(upbeat music)

- "We are in a war."

So says Skillet's frontman, John Cooper,

the lead singer of the iconic band

says, "our culture is in crisis.

Lies have become truth."

And now John wants toset the record straight.

- [Reporter] Grammy nominatedmulti-platinum rocker

John Cooper is the leadvocalist for Skillet,

one of the best selling rockbands of the 21st century.

After traveling the world for 23 years,

he's noticed one consistent issue,

people are desperately confused.

They can no longer tell truth from lies.

In his book, "Awake and Alive to Truth,"

John tackles the reigningphilosophies of our day

and combats them by standingon the authority of scripture.

- Well, John joins us now live via Skype.

John, thanks for being with us today.

- I'm thrilled to be here.

Thank you for having me.

- Well, your book calls out our culture

for moving away from the truth.

Talk a little bit aboutsome of the prevailing lies

of modern society.

- Oh, sure. I'd love to.

Well, yeah, the book is called"Awake and Alive to Truth"

and I wrote it becausewe are at a crisis point,

not just in America,

a lot of Americans don't know

this is happening all through the world.

And my passion for the last 20 years

has been to go and play music

and share the great news of Jesus Christ

that He saves, He redeems.

But what I've noticed isthat in the last 10 years

there's been such a shift

that is becoming moredifficult to talk about Jesus

being the way, the truth and the life,

because culture doesn't even believe

there is such a thing as the truth.

It is an attack on the ideaof absolute truth in general,

that it even exists.

And that's a real problemwe have devolved into chaos

and despair and confusionand it's heartbreaking.

- What are you seeing in thechurch and in Christians?

Are they guilty of someof these same offenses?

- Well, I definitely think

that the prevailingworldview of relativism

and all that is, is abig word, meaning this

that there's no absolutetruth, everything is relative.

It's whatever you feel or whatever I feel,

it's my truth or her truth or your truth.

That has become so ubiquitous

that it certainly has invaded the church

and the church has become very malleable

with the word of God

that whatever the word of Godmeans to you, that's okay.

And that's why you begin

having all these conversations with people

that sound, they soundunfamiliar to us as Christians

that have been in thechurch for a long time.

When they say things like,

"well that's not the Jesus that I know."

What they're trying to say is,

that might be Jesus to you,but that's not Jesus to me.

And that's a problem becausethe word of God is eternal

and He never ever changes.

- And the word of God isyour leaping off point.

So what is truth?

How do you define it?

And how do you know that it is the truth?

- (laughing) Great, great question.

Well, in the book, I should just say this.

What I wrote this book for,is for the everyday person

that is not an academic,is not a theologian.

The so that teenagers canunderstand what truth is.

God created His worldto run in a certain way.

There's reality we cansee it with our eyes.

He created the world to be in a design

and when we recognize thatdesign and we fit into it,

then we realize thatall of this has created

not for me and not for what I want,

it is created for His own glory.

And so I tell people,

if you want your life to be unshakeable

then do what Jesus himself said.

Jesus said, "there's a man whobuilds his house on the sand

but there's a man who hearsmy words, believes my words

and acts upon my words

and he will be like a man whobuilds his house on a rock

and the winds came and the storms came

but his house was not shaken."

And that's what I wannaencourage young people do.

Don't listen to all the social media noise

and all your professors whoact like they're so smart,

in the end, there's only one way to live.

And that is in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

- You say that one ofthe biggest obstacles

in the search for truth is emotions.

So how can we reconcile that?

- Well, that is true.

And God created us to have emotions.

Emotions are wonderful, right?

It's the reason I love being with my kids

and I love taking my son for ice cream

and those wonderful things.

But we have to remember,

and in my book I talk about original sin.

One of the prevailing worldviewsthat's wrong right now

is that mankind that we're all born good.

And we want to do the right things

but the Bible tells ussomething different.

The Bible says that, "everypart of our existence

is touched with thepollution of original sin."

We are not born good,

we need to be redeemed in Christ Jesus

and He changes our hearts andHe gives us a brand new heart.

He writes His laws upon our hearts.

So if you just go aroundtrusting your emotions

like whatever I feel must be true,

that's going to lead you into destruction

and the word of God willnever lead you astray.

- You know, you have an opportunity

and have used it to share this.

With so, so many peoplebut there was a point

in the development ofyour band and its success

that you were told

that if you just leavethat Jesus' business

out of what you do, fame andfortune would lie in your life.

That if you gave up onJesus, it could be here,

success could be huge.

How did you respond?

- That's true, yes.

This is how the enemy works.

And we know is how the enemy works

because that's what the serpentdid to Eve in the garden.

The devil always comes up to you

and he says, "is thatreally what God says?"

The devil gives us,

he lies to us, but it soundsa little bit like truth.

That's the best kind oflies there are, right?

They have a little bit of truth,but they are a twist on it.

And that happened in my career which was,

"John, you can still be a Christian,

just don't talk about Jesusand imagine all the good things

you could do with your money

if you never talked about Jesus,

you could get rich and famous

and you could give money to the poor

and that would be a betterthing to do for Christ."

But I knew it was a lie

because Jesus Himself said this,our Lord Jesus Christ said,

"if you don't confess me before men,

then I won't confess you before my Father.

But if you do confess me before men,

I will confess you before my Father."

And I held on to thatbecause without Christ

all the treasures in theworld mean absolutely nothing.

This world has nothing to offer

in comparison to the richesof knowing Christ Jesus.

- Well, that's true.

Your book, "Awake and Alive to Truth."

What do you want people tofind as the takeaway from it?

- What I really hopeis that "normal people"

I'm putting air quotes, "normal people."

Like I say,

we don't have to be a geniusto understand Bible theology.

It's written for dummies like me,

that's what I always tell people.

What I hope they recognize is this,

there are two paths to try to find truth.

One path will lead you to life.

And that is in surrendering your heart

and mind to Jesus Christ and His word,

but the other path leads to destruction.

And that is found in yourself,

that is found in your own emotions

or what you think that true love should be

or what you want God to be.

All that that is, is basically saying,

that you want to sit onthe throne of your own life

but there is only one Lord Jesus Christ

and that's what I wantpeople to take away.

There's a decision to be made

either Jesus Christ can be your Lord,

or you can be your lordand you are a terrible god.

You will lead yourselfinto eternal destruction.

- Well, you make it so clearand it's such a readable book.

Not necessarily simple,

but very very readable and understandable,

"Awake and Alive to Truth."

John, thank you so much.

This is the book thateverybody should read

not just college kids or high school kids,

but grownups in the church today,

it's called "Awake and Alive to Truth,"

and you can find it in stores nationwide.

John, thanks for being with us.

- I had such a great time.

Thank you and let me just say,

you can only get it onmy website actually,

johnlcooper.com.

It's the only place you can get the book.

Thank you for having me.

- Thank you very much for writing it.

Bless you.