Eric Metaxas — A Wake-Up Call for People of Faith to Fight Evil
In this stirring podcast, best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio host Eric Metaxas calls on people of faith to wake up and stand against evil that threatens the very freedoms we cherish. As Eric Metaxas shares with host Yael Eckstein, President and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, in a society that has grown increasingly anti-Semitic, anti-America, and anti-God, people of faith need to speak up against evil. Silence is not an option, Eric told Yael. “We need to part of the fight against evil, and we should not be afraid to speak out,” he said. Listen today to this challenging, yet critical message for us all.
Episode Notes:
Growing up in Queens, New York, the son of parents who immigrated to America, Eric Metaxas was raised with a deep appreciation for what a unique and special place America is and what a great blessing it is to live in a society that values freedom.
“My mother grew up in Nazi Germany, and then after the war ended, lived behind the Iron Curtain under Communist governments. My father grew up in Greece where the Communists tried to take over,” Eric Metaxas told podcast host Yael Eckstein, President and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. “Both of them knew that [what] we have here in America is not normal. What we have here is a gift from God and a great blessing — the opportunities we have in this country, the freedoms that we have in this country.”
Eric Metaxas, a self-described man of eclectic tastes and interests, is the author of the best-selling biography Bonhoeffer, and many other books, including his most recent work, Letter to the American Church. He is host of Socrates in the City and the nationally syndicated Eric Metaxas Radio Show, billed as “the show about everything,” which is also aired as a weekly television program on TBN. Eric has written for the popular children’s series, Veggie Tales, for evangelical notables such as Chuck Colson, and the New York Times.
What ties all these diverse interests together is, as Eric puts it, God and truth. When Eric came to faith seriously in 1988, he decided to dedicate his life to God and to follow God’s lead. But it wasn’t until he wrote his biography about Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was one of the few Christians in Germany to speak out against Hitler’s Nazi regime, that Eric’s life really changed.
“I never intended to write that book, but when I look back on it, I realized that God clearly had His hand on that book. That book to me is the ultimate example of what it means for Christians to love the Jewish people and to speak up for the Jews,” Eric told Yael.
Not only did the success of the book open up doors to him, but it also solidified one of the main messages and themes that has become very central to Eric — the call for people of faith to fight against evil.
The lesson from Bonhoeffer’s life and the Holocaust is that we cannot remain silent in the face of evil, Eric said. “When you see things happening, you must speak out. Silence in the face of evil is evil itself, and in a way, that is the reason we have gotten to where things are now. My fellow Christians have been silent, have been unwilling to stick out their necks and say, no, this is wrong.”
For more of this challenging and critical message, watch the podcast with Eric Metaxas and Yael Eckstein at the IFCJ YouTube page. Or listen to the podcast here.