The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: America is primed for decline. You're watching a generation without conscience because all the systems out there has made it sound like it's okay.

Announcer: Dr. Tony Evans talks about preparing our kids to be saints in a secular society.

Dr. Tony Evans: And yes, you are going to look weird when you make up your mind that that's not how I roll.

Announcer: This is The Alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. No matter how hard we try to protect our kids, sooner or later they'll come face to face with the world's value system and start feeling the pressure to conform to it. Let's listen as Dr. Evans talks about how we can get them prepared.

Dr. Tony Evans: There was a time when there was a Judeo-Christian framework by which our culture was defined, where a biblical worldview, even if you weren't a Christian, was understood, valued, respected, and supported. That is no longer our reality.

You can almost name the category and see within it the decline. Language that used to be only kept for cable television has now become network normal. Even inside the church, people are coming up with new definitions. They want God to be politically correct. They want God to seem acceptable to the culture regardless of what his Word says.

People are overdosing on reality television, putting themselves in the circumstances of others so they could piggyback off the reality of others. I regularly hear on television they will talk about the opinions of the people are shifting, that they no longer view things as they used to view them. The great tragedy is that the opinions of Christians are shifting with them, as though God checks with polls before he decides what is legit versus illegit.

So how are saints to function in a secular culture? This was the situation in the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter one, verse two says the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, that is, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar is the king of Babylon. Babylon is a secular society, a pagan society led by a man named Nebuchadnezzar.

God's people in the southern kingdom, Judah, had rebelled against God. And when God's people rebelled against God, he turned them over to secularism. He turned them over to the king of Babylon. He takes the vessels from the house of God. He invades the church. He brings them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god. So the secular god takes over the Christian God.

The government secular invades the church spiritual and takes the church and secularizes it. He goes in God's people, in God's house, gets God's stuff, and puts it in his god's house. Because secularism is a religion. You have to understand that. It's a man-made religion. It's humanism, but it is a religion.

So when secular people tell you they have no religion, oh yeah, they do. It's just the religion of man. So Nebuchadnezzar takes from God's people, from God's house, and inculcates it into his secular system. Then the king makes an order, verse three, to Ashpenaz the chief of the officials to bring some of the sons of Israel, the creme de la creme, cream of the crop, including some from the royal family and the nobles.

These were youth, teenagers in whom there was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding, discerning knowledge, who had the ability for serving in the king's court. And he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.

In other words, let's get the next generation. Let's get these young teenagers and let's bring them into our secular culture and let's Babylonian-ize them. Let's reshape their thinking into who we are, not where they came from. Let's get church up out of them. Let's get their God away from them and let's reorient them.

So how do they do that? The first thing they do is isolate them from their spiritual heritage. They remove them from Israel, from the house of God, to Babylon, to the house of idols. And they relocate them in order to re-educate them. When you send your high school student off to college, you have to understand you relocate them.

In fact, you don't have to send them to college to relocate them. Because in many of our high schools, they get to undo eight hours a day what you give them two hours a week. If you bring them to church for an hour and 40 minutes or two hours a week, they get a little something. They are in another system eight hours a day that may or may not reinforce the values that you have as a parent.

And in fact, you don't even have to be a kid because some of you, when you go to work eight hours a day, are being isolated from the value system you may hear for two hours on Sunday. The people you're around, the philosophies they have, the worldview they possess, the language they use, and the discussions they have may be absolutely in antithesis to the worldview you were raised in. Some of you been to college, you know what I'm talking about.

You know what it is to walk away from God because you're surrounded by secularism and by a different viewpoint. In fact, you don't even get to become an atheist until you go to college because you have to be educated out of theism and out of a view of God. He says, let's bring these young people over and let's isolate them so that they're not being reinforced by their God-centered worldview and their theistic orientation to life.

Let's not only isolate them, let's re-educate them. Because the end of verse four says, teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. Chaldean means Babylonian. In other words, let's bring them to school. In fact, he goes on to say they were given a three-year scholarship.

Now, if you're going to a Babylonian school located in a Babylonian city with Babylonian teachers reading Babylonian literature, then you're going to start to think like a Babylonian. You're going to start to think like the culture's influence on you. You're going to read their books and their thinking and their orientation and their mindset.

You're going to begin to formulate your views of what's right and wrong, good and bad, up and down, based on the information overload you are receiving. Today, even if it's not a school, you watch television enough, and it's information overload. Because it's 24 hours a day with more stations than you can ever tune into. It's news overload and data overload.

He says, let's take three years. Let's give them a scholarship so they don't even have to pay for it. And let's Babylonian-ize them. Let's indoctrinate them in the language and the literature. I want them talking Babylonian talk.

Announcer: When Dr. Evans returns in a moment, we'll see how Daniel kept his spiritual identity intact in a culture intent on reshaping him. Stay with us.

Sometimes the clearest moments come when you step away from the noise and give your soul room to breathe. This February, you're invited to experience that kind of renewal on a Caribbean cruise with Dr. Tony Evans. Join Dr. Evans and friends of the ministry, February 28th through March 7th, for a seven-day journey from Fort Lauderdale.

You'll visit Nassau, the unspoiled beaches of Grand Turk, and Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic, along with peaceful days at sea and a relaxing stop at Half Moon Cay. Together, these moments create the perfect setting for rest, reflection, and spiritual growth. And on board, you'll experience inspiring teaching, uplifting worship, and meaningful connection.

This isn't just a vacation. It's an opportunity to return home refreshed, refocused, and renewed. Don't miss your chance to be part of it. Visit tonyevans.org and make your reservation today. That's tonyevans.org.

If you're concerned about the pressures today's culture places on families, I want to tell you about a resource package that can help. It starts with Tony's two-volume, 13-message series, Parenting on Purpose. In these lessons, Dr. Evans explains how parents can provide the guidance, stability, and spiritual leadership children need in an increasingly confused world.

We'd like to send you this practical audio collection as our thank-you gift when you make a donation to support the ministry of the Urban Alternative. And to help you continue growing beyond the messages, we'll also include Tony's popular book, Raising Kingdom Kids. It offers practical encouragement for parents who want to intentionally shape their children's hearts, values, and future from a biblical perspective.

To take advantage of this limited-time deal, just visit tonyevans.org and look for more information right on the home page. Or if it's more convenient, simply give us a phone call at 1-800-800-3222, where one of our friendly team members is ready to assist you. That's tonyevans.org, or by phone anytime of the day or night at 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that information after the second part of today's lesson. Here's Dr. Evans, picking up our study in the first chapter of Daniel.

Dr. Tony Evans: Verse five: the king appointed for them a daily ration of the king's choice food and the wine which the king drank. Let's create hopes and dreams and opportunities and fanfare. Let's make them feel good. Because if we make them feel good, they're going to want to be in Babylon. They're going to want to hang out with the rich and the famous.

And then let's do something else. Let's rename them. Their names coming out of Israel, verse six, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. But we're going to rename them. We have to raise the question, why did they have to change the guy's names? Why can't you just call them what their momma called them? So let's learn a little Hebrew right now.

Two of the Hebrew boys' names, back home when they were born and their mommas named them, were Daniel and Mishael. Please notice that those two names end with "el," E-L. The other two, Hananiah and Azariah, their names end with "iah," I-A-H. So now we learn a little bit about their momma and their daddy because they're the ones who named them.

The ones whose names end with "el," "el" is the Old Testament word for Elohim, God. It's the singular of the plural. In the beginning, God, Elohim, created the heavens and the earth. That's plural because God is plural in his person. It's a majestic plural. God is three persons composed of one God. Three different persons making the singular God, Elohim.

But if you just want to designate it singular, God said, let us make man, plural. Then he said, he made man, singular. So you can make Elohim the plural God, or you can use "el." "Iah," I-A-H, is "Yah," Hallelujah. "Hallelu" means praise, "Yah" means God. So those two boys were named after Jehovah, which is God's self-revealing name.

So now we learn a little bit about these four boys' momma and daddy. They wanted these boys to be baptized with God's name so that they could never get away from God. Because every time you call their name, they had to be reminded of "el" or "iah." They had to be reminded that they had a God stamp on them.

Your job, mothers and fathers, is to stamp your children with God so that when they go to Babylon, their name has already been stamped on them. Because when Babylon gets them, it's going to try to rename them. Daniel Googled food in a foreign land. And when Daniel Googled food in a foreign land, up pops Exodus chapter 34, verses 14 and 15.

I am a jealous God, and in the foreign land, they're going to try to feed you food that has been sacrificed to a foreign god and then ask you to come eat with them. You ought to be smart enough, Daniel, to know this food is not just about eating. This food is about fellowshipping around their god. Because we've already been told in verses one and two that he took out of the house of God and brought into his house that served his god.

He knew the food had been offered to god. So he knew to fellowship around the food was not just to eat. It was to fellowship with Babylon's god. He knew this was about idolatry, about the worship of another god. And I hope you understand that's what the culture's offering you today in the name of secularism and in the name of political correctness. What they're offering you is another god.

I don't want you to miss something. He would not eat the king's food, but he did take the king's job. He did accept the king's salary. You'll see that when you read the chapter. Because God is not asking you to isolate yourself from the culture. You have to work somewhere. You have to earn money doing something. He even wound up going to the king's school for three years. He went to a secular university.

The issue is not, did he go to a secular university? It is, did he lose his identity in a secular university? The issue is not that he worked on a secular job. The issue is, did he lose his identity on the secular job in which he worked? The issue was not, did he make a good salary? He's working in the king's court and he's going to be well-paid. In fact, he climbs the ladder of success very rapidly in the king's court.

Because even the king wants somebody he can trust. And even the king wants somebody who's going to make him more profitable. The problem is not that he worked that job. The issue is that the job didn't work him. Daniel said, I got my limitations. I'm going to work for you. I'm going to do good for you. The company's going to benefit because I'm here and working hard and being productive. But you have to understand, I have my boundaries.

College student, your friends ought to know there's certain parties I don't go to. There's certain things I don't participate in because they have religious connotations against God. Verse nine: now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials. Okay, wait a minute, stick with me here. In verse eight, we got "but Daniel." In verse nine, we got "now God."

Everybody wants God's favor, God's compassion, and God's blessing when they've made absolutely no commitment. They haven't said, I'm taking my stand with God, and then see now God. We want to see God now. We want to be blessed first, and then we promise what we're going to commit after we get blessed. That's called backwards Christians, folks.

God's not going to make the decision for you. He will honor the decision if it's the right one made, but he will not make the decision for you, because then you're no longer the free agent he created you to be. But he will respond to the right decision. You're saying, God, bless me in my career, and God's trying to see whether you've made up your mind. Are you taking him into that career or you just want him to bless you even though you're going to forget him in your career?

This is radical stuff. It used to not be radical stuff because a lot of the people that were around you were like you. Now you will find yourself, like Daniel and the three Hebrew boys, the odd man out. To make up your mind and not go with the crowd and not be politically correct, you're going to find yourself the odd ball. Let me tell you now.

When you don't go with what's politically correct, when you won't go the way of the crowd, when you seek to be a Daniel in a Babylon and still retain the "el" on your name. I ain't talking about going to church. I'm talking about not eating the meat. I'm talking about not compromising with the standards of God in order to be accepted by the culture.

America is primed for decline. You're watching a generation without conscience. All this stuff that you're seeing kids doing at a younger and younger age is because they have no conscience. They don't have a sense of "this is wrong, this is shameful." They don't feel that bad about it, because all the systems out there has made it sound like it's okay and everybody's doing it.

And you don't have to feel bad about it, and it's no longer sinful, it's no longer evil, it's no longer something you should refrain from. It's no longer something you should say, "that's not right. Yeah, I did it and it was wrong." It's now the in thing. And yes, you are going to look weird because you're living in a culture that says it's no longer weird.

So you're going to look strange when you make up your mind that that's not how I roll, because I got "el" on the back of my name or "iah" on the back of my name. And how did you get "el" on the back of your name and "iah" on the back of your name? And then you can say, let me tell you about my momma and my daddy. They named me this.

And every time I looked up, it was God this and God that and Jesus this and Jesus that and the Bible this and the Bible that. Yeah, your kids are not going to like it. It's going to get on your nerves. But when Babylon tries to own them, you've given them a name to remember and something to reel them back in if they depart.

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. You will give God a fishing reel and a line to reel them back in. So don't think you're wasting your time when you pray with them and pray for them and ask them what did you learn in Sunday school and have devotions with them.

I know they're falling asleep. I know they're not paying attention. I know it looks like they're not interested. But if you give them "el" on the back of their name and "iah" on the back of their name, you have given them something for God to use when Babylon takes over.

Announcer: In just a moment, we'll hear more from Dr. Evans as he wraps up our time together with a final word of encouragement. Now, if today's lesson was helpful to you, there's much more waiting in Tony's complete series called Parenting on Purpose. This two-volume collection contains 13 full-length messages packed with biblical insight and practical encouragement for parents and grandparents alike.

And for a limited time, when you make a donation and request the series, we'll include a complimentary bonus: Tony's popular book, Raising Kingdom Kids. Together, these resources can help you build a stronger spiritual legacy for the people you love most. Visit tonyevans.org today to learn more. Or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members assist you. That's 1-800-800-3222.

The messages we present each day here on The Alternative come from Dr. Evans' sermons. But outside the pulpit, he engages on a regular basis in candid conversations with special guests on his Unbound Podcast. You can listen to those discussions anytime on your favorite podcast platform.

Blessings come from God, but not just from God. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans touches on the importance of the blessings we pass on and what to do if they were never passed on to us. Right now, though, let's listen as Dr. Evans wraps up today's teaching.

Dr. Tony Evans: And so what is God calling us to be? He's calling us to be saints in a secular society. He's calling us to go against the grain when the grain is going against God. Because that system out there is sophisticated. Nebuchadnezzar has got this thing organized to keep God out, to redefine value systems, to redefine morality, to redefine order. That system has been set up to own you. That is, unless you know your name.

Announcer: The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you. For more information, please visit tonyevans.org. That's T-O-N-Y Evans dot O-R-G. Thank you for listening and have a blessed day.

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