Max Lucado: A Sovereign, Good God Can Redeem the Most Difficult Circumstances

December 12, 2016

Writer

For many, Christmas is the best time of the year. For others, it's difficult and challenging to get through. Pastor and author Max Lucado joined The Glenn Beck Program on Monday to talk about his new book, Because of Bethlehem: Love Is Born, Hope Is Here, and the hope found in a baby in a manger.

"Some of the people I know who have the most vibrant faith are those who have discovered that God can be the perfect father to them . . . it's kind of a mental switch. They say, Okay, I wasn't, for whatever reason, blessed with a good earthly dad, but I'm not going to let that slow me down. That is what it is. I'm going to press into God, and I'm going to see what scripture says about the kind of father he is, and I'm going to begin relating to him in that fashion," Lucado said.

The new book also has a companion Study Guide or DVD Study.

God knows what it’s like to be a human. When we talk to him about deadlines or long lines or tough times, he understands. He’s been there. He’s been here. Because of Bethlehem, we have a friend in heaven.

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:

GLENN: Max Lucado is a pastor in San Antonio and an author. 120 million books sold, and people are still reading -- Max Lucado has a new book called because of Bethlehem. And also the Because of Bethlehem coloring book, which I think is fantastic. Pat had never even heard of an adult coloring book and has all the typical questions that I had when I first found out that we were making coloring books for adults. But now I love them.

Max is here with us now. Max, how are you, sir?

MAX: I'm great. I'm great. Merry Christmas to you. Thanks for letting me be on your program.

GLENN: You bet. I want to talk to you a little bit about Christmas from the eyes of people that don't necessarily find this the most wonderful time of the year. I know people who I would generally consider happy people. And I got an email from one of them the other day that said, "Christmas is the worst time of the year for me. It is so hard, and some of it is based on things that happened, and some of them is based on missed opportunities."

What do you say to those people?

MAX: Yeah. And as a pastor, I meet people like that quite often in between church services. Likely, someone will come up and say, "This is really a tough December for me." And when I ask why or explore why, oftentimes, it's something that happened this year, so this is the first Christmas since this -- you know, the funeral. The first Christmas since the divorce or the first Christmas since the job layoff. So what they would expect to be a happy season feels even heavier. And you're absolutely right. For some people, Christmas is a reminder of what they never received. And they assume or feel that everyone else did. Maybe a healthy family or wonderful parents or a great childhood. And so Christmas can be a reminder to them of -- of pain, and consequently, they just kind of slug through December and try to get it over with.

GLENN: And if you don't have a good family or if you -- particularly, people who didn't have a good dad -- you know, how do I look at, you know, God as a father and a loving father when I don't even know what that means? You know.

MAX: Yeah. And it requires some pretty exact discipline on the part of somebody's father whose father was anything but a father. And when they read in the Bible that God is our Heavenly Father -- and that conjures up images of betrayal or abuse or abandonment -- it's difficult.

But I have discovered this, Glenn. That there are those who say, "You know, I'm going to envision the perfect father, and I'm not going to blame God for my father's failure. My earthly father, my biological father's failure, but I'm going to trust God that he can reveal to me the image of the perfect father. And I'm going to let scripture, let the stories that the Bible tell me who my Heavenly Father is."

And some of the people I know who have the most vibrant faith are those who have discovered that -- that God can be the perfect father to them. And they make that -- it's kind of a mental switch. They say, "Okay. I wasn't for whatever reason blessed with a good earthly dad. But I'm not going to let that slow me down. That is what it is. I'm going to press into God, and I'm going to see what scripture says about the kind of father he is. And I'm going to begin relating to him in that fashion.

GLENN: I will tell you that Pat said to me at one point to consider -- he said, "It will change your life. Consider your -- consider God an actual dad. Envision him as an actual dad."

Now when I read scriptures, I know how I'm supposed to be a dad because I can see him as a dad. I can see how he is as a parent. He doesn't put up with crap after a long, long, long fuse. But he never punishes in -- in a bad way. He -- he lets you feel your consequences.

MAX: Absolutely, yeah.

GLENN: And he does it for your own good.

MAX: He does. He does. And I think that we are wired as human beings to need a father. We are wired to need a father. That's just the way we are built -- that's why the family unit is so important. And that's why the breakdown of fatherhood in culture is such a disaster. But it's not fatal. It's not fatal.

We believe in a sovereign, good God who can redeem the most difficult circumstances. And it's worthy of note that when Jesus taught us to pray, he said, "Pray like this: Our father who art in heaven." That's how he taught us to pray. We relate to God, yes, as a king, yes, as a Creator. But we can relate to him as our father.

And it's often pointed out that the way Jesus said that was the word our Abba. A-B-B-A. It was a tender colloquial term like papa or daddy.

I don't think anybody is ever so successful, sophisticated, or important, that they don't need a Heavenly Father with whom they can relate as a daddy, that since being able to crawl up in a father's lap and say, "I'm tired. I need help. I need strength," that we were made, Glenn -- I think we were made to receive that.

GLENN: Tell me about the book Because of Bethlehem. I'm just reading here. And I love this. Most of the players in the Christmas drama inspire us with our faith. This is about halfway through.

Mary who had great courage. Joseph who was obedient. The shepherds who came quickly and worshiped willingly. The wise men who traveled far and gave generously. Most of the characters in Bethlehem drama behaved like heroes. But there was also one who played a role of a villain.

Why is this -- why is this important?

MAX: It is important. King Herod. You know, what a story. Here's a king who was -- who was 10 miles from Bethlehem, who had wise men come from a distant country saying that they perceived through the stars that something miraculous was happening. And it could be in the vicinity of where King Herod was.

So he consults with his religious leaders. His religious leaders say, "Well, there is a prophecy in the Bible that says that the king will be born in Bethlehem."

And I think King Herod was so power-hungry, so jealous, that he couldn't bring it -- he couldn't bring himself to make the 10-mile hike to Bethlehem to see who this might be. And as we know, he actually ended up trying to kill the newborn Jesus because he tried to slaughter all the children in Bethlehem.

He's really a picture. In the book, Because of Bethlehem, I look at some of these characters and what they teach us. And I think that Herod is the picture of the man that is consumed by jealousy, by a lust for power, and how it just destroyed him, and how it prevented him from making what could have been a life-changing discovery in his life.

And so in the book -- I look at some of these characters, like Herod, or Joseph, or Mary, asking, "What can they teach us this Christmas? What can they teach us?" And I think he serves as a warning, that we shouldn't let ourselves get so arrogant and prideful that we don't feel the need to take moments to explore what supernatural interventions God might be doing right next door to us.

GLENN: You're not making these guys into movie stars. At one point, towards the end, you write, "Hollywood recast the Christmas story. Joseph's collar is way too blue. Mary is green from inexperience. The couple's star power doesn't match the bill. Too obscure. Too simple. Story warrants some headliners. Square-jawed Joseph, somebody like George Clooney. Mary needs a beauty mark and glistening teeth, Angelina Jolie-ish. What about the shepherds? Do they sing? If so, can we get Bono?

I watched for the very first time, what is it? The Nativity Story, I think. It came out about five years ago.

MAX: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And I was struck by how they cast everybody as simple, very young, very -- I mean, it seemed very, very real to me. And when you cast the story that way, you -- you really appreciate what Mary and I think -- especially Joseph -- did.

MAX: It's just a beautiful story, isn't it, Glenn? And it's so good for our spirit. I think it's good for our country right now, coming out of this difficult election, to let the Christmas story remind us that God loves every person. And he can use the simplest person. I can't imagine a person more simple than Mary. You know, she lived in a remote part of a remote country, on the margin of the Roman Empire. And yet she would be entrusted with what we Christians believe is the greatest miracle of all, and that is to bring God into the world.

And then there's Joseph. He apparently was a good guy. But he was a normal guy. He probably wouldn't have gone to the equivalent of an Ivy League college or been considered for Secretary of State or anything. You're just a regular old Joe. He was Joseph. And yet God takes these normal folk like you and me and says, "Just trust me. I can do a miracle for you. I can do a miracle in you. I can do miracles with you." And I think we need this reminder.

You know, in an increasingly secular society, we miss out on the surprises of God. We live with the mentality that says that all we -- all that exists is what we can hear or touch or see. But stories like Christmas remind us that somebody -- Almighty God is up to something really good. And he's bringing it about in the right way. And he's using regular folk like us to accomplish his purpose. And that's a refreshing reminder.

GLENN: I know we don't know this. But in your, you know, opinion as a man. How -- how much of Mary and Joseph's life was spent, do you think, thinking, I don't know -- maybe that was just a dream?

(laughter)

GLENN: Because they were people. How much of their life was spent questioning whether or not this was true. Because they were still cleaning dirty diapers and everything else. You know what I mean?

MAX: Absolutely. Absolutely. And we remember that -- that right at the core of the Christian gospel is the -- is the immaculate conception, you know, of Mary.

GLENN: Yeah.

MAX: And I believe it. I do. I know people dismiss it and disregard it. But I believe it. And if it is true, then Mary knew it was a miracle, right? I mean, she would have known.

GLENN: Mary knew. Mary didn't have as much a problem as Joseph did.

MAX: Joseph could have struggled. He could have.

GLENN: Yeah.

MAX: You know, I feel like the angelic appearances to Joseph and then just the testimony, the loyalty of his precious Mary, maybe the appearance when they took Jesus to have him set apart in the temple at the age of eight days, and he had that, you know, encounter with the people in the temple that said, "Something -- something is going on here. Something special." You know, there's no doubt he would have struggled. There's no doubt. We just don't know. We just don't know.

GLENN: Yeah, because we've all had -- now, we've never had angels appear to us, most of us.

But we've all had moments where somebody has said, "Boy, something is special." And then there's times, years later, that you're like, "I don't know." You get lost. And you're like, "I just don't know anymore." They are remarkable people because they were.

The name of the book is Because of Bethlehem: Love is Born, Hope is Here.

Max Lucado is our guest. He also has a Christmas coloring book out, which I didn't understand when I first saw them about four years ago. I'm like, "Come on. Are we really dumbing down -- adults need to color?

I think it is one of the most relaxing and mind-cleansing things you can do. But, Max, I appreciate it. And Merry Christmas to you and your family.

MAX: Merry Christmas to you, Glenn. All the best.

GLENN: God bless. Thank you very much. Max Lucado again. The name of the book is Because of Bethlehem.

Featured Image: Max Lucado (Photo Credit: MaxLucado.com

Rage isn’t conservatism — THIS is what true patriots stand for

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

Our movement is at a crossroads, and the question before us is simple: What does it mean to be a conservative in America today?

For years, we have been told what we are against — against the left, against wokeism, against decline. But opposition alone does not define a movement, and it certainly does not define a moral vision.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

The media, as usual, are eager to supply their own answer. The New York Times recently suggested that Nick Fuentes represents the “future” of conservatism. That’s nonsense — a distortion of both truth and tradition. Fuentes and those like him do not represent American conservatism. They represent its counterfeit.

Real conservatism is not rage. It is reverence. It does not treat the past as a museum, but as a teacher. America’s founders asked us to preserve their principles and improve upon their practice. That means understanding what we are conserving — a living covenant, not a relic.

Conservatism as stewardship

In 2025, conservatism means stewardship — of a nation, a culture, and a moral inheritance too precious to abandon. To conserve is not to freeze history. It is to stand guard over what is essential. We are custodians of an experiment in liberty that rests on the belief that rights come not from kings or Congress, but from the Creator.

That belief built this country. It will be what saves it. The Constitution is a covenant between generations. Conservatism is the duty to keep that covenant alive — to preserve what works, correct what fails, and pass on both wisdom and freedom to those who come next.

Economics, culture, and morality are inseparable. Debt is not only fiscal; it is moral. Spending what belongs to the unborn is theft. Dependence is not compassion; it is weakness parading as virtue. A society that trades responsibility for comfort teaches citizens how to live as slaves.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom; it is chaos. A culture that mocks faith cannot defend liberty, and a nation that rejects truth cannot sustain justice. Conservatism must again become the moral compass of a disoriented people, reminding America that liberty survives only when anchored to virtue.

Rebuilding what is broken

We cannot define ourselves by what we oppose. We must build families, communities, and institutions that endure. Government is broken because education is broken, and education is broken because we abandoned the formation of the mind and the soul. The work ahead is competence, not cynicism.

Conservatives should embrace innovation and technology while rejecting the chaos of Silicon Valley. Progress must not come at the expense of principle. Technology must strengthen people, not replace them. Artificial intelligence should remain a servant, never a master. The true strength of a nation is not measured by data or bureaucracy, but by the quiet webs of family, faith, and service that hold communities together. When Washington falters — and it will — those neighborhoods must stand.

Eric Lee / Stringer | Getty Images

This is the real work of conservatism: to conserve what is good and true and to reform what has decayed. It is not about slogans; it is about stewardship — the patient labor of building a civilization that remembers what it stands for.

A creed for the rising generation

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

For the rising generation, conservatism cannot be nostalgia. It must be more than a memory of 9/11 or admiration for a Reagan era they never lived through. Many young Americans did not experience those moments — and they should not have to in order to grasp the lessons they taught and the truths they embodied. The next chapter is not about preserving relics but renewing purpose. It must speak to conviction, not cynicism; to moral clarity, not despair.

Young people are searching for meaning in a culture that mocks truth and empties life of purpose. Conservatism should be the moral compass that reminds them freedom is responsibility and that faith, family, and moral courage remain the surest rebellions against hopelessness.

To be a conservative in 2025 is to defend the enduring principles of American liberty while stewarding the culture, the economy, and the spirit of a free people. It is to stand for truth when truth is unfashionable and to guard moral order when the world celebrates chaos.

We are not merely holding the torch. We are relighting it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck: Here's what's WRONG with conservatism today

Getty Images / Handout | Getty Images

What does it mean to be a conservative in 2025? Glenn offers guidance on what conservatives need to do to ensure the conservative movement doesn't fade into oblivion. We have to get back to PRINCIPLES, not policies.

To be a conservative in 2025 means to STAND

for Stewardship, protecting the wisdom of our Founders;
for Truth, defending objective reality in an age of illusion;
for Accountability, living within our means as individuals and as a nation;
for Neighborhood, rebuilding family, faith, and local community;
and for Duty, carrying freedom forward to the next generation.

A conservative doesn’t cling to the past — he stands guard over the principles that make the future possible.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm so tired of being against everything. Saying what we're not.

It's time that we start saying what we are. And it's hard, because we're changing. It's different to be a conservative, today, than it was, you know, years ago.

And part of that is just coming from hard knocks. School of hard knocks. We've learned a lot of lessons on things we thought we were for. No, no, no.

But conservatives. To be a conservative, it shouldn't be about policies. It's really about principles. And that's why we've lost our way. Because we've lost our principles. And it's easy. Because the world got easy. And now the world is changing so rapidly. The boundaries between truth and illusion are blurred second by second. Machines now think. Currencies falter. Families fractured. And nations, all over the world, have forgotten who they are.

So what does it mean to be a conservative now, in 2025, '26. For a lot of people, it means opposing the left. That's -- that's a reaction. That's not renewal.

That's a reaction. It can't mean also worshiping the past, as if the past were perfect. The founders never asked for that.

They asked that we would preserve the principles and perfect their practice. They knew it was imperfect. To make a more perfect nation.

Is what we're supposed to be doing.

2025, '26 being a conservative has to mean stewardship.

The stewardship of a nation, of a civilization.

Of a moral inheritance. That is too precious to abandon.

What does it mean to conserve? To conserve something doesn't mean to stand still.

It means to stand guard. It means to defend what the Founders designed. The separation of powers. The rule of law.

The belief that our rights come not from kings or from Congress, but from the creator himself.
This is a system that was not built for ease. It was built for endurance, and it will endure if we only teach it again!

The problem is, we only teach it like it's a museum piece. You know, it's not a museum piece. It's not an old dusty document. It's a living covenant between the dead, the living and the unborn.

So this chapter of -- of conservatism. Must confront reality. Economic reality.

Global reality.

And moral reality.

It's not enough just to be against something. Or chant tax cuts or free markets.

We have to ask -- we have to start with simple questions like freedom, yes. But freedom for what?

Freedom for economic sovereignty. Your right to produce and to innovate. To build without asking Beijing's permission. That's a moral issue now.

Another moral issue: Debt! It's -- it's generational theft. We're spending money from generations we won't even meet.

And dependence. Another moral issue. It's a national weakness.

People cannot stand up for themselves. They can't make it themselves. And we're encouraging them to sit down, shut up, and don't think.

And the conservative who can't connect with fiscal prudence, and connect fiscal prudence to moral duty, you're not a conservative at all.

Being a conservative today, means you have to rebuild an economy that serves liberty, not one that serves -- survives by debt, and then there's the soul of the nation.

We are living through a time period. An age of dislocation. Where our families are fractured.

Our faith is almost gone.

Meaning is evaporating so fast. Nobody knows what meaning of life is. That's why everybody is killing themselves. They have no meaning in life. And why they don't have any meaning, is truth itself is mocked and blurred and replaced by nothing, but lies and noise.

If you want to be a conservative, then you have to be to become the moral compass that reminds a lost people, liberty cannot survive without virtue.

That freedom untethered from moral order is nothing, but chaos!

And that no app, no algorithm, no ideology is ever going to fill the void, where meaning used to live!

To be a conservative, moving forward, we cannot just be about policies.

We have to defend the sacred, the unseen, the moral architecture, that gives people an identity. So how do you do that? Well, we have to rebuild competence. We have to restore institutions that actually work. Just in the last hour, this monologue on what we're facing now, because we can't open the government.

Why can't we open the government?

Because government is broken. Why does nobody care? Because education is broken.

We have to reclaim education, not as propaganda, but as the formation of the mind and the soul. Conservatives have to champion innovation.

Not to imitate Silicon Valley's chaos, but to harness technology in defense of human dignity. Don't be afraid of AI.

Know what it is. Know it's a tool. It's a tool to strengthen people. As long as you always remember it's a tool. Otherwise, you will lose your humanity to it!

That's a conservative principle. To be a conservative, we have to restore local strength. Our families are the basic building blocks, our schools, our churches, and our charities. Not some big, distant NGO that was started by the Tides Foundation, but actual local charities, where you see people working. A web of voluntary institutions that held us together at one point. Because when Washington fails, and it will, it already has, the neighborhood has to stand.

Charlie Kirk was doing one thing that people on our side were not doing. Speaking to the young.

But not in nostalgia.

Not in -- you know, Reagan, Reagan, Reagan.

In purpose. They don't remember. They don't remember who Dick Cheney was.

I was listening to Fox news this morning, talking about Dick Cheney. And there was somebody there that I know was not even born when Dick Cheney. When the World Trade Center came down.

They weren't even born. They were telling me about Dick Cheney.

And I was like, come on. Come on. Come on.

If you don't remember who Dick Cheney was, how are you going to remember 9/11. How will you remember who Reagan was.

That just says, that's an old man's creed. No, it's not.

It's the ultimate timeless rebellion against tyranny in all of its forms. Yes, and even the tyranny of despair, which is eating people alive!

We need to redefine ourselves. Because we have changed, and that's a good thing. The creed for a generation, that will decide the fate of the republic, is what we need to find.

A conservative in 2025, '26.

Is somebody who protects the enduring principles of American liberty and self-government.

While actively stewarding the institutions. The culture. The economy of this nation!

For those who are alive and yet to be unborn.

We have to be a group of people that we're not anchored in the past. Or in rage! But in reason. And morality. Realism. And hope for the future.

We're the stewards! We're the ones that have to relight the torch, not just hold it. We didn't -- we didn't build this Torch. We didn't make this Torch. We're the keepers of the flame, but we are honor-bound to pass that forward, and conservatives are viewed as people who just live in the past. We're not here to merely conserve the past, but to renew it. To sort it. What worked, what didn't work. We're the ones to say to the world, there's still such a thing as truth. There's still such a thing as virtue. You can deny it all you want.

But the pain will only get worse. There's still such a thing as America!

And if now is not the time to renew America. When is that time?

If you're not the person. If we're not the generation to actively stand and redefine and defend, then who is that person?

We are -- we are supposed to preserve what works.

That -- you know, I was writing something this morning.

I was making notes on this. A constitutionalist is for restraint. A progressive, if you will, for lack of a better term, is for more power.

Progressives want the government to have more power.

Conservatives are for more restraint.

But the -- for the American eagle to fly, we must have both wings.

And one can't be stronger than the other.

We as a conservative, are supposed to look and say, no. Don't look at that. The past teaches us this, this, and this. So don't do that.

We can't do that. But there are these things that we were doing in the past, that we have to jettison. And maybe the other side has a good idea on what should replace that. But we're the ones who are supposed to say, no, but remember the framework.

They're -- they can dream all they want.
They can come up with all these utopias and everything else, and we can go, "That's a great idea."

But how do we make it work with this framework? Because that's our job. The point of this is, it takes both. It takes both.

We have to have the customs and the moral order. And the practices that have stood the test of time, in trial.

We -- we're in an amazing, amazing time. Amazing time.

We live at a time now, where anything -- literally anything is possible!

I don't want to be against stuff. I want to be for the future. I want to be for a rich, dynamic future. One where we are part of changing the world for the better!

Where more people are lifted out of poverty, more people are given the freedom to choose, whatever it is that they want to choose, as their own government and everything.

I don't want to force it down anybody's throat.

We -- I am so excited to be a shining city on the hill again.

We have that opportunity, right in front of us!

But not in we get bogged down in hatred, in division.

Not if we get bogged down into being against something.

We must be for something!

I know what I'm for.

Do you?

From Pharaoh to Hamas: The same spirit of evil, new disguise

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

The drone footage out of Gaza isn’t just war propaganda — it’s a glimpse of the same darkness that once convinced men they were righteous for killing innocents.

Evil introduces itself subtly. It doesn’t announce, “Hi, I’m here to destroy you.” It whispers. It flatters. It borrows the language of justice, empathy, and freedom, twisting them until hatred sounds righteous and violence sounds brave.

We are watching that same deception unfold again — in the streets, on college campuses, and in the rhetoric of people who should know better. It’s the oldest story in the world, retold with new slogans.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage.

A drone video surfaced this week showing Hamas terrorists staging the “discovery” of a hostage’s body. They pushed a corpse out of a window, dragged it into a hole, buried it, and then called in aid workers to “find” what they themselves had planted. It was theater — evil, disguised as victimhood. And it was caught entirely on camera.

That’s how evil operates. It never comes in through the front door. It sneaks in, often through manipulative pity. The same spirit animates the moral rot spreading through our institutions — from the halls of universities to the chambers of government.

Take Zohran Mamdani, a New York assemblyman who has praised jihadists and defended pro-Hamas agitators. His father, a Columbia University professor, wrote that America and al-Qaeda are morally equivalent — that suicide bombings shouldn’t be viewed as barbaric. Imagine thinking that way after watching 3,000 Americans die on 9/11. That’s not intellectualism. That’s indoctrination.

Often, that indoctrination comes from hostile foreign actors, peddled by complicit pawns on our own soil. The pro-Hamas protests that erupted across campuses last year, for example, were funded by Iran — a regime that murders its own citizens for speaking freely.

Ancient evil, new clothes

But the deeper danger isn’t foreign money. It’s the spiritual blindness that lets good people believe resentment is justice and envy is discernment. Scripture talks about the spirit of Amalek — the eternal enemy of God’s people, who attacks the weak from behind while the strong look away. Amalek never dies; it just changes its vocabulary and form with the times.

Today, Amalek tweets. He speaks through professors who defend terrorism as “anti-colonial resistance.” He preaches from pulpits that call violence “solidarity.” And he recruits through algorithms, whispering that the Jews control everything, that America had it coming, that chaos is freedom. Those are ancient lies wearing new clothes.

When nations embrace those lies, it’s not the Jews who perish first. It’s the nations themselves. The soul dies long before the body. The ovens of Auschwitz didn’t start with smoke; they started with silence and slogans.

Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images

A time for choosing

So what do we do? We speak truth — calmly, firmly, without venom. Because hatred can’t kill hatred; it only feeds it. Truth, compassion, and courage starve it to death.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage. That’s how Amalek survives — by making you fight him with his own weapons. The only victory that lasts is moral clarity without malice, courage without cruelty.

The war we’re fighting isn’t new. It’s the same battle between remembrance and amnesia, covenant and chaos, humility and pride. The same spirit that whispered to Pharaoh, to Hitler, and to every mob that thought hatred could heal the world is whispering again now — on your screens, in your classrooms, in your churches.

Will you join it, or will you stand against it?

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Bill Gates ends climate fear campaign, declares AI the future ruler

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

The Big Tech billionaire once said humanity must change or perish. Now he claims we’ll survive — just as elites prepare total surveillance.

For decades, Americans have been told that climate change is an imminent apocalypse — the existential threat that justifies every intrusion into our lives, from banning gas stoves to rationing energy to tracking personal “carbon scores.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped lead that charge. He warned repeatedly that the “climate disaster” would be the greatest crisis humanity would ever face. He invested billions in green technology and demanded the world reach net-zero emissions by 2050 “to avoid catastrophe.”

The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch.

Now, suddenly, he wants everyone to relax: Climate change “will not lead to humanity’s demise” after all.

Gates was making less of a scientific statement and more of a strategic pivot. When elites retire a crisis, it’s never because the threat is gone — it’s because a better one has replaced it. And something else has indeed arrived — something the ruling class finds more useful than fear of the weather.The same day Gates downshifted the doomsday rhetoric, Amazon announced it would pay warehouse workers $30 an hour — while laying off 30,000 people because artificial intelligence will soon do their jobs.

Climate panic was the warm-up. AI control is the main event.

The new currency of power

The world once revolved around oil and gas. Today, it revolves around the electricity demanded by server farms, the chips that power machine learning, and the data that can be used to manipulate or silence entire populations. The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch. Whoever controls energy now controls information. And whoever controls information controls civilization.

Climate alarmism gave elites a pretext to centralize power over energy. Artificial intelligence gives them a mechanism to centralize power over people. The future battles will not be about carbon — they will be about control.

Two futures — both ending in tyranny

Americans are already being pushed into what look like two opposing movements, but both leave the individual powerless.

The first is the technocratic empire being constructed in the name of innovation. In its vision, human work will be replaced by machines, and digital permissions will subsume personal autonomy.

Government and corporations merge into a single authority. Your identity, finances, medical decisions, and speech rights become access points monitored by biometric scanners and enforced by automated gatekeepers. Every step, purchase, and opinion is tracked under the noble banner of “efficiency.”

The second is the green de-growth utopia being marketed as “compassion.” In this vision, prosperity itself becomes immoral. You will own less because “the planet” requires it. Elites will redesign cities so life cannot extend beyond a 15-minute walking radius, restrict movement to save the Earth, and ration resources to curb “excess.” It promises community and simplicity, but ultimately delivers enforced scarcity. Freedom withers when surviving becomes a collective permission rather than an individual right.

Both futures demand that citizens become manageable — either automated out of society or tightly regulated within it. The ruling class will embrace whichever version gives them the most leverage in any given moment.

Climate panic was losing its grip. AI dependency — and the obedience it creates — is far more potent.

The forgotten way

A third path exists, but it is the one today’s elites fear most: the path laid out in our Constitution. The founders built a system that assumes human beings are not subjects to be monitored or managed, but moral agents equipped by God with rights no government — and no algorithm — can override.

Hesham Elsherif / Stringer | Getty Images

That idea remains the most “disruptive technology” in history. It shattered the belief that people need kings or experts or global committees telling them how to live. No wonder elites want it erased.

Soon, you will be told you must choose: Live in a world run by machines or in a world stripped down for planetary salvation. Digital tyranny or rationed equality. Innovation without liberty or simplicity without dignity.

Both are traps.

The only way

The only future worth choosing is the one grounded in ordered liberty — where prosperity and progress exist alongside moral responsibility and personal freedom and human beings are treated as image-bearers of God — not climate liabilities, not data profiles, not replaceable hardware components.

Bill Gates can change his tune. The media can change the script. But the agenda remains the same.

They no longer want to save the planet. They want to run it, and they expect you to obey.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn's Show Prep

Max Lucado: A Sovereign, Good God Can Redeem the Most Difficult Circumstances

Rage isn’t conservatism — THIS is what true patriots stand for

Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

Conservatism as stewardship

Rebuilding what is broken

A creed for the rising generation

Glenn Beck: Here's what's WRONG with conservatism today

Transcript

From Pharaoh to Hamas: The same spirit of evil, new disguise

The drone footage out of Gaza isn’t just war propaganda — it’s a glimpse of the same darkness that once convinced men they were righteous for killing innocents.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage.

Ancient evil, new clothes

A time for choosing

Bill Gates ends climate fear campaign, declares AI the future ruler

The Big Tech billionaire once said humanity must change or perish. Now he claims we’ll survive — just as elites prepare total surveillance.

The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch.

The new currency of power

Two futures — both ending in tyranny

The forgotten way

The only way