‘Faith Without Action Is Not Faith’: How the American Church Is at a Tipping Point | CLIP

[Music] Eric Maxis thank you so much for being here great seeing you I've been all right I'm a little fatigued but I'll get over it I can imagine doing a lot of work lately yeah yeah so Eric let's talk let's get real the problem of this country right now is in action I I think really you have a lot of good people like a lot of good people in this country but they're not necessarily like at the Forefront a lot of people are sitting in their homes they don't know what to do I'll put it this way I I mean I I wrote a book called letter to the American church every book I write this my you know 14th book is aimed at everybody this is the only book I have ever written ever aimed at those people who dare to call themselves Christians and I say to them in this book if you dare to call yourself a Christian and you are sitting on the sidelines in this unbelievable epic not Epic epic battle you are guilty uh some people know I wrote a book about Dietrich bonh harer Bon Hofer was a German Pastor in the 1930s in Germany trying to exhort the German Church to stand up and fight he his thesis and he was correct was that the German church was the only institution with the cultural power to stand against the wickedness of the Nazis and of course we know that ultimately failed that many in the German Church said not not yet not yet we just want to be kind of you know uh we just want to focus on religious stuff we want to focus on doing church we okay and Bon Hofer was trying to say them you don't understand faith without action is not Faith you have some Enlightenment rationalistic uh hyper Lutheran idea that faith is just some stuff in my head and he says no no no no real faith is lived out if you don't live it out it essentially proves you have no faith I mean people who know the Bible know that the Bible says the New Testament says faith without works is dead so boner was trying to say hey German Church you need to live out your faith now if you live out your faith now and stand against this evil we can stand against the Nazis but they were like well you know not yet I don't think things are bad enough yet we know what happened so my book letter to the American church I'm making the case that precisely what the German church was guilty of the American church is guilty of today this is not hyperbole I wish I were exaggerating I know that I'm not I know that the exact same excuses good Germans gave for inaction are the same excuses good Americans are giving they just don't understand that those excuses are not right they they they somehow believe that there's a third path I I don't need to be political I'm just gonna you know somehow just you know uh in other words Christian leaders act like well we're just going to preach the gospel that's what Christians say we're just going to preach the gospel we're not going to focus on anything that's could be called political and you think wait a minute that's what the German pastors were saying do you see what happened because of their inaction now you had the same thing in the United States I mean in the 19th century there were plenty of pastors and churches saying we don't want to weigh in on the slavery issue we just want to talk on it and don't you understand the only reason you have faith is to weigh in on these moral issues is to live out your faith so letter to the American church is um my really urgent urgent message to people that if you want to claim to be a Christian God requires action of you in times like this and I don't know can I announce it that we yeah do it do it well this exciting this is epic TV we made a documentary film version of letter to the American church and the documentary film version of letter letter to the American church will be premiering exclusively on Epic TV February 8th if you want to see the trailer you can go to letterto thee American church.com there's all kinds of information at letter tothe American church.com but I'm really excited Josh that epic TV is partnering with us in getting this message out because look let's face it it couldn't be more urgent this about saving the Nation about saving America and by the way if America goes down the entire world goes down so this is not about America it's not about the American church is about the world and so we are we're in that kind of a battle right now and I want to make the case and I do make the case in the book and in the documentary letter to the American church that people must stand must fight if you're not doing something if you're sitting on the sidelines I want to say very boldly you are part of the problem if you're sitting on the fence I want you to know the devil owns the fence and now you know that that's the case and so it's it's very very urgent message as urgent as it could be well you know and I think among a lot of churches in America there's this idea of you know separation of church and state stay out of political issues and they're looking for inclusiveness and acceptance you know what what do you say to them well I mean think of the irony number one that is not biblical so if you're concerned with having a Biblical view you say what's the Christian view that's not the Christian view now what about if you're an American and you say I believe in separation church and state the misunderstanding of separation of church and state is not the view of the founders the founders created the idea of separation of church and state to protect the churches from the state just like in China just like all around the world where where authoritarian governments want to crush the church want to manipulate the church the Nazis wanted to take over the church and bring Nazi values into the church so the reason in America the founders created the wall of separation in Jefferson's famous letter between church and state was specifically to protect the churches from the state and it is the job of the churches to live their faith out in every sphere so so even whether you're in China or in America your faith is not real unless you live it outside the building where you go on Sunday morning not unless you allow it to leave its you know theological uh uh in in a sense this theological category it's got to go everywhere you've got to take your theology into culture into politics if you care about human rights you've got to live out your faith in the area of Human Rights and so this is the kind of thing serious Christians get this but many Christians have kind of bought these lies and it's it's just so ironic to me that we're living in a time now where you you have many Christians saying exactly what the German Christians were saying and that's what's so chilling to me CU my mother grew up in Nazi Germany and I I wrote the Bon Hofer book and I I I have seen this very clearly and I I want to wake people up and say unless Christians repent of their inaction and their silence unless they get in the the battle God will will hold you as guilty this is not like oh I didn't know this is uh you know God spoke prophetically through bonhoff to the German church and they said uh we're not interested uh we're not we're not ready to get active yet and by the time many of them got it and and said we oh we didn't we didn't know what was going to happen now we have it was too late and that's it's an amazing thing to think that we have an example from history that is so similar to where we are now that evil was Rising they didn't think it was their job to do anything about it and so I literally wrote letter to the American Church to tell people this is what happened this is what the Bible says whatever misconception you're under this is the biblical View and if you're an American you really have no excuse because we have religious liberty in America