This Week in Witchcraft - S1:E15

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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Welcome to This Week in Witchcraft. The elements have been conquered with intense heat, and witchcraft has become more cosmopolitan.

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Can you spot it out in the wild? I'm Dylan Hampton, and with me is

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Michael Durham, David Kassin, and Andrew Hudson. This time on This Week in Witchcraft, we have had an article sent from us from afar.

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My brother -in -law sent me an article from the Salt Lake Tribune. Thank you, Jonathan. The headline reads,

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New Heavenly Mother Debate Breaks Out Between LDS, that's Latter Day Saint Feminist, and LGBTQ Activists.

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If you want to look it up yourself, you can go to the Salt Lake Tribune online, which is sltrib .com,

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and the article is by Peggy Fletcher Stack. We're going to try to flesh out all the craziness that we see in this article, and then we're going to try to bring it down to earth, as Michael's going to present us with all the craziness first.

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So basically, the Borg have showed up to the Mormons. Oh my. That's crazy.

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Okay, time to be assimilated, resistance futile. Here's the key question. We will take what is useful.

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When I read through this article, I was thinking, ah, Marxist Mormons. So the key question that they have on the article is, how can

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Mormonism make teachings about Mother God more inclusive? Now, I should have probably warned you, we probably should have warned people that this is not for the faint of stomach, but you have to understand that they're in the theology of Mormonism, and Mormonism doesn't call itself

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Mormonism anymore. They call themselves the Latter Day Saints, and they really, really want to show themselves as being

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Christian, and they want Christians to think, you know, basically we believe mostly the same things, and we think that if you believed our way, things would be a little bit better off for you.

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They would like to be seen initially as just another denomination. They would like to be seen as consistent with Christianity, an easy move from being a

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Baptist to a Mormon, or from a Baptist to be a Latter Day Saint, but those are the initial steps.

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When you actually see what is taught, and practiced, and believed in, and applied in Latter Day Saints, and amongst the

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Mormons, it becomes very clear that this is not at all Christianity. This is something completely different, and is in fact a terrible cult, a snare, a perversion of the good news of Jesus Christ.

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So in Mormonism, in the teachings of the Latter Day Saints, there is not just one

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God. The multiplicity of gods puts Hinduism to shame, so you have to understand that if they have all these gods, then there's no end to the theologies, right?

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Theology can only be singular when you have one Theos God. As many gods as you have, as many theologies are you going to end up with.

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And in given some of the teachings of the Latter Day Saints, there's a procreation that takes place between a

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Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother that brings forth, you know, this world in which we live. And there is interest amongst

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Latter Day Saint feminists about this Heavenly Mother, and how can they identify with the

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Heavenly Mother in her femininity to push forward their agenda, which is basically the

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Marxist agenda, the cultural Marxist agenda of feminism. Remember that Marxism turns everything into oppressor oppressed, that's their hermeneutic.

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You're not really seeing the world, and you're not really being literate, and you're not really being understanding if you don't see everything in terms of oppressor oppressed.

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Everybody is in those two classes, and for feminism, the women are the oppressed, and the men are the oppressor, okay?

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So applying that cultural Marxism to Mormonism, they're going to make a lot of hay out of the

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Heavenly Mother. And there's a point in the article where an apostle of the Latter Day Saints is saying, hey, we shouldn't speculate too much, but hey, this is what the feminists want to do.

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Now this has brought them into conflict with another group of Latter Day Saint advocates, but they are the

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LGBTQ +, etc. group, and they're saying when you're stressing the femininity of God, and if you're stressing the masculinity of God, or the femininity of God, and so on, you're overlooking the fact that we need a genderless, not necessarily a genderless

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God, but a God with genderless expression so that we can all relate to this

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God. Gender binary of the divine leads us out of that divine participation? So if you present the gods of Mormonism, if you present deity, divinity, as a concept, in any fashion that is alien to my experience, then

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I cannot worship God properly, therefore you are oppressing me, keeping me from worshiping and having the experience of divinity that I should.

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I'm the oppressed, you're the oppressor. Right? So as the feminists have been working under the impression that they are the oppressed, they now discover that they are the oppressors in stealing divine experience away from the

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LGBTQ alphabet Borg. But this, I'm thinking the Borg showed up to the

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Mormons and says resistance is futile, you are going to be assimilated. This is cultural

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Marxism, this is critical theory, this is showing up and just grabbing hold of something and then the universal acid and beginning to dissolve the structures that are there, turning everything into oppressor -oppressed conflicts.

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So we see this happening in the Latter -day Saints, of course we've already seen how the Borg work in other contexts of religion in North America.

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It's incredible. The more intersectional you are, the more oppressed you are and based on your description, the more powerful you become.

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Because the most oppressed are able to wield an enormous amount of power on this other group of lesser oppressed and so now we can just, they're the ones that are wielding the assimilation.

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And for those who don't know, the Borg is a reference to Star Trek where this technological group just sort of assimilates all the technology and puts it into a giant cube and it's all, there's no individual

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Borg, it's just Borg, there's just one, I am Borg. So if anybody was confused about that reference, ask the nerd that is closest to you and they should be able to help you with that.

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So did Star Trek, did they prophesied Google and Facebook, just that centralizing of all technology in the internet?

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It was like that, that seems what that's speaking towards there. I think

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Alphabet even had a cube out in the San Francisco Bay of servers that they had to cool down using the water out there for a little while.

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I know you might be joking a little bit, but Gene Roddenberry was involved with a group that was associated with the

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Council of Nine and which was an occult organization that sought communication with extraterrestrials via occult practices.

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So he's not just science fiction, he's an occultist. In this sense, extraterrestrial being demons.

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Correct. But yeah, the concept in Star Trek is that you have all these different various factions that have a hard time getting along.

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Right. Romans, Klingons, humans, whatever. But when the Borg shows up, they all become

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Borg, right? And they all end up looking basically the same and all serving the greater good of the Borg.

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And wherever the Borg goes, they just can keep on assimilating and keep on assimilating. And so that's the idea here.

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That's what cultural Marxism does, is it must completely break down all distinctions and all distinctives, and then to turn everybody into this utopia of everybody is exactly the same with no distinctions and no differences, all serving the greater good.

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And that's why the Borg are a perfect metaphor for it. Yeah, that's the idea behind the quote unquote perfect communism, the classless society.

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If everybody is the same, then nobody is oppressed and nobody is the oppressor. And we will have utopia because human beings are innately good.

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And if we just put them in the right environment where you can take down all of those structures that just generate more and more oppression, and people are just free to be who they are, you know, you be you, and all distinctions gone, then we will have absolute paradise.

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Everybody just doing what's right in their own eyes. We've tried that and it worked really well last time. Yeah. Well, in this article, we see are people saying,

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I can't worship God unless God is immediately and thoroughly coherent to my set of experiences, which means unless God is completely compatible with my expressions and experiences,

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I can't worship. And what we see in that is a pitfall that all humanity has a problem with, not just some

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Latter -day Saint feminists and other types of activists. It's not just their problem, it's everybody's problem in that, you know, we as sinful have a temptation to create

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God in our image. But that is the absolute reversal of what happened. God made us in his image and God made us according to his standards and God called us to adhere to his word.

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God revealed his standards for us to understand ourselves in the light of. And so when it comes to the worship of God, so many times people try to look around for worship experiences and worship opportunities and religious organizations or churches or worship community or worship centers.

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And what are they looking for? They know what's valuable to them. They have their sets of experiences and they're looking for someone to replicate that for them.

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And they want to find a place that expresses and puts God forth in a way that is entirely consistent with their experiences and preferences.

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Now, that is that is not how the Bible talks about worship in the biblical expression of worship.

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We have the fear of the Lord. We have people bowing the knee. We have everybody orienting around him.

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There's all sorts of change that has to take place. Jesus said eternal life is knowing

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God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Jesus says that if you want to have eternal life, if you want to know

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God, it isn't create God in your image. He says, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.

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That's what he says. We live in a world that says, affirm yourself, whatever you discover about yourself, you must affirm.

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You know, thank you, Freud. But what the scriptures, what Jesus says is deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me because he's the way, the truth and the life.

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No one comes to the father except through him. He's the standard. He's the authority. He's the Lord. And so we have to deny ourselves.

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And here's a quote from the article itself that is exactly the opposite of that. If I, a queer woman, only know the story of God as a cisgender, heterosexual individual or couple, she asks, how can

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I see godliness in myself? Godliness is determined by something that's already true about me rather than denying what's already true about me in order to follow the lamb.

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Yeah. It's just the exact opposite of what you were just talking about. Yeah. I found some six day old milk past expiration mark in my fridge the other day, and I would rather drink that half gallon of spoiled substance than to have to read much more of that article imbibed the botulism.

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That is rough, but it's not unique. No, no, it is not unique.

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It's for all those who abandon the truth. Jesus says in John chapter 17, verse 17,

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Oh father, sanctify them in thy truth because thy word is truth.

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Yes. Once you abandon the word of God, there's no breaks.

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There's no categories to bound. It's all folly, falsehood, lies.

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You can exchange one life for another because there's no truth in it. Yeah. We talked about that beforehand where there's no off switch or a valve switch.

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In Mormonism's case, you've got the valve kicked off and it's just a spigot spraying without a head to stop it.

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I think the key point of the article that kind of expresses that in Mormonism is their apostles' speech that they talk about in the second paragraph.

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In Apostle Dale Renlund's speech, he urged members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day

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Saints not to speculate about the divine feminine, but rather stick to what is known in the faith's gospel topics essay about her.

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I know that's a paraphrase of probably what happened, but that seems rather passive. If you hold the truth, if you hold the word, if you hold the truth, if you truly do, you are not going to be so passive as to say, just don't look into it.

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All these internet articles about all this, don't worry about it. We don't need to confront it. Stick to what we already have.

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Don't look behind the curtain. Right. Yeah. I mean, it really is, and they see it coming.

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I think that may be one thing that is unique about Mormonism in the American context is we have them set up especially ripe for this type of danger to be infiltrated and assimilated quickly.

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If the board can work quickly in any of our institutions, it's there in Mormonism in the state of Utah, and that's frightening for the

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Mormon people, and we should see that as an opportunity to actually bring them the truth because they don't have anybody giving it to them.

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So I'm going to have to find a new source of my freeze -dried foods while those guys aren't going to be doing that anymore?

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Maybe that's the one thing that's left behind there. They probably will be, but there'll be rainbow flags.

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Oh, wow. Okay. Well, it's like, yeah, I might as well just get Skittles. Extra injections of estrogen and everything.

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It's funny that the appeal to the truth was this essay that was written.

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Just listen to that, and that's sufficient. Their view of the scriptures are quite twisted, as you know, and the fact that their progenitor of this falsehood, this cult said that the

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Bible was missing many plain and precious parts. I think they're getting their just desserts.

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Yeah. That particular statement from Joseph Smith, the Bible is missing many plain and precious parts, is still being said today by evangelicals, right?

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Because, for instance, in the words of Walter Strickland from Southeastern Seminary, the white church doesn't have a full gospel.

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Oh, yeah, there we go. Right? Because you have to listen to the black church because of their lived experience.

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If all you have is the Bible, you're missing plain and precious parts of the lived experience of the oppressed.

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Therefore, you don't have the full gospel. You have to have these other plain and precious parts brought in.

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Okay, so that's not a new, or that idea hasn't gone away. It's still present, and it's just a reminder of the

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Gnosticism that the Borg bring. The secret knowledge. Yeah, the secret knowledge.

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You have to have the lived experiences to get to the right understanding and right knowledge. That's an example of it hitting closer to home for us, too.

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This seems far away, but you bringing that up, that's much closer to home to us than we realize.

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Yeah, so when we read zany articles like this, the goal is not just to leave it there, but to consider how the lie at the root of this situation is operative in situations around us, and that's where it is profitable.

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I mean, we operate off the assumption that the Bible in and of itself, God's Word in and of itself, is sufficient.

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And it is complete in and of itself. And so, yes, this article was kind of fun.

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You bring it up because it's so over the top, but the root of it, not so much.

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We see those things very, very close to home, which is why whenever we try to respond to these things on This Week in Witchcraft, we're trying to respond with the

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Scripture as we have it and as the God's Word, as it is sufficient in and of itself, and also spiritually appraised.

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So, we understand that when you apply this as a standard, it requires regeneration to understand what

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God's Word is actually saying. So, when people, Andrea, as you pointed out, abandon

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God's Word as a standard, anything and everything becomes fair game, which is why whenever we try to respond to anything, whether it's more subtle, like you don't have the full gospel, or very zany, and people jumping on rocket ships to go off to their utopia, the response is still the same.

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Great. Have you not read? Have you not read? Yep. There we go. Amen. Well, I think we've wrapped that up for today.

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Why don't we go on to our recommendations for content that we think would be edifying and helpful to you out there in the audience.

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So, I've got a book named Created in God's Image by Anthony A.

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Hokema. That's H -O -E -K -E -M -A. And this is an excellent book.

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Someone was just talking about notes and underlines and all sorts of things in the margins. And this is definitely one of those books that is that way for me.

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And one of the most helpful things in this book is a deep investigation into what has it meant that we're made in God's image, looking at the text from Genesis, and then seeing how that is consistently applied and fleshed out throughout the rest of scripture.

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But that it comes down to that those who are made in God's image are a unique intersection of relationships and accountabilities in which made in God's image, we are made to love

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God supremely, to love others rightly, and to steward the creation responsibly. And that we stand in this unique position that no other creature does.

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And at this position in which there is perfect relationship, ideally, with God.

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Perfect relationship, ideally, with mankind. And perfect governance over the creation, ideally, that all of this is fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who is the image of the invisible

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God. We read in Colossians 3. So that ultimately, if we want to know what it means to be a human being, look at Jesus.

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Look at Jesus of Nazareth, who is the son of the living God. And there we see what humanity is really all about.

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So it's a great book, Anthony Hokema, Created in God's Image. Amen. David? I'm going to recommend a website that I've used over the years that I really like a lot.

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It's called monergism .com. It's M -O -N -E -R -G -I -S -M .com.

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Mono meaning one. So the one worker, or God is the one that works and effects salvation.

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Versus, you know, working together. It is a database of free resources.

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There are dozens and dozens and dozens of free e -books. Dozens of sermon series.

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You can get lost for days going down all of these free resources. And just on the front page, it's like, hey, are you new to monergism?

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How is it used? What is it? Why trust it? It has some great historical works.

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And you can dive into it. And if you don't have enough room in your house to store a whole bunch of books, and you don't want to buy stuff on Amazon, go here first.

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Take a look and see if there's something on there that's already free. Available in a PDF form. And you just have these enormous resources at your fingertips just by having a smartphone.

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So, monergism .com. I enjoy it. I actually just finished up a series by Kim Riddlebarger that I enjoyed a lot.

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So, enjoy. And you can follow them on Facebook and watch their interactions with people who have objections to a lot of the stuff that they put out.

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And it's actually, they do a pretty good job of responding a lot of times. So, their Facebook page is not bad as well. Fantastic.

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Andrew? Influence. The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. He was a researcher.

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It's a book. He was a researcher on basically using operant conditioning style procedures to elicit outcomes.

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The idea behind this book is they're leveraging techniques that men use against other men, mankind, manipulating others to seek their own benefit.

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This author purports to uncover these manipulation techniques in an effort to provide a defense for it.

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I'm not advocating it for that. But rather to be aware that these are techniques that fallen man uses against other fallen men to get their own way.

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Interesting. When you read through the book, Andrew, do you find yourself seeing his observations and then assigning biblical terminology to it?

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No, he's not doing that. Well, I mean, but you as the reader. Well, I wouldn't say I necessarily have specifically done that.

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I've taken it more like, hey, there's some research that says that this is a technique that's effective on people.

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And we know that will worship is not to be sought after.

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There are certain things that are good for humanity. But the only thing that constrains sin is being born again and the expiation in Christ.

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My recommendation is for those who want to understand how psychology impacts every single person in a way that goes beyond the realm of thought into how people use manipulation tactics to try to get thrown away.

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I see. Okay. Well, I'm going to start my recommendation off with one of my favorite memes, literature memes.

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It says English literature. I will die for honor. French literature. I will die for love. American literature.

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I will die for freedom. Russian literature. I will die. So they're very sure of that. But I would like to go into the

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I will die for honor. It's got a picture of Shakespeare as their representative, naturally. But there is a great series out there called

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The Hollow Crown that was done by the BBC. And what they do is they go through Shakespeare's histories. And most people find the histories to be the most boring

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Shakespeare plays that you could come up with. But that's because most people who are trying to curate

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Shakespeare's content are the most boring people alive. So Shakespeare's histories are wonderful plays that he did.

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And they are done by wonderful actors. They've got Tom Hiddleston. They have Benedict Cumberbatch. And it runs the gamut of English actors in the modern era who have had

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Shakespearean experience and come to the screen and done very, very well with it. It's a high production film series.

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And it's very, very long. But it's a great introduction into Shakespeare's histories.

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And I think anybody who enjoys any bit of Shakespeare would enjoy it. Excellent. I have a problem with Benedict Cumberbatch.

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He can't say the word penguin. But other than that. Yeah. Literally, he can't say it.

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I have to look this up now. I know. I know. I planted a little seed there. Well, I just watched

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Penguins of Madagascar. And Benedict Cumberbatch is one of the voices in that. Yeah, he's the husky.

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He is. But he can't say penguin? He has a problem. That's fantastic. That's great. And that wraps it up for today.

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We are always very thankful for our listeners tuning in every week and for supporting us by rating, reviewing, and sharing the show.

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And we hope you can join us again for another week of uncovering and rebuking witchcraft in the modern world.