Waging the Battle of Hope: Guidance from Tolkien, Raising Resilient Children, & Overcoming Narratives of Decline

His passport shall be made and grounds for convoy put into his purse . We would not die in that man's company that fears his fellowship to die with us . This day is called the feast of christian . He that outlives this day and comes safe home will stand at tiptoe when this day is named and arouse him at the name of christian .

He that shall see this day and live old age will yearly , on the vigil , feast his neighbors and say for morrow is saint chrispins . They will , he strip his sleeve and show his scars and say these wounds I had on chrispins day . Old men forget , get . All shall be forgot , but he'll remember with advantages what feats he did that day .

Mention our names , familiar in their mouths as household words harry the king , bedford , an exeter , warwick and tall but souls brian gloster , be in their flowing cups . Freshly remembered . This story shall the good man teach his son and chrispin .

Chrispion shall now go by from this day to the ending of the world , but we in it shall be remembered , we few , we happy few . We band of brothers , for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother , be he near so vile . This day shall gentle his condition . And gentlemen in england , now our bed , shall think themselves a curse .

They were not here and hold their manhoods cheap while any speaks .

There seem to be battles raging on every front economic , sexual , societal , cultural , in art , marriage , media , business , politics and law . Battles for what is true and good and beautiful , battles for the very soul of humanity .

This seeing , this seeing of the true scope of the task before us and our children , will prove to be one of the greatest tests of your leadership , your masculine duty of your fatherhood . Will you look at the black dangers and fell foes before your family and despair ?

Denithore slowly slipping into bleak madness , locked in his high tower , mind captive to the enemy ? Will you blackpill your children , teaching them that they're doomed , that they have no hope , that theirs is a future of defeat , heading into greater defeat and ultimate downfall ? Or will you give your children hope ?

Will you teach them strength in the face of strong foes ? Will you hearten them , brace them , build them up and send them out , sons and daughters of your strength ? Will you put a sword in their hand or will you put ice in their hearts .

Join us in this episode of the king's hall podcast , as we aim to make self-ruled men who rule well , who know that to win the world means putting strong hope in their children's hearts well , gentlemen , welcome to this episode and our listeners , the king's hall podcast , joined today by the viking himself , dan burkholder , on my left yeah , that's right .

Um , one of the things that we in the last episode we talked about fertility and one of the marks of gondor was that they had these high halls and these high towers and they had no children . Yeah , so one of the marks of hopelessness is going to be not having kids .

as our kind of resident expert .

Was that people just they just embrace that things were always going to get worse and worse ?

As long as they stayed , true , and it's the blood of newman or ran , true , and they were , you know , brave men of the west , they stood their ground .

But what happens is that the enemy , he doesn't first invade their walls , he first invades their hearts and he does it through their head , he does it through the steward of gondor denithor , through the plant here as he looks into this , uh , plant here , which is an art higher than him and so dangerous for him to wield , is how tolkin looks at and it for

people who don't like .

And you see , then , I think , two pictures against that , and I'll tie this to our cold open here .

I think it's important , for our listeners maybe didn't catch what was happening , but you see , against that , the speeches of theoden and the speeches of aragorn before the black aid , and the speeches of the theyden on the palanor before the forces of mortaur are coming , or even gandalf , the , the giver of hope in the story , the who he gives hope to the hearts

of men . These figures show a foil against denithor's blackpilled . He's already been conquered before the fight happens . And against that , you see these men who stand against exceedingly insurmountable odds , and they basically say even if we die today , we are going to make such an end , as theoden says in the movie , as you know , to be worthy of remembrance .

And and that's the saint christmas day speech from henry the fifth act four . Maybe , dan , can you set up like so that people who maybe didn't understand what was happening in that speech that we played uh what ? What's the scene ? Why is that ?

And so the scene is set up saying like , hey , it's going to be the saint christmas day , speed , or saint christmas day , and men do no work . If we could just have one in a thousand of those men that do no work , you know we would . We would actually have a chance . Yeah .

And so the men are grumbling and they're , they're looking well , I mean , they're overwhelmed , probably they're tired , they're going against a fresh enemy . They're , they're just , they're going to die . They realize that that's probably what's going to happen . And then you have king henry come in and say what is this talk that I'm hearing ?

Yeah , I would wish for not one man more to share in the glory . And then you get the rest of the speech , yes , of him essentially saying like what an opportunity for us to win glory . Like anybody that doesn't have the stomach to fight , I'll write a passport . Go , go .

It's because I don't want to die with you , you , you , you are not deserving of the honor to die with us . Yes and so that that's kind of the setup of the speech . And of course , in the , in the , in the shakespeare , play they , they win , yeah , uh , decisively .

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And children like , hey , do your best but it's gonna suck . We're talking about fatherhood this season , so this is not only about your own heart . We're talking about you as a leader , you as a steward of gondor , you as the king of your castle or you as the father , the head in your home . Which way are you going to point your ?

Which road are you gonna teach your children that they are on ?

Yeah , gandalf , as you mentioned , speaks to him . But , brad , I want to ask you , maybe just paint a little bit of this scene on the pelanore fields . There's this great image . As I was recollecting this , I'm thinking of the psalm singing video going around with our friends in moscow . I think chase , chase davis and matt patrick had shared it .

It was like flash mob singing psalm 134 and one of the local pubs in moscow and it was funny because the number of journalists who shared it were like I think these guys are going to win and I was like interesting . And a lot of other people were like this is so dangerous , blah , blah , blah . Well , they're right , it is dangerous .

But one of the things that was said about feyden he , he becomes whitepilled , he's on the field and they're singing as they slew . I guess brian is a different foil . Talk about feyden and why his story is important , particularly at the end , and particularly what he says about , you know , going to his father's all that good stuff yeah , feyden is again .

In fact , all of their , their military survey surveillance , all of their what's the word ? Their evidence , their intelligence is telling them that there's another fleet that's going to come out of the east with even more people . They think it's the enemy .

So even if they were to defeat every single orc on the field in front of them , which is like five to one again , then they know that there's another enormous army , bigger than them that's going to show up sometime that day , the next day , whatever .

And even if they don't like , and as the story progresses you find out even that army , there's another army in mordor that's ready . I mean saran's . Just he has like three successive possibilities of destroying the world of men , and that's what it is . He's bent on destroying the world of men , not just conquering them , but completely ending their existence .

And in the face of that , feyden says essentially a rise . Riders of feyden fell , deeds awake , fire and slaughter . Spear shall be shaken , shield , shield shall be splintered . A sword day , a red day . Air , the sun rises . Ride now , ride now . Ride to gondor . And it's this picture .

The way that it hits me is that it preaches something that's really throughout the book , the whole series , that Tolkien really gets , and it's that for a man , losing and death is not the end if he die bravely , there's glory in it .

There's glory in it and ultimately , the hope that's there and Gandalf points to this as well in a similar scene or a related scene is the hope of resurrection . So he's teaching his children , even when it's not a rose-colored glass's speech , he doesn't say like we're now going to 100% win , don't even worry . Like your wife at home , she doesn't even worry .

No , he's like sending them and they all know this into their death , in their mind , barring super , almost supernatural intervention .

And yet , because of what I would see as the hope of resurrection , he knows that if you win , glory in the right cause , even if you go and you completely fail , that that's not a black pill , that's a white pill , because ultimately , goodness , truth and beauty will win in the end .

And he said I knew in that moment their cause was just and ours was not . And I was like wow . And he was like I was terrified . I was terrified these Psalms singing as they slew . But yeah , I think it's a really interesting picture . So we think about this as fathers .

Last episode , again , we talked about being Viral and Fertile and having children and that's really glorious . But if we raise these children and then we teach them to be blackpilled , we've failed . I want to connect this , then , to something Elon Musk said . This has been the last couple of years , or something like that .

But he said fundamentally , spacex , all this Tesla , his work at X . Now he said the whole point is . He said I want to give the next generation hope , because people need to have hope about the future . So he's come out and he said you know , overpopulation , total myth we could comfortably house all 7 billion people on planet Earth .

In America , this is garbage , it's bunk , and so we'll start to unpack some of this . But you think about this for future generations , giving them hope ? Do you think that's why post millennialism has been such a hot topic for the youth ? It's the young people who are saying yes to this and no to the we lose down here stuff .

I know we've joked about this privately , I don't know about it on the podcast , but you know , when I was in school it would be like in high school and I didn't do my homework or I'm going to just bomb a test and I'm like Lord Jesus , please rapture me now . Like just get me out of here , you know , and I don't want to face the consequences .

So when you're introduced to this eschatological position of post millennialism and you start reading through the scriptures and you're like , wait a minute , this myth of decline is a myth . The decline is not inevitable .

In fact , it seems like the entire world will worship Christ and that means we win , yeah , well , it definitely gives you a different perspective on life , and we've done previous episodes on post millennialism . And then this optimistic you guys are looking like you want to jump on .

It's really interesting Like you see this , like generation after generation in the Roman Empire everyone's always saying like if only we could get back to that the day , back in Cicero's day , and then , like you know , they're in the first century . If only we could get back .

And then in the 300s , if only we could get back to the first century , and then in the 400s , if only we could get back to the second century . We have a tendency as human beings , I think , to do this .

Now I'm going to say , and I also am one of those people , I do think we're in a period of obvious decline culturally in America and we can trace this to apostasy and many of the things we've talked about .

But I say all of that just to make sure that you don't then superimpose your moment here , in this little blip of the story God's writing in this little country that's ultimately not that old all this , and then superimpose that narrative and say , because of inflation in 2023 , all of history is in decline . You know , abandon your posts .

Every like thread in the movie when he's yelling at everybody and then Gandalf waxed him with the stick , but thus ends and he's like prepare for battle .

It's like a cultural dispensationalism as well . And he said but when you looked at the data , he's like hunger has gone down , poverty has gone down , the world is more wealthy than it's ever been , we're alleviating a lot of .

And he said environmental crisis is a total myth , because when you look at all the metrics that we use to track it , things have actually gotten far better . So I think , looking at life and saying look , there's always going to be dragons , there's always going to be challenges , even COVID .

I had a number of friends who are continually saying to me the banking system is going to crash at any moment . We're going to be fighting each other tooth and nail for food supplies . There's not going to be toilet paper . Every culture , every time . To Brian's point , there is a whole host of chicken littles .

We have to fight that .

I think one of the biggest ones is media consumption related to the conservative movement . So I grew up with just all the men around me that were like my father's age constant consumption of Rush Limbaugh , constant consumption of Mark Levin , and fundamentally content that was like we're losing . You know , I think it was Sam Francis .

He called the conservative movement the beautiful losers , like they delight in losing , and so there was an expectation of losing . What did you ?

Progressivism and conservatives are always kind of like holding the coach back , and we need to kind of flip the narrative in many ways for our children and in our own hearts to say well , no , no , no , we're actually going to be the ones who are progressing , we're going to drive the Huns out .

They really are fighting the culture war to win , and most conservatives were losing because they were saying I'm just trying to conserve whatever the leftist victory from yesterday was , which ends up not being that much , all that to say . At the very blue collar level , guys are consuming people who are continually chicken littling it to death .

And so when you're constantly listening to Rush Limbaugh talk about how awful the liberals are and how much the conservatives suck and that's all you hear , you don't walk away being like build , fight , win . You walk away being discouraged and disheartened and angry , and angry .

And then a lot of times , people get entrapped in these false flag things because they're easily manipulatable . Okay , so I think Dan , conservatism has not really been actually Brian's raising his hands .

There's a reason that people always push back when I tweet about this , about righteous anger and unrighteous anger , and and how the scriptures warn us , like James is so clear the anger of man does not produce the righteousness God requires . Okay , deal with that verse .

I think one of the things it means is that , even though there is such thing as righteous anger , where someone can paint in black colors the evil deeds that are being done and provoke righteous anger in you they're killing babies , they're cutting the the penises off of little boys , they're chemically castrating . You know you do all of that .

But the thing that conservatives and Christians need to remember is that anger is not a safe emotion to sit in . It has to be quickly turned to righteous action and joyful righteous action fighting for joy or it will curdle into bitterness or other things that are destructive to the human soul .

So , even though there is such thing as righteous anger , even righteous anger is supposed to motivate us to aim for the joy of righteousness and joy in the Lord and for righteous deeds , not mere complaining and stewing in bitter anger .

So what I would say to you guys as fathers , you are going to be either the Denethor or the Gandalf in your house . Yes , you are going to be the guy that either spreads joy and hope or dismay , and so that is going to come back to what are you consuming ? Who are you listening to all the time ?

I know for me , coming out of the conservative movement and reading that stuff all the time , nonstop , only thing I consume . I remember hearing Doug Wilson say things like oh , there's never been a better time to be alive . Look at all the things you have , be joyful , let's go fight . And I remember thinking I don't even know what to do with this .

I think this guy's delusional . What is he talking about ?

So what that means is that your children , when you look out at the landscape of battles before them economic , sexual , cultural , religious all these battles before them , god chose them to live in this time . Those dragons have their names on them .

So when I think about the future and the battles , I need , as a father , to think Ari and Ira and Cyro and Alfred and Daphne and Winifred , playing those roles that sons and daughters do in complementary ways . They are the ammunition , they're the arrows that are going to go out into these dragons , and God is the one who decided they would fight those dragons .

So it's not like this . I'm so sorry , kids , that it's going to be really tough for you , and if only you'd been born in the Boomer generation .

And and those stories are excellent because as you're reading through St George , I mean it's a longer , you know , book for kids but as you're reading through it , there is no delusions that there's going to be a dragon , there's going to be a battle and even amidst the battle , you know he has like a small victory , but then he's , he ends up getting like

scorched with fire , you know , and , and the battle is hard but there's so much glory at the end and I mean that is the narrative that we're telling the kids as we look out and your older kids , it's not just younger kids , obviously this book has been good for me too .

But you look at the dragons out there , you look at the , the enemy , you know that that needs to be conquered , and you're like this is going to be so hard and and I just think of St Crispin's Day it's like there's so much glory to be won .

You are a leader and you could be great and there is so much glory to win and you must love your friends , you must love your brothers because there is so much opportunity and if you steal your strength and steal your glory by beating up on your brothers , by beating up on your friends and not understanding there's an enemy out there , you will lose it all .

And he looks at me confused but he's like I'm three .

Come on , boys , don't be slow , cut down the viath and go get the girl . It's a song about encouraging sons to pursue the right kind of glory .

Yeah , this is contextualization , yeah , but on Sunday the Broncos played , and they win almost no football games recently , so it's almost like you wouldn't expect sort of the confidence and the hopefulness . But they were down by , I think , over 21 points to the worst team in football , which was the Bears .

Oh no , and I love this scene , though , cause they asked Sean Payton , the head coach you're like you guys came back and you won . Like you , you guys basically suck . How did you ? How did you do that ? And he , he's kind of cringe .

But Russ Wilson and his positivity , they said he lined up , he lined the team up in the huddle and he , he had everybody turn and he said I want you to look at the other team . This is on like one of the final drives and he says look in their eyes , they know we're going to win . And the other team hears him and so he's like what ?

That's a king move .

Well , I think that drive the Broncos ended with a safety , oh no , and so it was kind of like he had fell flat .

Dan starts researching Christendom and we're reading about King Alfred . What happens to the energy in our hearts when we read about men who are up against it , Men who fought off the Danes . They fought off the Vikings . They had literally no reason to expect that Christendom would succeed in England , the Damon Turks , and they destroyed them , Sorry .

So , Dan , I want you to speak to again . This goes back to media consumption and book consumption . How have the books great books ? We believe in it for Saint Brennan's . Why is filling our kids and our family with the great books of Western literature so important if we're going to be men who inspire ?

What are the great stories of Christendom ? But then the other thing that's really really important is to then spur the hearts of your children on towards building that again .

whole host of the Viking army invading their homeland . And the thing is that's really important to recognize is that with a shield wall , there's usually 10 units deep that have to fill in the shield wall . It's just a wall of shields . I mean it's , it's in the name , but it would be absolutely detrimental if one of the men would flee .

It's like how much more they can happen , how much more if Alfred , who is leading this battle , if he fled , the men have nothing to fight for . And so you see a man with almost no battle experience at all , very young , no expectation to be king , probably going to die and instead of running , the troops don't show up .

They said that he acted like a wild boar in battle and they all ultimately won the battle of Ashdown . Not to give it away , but it's been around for you know , 1200 years .

Cs Lewis talks about this in the wage of the Don Trutter about Eustace reading all the wrong stories , all the wrong stories , all the wrong stories .

But on the other hand , if all you've consumed yourself and all they have consumed is your fussing about your , your myth of decline , sort of modern news media stuff , then when they see a challenge they're going to shrink back because there's no way to win yeah .

Of course we do , but what we're missing often is that we can tell our children all about the decline and we can fail to teach them the Saint Brandon the navigator , saint Brandon , the voyager , heart of now , go , quest for Eden's shores . Now we're , we're . We're on our way to something better than Eden .

We're on our way to something not just man innocent , but man glorified . We're in Christ . We have a conqueror who's gone before he's cut off Goliath's head . Let's follow him , let's route the Philistines , let's win the land . If our hearts remain true , if we don't worship idols , if we put the idols out of the land , the Lord will bless us .

He'll cause us to prosper Like . That's . That's the part in the story that people often it's so funny the evangelical mind so often wants to stop at the battle of Fragondor before Erochorn shows up Like and that's the like imagine reading that story to your children and then just saying the end and then putting it down . They'd be like what are you doing , dad ?

We lose down here reading like and that's what I want to encourage people to do is to keep reading in the book and read with White-pilled eyes , don't read with black-pilled eyes .

So one of the things that that I liked about Ogden originally was things like st Brennan's . You weren't just complaining about the public school system , you were saying we're gonna do something about this and it's gonna be really hard . So we . That would be an area , I think , public education . You look at it and you say what a mess .

But again and we talked about it in other shows you could go start a school . There's lots that you could do well .

Powerful , it really does help . So , like you said , it's easy to say like all the kids are , they're in trouble , like public education , that's bad . And so what are we gonna do today ? Even make that better .

And I remember talking to Michael Foster and he was like Start tweeting , really based things and see who responds .

And then he said connect with people that you meet on Twitter . It's basically network , yeah , and but networking is slow and it's like okay . So I just was diligent about this . Long story short . People have heard it I , I meet Dan , I meet Brian , we come here .

So I think making progress , even if it's an inch , even if it means making your bed in the morning , that will also . You'll start getting progress in your life and then you can be a more optimistic , positive people for those around you . Education is one I know we've talked a lot about that . We had an episode not too long ago .

Some other ones , though , that I think are really interesting economic Areas where areas where we can blackpill our children . Yes , yeah the economic area . It is so easy to look out there .

I look , I know what interest rates are , I know what my mortgage is , I know I can look at data and I can say you know in , you know , 1994 , if I made 60k a year , that's the equivalent of $225,000 today . That's a pretty black pill thing If you want to go down that road . But what we've done instead is say , yep , that sucks gonna .

I mean , spending my emotional Capacity on those things is like worthless . I can't change that . I'm not like the Fed . I can't go back in time . I can't undo all the Ukraine spending . I have no control over that . What I can do is start working on solutions , even if they seem like they're a drop in the ocean of what's going on in the world .

It's still an act of faith . God seems to bless this . Dan , talk to me about economics . How do you , how do you , encourage fathers in this moment Like not to be blackpilled economically ?

I I can relate , but there's always opportunity , and there's always opportunity especially if you dot the mindset of I'm gonna improve my situation each day . So if , if , economically , you're feeling the pain of this moment in our , in our history , you should do something about that .

Yes , just just one small thing , and the the temptation I think , especially economically , more so than any other category , is looking for the quick , cheap fix , the get rich quick Sort of thing .

It's , it's one of the few categories that we actually do that in to where you're like I'm just gonna see how little I can invest to get the maximum amount of return , and it's really easy to get suckered into some sort of scam . So I would just say that , with you know , a note of caution .

But but that being said , look at the proverbs as it talks about . Like wealth , gains slowly is easily kept . Well , well , gain quickly is easily lost . And so take a time and money equation and look at the opportunities out there , and there's there's some .

I would also say , along with what Eric said about networking , that you should also network , because some of the best things that you can do is just look at what you need locally in your own community and then say like , well , I mean , I think I could solve that , that issue .

It seems like people are really having a hard time finding like competent lawn care people or a competent Contractor that can install fences or or whatever it is .

Yeah , I mean there's lots of opportunities in the trades , but there could be other things too , like you could do contract work in which you know in the , in the field that you're already in , and start your own business doing that . I mean the opportunities , honestly , are endless .

So I started this business on the side because I saw a need as per dance thing . Like I saw a need . Yeah , turns out you can make a lot of money doing it .

Like there's just guys that it's good for you to be around , like if you're a young guy especially , and you're saying I don't know economically what I could do , first of all , if you come to a place like Ogden , you can probably work for one of these guys and learn a heck of a lot , you know .

But for me , even for me , and when we have business issues and we're like what do I do about this really confusing Thing in my business ? I'll talk to Kevin Love or I'll talk to one of the other guys here who are super successful and they're like oh , that's simple . I dealt with that 10 years ago . Here's what you .

Here's the book read this , do this , blah blah blah and you have a path forward . So it really is helpful , like having other Optimistic guys who are doing stuff and making progress .

The other side of the equation would be when I was working in corporate America and all my colleagues and friends are w2 mindset guys Maybe , like yeah , I'm thinking to start in a business I don't know seems kind of risky , what about your 401k ? What about health care benefits ? What about that ?

But like they're always trying to talk you out of it , yeah , whereas like People at our church now or just like full sin bro . Just gonna send it you're like I don't actually know everything .

I think it's so important , though , for optimism , because if a guy feels like you know what was the old song , the old country song , like my grandpa used to listen to it , I owe my soul to the company store , the coal mining .

And so if you want to give your kids hope , you need to give them financial hope , and so I'm even thinking about conversations I have with my you know , my 14 and 16 year old . They're like houses are so expensive . I was like I know , but you know we bought a bigger one , so there's room . We're gonna take that hit because we can .

Right now , for you guys , and you know , if you're married young , if you're starting businesses , you have a place to live , like we got you . That causes them to be like creative and take risks , because they know they can do that .

Yes , but but I remember , you know , most of the people in our generation was like I was literally told when you're 18 , you're on your own , 100% on your own . There will not be help , and it was kind of like well , that kind of limits the options , you know .

And then you get into corporate America and listen , the reason I've been so adamant about helping guys think through . Small business and stuff like this is corporate America will suck your soul out and they will not care Like staring at carpet walled cubicles while uploading articles to the internet .

This is the war that's being waged , this economic war , and I say that because you can see , with the rise of paganism , as Eric says , like the rise of the old gods or the strong gods , what you have is I mean , all you have to do is look at the HR department , which is like the bishops of this economic religion , the lady bishops .

Yeah , the lady bishops . Because you can see , if you don't ascend to their standards of worship and their blasphemy laws and their view of righteousness , if you don't put the gay thing in your email signature , if you don't wear the gay pin , if you don't say essentially that Caesar is Lord in the LGBTQ frame of worship , then you will be fired .

So if you approach your job like a standard corporate employee , we're like I hate my job , I don't like the people I work with , especially don't like the person I work for , and my work has no meaning and I'm just gonna fuss about it and then I'm gonna send my kids to public school and then they're gonna go to some state university so that they can learn

how to be a good W-2 employee as well . You're perpetuating a cycle that will produce losers . And I don't mean like losers in the sense of like hey , that dude's a loser , I mean like they will lose . You will lose your generations .

That's what you're in danger of Is because you're actually not able to engage this war that's going on , and one of the main battle fronts is the economic battle front , and you need to approach that differently , with a certain form of optimism , versus being blackpilled about it , because this is especially for men , especially for men .

This is the point in which we have the ability right now to do battle , which sounds kind of weird and abstract , but this is the point of where fighting is very hot right now , and you can see that with inflation and with taxation and with property tax , all that you can see , that's actually a pain point , and so one of the myths of decline that we've

received is that in that package deal of the myth of decline is that you should actually reject wealth as well . The best way to protect yourself against money of love of money is to just not have it , and so don't desire it , don't have aspirations , don't have any sort of motivations for the future . It's all a package deal , right .

And so one of the opportunities right now is for Christians to be able to be crafty , to look out as crafty as serpents and as innocent as doves in the economic world and say how can I actually bring in wealth and use it righteously to bless my people and then also to bless your generations , because they'll see the path forward and say dad wasn't just some

corporate loser that just sunk his whole life into a company that doesn't care and work that doesn't matter , but he actually built something , and I'm going to build something too .

One is and you've seen a lot about this in the news on Twitter redpilled mannosphere , really blackpilled mannosphere . Judicial injustice , marriage , divorce problems . I think the first thing to state here is we're all in 100% agreement that there's a real problem , that it really needs a change .

But there's also people out here who are like don't keep married , get a vasectomy , use surrogacy heinously unbiblical options , get super gay , ha , gay .

So if you're gonna give encouragement to guys about like how do you look that in the eye , but then not get blackpilled We've said for economics , kinda how to do that , brian , how do you start thinking through this issue ?

The most important factor is still and always will be who you marry , not what the legal system is at the time , Because you're making a covenant before God to this woman . That's what you want your children , your daughters , to marry a worthy man , your sons to marry a worthy woman .

And so , as a father , the way that we avoid blackpilling our children is by teaching them about . Again . It's always this same pattern we teach them about the dragon and then we teach them how to fight it . Teach them about the dragon , you teach them how to fight it . You say daughters , the scriptures are very much focused on teaching these things .

Don't marry a foolish man . Don't go covenant yourself to a worthless man . Sons , don't go marry a worthless woman , a foolish woman , a loud , brash woman , Dragon , here's its weakness . You can't be like dragon , dragon , dragon , dragon . And so any woman you marry is gonna stab you in the back and steal your kids .

I tend to see a lot of things like , for example , the number of guys complaining about the quality of women who also themselves happen to be like man whores addicted to pornography , and you're like , okay , well , I mean that's really not good .

And then I look at reverse situations , like maybe my own , where it's like my wife and I , when we met and got married , we were not like super devout Christians , like barely nominal Christians Like you look at , kind of , how the relationship evolved . There's what seems like in college , some level of conversion .

You start leading your wife because you have Christian guys , even in like big EVA church . It's telling you like lead your wife , do blah , blah , blah , do the thing she follows . And you know , 20 years later you have a great marriage . So when I hear guys say like there's no way to find a good wife today , I'm like I think you're wrong .

And this is not to say that there are many men who find themselves in there and there are many women who find themselves married to somebody where they made the correct decisions with the information they had and the person simply sinned and completely screwed them . And that happens .

And in those situations it's all the more important that you have the community , that you have the people around you to be able to help you . Now you have a new dragon in your life and you've got to fight it Again . Black Pill is still not the answer , even when you have been totally routed in a battle with sin or with somebody sinning against you .

We look to Christ . We look even at the example of the martyrs . This is why we sing songs like the Son of God Goes Forth to War . And we look at the martyrdom of Stephen and we say pursuing righteousness with vigor is still the answer , even if they kill you .

Like we actually have an example of what it looks like you know 1 Peter 4 , like you know what it looks like to be sinned against and we're called to imitate Christ who didn't revile , who didn't , you know , shout back into the void all these things At the same time , we could make real progress and say something like , yeah , let's encourage .

If we have lawyers in our church or we're associated with organizations , we definitely want to see no fault divorce , for example , we want to see that done away with .

If we can leverage relationships with congressmen in our state , we definitely want to do that , while also saying we're also not going to throw our hands up in the air and just say , well , I give up .

But you also couple that with for men , guys like Andrew Tate or any of the other black pill guys , where they're just it's confirmation bias , where they're like , yeah , of course this is true , I experienced this . And then you start eating that media .

And he's like , well , I did , but so would you . I mean , I'm like an alpha stud .

There is risk , like you take the information you have and you try to marry the best spouse you can . But guess what there's risk .

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It affected me in a very big way seeing a whole generation of older men above me who are like working for their 16 tons , and they were like this is just the way it is . You put your head down and you take it and I was like yeah , no , I don't wanna do that . One of the other areas where this could apply directly to us .

But the bad church thing you hear it all the time there's no good churches , there's no good pastors , there's nowhere for my family to go to worship , and what I typically say to people is like well , I understand it's tough and I wanna be realistic about that , but saying nowhere is different than saying it's bad out there .

And so , yeah , it might be true that there's actually in your area there might not be a good church , there might not be a good church , but you have to actually face the reality that maybe there is a good church nearby and you're the problem .

Obviously you're the preaching pastor of a church , so there's at least one good church , am I right , guys ?

Well , I don't like the way the service was , I didn't like that Psalm at Psalms thing , I didn't like this . Well , I just wish people would reach out to me more . Well , I just like , because of human nature , you could be Johnny Raincloud on the sunniest day , mm-hmm . So it seems like fathers have to be on guard for this too , as well . Oh yeah .

I do , though , and I'm the source of all knowledge and wisdom , and , and the things that I prefer are actually the best things , and so you have to protect your children against that and and that that goes a long way , but , but the first thing is , you actually have to address that in yourself , mm-hmm being entitled .

our sin through the forgiveness of our sin by the cross , but also then on to new life and resurrection that were new creatures in Christ . And so now there is still a covenantal framework . That's all of .

Reality has overlaid over it and it is again the two paths in in , in light of your weakness , in light of all of the , the evil out there , in light of the dragons . It's Romans 2 , 6 and , and you know on through about verse 10 or 11 , he says he will render to each one according to his works .

To those who buy patience In well-doing , seek for glory , seek for glory and honor and immortality , he will give eternal life . But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness , there will be wrath and fury .

There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil , the Jew first , and also the Greek , but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good .

And I want to be able to read those verses and explode all and just say amen at the end and have all of the gospel centered , antenomians , heads explode and say son , daughter , church , your Christians .

So if you seek for glory and honor and immortality through the name , in the name of Christ and in faith , then he is going to render to you glory and honor and there will be good and there will be peace .

But if you don't , if you apostatize or if you go the way of the world and you don't seek for glory and honor and immortality and you seek for your own glory , you seek evil , then there's going to be tribulation and distress and God will utterly throw you down .

But but the , what we've , we've neutered in the , the Antenomian gospel , is this pattern , this covenantal pattern of blessing and cursing . And so it makes the world seem . It makes us seem like cursing is inevitable . There is no way to seek for blessing and honor and glory and immortality , because it's all grace , guys , it's .

And by that they end up meaning it's just a roll of the dice . Nothing you do impacts whether God blesses you or not . That is not true . That is completely contrary to the teaching of scripture for Christians . If you will seek for good , if you will seek in patience and well-doing for glory , then God loves to give you peace and he loves to give you joy .

And so I think , if you tell your children this , if you teach your congregation this , that when they're looking at all of the tribulation or the evils of the day , that the answer , the Christian answer to that is to say , oh , the Lord's on our side . We're Christians . He told me , patiently and in well-doing , to seek for glory , honor and immortality .

And he said that when he does that , that he's gonna render all these glorious things to us . So I guess I'm just gonna believe him and I'm gonna do it . And Then , even if there's , even if there's in my day , even if we die at the battle of Agincourt , right , I'm just gonna trust that the Lord is working a greater glory through that death and loss .

Even if my wife leaves me , even if we experience the death of a child , even if we have famine naked as tribulation sword , I'm still going to trust that God is working those promises out in my generations , for me personally and for my children and their children , because he said he will . It's like it's just , it's just fundamentally faith versus unbelief .

That that's what we're talking about here Faith versus unbelief .

Yeah , we're actually promised your dragons . There you go , you're gonna have , but I'm supplying you with everything you need to do . That opposite to this seems like Could be things like telling our kids they're losers , inciting them to wrath yes , telling them they're not good enough that they'll never make it , especially for fathers . Ephesians 6 4 .

We need to be on guard about Exasperating the kids . Yes , so talk to me about this . Why is that so important that our children know Like we don't want them to be entitled , as we talked about before , but we do want them to have a little bit of a you know , god aimed and God fueled , like glory . They want glory and and and .

There should be a little bit of confidence with David stepping up to the lines and we got this . In God's strength , we can take down these Goliaths . But but that really comes down to fathering . Do you set your kid up so that he believes that , or do you tell your kid that he's not good enough ?

What is the , what is the worldview Nihilistic ? Yeah , you know it's , you're operating like a nihilist Mm-hmm . And then you tell them like you've sinned and essentially you're a loser , and and then they realize , like well , you know everything dad says and does . Uh looks like there's no purpose to anything .

Yeah , like they're gonna be angry and bitter and they're gonna be lonely and they're gonna be sad . What I mean ? It's really a depressing life and they will despise you for it .

Yeah , it doesn't matter what different thing , whether it's politics or the church or economics . At the end of the day , what you're doing is you are provoking them to wrath by teaching them that the only response they could possibly have for these things is bitterness , anger , wrath , not righteousness , joy , action , courage , even in the face of failure .

Okay , a complete chastisement , is to say , is to do those steps , but then you continue with saying you must repent from that and you are now restored and the reason that you're disciplining your child is because you love them , you want them to deny themselves .

That's one of the primary things you're doing from you know your , your child's born , until they leave your house , you're teaching them to deny themselves . You must not act selfishly in this way . You must say no to yourself , because that's producing discipline .

That's what it means to be disciplined is saying I'm going to say no to that desire because I have something better . But you have to give the positive vision forward . What are you disciplining them for and towards ?

And it's towards righteousness , it's towards the battle that God has laid out for them , it's towards Good things like blessing people and helping people and not being a curse to people and being a weight to people , and so it's really important that , as you're looking at your children , you complete the chastisement , and Part of that is in in the restoration , where

you're like I forgive you , you know , and you pray for them , lord , saying to fight them of this and thank you for the forgiveness that you've granted through the blood of your Son , yeah , and then you say you know you're , you're in fellowship , I love you , yep , I am proud of you . Let's , let's , keep moving forward and I'll help you with this .

I love you too much to let you continue in this . This action and that complete chastisement Will not insight your children to wrath . Yeah it will not because you're saying I'm showing you how much I love you and here's the way forward .

Yeah , yeah , and because the other person that we haven't really talked about is your wife , like Mm-hmm , your wife cannot , yeah , she cannot see a dour , critical , complainy , sad all the time guy .

Often I think of things like having having children can be very difficult . The the idea of getting pregnant after you've just had a Baby or , like you know , we're in this season , we're even six kids now and and it's like difficult work my wife's blood pressure goes through the roof when she gets pregnant . There's just natural . We're dealing with the curse .

It's really hard work , right ? The curse has landed there .

It's like my kid just got , you know , a car accident and his second speeding ticket in a week . We have to have a conversation and yeah , but but then it's like they're literally like they could be like life in danger type questions . Yeah so it gets more complicated , it shifts .

But yeah , there's always , and you can be the father who's like you know , do you complain about the insurance claim to your wife ? Is that gonna be a smart move , Right ? Or do you say , you know again , this is all like this never actually happened , right ? But you , you say like it's okay , babe , I'll go deal with it . Yes , I'll go take care of this .

The Lord is like . He knows our son , he knows us .

You might feel a little bump like there is nonchalant as possible . Yeah , that's one of my pilot friends . I was like do you ever say that ? You're like holy cow , this is horrible . And he goes all the time . Yeah , like there's moments , whereas the pilot you might be like I don't know if we're gonna he's thinking a metal fatigue on the airframe .

We're taking the arrows , we lift the shield of faith to extinguish the fiery darts , the enemy , and then we teach them how to fight , knowing they're gonna take some hits . They're gonna go out and sin your kids , you know , like you're gonna some . Some of you will find out .

Oh , my son , in spite of my protections , has stumbled into the world of pornography and now I have to disciple him through this and see him repent of this and grow and put up new defenses . You're gonna have problems . There are going to be areas where the curse simply breaks in and and Throws a curveball at you , or the enemy , or your own flesh .

You're gonna have those things . But , as a father , our response is to always be walking our children and our family and our wives through the death , burial and resurrection of Christ To new life and glory . That's where we're going . You know , honey , kids , that's where we're going .

And so the charge that I would give to our listeners here to end this episode a charge and a benediction , I would say number one is that you need to have some conversations with your sons and daughters . If you haven't had conversations that sound like this , then you need to have them .

Son , things are gonna be hard here economically and in housing or in the job market or in finding what . Things are gonna be hard here . There's a lot of bad churches out there , daughter . There's a lot of foolish men . It's gonna be difficult .

There's gonna be lots of battles that you're gonna fight , but the Lord made you for them and he's on your side and he intends to bring you through and see you win greater glory . I pray , then I won .

Or or my father won , or his father won , because the Lord loves to show his Faithfulness to the thousandth generation of those who love him and keep his command . So , son , daughter , keep his command , walk in faith , have joy , don't be bitter because the Lord is on our side . And simply I would say may the God of peace crush Satan's under your feet .

It's beautiful . Thanks for listening , guys , to this episode of the Kings Hall . If you enjoy the show , become a supporter , come help us make this possible , continue to make strides and making the show better and more helpful , and you can do that with the patreon link in the description below . But until next time fast and alente , make haste slowly .

We'll see you next time on the Kings Hall .