Transcript
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Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast.
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I am Corey J.
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Moller.
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And I’m Woe.
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In this episode, we will be discussing scripture qua scripture, which is to say scripture as the inerrant, plenarily verbally inspired word of God, which Christians must read, believe and defend, and which Satan ceaselessly attacks.
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If I am not convinced by the testimonies of scripture and clear, rational arguments, for I believe neither the Pope nor the councils alone, since it is a fact that they have often erred and contradicted themselves, then I am, by the passages of the holy scriptures, which I have cited, overcome in my conscience and held captive to the word of God.
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Therefore, I can and will retract nothing, because it is neither safe nor helpful to do anything against conscience.
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Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise.
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God help me, amen.
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This was Martin Luther’s testimony to the die of arms in April 1521.
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I wanted to open with that statement, because it’s one of the most famous things that Luther said that’s known within Lutheranism.
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It’s not known across Protestantism at large.
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And I think probably a lot of people know the phrase, here I stand, somewhat famously, even if they don’t know where it came from.
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The reason I wanted to open with that in particular is that there are a couple points in there that Luther makes about appealing directly to Scripture and about plain reason that, although modern Lutherans believe that those words are our inheritance and the Luther’s spirit and those words is our spirit, in fact, it’s pretty normal within our churches today to go in the opposite direction, to obfuscate Scripture and to try to make things more complicated than they are.
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And to either ignore rational arguments or perhaps even to say that reason has no place in the faith.
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And as a result, when someone, especially a layman, points to Scripture, we’re frequently shouted down or mocked or belittled or reprimanded as though we have done something wrong.
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And so this episode today, we’re talking about scriptural inerrancy, about the plain reading of Scripture, about the plain words of Scripture, and whether that’s actually true, whether it is true that Scripture is plain.
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I’ve made a point in numerous past episodes, virtually all of them, and I’ll probably say it in every episode, Scripture is clear.
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And when I’ve been saying that, it is a very deliberate needle driven into the eyes of these men who think that Scripture is not clear, who think that when we read these words on the page that are given to us by God, transmitted through time miraculously, and by human hands at the same time, we can’t really be sure what we’re reading.
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And so to say Scripture is clear about anything is defiance against that spirit.
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Before we get into the nature of reading Scripture, I think it’s important to begin with the point in time where the lady was actually first able to read Scripture, because one of the things that was lost in the Western Church was access to the Word of God.
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As Rome continued to preserve Latin as the sole language, people didn’t speak Latin anymore.
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And so only the very educated would know Latin, and the books themselves were incredibly expensive because they were all handwritten.
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So it was really a breakthrough for the first time, particularly in English, when the Word of God was translated into English.
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And so we’re gonna begin there.
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And so of course, if we begin there, we have to begin with really three men.
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That would be Wycliffe, Hus and Tyndale.
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Two of them, the latter two, were executed for their efforts.
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Wycliffe did actually manage to live out his life.
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And the things for which the Roman church persecuted these men, yes, they had disagreements theologically, but that was not the core of it.
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The core was that these men wanted the scriptures to be accessible to the laity, which is to say they wanted it to be in the vernacular.
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Because as mentioned, having it in Latin, when no one speaks Latin anymore, except for the tiny upper educated crust of society, is not making the Word of God accessible to the common people of your nation.
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And scripture is very clear.
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You are supposed to study and discuss and think about the Word of God when you rise, when you go to bed, as you walk by the way at dinner.
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All of these times, you are supposed to discuss these things.
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You cannot do that if you don’t have the scriptures in a language you understand.
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And so in the case of Wycliffe, who has one of the first English translations of the Bible, and he translated it, his associates may have translated the Old Testament, but he certainly translated the New Testament.
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And so the Roman Catholic Church didn’t manage to kill him, as mentioned previously.
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He managed to die a natural death.
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However, just to show the vindictiveness and the spitefulness of the Roman Church, they dug up his bones, burned them, and then tossed the ashes into the river in order to make a statement about their disagreement with him, which is to say that they did not want the common people to have the scriptures in their hands in a way they could understand them, because that challenged the power of Rome.
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If the scriptures are in a language that only those associated with Rome, which at the time would have essentially been, only priests would have known Latin, or the handful of men who were highly educated at universities reading texts in Latin.
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Rome could have exercised a great deal of control then.
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And in addition, Rome objected to any attempts to produce the Bible really at all.
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It wasn’t just producing the Bible in a language that was understood by the common people in the vernacular.
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If you attempted to print and distribute the Bible in Latin, they still would have killed you for that, because you would have been making it accessible not to the common man, but outside of Rome’s control.
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And it’s that control that Rome wanted to exercise.
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And that’s basically sacerdotalism.
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It’s the belief that the priesthood, in the Roman sense here, they act as a go between for the laity and God.
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The only way you can get to God is through your priest.
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That’s basically the view of Rome at the time.
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It’s still somewhat the view of Rome today.
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Of course, it’s complicated by the fact that Rome also seems to think that you can go through Mary or the saints, but that is a separate issue.
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But it’s the sacerdotalism that lies at the core of the problems that we will be discussing today.
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Because when you have pastors or priests or even theologians who are arguing, no, the common man, no, you cannot understand the scriptures.
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You cannot read them for yourself and understand what they mean.
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And I have to do it for you.
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All of that falls under the umbrella of sacerdotalism.
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There is a fantastic quote that we found from one of Wycliffe’s opponents who in their hand wringing way, they stated, The jewel of the clergy has become the toy of the laity.
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They’re referring to scripture there.
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God’s word, which was the jewel of the clergy, meaning them, had become the toy of the laity.
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They were so terrified of the idea of the common Christian abusing or misusing scripture that they were willing to kill men to keep them away from it.
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Well, and of course they were because even if you had it in Latin, particularly if you had it in the vernacular, but even if you had it in Latin, then educated man could start reading the scriptures and start seeing things like, say, Second Timothy 316.
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All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness.
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If you start reading these things that are all throughout scripture, it’s not in just one place or a handful, it’s everywhere beginning to end Genesis to Revelation.
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If you start seeing these things, these men will start asking questions.
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Why have we restricted this from the laity?
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Why do they not have access to this?
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Why do the priests not want me to read the Word of God?
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If the Word of God is telling me to read the Word of God, then it’s because Rome wanted to maintain that authority.
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Because the authority of Rome is built on a handful of claims, one of which being that the Pope essentially is Christ on earth, and they will actually literally use those words from time to time.
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And so if Scripture is the Word of God, God speaking directly to whomever is reading or listening, then you don’t need this go between.
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You don’t need the Pope.
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And then you can start to question the Pope’s power, which is exactly what Rome, of course, did not want.
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And Rome hated the fact that the Scriptures had been translated into the vernacular, that when they executed John Hus, they actually used Wycliffe’s Bible as kindling on his pyre for his stake.
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They burned the Bible to murder a man for preaching and speaking from a Bible that they didn’t want people to have access to.
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And if you look at these men in history, Wycliffe, Hus, and Tyndale, they did make doctrinal errors.
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We’re not saying that Rome was wrong about the errors that these men made, but I think that that’s actually part of the point of why it’s so important that Scripture be accessible to everyone.
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Because for these men, prior to the Reformation, Wycliffe was in the mid-1300s.
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When they undertook translating Scripture into the vernacular, they became outlaws.
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They effectively became outside of the Church, which meant that they didn’t have the support of other Christians in the establishment.
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And that’s not normal.
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Christians are not supposed to be solo.
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When we talk about Scriptural inerrancy and about the fact that the word is fruitful for these things, it does not follow that we want every man sitting under a tree by himself reading his Bible and never having any contact with other Christians.
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These things are meant to be discussed.
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God says that iron sharpens iron.
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That’s talking about doctrine as much as anything.
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And there are numerous places in Scripture where it says, particularly in the New Testament, there must be disagreements among you so that the truth may be known.
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So when doctrine is reasoned out properly and argued from Scripture, that is what God wants of us.
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He wants us to have Scripture, to read Scripture, to discuss it and to argue, to figure out who is right.
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And what we’re gonna get to in the second half of this episode is that one of the main attacks today, for a while the attack was, well, Scripture is not real or it’s true, but it’s not accurate.
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And there’s some of that today, but it’s sort of morphing into a thing where you can just say, that’s your interpretation.
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You have your Bible and I have mine and we can just believe what we want.
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And as long as we confess Jesus in our heart, it’s all good, man.
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And that’s when the papus and others repeat the silly lie that there are 30,000 denominations today.
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It’s pure nonsense for one thing.
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There may be a couple dozen branches that have discernible, very particular beliefs that differ from each other.
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And all the rest is basically just flavors of Baptists in one or two others.
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We should also point out that the claims from Rome and the East, when it comes to unity, are complete fabrications out of whole cloth.
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They are not unified.
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You have various groups within each of those umbrella church, to use the term loosely, bodies, bodies that don’t agree with each other.
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They have categorical disagreements on doctrine from, in the case of the Eastern Orthodox, one national church to another, or even one body within a single nation to another.
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And so the unity they supposedly have, and they try to make as an argument against Protestants, is just complete nonsense.
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The facts do not bear it out.
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We can throw in the, for the show notes, the picture showing the relationship of the various Eastern Orthodox churches who are and are not in communion with one another over various things.
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It’s as complicated as the org chart for any large international corporation, if not more so.
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Some of them are, some are not in communion with each other.
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They don’t anathematize each other, but they say, yeah, we’re not even of the same belief.
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So, and that falls just under the umbrella of quote unquote orthodoxy.
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Yes, and you’ve got the same thing going on in Rome with those.
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It depends on how far you’re willing to extend the umbrella.
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Are those who think the seat of Peter is vacant, still Roman Catholic?
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Are they not?
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Are the Jesuits and the Dominicans the same?
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It’s just, it’s never ending.
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So their claims of unity are complete nonsense.
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But you mentioned the word solo versus say perhaps sola.
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It does bring up the issue of most people don’t even understand what sola scriptura means anymore because no one knows Latin, which is funny that we’re talking about translating things into the vernacular and we discover a problem related to people not knowing Latin, but it is what it is.
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People look at sola scriptura and they won’t know the term because people aren’t taught even English anymore.
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They think it’s the nominative.
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And so they think it’s scripture alone, but that’s not what it is.
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It’s in the ablative.
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It is by scripture alone.
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And what we mean when we say sola scriptura is that scripture is the norming norm.
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It is the Norma Normans.
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It is the standard by which all doctrine is tested.
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It does not mean that we take only scripture.
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We still look to our fathers in the faith.
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We still look to tradition.
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We look to all of these good things that have been preserved by the grace of God.
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But they are just not the ultimate authority.
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And so when you said that these men were separated from the church, that’s true.
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And that is exactly as you said, unnatural.
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Christians are supposed to live within the context of the church, in a Christian society, in a Christian nation, in Christian families.
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And part of that is you have to have the word.
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Because we’re going right back to headship as we always do.
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It is incumbent on the master of the house, which is to say the father, the oldest man in the house, typically.
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It is incumbent on him to know the word and to see that those in his house are instructed in it.
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And that’s why you have the admonitions in the small catechism, as the father of the house is supposed to teach.
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And also, he is supposed to question those in his household and see if they are actually learning this material.
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Because one day the father is going to stand before his father in heaven and have to answer for what he did or did not do with regard to the authority he was given on earth.
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And the reason that the discussion of scriptural inerrancy and its suitableness for teaching is so important is that particularly for new believers coming to the faith or even for someone who’s not a Christian yet, but they think they want to be a Christian and they want to know what does that mean?
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You look at this enormous menu of biting, bickering, angering, angry, in many cases killing each other for 1,500 years or more, groups that all call themselves Christian and every single one of them says that all the others are wrong.
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How is anyone to know how to make sense of that?
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And the easy thing for people to do is to throw up their hands and say, either to pick one, which is one of the reasons that I started, I mentioned last week that I had rebranded and started talking a lot more about my faith and particularly about being a Lutheran.
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I did so because I saw more and more of men, the men on the right of the political sphere, being attracted to Christianity and not, and having, there’s a very problem.
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They see all the bickering, they see all the options, they don’t know what to do.
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And they’re either not Christian or they’re barely Christian.
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And so they don’t have any frame of reference for evaluating scriptural or doctrinal claims.
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All they can do is sort of look at the superficial aspects of things.
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And what I saw years ago and what’s continuing to this day is that a great many men who want to become Christian because they see, even if they don’t understand God, they don’t understand Jesus and justification, they understand that Satan’s real.
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They understand that evil is a real thing and that it is supernatural.
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It’s not just that there are bad people, some of which are in some ethnic groups, but they’re bad people in general.
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It’s that they see that those people cannot solely be bad because they had bad parents or they had a bad religion or a bad upbringing.
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There’s an animating spirit that is clear in the world and in many cases, it’s only clear to unbelievers.
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Christians don’t even see it anymore because we just say, oh, well, we’re all sinners.
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Unbelievers can see more clearly than us that this is a spiritual war, that we are in the midst of.
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And so these men who don’t know Jesus, but they do know that Satan has to be a real thing, they look at the churches.
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And so one of the tests is, well, which one’s biggest?
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The answer is Rome.
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Rome has more than a billion adherents worldwide.
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So obviously, I mean, they’re the winner by default, clearly.
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I mean, if that’s the churchiest church you can go for.
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And then when you actually look at Rome, they have smells and bells, they have great optics.
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You know, they have vestments, they have beautiful buildings, they have history, they have historic claims, some of which are actually true, many are not.
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But, you know, again, even if some of their historical claims are not true, if someone is coming to the church as a blank slate, they’re gonna go for whichever one has more historical claims.
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And so it appeals to them that Rome and that the East will say, we’re older than those other guys, that Protestant stuff, that’s new.
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That started in the 1500s.
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And the reason I started talking about my Lutheran faith was to say, hey, the Reformation was just that.
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It was not a revolution.
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It was not an overthrow of the church to replace it.
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It was a reformation of the church as she had been centuries prior.
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And a restoration of beliefs which had been once held within the church and then were lost precisely because the people were prohibited from having access to scripture.
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And that’s actually what happened to Luther, although he was a scholar.
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He was reading the word.
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But it wasn’t until he actually went back and actually really read Romans and Galatians that he had the breakthrough that what he had been taught in his own churches and what he’d been teaching as a teacher in the church was actually false.
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It was contrary to scripture.
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And so the reformation didn’t begin in a fever dream of Luther or in his desire to be a revolutionary.
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It became it began in the word of God.
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It began in a man reading scripture for the first time clearly and saying, hey, this isn’t what God told us.
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And if that’s the case, then something has to be done.
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And we’re in a similar situation today.
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And so we’re talking about why scripture is both an errant and why it’s accessible.
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It’s not a mystery to us.
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And it’s very important that we combat anyone who says, oh, it’s really confusing.
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Because when people are coming into the church and they’re looking for a church, if they see us making those claims, hey, they’re not going to be interested in us because we’re equivocating.
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We’re saying that truth is unknowable, that it’s just all up for grabs and whatever you feel, man.
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And they know that that is a worldly thing.
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We have ceased to recognize that we, again, and we talked about the genealogy of ideas, a pagan can look at the way Christians talk in our churches and see that a lot of it can’t be Christian because it’s modern.
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It’s a modern ethos.
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It’s a modern philosophical approach to something that if the claims are true is ancient, is originated from God.
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It’s originated from a supernatural source.
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And so it’s not going to be buffeted by the whims of philosophy as it evolves over the centuries.
00:21:57.442 → 00:22:05.702
And so having these discussions and talking about the clarity of scripture is not just about, it’s not about winning arguments on the internet.
00:22:05.982 → 00:22:08.242
It’s not about seeing who’s going to be more right.
00:22:08.602 → 00:22:22.742
It’s about reaching souls that are lost and are groping in the darkness towards God in a way that, as Christians, scripture says that’s clearly that’s possible, that it is possible for people to grop their way towards God.
00:22:23.142 → 00:22:24.442
Like, you can’t save yourself.
00:22:24.682 → 00:22:28.922
You’re not going to come to faith because you try really hard or because you think about it.
00:22:29.262 → 00:22:34.162
Faith is given as a gift through the hearing of the word, which is scripture.
00:22:34.602 → 00:22:38.662
So pointing to scripture is the way to save souls.
00:22:39.022 → 00:22:44.902
And denying scripture outright or denying access to scripture is a way to damn souls.
00:22:45.162 → 00:22:47.142
And that’s why this conversation is important.
00:22:48.522 → 00:22:51.762
It’s worth actually emphasizing what you said about Luther.
00:22:52.922 → 00:22:59.822
Luther was a monk and he still did not have access to scripture, not ready access until he had been a monk for a while.
00:23:00.482 → 00:23:11.782
Because even from those who were in the church, being trained to teach in the church, they were largely using secondary and tertiary materials instead of scripture.
00:23:13.322 → 00:23:20.802
That’s how far Rome had corrupted things by the time of the Reformation and why the Reformation was absolutely necessary.
00:23:23.382 → 00:23:26.542
And that’s something that’s just, that’s unfathomable to us today.
00:23:26.602 → 00:23:32.442
We can’t even understand not having the Bible because like I have, I don’t know, I probably have a dozen Bibles in my house.
00:23:32.462 → 00:23:33.162
At least.
00:23:34.522 → 00:23:44.462
And I have the Bible on every one of my devices too in numerous translations and you know, we’re so buried in scripture that we take it for granted.
00:23:44.482 → 00:23:45.402
It’s unthinkable.
00:23:45.902 → 00:23:46.202
Yeah.
00:23:46.482 → 00:23:51.762
But in that day, it was something that men literally died to get their hands on, as they should.
00:23:52.202 → 00:23:54.702
It was worth dying to get their hands on a single Bible.
00:23:54.722 → 00:23:54.782
Yes.
00:23:56.142 → 00:24:00.922
For the common man, the only time you would see a Bible is if there happened to be an altar Bible in your church.
00:24:02.742 → 00:24:04.842
And it would be in Latin, so it would be of no use to them.
00:24:05.262 → 00:24:07.322
Yeah, it would be in ornate Latin.
00:24:07.322 → 00:24:13.882
You wouldn’t even be allowed anywhere near it, so even if you had been able to get near it, it would have been useless to you.
00:24:14.522 → 00:24:16.522
But you were allowed to view it from afar at best.
00:24:17.182 → 00:24:30.502
And now, you know, I have Logos open here in the background on my computer with however many, probably a hundred different translations in various languages and diglots and triglots and interlinears and the wealth of materials we have today.
00:24:31.002 → 00:24:49.442
And it reminds me of a comment from Luther about men in his day, how little of an excuse the pastorate teachers had for neglecting, it’s from the Large Catechism, how little excuse they had for neglecting their duties and properly learning and studying the word considering what they had at their disposal.
00:24:50.302 → 00:25:06.842
Now imagine what we have at our disposal and how little fathers and even pastors, and if we have any theologians, bother to learn about these things, despite the immense wealth of material that we have on hand.
00:25:08.722 → 00:25:10.302
It’s really just unforgivable.
00:25:11.502 → 00:25:12.402
It is a tragedy.
00:25:13.922 → 00:25:25.202
And so as we start talking specifically about the issue, I want to begin with a particular word that’s used very often in these discussions, and that word is interpret.
00:25:25.822 → 00:25:46.962
And so if I’m talking about something from scripture and I talk to you and you have a different idea and I don’t agree with your idea and we trade proof text back and forth, at some point one of us is probably going to say if we’re taking cheap shots, you and I, Corey, wouldn’t do this, but it’s very common in Christian discourse for somebody to say, well, that’s just your interpretation.
00:25:47.882 → 00:25:51.902
And that’s a word that’s incredibly dangerous.
00:25:51.922 → 00:25:58.542
And so I want to begin by focusing on what does the word interpret or interpretation mean in Scripture?
00:25:58.982 → 00:26:00.462
What does it mean today?
00:26:00.922 → 00:26:02.902
And where did it come into the English language?
00:26:02.922 → 00:26:07.302
So we’re going to start in the middle with the definition of the word and the etymology.
00:26:08.002 → 00:26:14.642
Interpret, one of the proper definitions of it is to expound the meaning of, to render clear or explicit.
00:26:15.302 → 00:26:23.082
And it came to us via Old French from Latin, interpretare, meaning to explain, to expound and to understand.
00:26:23.542 → 00:26:31.842
Now, when you say interpret in terms of Christian dialogue, in view of the Latin root of the word, that’s entirely fair.
00:26:32.662 → 00:26:37.522
The problem is that no one knows the Latin root, and that’s not what they’re actually talking about.
00:26:38.642 → 00:26:44.682
The word, when we say interpretation today, is much closer to the word that’s actually in Scripture.
00:26:44.902 → 00:26:53.742
And so, when you look in Scripture for where interpret or interpretation is translated in English, it’s also correctly translated.
00:26:53.762 → 00:27:08.502
Now, I’m not trying to set the modern word against the scriptural word, because it’s a good translation, but it’s important to note that when interpretation is discussed in Scripture, it’s never used the way we use it today, ever.
00:27:09.082 → 00:27:12.842
There are four things that are interpreted in Scripture.
00:27:13.382 → 00:27:19.262
The first is visions and dreams, as in the case of Joseph when he was translating the dreams for his master.
00:27:20.742 → 00:27:29.802
The second is signs and wonders, as in the case where Daniel translated for Balthazar what Mene Mene Tekalu Parasin meant.
00:27:30.782 → 00:27:39.242
The third is prophecies, which are interpreted by a prophet before they come to fruition.
00:27:39.882 → 00:27:45.902
And prophecy is an interesting case because once a prophecy has been fulfilled, it is generally accessible.
00:27:46.302 → 00:27:51.162
The plain reading of the prophecy is going to match up with what was prophesied.
00:27:51.682 → 00:28:00.182
But until such a time as God makes manifest His will described in that prophecy, you aren’t necessarily going to know what it’s going to look like.
00:28:01.162 → 00:28:19.222
And we talked about that in the previous episode where we talked about Genesis 315 and the promise of the Messiah and how that was a less fleshed out version of that promise than was found in Isaiah where he talked about the Messiah being born of a virgin and of us being healed by his stripes.
00:28:19.622 → 00:28:29.342
Those were also prophecies that they were much more explicit prophecies both fleshing out the earlier one and pointing to the ultimate fruition.
00:28:29.982 → 00:28:34.582
So prophecy is interpreted in advance.
00:28:34.582 → 00:28:38.442
It’s not interpreted in arrears.
00:28:38.522 → 00:28:41.342
The last one is interpretation of foreign languages.
00:28:41.602 → 00:28:52.562
This is seen most often in the New Testament where at Pentecost and also in the churches where some were given the gift of tongues, others were given the gift of interpretation.
00:28:53.982 → 00:28:58.662
Now it’s important to note that in all four of these cases, what is being interpreted?
00:28:59.202 → 00:29:02.782
It’s not the way we talk about interpreting scripture.
00:29:03.182 → 00:29:08.642
It’s talking about interpreting something that’s unknowable to the observer or to the reader.
00:29:09.142 → 00:29:19.942
When you have a vision or dream, the reason that the prophets who were given the gift of interpreting those visions and dreams had to do so is that it was symbolic language.
00:29:19.962 → 00:29:24.042
When you have the seven fat cows and the seven skinny cows, who knows what it meant?
00:29:24.382 → 00:29:29.422
It wasn’t accessible via reason to interpret that dream.
00:29:29.742 → 00:29:36.602
It was a gift of God that the gift of the vision was interpreted by the gift of interpretation.
00:29:37.982 → 00:29:50.302
So in scripture, and that’s again the case in Signs and Wonders and the foreign languages and prophecy, it is a gift from God to interpret the unknowable into something knowable.
00:29:51.042 → 00:29:55.602
And so when we look in scripture, we see, well, this is what interpretation means.
00:29:56.322 → 00:30:00.222
And in our own minds, I think that sort of becomes rooted.
00:30:00.702 → 00:30:21.262
And then when we say to each other, well, that’s your interpretation, even if we’re not necessarily thinking it fundamentally, that’s what’s actually coming out of our mouths is that, well, you’re scrying in the guts of scripture and you have some, you have this pile of stuff and you’ve turned it into something that you think.
00:30:21.742 → 00:30:25.282
But when I rifle through those guts, I find something different.
00:30:25.302 → 00:30:26.842
I find another interpretation.
00:30:27.382 → 00:30:32.322
And that’s simply not what the word means today when we’re talking about it.
00:30:32.322 → 00:30:34.702
It’s not a good word to use in Christian discourse.
00:30:35.182 → 00:30:45.802
You know, if I had a book in front of me and we were sitting side by side and I handed you the book or, you know, the comic book even, I said like, can you interpret this for me?
00:30:46.282 → 00:30:47.762
And you looked at it and it was English.
00:30:47.782 → 00:30:50.242
You’d stare at me and laugh like, what are you talking about?
00:30:50.942 → 00:30:52.382
Why do you need me to interpret it?
00:30:52.802 → 00:30:56.942
So we instinctively know that interpret doesn’t mean what it meant in Latin.
00:30:56.962 → 00:30:59.022
It doesn’t mean to explain or expound anymore.
00:30:59.422 → 00:31:05.302
When we say interpret, we’re saying, we’re beginning with something unknowable and turning it into something knowable.
00:31:05.822 → 00:31:27.922
And that’s the real danger when we’re addressing scripture, because one of the common attacks on scripture itself is the denial that it’s clear, the denial that what the words that you have in front of you can possibly be understood, either unless you’re a pastor or unless you know the original languages or maybe they can’t be understood at all.
00:31:28.662 → 00:31:39.822
Maybe the only possible fruit of having access to scripture is numerous conflicting interpretations with no tiebreaker, with no one to say, this is right and this is wrong.
00:31:40.502 → 00:31:52.182
And that’s why it’s so important to make sure that we’re speaking clearly when we’re talking about scripture, because when we talk about scripture on this podcast, we’re not interpreting anything, you know, unless we translate.
00:31:52.202 → 00:31:59.902
So for example, the quote that I began with from Luther, Corey, you translated that from the original German, because the version I had was in a meme.
00:32:00.702 → 00:32:03.062
And I don’t want to make claims from memes.
00:32:03.082 → 00:32:13.062
You know, it was a pretty good translation, but you gave one that’s probably a little less common, that’s what’s typically quoted, but is a faithful interpretation of Luther’s original words.
00:32:13.402 → 00:32:21.682
That was an interpretation, because you started in German, which I can’t read, and I didn’t have access to the source material readily, and you gave me something in English.
00:32:21.982 → 00:32:23.162
That is interpretation.
00:32:23.562 → 00:32:27.002
But us discussing what’s in Scripture, we’re not interpreting, we’re using reason.
00:32:28.282 → 00:32:34.502
Yeah, we do actually retain the Latin sense, because we do still have the word interpreter, so we retain it there.
00:32:35.322 → 00:32:41.302
Because when you use an interpreter, it literally means someone who is translating from a language you do not know into a language you do know.
00:32:42.242 → 00:33:00.002
And so, if we think about it, we do still have the sense of the term, but when people use interpretation, what they really mean when it comes to Scripture and things like that is personal interpretation, which leads us into personal truth, which is not a thing.
00:33:00.602 → 00:33:02.182
Something is true or false.
00:33:02.342 → 00:33:04.062
These are basic laws of logic.
00:33:04.962 → 00:33:08.402
It is not a personal truth, because truth is not personal.
00:33:09.462 → 00:33:10.362
Truth is truth.
00:33:10.662 → 00:33:18.122
A statement is true or false, and it is so for everyone, at all times, in all places, or else it’s not true.
00:33:20.062 → 00:33:29.202
And additionally here, we have the issue of, when it comes to truth, let’s look at translation.
00:33:30.642 → 00:33:34.742
The famous part of that Luther quote is, hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders.
00:33:35.922 → 00:33:44.182
If I were to interpret that as Luther saying, I would like an orange juice, please, that’s not an interpretation, that’s just wrong.
00:33:45.222 → 00:33:48.422
And so there is an actual truth content there.
00:33:48.422 → 00:33:49.642
It means something.
00:33:49.662 → 00:33:54.862
And if you translate it accurately, you are relaying that truth, you are properly interpreting it.
00:33:55.362 → 00:33:59.562
But if you mistranslate it, you aren’t interpreting, you are misleading.
00:34:01.002 → 00:34:15.162
But there is another source of this idea of personal truth or personal interpretation, particularly in the American context, although there are also some cults, supposedly Christian cults in Europe and other places that engage in the same behavior.
00:34:15.662 → 00:34:16.662
It’s Pentecostalism.
00:34:17.002 → 00:34:17.902
It’s enthusiasm.
00:34:18.342 → 00:34:33.722
It’s the belief that if I just do whatever, at least they’re using the word, which is better than they are sometimes, but if I just stare at the word, I will suddenly be given this personal insight into the secret meaning of the word.
00:34:34.742 → 00:34:35.942
Now, it’s careful.
00:34:36.042 → 00:35:02.082
It is important to carefully divide here the difference between a regenerate Christian will have the Holy Spirit and so will be able to read and understand Scripture, which is a very important point for what we are discussing today, versus those who say that they will be given some sort of Gnostic special insight into the real meaning that everyone else has gone wrong.
00:35:02.142 → 00:35:18.222
Those people, that is a cult practice, that is not Christian, and that’s another source of this personal interpretation, and it’s of a kind with people who gibber in nonsense, supposed languages, in church and say that’s speaking in tongues.
00:35:18.422 → 00:35:19.102
It’s not.
00:35:19.102 → 00:35:20.302
Scripture is very clear.
00:35:20.762 → 00:35:24.262
There should be an interpreter because tongues are human tongues.
00:35:25.162 → 00:35:29.642
The point of that gift of the Spirit is so that you can talk to someone who does not speak your language.
00:35:30.202 → 00:35:47.042
Less important today, given technology and the fact that, again, we have this wealth of material for learning languages, back in biblical times, it would have been impossible, basically, for a common man to learn a foreign language from a country that was 300 miles away even.
00:35:47.742 → 00:35:50.202
And so those gifts were more important back then.
00:35:52.102 → 00:35:54.962
But there was another point I wanted to add here quickly.
00:35:55.882 → 00:36:02.522
There are two terms that we should mention because they’re the typical terms you hear when…
00:36:02.542 → 00:36:04.202
Well, one is the typical term you hear, one is a mistake.
00:36:04.582 → 00:36:07.062
But they’re the typical terms you hear when discussing this issue.
00:36:07.342 → 00:36:10.422
Perspicuous or perspicacity, perspicuity.
00:36:11.822 → 00:36:14.302
Two different terms there, perspicacity versus perspicuity.
00:36:14.322 → 00:36:19.522
Perspicuity is what we’re talking about, which is that scripture is clearly expressed and easily understood.
00:36:20.202 → 00:36:22.702
Perspicacity is a term some people mistake.
00:36:23.102 → 00:36:26.202
That’s a quality of having already insight into things.
00:36:26.222 → 00:36:30.422
So a person has perspicacity, scripture has perspicuity.
00:36:30.442 → 00:36:32.782
You can also say perspicuousness, but that one’s awkward.
00:36:33.742 → 00:36:34.922
That’s what we’re talking about here.
00:36:34.922 → 00:36:36.582
Scripture is clear.
00:36:36.642 → 00:36:41.282
Scripture can be understood by the average man if he reads it.
00:36:42.062 → 00:36:46.162
But again, for the regenerate Christian, you will also have the Holy Spirit there guiding you.
00:36:46.482 → 00:36:58.302
So if there are people who say that scripture isn’t clear, you can understand scripture, it’s dark, and it’s incomprehensible, impenetrable, they’re actually calling God a liar, because God says that he will help you to understand these things.
00:36:58.662 → 00:37:01.862
And scripture also throughout says that it is clear.
00:37:02.582 → 00:37:07.682
I have a quote here from Luther in a book that the Reformed happened to love, The Bondage of the Will.
00:37:08.682 → 00:37:14.822
But he threads the needle here when it comes to the fact that, yes, there are some parts of scripture that are still confusing.
00:37:14.902 → 00:37:15.302
There are.
00:37:16.682 → 00:37:24.482
But the core doctrines, the core truths of scripture, the overwhelming majority of scripture is clear and easily understood.
00:37:24.502 → 00:37:25.982
So here’s the quote from Luther.
00:37:28.402 → 00:37:36.302
The subject matter of the scriptures, therefore, is all quite accessible, even though some texts are still obscure owing to our ignorance of their terms.
00:37:36.942 → 00:37:47.022
Truly it is stupid and impious when we know that the subject matter of scripture has all been placed in the clearest light, to call it obscure on account of a few obscure words.
00:37:47.782 → 00:38:00.942
If the words are obscure in one place, yet they are plain in another, and it is one and the same theme, published quite openly to the whole world, which in the scriptures is sometimes expressed in plain words and sometimes lies as yet hidden in obscure words.
00:38:01.522 → 00:38:10.602
Now, when the thing signified is in the light, it does not matter if this or that sign of it is in darkness, since many other signs of the same thing are meanwhile in the light.
00:38:11.322 → 00:38:19.842
Who will say that a public fountain is not in the light because those who are in a narrow side street do not see it, whereas all who are in the marketplace do see it?
00:38:20.942 → 00:38:23.922
Your reference to the Corcyan Cave, therefore, is irrelevant.
00:38:24.842 → 00:38:26.802
That is not how things are in the Scriptures.
00:38:27.202 → 00:38:35.682
Matters of the highest majesty and the profoundest mysteries are no longer hidden away, but have been brought out and are openly displayed before the very doors.
00:38:36.262 → 00:38:45.122
For Christ has opened our minds so that we may understand the Scriptures, Luke 24, 45, and the Gospel is preached to the whole creation, Mark 16, 15.
00:38:45.502 → 00:38:52.502
Their voice has gone out to all the earth, Romans 10, 18, and whatever was written was written for our instruction, Romans 15, 4.
00:38:52.802 → 00:38:58.282
Also, all Scripture inspired by God is profitable for teaching 2 Timothy 3, 16.
00:38:58.762 → 00:39:05.222
See then whether you and all the sophists can produce any single mystery that is still abstruse in the Scriptures.
00:39:06.502 → 00:39:12.082
Luther is of course responding to Erasmus who had argued, essentially, that Scripture was impenetrable.
00:39:14.262 → 00:39:18.122
And this is something that we emphasized in a previous episode when we were talking about election.
00:39:18.542 → 00:39:37.342
We specifically pointed out that predestination versus the so-called double predestination or the hypostatic union of Christ or the Trinity or the Eucharist, these are a few places where Scripture is clear, but reason is not clear.
00:39:37.622 → 00:39:39.202
And that’s a very limited set.
00:39:39.742 → 00:39:54.202
So it’s a trick that the devil plays on us and that we are all too willing to play on ourselves and on each other to say that, well, this verse seems to contradict this verse, so I’m going to pick the one that I like the most.
00:39:54.862 → 00:40:06.522
And the reason that I began with that quote in part was that, again, Luther refers both to the testimonies of Scripture and to clear rational arguments.
00:40:07.242 → 00:40:24.262
I mentioned that the reason is something that Christians are either used too much of, as in the case of some denominations, where reason is used in the magisterial sense, where all of their beliefs must be in submission to their own reason.
00:40:25.162 → 00:40:38.262
As Lutherans, we advocate the ministerial use of reason, where we do our best with what we have, and where our reason fails us, we look at the plain words of Scripture, and where we don’t understand them, we still confess them.
00:40:38.642 → 00:40:39.902
That is what faith means.
00:40:41.042 → 00:40:48.562
But reason has a very precious place in the Church, and this is found in Scripture itself.
00:40:48.662 → 00:40:58.642
When you look, there are 17, or sorry, 13 places in the New Testament where the Greek word, dia legomai, is used.
00:40:58.662 → 00:41:03.882
That word means to converse or address, to lecture, to argue, or to reason.
00:41:05.142 → 00:41:13.622
Now, when it appears in the New Testament, almost all of the uses are in the term, in the sense of dialectical reason, of arguments.
00:41:14.362 → 00:41:20.862
Not in a, you know, knock down, drag out argument, but making a series of logical propositions to reach a conclusion.
00:41:21.222 → 00:41:23.062
And they’re done principally by Paul.
00:41:24.042 → 00:41:31.402
In Acts 17, he repeatedly reasoned with the Scriptures, from the Scriptures, with both Jew and Greek.
00:41:32.022 → 00:41:33.942
Says the same thing in Acts 18.
00:41:34.662 → 00:41:37.102
It says three times in 17 and 18 that he reasoned.
00:41:37.122 → 00:41:37.822
Sorry, four times.
00:41:37.842 → 00:41:38.822
I’m just scrolling through here.
00:41:39.202 → 00:41:39.802
Five times.
00:41:39.822 → 00:41:40.682
It just keeps going.
00:41:41.102 → 00:41:47.682
Over and over, Paul is going to the synagogues and to the public places, and he is reasoning from Scripture.
00:41:48.042 → 00:41:58.662
Now, Paul had revelations directly from God, and his writings to us are the revelation of God.
00:41:59.402 → 00:42:13.302
But when he spoke to his fellow Jews and he spoke to the Gentiles, there were cases where he would reveal something prophetic, but his go-to was to reason from the Scriptures.
00:42:13.562 → 00:42:18.442
Now, the Scripture that they had in that day was the entirety of the Old Testament, the Tanakh.
00:42:18.822 → 00:42:25.782
They didn’t have the New Testament yet because Paul hadn’t written it and the few other authors who contribute to what we call the New Testament today.
00:42:26.362 → 00:42:29.722
But when he reasoned with them, he was obeying God.
00:42:30.082 → 00:42:37.422
He was saying, look, here we have the prophecy in Genesis and Isaiah and elsewhere that there would be a Messiah.
00:42:37.762 → 00:42:47.662
And now I point to you to Jesus and to his life and to his preaching and his ministry and his death and his resurrection as a testimony to the fulfillment of those prophecies.
00:42:48.602 → 00:42:53.102
Paul was using a reason to explicate prophecy.
00:42:53.782 → 00:43:04.942
See again, he didn’t have to use special revelation from God to explain the prophecy because it was in the review mirror, both the prophecy itself and its fulfillment.
00:43:05.742 → 00:43:18.082
What Paul had to do was to use a plain reason from the plain words that were given to the Hebrews in the Old Testament and to all of us to say, look, God said this and then God did this.
00:43:18.382 → 00:43:21.502
What God said and what God did look exactly the same.
00:43:21.842 → 00:43:22.602
That’s reason.
00:43:23.422 → 00:43:37.662
It takes faith for us to believe it, but just as a jurist, as someone particularly at the time, who just having access to the facts and not having access to faith could potentially believe that too.
00:43:37.682 → 00:43:44.182
Now, it may not be salvific without faith, but they would reach the same conclusions by virtue of reason.
00:43:44.842 → 00:43:47.842
Now, to be clear, we’re not saying here the reason can save you.
00:43:48.142 → 00:43:49.142
That’s never the point.
00:43:49.162 → 00:43:51.322
It is faith that saves and faith alone.
00:43:51.902 → 00:43:57.682
But reason is a gift of God that is given to every man, although not an equal measure.
00:43:58.102 → 00:44:04.102
Some men are apparently entirely bereft of reason, and some men seem to have too much of it because they can’t shut it off.
00:44:04.942 → 00:44:12.022
But reason is a gift that is given to us by God to help make sense of the things that God has also given to us.
00:44:12.302 → 00:44:14.202
And scripture is what God has given to us.
00:44:14.582 → 00:44:16.042
God has not given us tradition.
00:44:16.582 → 00:44:19.422
Tradition is what has been passed down for our benefit.
00:44:19.942 → 00:44:25.042
But I want to quote Luther’s Works Volume 1, where he’s talking about Genesis.
00:44:25.682 → 00:44:27.442
And we’re going to get into it in a minute.
00:44:27.582 → 00:44:37.762
One of the reasons we’re talking about this is that recently on the internet, there have been people who call themselves Lutherans and call themselves Christians who are directly in opening attacking Genesis.
00:44:38.222 → 00:44:43.882
Again, they’re saying, well, yeah, it’s true, but I’m not going to go along with it being factual.
00:44:44.062 → 00:44:45.142
That’s a bridge too far.
00:44:46.722 → 00:45:03.782
And one of the appeals that these men actually made was to the church fathers who disagreed in some cases with Genesis being a narrative, particularly the first nine books, which are considered more metaphorical, kind of a narrative but not a factual recounting.
00:45:04.482 → 00:45:05.782
Here’s what Luther had to say.
00:45:06.742 → 00:45:21.962
Whenever we see that the opinions of the fathers are not in agreement with Scripture, we respectfully bear with them and acknowledge them as our forefathers, but we do not on their account give up the authority of Scripture.
00:45:22.622 → 00:45:27.002
Aristotle’s statement in the first book of his Ethics is well put and true.
00:45:27.862 → 00:45:33.822
Better it is to defend the truth than to be too much devoted to those who are our friends and our relatives.
00:45:34.882 → 00:45:42.822
And this is above all the proper attitude for a philosopher, for although both truth and friends are dear to us, preference must be given to truth.
00:45:43.462 → 00:45:57.602
If a pagan maintains that this must be the attitude in their secular discourses, how much more must it be in our attitude in those which involve the clear witness of Scripture, that we dare not give preference to the authority of men over that Scripture.
00:45:58.102 → 00:46:04.342
Human beings can err, but the Word of God is the very wisdom of God and the absolutely infallible truth.
00:46:05.182 → 00:46:12.222
So also Luther had to say about his forefathers and the faith of the Church Fathers disagreeing with Genesis.
00:46:12.762 → 00:46:14.422
And that’s what we’re talking about here.
00:46:14.742 → 00:46:16.762
It is possible for anyone to err.
00:46:17.702 → 00:46:21.722
It is not possible for a man to err and to be faithful to Scripture.
00:46:22.142 → 00:46:37.422
And so the reason that these arguments and discussions must be had and must be had in public is so that it can be plain to all where the scriptural revelation ends and where man’s additions to it begin.
00:46:37.982 → 00:46:42.702
Because reason can go too far and there are some denominations that take reason too far.
00:46:43.202 → 00:46:46.362
But reason can also be neglected.
00:46:46.902 → 00:46:50.582
And so it’s very dangerous for anyone to advocate.
00:46:50.862 → 00:46:52.182
Well, we can’t know what that means.
00:46:52.402 → 00:46:59.722
Well, yes, it is theoretically possible that you can read something in Scripture that you cannot understand.
00:47:00.142 → 00:47:01.502
But it’s incredibly unlikely.
00:47:01.522 → 00:47:08.042
And those things have already been identified in the past by all of the other men who, for thousands of years, have struggled with these same questions.
00:47:08.502 → 00:47:12.602
So we don’t need to come in blind and mindless to Scripture.
00:47:12.982 → 00:47:20.822
We can look to what the fathers have said, but we can only look to them in the light of Scripture and not the other way around.
00:47:21.282 → 00:47:29.562
As, Corey, as you mentioned, when Luther was first accessing Scripture even as a monk, it was through the eyes of other men and through the words of other men.
00:47:30.062 → 00:47:38.802
And his revelation was when he finally read Scripture itself and realized that what he had been handed through tradition didn’t add up.
00:47:38.962 → 00:47:40.282
It wasn’t what was scriptural.
00:47:40.622 → 00:47:53.922
And so reason has a very crucial place in the life of a Christian, again, subordinated to faith, but used wherever possible to make clear that which can be made clear from Scripture.
00:47:56.242 → 00:48:08.222
And I would just want to pose a question to those men who say that, you know, we cannot use reason in order to interpret or in order to exegete would be a better term, really.
00:48:09.242 → 00:48:10.062
What are they using?
00:48:12.062 → 00:48:14.342
What are they doing when they are reading Scripture?
00:48:14.362 → 00:48:16.382
How is it that they are teaching?
00:48:17.082 → 00:48:27.002
Because you will hear this from certain pastors and teachers that, well, you can’t use reason in order to understand these things or they aren’t clear or any of these.
00:48:27.562 → 00:48:31.862
What is it they are doing that these other men cannot do?
00:48:32.682 → 00:48:34.302
And why is it that we should believe them?
00:48:34.382 → 00:48:36.602
Of course, we know what they’re actually doing.
00:48:36.622 → 00:48:39.622
It’s a cartel is what it really is.
00:48:41.262 → 00:48:52.282
They have the exclusive authority to interpret scripture because they got a little stamp on a piece of paper saying that they’re allowed to do it according to whatever group.
00:48:53.002 → 00:48:56.142
If it’s the Roman church, then it’s according to the pope.
00:48:56.602 → 00:48:59.462
If it’s some other church, then typically it’s according to some seminary.
00:49:00.782 → 00:49:01.822
And that’s not how it works.
00:49:01.842 → 00:49:04.242
I’m not saying that seminary education is bad.
00:49:04.262 → 00:49:06.842
It certainly in our era has its problems.
00:49:08.242 → 00:49:16.242
But just because you have an MDiv does not mean that you are an expert in all things scripture.
00:49:17.782 → 00:49:20.202
In fact, it may be a fairly good indication that you are not.
00:49:20.262 → 00:49:36.802
One would hope that those with an MDiv would recognize that, because in basically any other field, the higher you go in degrees and education in that field, the more you realize how little you know and of all places in which that should be true.
00:49:36.822 → 00:49:42.022
It should certainly be true when it comes to scripture, because you’re dealing with the word of an infinite God.
00:49:42.682 → 00:49:51.282
You should absolutely know it forward and backward, the things that can be known, but you are going to realize that there is always more for you to learn.
00:49:51.642 → 00:49:53.882
It’s the same thing that is said in the Small Catechism.
00:49:53.902 → 00:49:58.282
It’s those who read it through once, then throw it in the corner, think, I’ve read that, I’m good enough, I’m done.
00:49:58.802 → 00:50:03.142
No, you read it every day, because God will continue to teach you.
00:50:03.162 → 00:50:07.242
And so you continue to read scripture, because you will continue to learn.
00:50:07.262 → 00:50:17.102
And so I just, I would want to know what these men are doing when they are somehow exegeting scripture, but without resorting to reasoner.
00:50:17.102 → 00:50:18.602
And again, we know what they’re doing.
00:50:18.622 → 00:50:20.762
They’re reading what others have written and just parroting it.
00:50:22.582 → 00:50:25.522
Which there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that.
00:50:26.142 → 00:50:30.102
Some very good teachers are simply, we could call them a synthesis teacher.
00:50:30.502 → 00:50:37.622
You’re synthesizing materials from others who know more than you and then teaching it to others who know less than you do.
00:50:38.342 → 00:50:39.482
That’s perfectly valid.
00:50:40.262 → 00:50:45.742
You have scholars who do that as well, who synthesize quotes from various other authors, and Pieper did a lot of that.
00:50:46.982 → 00:50:53.142
A good scholar in his own right, but a lot of what he did was corralling together quotes and things, and Valter did some of that as well.
00:50:53.802 → 00:50:55.362
That’s not a condemnation of those men.
00:50:55.382 → 00:50:57.822
Sometimes that’s what you need to do as a teacher.
00:50:58.722 → 00:51:02.722
But reason is a gift from God.
00:51:03.562 → 00:51:05.182
It is a valid tool.
00:51:05.402 → 00:51:08.942
But as you said, it’s just something we do not put on a throne.
00:51:09.442 → 00:51:11.202
It’s not the magisterial use of reason.
00:51:11.222 → 00:51:12.302
It’s the ministerial use.
00:51:12.942 → 00:51:17.222
Reason is a servant we employ to help us understand Scripture.
00:51:19.062 → 00:51:29.422
And Scripture itself testifies over and over again that it is complete, that it is from God, that it is inerrant, and that it is valuable for these purposes.
00:51:30.022 → 00:51:43.302
I mind a few verses I like to read now that just from Old and New Testament that make clear how much God reinforces to the Christian that this stuff is vital.
00:51:43.962 → 00:51:53.302
In Isaiah 8, God says himself, To the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
00:51:55.202 → 00:52:06.182
In Matthew 4, Jesus said, but he answered, It is written, again quoting back to the Old Testament, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
00:52:06.882 → 00:52:20.442
Now those who heard Jesus speaking in his earthly ministry were blessed that all of the many words that he spoke were direct from the mouth of God, which John records is more than could be written in all the books in the world.
00:52:22.202 → 00:52:44.402
That statement is equally true of scripture, and that’s one of the things that one of the attacks that Satan, through these vipers who live in our churches today, will make is that they will try to subdivide the scripture that we have before us, the Bible that you have in your hands, and say, well, this part, yeah, this part’s definitely from God, but this part might, it’s a little sketchy.
00:52:44.422 → 00:52:45.402
I’m not sure about that.
00:52:46.262 → 00:52:54.882
And a couple of episodes ago, I exhorted people to read the red letters in the New Testament for a very specific purpose.
00:52:55.242 → 00:53:07.962
And I spent more time talking about how dangerous it was than I did about actually describing what you would have because of this very reason that there are people, again, who will say, well, if it’s not in red, well, maybe God didn’t really say it.
00:53:08.282 → 00:53:16.202
I actually heard Kanye say that this week in a quote, and I was just shaking my head like, please, Lord, don’t put me in the same boat as him as a theologian.
00:53:16.762 → 00:53:24.962
But it’s important to to remember that every word of scripture is from God and God himself says it.
00:53:25.322 → 00:53:31.222
And if you don’t believe that, then you call God a liar and the truth is not in you and you do not have God.
00:53:31.722 → 00:53:33.402
And that’s where this stuff comes bound to.
00:53:33.422 → 00:53:59.222
When when you when Corey and I fight for sound doctrine, for agreeing with scripture, even when we don’t like it, there are things in scripture that I have a hard time with, not because I don’t believe them or that I don’t want to obey God, but because they’re hard to hear, because they condemn things that I have believed in the past or the way I want to live in the future or the things I like to do right now.
00:54:00.202 → 00:54:19.762
Those are not reasons not to believe God, but there are hardened hearts and their seared consciences in men who will gleefully say that these literalists like you and I, Corey, don’t really have access to Scripture because we’re so dumb and we’re such hayseeds that we just read the Bible and believe it.
00:54:20.062 → 00:54:24.782
And that’s just, that’s really dangerous and it’s embarrassing, and Christians should be better than that.
00:54:25.682 → 00:54:26.782
That’s not what God says.
00:54:28.202 → 00:54:33.562
In Matthew 5, Jesus reiterates what was said in Isaiah.
00:54:33.942 → 00:54:43.922
He says, For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter nor the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.
00:54:44.502 → 00:54:47.422
Now this in the King James is the famous John Tittle quote.
00:54:47.802 → 00:54:51.442
I think here I actually used NIV because I like how it worked best with the Greek.
00:54:52.262 → 00:55:10.782
But the smallest stroke of a pen and the smallest letter refers to the fact that there’s no part of Scripture, there’s no corner that you can find, there’s no piece of a letter that you can find that is so insignificant that you can leave it out and still have God.
00:55:11.962 → 00:55:18.582
And there’s a word in there that I want to highlight because Jesus said, will by any means disappear from the law.
00:55:19.062 → 00:55:27.922
Now one of the games that these vipers will play is they’ll say, well, the law, that’s the Torah, that’s the first five books, that’s the Pentateuch, that’s the book, that’s the law of Moses.
00:55:28.722 → 00:55:31.462
That’s just, that’s a tiny portion of the Old Testament.
00:55:31.702 → 00:55:33.122
He’s not talking about the whole thing.
00:55:33.522 → 00:55:34.182
Nonsense.
00:55:35.282 → 00:55:37.982
Jesus, who is the word, knows what the word is.
00:55:38.342 → 00:55:43.782
He knows what was revealed to Moses and to the other prophets because he’s the one who revealed it.
00:55:44.442 → 00:55:50.542
So when these men try to say, well, Jesus isn’t really talking about the whole thing, they’re trying to devour your souls.
00:55:50.942 → 00:55:57.962
And that’s why fighting over inerrancy and fighting over the whole of Scripture being vital is so important.
00:55:58.882 → 00:56:02.822
Really, it’s the same thing that we run into again and again and again and again.
00:56:04.302 → 00:56:15.562
Satan has changed his tactics over the centuries because he has done certain things and the Church has responded and dealt with the issue, and so he does something else.
00:56:16.282 → 00:56:25.522
We’ve mentioned that the Church handled with the Reformation Article 4, justification, we handled that problem.
00:56:26.342 → 00:56:37.182
Yes, there are still cults, sects that do not get it right, but the Church handled the problem of the denial of by grace through faith.
00:56:39.822 → 00:56:41.022
And so what did Satan do?
00:56:41.342 → 00:56:42.222
Well, he switched gears.
00:56:42.302 → 00:56:48.682
He’s going to attack the first article of the Creed, creation, ontology, the nature of things, instead of attacking justification.
00:56:50.042 → 00:56:51.702
It’s the same thing that’s happening here.
00:56:52.562 → 00:57:05.602
If Satan cannot keep the scriptures out of the hands of the laity, which he can no longer do because good luck putting that back in the bottle at this point, everyone who wants to have a Bible can have a Bible.
00:57:06.142 → 00:57:07.942
Everyone can have the Word of God.
00:57:08.342 → 00:57:18.062
Anyone with a smartphone has access to a wealth of information that would make the wealthiest scholar in human history envious in comparison.
00:57:18.702 → 00:57:24.182
Kings had libraries, the likes of which don’t even hold a candle to what we have today.
00:57:25.702 → 00:57:30.222
And so Satan isn’t going to attack that because he can no longer keep it out of your hands.
00:57:30.242 → 00:57:33.942
He cannot make it so it’s just in Latin and you don’t know Latin.
00:57:35.202 → 00:57:44.302
But what he can do is he can have false teachers, wolves, snakes, he can send them out and they’ll tell you, is that what God really said?
00:57:44.322 → 00:57:47.402
So of course he’s not really changing his tactics that much from the beginning.
00:57:48.762 → 00:58:01.502
But the goal now is to make you think that scripture is unclear, that scripture is difficult to understand, that you cannot just read scripture as a layman and understand it and get something out of it.
00:58:01.742 → 00:58:11.642
And that’s not what scripture says because the goal, as ever, is to get you to willingly or unwillingly, wittingly or unwittingly, call God a liar.
00:58:13.222 → 00:58:18.182
That’s what happens with the denial of certain aspects of creation.
00:58:18.262 → 00:58:20.342
It’s what happens with the denial of ontology.
00:58:20.822 → 00:58:26.622
It’s what happens when you say that scripture is unclear because God says it is clear.
00:58:29.782 → 00:58:42.582
In Hebrews 4 it is written, For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
00:58:43.882 → 00:58:47.202
And one of my favorite quotes I found was from Isaiah 55.
00:58:47.822 → 00:58:53.582
God says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
00:58:54.202 → 00:59:00.182
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
00:59:00.822 → 00:59:15.562
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth.
00:59:16.062 → 00:59:23.882
It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
00:59:25.162 → 00:59:39.962
God gave us these words for our clarity, for our comfort, and for our salvation, and anytime Satan threw his servants on this planet, gets you to doubt even a tiny bit of it.
00:59:40.742 → 00:59:45.382
That is the whole armor of God having a chink put in it.
00:59:45.702 → 00:59:54.582
That is a place where now Satan can get through the armor and can get to your flesh, where God is no longer protecting you because you’re no longer believing God.
00:59:55.002 → 01:00:05.002
It’s not that God has lost his power, it’s that you have set aside his word, even by the smallest decree, and when we do that, we’re a terrible risk.
01:00:06.222 → 01:00:24.262
One of the reasons that we did this episode this week was that for the last few days there’s been a stink, and I’m not going to go into the drama because we’ve been talking enough about Twitter, but there are those who claim that the six days of creation are, they’re true, but they’re not literal.
01:00:25.042 → 01:00:31.202
In other words, God has revealed something that’s true in the narrative sense, but not in the factual sense.
01:00:31.902 → 01:00:51.962
And one of the attacks that this man, Limanstein, on Twitter made was to mock the six days of creation where in Genesis 1 and 2, God reveals that in the beginning, God said, let there be light, and there was light.
01:00:52.902 → 01:00:58.102
That was day one, and it wasn’t until later that he created the sun and the stars.
01:00:59.142 → 01:01:12.442
And so these mockers, these scoffers, will say, well, the six days of creation can’t be literal, because how can God say that there was light on day one when there was no source of light until later days?
01:01:12.942 → 01:01:25.882
Because as the big-brained Rattata, these guys all know through their material knowledge of the world that in order for there to be light, you need an unbounded nuclear reactor in the sky emitting photons.
01:01:26.362 → 01:01:28.462
That’s how science gives us light, right?
01:01:29.042 → 01:01:30.122
That’s what stars do.
01:01:30.382 → 01:01:31.782
Stars give light.
01:01:33.382 → 01:01:37.982
Now, we’re not going to make the scientific case for creation, even though there is one.
01:01:38.002 → 01:01:48.682
And the more we learning about the first moments of creation, the more we see how clearly scripture, the genesis of count of creation, is literal.
01:01:51.722 → 01:01:53.762
God says, let there be light and there was light.
01:01:54.522 → 01:01:56.142
Now, that’s God speaking.
01:01:56.402 → 01:01:57.402
That is a voice.
01:01:57.762 → 01:01:58.882
That is a sound.
01:01:59.322 → 01:02:01.062
And then light occurs from it.
01:02:01.662 → 01:02:03.762
The Redditor mocks and says, well, that’s stupid.
01:02:03.782 → 01:02:04.822
That’s utterly impossible.
01:02:04.842 → 01:02:06.222
Everyone knows that can’t happen.
01:02:07.342 → 01:02:18.862
Except in the 70s or sorry, in the 30s, they some German scientists discovered sonoluminescence, where it is literally possible to create light from sound.
01:02:19.462 → 01:02:27.822
It turns out that if you emit a particular type of sound into a liquid, it will cause a bubble to appear and collapse.
01:02:28.182 → 01:02:36.622
And in that collapse, you get intensely high temperatures on the order of tens of thousands of degrees Kelvin.
01:02:37.402 → 01:02:40.102
When the bubble collapses, there’s a flash of light.
01:02:40.422 → 01:02:45.402
You can have a fluid where light appears by virtue of a sound being passed through it.
01:02:46.082 → 01:02:48.482
Now, what does the liquid have to do this?
01:02:48.882 → 01:02:54.982
Well, also in the Genesis account, the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.
01:02:55.642 → 01:03:07.382
Now, the man who mocked the literalist reading Genesis will say, well, as a material expert, as a scientist, I know that water is H2O.
01:03:07.422 → 01:03:09.542
It’s two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen.
01:03:10.062 → 01:03:12.702
There was no water because God hadn’t created the waters yet.
01:03:12.782 → 01:03:13.942
So what’s this water stuff?
01:03:13.962 → 01:03:14.982
It must be a metaphor.
01:03:15.442 → 01:03:38.962
Well, again, just in the last couple decades, as particle physicists and other scientists have unwound the Big Bang to based on the physical evidence in found in the universe to try to figure out the very earliest moments of they don’t call it creation, but it’s clearly creation.
01:03:39.442 → 01:03:41.562
What do they find before there was matter?
01:03:42.342 → 01:03:45.142
They call it quark, gluon, plasma.
01:03:45.642 → 01:03:52.162
You can Google that and you can read about the theoretical aspects and then the physical experiments they’ve done.
01:03:53.202 → 01:04:00.182
Every scientist will describe quark, gluon, plasma as the most perfect liquid.
01:04:00.802 → 01:04:03.882
It is a liquid that is more liquid than any liquid that we have.
01:04:03.902 → 01:04:07.482
It’s more liquid than water in terms of its liquid properties.
01:04:07.782 → 01:04:19.042
The reason they were excited is they expected a gas because when they were doing their simulations and their thought experiments to try to find what was there before the Big Bang, they thought, well, it must be a gas.
01:04:19.322 → 01:04:20.282
They found a liquid.
01:04:20.482 → 01:04:21.562
They found waters.
01:04:22.302 → 01:04:29.782
Now, why would God speak to Moses when he gave him the narrative of Genesis?
01:04:30.082 → 01:04:31.162
Why would he say water?
01:04:31.762 → 01:04:35.802
Well, Moses didn’t know anything about particle physics.
01:04:35.822 → 01:04:40.982
He didn’t know anything about string theory, but it was also true.
01:04:41.142 → 01:04:42.262
It literally happened.
01:04:42.662 → 01:04:48.182
God hovered over the face of the waters and the sun and the scientists have now simulated those very waters.
01:04:48.662 → 01:04:50.762
These are men who deny, they deny God.
01:04:51.062 → 01:04:54.342
They’re trying to find something so that they can say that we didn’t need God.
01:04:54.622 → 01:04:55.942
Here’s what we found instead.
01:04:56.362 → 01:05:02.562
The more that they dig, the more that they find the first two chapters of Genesis revealed in their experiments.
01:05:02.822 → 01:05:06.062
Now, they’ll never see it because their eyes are closed and their hearts are hardened.
01:05:06.382 → 01:05:10.242
They don’t have faith and they hate God and they don’t know God at the same time.
01:05:10.682 → 01:05:19.242
But as Christians, we don’t need to be afraid of science looking to Scripture as we look to Scripture because they’re saying the same thing.
01:05:20.402 → 01:05:26.142
Now, when I mention the Big Bang, you’re going to think, oh, well, he thinks that the, you know, he’s not a young Earth creationist.
01:05:26.342 → 01:05:27.182
I absolutely am.
01:05:27.202 → 01:05:28.862
And that’s the point of this discussion.
01:05:30.142 → 01:05:35.062
When God created the universe, how old was it?
01:05:35.702 → 01:05:37.022
That’s what they’re trying to answer.
01:05:38.042 → 01:05:40.582
There’s a separate question that’s a little more accessible to us.
01:05:41.202 → 01:05:45.442
When God created man, when God created Adam, how old was he?
01:05:46.362 → 01:05:47.222
Was he zero?
01:05:48.042 → 01:05:57.242
We hadn’t lived a day, but God created a man, a fully formed, sexually mature man is who stood in the garden with God.
01:05:58.042 → 01:06:01.882
So God didn’t make a fetus that gestated in a box.
01:06:02.322 → 01:06:03.862
He made a fully grown man.
01:06:04.462 → 01:06:06.102
Adam had an age.
01:06:07.062 → 01:06:15.642
My personal theory, which is it’s not a belief, it’s just something I, as I was reading scripture, I noticed Adam died after 930 years.
01:06:16.282 → 01:06:21.522
Methuselah, who’s the oldest lived man in scripture, lived 969 years.
01:06:21.882 → 01:06:28.402
And my brain did the math and said, well, that means that Methuselah lived 39 years longer than Adam.
01:06:28.902 → 01:06:30.242
That’s a conspicuous number.
01:06:30.262 → 01:06:34.902
If you’re familiar with numerology and scripture, because 40 is a significant number.
01:06:34.922 → 01:06:36.482
It usually signifies trial.
01:06:37.402 → 01:06:40.602
But I thought, and that’s what made me think, well, how old was Adam?
01:06:41.402 → 01:06:50.002
Personally, I think he was probably created as a 40 year old because that would make him the first born man in creation, the oldest man in creation.
01:06:50.282 → 01:06:52.162
He was the only man who was ever perfect.
01:06:52.562 → 01:06:55.142
He was the only man who ever walked sinlessly with God.
01:06:55.162 → 01:06:58.862
And so my personal theory, again, this is not, I’m not adding to scripture.
01:06:58.882 → 01:07:02.262
It’s not a matter of faith or salvation.
01:07:02.282 → 01:07:03.462
It’s just a theory.
01:07:03.602 → 01:07:04.922
When I die, I’ll find out.
01:07:05.242 → 01:07:08.402
And God will say either you had good guess or no, you made a mess of this.
01:07:08.422 → 01:07:09.382
Here’s what really happened.
01:07:09.402 → 01:07:11.182
So no faith hinges on this.
01:07:11.202 → 01:07:13.242
And there’s no belief downstream from it.
01:07:13.262 → 01:07:16.542
But I think that Adam had to have an age.
01:07:16.862 → 01:07:19.802
Maybe he was 15, maybe he was 20, maybe he was 100.
01:07:20.822 → 01:07:23.102
40 seems to work, but he has an age.
01:07:23.122 → 01:07:28.542
And so when we look to the age of the universe, how old was the universe that God created?
01:07:29.062 → 01:07:31.562
It was 13.77 billion years old.
01:07:32.062 → 01:07:38.182
God didn’t create a universe from scratch and then set it in motion from the beginning.
01:07:38.622 → 01:07:42.742
He set it in motion as though it had been in motion for billions of years.
01:07:43.062 → 01:07:44.422
And that’s what we see today.
01:07:44.722 → 01:08:06.722
That’s why the starlight that comes to our eyes is older than creation, because God created those stars in those places, in the universe, with their light, with their photons already streaming towards us, according to the natural laws of the universe, in such a way that the whole thing makes sense and the whole thing works.
01:08:07.602 → 01:08:09.902
God wasn’t making up something from whole cloth.
01:08:09.922 → 01:08:13.282
Well, he was, but he wasn’t making something that would be fictitious.
01:08:13.682 → 01:08:16.782
He was making something that was a real whole machine.
01:08:17.122 → 01:08:19.962
The machine of the universe is internally consistent.
01:08:20.602 → 01:08:27.842
And so, as Corey and I appeal to scientific understanding of these things, it’s not an attack on faith.
01:08:28.202 → 01:08:37.362
It is a confirmation of the faith that we find by virtue of literal, simple, plain readings of the scripture that’s been revealed to us.
01:08:39.202 → 01:08:44.882
And it’s almost as if scripture somewhere says that it’s the glory of God to conceal things and the glory of princes to reveal them.
01:08:46.222 → 01:08:49.922
Princes, of course, don’t necessarily just mean princes.
01:08:50.842 → 01:09:07.462
And so, we are able to use the things God has given us, which would be our intelligence, our wisdom, insight, whatever attribute it happens to be, in order to investigate the world, in order to investigate the things that he created into which he placed us as head.
01:09:09.042 → 01:09:18.462
And so, science properly understood, I don’t want to get into the technicalities there of what science used to mean and what it means now, but it’s just knowledge.
01:09:19.342 → 01:09:22.442
Science is a way of going about things, obtaining knowledge.
01:09:23.342 → 01:09:27.902
It’s not contrary to scripture, it does not conflict with scripture, it’s not anti-Christian.
01:09:28.862 → 01:09:35.142
Most of the great men in these fields who made the major advances that really meant something were Christian.
01:09:35.662 → 01:09:42.322
Some of them were monks, you have Mendel, but these were Christian men investigating creation.
01:09:43.802 → 01:09:47.622
And that’s part of why science really took off in Europe.
01:09:48.322 → 01:10:03.482
Science, yes, in some parts of the ancient world advanced to a certain level beyond what Europe was at relatively at the time, but that all stopped many centuries ago.
01:10:03.842 → 01:10:12.322
And Europe has been far and away in advance of others since then because Europeans were looking at the world from a Christian perspective.
01:10:13.082 → 01:10:22.222
We were looking at the world as something that is created by an intelligent and loving God in a way that is comprehensible to us.
01:10:22.942 → 01:10:25.262
There are, of course, things that are beyond our comprehension.
01:10:25.722 → 01:10:34.122
At the time, they didn’t know that because they couldn’t delve down into the inner workings of the proton and start looking at it going, this doesn’t actually make sense to us.
01:10:34.682 → 01:10:45.582
They couldn’t do that, but they could certainly look at the grand scale of things, the macro scale, and realize this is a world built by an intelligent God.
01:10:46.122 → 01:10:48.002
We are placed in here, in his image.
01:10:48.622 → 01:10:49.842
We have intelligence.
01:10:50.382 → 01:10:51.802
We can understand the world.
01:10:52.082 → 01:10:55.922
And so you can shore up what is said in scripture with science.
01:10:56.462 → 01:11:02.702
Yesterday, you have scientists and others who attempt to undermine scripture using science.
01:11:03.422 → 01:11:12.982
The problem is, most of the people who get high up in these fields wind up confirming the things that are in scripture and some of them wind up converting, particularly geneticists and men like that.
01:11:15.542 → 01:11:21.862
And God says in scripture, he created the universe to testify to his own glory.
01:11:22.382 → 01:11:33.642
And that is the reason that Christians delve into these subjects, not to try to second-guess God, but to try to find God’s glory in his creation, because it testifies to it.
01:11:34.042 → 01:11:40.262
Everyone, Christian, pagan alike, when they look up at the stars, humans are mesmerized.
01:11:40.782 → 01:11:43.882
It’s something that has always captivated the human spirit.
01:11:44.722 → 01:11:49.822
And the Christian, frankly, the Christian, I think, has forgotten why today.
01:11:50.522 → 01:11:52.582
Maybe we may look up and think, oh, well, that’s nice.
01:11:52.602 → 01:11:58.502
And honestly, I think the way that most Christians today think is, oh, look what God did for me.
01:11:58.762 → 01:12:00.962
Look how beautiful God made the universe for me.
01:12:01.222 → 01:12:03.162
Look at all the things that God’s doing for me.
01:12:03.942 → 01:12:05.302
That’s not what scripture says.
01:12:05.922 → 01:12:12.622
Scripture talks about the heavens testifying to God’s glory, not to man’s glory, not to man’s entertainment, but to God.
01:12:13.562 → 01:12:22.302
The angels in heaven, before they proclaim the greatness of God for his salvation of man, they proclaim his greatness as creator.
01:12:22.842 → 01:12:30.822
And that’s why we keep talking about the first article, because a lot of this stuff is bound up, the first article of the creeds that God created the heavens and the earth.
01:12:31.422 → 01:12:46.862
Because this attack that Satan is undertaking today, is an attack on the belief that creation, that material, that humans, that us as individuals in the world, came from God.
01:12:47.762 → 01:12:52.222
Because if, as long as you set up in motion, you can say, well, yeah, there’s another explanation for that.
01:12:52.542 → 01:12:53.562
You can delete God.
01:12:54.042 → 01:12:55.122
And that’s what these men do.
01:12:55.142 → 01:12:58.122
And they say, well, no, there wasn’t actually a 624-hour day creation.
01:12:58.382 → 01:13:02.062
That doesn’t make sense, because, you know, you got lights coming before stars.
01:13:02.082 → 01:13:03.222
Clearly, it’s kind of made up.
01:13:05.322 → 01:13:11.302
And the appeal to science is not to say, look, you should believe Genesis now because science confirms it.
01:13:11.862 → 01:13:13.582
Believe scripture literally.
01:13:14.002 → 01:13:20.022
And then when the scientists agree, give praise to God for his revelation, because we knew it first.
01:13:20.522 → 01:13:25.602
Moses knew about quark gluon plasma before the scientists who discovered it.
01:13:26.162 → 01:13:26.942
He didn’t know the name.
01:13:26.962 → 01:13:30.742
He didn’t care, because it wasn’t about introspecting matter.
01:13:31.182 → 01:13:33.482
It was about testifying to God’s glory.
01:13:33.762 → 01:13:36.102
And that is what the Christian life needs to be about.
01:13:36.422 → 01:13:44.402
When we talk about these material things, when we talk about race, and we talk about other things that are in the world, it is not to replace God.
01:13:44.762 → 01:13:47.262
It is not to denigrate or to doubt God.
01:13:47.602 → 01:13:50.562
It is to say, look at the glory of what God made.
01:13:51.062 → 01:13:52.302
Because the bottom line is this.
01:13:52.802 → 01:13:58.642
Everything in creation testifies to God’s glory, including the diversity of mankind.
01:13:59.762 → 01:14:08.442
So when we do the episodes on race, that is testifying to the beauty of God, to the magnificence of our Creator.
01:14:08.882 → 01:14:12.402
That men can live at the North Pole and they can live at the equator.
01:14:12.642 → 01:14:13.482
That’s insane.
01:14:13.862 → 01:14:16.402
There’s no other species that can pull that off.
01:14:16.702 → 01:14:29.922
We can, because within our genes, God gave us the ability to evolve in 6,000 years, not evolving from a monkey, but to change in short periods of time in response to the environment.
01:14:30.742 → 01:14:36.302
And some of the evolution, some of the genetic changes, which is what it really is, is just gene expression.
01:14:36.662 → 01:14:42.622
Some of those are beneficial, and some of those are degradation, because the fall is also in play.
01:14:43.202 → 01:14:46.722
Once creation fell, our genome began to corrupt.
01:14:47.482 → 01:14:48.582
Things started going wrong.
01:14:49.202 → 01:15:00.942
So, looking to scripture is about finding where what God says is made clear for His glory, and that should always be the motivation.
01:15:02.602 → 01:15:23.802
We’re probably not even going to get into the flood thing, but I’ll just point out that there are these places like the Six Day Creation and the flood where guys say, oh, well, maybe it was a localized flood, and then we find the same flood strata all over the world, and then they make up other lies, say, oh, well, maybe there was a global flood, but then all the water evaporated and all the bones were left lying around.
01:15:23.822 → 01:15:28.602
Like it was a big mess and it was really depressing, and poor Noah, no wonder he got drunk.
01:15:30.102 → 01:15:33.802
You can’t read scripture and just make stuff up.
01:15:34.982 → 01:15:44.342
So I want to point out that when I said the thing about Adam maybe being 40 years old, that’s a pious speculation, but it never goes any further.
01:15:44.362 → 01:15:45.762
I would never pin anything on it.
01:15:46.362 → 01:15:53.202
And that’s where a lot of this stuff goes wrong is that there are other men who will make up something that’s consistent for scripture.
01:15:53.222 → 01:15:56.942
It doesn’t disagree with it, but then they say, look what I’ve discovered, look what I’ve found.
01:15:57.202 → 01:15:59.902
Let me build up a whole religion around this thing.
01:16:00.662 → 01:16:03.362
There are modern scholars who do that.
01:16:03.702 → 01:16:05.102
They find some little thing.
01:16:05.402 → 01:16:14.842
They piously speculate, at least to begin with, and then they build a whole pantheon of lies on top of it and say, look, you got to believe all this stuff because this is what naturally flows from scripture.
01:16:14.942 → 01:16:17.582
No, there’s no proof of what age Adam was.
01:16:17.602 → 01:16:18.162
I have no idea.
01:16:18.182 → 01:16:19.162
I could be completely wrong.
01:16:19.422 → 01:16:20.642
You shouldn’t believe it because I said it.
01:16:20.662 → 01:16:29.982
It’s just an interesting thing to think about, but it’s interesting in the context of God setting the universe in motion, not from infancy.
01:16:30.002 → 01:16:34.342
You know, it’s the chicken and egg joke is answered in scripture.
01:16:34.562 → 01:16:36.642
God tells us the chicken came first.
01:16:37.022 → 01:16:37.942
Adam came first.
01:16:38.202 → 01:16:42.002
The entire universe was set in motion as it is today.
01:16:42.402 → 01:16:59.462
And then it continued as God had created it to evolve, to expand, to change, and ultimately to proclaim His glory as it goes through the motions of the incredibly unfathomably complex machinery that could only have been conceived of in God’s mind.
01:16:59.782 → 01:17:01.542
And that’s why it testifies to His glory.
01:17:01.562 → 01:17:03.002
It’s not just about entertaining us.
01:17:03.342 → 01:17:24.622
We’re mesmerized because it is a natural revelation of the infinite Creator who also died on the cross for us as a man and as God because He loved us in our own place and time even when He’s also maintaining this not infinite universe, but it seems like it from our tiny perspective.
01:17:25.042 → 01:17:33.742
The same God that knows about every quark inside every atom in the universe, and He knows their count and He knows where they are and He knows what they’re doing right now.
01:17:34.302 → 01:17:43.042
He also knows us individually and He knows our troubles and He knows our sins and He knows our doubts and our fears and He knows our names.
01:17:43.602 → 01:17:45.942
And the elect had their names written in the Book of Life.
01:17:46.462 → 01:17:51.802
God’s a very busy God and He has time for all of them because He’s more powerful than we can possibly comprehend.
01:17:52.442 → 01:18:14.322
And these discussions should ultimately focus on how wonderful it is that a God so infinite and so magisterial made sure that Scripture, a book that you can hold in your hand, can be transmitted through time and be accessible to us today in a way that anyone can understand and can come to faith and be saved.
01:18:16.122 → 01:18:23.102
And that actually raises a point that I want to reiterate from an earlier episode because people get this backward all the time.
01:18:26.122 → 01:18:30.582
We do not trust God because we trust Scripture.
01:18:31.782 → 01:18:34.962
We trust Scripture because we trust God.
01:18:36.902 → 01:18:54.822
If you look at things the first way, which is incorrect, that’s when you’re going to come up with things like the JDEP theory and the idea of the day age theory and all of these various things that are ways to get around perceived problems in Scripture.
01:18:55.662 → 01:19:09.762
Because if you are justifying your belief in God on the basis of Scripture, then what you are going to do is you are going to try and explain away anything in Scripture that you cannot understand because you’re really basing everything on your reason.
01:19:10.982 → 01:19:20.842
But if you trust Scripture because Scripture is the Word of God, then any of these perceived issues aren’t a problem because it’s from God.
01:19:21.102 → 01:19:23.382
God is perfectly trustworthy.
01:19:23.882 → 01:19:25.262
God literally is truth.
01:19:26.622 → 01:19:30.322
God cannot lie is a sufficient way to say it.
01:19:30.342 → 01:19:31.362
It’s not technically accurate.
01:19:31.382 → 01:19:32.802
We’ll go into that another time.
01:19:33.582 → 01:19:40.342
And so you trust Scripture because it is the Word of God and you trust it because God is perfectly trustworthy.
01:19:41.202 → 01:19:44.562
And so that order matters, which one you trust and why.
01:19:46.262 → 01:19:51.022
And there are just a couple of things that I’ll make sure I add to the show notes for us this time.
01:19:51.642 → 01:19:51.962
St.
01:19:51.982 → 01:19:59.762
Basil has writings on the hexameron, the hexameron just meaning the six day creation, hex, six, hemer, day.
01:20:00.942 → 01:20:03.702
And I think we can also link to a couple of things about the blood.
01:20:03.722 → 01:20:11.082
We have some materials on that that aren’t behind a paywall, which is another problem in and of itself, but for another day.
01:20:11.862 → 01:20:12.142
Yeah.
01:20:13.322 → 01:20:19.322
And again, the point is not to make a defense of, oh, well, look how Scripture accords with science.
01:20:19.662 → 01:20:20.482
It’s what you just said.
01:20:20.962 → 01:20:22.202
Scripture accords with God.
01:20:23.302 → 01:20:26.242
Scripture is from God and it is in God we trust.
01:20:26.822 → 01:20:33.302
God who made heaven and earth and gave us his word through all time for our edification.
01:20:34.962 → 01:20:38.262
If he can speak the universe into existence, he can do anything.
01:20:38.762 → 01:20:44.182
And these men who cast doubt on, oh, well, maybe God really didn’t mean that.
01:20:44.202 → 01:20:45.182
Maybe God didn’t do that.
01:20:45.502 → 01:20:48.122
I don’t think God could have done that because the math doesn’t add up.
01:20:49.242 → 01:20:50.162
They don’t have God.
01:20:50.422 → 01:20:51.442
They don’t believe in God.
01:20:51.462 → 01:20:52.562
They don’t trust in God.
01:20:52.842 → 01:20:53.762
They deny him.
01:20:54.082 → 01:20:56.722
And if you deny the father, you deny the son.
01:20:57.022 → 01:20:59.642
If you deny the son, you have no salvation.
01:21:00.282 → 01:21:07.342
And so it’s not just about doubts or speculation about scientific things.
01:21:07.622 → 01:21:18.982
It’s fundamentally about the root of faith itself and whether it’s rooted in God through scripture or whether it’s rooted in our own reason and our ability to make sense of things.
01:21:19.342 → 01:21:22.482
And then hopefully we can bolt God on so that makes it okay in the end.
01:21:22.842 → 01:21:27.662
That’s not the Christian life and flee from any man who even suggests otherwise.
01:21:29.642 → 01:21:34.602
God has two books, as Christians used to say and should say again.
01:21:35.842 → 01:21:38.402
Scripture is one, creation is the other.
01:21:40.002 → 01:21:41.922
God is consistent as an author.
01:21:44.242 → 01:21:47.282
We will close with a quote from 2nd Timothy 3.
01:21:49.042 → 01:21:58.582
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
01:21:59.122 → 01:22:12.502
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
01:22:13.522 → 01:22:25.562
All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
01:22:30.542 → 01:22:30.762
Thank.
