- Egyptian-AmericanPastor, Michael Youssef,

has issued a very strong condemnation

to pastors within evangelical churches.

He says going "woke" is deadly

to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

He shares this message in his new book,

"Hope For This PresentCrisis" and also outlines

how believers can standfirm in the Gospel of truth.

And Dr. Youssef joinsus now to share more.

Welcome to Prayer Link.

- Thank you so much.

Good to be with you.

- First of all, you haveissued a strong condemnation

of "woke" pastors withinevangelical churches.

You warn that spewing farleft ideology from the pulpit

is deadly to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Can you explain why?

- Well, very simply (laughs),

the focus of the church ofJesus Christ is on Jesus Christ.

It's not on the color of the skin

and it's not of the ethnic background

and it's not of the social status.

It's not even on any of us.

It is on Jesus.

And when you take your eyes off Jesus,

and you focus on thecircumstances that surrounds us;

now, I'm not saying we gotta be careless.

We gotta love one another regardless

of what color skin we have.

But this whole idea thatall of a sudden we're woke,

we realize that the world ismade into two kinds of people,

the oppressed and theoppressors, and then we'll begin

to see people with those kind of prisms.

You know, he's oppressed, he's oppressed,

she's oppressed, or he's oppressor.

Now, that is totally a false Gospel.

As Paul said to the Galatians,that any false gospel

is an anathema and we arenot to fall for that trap.

So I'm pleading withevangelical pastors, please,

be careful, be careful.

This is another one ofthose enemy's deceptions

that are sneaking into thechurch to take our eyes off Jesus

and of the eternal perspective,and the fact that only He

can give us eternal life,forgiveness of sin, redemption;

and therefore He has got to be the focus,

not all the stuff that iscoming to us from the outside.

Which really, any division,

who is the master of division?

Satan.

Any division that comes into the church,

any church, anywhere, it'sbasically orchestrated,

even if you can't see thehands, orchestrated by Satan.

He's the one who's trying to divide us.

Jesus unites us.

And so, let's be alertand be awake to the fact

that this is a deception.

- And Dr. Youssef, you grew up in Egypt,

and Christians in that country face

extreme persecutionfrom Islamic extremists.

What did you learn as a childthat helped you to not bow

to that persecution, butto stand up for your faith?

- Well, the fact that Christian homes,

back in the fifties and the sixties,

when I was growing up there,

and I was there the first18 years of my life,

is that they trained thechildren, we trained the family

to understand that weare living in a culture

that is hostile to the Gospel,

that is hostile to thefaith in Jesus Christ.

And so, instilling in thechildren and in the homes

and in the churches theimportance, the vital importance

of knowing what youbelieve, who you believe,

and who you are in Christ.

It was basically like the air we breathe

and the food we eat.

Now, we are coming, inthe West, we are coming

into that stage where Christiansare being marginalized,

in fact, mocked and persecuted.

And so we gotta start, that's why my book,

"Hope For This Present Crisis,"has seven areas of hope

in which we must focus,starting with the truth,

ending with the church,and everything in between

from education, et cetera, family,

is in between those two bookends.

And so we need to begin totrain our next generation

to understand why they'rehostile to the Gospel,

why you should not accommodate to that.

But you keep loving, but at the same time

you keep standing firm.

- Amen.

And if the church fails toadhere to Biblical truth,

what will be the consequences?

- Well, I mean, thechurch with a capital C

is the church of Jesus andnot even the gates of hell

will overcome it.

But the churches, unfortunately,just like we've seen

in the mainline denominations,we've seen in Europe,

where the church hasbasically become museums.

That's gonna happen heretoo, unless God's people

stand up and pastors beginto preach the Word of God,

the infallible Word ofGod, instead of self-help

and self-motivation andto start really focusing

on the sword of the Spirit,because that's our weapon,

and the love of Christ.

Because the churches willgo the way of all mankind,

as we've seen in history.

And so I'm appealing tothe churches to be part

of the Church in standing upfor the truth of the Gospel.

- Amen.

And you can get "HopeFor This Present Crisis"

wherever books are sold.

Dr. Youssef, thank you somuch for taking the time

to talk with us.

It's exciting to talk with you today.

- My pleasure, thank you for having me.

- God bless you.