September 12, 2025 • 28 mins
On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (09/12/25), Hank interviews Don Simmonds, CEO of Crossroads Christian Communications, and Jerry Johnston, Executive Director of Crossroads USA, about the current cultural climate, which they have dubbed “the Perfect Storm.” The discussion covers many topics, including media dominance, the personalization of technology, and the spiritual storms of our culture.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to the Bible answer Man Broadcast with your host,
Hank Canigraph. The Bible answer Man is the radio ministry
of the Christian Research Institute designed to equip believers to
defend their faith and become true disciples of the Lord
Jesus Christ, because life and truth matter. Our phone number
is eight eight eight seven thousand CRII. You can find
(00:31):
us on the internet at equip dot org. The following
program was pre recorded, and now to begin today's broadcast,
here's Hank Canagraph.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Thank you very much for Andy has always it is
great to be in studio as we answer your questions
throughout the United States and Canada. I thought today I
wanted to talk about a storm with two guests today
who have dubbed this not just a storm, but the
perfect storm. It is the coalescing of factors that has
(01:04):
caused an incredible impact in our culture that we are
so often unaware of. Joining me to talk about this
Don Simmons, he's the CEO and chairman of Crossroads Television
in Canada, and Jerry Johnston, who's the executive director of
(01:27):
Crossroads USA. When I was in Canada on Crossroads Television,
Don shared this story with me. It captivated me, and
I wanted you to hear it as well. We're going
to discuss four factors creating the perfect storm. Good to
(01:48):
have both of you with us.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Good to be hearing.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Thank you, Hank Don. I remember sitting at lunch when
you shared with me these four factors leading to the
perfect storm, the first of which was diluted values, the
second failing faith foundations. Then you talked about media dominance,
(02:11):
and then you talked about the personalization of technology. Want
you to cache that out for us, beginning with diluted values.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Yes, now we're in the media side of things, Hank,
as you've said, and what's really driving all of our
activities at the moment is how we see the culture
and the needs within the culture. And this first storm
of diluted values is really a storm that really you
get very little disagreement with. If you could measure some
(02:43):
kind of quotient on people's joy or happiness, or you
could have a quotient that measures relationships or a quotient
that measures morality, those graphs would be heading down. And
we know through measurement, through polling, through surveys, reputable surveys,
(03:05):
that the acceptability of certain moral behaviors are creating an
environment of deteriorating values, diluted values, and it's especially pertinent
for young people as they're transitioning from children to adults.
They come into this interesting context where they don't know
(03:26):
right from wrong, and there's lots of models that are
suggesting that confusion. We know, for example, that almost seven
out of ten people in society find it morally acceptable
to divorce. We find that six out of ten find
it morally acceptable to have sex between an unmarried man
(03:47):
and woman, four out of ten people find it morally
acceptable to have an abortion, and shockingly, fifteen percent of
people now find it morally acceptable even to take ones
own life. So I call this the door a jar problem.
As we're trying to teach a young generation on what
(04:09):
is right and wrong, the door of diluted values is
wide open.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Is not just diluted values you're talking about failing faith foundations?
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Yes, And in fact, you know it's not the first
generation of diluted values. If we go back in history,
we find different eras, different cultures with this swinging values.
But you know, with the context we have now, unfortunately,
the Second Storm really suggests that we haven't put underneath
our young people the type of faith foundations that would
(04:44):
be required to actually face the storms that we've handed
to them. And it's the combination of those storms that
is a concern. In other words, if there's a cultural
storm of diluted values, and young people had a foundation faith,
they would recognize what was right and wrong and be
able to withstand that. Without the foundations underneath them, then
(05:09):
they effectively become casualties of the incorrect thinking that permeates
the culture. And it's the two together. It's interesting because
we blaunched a study in Canada which actually followed soon
after a study that the Barne Group had completed, where
both actually studied Christian young people that regularly attended church,
(05:33):
but measured what occurred in their lives between the age
of eighteen and thirty. And as you know, David Kinneman,
the CEO of BARNA, actually called a book which showed
the results of that study. You lost me representing this
rather disappointing conclusion where the church itself and matters of
(05:56):
faith really didn't impact young people so that they made
it their life choice. In Canada, we've called the study
Hemorrhaging Faith, which is a very ominous sort of a
descriptor for the fact that the survey shows us that
only one in four of young people that believed in
God when they routines went regularly to church. Between the
(06:20):
age of eighteen and thirty four, only one in four
continue to pursue faith as their choice in their life.
And so now there are some that are undecided, but
there are also a lot that are turning to atheism
as a matter of fact, as a result of things
that have come into their life during their young adult years.
(06:40):
So it's this concern over a lack of foundation hitting
a context of diluted values that is really messing a
lot of young people up.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
So, in other words, what you're saying is there isn't
the infrastructure to withstand not only the storm of diluted values,
but all so the storm that you have designated by
the Moniker media dominance.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Yes, and now we come to the third storm. And
this media dominance really has two aspects to it. One
are the messages of the media, and the other aspect
is the volume of media. So if it was volume
of media that our culture is consuming and the messages
were positive, then one could, you know, one could accept that,
(07:28):
but the messages are so destructive and negative and are
in such volume. My goodness, young people now consume on
average seven and a half hours per day of media.
Canadian families use the internet more than watched TV, but
the amount of television they watched increased. So when you
(07:51):
sum up those two categories of media consumption, it's just
such a dominating influence and the lives most people in
the culture, but especially young people. So you have this
context of diluted values for whatever reason, a weakened faith
foundation under even the young people that we produce in
(08:13):
our churches. And then at the same time they're enveloped
with this dominating media that just pounds them with messages
that are not the truth that we believe.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
And as in every storm, there is a silver lining.
We'll get to that in just a moment, but touch on,
if you will, this fourth storm, which has to do
with the whole concept of the personalization of technology. This
to me is not only the greatest of the storms,
(08:48):
but it seems to me to provide the greatest of opportunities,
which I want to talk about after the break, but
right now, talk about that storm and the significance for
families for Christianity in general. Yes.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Now, I come from the technology world, Hank. We made
our living in high technology businesses, primarily and wireless up
in Canada, and so you know, technology advances are not
normally all that surprising. In fact, we've been able to
spot those trends and take advantage of them. But this
personalizing of technology is a fairly new storm. We have
(09:25):
not yet seen in any way the full ramifications of this,
and it's largely driven by the fact that most people
now can in their own hands hold all of the
horsepower that they would need, which operates on their iPhone
(09:45):
or whatever form of personal communicator they use. And it
is so personalizing life that all of these negative influences
go direct to the ears and direct to the eyes
of our young people. All of this horsepower is in
the hands of very young people that can access all
(10:06):
of what the internet has to offer. One of our
producers was talking to some church young people about their
habits in terms of looking at pornography, and the young
people said, what do you keep asking us about this?
For we watch it all the time on the bus
we traded around at school, and it is just so
(10:27):
accessible that there's almost not even a reference that that
might be a harmful activity for them.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Sorry, Don Simmons, and we're going to bring Jerry Johnston
into the conversation in just a few moments. We are
coming to the station break. On the other side of
the break, I want to talk about the silver lining
in the storm, because on the one hand, the personalization
of technology is a blight. On the other it is
a blessing that back in just a few moments with more.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
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Speaker 1 (15:07):
Now back to the Bible answer Man broadcast and your
host and Canigraph.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Talking to Don Simmons, CEO and chairman of Crossroads Television
in Canada and Jerry Johnston, who's the executive director of
Crossroads USA. We're going to bring into the conversation in
just a moment about the perfect storm four factors, all
related to technology in one way or another, that have formed,
(15:32):
as it were, the perfect in fact, a deadly storm.
But in that storm, as always, there is a silver lining,
and that silver lining is that we either harness technology
for the good of the Gospel, or we lose Western civilization.
So we're not talking about a small issue here. We're
(15:55):
talking about Western civilization built on the dna of a
biblical worldview. It hangs in the balance. Is that too
strong or is that a fair statement?
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Jerry, It's absolutely fair, and I think that's why we,
as a believer said, listening to Don Simmons this clarion
call from Crossroads Christian Communications based in Toronto, there is
an unprecedented opportunity for the church today. This technology can
(16:27):
be harnessed by the church for evangelism and for doing, Hank,
what you do so well, teaching the fundamentals of the faith,
so that we don't have this massive fallout of three
out of every four people who become indoctrinated because of
the truth that you present the Crossroads presents. That's why
we're here and that's why we share a common bond together.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
You said something done that was riveting to me. When
we're talking about the perfect storm, you said, this happened
on my watch, and therefore you're saying that we bear
some culpability for this perfect storm.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Well, when we think of the four storms we've just described,
although there's this inclination in the human heart to go
against God's ways. Most of what we've just talked about
in terms of the value deterioration and the media dominance
and not putting the right foundation, it's really happened in
the last thirty years or so. And during that time
(17:25):
I've been a Christian father, pretty dedicated father, a businessman
who believes in exercising my faith in the marketplace, and
actually a Christian leader of various ministries. And so yes,
I without you know, without trying to sugarcoat it, this
has been on my watch the last thirty years is
when this perfect storm has been brewing, and in fact,
(17:48):
being in the wireless industry, we've actually created the infrastructure
for a lot of these messages to be communicated. I
should say, also, Hank, that this has become very personal
to me because I'm a hockey coach in our small
community at the high school, and we only have one
high school in our town, so you can imagine with
(18:09):
a Canadian with a group of Canadians, hockey's big and
the high school team is quite a special aspect of
a community. And earlier this year, one of my hockey
players took his own life, and as we've unpacked that,
by the way, our motto is to win at hockey
(18:29):
and win it life. So imagine being a coach who
carries that motto and for twenty years of coach hockey
in my community, and instead of helping win it life,
one of my players took his life. And it's probably
that experience, more than anything else, that has allowed me
to crystallize these four storms because he was a casualty.
(18:51):
Actually he was sunk in his life by those four
storms all converging on him. So it's become very personal.
But you talked about the opportunity. You see, my fifteen
year old daughter can create a YouTube channel which can
access almost three billion users if they choose to watch it.
(19:13):
So at virtually no cost, a fifteen year old has
command of communications now virtually to forty or fifty percent
of the entire world. It's quite a remarkable thing. And
with the personalizing nature of technology, the very horse power
that is taking a lot of our young people down
(19:33):
can actually be used for good. And so if we
can create the type of content that is relevant, that
carries Christian faith and values in a way that is
attractive and high quality and stimulating to young minds, then
we can use that same power that is impacting them negatively,
(19:57):
use that same power for God. And we can do
it quite quickly because we can get a message out
extremely quickly with today's technology, and we have.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
To harness that technology. Jerry, and we think about the
power of radio. It's a very potent medium today, as
it has been for many years. Both of you know
a whole lot more about this than I do. When
it comes to television, it's a powerful medium, but you're
talking about technology advancing rapidly, and if we do not
(20:25):
seize the future. Like Christian leaders at Atzinger at Salem
Broadcasting and Stuart Apperson, they had a vision for how
to utilize Christian radio. David Mains in Canada had a
vision for Christian television. People like that had a vision
for how to harness those mediums in their epic of time. Again,
(20:48):
still powerful mediums today, but we're saying that if we
do not harness technology, social media and the like in
the future, we're going to drift into relevance as a
Christian commuit.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Don Simmons's vision at Crossroads has coined a phrase transmedia,
and what I love about what Crossroads is doing, not
just entering the US the initiative that I have the
privilege to lead, but really creating Internet channels twenty four
hours a day to play to that three billion plus
crowd that our internet accessed. Crossroads is doing that now,
(21:23):
harnessing that library of nine thousand interviews that's all being
digitized as we work here today in Charlotte. I mean,
the opportunity now is at a whole new zenith. The
horizon has all changed, and I believe God is raising
up in the church just as we're with a businessman
(21:44):
in Charlotte today. People that are sick and tired of
where the country's going. We're losing this young generation and
they want to do something about it. And Hank, that's
why your ministry is so crucial and your future sure
expansion is so crucial because your voice is needed. And
(22:05):
Don talks about all ages, at all stages, multiple media
created content for trans media.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
We think about leaders like Chuck Holsen. I remember coming
back from China and talking about the persecuted church and
the rapid growth of Christianity in China. And I was
talking to Chuck about this and almost hyper ventilating about
the great growth of the church in China and God's
move in the East, and Chuck said something to me
(22:35):
that was very sobering. He said, yes, that is wonderful,
but we cannot lose Western civilization. Western civilization has a heritage,
It has a heritage of thousands of years. In the East,
people are coming out of syncretistic religions. They're coming out
(22:57):
of ancestor worship and a whole conglomeration of belief structures,
and therefore they come into Christianity. They have a lot
of vibrancy, but not deep roots. We have the deep
roots in Western civilization. We can't lose that. And that's
really what your vision entails. It's saying, on the one hand,
(23:18):
you can curse the darkness. On the other hand, we
can build a lighthouse in the midst of the gathering storm.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
And we must build a lighthouse in the midst of
gathering storms, the perfect storm, as a matter of fact,
because the nature of a perfect storm is the convergence
of storms, which creates such a multiplying effect that usually
people that get caught in it are casualties. And that's
why this we're just we're not just applying rhetoric to
(23:45):
our conversation here. We must enter the heart of that
storm directly, and we'll do that with the power of God.
It's a giant we're facing, but we face it with
the power of God. And so he can take He
can take resorts and multiply them, and I believe he'll
use technology to multiply his message of love to people's
(24:07):
It's interesting you mentioned the Chinese culture because the problem
we're talking about is not just protecting our own Western civilization,
either because the Internet is a great level or globally.
As a matter of fact, we had a delegation I
won't say what country, but from an Asian country, not
necessarily a Christian country, who came to see us to
(24:32):
ask how or what we would have to be an
antidote to the messages from Western culture that we're impacting
their culture and their young people. This is not just
something that's geographically limited, Hank. The Internet carries these messages globally,
and more and more the antidote here in Western culture
(24:54):
will be used around the world also, because that's really
the type of messages that need to be counteracted.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
I'm Don Simmons, CEO, Chairman of Crossroads Television and Candida
Jerry Johnston, Executive director of Crossroads USA, thank you very
much for your contribution.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
And Hank, we need you and I want to say,
on behalf of the Body of Christ, just how important
you are to all your listeners. I want to just say,
not a greater ministry that's standing and apologetics worthy of
our support, and we on behalf of Crossroads, just say
keep on keeping on.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
We're with you all the way.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Thank you, my friend, and thank you Hank. You got
it done. Love your clear, clear and call. That's a
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(25:52):
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Welcome to the Bible answer Man Broadcast with your host,
Hank Canigraph. The Bible answer Man is the radio ministry
of the Christian Research Institute designed to equip believers to
defend their faith and become true disciples of the Lord
Jesus Christ, because life and truth matter. Our phone number
is eight eight eight seven thousand CRII. You can find
(00:31):
us on the internet at equip dot org. The following
program was pre recorded, and now to begin today's broadcast,
here's Hank Canagraph.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Thank you very much for Andy has always it is
great to be in studio as we answer your questions
throughout the United States and Canada. I thought today I
wanted to talk about a storm with two guests today
who have dubbed this not just a storm, but the
perfect storm. It is the coalescing of factors that has
(01:04):
caused an incredible impact in our culture that we are
so often unaware of. Joining me to talk about this
Don Simmons, he's the CEO and chairman of Crossroads Television
in Canada, and Jerry Johnston, who's the executive director of
(01:27):
Crossroads USA. When I was in Canada on Crossroads Television,
Don shared this story with me. It captivated me, and
I wanted you to hear it as well. We're going
to discuss four factors creating the perfect storm. Good to
(01:48):
have both of you with us.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Good to be hearing.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Thank you, Hank Don. I remember sitting at lunch when
you shared with me these four factors leading to the
perfect storm, the first of which was diluted values, the
second failing faith foundations. Then you talked about media dominance,
(02:11):
and then you talked about the personalization of technology. Want
you to cache that out for us, beginning with diluted values.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Yes, now we're in the media side of things, Hank,
as you've said, and what's really driving all of our
activities at the moment is how we see the culture
and the needs within the culture. And this first storm
of diluted values is really a storm that really you
get very little disagreement with. If you could measure some
(02:43):
kind of quotient on people's joy or happiness, or you
could have a quotient that measures relationships or a quotient
that measures morality, those graphs would be heading down. And
we know through measurement, through polling, through surveys, reputable surveys,
(03:05):
that the acceptability of certain moral behaviors are creating an
environment of deteriorating values, diluted values, and it's especially pertinent
for young people as they're transitioning from children to adults.
They come into this interesting context where they don't know
(03:26):
right from wrong, and there's lots of models that are
suggesting that confusion. We know, for example, that almost seven
out of ten people in society find it morally acceptable
to divorce. We find that six out of ten find
it morally acceptable to have sex between an unmarried man
(03:47):
and woman, four out of ten people find it morally
acceptable to have an abortion, and shockingly, fifteen percent of
people now find it morally acceptable even to take ones
own life. So I call this the door a jar problem.
As we're trying to teach a young generation on what
(04:09):
is right and wrong, the door of diluted values is
wide open.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Is not just diluted values you're talking about failing faith foundations?
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Yes, And in fact, you know it's not the first
generation of diluted values. If we go back in history,
we find different eras, different cultures with this swinging values.
But you know, with the context we have now, unfortunately,
the Second Storm really suggests that we haven't put underneath
our young people the type of faith foundations that would
(04:44):
be required to actually face the storms that we've handed
to them. And it's the combination of those storms that
is a concern. In other words, if there's a cultural
storm of diluted values, and young people had a foundation faith,
they would recognize what was right and wrong and be
able to withstand that. Without the foundations underneath them, then
(05:09):
they effectively become casualties of the incorrect thinking that permeates
the culture. And it's the two together. It's interesting because
we blaunched a study in Canada which actually followed soon
after a study that the Barne Group had completed, where
both actually studied Christian young people that regularly attended church,
(05:33):
but measured what occurred in their lives between the age
of eighteen and thirty. And as you know, David Kinneman,
the CEO of BARNA, actually called a book which showed
the results of that study. You lost me representing this
rather disappointing conclusion where the church itself and matters of
(05:56):
faith really didn't impact young people so that they made
it their life choice. In Canada, we've called the study
Hemorrhaging Faith, which is a very ominous sort of a
descriptor for the fact that the survey shows us that
only one in four of young people that believed in
God when they routines went regularly to church. Between the
(06:20):
age of eighteen and thirty four, only one in four
continue to pursue faith as their choice in their life.
And so now there are some that are undecided, but
there are also a lot that are turning to atheism
as a matter of fact, as a result of things
that have come into their life during their young adult years.
(06:40):
So it's this concern over a lack of foundation hitting
a context of diluted values that is really messing a
lot of young people up.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
So, in other words, what you're saying is there isn't
the infrastructure to withstand not only the storm of diluted values,
but all so the storm that you have designated by
the Moniker media dominance.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Yes, and now we come to the third storm. And
this media dominance really has two aspects to it. One
are the messages of the media, and the other aspect
is the volume of media. So if it was volume
of media that our culture is consuming and the messages
were positive, then one could, you know, one could accept that,
(07:28):
but the messages are so destructive and negative and are
in such volume. My goodness, young people now consume on
average seven and a half hours per day of media.
Canadian families use the internet more than watched TV, but
the amount of television they watched increased. So when you
(07:51):
sum up those two categories of media consumption, it's just
such a dominating influence and the lives most people in
the culture, but especially young people. So you have this
context of diluted values for whatever reason, a weakened faith
foundation under even the young people that we produce in
(08:13):
our churches. And then at the same time they're enveloped
with this dominating media that just pounds them with messages
that are not the truth that we believe.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
And as in every storm, there is a silver lining.
We'll get to that in just a moment, but touch on,
if you will, this fourth storm, which has to do
with the whole concept of the personalization of technology. This
to me is not only the greatest of the storms,
(08:48):
but it seems to me to provide the greatest of opportunities,
which I want to talk about after the break, but
right now, talk about that storm and the significance for
families for Christianity in general. Yes.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Now, I come from the technology world, Hank. We made
our living in high technology businesses, primarily and wireless up
in Canada, and so you know, technology advances are not
normally all that surprising. In fact, we've been able to
spot those trends and take advantage of them. But this
personalizing of technology is a fairly new storm. We have
(09:25):
not yet seen in any way the full ramifications of this,
and it's largely driven by the fact that most people
now can in their own hands hold all of the
horsepower that they would need, which operates on their iPhone
(09:45):
or whatever form of personal communicator they use. And it
is so personalizing life that all of these negative influences
go direct to the ears and direct to the eyes
of our young people. All of this horsepower is in
the hands of very young people that can access all
(10:06):
of what the internet has to offer. One of our
producers was talking to some church young people about their
habits in terms of looking at pornography, and the young
people said, what do you keep asking us about this?
For we watch it all the time on the bus
we traded around at school, and it is just so
(10:27):
accessible that there's almost not even a reference that that
might be a harmful activity for them.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Sorry, Don Simmons, and we're going to bring Jerry Johnston
into the conversation in just a few moments. We are
coming to the station break. On the other side of
the break, I want to talk about the silver lining
in the storm, because on the one hand, the personalization
of technology is a blight. On the other it is
a blessing that back in just a few moments with more.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Has Jesus Christ returned to worth as a woman. Eastern Lightning,
also called the Church of All Mighty God, claims a
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(11:16):
while exploiting Western sympathy to spread its destructive dogmas. Don't
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make a gift to support the Christian Research Institute's mind shaping,
(11:38):
life changing outreaches. That's eight eight eight seven thousand CRII
or go online to equip dot org. That's equip dot org.
The Bible answer Man Broadcast will return in just a
few moments. The number of wolves surrounding the Christian flock
(12:03):
is growing, and they relish nothing more than docile's sheep,
utterly incapable of defending themselves from militant secularists at home
to militant Islamists abroad. The assaults on Biblical Christianity are
growing dangerously, but Christian Research Institutes Support Team members aren't
in favor of feeding these wolves. Instead, each day they're
(12:25):
making possible an array of outreaches that defang these wolfpacks
with solid arguments and evidence that have stood the test
of time. What's more, Support Team members are equipping themselves
with CRIIS Equipping Essentials, a handpicked collection of the best
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(12:46):
way of saying thanks. To learn more about the benefits
of membership, simply visit equip dot org. Once again, that's
equip dot org. The Complete Bible answer Book Collector's Edition
is the comprehensive collection of the most often asked questions
(13:07):
Hank Hannigraph has received throughout his four decades as host
of the Bible answer Man broadcast. With more than half
a million copies already in print, this newly revised and
expanded Collector's Edition helped seekers and skeptics alike sort through
the truth on topics such as reliability of the Bible,
religions and cults, the resurrection and afterlife, and many more
(13:30):
issues vital to a better understanding of God in Christ
and our relationship to Him. To receive your copy of
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call eight eight eight seven thousand CROI and make a
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(13:51):
eight eight eight seven thousand CROI or visit us at
equip dot org.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
Truth Matters, Life Matters More details Hank Hanigraff's personal pilgrimage
from his long defensive truth to his discovery that life
matters more. Essentially, two books in one. Part one equips
Christians to defend the essential truths of the historic Christian faith.
Part two explains why truth is necessary but hardly sufficient,
(14:21):
that the map is not the territory. The menu is
not the meal. We are created to experience life to
the full through union with God in Christ. Is there
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Truth matters, Life matters more, unveils the unexpected beauty of
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Speaker 1 (15:07):
Now back to the Bible answer Man broadcast and your
host and Canigraph.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Talking to Don Simmons, CEO and chairman of Crossroads Television
in Canada and Jerry Johnston, who's the executive director of
Crossroads USA. We're going to bring into the conversation in
just a moment about the perfect storm four factors, all
related to technology in one way or another, that have formed,
(15:32):
as it were, the perfect in fact, a deadly storm.
But in that storm, as always, there is a silver lining,
and that silver lining is that we either harness technology
for the good of the Gospel, or we lose Western civilization.
So we're not talking about a small issue here. We're
(15:55):
talking about Western civilization built on the dna of a
biblical worldview. It hangs in the balance. Is that too
strong or is that a fair statement?
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Jerry, It's absolutely fair, and I think that's why we,
as a believer said, listening to Don Simmons this clarion
call from Crossroads Christian Communications based in Toronto, there is
an unprecedented opportunity for the church today. This technology can
(16:27):
be harnessed by the church for evangelism and for doing, Hank,
what you do so well, teaching the fundamentals of the faith,
so that we don't have this massive fallout of three
out of every four people who become indoctrinated because of
the truth that you present the Crossroads presents. That's why
we're here and that's why we share a common bond together.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
You said something done that was riveting to me. When
we're talking about the perfect storm, you said, this happened
on my watch, and therefore you're saying that we bear
some culpability for this perfect storm.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Well, when we think of the four storms we've just described,
although there's this inclination in the human heart to go
against God's ways. Most of what we've just talked about
in terms of the value deterioration and the media dominance
and not putting the right foundation, it's really happened in
the last thirty years or so. And during that time
(17:25):
I've been a Christian father, pretty dedicated father, a businessman
who believes in exercising my faith in the marketplace, and
actually a Christian leader of various ministries. And so yes,
I without you know, without trying to sugarcoat it, this
has been on my watch the last thirty years is
when this perfect storm has been brewing, and in fact,
(17:48):
being in the wireless industry, we've actually created the infrastructure
for a lot of these messages to be communicated. I
should say, also, Hank, that this has become very personal
to me because I'm a hockey coach in our small
community at the high school, and we only have one
high school in our town, so you can imagine with
(18:09):
a Canadian with a group of Canadians, hockey's big and
the high school team is quite a special aspect of
a community. And earlier this year, one of my hockey
players took his own life, and as we've unpacked that,
by the way, our motto is to win at hockey
(18:29):
and win it life. So imagine being a coach who
carries that motto and for twenty years of coach hockey
in my community, and instead of helping win it life,
one of my players took his life. And it's probably
that experience, more than anything else, that has allowed me
to crystallize these four storms because he was a casualty.
(18:51):
Actually he was sunk in his life by those four
storms all converging on him. So it's become very personal.
But you talked about the opportunity. You see, my fifteen
year old daughter can create a YouTube channel which can
access almost three billion users if they choose to watch it.
(19:13):
So at virtually no cost, a fifteen year old has
command of communications now virtually to forty or fifty percent
of the entire world. It's quite a remarkable thing. And
with the personalizing nature of technology, the very horse power
that is taking a lot of our young people down
(19:33):
can actually be used for good. And so if we
can create the type of content that is relevant, that
carries Christian faith and values in a way that is
attractive and high quality and stimulating to young minds, then
we can use that same power that is impacting them negatively,
(19:57):
use that same power for God. And we can do
it quite quickly because we can get a message out
extremely quickly with today's technology, and we have.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
To harness that technology. Jerry, and we think about the
power of radio. It's a very potent medium today, as
it has been for many years. Both of you know
a whole lot more about this than I do. When
it comes to television, it's a powerful medium, but you're
talking about technology advancing rapidly, and if we do not
(20:25):
seize the future. Like Christian leaders at Atzinger at Salem
Broadcasting and Stuart Apperson, they had a vision for how
to utilize Christian radio. David Mains in Canada had a
vision for Christian television. People like that had a vision
for how to harness those mediums in their epic of time. Again,
(20:48):
still powerful mediums today, but we're saying that if we
do not harness technology, social media and the like in
the future, we're going to drift into relevance as a
Christian commuit.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Don Simmons's vision at Crossroads has coined a phrase transmedia,
and what I love about what Crossroads is doing, not
just entering the US the initiative that I have the
privilege to lead, but really creating Internet channels twenty four
hours a day to play to that three billion plus
crowd that our internet accessed. Crossroads is doing that now,
(21:23):
harnessing that library of nine thousand interviews that's all being
digitized as we work here today in Charlotte. I mean,
the opportunity now is at a whole new zenith. The
horizon has all changed, and I believe God is raising
up in the church just as we're with a businessman
(21:44):
in Charlotte today. People that are sick and tired of
where the country's going. We're losing this young generation and
they want to do something about it. And Hank, that's
why your ministry is so crucial and your future sure
expansion is so crucial because your voice is needed. And
(22:05):
Don talks about all ages, at all stages, multiple media
created content for trans media.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
We think about leaders like Chuck Holsen. I remember coming
back from China and talking about the persecuted church and
the rapid growth of Christianity in China. And I was
talking to Chuck about this and almost hyper ventilating about
the great growth of the church in China and God's
move in the East, and Chuck said something to me
(22:35):
that was very sobering. He said, yes, that is wonderful,
but we cannot lose Western civilization. Western civilization has a heritage,
It has a heritage of thousands of years. In the East,
people are coming out of syncretistic religions. They're coming out
(22:57):
of ancestor worship and a whole conglomeration of belief structures,
and therefore they come into Christianity. They have a lot
of vibrancy, but not deep roots. We have the deep
roots in Western civilization. We can't lose that. And that's
really what your vision entails. It's saying, on the one hand,
(23:18):
you can curse the darkness. On the other hand, we
can build a lighthouse in the midst of the gathering storm.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
And we must build a lighthouse in the midst of
gathering storms, the perfect storm, as a matter of fact,
because the nature of a perfect storm is the convergence
of storms, which creates such a multiplying effect that usually
people that get caught in it are casualties. And that's
why this we're just we're not just applying rhetoric to
(23:45):
our conversation here. We must enter the heart of that
storm directly, and we'll do that with the power of God.
It's a giant we're facing, but we face it with
the power of God. And so he can take He
can take resorts and multiply them, and I believe he'll
use technology to multiply his message of love to people's
(24:07):
It's interesting you mentioned the Chinese culture because the problem
we're talking about is not just protecting our own Western civilization,
either because the Internet is a great level or globally.
As a matter of fact, we had a delegation I
won't say what country, but from an Asian country, not
necessarily a Christian country, who came to see us to
(24:32):
ask how or what we would have to be an
antidote to the messages from Western culture that we're impacting
their culture and their young people. This is not just
something that's geographically limited, Hank. The Internet carries these messages globally,
and more and more the antidote here in Western culture
(24:54):
will be used around the world also, because that's really
the type of messages that need to be counteracted.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
I'm Don Simmons, CEO, Chairman of Crossroads Television and Candida
Jerry Johnston, Executive director of Crossroads USA, thank you very
much for your contribution.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
And Hank, we need you and I want to say,
on behalf of the Body of Christ, just how important
you are to all your listeners. I want to just say,
not a greater ministry that's standing and apologetics worthy of
our support, and we on behalf of Crossroads, just say
keep on keeping on.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
We're with you all the way.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Thank you, my friend, and thank you Hank. You got
it done. Love your clear, clear and call. That's a
call to action. Thank you for tuning in to this
edition of the Bible answer Man broadcast. Do remember our
information as we close the broadcast via the mail It's
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(25:52):
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Speaker 1 (26:04):
We appreciate you tuning in to the Bible answer Man Broadcast.
Before we sign off today, here's our contact information by
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(26:26):
You can also write CRII at Post Office Box eighty
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eight two seven one. Our prayer is that today's broadcast
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