.

My wife and I are in, in deep thought and prayer and concentration now on what's next? What do we do now? Because it's, it's not, I have no interest in going back and repeating and trying to do again, the things I've down up to this point, I'm looking at God, closing doors, opening doors, and saying, what's next for us? What do we do next? How can we make a difference next? And whatever that difference is, someone asked me the other day, when you think of outreach, what do you think? I said, I think of bringing people to Jesus. What other kind of outreach is there? We found a kinds of, we pass out goodies and we, we, we get jumping balloons and all kinds of stuff. We do all kinds of things to entertain people, to get 'em in our churches. But what are we doing to bring people to a saving grace, to bring people to point of convictions so that when someone looks at them and says, do you want Jesus? They know exactly what you mean. You don't have to explain it to 'em. They feel it in their soul and they make a decision right there. Yes. I want him or no, I don't.

So it's possible that when the buildings open back up again and the state or the world says, or the country says, well, you can go back now. Now there will be something altogether different inside those buildings and what's transpiring from them.

I think there'll be less people because what I'm hearing is a lot of people that have gone to church faithfully, and that are Christians. They've gotten real comfortable watching it on TV, watching it on their computers, uh, participating via media and stuff like that. And they're not really rushing back in, uh, to the new things that I shared with, uh, with pastor the other day at lunch, I said, you're gonna, they're building a new building. They started a new building and they had it all going through this COVID and everything else. Uh, and they're getting close to where they are gonna move into their building. And I told him, I said, don't expect to see everybody that we're right. Meeting in the school when, when you were forced to shut down. I said, because God's got a new team of people coming in for this, and they're not coming in to reinvent what you were doing before you got to this point.

And I think that's what we've got to wake up to as Christians. Uh, it's kinda like the people that say, well, you know, the king James version was good enough for Paul. It's good enough for me. You know, there's a lot of Christian people that think that what we've done has been good enough for them. Yeah, exactly. Well, it's not good enough for the culture that we're facing. Right. Right now. It's why are these kids in the streets? Why are these people having a cow right now? They, we know what their slogans say. We know what every, what they claim it's for. But the reality is, is they don't have a cause they don't have a purpose to live. They've gone to college. They've been affluent, they've done whatever they've had rich parents, but they've got nothing to live for. And the church is sitting back with about as empty of a message as they've got. We're not talking about burning the country down, but we're not talking about setting hearts on fire for Jesus either. So we've got to decide who we are, what we are, what did God expect from us? And let's get busy doing it. Let's go back to the source. Let's go back to the spirit. Let's go back to the word and let's find out what we're supposed to be

Doing. Take a pause. And we're just gonna talk a little bit about who we are and what we do. And we'll get back to the interesting discussion. Again, I'd like to share with you for just a moment about Elm, which is evangelical live ministries and the engaging truths, a program that we're now doing recording for podcast distribution. We're just a small group of Christ. Christ centered people who believe in the power of communication has been for many of us on the board or staff, a great eye opening experience to know that with the technology available today, program such as this can be disseminated electronically, worldwide, instantaneously, and that's not gonna end. That's why we're pausing for this moment to ask you to prayerfully that are assisting us to distribute our program interviews. I'll tell you how good or website which is M houston.org to donate online, or you can send support to E LM PO box 5, 6, 8, Cypress, Texas, also at our website, Elm Houston.

You can connect us podcast of past engaging truth programs or use the contact tab to ask us a question or even submit a prayer request and remember to pray for us, pray for our staff, because everything you donate and give goes right to the distribution of what we do here back to some more questions you've written this wonderful book, make America saved again. Wouldn't it be neat if what you have done here would not say neat, would wouldn't it be a blessing if what you have written here is in, in simplification of preparing people's hearts to hear the gospel. So, so they can receive what the holy spirit is delivering. That would be a blessing. And I'm sure you see that as well.

Well, I really want people to come to Christ and I've done all types of ministries. Uh, my entire Christian life that were designed to help bring people to Christ and bring 'em to a point where they can make a decision, what I've learned through writing and, and doing books like this. And the other books that I've done is that I don't have to go preach to 50 people somewhere and give an alter call and hope that somebody, uh, will come to Christ. What I can do is pray, God, this is your word. Uh, honor it with your spirit, open doors for it, let it touch hearts and lives. Let people come to Christ. I don't have to be there to count heads. I don't have to be there to take the credit for any of it. I don't, I don't have to decide that it's up to me in what I do and the result that I can get. And that's, that's. I think one thing that slows us down, we have all of these, uh, needs for results. And we just need to trust God with the results

There are in this time and place. Um, people that are consumed with last day events talk about it. They preach about it. They say, well, this is what this says. This is what the book revelation says about that. I see that as a distraction.

This is not a book about the last days. Even though I touch on some of the scriptures for the last days, this is a book about the days that we are living in right now. Today is the day of salvation. Today is when you have to make last days will mean nothing. If we don't know Christ, that's right. If we're not ready in our hearts for the Lord's appearance, if we're not ready to, to arrive, uh, and, and the grave first and see him. So what, whether he comes before I die or comes after I die, I've still got to be ready to, to, to see him and to be with him. So we need to prepare people with the gospel to come to Christ, to be ready in their hearts, to know the Lord and not just try to rely on scaring them to death with revelation or, or end time scriptures are, are sharing every prophecy that somebody's popped up on YouTube and put on there. Remember prophets got stoned to death if they were wrong. So it's a grave responsibility. When you say I'm a prophet and you start prop sign this kinda stuff, uh, it's really important what we do now, not what we do later.

I can't help, but believe that this book that you have written by God's grace and the working of the holy spirit is gonna touch the lives of a gazillion people. Not that legalistically, but a lot of people, what would be your desire as you think about what you have done, and God has given you the grace to do those people that lie had to hear your message.

I hope that they read God's message and they make a decision to turn their lives to God and to follow Christ. And to thank him, I had a guy ask me just on the way over here. He said, uh, God's done a lot of things for me. What do you think I need to do? I said, you, the wrong guy, you need to ask God what, what you need to do.

Paul said, and I love the word. The infallible imutable will of God, is that all men be saved. And this is the vehicle that you have done. It tells the scripture clearly for people who need to know Jesus, I wanna say, thank you again, Randall for being with me and just being willing to talk about the important thing. And that is bringing the souls of lost souls to the arms of the precious Jesus who took it upon him to die for all of us and rise again, to say I am the resurrection and the life. Amen. Thank you for being with us. Thank you this evening and come back again on engaging truths. Good night.

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