0:29

Her. Friends Great coco Here stand to reason

0:31

is the show. And I

0:33

want to launch with a couple of

0:35

quick announcements just because I end up

0:38

forgetting. Okay, So sorry. This is

0:40

not a very interesting. Opening.

0:42

But some of these things are

0:44

important. Like our Reality Student Apologetic

0:47

Conference coming up in Georgia, Augusta,

0:49

Georgia, April Nineteen or twenty. And

0:51

what's important about. Today. If

0:54

you're getting it today, that's Friday this

0:56

last day to pay fifty nine dollars

0:58

for that event you do at Saturday.

1:00

Skill it cause you an extra ten

1:03

bucks or write. Are this a fabulous

1:05

event and the focus of the event?

1:07

His identity. Who. Says

1:09

who you are is the

1:11

question that's being addressed and

1:14

the answers. Either man does

1:16

or. Your. Maker does.

1:19

And. Each answer has ramifications which

1:21

they explore. The team explores. On

1:23

Friday night and all day Saturday

1:25

you go to Reality apologetics.com to

1:28

sign up for the Georgia event

1:30

and we hope you do okay.

1:32

we still have room few more

1:34

weeks before. Ah, the event starts.two

1:36

and a half weeks, Or three

1:39

weeks, whatever it is, but we're

1:41

looking forward to seeing you there

1:43

for the final event. Okay, also

1:45

on. One

1:47

of the breakouts that

1:50

is consistently. If

1:52

we do every single time, I should well

1:54

actually want to miss tactics and I teach

1:56

that. but there's another one that, in a

1:58

certain sense, is more weighty. and more

2:00

pressing. And that is a class on

2:02

suicide. And John Noyes does

2:05

that class every single

2:07

reality. Man, why would you keep reproducing

2:10

that same class of every single reality?

2:12

Because this is a big issue with

2:14

students and he packs his

2:17

classes out every single time. There

2:20

are people who come to reality. These are

2:22

Christian kids who are so beaten up by

2:24

the culture and

2:26

the lies the culture tells and they are

2:28

so confused. Even though they're Christians and they

2:30

love Jesus, they don't think they can take

2:33

it anymore. They're

2:35

running out of hope. And when

2:37

John gives his class, he doesn't

2:40

leave until he's done talking with

2:42

everyone that is left to talk

2:44

to him. And so his first breakout is 11. 11

2:46

to 12. Then

2:49

there's lunch, then there's a plenary session, then there's

2:51

a break, and then there's another

2:53

breakout. And sometimes he's

2:56

talking to kids all the way through

2:58

lunch, all the way through the

3:00

next plenary in the afternoon, and up until

3:02

the next breakout people are pouring into the classroom. The

3:04

point I'm making is this is a huge issue and

3:06

this is why it was so important for

3:09

us to have John make an STRU

3:12

on suicide, subtitle what

3:14

every Christian needs to

3:16

know. So John,

3:18

in that STRU

3:22

gives tools to address

3:24

suicide, whether it's with

3:26

regards to your own life or the life

3:28

of somebody that's close to you, he does

3:30

it by answering three questions. Why is this

3:33

important? The issue, why

3:35

do people contemplate suicide and

3:37

what can we do? So

3:40

this topic is too important to miss.

3:43

You know, STRU courses are not hard. Just

3:45

follow through, do the little quizzes, take the

3:47

next one. They're usually like five or six

3:50

sessions and maybe 15

3:52

minutes each session. It's not

3:54

burdensome, but we cram really

3:56

good information into each one

3:58

of those courses. The most recent one just

4:01

being released. When does it come out? Is it already

4:03

out? It's already out, right? The

4:05

Suicide One by John. Okay. S-T-R-U,

4:08

Stan DeRise University. Some

4:12

events coming up on Sunday,

4:15

April 7. So that's just in two days.

4:17

Robbie Lascio will speak at the 121 Community

4:20

Church in Grapevine, Texas. I

4:23

will be speaking this weekend, First Baptist

4:25

Church in St. Louis, Missouri on Saturday,

4:27

April 6th. That's, I think, a youth

4:29

event, but they don't check IDs. And

4:33

I'll also the next day, Sunday,

4:35

April 7th, be at Fellowship of

4:38

Wildwood in Wildwood, Missouri.

4:40

Tim Barnett will be at

4:42

Christ in Culture Conference in Ontario,

4:44

Canada on Saturday, April 13th. Following

4:46

weekend, John Noyes will be speaking

4:48

at Crossroads Church in Turlock, California.

4:50

Also that following weekend, April

4:53

14th. If you're within striking distance of any

4:55

of those events, we'd love to have you

4:57

show up. Okay. I

4:59

want to make a few observations before I get

5:02

to the callers here. And regarding

5:06

a solid ground that I'm riding. A solid

5:08

ground I'm riding, I'm almost done. I'm late

5:10

with my team, but it's still gonna come

5:12

out May 1st, God willing, because

5:14

they're picking up all my slack. Oh, Amy's giving

5:16

me the half a stink eye there,

5:19

shaking her head because I'm just behind. Now,

5:21

in my defense, I got sick for about a

5:23

week and it was pretty nasty and it knocked

5:25

me out, but this

5:27

was also something tricky to write about. The

5:30

solid ground is called why the

5:33

blood. Why the blood?

5:37

And it is dealing with the

5:40

blood atonement. What, or I

5:42

should say the atonement, and the question

5:44

there is what happened on the cross? What

5:47

did Jesus do on the cross? He

5:50

died for our sins. There are statements in

5:52

the New Testament that say that, but what

5:54

is the sense of the four? What

5:58

Did he accomplish? Oh,

6:02

or how did whatever he did on

6:04

the cross have anything to do with

6:06

soon? Enter different. Philosophies.

6:09

Or theology is regarding that

6:11

he and arm and most

6:13

of them. I'm

6:17

trying to think of the best way to put this. On:

6:20

Do Not Take the blood seriously.

6:22

Let me just put it that

6:24

way. Okay, They do Not take

6:26

the blood seriously infects. A lot

6:28

of people are offended by the

6:30

idea of the blood because blood

6:32

is barbaric. It's brutal. It's gruesome.

6:35

It's ugly. It's midi evil. It's

6:37

worse than that. And

6:40

we just cannot believe in

6:42

God that would be bloodthirsty.

6:46

Who would require a

6:48

sacrifice? To

6:50

make it possible for us to be forgiven. So

6:54

there's a strong movement in the body

6:56

of Christ. Know regarding that. Now there

6:58

is a biblical There is a view.

7:02

That itself is under attack because of

7:04

the reasons I've offered. That

7:07

I'm I think as the

7:09

biblical view and it is

7:11

known as the penal substitution

7:13

or a view and other

7:15

was penal penalty substitution dairy.

7:19

Substitute: View

7:22

of atonement. The. A

7:24

tony work at across. And

7:26

that view is. That. Jesus.

7:29

Was the substitute that

7:31

paid the penalty. For.

7:35

The crimes were committed. So

7:37

that we could our sins could be

7:40

a tone to for. Cleansed

7:42

and Gods anger.

7:45

Would. Be appeased. And.

7:47

Therefore, we could be reconciled.

7:50

With. Him. Now.

7:52

That's. In. The minds of

7:55

many a brutal. Ah,

7:59

Of. The in. Character

8:01

characterization of the cross, but.

8:05

What how I argue in this article in

8:07

I'm almost done writing it and you'll get

8:09

it in May is that there's no other

8:11

way to look at. When

8:14

you take the biblical record seriously.

8:17

It. Is the core argument

8:19

offered by New Testament authors?

8:22

Here's a way Peter put it and I'm just

8:25

giving you a little bit of an advance. Picture.

8:29

Of how. I'm. Dealing

8:31

with this issue. Know.

8:33

Me back up from peter for a second. In.

8:37

Order to understand the good news

8:39

the gospel the you on Gallium.

8:41

The. Good news of the gospel. You

8:44

must. First. Understand

8:46

the bad news. And

8:49

there was a line. In

8:51

the story of reality. That.

8:53

A number of people had pushed back really

8:56

hard. On me regarding when

8:58

they read it. In fact, one man said

9:00

when I read this line I close the

9:02

book and I wasn't gonna read anymore. And

9:06

that line had to do with

9:09

the work at a cross which

9:11

was a rescue. Jesus was rescuing

9:13

us, saving us. Rescuing

9:16

us from imminent danger. What was

9:18

the danger is the question I

9:20

asked and the answer to that

9:23

question is T says was rescuing

9:25

us from the father. And.

9:28

That was the line. That. Many

9:31

people could not. Continents.

9:35

Countenance. But when you look

9:37

at the message, there is

9:39

no other answer. Because.

9:42

The gospel. i should

9:44

said when paul makes his defense for

9:47

the gospel in his magnum opus on

9:49

defending the gospel known the book aromas

9:51

he starts out with the bad news

9:53

the gospel is good news you don't

9:55

understand good news without the bad news

9:57

and when you read the bad news

9:59

it's really bad. For

10:02

the wrath of God is being, by the way,

10:04

let me just change the word, because we know that

10:06

when it says God, it's referring to God the Father.

10:09

So the

10:12

wrath of God, the Father, the

10:14

wrath of the Father is being

10:17

revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness

10:19

in men who suppress the truth

10:21

and unrighteousness. For that which is

10:23

known about God is evident to

10:25

them. It's seen right there, look

10:27

around you. Yet

10:30

they exchanged the truth of God for a lie

10:32

and worship the creature

10:34

rather than the Creator, and this

10:36

makes God mad. That's the

10:40

bad news, and there's more of it there

10:43

in Romans

10:45

1 and 2 and 3, for all

10:50

have sinned and fallen

10:52

short of the glory of God. So there's the bad news.

10:55

But notice how the bad news

10:57

is characterized. The righteous judgment of

10:59

God falls upon them and they

11:01

are without excuse. So God is

11:03

mad. He's going to bring judgment

11:06

upon the people who do the

11:08

bad things that deserve the judgment

11:10

and have no excuse. Okay,

11:13

who's that? That's the Father. He's

11:16

the dangerous one. Jesus

11:18

said in Matthew chapter 10, don't fear

11:21

those who can kill the body

11:23

and not the soul. Notice

11:26

the dualism there, by the way, body

11:28

soul. But

11:31

rather fear Him who can throw

11:33

both body and soul in hell.

11:36

That ain't the devil. That's

11:38

the Father. The Father

11:41

can do that as an

11:43

act of judgment against sin. Alright,

11:45

the problem we have is with

11:47

the Father, because

11:50

at the final judgment it is

11:52

the Father's standard of judgment that

11:54

matters and the Father's

11:56

will of judgment that gets carried

11:58

out. Now it's actually Jesus

12:00

who's carrying that judgment out that

12:04

the judgment has been, the act

12:06

of judgment has been given over him. Nevertheless

12:11

it is the Father's will that this happened.

12:13

Now it's also the Father's will that his

12:15

son die

12:17

for men's sin so that his anger

12:19

can be expiated,

12:22

satisfied, oh

12:27

expiated would be

12:29

cleansed, and propitiated

12:31

which means satisfied. God's

12:34

not angry at us anymore because of Jesus

12:37

if we are in Christ. Therefore having been

12:39

justified by faith we have peace with God.

12:41

Not the peace of God, that's different. We

12:43

have that too. That's not what he's talking

12:46

about there in Romans 5. We have peace

12:48

with God through our

12:50

Lord Jesus Christ who has given us

12:52

this introduction into the faith in which

12:54

we stand and we exalt in the

12:56

hope of the glory of God. Wow,

12:58

good news. Why

13:01

because the wrath has been not

13:03

just averted, it has

13:05

been propitiated. We

13:09

have been expiated, we have been cleansed through

13:11

what happened on the cross, and the Father's

13:14

wrath then has been satisfied.

13:18

The demands of justice have been met, therefore

13:20

Christians then are

13:22

reconciled to the Father through

13:25

what Jesus did. This

13:29

isn't ledger domain. This is

13:31

not a

13:33

sleight of hand that I'm offering. This

13:36

is throughout the New Testament. But

13:39

now the verse that I mentioned in

13:42

1 Peter, what chapter 3 or

13:44

somewhere like that, maybe 4, maybe

13:47

2. It's

13:49

a good book. Read the whole thing. You'll find it. This

13:53

is almost like poetry. Here's

13:55

what Peter said about Jesus and he

13:57

himself bore

13:59

a our sins in

14:02

his body on the

14:04

cross for by

14:06

his stripes we are healed he

14:10

himself bore

14:13

our sins in his

14:15

body on the cross

14:19

for by his stripes we are

14:21

healed now I don't it's

14:24

hard to imagine a New Testament

14:26

verse that is more clear that

14:30

Jesus was the substitute for us

14:32

now there's more in Hebrews 10

14:35

especially that talk about relating

14:37

the Old Testament system and

14:40

the blood that was shed on

14:42

the innocent substitute to

14:45

secure forgiveness at least temporarily

14:47

until the perfect shall

14:50

come and that's what

14:52

Hebrews 10 is describing but

14:55

it's it's right there what's

14:59

really interesting is

15:01

that Peter makes a reference

15:03

to a passage in the Old Testament and

15:06

keep in mind when Paul offered

15:11

the summary of the

15:14

gospel that is something he

15:16

had received from others and

15:18

had passed it on to the Corinthians before

15:21

he wrote to them in Corinthians for that

15:23

would be first Corinthians in chapter 15 I

15:25

delivered to you in the past

15:30

what I had already received in the past

15:32

and it's a creed that goes back to

15:34

the very earliest days of the church and

15:40

he says that that that Christ

15:42

died according to

15:45

the Scriptures that

15:47

was part of that creed I don't have it

15:50

in front of me I don't have it memorized but many of you

15:52

are familiar with it Christ

15:56

died according to the Scriptures what

15:59

scriptures talked about

16:01

the death of Christ that is at

16:03

the core of the good news of

16:05

the gospel. Summarize

16:08

there in verse Corinthians 15 in

16:10

that passage. It was the

16:12

same passage that Peter

16:15

was referring to. Isaiah

16:18

53. Now I'm just going

16:20

to finish my commentary

16:23

by reading Isaiah 53, at least

16:25

the relevant portion, and

16:29

I'm going to skip a couple of phrases that

16:31

are not relevant to the point. I want to

16:33

just keep hitting these verses that make

16:36

the case and don't miss the

16:39

obvious references here to

16:42

this suffering servant, which

16:44

by the way, there

16:47

are 10 different places in the New Testament that

16:49

cite these passages, and Peter

16:52

was one of them. This

16:57

is a passage, Isaiah 53, that

16:59

the New Testament authors understood, applied

17:01

to Jesus regarding the cross, and

17:03

here's what it says. Surely

17:09

our griefs he himself

17:11

bore, our sorrows

17:13

he carried, yet we ourselves

17:16

extemed hymn-stricken, smitten of God,

17:18

and afflicted, but he was

17:20

pierced through for our transgressions.

17:23

He was crushed for our iniquities,

17:26

and the chastening for our well-being

17:29

fell upon him, and

17:31

by his scourging we

17:33

are healed. All

17:35

of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each

17:38

has turned to his own way, but the

17:40

Lord, that would be the

17:42

Father. Remember, this is Isaiah, but

17:44

the Lord has caused the

17:47

iniquity of us all

17:49

to fall on him. By

17:55

oppression and judgment he was taken away,

17:59

and as for his judgment, generation? Who

18:01

considered that he was cut off out

18:03

of the land of the living for

18:05

the transgression of my people to

18:08

whom the stroke was

18:10

due? But

18:12

the Lord, the Father

18:14

here, was pleased

18:16

to crush him, putting

18:20

him to grief, if he

18:23

would render himself as

18:26

a guilt offering. Notice the voluntary

18:28

element here, if he

18:30

would render himself as a

18:33

guilt offering. As

18:38

a result of the anguish of

18:40

his soul, he

18:42

will see it and be satisfied.

18:46

In other words, the work

18:49

that the suffering servant will

18:51

do will satisfy the Father.

18:54

That's propitiation. By

18:57

his knowledge, the righteous one,

18:59

my servant, will justify the

19:01

many, as he will bear

19:04

their iniquities. How

19:10

can anyone read that passage and

19:13

not see the clear

19:15

teaching that this

19:17

suffering servant identified in the New Testament

19:19

by New Testament writers as Jesus of

19:22

Nazareth is the one that took our

19:25

sins upon himself and

19:27

took the punishment from the Father that

19:29

we deserved so that we

19:32

could be freed, he would

19:34

be satisfied, we could be cleansed, and

19:37

we could be justified. How

19:40

is it anyone takes exception with

19:43

this notion given the clarity of this

19:45

passage? All right,

19:47

let's take a break and I'll

19:49

come back in just a moment here on Stand to Reason. Do

19:53

you want to become a more knowledgeable Christian

19:55

ambassador without sitting through a formal course on

19:57

apologetics? Well, we've made that possible for

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you. through our STR Quick Reference app.

20:01

Available for free on iTunes and Google Play,

20:04

the STR Quick Reference app holds a wealth

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20:58

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Each Outpost is led by a

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can also email me,

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Robbie Lashua, at Outposts

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at str.org. All

21:52

right, back at you here on

21:54

Santa Teresa and a more thorough

21:56

treatment, obviously, of the topic

21:58

I just made reference to. will be out

22:00

May 1st, God willing, if I

22:03

get the text in within the next 48 hours then

22:06

I think we'll make our deadline, but you'll

22:09

get it eventually. And incidentally, if you don't

22:11

get our solid ground

22:13

article that comes out every

22:15

other month, or the mentoring letter,

22:17

which is shorter, just two pages,

22:19

800 words, that comes out on alternating

22:21

months, so every month you're going to get some

22:23

free training from us, you need

22:26

to sign up for it. It's easy. It's

22:28

ser.org, and I think in the upper right-hand

22:30

corner it says register. There's

22:33

a click button or something up there that

22:35

says register, and do so. We

22:38

want you to be able to get the best

22:40

stuff that we have, and

22:43

as a member of our community, continue

22:45

to be prepared for the kind of

22:47

challenges that you'll face as a faithful

22:50

follower of Jesus. All right? Let's

22:52

go to Joe, and somewhere in California, that's

22:54

a big state, Joe. Where

22:58

are you at? Or don't you want to say? Hey, Joe.

23:01

Hello? Oh, hey. Sorry about that lost connection.

23:04

Oh, okay. There. Well, I

23:06

got you. All right? And I

23:09

just was asking where in California

23:11

you're from, but... Oh, Bay Area.

23:14

Where's that? Bay Area.

23:16

Oh, Bay Area. Okay. San

23:19

Francisco Bay Area. Okay. Yes, sir.

23:22

Gotcha, Joe. I'm trying to give you

23:24

as much context as I can so you can hopefully...

23:28

Shoot you in the right direction here. Yeah, sure.

23:31

Basically, someone who I know very, very close to

23:34

me, we've been praying about this, talking about

23:36

this for weeks, and long

23:38

story short is someone that

23:41

I know works at a church very

23:43

intimately with the pastor, with

23:45

the messages, putting the production together. And

23:50

this person does not have authority in the church. They're

23:52

not a pastor. They're not an elder. But

23:54

they work very close with the production

23:56

team, right? And so

23:59

long story short... they're filming

24:01

baptisms and it's

24:03

their custom to provide like a testimony

24:05

of why

24:08

is this person getting baptized

24:10

right the rumors were that

24:12

this person is an active lesbian

24:15

right and so that kind of

24:17

raised obviously red flags with the

24:19

church or with this person like hey

24:21

are we just baptized in

24:24

anybody now for any reason is there

24:26

any repentance and

24:29

this person let's call him Bill was reassured

24:31

by the pastor hey this person's repentant and

24:33

so in that case right

24:36

let's baptize everybody who's repentant now

24:40

when filming the testimony it

24:43

became very apparent just inside conversation that this

24:45

person that got baptized

24:47

approached the pastor and said hey I have

24:50

no intentions of changing and I reason

24:53

I'm getting baptized here is because it seems like

24:55

you guys are affirming and I don't have to

24:57

change my lifestyle or anything wait wait that

24:59

way we just you went a little too quickly for

25:01

me say that last

25:03

couple phrases again I

25:05

have no intention of changing but

25:08

in the real light the reason

25:10

I was getting baptized is because

25:12

this particular church where

25:14

someone who I know works is

25:17

because they got

25:19

the sense that the pastor would be affirmed

25:21

if they wouldn't have to change anything affirming

25:23

yes and basically they

25:25

even approached

25:28

the pastors that hey just to

25:30

let you know before I get

25:33

baptized I'm not changing I'm married

25:35

this is a lesbian who was

25:37

married who adopted a kid I

25:39

guess full-blown right and the pastor didn't

25:41

nobody said at that point well

25:44

you're not ready for baptism yet

25:46

this is premature they did

25:48

baptizer and then during

25:50

the public testimony that was being videotaped

25:52

she made some statement to that effect

25:55

no no it was in private conversation

25:57

when they were filming the baptism behind

25:59

the esteem, they

26:01

were just talking and this person

26:04

said, hey, you know, I even told

26:06

your pastor, you know,

26:08

I had no intentions of changing. So

26:11

nobody knows. I'm in the public testimony

26:13

of the baptism, they didn't

26:15

come on and say, hey, I'm gay. Right,

26:17

right. So just to be

26:19

clear, Joe, does this communication

26:21

of her convictions,

26:25

did it happen before she has baptized her

26:27

after? Before. It

26:29

was private and the person

26:31

she was talking to was one of

26:33

the pastors or the head pastor that

26:35

she thinks is sympathetic to LGBT. Correct,

26:39

the head pastor and then basically

26:41

told the person that

26:43

I know who was filming it, hey,

26:47

I told the pastor this and he said

26:49

fine, no problem. Really? So

26:51

now, yes, so now the person that I

26:54

know is basically in a position of, do

26:57

I expose my pastor or do I just leave the

26:59

church? Do I quit my job and leave the church?

27:02

Well, I think what needs to happen

27:04

first, let me start with

27:06

this, I think this is serious. I

27:09

think this is a serious matter. Remember,

27:12

it was Paul himself who said

27:15

in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 that

27:18

people involved in that

27:20

actively involved in certain sinful

27:22

behaviors which included same-sex behaviors,

27:26

included a number of sexual sins,

27:28

heterosexual and same-sex sin,

27:31

will not inherit the kingdom of

27:33

God. I want to be charitable

27:39

and give this the best read possible. A

27:42

pastor who is just about

27:44

to baptize somebody who's made a public

27:47

proclamation of faith and

27:49

that person's proclamation seemed completely

27:52

genuine, then at the last

27:54

minute, just before he's about

27:57

to baptize her, is informed about her

27:59

intentions never to to change your lifestyle,

28:01

that pastors in a bit of

28:03

an awkward circumstance. Now if

28:06

it were me, I would put the brakes

28:08

on immediately and I would say, wait a

28:10

minute, your baptism is premature. We can't do

28:13

this today. We're gonna have to talk more

28:15

about it. Alright? And

28:17

so if I were to read his actions really

28:19

charitably, it might be that he

28:21

was just, oh, like

28:23

caught by surprise and didn't know what to

28:25

do except for just go through with

28:28

it. I think that's a mistake, you

28:31

know, but now if

28:33

his sentiment was, but if his sentiment

28:35

was, this is not a problem,

28:38

don't worry about it. You can

28:40

still be baptized. No problem, no

28:42

matter. That's another issue

28:44

entirely. So what needs

28:46

to be found out from the pastor

28:48

is what his actual views are and

28:51

there's only one way to get that

28:53

and that's not through hearsay, but for

28:55

you and maybe your friend who heard

28:57

the information from the lesbian, you and

28:59

maybe a couple of others

29:01

just say, we're confused, pastor. This is what

29:03

we heard and we don't want

29:06

to spread any rumors. We don't want to cause

29:08

any problems with, there's not a problem, but we

29:10

do want to know what happened

29:12

and what is your view. Yeah,

29:15

so this is even worse than what you would

29:17

think is that my friend

29:19

who was filming literally wasn't going to

29:21

film it because it went back to should the

29:24

baker bake the cake kind of

29:26

scenario. Since they were filming

29:28

it, it's like, hey, am I complicit in

29:32

this declaration? And we reasoned and

29:34

through some counsel, like, look, you

29:36

just work there. You're not making theology.

29:38

You're not an elder. I

29:40

don't know if this is like a hill to die on.

29:43

You've been a little kid. Maybe you just

29:45

look for another job later, but in that

29:47

struggle of should they or shouldn't they, my

29:50

friend approached the pastor and said, look,

29:52

I don't know if this person's repentant.

29:54

I'm hearing center. I'm hearing rumors that

29:56

they're actively gay. And the

29:58

pastor said, look, I'm going

30:00

to baptize anybody who wants to get

30:03

baptized, period. Period. You

30:05

could be in an affair currently

30:07

and I will baptize you because that's your first

30:10

step in Christ. And we all know that

30:12

theology is bunk, but so

30:15

now he's at the position of do

30:17

I expose what the pastor really knew?

30:19

Like he actually has text messages,

30:22

video, he has

30:24

all of it saying the pastor is

30:26

literally okay with baptizing

30:28

an active member of

30:30

the LGBT community. Yeah. Well,

30:33

home, this is a difficult one

30:35

in part because, and I

30:37

actually wrote this, it's something I believe and

30:40

I wrote this in the story of reality

30:42

is that God catches his fish first and

30:44

then he cleans them. Okay. So

30:47

there is a sense of becoming a Christian

30:49

and then developing, growing

30:51

in virtue and getting some of this stuff straightened

30:53

out. And I know in my life, I didn't get

30:55

a lot of this straightened out until

30:58

I was maybe a

31:00

year, a year and a half old in Christ

31:02

now in terms of my moral behavior. However,

31:05

as I'm thinking about it, I did get

31:07

baptized soon after I became a Christian, but

31:09

I wasn't in the process of being baptized,

31:12

heralding and in a sense

31:14

confirming my sinful behavior as

31:16

an appropriate part of my

31:19

life as a Christian, which

31:21

is what it sounds like this woman is

31:24

doing. And maybe the pastor, and

31:26

again, I'm just trying to be charitable and

31:28

feel out the alternatives

31:31

here. Maybe the

31:33

pastor was thinking, all right, this

31:35

is wrong, but she's moving

31:37

in the right direction. She's

31:39

professed Christ. And by the way, think

31:42

of the early church, thousands

31:45

of people believed in Jesus

31:47

and were baptized on that very

31:49

day. There wasn't an

31:52

assessment made, a survey of their moral

31:54

behaviors, and I'm sure there are a

31:56

lot of things that had to be

31:58

corrected. Okay. So this

32:01

is why I'm not

32:03

exactly sure how to

32:05

understand what the pastor

32:07

was doing. You said that he said, or

32:09

somebody said that he said, that if they're

32:12

a Christian and they want to be baptized,

32:14

if that's their testimony, I'm going to baptize

32:16

them. Now, does that mean that

32:18

he is not going to seek

32:20

to disciple them out of their

32:22

sinful lifestyle as time goes on,

32:24

or is he fine with that

32:26

lifestyle and it doesn't matter to

32:28

him? That's the issue. That's

32:31

the issue. And

32:33

if it turns out that he's affirming,

32:36

he's gay affirming, if

32:38

that's what it turns out, well, then I think

32:40

people need to know that because

32:43

this is a big issue and

32:45

it's not to create division.

32:47

It's to help people know

32:49

if what the pastor believes.

32:51

Incidentally, if he thinks it's

32:53

theologically fine to

32:56

be actively pursuing

32:59

same-sex lifestyle, same-sex

33:03

behavior lifestyle, then why

33:05

doesn't he just announce that to everybody? He

33:07

doesn't have to be a secret. This is

33:10

his theological conviction. He should be teaching his

33:12

theological convictions to his church. Why

33:14

would he hide that? Right.

33:17

I think he's somewhat hiding it because

33:20

from what I understand, he does believe it

33:23

is simple to live in that lifestyle.

33:25

Just like, you know,

33:28

being an addict or being drunk all

33:30

the time or in an affair or someone who's

33:32

very greedy, like they're all sins and he's

33:35

kind of equating it to, look, I'm not going

33:37

to take an assessment and check a box before

33:39

I baptize someone, which I understand. But

33:41

then on the other hand, I could not

33:44

picture John the Baptist having

33:46

a personal conversation with someone and

33:49

understanding where they stand being

33:52

completely anti-viblical and yet

33:54

then baptizing them. Yeah,

33:57

I think this is an important rink.

34:00

in this entire affair and that

34:02

is that apparently before

34:04

she's baptized she is declaring she has

34:06

no intention of changing her life. Okay

34:09

so and at that point see this

34:11

is why I think baptism at this

34:13

point is premature because I think she

34:15

would need to be asked and at

34:17

the baptism is not the appropriate place

34:20

probably to have this conversation. Well then

34:22

what exactly are you being baptized regarding?

34:24

Well because now I'm believing in Jesus.

34:26

Okay now what does that actually mean?

34:28

Well I'm trusting him that he died for

34:30

my sins. Okay so now you are you

34:33

are making a change that's what

34:35

repentance is. Metanoia you are you're

34:37

making a change. A change in

34:39

your whole view about things. Does

34:42

the fact that you are now

34:44

acknowledging that Jesus is God become

34:46

man who died in the cross

34:48

who is now the Lord. Jesus

34:50

is Lord is the very first

34:52

characterization of Jesus in the early church.

34:54

That was the standard characterization. Now does

34:56

that mean that he is Lord? Jesus

35:00

himself said why do you call me Lord Lord

35:02

and you don't do what I say. But

35:04

what you're saying is Jesus is Lord but you're

35:06

not going to listen to him. Am I

35:10

getting this right? This is the

35:13

conversation needs to be had. Of

35:16

course there are lots of people who

35:18

were deep in sin who

35:20

came to Christ and I

35:23

presume maybe even got baptized like I did

35:26

who ended up working out their

35:29

sanctification on some of

35:31

these sinful behaviors in the first year or

35:34

two that they were Christians. But

35:36

that's not the same as certainly

35:38

in my view as celebrating it and saying

35:40

this is it and I'm going to of

35:42

course if she's brand new and

35:45

just came into the church these

35:47

are the kinds of things that sink in after a little

35:49

while. But if the pastor

35:51

has no commitment to address

35:53

these things in her life that to me is

35:55

a problem. Right

35:58

and so now he Well,

36:00

I mean, I have, I mean, God is

36:02

good and God can do all things and

36:05

anything is possible with God

36:07

and salvation and being sanctified.

36:09

But the way the pastor preaches,

36:12

I've heard his messages for many years because

36:15

my friend works there. He's not

36:17

going to hear, he's not

36:20

going to hear

36:22

anything but affirming,

36:24

affirming theology. You're

36:27

never going to go to the church and hear

36:29

and have him walk through Romans and actually effigy

36:31

what Paul is saying. You're never going to hear

36:33

that there. Never. Well,

36:37

I suspect if that's the kind of pastor

36:39

he's been for years and years, then most

36:41

people who are there understand that. Do

36:44

you think? That's

36:47

a good question. You know what I mean? I

36:49

mean, I feel like half the people would be

36:51

shocked if they saw the text messages of him

36:53

saying, look, I will baptize

36:55

her. Or not she's actively

36:58

in this lifestyle and has

37:00

no intention of changing. I feel like

37:03

half of that body would be shocked.

37:05

Half would probably expect it and champion it. The other

37:07

half would be like, well, he's a

37:09

good speaker. He talks a

37:12

lot of loving Jesus and

37:14

love Jesus, Jesus, but

37:16

not a lot of... Well, wait, love Jesus.

37:19

Okay. You know, love doesn't rejoice

37:21

in unrighteousness. That's Paul in Corinthians 13. So

37:24

it's... And Jesus corrected

37:29

people who were in the wrong and

37:31

he sometimes did it very aggressively. So

37:34

sometimes he is more gentle. It just depended. But

37:38

this is... I

37:41

guess I don't have a straightforward

37:43

recommendation for you because I don't

37:45

know enough about this. If

37:48

the pastor is gay

37:50

affirming and because

37:52

he's theologically gay affirming, he's

37:54

not going to do anything

37:57

regarding this person who's living a... so-called

38:00

married lesbian lifestyle and has

38:02

just been baptized, then

38:04

I think it is appropriate for people to

38:06

know about that. But it's not to spread

38:09

dirt on the pastor. Oh, we're telling on

38:11

you. We're going to let everybody know. But

38:14

it's for the purpose of

38:16

the people understanding the theology

38:18

they're sitting under. If

38:21

this is what he thinks is good and

38:23

right before Jesus, then he ought to be

38:25

shouting it from the rooftops, just

38:27

like a whole bunch of other progressive pastors

38:30

are shouting it from the rooftops, their

38:32

gay-affirming point of view. Andy

38:35

Stanley is doing the same thing. Well,

38:38

okay, at least, well,

38:40

Stanley's not maybe the

38:42

best illustration because it still seems like he's bucking

38:44

and weaving and not owning up to his genuine

38:47

convictions. But whatever he believes, he ought

38:49

to make it clear. Because

38:52

if he thinks this is right before God, then people

38:54

should know. Then people can decide. We

38:56

believe that. We love you. We're going to stay in

38:58

your church. Or we don't believe you, but it doesn't

39:00

– we don't believe that, but it doesn't matter. We

39:02

love you. We're going to stay in

39:04

your church. Or that's what you believe. We

39:06

can't hold with that. We have to go somewhere else. That's

39:09

just, you know, what do they

39:11

call it? Informed consent. Right.

39:16

But I think this is to take

39:18

the first steps here. Whoever

39:23

is the principal in this thing, the

39:25

guy who does the videos, maybe you or

39:27

some others have to talk to him and

39:30

get clear on what his view actually has

39:32

is. It might be a

39:34

judgment he made regarding that particular

39:37

baptism that is kind

39:39

of a judgment call on that circumstance. I'm

39:42

sympathetic somewhat to the circumstance. If

39:45

he is sustained in his sympathy

39:48

towards LGBT theologically, that's

39:50

a whole different kind

39:52

of thing. Now we

39:55

say in something entirely different than what

39:57

Jesus said in Matthew 19 when he

39:59

talked to him. marriage, and certainly

40:01

what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6, and then

40:03

what 1 Timothy and

40:07

other passages that make it

40:09

clear that homosexuality is not something

40:12

that is consistent with sound teaching. If

40:15

the pastor goes in that direction, then why would he

40:17

want to keep it a secret? These

40:19

are his convictions before God. Then

40:22

do what you think is right, pastor.

40:26

Why should we tell this

40:28

to other people? Yeah, I

40:31

think because he is, well,

40:34

like you said, a little progressive on

40:36

that end, but I think he's trying

40:39

to hide being bold. Because

40:41

I believe, I honestly believe this pastor does

40:44

believe it is a sin, but equates it

40:46

with anything else. And myself and

40:48

my friend's perspective is, look, the

40:51

LGBTQ thing is just

40:54

one of the issues. If someone were to show up to church

40:56

that says, I love affairs and I

40:58

love to cheat on my wife, look, I wouldn't

41:01

baptize you either. It's

41:03

not that particular sin. Right,

41:05

yeah. It is interesting

41:09

to ask him if someone were to say,

41:11

I'm an adulterer and I'm

41:13

not going to change, but I want to be

41:15

baptized because I'm a follower of Jesus, will

41:18

you baptize me? What would he say? And by

41:20

the way, that's a fair question. He literally said

41:22

yes. That's the point. Oh, well, that's right. He

41:24

already answered that

41:27

question. Okay. Anybody for any

41:29

reason, carry it. And

41:31

we're like, whoa, yeah, that means

41:33

you have a bunch of weak with the

41:36

tears in the, you know, there's

41:38

sheep in the goats, literally in your

41:40

flock and you don't care. Yeah, I

41:42

just don't care. Yeah, well, I

41:44

don't know what else I can tell you about this. You know,

41:46

I do think if you're gonna do anything, you have to talk

41:48

to him first and you've got to go with

41:51

your hand, your hand and gently, but we just want to know

41:53

what you believe. Here's what happened.

41:55

What is your long-term perspective? What is

41:57

your theological perspective here? Because whatever it

41:59

is, we need to know because we're

42:02

under your leadership and we have to decide whether

42:04

we're going to stay. But whatever it is that

42:06

you believe, if it's contrary to

42:08

what other people think you believe, they need to know

42:10

too so that they can make

42:12

the same informed decision. Not that you're spreading

42:14

a bunch of dirt on somebody, you're just

42:17

letting them know the theological point of view

42:19

of your pastor who is teaching theological points

42:21

of view. So

42:23

the Spirit isn't to out him.

42:26

The Spirit is for

42:28

him to be clear about his conviction so

42:30

other people can make their decision about whether

42:32

they want to follow under his leadership anymore

42:34

or not. That would be what I'd say. Thank

42:37

you. Alright? Thank you so

42:39

much. I appreciate it. Alright, Joe in

42:41

California in the Bay Area. Boy,

42:44

that's a rough one and sometimes

42:46

you think you know truth is stranger than

42:48

fiction, right? Let's take a break. We'll come

42:50

back with open mic calls when I return.

42:54

Would you like a stand-to-reason speaker to speak

42:56

at your church or event? Greg,

42:58

Alan, Tim, John, and I, Robbie

43:01

Lashua, are available both in person

43:03

and online. Just

43:05

email booking at str.org

43:07

to schedule us today. We

43:10

can address a wide array of

43:12

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it's a Sunday sermon, Zoom conference, or

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43:38

visit str.org. Then

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email booking at str.org

43:43

to schedule Greg, Alan,

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Tim, John, or me,

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Robbie, today. As

43:49

a high school teacher, I always had a

43:52

red pen close at hand. When I wasn't

43:54

in front of my students teaching a lesson,

43:56

you could find me assessing assignments, grading essays,

43:58

and evaluating exams. The red pen

44:00

played a crucial role in the educational

44:02

development of my students. With

44:05

it, I questioned their assumptions, exposed their

44:07

errors, and challenged them to think critically.

44:09

You see, a good teacher doesn't merely

44:11

tell his students that they're wrong. A

44:13

good teacher shows his students why they're

44:15

wrong so they don't make the same

44:17

mistakes twice. He corrects because

44:20

he cares. Last year,

44:22

I was scrolling through social media and, frankly,

44:24

I was discouraged at all the bad thinking

44:26

that undergirded much of what I was reading.

44:28

Then it hit me. What if

44:30

someone applied the red pen to this flawed

44:32

thinking? And red pen logic with

44:34

Mr. B was born. In

44:36

the last few months, red pen logic has

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grown in popularity. Through our

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engaging and shareable educational graphics and

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videos, we are helping people, especially

44:45

young people, assess bad thinking by

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using good thinking. And we have

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a lot of fun in the

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process. So here's your homework

44:53

assignment. Like the red pen

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logic Facebook page so you don't miss

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our next graphic. And subscribe at the

45:00

Red Pen Logic YouTube channel so you

45:02

don't miss a single video. Class

45:05

dismissed. All

45:09

right, so I just got caught up

45:12

chatting with Amy here about all

45:15

the weirdos that were

45:24

in the Inklings group. My

45:27

daughter, Annabeth, bought me a book

45:29

for Christmas. It's called The Fellowship.

45:32

And it focuses in on four

45:35

major players in

45:37

the Inklings. And that would be Tolkien

45:39

and Lewis, of course, and Hugo Dyson

45:42

and Williams. What was his first name?

45:45

Charles Williams. And

45:48

well, Lewis and Tolkien

45:50

were reasonably sane, but

45:52

boy, a whole bunch of the other people

45:55

were really weird. This is

45:57

over 400 pages. There's a big giant thick volume and

45:59

I'm reading about it. all this stuff. I

46:02

become incredibly overwhelmed by

46:04

both Tolkien

46:06

and Lewis as academics. Tolkien

46:08

the Philologist and Lewis

46:12

like the literary critic and all the things they wrote

46:14

and all that they were capable of doing but a

46:16

whole bunch of people that were taken with that were

46:18

part of that group were strange, just

46:21

weird. Now maybe as time goes on they

46:25

get more Christianized because

46:27

being Christian was a requirement to be part of

46:29

that group but I

46:32

don't know exactly how

46:34

did they define that because,

46:37

oh anyway, very interesting and I'm

46:39

very very impressed with Lewis. So anyway

46:41

that's what we were talking about instead

46:44

of talking about some

46:47

of the questions that have come in through

46:50

open mic. Okay

46:54

let's talk, here's one I can take, Summer

46:58

about Old Testament messages

47:00

from God, prophets and the like. Let's hear

47:03

it. Do you have her? Yeah

47:06

okay, Kyle's, he got

47:08

late notice. Hi Greg, my name is

47:10

Summer, I'm 22 and I'm from Houston,

47:13

Texas and you guys have probably gotten a lot of

47:15

questions from me so far and I'm so sorry but

47:17

if you can get to any one of them I

47:19

hope it's this one. I

47:21

have really enjoyed your teaching on the voice of God

47:24

and it has helped me a lot in my Christian

47:26

life, however there is one

47:28

thing that recently I've just been tripping

47:30

up over that and it's in the

47:32

Old Testament you hear a lot

47:36

about the Israelites, usually the

47:38

kings would inquire of the Lord

47:40

and after

47:42

doing some digging I realized that you know the

47:45

way that they would inquire of the Lord was

47:47

usually through the ephod, through

47:49

a prophet, through the priest,

47:51

you know like it was specific people that

47:53

got the communication and that kind of helped

47:55

me but I guess

47:58

my question would be... A

48:00

lot of people will say that the Holy Spirit has replaced

48:03

this means of communication. And

48:07

so obviously what they mean

48:09

by that is now we can get direct

48:11

specific direction from the Holy Spirit, which

48:13

obviously I don't believe in, because I

48:15

don't think Scripture supports that. But

48:18

my question for you is, do you

48:20

think that they were able to get

48:22

direct communication from him then, direct guidance

48:25

from him then? And if

48:27

so, why has it changed now? And

48:30

two, do you think that

48:32

the Bible has replaced these

48:34

means of communication? Were

48:36

these Scriptures descriptive instead of

48:38

prescriptive? I

48:41

just need some help understanding how to, you

48:45

know, apply these different things

48:47

in my own walk. Thank

48:49

you so much, Greg. And also, I really hope

48:51

that one day you guys come to Houston, Texas.

48:53

I would love to go to one of your

48:55

conferences. Thank you so

48:57

much. Bye-bye. Okay. Thank you so much,

48:59

Summer. And I do recognize your name. It's

49:02

unique. And I think we've answered some of

49:04

our questions. But I'm glad this is one

49:06

that you really want to have answered. So

49:08

you've waited a while. And

49:10

I have a lot to say about this. I'm

49:15

not even sure exactly where to start, but here's what

49:17

comes to mind. A number of years ago, there

49:21

was, maybe 15 years ago, there

49:23

was this great enterprise

49:26

in evangelical communities,

49:29

and it was called the

49:32

Laughing Revival. This is

49:34

when I was working for KBRT. And

49:37

on this, according to this

49:41

enterprise, the Holy Spirit would descend upon

49:44

churches and people would be belly laughing

49:46

and rolling around. And sometimes they'd be

49:48

barking and roaring like animals. And

49:51

this was all so supposedly evidence of

49:54

the Holy Spirit. And so I had

49:56

to deal with this on the air.

49:59

And I had, It was troublesome

50:01

because the minute you

50:03

start raising a question like, who

50:06

do you think would be more likely to make

50:09

human beings act like animals? What

50:12

spirit would be most likely to do

50:14

that, to hold large groups of people?

50:17

It doesn't strike me that this is characteristic of

50:19

the Holy Spirit. I don't know any cases in

50:21

the Scriptures where this is the

50:23

case, but a lot of people would just say, well,

50:26

this is the latter reign, the Holy Spirit's the new

50:28

movement of the Spirit, and if you

50:30

stand against this, you are grieving the Spirit,

50:32

and all these charges were coming down. And

50:35

then I was reading in 2 Timothy.

50:38

The importance about 2 Timothy

50:40

as a book is that it

50:42

is the last thing that Paul wrote,

50:47

and he's giving his final

50:49

charges to Timothy. And

50:51

what's interesting is in chapter 3, he

50:54

says to Timothy, continue

50:57

in the things that you

51:00

have learned and

51:02

you have become convinced of. Then he

51:04

makes reference to what he's learned from

51:06

his mother and grandmother regarding the Hebrew

51:09

Scriptures, and then there's that powerful statement

51:11

about all Scriptures inspired by God and profitable

51:14

for teaching and reproof for correction and training

51:16

in righteousness. And I'll tell you in summary

51:18

what I took away from that

51:20

text regarding the laughing revival that

51:22

has broad application for you here

51:24

summer. And

51:27

that is, I could

51:29

just ignore the laughing

51:31

revival. I

51:34

could just ignore it. Now,

51:36

of course, I anticipated people are going to say, just

51:39

bite your tongue. But

51:41

here's the reason why. Paul told

51:43

Timothy as he's leaving Timothy, leaving

51:45

the last words of instruction to

51:48

his disciple passing the baton to

51:50

Timothy, he does not tell him,

51:52

be open and

51:54

alert to any new movements

51:57

of the Spirit. He

52:01

doesn't tell Timothy to look forward.

52:03

He tells Timothy to look backward

52:05

to the things that have already

52:07

been revealed. I

52:09

have my marching orders in the

52:11

66 books that God

52:13

has given me. Now at this

52:15

point I'm not making any statement

52:17

about the phenomenology of prophets and

52:20

prophecy for today. I'm prophets of

52:22

the Old Testament, how they received

52:24

it, or prophecy. I'm just, here

52:26

is your safety spot. If

52:29

you ignored all other kinds of

52:31

revelations, you would still, special

52:34

revelations that people are making claim

52:36

to, new movements of the Spirit,

52:38

you would still be in a

52:40

safe spot because you already have

52:42

all your marching orders in the

52:44

Scripture that's profitable for training, for

52:47

proof, for teaching, for correction, for

52:49

building godly people. That's

52:52

my safety spot. If

52:55

you're unsure about these other things,

52:57

anyone, some are you, anyone, just

53:00

ignore it because

53:02

you have safety in the instructions of

53:04

the Word. Follow what's been already given.

53:07

That's the safe place to be and

53:09

that's why I think Paul told Timothy,

53:11

continuing the things you have learned, he

53:13

didn't tell him to look forward to

53:15

new movements of the Spirit. Now having

53:18

said that, I

53:22

think the idea that people were

53:24

getting lots of direction from

53:26

God, special direction in the

53:28

Old Testament through certain persons

53:31

like prophets or priests or using

53:34

the ephod is

53:36

overstated. Now people are saying,

53:39

we don't have that anymore. Now we have the direct Holy

53:41

Spirit, the new covenant, and so now

53:43

we get everything directly from the Holy Spirit. Everybody

53:46

wasn't getting things directly from the Holy Spirit

53:49

through those means in the Old Testament. It

53:51

didn't happen hardly ever. There

53:54

are occasions where things happen and this

53:56

was the role of the prophets, but

53:58

the prophets were principally covenant keepers.

54:01

They were not the kind of

54:03

people that were giving the information

54:05

to individual Israelites or even to

54:08

kings, characteristically, on what decisions they

54:10

ought to make. Think

54:12

about Solomon. When he dedicates the temple,

54:15

he has a vision from God. God says, what would

54:17

you give me? God

54:19

says, what should I give you? And

54:21

Solomon says, give me wisdom so

54:23

that I shall know how to

54:26

rule this people. So

54:28

it's clear that even Solomon, the great king,

54:31

was not getting direct information

54:34

from God on a regular basis on how to

54:36

rule. He realized he needs the

54:38

wisdom to do that. Now

54:40

there were some individual cases where some

54:43

of the kings got special instructions. No

54:45

question about that. But

54:47

the question is, are we to

54:49

take that as the standard way

54:51

that people made decisions? The answer

54:53

was no. That's why

54:56

God gave the law, Exodus,

55:00

Leviticus, Deuteronomy,

55:03

so that they would have written

55:05

scripture that would guide them in

55:07

the decisions that they're making for

55:09

their life. Read Psalm 119. Longest

55:13

Psalm in the book, but

55:15

it's all about God's scripture, God's

55:17

law, God's statutes that we already

55:19

use. Okay, so as

55:22

far as the phenomenology, in other words, what

55:25

did it seem like to

55:27

the prophets who were getting messages from God?

55:30

Well, if we take the text at

55:32

face value, God was talking to them.

55:35

And God said, and then there's the

55:38

words. And in

55:40

fact, in the case of Moses, we

55:42

know it was verbal because

55:44

the people who initially were hearing

55:46

God talk to Moses got

55:49

scared. And they told

55:51

Moses, go away, go

55:53

over there and talk

55:56

to God over there because his

55:58

voice scares us. All

56:00

right. We have every

56:02

reason to believe that it

56:04

was contentful information directly

56:07

communicated to the

56:09

prophet. And

56:12

sometimes it's clear that that was verbal,

56:15

like in the case of Moses. But

56:17

the point is, it's propositional. Even if it

56:19

was some other way that they got the

56:21

information, the text says, God spoke.

56:24

And then he said, write down these words.

56:26

So there was dictation that God was giving.

56:30

So I just finished reading Ezekiel, and there it

56:33

is, all this great stuff that God is saying.

56:38

Special revelation through

56:40

prophets for individuals was rare,

56:43

even in the Old Testament. Okay.

56:45

And we don't have

56:48

any reason to... and

56:50

it happens in the New Testament, and it's rare there

56:52

too in the Book of Acts. Only

56:54

14 times in 30 some

56:56

years do we have evidence of God

56:58

intervening with a special revelation for some

57:01

purpose. The rest of the time, the

57:03

disciples were operating based on the Great

57:05

Commission and the teaching that Jesus had

57:07

given them. Now, Summer, I realize you

57:09

got the short shrift a little bit here. I have so much

57:12

more I could say about it, but there's my music. That's

57:14

all the time I had. You're always

57:16

safe with sticking with the text and

57:19

ignoring all the special revelation. You're

57:21

always safe there. And

57:24

it turns out that there wasn't any more

57:26

special revelation given in the Old Testament than

57:28

it is in the New Testament. It's rare,

57:30

and it came through certain individuals in a

57:32

supernatural way for special services. The

57:35

rest was done by God's word. There you go,

57:37

Summer, and the rest, great folks, we'll hear the

57:39

standard reason given heaven. Bye-bye now.