Dr. Michael Youssef: The feelings are not the issue. It's the truth that's the issue. And that's where I keep going back to the truth is the truth, the truth, the truth. And until we restore that, until we pray to God and call upon heaven to help us restore the truth, it is we who have let people down because as goes the pulpit, so goes the pew. As goes the pew, so goes the nation. And that's where we are.
Roger Marsh: That was Dr. Michael Youssef, our guest today on Family Talk, the listener-supported division of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. I'm Roger Marsh. So glad you've joined us today. You're about to hear an enlightening interview with Dr. Youssef that we are certain that you'll find timely and helpful. Dr. Michael Youssef was born in Egypt and lived in Lebanon and Australia before coming to the United States in fulfilling his childhood dream of becoming an American citizen. He holds degrees from Moore College in Sydney, Australia and Fuller Theological Seminary in Southern California. He also earned a PhD in Social Anthropology from Emory University.
Roger Marsh: In 1987, Dr. Youssef founded the Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Georgia. One year later, his small radio ministry Leading the Way was birthed out of that church. Today, Leading the Way is an international televangelistic ministry that is broadcast over 13,000 times each week on six different continents and in 26 different languages. Dr. Youssef has authored more than 40 books, including Saving Christianity, Life-Changing Prayers, and The Third Jihad. His most recent title and the subject of today's broadcast is Hope for This Present Crisis: The Seven-Step Path to Restoring A World Gone Mad. Today, Dr. Youssef will be talking with our own Dr. Tim Clinton as Dr. Dobson remains on a writing assignment. Together these godly men will delve into the power and responsibility that each of us has to discern and defend the truth. There's a lot to get to, so let's get started.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Michael, what a privilege to have you on this edition of Family Talk.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Clinton. Good to be with you.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Dr. Dobson sends his regard. He has such a great affection for you. It's amazing what God's doing in and through your ministry. I love your heart. I saw a line that said, "We want to take as many people to heaven and as possible."
Dr. Michael Youssef: That's right.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Amen.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Before I get too old.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Tell us a little bit about what God's been doing. I saw what your television radio broadcast ministry is airing something like 13,000 times a week in 26 languages all over the world.
Dr. Michael Youssef: That's right. That was a vision God gave us years ago of reaching 3.9 billion people with the gospel. The most spoken languages, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Turkish, Farsi, Indonesian, and Urdu and so on. These are the most spoken languages of the world, Hindi. And this is something like 20 years ago. God gave us that vision. So we did the dual language program where it started in Arabic. And then I will speak one sentence in English and a translator will speak that same sentence in Arabic. And the messages were all designed to reach a person who doesn't have the Christianese lingo in their background. And so we launched into the Arab world 20 years ago, and 2 million young people were listening every night to learn English, and then they hear the gospel. And so we launched it in all the other languages and God just kept on blessing. It's just like Dr. Dobson radio is the only thing I really wanted to do.
Dr. Michael Youssef: And then a man by the name of Ben Haden, a wonderful man of God who preached one of the pioneers Christian television in Chattanooga, Tennessee came to me and he said, "God told me to give you my television ministry. I'm retiring." And so we launched on television about 18 years ago. And from that came Kingdom Sat, which is a satellite channel that goes into 200 million homes in the Arabic speaking world. And everything is translated into Arabic or actually about 80% of the programmers are Arabic speakers, but the few English programs we have on it all translated into Arabic. So God just kept expanding, expanding, expanding, and I'm just going along for the ride.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Well, we celebrate the gift of God in you. Dr. Youssef, as we get started, that's no secret that we're living in a world full of hurt. There's a lot of fear, concern, alarm, anger, frustration. So much going on, and you have a message. You came up with a new book called Hope in This Present Crisis: The Seven-Step Path to Restoring A World Gone Mad. And that's quite a way to describe it. But let's start out this way. What is the number one concern for our nation in our world that's in your heart?
Dr. Michael Youssef: The truth. The truth. That is the battle cry. That is the core issue from which all the other issues, where there would be immorality and so-called sexual revolution, all these other issue, but they stem from one thing. And that is the truth. It is a battle for the truth. And once biblical truth, absolute truth have been rejected, it's free for all. And your truth, my truth, his truth, her truth, everybody's truth equal to the other. And therefore I liken it to a football game where there are actually no teams opposing each other and there is no rules, and they're all in the field just playing with the balls, throwing it, whichever direction it's going, and it doesn't really make any difference which way you score. So that's where we are. This is where the confusion is coming from in the minds of most people really who love God.
Dr. Michael Youssef: And what I'm trying to do. I said, look, the truth is the truth. We need to go back to the truth. And then all the other things were education, family, church, everything else will fall in place. And that's why I have the seven steps of how to restore sanity because the truth of God is where the sanity is, and we've lost it. And the problem is, if we keep going like this, we're going to lose our civilization. Western civilization will be lost. And western civilization is built on the reformation and on biblical ethics. And therefore there will be no boundaries. Everything will go. And yeah, here's a tragedy. I told the congregation. Sunday I said, "I weep, I really do." Some of the people who have preached the gospel all their life now apologizing for preaching that gospel. They said, "Well, that was back in 2004. And I haven't preached on this. And I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings." Hurt their feelings? Jesus hurt the feelings of the Pharisees all day long. He never worried about that.
Dr. Michael Youssef: The feelings are not the issue. It's the truth that's the issue. And that's where I keep going back to the truth. It's the truth, the truth, the truth. And until we restore that, until we pray to God and call upon heaven to help us restore the truth. And we as people of God, because I always pointed a finger at me and my fellow preachers, it is we who have let people down because as goes the pulpit, so goes the pew. As goes the pew, so goes the nation. And that's where we are. We have began to compromise the gospel, watered down the gospel, sought not to uphold the truth because we don't offend anybody. We don't hurt anybody's feelings. And consequently, here we are living in this chaos that is getting worse and worse every day. And I have 10 now almost 11 on the way grandchildren, and I deeply concerned about them. Now, I know God will take care of them. I know I'm on my way to heaven. But nonetheless, Jesus said, "Occupy till I come." So I'm trying to occupy the best I know how.
Dr. Tim Clinton: I don't think people have or certainly I haven't seen the spiritual opposition that we're seeing like we're seeing right now.
Dr. Michael Youssef: I agree.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Michael, what is it? What's going on? It's not an outside enemy really. When you start hearing conversations about socialism and Marxism and the agenda, and then the struggle inside the church now that we've got an internal problem.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Exactly, exactly. And you see evangelists friends have years ago used to say, "The devil is no longer fighting the churches. He's joining them." And that's exactly what is happening is that the devil has joined the churches and he started doing his operation from the inside. And consequently, it is because of that. If we, as pastors and Bible believing leaders, remain strong and steadfast on the truth of the gospel, this would not have happened. I just want to be truthful before I point my finger out there. I am saying this is where it started. And this is where the problem is now leading us to, but we're the source of it, and this is where we need to start. And I'm hoping in that book, Hope for This Present Crisis, is that tens of thousands of young pastors will read that book and realize what has happened and what is happening. And they're going to say, "I don't want to live to please man. I don't want to live to be popular. I want to live to serve the living God because I'm going to have the audience of one."
Dr. Tim Clinton: You in the book talked about the importance of restoring the soul. And in it, you challenged how we have replaced again Orthodox Christian teachings with narrative and postmodern theology. We're talking a lot more about social justice, political activism. Dr. Youssef, this is where we begin to spin and you can see it in culture like crazy. It's all over social media and it's confusing the minds of Christians.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Yeah, especially young people, young people. I know, for example, when my kids were in college just many years ago, they studied Howard Zinn's book on critical race theory. They laughed about it. But now because they not see an opposition to that kind of a falsehood from home or church, they bought into it. So in the last 20 years or so, those young people are buying into that falsehood that is taught as gospel truth. And Howard Zinn's theory, critical race theory, is nothing but Marxism, the thesis and entities that's separating between the two and creating that division so that they can create revolution. It's Marxism. And he applied it into race.
Dr. Michael Youssef: And I tell people I thank God that I was born in Africa. So I'm an African. I'm not defending anything Western white and all that stuff. Even though I can tell you, Dr. Clinton, I was accused of being white supremacist. It's so ludicrous. So when you stand up for the truth, they can call you every name, any name in order to pigeonhole you so that they can punch at you. And thank God at 72, I'm happy for them to call me any name they want to.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Well, what happens is they begin to marginalize you and then they demonize you. They don't attack ideas anymore. They really attack people because people are easy targets. And then they criminalize you. They put you in jail, Facebook, jail, or whatever-
Dr. Michael Youssef: That's it.
Dr. Tim Clinton: ... because of this messaging. And that's the real struggle we're up against there. That's going to take some courage, some boldness in this hour, because it's like we are in the midst of a violent storm.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Yeah, exactly. But they did this to the Apostle Paul, the Judaizers did not only do this to the Galatians, but they went to Corinth and all the other cities. And what they did is they attacked Paul the person, because once they weakened people trust in Paul, the person, the Apostle Paul, then they can attack his teaching and his theology and the preach of grace alone through faith alone, scripture alone, and so forth. So that's an old trick that the devil has used 2000 years ago. And he's been using it ever since. But I am pleading with pastors, young pastors, please realize that if these are the signs of the end of times, there's more of a reason for you to be standing up because you are going to be accountable to the living God. You're going to give an account of your stewardship of the word of God.
Dr. Michael Youssef: And then in Luke 12, particularly in the latter part of that chapter, Jesus makes it very clear. There's going to be division in terms of the judgment of those who had the stewardship of leadership and authority, and they have abused it versus the average person who might not have a great deal of knowledge. James himself, the half brother of Jesus, said that we will be judged more severely. And so I am pleading with pastors, I'm pleading with church leaders and Bible teachers, please get back to the word and forget what people can do to you, because what can they do to us? Kill us? We go to heaven.
Dr. Tim Clinton: You're listening to Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk. I'm Dr. Tim Clinton, president of the American Association of Christian Counselors. I'm your host. Our special guest today, Dr. Michael Youssef, a well-known, world-renowned evangelist, Bible teacher. A brand new book out called Hope for This Present Crisis: The Seven-Step Path to Restoring a World Gone Mad. Dr. Youssef, you referenced in the book the critical need to revitalize the family. And I was reading and I actually went up and heard you speak a little bit on this online. You said that the family is a beachhead. It's a mission force.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Exactly.
Dr. Tim Clinton: What does that mean to you? And what should it mean to us?
Dr. Michael Youssef: You see, God designed the family. Family is God's idea. It's not man's idea. It's God's idea.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Yes.
Dr. Michael Youssef: And it is not just enough to try to survive or even thrive for that matter. But the Christian family is designed by God to be on the offensive, to go and to conquer territories that held by Satan and bring it to the kingdom of God. And that's what the families need to understand that they are in a battlefield, but they don't have to be just on the defensive all the time. Defensive are good, but you have to go on the offensive. And that's where the victory is. That's where the thrill of victory is, is when you go on the offensive you share in Christ. You speak boldly, but lovingly. You speak the truth in love because that's a balanced formula that Paul gives us. You're speaking the truth in love, but never give an inch on the truth.
Dr. Michael Youssef: And we're going to see people who are hurting. If our Christian families begin to witness to the young friends and they bring him in, come and see how a Christian family lives, come and see how a Christian family behaves and how they talk to each other, how they minister to each other, I think there's so much hunger out there that we can impact the world for Jesus Christ. And it's not just trying to say, "Well, I'm just going to survive. I'm saved. My family is saved. And we're going to get under that tent and not..." No, no, no. It's to get out there and witness for Jesus Christ and take the battle to the devil right into his territories.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Winning at home is everything. So goes the family, so goes the church.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Yes.
Dr. Tim Clinton: And by the way, so goes the church, so goes the family. You cannot deny the linkage here. Dr. Youssef, you also speak to the issue of the erosion of parental rights, because when you control the kids, because you don't think parents can raise them correctly, what a violation, what an intrusion here. And it's happening all around us.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Yeah. And they want to take all the rights from the parents and give them to the state. And by the state they mean the so-called elite in society, those academics and bureaucrats, and they're the ones that are going to bring. We criticized Soviet Union for years for doing that. But now it's happening in the West. And so many people, so-called thinkers and opinion makers and professors and academics are now saying that you can no more trust the children to their parents than trust them in the middle of the highway.
Dr. Michael Youssef: And I would say, listen, I mean, I'm ready to die on that hill. I'm happy to stand alone, but I am pleading. And you and I, and there are a few of us left that we need to constantly beat the drum, sound the alarm, call people to come to understand biblical truth and why God promised. He promised power and victory to those who purpose in the heart, just like Daniel did. He purposed in his heart. And what did God do? In the midst of that huge majority, there was a tiny minority of four or five of them in that king's palace. He gave them favor. He gave them grace and he gave them victory. So that's what we need to have more and more of.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Michael, I remember when I took my daughter Megan to kindergarten. It was the first time we walked into a school. I was going to leave her there for the rest of the day. And I remember going through the whole process and then turning and looking at her as I was walking away. I left and I drove around I bet you for an hour. And this dad had tears coming down his face. It dawned on me. I had released her to someone who could influence her.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Exactly.
Dr. Tim Clinton: And Dr. Youssef, that's what we're talking about right here. Megan has her own daughter now, our little granddaughter who's two years old. And she's asking me, "Dad, I'm worried about the world that Olivia is going to grow up in." That's what we're talking about here. We've got to insulate and we've got to work hard to strengthen the family for such a time as this.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Yes. And do whatever it takes, whatever it takes. And so many of us in evangelical world are worrying about building our nest egg. And I said, the only nest egg we need to build is a legacy we're giving to our children and grandchildren. And that's really where the focus needs to shift because I've done the same thing. And then I've done it again 25 years ago when I dropped off our very first daughter at university. I mean, I just had to take the car off the road because I was sobbing so hard. And then I tell my kids. I said, "You kept me on my knees until my knees are swollen." And I didn't just leave them there. I prayed for them. I interceded on their behalf and constantly stayed in touch and said, "No matter what happened, you call me."
Dr. Michael Youssef: And that's what we need to do. We need to go back to basics. And as your daughter worrying about her daughter, I think every young parent need to be concerned, but that's not enough. What will that concern cause us to do? And it cause us to do whatever it takes in order to ensure that we are not giving these lambs to the wolves, that we are protective of them and that we are training them so they can become warriors for Christ.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Dr. Youssef, Dr. Dobson said, "We need to get everything we can out of Michael on this broadcast, Tim. Don't be afraid to do two programs around him because this content's amazing." Your new book again, Hope for This Present crisis: The Seven- Step Path to Restoring A World Gone Mad. We've got a lot more to talk about. We'll do that. If you stay with us and we'll do a program for tomorrow.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Sure.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Dr. Youssef, closing word.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Yes.
Dr. Tim Clinton: To moms and dads, to concerned Christians, to people in this country and around the globe who are saying, "We need you Lord now more than ever. Help us."
Dr. Michael Youssef: Absolutely. First of all, you need not fear. Remember, fear is a spirit and is named by name by the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians. It's a spirit and it's from the devil. It's from evil. And that's what the world is trying to do to intimidate us and to frighten us. But you got to let that fear go and say, "I come upon you just like David says. You come to me with all your armor, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts." If I have a last word for today is this: Do not be afraid because we have a great and a mighty God. And every time I think of situation, I look back at my life in the last 72 years, and I say to my grandchildren, I said, "The God who took care of me through all these years and brought me here, He can do that to you, but you have to place your faith in Him. You have put your trust in Him. Do not fear what man can do to you." That's the first thing.
Dr. Tim Clinton: I was kneeling beside Dr. Dobson not long ago. And we were in a moment of prayer and I heard these words come from him. He said, "The task seems dark and daunting." As a matter of fact, overwhelming, Lord.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Sure.
Dr. Tim Clinton: And it seems like it's hopeless. And then he said these words, "Except." And I kind of cocked my head and heard him say to the Lord, "Except that you are with us, Lord."
Dr. Michael Youssef: Amen. Amen.
Dr. Tim Clinton: We celebrate that. Dr. Youssef, what a wonderful conversation. I look forward to talking more about Hope in This Present Crisis,: The Seven-Step Path to Restoring A World Gone Mad. Thank you for joining us.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Pleasure, Dr. Tim.
Roger Marsh: Amen and amen. What a great reminder from our guest today here on Family Talk, Dr. Michael Youssef, that we do not need to be afraid. Despite all of the confusion and uncertainty and sometimes panic that might be around us, we know that God is worthy of our complete trust. We hope that today's broadcast was an encouragement to you. In fact, let me wrap up our time together in a word of prayer.
Roger Marsh: Lord God, thank you for being our calm and our steadiness in the midst of this confusion. We remember the words of Psalm 56, verses 3 and 4, where David says, "When I am afraid, I put my trust in You, Lord, the God whose word I praise. And God, I trust and I'm not afraid." Thank you that we as individuals, as families, and as church communities can always come to you and never fear in Jesus' name. Amen.
Roger Marsh: Now, to learn more about Dr. Michael Youssef and his brand new book called Hope for This Present Crisis, be sure to visit our broadcast page at drjamesdobson.org. That's drjamesdobson.org/broadcast. One resource that we here at Family Talk offer to families to help them navigate current issues and day-to-day challenges is Dr. Dobson's monthly newsletter. If you'd like to receive this resource by mail, simply call us at (877) 732-6825. That's (877) 732-6825 to receive Dr. Dobson's newsletter by mail. Now, if you prefer to receive the newsletter by email, go to our website, drjamesdobson.org/subscribe. That's drjamesdobson.org/subscribe. For everyone here at Family Talk, I'm Roger Marsh. Thanks so much for joining us. Tune in again tomorrow for part two of this conversation with Dr. Michael Youssef on Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk.
Announcer: This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Hi everyone. Dr. Tim Clinton here. When you think about your family and where they'll be when you're no longer living, are you worried? Are you confident? Are you hopeful? What kind of a legacy are you leaving for your children and their children right now? Here at Family Talk, we're committed to helping you understand the legacy that you're leaving your family. Join us today at drjamesdobson.org. You're going to find helpful insights, tips, and advice from Dr. Dobson himself. And remember, your legacy matters.