“What do I do–my best friend is a Nazi?”
MARCH 4, 2022
Steve Brown:
What do I do– my best friend is a Nazi? The answer to that and other questions on Key Life.
Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life, dedicated to the message that the only people who get any better are those who know that if they don’t get any better, God will still love them, anyway. That teaching raises a lot of questions, so here’s author and seminary professor Steve Brown, along with Pete Alwinson from ForgeBibleStudy.com with answers to the Bible, that’ll make you free.
Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Boy. Listen, I’m not answering that, I’m going to let you, I’ll let you deal with that. That’s an, you know, I often say that we’ve never gotten a question, that I haven’t heard of thousand times. And when you’re old and you’ve been doing this your whole life, it’s rare to hear a question you haven’t heard, but I haven’t heard that one before. I don’t know what to say. That’s Pete Alwinson. He comes in on Fridays and we answer questions together. Be sure and go to ForgeTruth.com and if you have a question, call 1-800-KEY-LIFE, that’s open all the time and you can record your question and sometimes we put your voice on the air. Or you can write to
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Pete Alwinson:
Alright. Father, we come to you on this Friday and we pause for just a minute to remember who we are in your presence. And we come to you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the one and only saving Triune God. And we come and we’re so thankful that in Christ, we have found the answer to our sin, our shame, our guilt. And we have a whole new life and a whole new name because Jesus, what you have done for us. And so, we want to remember that. And Lord, we listen to what everybody says to us about ourselves, and sometimes we adopt what they say. So, we pray at the end of this week, a little bit tired, a little bit ready to have some fun. We pray that you would also draw us into your presence and renew our souls, renew our hearts, remind us that we belong to you. And so, we pray Lord Jesus for our leaders. And, we thank you for our missionaries overseas. We thank you for those missionaries locally. We thank you for Key Life, but we also thank you for those who will labor over us, by teaching us the word, leading us in worship and bringing us to the throne of grace. Now, we need that so much. Bless them this week-end and bless this time of Q&A now. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Steve Brown:
Amen. Pete, let’s go to our phone lines.
Caller 1:
So, I have a buddy that he’s a National Socialist, like a legit Nazi, white nationalist. And we’ve been friends, you know, my entire life. And he wound up going down that path a couple of years ago. This guy, he knows his stuff. He’s done his research. You can debate him, debate him all you want, and you can’t beat him, but he has found Jesus and he’s got a lot of questions about how to reconcile both of those things at the same time. I think he trying to put Jesus first, but what do you say to a guy like that? You know, he’s my best friend, I love him. I care about him, but I’m not going to push him away. Don’t even know what to say, how to reconcile those two things? I don’t know, what do you think about that?
Steve Brown:
I think you’re great, by the way.
Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.
Steve Brown:
I mean, I don’t want. I don’t know if I could pull that off, but I would hope that I could, I do have friends who are very different from me. None of them are Nazis, that I know of. I’m not sure how I would deal with that, but I, yeah, I think it’d be, I think you have to make sure that you state your territory. I mean, you can’t, there’s a sense in which association, if you don’t state your territory, will cause people to think that’s your territory. So, you need to say to him, look, I love you, man. You’re my best friend, you’re my buddy. And I want, and we’re going to do things together and have fun together, but you do know that I disagree with you on these issues and I can’t help it and we can disagree and still be friends. You’ve got to state your territory or you’ll end up being, going, selling out. So, you have to be careful. And when people ask you about your friends, if he’s publicly known as a Nazi, how can you be his friend? I think you have to say, because I love him, I don’t agree with him, good heavens, but I love him. He’s been my friend for a long time. And I think you have to be deaf in how you deal with those things and be careful, and then pray for him and ask that God would open his heart. And when his heart is open, that God would open your mouth to say the right thing.
Pete Alwinson:
No, that’s good. That is good. I would definitely not get a Swastika tattoo, that would not be the thing to do. And I think that you
Steve Brown:
Probably not a good idea.
Pete Alwinson:
Probably not, just to say, Hey, you’re my friend. But I think you’ve done, I think you said it just right. And the only thing I would add to that is, this is a supernatural thing. This guy claims to be a Christian. So, there has to be that work of the Spirit of God to help him see that his logic has gotten, horribly twisted. And I don’t know if this means that he’s a Nazi in the classical sense, that he hates Jews in particular.
Steve Brown:
He said he was a white supremacist.
Pete Alwinson:
A white supremacist, that is a really difficult position to uphold Biblically.
Steve Brown:
Of course it is.
Pete Alwinson:
So maybe, maybe, set up some times to get together with a theologian. If you can find one near you. And try to sit down and have a discussion. I don’t know, but I love what you said about relating to him.
Steve Brown:
You said supernatural, is really important. I mean, there’s not a, somebody like that has a hard and fast view, and sometimes only God’s Spirit can break through that. So, pray that God does that and that if he is a Christian, that you’re there to help. I have friends, you know, I grew up in the south. Not the worst racist in the world, but I have friends who were pretty vocal racists, who came to Christ and who broke down and repented publicly of their views and asked their black brothers and sisters to forgive them. So, I’ve seen that happen. I’ve seen it happen over and over and over again.
Pete Alwinson:
Wonderful.
Steve Brown:
And so, that can happen with your friend too.
Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, it can. Wow.
Steve Brown:
Oh, wow. That is a new question. Can you recommend a Bible that’s easier to understand and comprehend. Does it make any difference, which Bible you use?
Pete Alwinson:
This is a silly response, but there is a comic book Bible series out there for kids. And that somebody told me today, I ought to find out for kids, it’s a very useful comic book. But now, on an adult level, what do you suggest?
Steve Brown:
Well, I think no matter what version you use, I think God can use it, even a cultic version of it because they can’t change the whole thing, but there’s some that are better than others. By the way, when you mentioned the comic book version, what’s that children’s Bible, that was written by the English lady. I have a friend who says he reads that because it’s so clear on grace, you know, I’ve gotta look that up and find the name. I used to know at one time, something like the Children’s Bible Study or Children’s Bible or something. But I think even that, if you’re an adult, you can find some help. Alright, what do you use?
Pete Alwinson:
Well, you know, generally speaking the ESV because it’s very straight-forward and true to the original text as well as mostly English as we speak it today.
Steve Brown:
And then there are paraphrases that are very good.
Pete Alwinson:
The New Living translation is very good.
Steve Brown:
Oh, that’s good. The Old Living translation was good too.
Pete Alwinson:
It was. That’s right.
Steve Brown:
You know, I’m going to ask Jeremy, he’s waving a note at us. I’m sure, he produces this program. And I think it would not be a major violation, if Jeremy went on the air and actually gave us the answer to the name of that Children’s Bible Study.
Pete Alwinson:
Alright. What is it?
Steve Brown:
So Jeremy, what was it?
Jeremy Birdsall: Steve, I think, Hey guys, by the way, it’s Jeremy. I think you’re talking about the Children’s Storybook Bible.
Steve Brown:
Yes.
Jeremy Birdsall: Lots of churches have handed those kinds of things out. And they’re fantastic and very clear. And Pete, I think there’s one that you were mentioning and this one, my nephew’s personally used, and that is the Action Bible, which is structured like a comic book. And it’s great. It reads just like a comic book and Sampson’s doing all these crazy things, but every single page has a written out story, done like a comic book.
Pete Alwinson:
Cool. Cool. Cool.
Steve Brown:
So, you can use that kind, you were saying that you like the ESV, the English Standard Version. You use in your private study though, a different one.
Pete Alwinson:
Often the New American Standard, but it’s, it’s what I started memorizing Scripture out of, a long time ago. And so.
Steve Brown:
That’s very literal, but sometimes the cadence isn’t wonderful, but it’s a great Bible.
Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Yeah.
Steve Brown:
So, you know, there are bunches of good, good Bible translations, get one, get with it and maybe get a study Bible and spend time with that.
Pete Alwinson:
I love the ESV study Bible. I think it might be the best one out there, but we’re not promoting any particular one.
Steve Brown:
We’re really not. I just like that. How are we supposed to remember the Sabbath?
Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. And so, we remember that it is God’s day that reminds us of creation, but also redemption and his covenant of grace. So I think it includes worship. And I think it includes laying aside work, generally speaking.
Steve Brown:
You know, some people, they get mixed up, that the Sabbath is someplace where you’ve got a lot of rules. You’ve got to, and they forget that the Sabbath was made for us.
Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.
Steve Brown:
It’s a gift. It’s God saying, look, lay back, relax, pray, worship. Make this a fun day because I give it to you as my gift.
Pete Alwinson:
Trust me, the work will get done. I’m going to take care of you, relax a little bit. You read the Old Testament, all the festivals. God doesn’t want us to work as much as we think he does.
Steve Brown:
No. And as a workaholic and I, I have to remember that all the time, but I’m getting better at it. Part of that has to do with age. And part of it has to do with I’m far more spiritual than used to be.
Pete Alwinson:
Of course, absolutely. Everybody sees that and knows that, that’s true.
Steve Brown:
Pete, are you going to work hard and come back here next time.
Pete Alwinson:
I will, man, I will. Hey guys, we love having you here with us. And, we really do love your questions. We’re out of here.
Steve Brown:
But first, I must say, Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.