WWUTT 2235 Q&A The Agabus Prophecy, Mighty Man Nimrod, Paul Harvey's Letter from God
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Responding to questions from listeners about whether Agabus's prophecy was wrong, why was Nimrod called the first Mighty Man, and taking a listen to Paul Harvey's classic "Letter from God." Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
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- Did Agabus get his prophecy wrong in Acts 21? Why is
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- Nimrod called the first mighty man? And is Paul Harvey's letter from God, really a letter from God?
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- The answers when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text, a daily
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- Bible commentary that we may grow in our knowledge of God and His word. Tell all your friends about our ministry at www .wtt
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- .com Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky. You're welcome. Proverbs 3.
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- We're finishing up the third chapter today. Awesome. So in Proverbs 3 beginning in verse 27, do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your hand to do it.
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- Do not say to your neighbor, go and come back and tomorrow I will give it when it is there with you.
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- Do not devise harm against your neighbor while he lives securely beside you.
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- Do not contend with a man without cause if he has dealt you no harm.
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- Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways.
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- For the devious one is an abomination to Yahweh, but his secret counsel is with the upright.
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- The curse of Yahweh is on the house of the wicked one, but he blesses the abode of the righteous.
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- Though he scoffs at the scoffers, yet he gives grace to the humble. The wise will inherit glory, but fools raise up disgrace.
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- There's some of that too that is reflected in James where James says, don't just say to your brother, hey, be fed and go on and be well when you should be showing charity to him.
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- Right. And at the same time, that statement, he gives grace to the humble, that's right out of James. Well right out of James.
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- James takes that right out of Proverbs. So these are practical instructions for the way that we show love and care for each other.
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- And at the same time, do not envy the wicked in the world. Don't look at the way that the wicked live their lives and think, you know, if I was doing what they were doing, maybe
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- I'd have it a little bit easier. Maybe I would be winning. Yeah, right? My best life now.
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- That's right. And we're kind of seeing that politically right now. The candidate on the right is starting to sound more like the candidate on the left, and the candidate on the left is starting to take stuff from the candidate on the right.
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- Everybody's coming like right to the center in these closing, what do we have here, 60 days or something like that until the election.
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- Is it really that close? Oh, it's that close. Yeah. Oh goodness. It was 70 days on Monday. So it's 65 now.
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- Okay. Okay. I see it. Yeah. But I'm in denial still, because that's really soon.
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- It's coming up quick. And we'll finally, yes, we'll be done with this election season.
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- I'm in denial that it's that close. So, you know, that much of the year has been gone already.
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- But continue to pray, continue to hold fast to Christ. Don't despair, whatever happens in the next two months and a week, however long it's going to be.
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- We continue to trust in God, who is sovereign, and He is in control. Amen. And whoever it is that wins the election, there will be a wicked person in the
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- White House. That's true. So you have to hold fast to Christ. Either way, you don't have a righteous ruler without Him.
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- Amen. Amen. This is the Friday edition of the broadcast, and we take questions from the listeners.
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- You can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. I've got three voicemail messages we're going to be listening to in this first segment.
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- Oh, cool. And then an email message in the second. By the way, if you're listening on the radio, you only have a half -hour program.
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- But if you're listening to us online, you get double the length. So tell your friends about our ministry.
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- Double the fun. Yeah, that's right. Double mint. Double mint gum. Remember those commercials?
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- That's where I was going with it. But I didn't want to name drop. I think your 80s mind is now my mind, too.
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- You're welcome. I've shared enough. Yeah. I know you're going to make the 80s or 90s commercial reference anyway, so I may as well do it.
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- Oh, yeah. What was I saying? Okay. Well, voicemail. So we didn't do the voicemail plug.
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- Oh, yes. If you go to www .tt .com, there is a voicemail link there on the top right side of the page.
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- You can leave us a voicemail via your phone or through your computer, either way you record it.
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- Apparently, it's only going to give you a minute and a half, as Laurie shared with us a few weeks ago. And Laurie's back.
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- Yay! Right? Here's another voicemail message. This is her first voicemail message. Okay. So before it was just email.
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- Oh, right, right, right. Yes. So here's Laurie's voice for us. Hello, Gabe and Becky.
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- This is Laurie. You answered my question two weeks ago about the dating of Revelation.
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- Thank you. What a great honor that you would answer my question. And I really appreciated your clear, straightforward thoughts that you don't know and it doesn't matter.
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- And you pointed out the real purpose of the Book of Revelation is to uplift and encourage churches throughout the ages.
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- And that helps me to keep my focus on the main message and not get so bogged down in the details in my studies.
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- About finding transcripts, it's something that I think Apple must automatically do. So an
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- Apple podcast, a few days after the episode drops, it's usually available.
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- You just go on that episode in the upper right hand corner. There's three horizontal dots.
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- Click on that. And in the dropdown, it says view transcript. And it's that easy.
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- So I hope that helps others. And finally, thank you for continuing to challenge the chosen and the issues around that.
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- I made the decision this past week, after much thought and prayer, to leave my small group.
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- And they've been watching The Chosen every week for several years. And I have talked with the leaders and they are continuing to do it.
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- So thank you. God bless. So there she got cut off right there because it was a minute and a half. Thank you,
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- Lori. Sorry that you have to leave a small group, but it's unfortunate that they've gone that direction.
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- Yeah. They have season four out now of The Chosen. I just watched an interview with Jonathan Rumi the other day because I like to torture myself.
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- Of course you do. He's presently filming season five. No, he just finished filming season five.
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- Oh, really? So they've finished the, I think they're in the like post production side of it right now.
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- And it'll be coming out next year sometime. Yeah. It continues to mislead. Years of that in a small group.
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- I just can't even imagine. Yeah. And there's only four seasons of it. I would be so miserable. Yeah. There's four seasons.
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- I think they're aiming for either six or seven. I can't remember how many seasons they're going. Six. I believe it's six. How many episodes are in it?
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- Eight. Oh. Oh. Maybe it's once a month. And they're about 45 minutes to an hour maybe.
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- Yeah. Pretty close to that. Ugh. Like I said last week, I might still do a review of season two, which
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- I haven't covered yet. You can still find my season one review online, however. What was the other thing that Lori mentioned there?
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- Right before the chosen reference. Oh, the transcripts. Yes. So we were talking about this a few weeks back.
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- Somebody had asked if there were transcripts to my episodes. And I've had a few people email since.
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- And of course, Lori left this voicemail saying, yeah, if you go on Apple, there is a transcript of your episode.
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- Now, that's handy because I can use it to create my devotional books.
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- Right. And I don't have to go back through and listen to them and type out what I'm saying. I can just copy the transcript.
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- You should listen to it or at least read through it because sometimes it doesn't get accents or if you talk too fast or if you mumble.
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- Well, I'm not going to just copy and paste and send straight to publishers. There you go. There's some editing that's got to be done here.
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- I'm just saying. That's part of the reason. If it sounds a little wonky, it probably is not correct.
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- Yeah, and we know, according to Anonymous voicemail message he sent me a few weeks ago, I can I can say things wrong sometimes.
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- Yeah. I wonder I wonder if it shows like a spelling error for a word that I say wrong or if it will say not a word.
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- So put that in brackets or something. He said something here that wasn't even a word. We don't know what is it?
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- Not an unintelligible, but it's something like that. It's nonsense. No, it's not nonsense.
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- But they put a word in there that gibberish that they couldn't understand or they the
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- A .I. couldn't understand. What was the kind of poetry that the author of Alice in Wonderland used to do?
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- He got known for. The Jabberwocky poem. Oh, yeah. Is this kind of poetry?
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- I have no idea. It was Lewis Carroll. He was the author of of Alice in Wonderland.
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- I guess it's just called nonsense poetry. I guess there isn't a name to I thought there was a name for it, though. OK, I remember when
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- I was in grade school and we read Jabberwocky and the teacher actually gave us an assignment to write a nonsense poem.
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- Oh, I could see you very, very skilled at that. All the boys in the class enjoying it immensely, all us boys in the class, we loved it.
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- We thought it was. Yes. Oh, wow. Yeah.
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- The I don't know if I could come up with it's actually harder than you think. Yeah. How do you come up with nonsense words, words that don't mean anything?
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- Yeah. I mean, I have an imagination, but usually it's based off of something, you know, if you have kids, it should be easier because they'll give you nonsense words every day.
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- Oh, yeah, that's true. What was what was it that Bubs had for supper last night? He had to. He had to.
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- What did you have for supper, Bubs? To. Did you enjoy it? Yeah.
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- It's a good tooth. Yeah. Yeah. Tooth. Yeah. Be careful. Make sure you get the P on the end of that.
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- Yes. It was for for those of you who don't understand two year old language, almost three.
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- It's soup. Yeah. Has a little trouble with his S's yet. Yeah. He turns three on Sunday.
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- On Sunday. How amazing is that? We have had three children live through the year born during the years of the when we understand the text podcast.
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- Yeah, that's true. So are. No, no. It's only been two because Aria was born in twenty fourteen.
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- Yes. And and we didn't start doing the podcast until the summer of twenty fifteen. Right. But you had the oh, the
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- YouTube. Yeah, the YouTube channel, definitely. Yes. So her 3D sonogram is in one of my
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- YouTube videos. Yeah. And all the kids have been in a in a what video at some point. So and who who was
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- I pregnant with in one of those? Aria, was it Aria? Yeah. You were pregnant with Aria.
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- It was just hiding behind you. Yes. It was in the video that we did on my big belly on women can't be pastors.
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- That was the video. Yeah. I think only one of like three or four videos my face is actually in.
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- So that was the first one. And then I kept trying to talk myself into it after that.
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- This will be great. And then I do it. I'm like, oh, that looks terrible. Yeah. Why did I do that? Crap it. And then. No, it's they're still on there.
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- I'm surprised. Anyway, yeah, we're just jabbering here. Let's go to the next voicemail message.
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- This one is also a repeat customer. OK, this is from this is from the office
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- Calvinist again. I'm giving him another one because apparently I messed up on something last week. So here he is with his explanation.
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- Hey, Pastor Gabe and Becky, it's your friend from Twitter, the office Calvinist. You had said last time,
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- Pastor Gabe, that I had called you in your office. I cannot for the life of me ever remember calling you, let alone calling you in your office.
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- Oops. Perhaps there is another office Calvinist out there. Anyways, my question is about the prophet
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- Agabus in Acts chapter 21. His prophecy didn't happen exactly as he said it would.
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- And if we know anything about biblical prophecies, they tend to happen exactly as God says they will.
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- So what are we to make of this? Was the prophecy of Agabus really of the Holy Spirit?
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- I have also heard this verse used to defend the lack of accuracy in modern day prophecies.
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- How would you respond to someone who says this? So what is the rest of the story?
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- Thank you for your ministry. I know I am not the only one that has greatly benefited from your faithfulness to the
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- Lord. I so appreciate that. And I'm sorry for saying you called me at the office when I apparently got that wrong.
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- There is somebody else out there that identifies themselves as I don't know if it's the office
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- Calvinist or office Calvinist or whatever. But I am absolutely positive that when
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- I was at my church in Texas, that somebody called me asking for advice and introduced themselves as, hey,
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- I'm the office Calvinist. So I thought it was you. Apparently not.
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- Anyway, but I appreciate you listening anyway. And calling us in this fashion, leaving a voicemail.
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- That one's OK, too. Not quite a doppelganger, but almost. Kind of the online equivalent of having a doppelganger,
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- I suppose. Yes, there you go. Now, this question that you had about Agabus, did he get his prophecy wrong?
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- Now, first, let me tell you that there is a great article from the
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- Cripplegate written by Nathan Busenitz, who's one of the pastors at Grace Community Church, John MacArthur's Church in Sun Valley, California.
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- And he wrote an article. This was over 10 years ago. Now, the article was called Throwing Prophecy Under the
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- Agabus. And it answers exactly this question, because those who are charismatic will use
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- Agabus's prophecy to say, see, sometimes prophecy can be wrong and it doesn't make him a false prophet.
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- So let's go and look at the prophecy. And then I want to draw some things out of this article from Busenitz.
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- I'll put it in the show notes to this episode. So you can click on the link and follow the link to the article directly if you want to do it that way.
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- Or again, just look up Throwing Prophecy Under the Agabus. It's going to be the first link that comes up if you do a Google search.
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- So in Acts 21, the Apostle Paul was going to continue on to Jerusalem.
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- And verse 10 says, as we were staying there for some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea and coming to us.
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- He took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, this is what the
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- Holy Spirit says. In this way, the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the
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- Gentiles. And when we had heard this, we, as well as the local residents, began begging him not to go up to Jerusalem.
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- Then Paul answered, What are you doing? Crying and breaking my heart, for I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the
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- Lord Jesus. And since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent, saying, The will of the
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- Lord be done. So let me read Agabus's prophecy one more time.
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- This is what the Holy Spirit says. In this way, the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the
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- Gentiles. Okay, there's the prophecy. Now, did what happened to Paul happen exactly as Agabus said that it would?
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- There are continuationist scholars out there like D .A. Carson and Wayne Grudem. Grudem was one of the contributors to the study notes in the
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- ESV study Bible. I believe that he was even the editor of the ESV study
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- Bible. So they have both said that this prophecy is an example of how somebody doesn't have to get it exactly right, but it's still a prophecy from God.
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- So somewhere in the communication of it, from God to man, the signals can get kind of jumbled or whatever.
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- This almost reminds me of like, whenever you'll see a TV show or a movie with a psychic in it. Oh, yeah.
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- And the psychic will say something like, Oh, the spirit, it's hard for me to understand the spirits right now.
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- And I can't quite get it. It sounds like that. That's not the way prophecy is conveyed in the Bible.
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- It's not getting mixed signals from God. And I don't know exactly what it is that he's telling me.
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- No, it's usually very clear, but you don't know what it means. So you have like some people don't.
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- So some of the prophecies are right. Yeah. Like Daniel, for example, received a vision, didn't know the meaning of it.
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- Right. But the conveying of the message is very clear.
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- In fact, there was a test that was given to Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 18.
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- If a person gives you a prophecy and what he says doesn't come to pass, it didn't come from God.
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- Right. So you're supposed to disregard that man or even put him to death. That was a capital crime in theocratic
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- Israel. So here we go with this particular prophecy. How are we to think about this?
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- Busenitz says, number one, nothing in the text states that Agabus got his prophecy wrong.
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- Neither Luke nor Paul nor anyone else in Scripture criticizes the accuracy of Agabus's prediction or says that he erred.
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- Thus, at best, the continuationist approach to Agabus is based on an argument from silence.
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- Number two, Luke's description of what happened to Paul in Jerusalem implies that the
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- Jews bound him in some way. So I've heard one continuationist say that Agabus's description was that Paul would be bound with his own belt.
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- But that isn't what Agabus said. So if you'll go back and look at it, verse 11, he says, this is what the
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- Holy Spirit says. In this way, the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt.
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- It just says he will bind him, not that he will be bound with his belt. So you're expecting in the narrative to find that Paul was bound with his own belt.
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- Well, it does say that this is how the Jews. So one would assume they use the same materials.
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- But I mean, I get it. And coming to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own feet and hands, and said, this is what the
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- Holy Spirit says. In this way, the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man. So are you reading from the ESV? Oh, yes.
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- Okay, that's the LSB. What does the ESV say? It says, and coming to us, he took
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- Paul's belt and bound his feet and hands and said, thus says the Holy Spirit. This is how the
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- Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the
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- Gentiles. Okay, so it doesn't say that he will be bound with his belt. Right. It just says this is how he'll be bound.
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- Right. It could be by his hands and feet, since that's the way that Agabus bound himself. Right. So he just takes
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- Paul's belt. The one who owns this belt will be bound in this way. Right. That's where the belt has a significance.
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- Right. Okay. Yeah, it doesn't mean that he's being bound with the belt. Okay, that makes sense. I could see it being translated or understood both ways,
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- I guess, with the translation. Well, especially when you consider, again, Grudem is the editor of the ESV Study Bible.
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- Very true. Which reads, it almost sounds a little bit more direct than what the LSB says.
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- Yeah, it does. So I could see why he would take the ESV transmission of that and then go, see, he was bound with his belt, but in Acts 21,
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- Paul was not bound with his belt. Right. So here's what Busenitz says. Later in Acts 21, Luke explains what happened to the apostles shortly after he arrived in Jerusalem.
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- The Jews laid hands on Paul, verse 27, seized him, verse 30, dragged him out of the temple, verse 30, sought to kill him, verse 31, and were beating him when the
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- Roman soldiers finally arrived, verse 32. In Acts 26, 21, Paul reiterates before Agrippa that the
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- Jews seized him in the temple and tried to kill him. Since Paul did not willingly go with the
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- Jewish mob, a point implied by verbs like seized and dragged, they would have had to restrain him in some way as they forcibly removed him from the temple.
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- Using whatever was immediately available to bind him, Luke did not need to repeat that detail since Agabus had already told us that Paul would be bound with something like a belt.
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- The Greek verb deo, to bind, can mean to arrest or imprison, but it can also mean to tie up with ropes, as in Luke 19 .30,
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- which was also written by Luke, or to wrap with rags, John 11 .44. That was with regard to Lazarus.
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- Not only does the text not state that Agabus's prophecy was wrong, it gives us good reason to believe that his prediction that Paul would be bound by the
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- Jews was exactly right. And then Busenitz provides some other evidence there.
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- Number three, he says, Paul's later testimony confirms that the Jews delivered him over to the
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- Romans, which is what Agabus says is going to happen. So a continuation is claimed that Agabus also erred when he predicted that the
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- Jews would give Paul over to the Romans. But is such an error demanded by the text? In Acts 31 .32,
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- Paul is being beaten when the Roman cohort arrives. The Jews, upon seeing the soldiers stop assaulting
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- Paul, verse 32, the bloodied apostle is then arrested by the Romans, verse 33. The implication of the text is that the
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- Jews backed away and willingly relinquished Paul into the hands of the Romans once the soldiers arrived.
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- Such accords perfectly with Agabus's prediction. So any other details that you need to know in there, once again,
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- I'll put the link to the article in the description of the episode. And that's from Nathan Busenitz at the
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- Cripple Gate, some 12 years ago, he wrote that particular article. A few years ago, five years ago, as a matter of fact, you and I were eating with Phil Johnson.
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- You remember this? Yeah. And Phil Johnson brought this up and he said, somebody wrote this great article that had this awesome title,
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- Don't Throw Prophecy Under the Agabus. But I can't remember who wrote it. And I was able to go, it was Nathan Busenitz.
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- And he's going, no way, it was Nathan? Yeah, it was Nathan Busenitz that wrote that. That is why I don't play trivia with you.
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- You remember all the details. Yeah, absolutely. You know, really the biggest thing here, one of the biggest tells, the biggest proofs, is that Agabus is quoting the
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- Holy Spirit. Right. So remember in Acts 21 11, he says, this is what the
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- Holy Spirit says. In this way, the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the
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- Gentiles. So if you want to argue that Agabus got that wrong, you're going to be saying the
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- Holy Spirit was wrong. Because Agabus was quoting the Holy Spirit. And it's put in the
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- Bible. Exactly. Yeah, you're saying the word of God is wrong. Yeah. And so, yeah.
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- You got to be really, really careful with the way that you're going to argue with that text and make it sound like Agabus got his prophecy wrong.
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- Right. Luke doesn't have to give us every detail concerning Paul's arrest in order to verify that the prophecy that Agabus made was accurate.
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- I think because it made it in the Bible and not saying that he was stoned to death, that means that it actually happened somewhere in there.
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- Just like that. In the chaos. If Luke had been stoned to death, or Luke, Paul, if Paul had been stoned to death or nothing happened to him at all, then yeah, you could say the prophecy was wrong.
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- Yeah, sure. In this case, don't go there. There's one more question here. This one's from Scott.
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- Here's our last voicemail for this segment. Okay. Hello there, Pastor Gabe. So this is a question
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- I sent out to Mike Ricarda. I have yet to receive an answer from Mike. In First Chronicles, the first chapter talks about Nimrod.
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- He was the first mighty man. Now, what does that really mean? I mean, he's the first mighty man on earth.
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- Is it because he killed so many men, they made him mighty? Anyway, that's my question.
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- I wonder if you can answer it. Oh, by the way, this is Scott. Yes, salsa Scott, candy
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- Scott, everything Scott. Have a great day, Pastor. Yeah, so as it says in First Chronicles 1 -8, where it goes through a genealogy, you have
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- Nimrod, who was the king of Babel. Cush fathered Nimrod. He was the first on earth to be a mighty man.
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- So what does that mean that he's the first on earth to be a mighty man? Simply, he was the first on earth to be regarded as a mighty man.
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- So the people saw him that way, whether it means he was a conqueror of men or that he was a great hunter, because we know that Nimrod was regarded in that way as well.
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- So in his great skill as a warrior, he was regarded as a mighty man. You think of the men that David had in his company that were regarded as mighty men of valor.
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- So these were excellent warriors. And they received this title of being mighty men.
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- So Nimrod is kind of the first in history to be regarded in that way. Not a God -fearing man.
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- He was actually quite a wicked man. But he's the first on earth to be regarded as a mighty man, as a conqueror of peoples and a great king.
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- Interesting. I looked up what the name Nimrod means because we found that names in the
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- Bible have to do with the storyline. Yeah, a lot of times.
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- So I looked up Nimrod and it says rebellion or the valiant. Yeah. It doesn't mean doofus?
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- No. Because when you call somebody a Nimrod. I know, that's what I was expecting. But no, it's actually quite different.
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- Disappointing. So all of those people you called Nimrod growing up, you were actually like, yeah.
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- You were calling them valiant. Yeah, right. That's weird. That is odd. All right, that brings this segment to an end.
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- For those of you, once again, if you're listening on the radio, find the full broadcast when you go to www .utt .com.
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- The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. In the seventh episode of The Chosen, the show reimagined the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus as found in John 3.
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- This is where it is written for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
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- This is such a well -known gospel verse that show creator Dallas Jenkins wanted to be accurate. There's a great weight and responsibility when it comes to shooting this scene almost more than any other scene we shoot.
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- And so we really wanted to get it right. But if you compare the scene with John 3, 1 through 18, you'll see the two conversations are quite different.
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- Even the setting has changed. Lines have been added and moved around so that when Jesus gets to the words of John 3, 16, they have an altogether different context.
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- At one point, Nicodemus asks, is the kingdom of God really coming? And Jesus says, what does your heart tell you?
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- What is this, Disney? At the end of the scene, Nicodemus bows before Jesus to confess he is the Christ. But Jesus says, what are you doing?
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- You don't have to do that. Everyone has to do that. The Bible says every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
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- Lord. When the Chosen was confronted about this, they said, did it happen? We don't know, but it's very on brand.
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- What? When did Jesus ever tell anyone they don't have to bow? This response is a great slogan for their show.
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- Did it happen? We don't know. Let's see them put that on a t -shirt. One of the shirts they sell has this line from their
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- Jesus. Get used to different. Ironic, since this is a different Christ than the Christ of the
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- Bible. Accept no substitutes when we understand the text. This next question comes from Jamie in Westchester, Illinois.
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- Dear Pastor Gabe, I wonder if you have ever listened to this before. This is
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- Paul Harvey reading a letter from God. I've heard lots of people share Harvey's bit.
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- If I were the devil, Joe Rogan even played it on one of his podcasts. But seldom have
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- I heard anyone reference Harvey's letter from God. I grew up around radio and Paul Harvey was often heard in our home from one radio brat to another.
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- I'd love to hear your critique. Now, it's really providential that the
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- Office Calvinist in the previous segment. That's what I was thinking. He made that Paul Harvey reference.
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- What is the rest of the story? And I've talked about how when we came up with the name for when we understand the text, we wanted some tagline at the end of every video that was kind of like Paul Harvey going,
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- Now you know the rest of the story. How can I conclude each episode or each video with that?
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- And that was how we settled on when we understand the text. So yeah, Harvey was kind of an influence in that way.
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- Now to share this with you, you might be unaware of this, but Paul Harvey was a Seventh -day Adventist.
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- Oh, I was unaware. So some of the things that he says here you're going to find are like,
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- Where is this coming from? A lot of people thought Paul Harvey was a Christian. And it's unlikely that he was
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- Orthodox. He probably had very heretical views of God and Christ.
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- And you are going to hear that even in Paul Harvey's letter from God. Let's see how much of this we get through.
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- It's about eight minutes long. Oh, okay. But we'll kind of we'll stop and go as we listen. From now on,
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- I'm quoting an open letter from God. My dear children, and believe me, that is all of you.
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- Oh, we already got a problem. Yep. Is that everybody?
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- Is everyone a child of God? Remember that the Jews tried to say this to Jesus in John 8.
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- We're children of Abraham. Yeah. And Jesus said, you are of your father, the devil. Right.
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- For your desire is to do your father's desires. So not everybody is a child of God. Those who are born again are children of God, adopted into the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
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- Yes. Everyone else is a child of Satan. And that's also made clear in Ephesians 2, 1 through 3, where we have our pre -faith biography.
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- You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom you once lived, carrying out the passions of the flesh and the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
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- So we have been made children of God by faith in Jesus. Yeah. And are now brought into his family, 1
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- John 3, 1. How great is the love that the father has lavished upon us that you should become children of God and so you are.
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- So we are under the federal headship of Adam when we are conceived, when we are born.
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- And then we are born again under the federal headship of Christ. Yes. And there we are adopted as sons and daughters of God.
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- That is the doctrine of adoption. So right here, a very sort of an
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- Oprah -esque implication that he's making, kind of like Oprah. Oh, yeah. Okay.
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- Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. I'm making up my own words here. Well, I mean, it's fine. I just was trying to remember what he said.
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- And then, oh, yeah, that's definitely Oprah. Yeah. Oprah saying we're all children of God. It's common among false teachers to say something like that.
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- So Paul Harvey begins this saying to my children, which is all of you. No, only those who are in Christ are children of God.
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- Now, Paul did say in Acts chapter 17 that we are his offspring. He says that in his sermon at the
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- Areopagus in Greece. But that means that we're all made by God.
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- That does not mean that we're all children of God. There is a difference. Ah, okay. We're not all heirs.
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- Yeah. Only those who are in Christ are heirs of the kingdom of God. Right. Yeah. I consider myself a pretty patient guy.
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- I mean, look at the Grand Canyon. It took millions of years to get it right. And about evolution, boy, nothing is slower than designing that whole
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- Darwinian thing to take place cell by cell and gene by gene. Man, this is awful.
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- Old, old, old earth. Yeah. Well, he's attributed. Yeah. Darwinian.
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- What would it be? Theistic evolution. Is the term for it. Anyway, you know, I said already we have the first problem.
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- Yes. With God calling everybody his children. Really, we had a problem once Harvey opened his mouth and said, everything that I say from this point on is from God.
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- Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. I was like, is this Jesus calling? Yeah, right. We're back to Sarah Young all over again.
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- Crazy. Paul Harvey did it before Sarah Young did it. So here here he is putting the words in the mouth of God that God created us through Darwinian processes, not that he uniquely made man and woman in the image of God, that all these things came about through these these
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- Darwinian evolutionary processes, which science can't even prove. Right. He's just bought into the narrative.
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- And I have been patient through your fashions, your civilizations, wars and schemes and the countless ways that you take me for granted until you get yourselves into big trouble again and again.
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- I want to let you know about some of the things that started taking me off. First of all, your religious rivalries are driving me up a wall.
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- OK, let's stop here. So let me let me tell you about the things that started taking me off.
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- Well, no, he cursed creation in Genesis three. Yeah, that's true.
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- He destroyed all of mankind, but eight people in the
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- Great Flood. Right. So there's no you're starting to tick me off. As it says in Psalm 711,
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- God is a righteous judge who feels indignation every day. He has this anger towards sin.
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- Yeah. And he's holy, holy, holy. So he is definitely feeling every little sin.
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- And he certainly loves us. Yes. And that's where his patience is. Enough to send his son.
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- You want to know the love of God. You look at the cross. Yeah. But if you want to know the wrath of God. Look at the cross.
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- You look at the cross. Yeah. As said in John three thirty six, whoever has the sun has eternal life.
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- Whoever does not obey the sun shall not see life. But the wrath of God remains on him.
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- So you were again under the wrath of God when you were born in Adam. It is only being born again in Christ that we become the recipients of the measures of his grace and his love toward us.
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- Now, we understand, as said in Romans five, eight, God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners,
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- Christ died for us. But we are not brought into the family of God until that conversion happens by the
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- Holy Spirit upon our hearts. Enough already. Let's get one thing straight. These are your religions, not mine.
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- I'm the whole enchilada. I'm beyond them all. Every one of your religions claims that there's only one of me, which by the way is absolutely true.
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- But in the very next breath, each religion claims that it's my favorite one, and each claims its Bible was written personally by me and that all of the other
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- Bibles are man made. Oh, me. How do I ever begin to put a stop to such complicated nonsense?
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- All right. Listen up now. I am your father and mother. I am your father and mother.
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- Now, what does he mean by all the Bibles are mine? Is he talking about translations of the
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- Bible or is he talking about the Koran and calling that a
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- Bible? Book of Mormon. Book of Mormon. I don't know. And I don't play favorites among my children.
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- Also, I hate to break it to you, but I don't write. My long hand is awful, and I've always been more of a doer anyway.
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- So all of your books, including those Bibles, were written by men and women. They were inspired men and women.
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- They were remarkable people, but they also made mistakes here and there. And I made sure of that so that you would never trust a written word rather than your own living heart.
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- Is this a follow your heart? That's a following your heart message. Oh, yeah, that's exactly it. And what was he kind of went by it kind of fast, so I didn't catch it.
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- He said something about his hand is terrible. His long, long hand. Long hand is terrible. Yeah. So he doesn't like to write.
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- Oh, I see. Like when he goes on and on and on. Yes. But still to say that something
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- God does is terrible. Well, he also says he didn't know how to handle it.
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- So, I mean. Yeah. We're not even two minutes into this and he is playing with fire. These are pretty crazy words to put in the mouth of the
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- Almighty. Oh, goodness. You see, one human being to me, even a bum on the street is worth more than all of the holy books in the world.
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- That's just the kind of a guy I am. My spirit is not an historical thing. It's alive right now. Right now.
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- So what does the scripture say? Even the bum on the street is more precious to me than my word.
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- Isn't Christ his word? Yeah. John one in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was
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- God. You also have Psalm 138 too. I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.
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- So yes, God does actually value his word. And his word will never.
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- What is it? His word will never cease or. His word will never return void.
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- First of all, Isaiah 55. Yes, that. And though the grass withers and the flower fades.
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- That's what the word of the Lord endures forever. Yes. Yes. So no. No, I mean, no is the answer.
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- The bum is important on the street. You know, the bum on the street is important. The person made in the image of God has great value to him.
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- Yes, but it's that person is not more important than his word. Right? Because I mean, there are there are billions of people that are going to perish in hell.
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- Yes. God is going to send them to hell. We know that. Of course, Seventh -day Adventists don't believe that. Oh, oh, yeah.
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- They believe in annihilation or Seventh -day Adventists will. I mean, there are some that are universalist as well.
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- It sounds like he is. Yeah, that's the way that's coming out. Yeah. As fresh as your next breath.
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- Holy books and religious rites are sacred and powerful, but they are not more so than the least of you.
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- They were only meant to steer you in the right direction, not to keep you arguing with each other and certainly not to keep you from trusting your own personal connection with me.
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- So it's a life manual. It's clear that he does not regard
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- Scripture as divinely authorized or inerrant. I wonder if he's read it because the
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- Bible says that it is. Yeah. Which brings me to my next point about your nonsense.
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- You act like I need you and your religions to stick up for me or win souls.
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- For my sake, please don't do me any favors. I can stand quite well on my own. Thank you. I don't need you to defend me.
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- I don't need constant credit. I just want you to be good to each other. So. Wait, what?
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- Yeah. Oh, man. Go and make disciples. This is messing me up.
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- Yeah, right. Don't convert anybody. There was something happened during the
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- Black Lives Matter riots a few years ago. There was a woman on Twitter at the time it was
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- Twitter that said something like, hey, you just need to be marching with these people. Don't be trying to convert anybody.
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- And Beth Moore liked that comment. Oh, yeah. I remember when it was going around that.
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- Why did Beth Moore like this? So don't evangelize anybody. Just be with them.
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- Oh, yeah. And deny me. And what is that? You deny me before men. I will deny you before my father in heaven.
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- Yeah. Because if you don't do one thing, you're doing the other. Yeah. So. Well, you know, as we've established, it's clear he doesn't revere
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- God in his word. OK. Great radio voice. Yes. Memorable.
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- Yeah. Did not mean that that translated into good theology, though. And another thing,
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- I don't get all worked up over money or politics. So stop dragging my name into your dramas. For example,
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- I swear to me that I never threatened Oral Roberts. I never rode in any of Rajneesh's Rolls Royces.
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- And I never told Pat Robertson to run for president. And I have never, ever had a conversation with Jim Baker.
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- These things he's absolutely right about. Wait, what?
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- So, you know, this was back in the 70s that this was done. Let's see if there's a date on this.
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- No, I don't see a date on it. Anyway. So Pat Robertson, you know, the founder of the 700 Club. OK. He ran for president.
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- Oh. Yeah. So he and he claimed that God told him to run for president. Oh. And then you have
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- Jim Baker, who is the guy. He's still out there. Jim Baker is still doing his thing. But he got in trouble with evading taxes.
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- Oh, yeah, that guy. And there was something else. I can't remember what else he got in trouble for. Had to go to prison for it. But now he's back and he's still got a show on the air.
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- Of course. I don't know if he ever repented or if he just said I was wrongly accused.
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- I'm not sure how all that came about, but he's still got a platform. Or if that was his persecution.
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- Yeah, right. Maybe. Maybe that's the way he played it off. But yeah, I mean,
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- Baker claims, you know, he's on a one on one conversation with God. Oh, my.
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- So Harvey's right there, except he's putting these words into the mouth of God. Yeah. But he's right that God did not tell
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- Pat Robertson to run for president. He does not have personal conversations with Jim Baker. He does get those things right.
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- Jerry Falwell or Jimmy Swigert. Or those guys. Of course, come Judgment Day, I certainly intend to.
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- That's funny. I want you to stop thinking of religion as some sort of a loyalty pledge to me.
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- The true purpose of your religions is so that you can become more aware of me, not the other way around.
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- Believe me, I know you already. I know what's in each of your hearts. And I love you anyway, with no strings attached.
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- I love you anyway, with no strings attached. Well, we know that's not true. I remember R .C.
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- Sproul saying that God does not love unconditionally. There is condition that Christ has died for us and that we believe in him.
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- So true. Then we are in the love of God, as we talked about being adopted into the family of God. Yeah.
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- So it is not actually unconditional love. I knew something was off with that, but I couldn't pinpoint what it was.
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- Well, that sounds, but I don't know how to argue. Yeah. So I'm glad you said that. Well, he makes that statement, too, about how religion is supposed to make you more aware of me.
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- Aware? No, if we are in Christ, if we are Christians, if we are growing in this faith that we have, then we're being made more like Christ.
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- We're not becoming more aware of God. Right. We are aware of God. In fact, if we're not, well, that's a big problem.
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- For Hebrews 11, 6 says, and without faith, it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
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- To draw near to God, you have to believe he exists. You don't become more aware of his existence.
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- You in Christ Jesus grow more to be like Christ. With the Holy Spirit's help.
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- Yeah, right. The Holy Spirit working in our hearts. Lighten up and enjoy me. That's what religion is best for.
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- What you seem to forget is how mysterious I am. You look at the petty differences in your scriptures and you say, well, if this is the truth, then that can't be.
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- But instead of trying to figure out my paradoxes and unfathomable nature, which, by the way, you never will.
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- Why not open your hearts to the simple common threads of every religion? You know what I'm talking about.
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- Play nice with each other. Love and respect everyone. Is that the common thread in every religion?
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- No. Not even a little bit. I mean, you have Islam that mounts jihad.
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- Yeah. You have the Hindu caste system. Yeah. Where through reincarnation, a person is gaining a higher status.
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- If they lived a bad life, then they're going to be a lower status animal. So you can't try to interfere with that because they're living through what fate has basically dealt to them based on the way that they live their life.
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- They have to improve themselves or else you're going to affect their journey to nirvana.
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- Right. Anyway, so not all religions look at humanity and say, oh, we just need to love each other.
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- Nope. Be kind, even when life is scary or confusing. Take courage and be of good cheer, for I'm always with you.
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- And learn how to be quiet so that you can hear my still small voice. I don't like to shout. Leave the world a better place by living your life with dignity and gracefulness.
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- He doesn't like to shout. Um, how did he... Didn't he like frighten the
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- Israelites? Yeah. Because he was the mountain, the cloud on the mountain. Yeah, he descended down upon the mountain.
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- And they just couldn't handle it. Like, this is terrifying. Yeah. That's at the end of Exodus 20.
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- Let's not do this anymore, Moses. Let's go back to the arrangement where you go talk to God. Like, that does...
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- Okay. I mean, of course, the way that God speaks to us now is not through a big booming voice out of a mountain.
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- Of course, yes. I mean, I understand that. But God still speaks loud and clear. And to say,
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- I don't like to speak loud and clear is pretty absurd. For you are my own child.
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- Hold back nothing from life. For the parts of you that can die surely will, and the parts that can't won't.
- 48:29
- So don't worry. Be happy. It was the guy that wrote that song,
- 48:35
- Don't Worry, Be Happy. He killed himself. No, no, no, no. It was Robin Williams who was in the music video who committed suicide.
- 48:44
- But Bobby McFerrin, who wrote the song, Don't Worry, Be Happy, is still alive. Are you sure? Yeah, I'm positive.
- 48:49
- Because I heard a rumor that... No, that's a myth that had been going on even when you and I were in high school.
- 48:56
- Yeah. Yeah, but it's not true. Oh, it's a myth. Yes. Oh. He's still alive now. Well. The song came out in 1988.
- 49:03
- This is why I don't play trivia. Yeah, again. The song came out in 1988, and the music video has
- 49:12
- Robin Williams in it. Oh, I didn't know that. You know, Robin Williams, who was the genie in Aladdin. Yeah.
- 49:18
- Probably his most famous role. Mrs. Doubtfire. Don't watch that. Mork and Mindy, which
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- I watched when I was a kid. So Robin Williams was in the video kind of dancing along with Bobby McFerrin.
- 49:30
- We know that, what was it, a decade ago or something like that, Robin Williams committed suicide. Yeah. So singing along and dancing.
- 49:36
- But I heard that rumor before he had... Yeah, because it was some... Right, because we were in high school before that.
- 49:42
- Right. Long before Williams killed himself. But it was just kind of one of those things that develops because it's ironic.
- 49:51
- Oh, yeah, that makes sense. So you like to spread those kinds of myths, because wouldn't it be funny if the guy who said, don't worry, be happy, committed suicide.
- 50:00
- Wasn't happy. Yeah, wasn't actually happy. And it ended up becoming a self -fulfilling prophecy in a certain sense, because it was
- 50:06
- Robin Williams, who was a comedian, and yet was not fulfilled with life, was not actually happy.
- 50:12
- Yeah. Worried quite a bit and ended up taking his own life. Very, very tragic. Very. But here is
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- Harvey saying this line, which would have been said a decade before McFerrin wrote that song.
- 50:25
- Oh, that's true. Yeah. Don't worry, be happy. But that is not a philosophy to live by.
- 50:31
- It does not sustain people. It gives no hope. It's dependent upon your circumstances.
- 50:36
- And your circumstances may be out to ruin you today. Yes. It is only by faith in Christ that we can have true joy.
- 50:45
- Something that excels above our circumstances. It is way beyond whatever this world could promise us or whatever our ideal life might look like.
- 50:58
- Christ is better. He is greater. He is more. And he is the one who guarantees us eternal life, making us fellow heirs, as you had said before.
- 51:08
- So knowing that we are fellow heirs of his kingdom, then our joy is not dependent upon -
- 51:14
- Our circumstances. Yeah. The fleeting pleasures of this life. Yeah. It's dependent upon Christ.
- 51:21
- So that even in a time of sorrow, even in mourning, even when you're suffering through sickness or loss or whatever else, you can still have joy because you know, my body will die, but I'll live on forever with God.
- 51:35
- Because Christ has died for me. He rose again for me. So that whoever believes in him,
- 51:41
- I have fellowship with God and the promise of everlasting life with him. Stole that last line from Bobby McFerrin, but -
- 51:50
- Oh, there, okay. So this had to have been - In the 80s. In the 80s.
- 51:55
- Yeah. Yeah. So there you go. Or 90s. So he didn't inspire Bobby McFerrin. Harvey was inspired by Bobby McFerrin.
- 52:03
- Who gave it to him in the first place? Simple stuff now. Yeah. So they're the claim -
- 52:09
- No. Who gave it to him in the first place? So the claim is God gave Bobby McFerrin the idea for don't worry, be happy.
- 52:17
- Here, I'll go back and play it in context. Yeah, play it again. Yeah. The view that can die surely will and the parts that can't won't.
- 52:23
- So don't worry, be happy. I stole that last line from Bobby McFerrin, but who gave it to him in the first place?
- 52:32
- Oh, I got it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I kind of interrupted it in there, but yeah, there you go. Simple stuff now.
- 52:39
- Why do you keep making it so complicated? It's like you're always looking for an excuse to be upset.
- 52:45
- And I am very tired of your main excuse. Do you think I care whether you call me
- 52:51
- God or Yahweh or Jehovah, Allah, Wakatonka, Brahma, father, mother, even the void of nirvana?
- 52:59
- Do you think I care which of my special children you feel closest to? Jesus, Mary, Buddha, Krishna, Muhammad, or any of the others?
- 53:07
- You can call me and my special ones any name you choose. If only you will go about my business.
- 53:15
- Yeah. God very much cares who you worship. Definitely. The name, all these other names are not the name for God, but used by other cultures.
- 53:28
- It's a different God altogether. Muslims, for example, who call upon Allah, they are calling upon a different God.
- 53:37
- It is not the God of the Bible. Right. Definitely. And it is explicitly said in their text that God does not have a son.
- 53:44
- If you go to their religious relics in the Middle East, it will be inscribed on their religious markers that God does not have a son.
- 53:54
- They want you to know the God they worship is not the God of the Bible. They slander the
- 54:00
- God of the Bible. Yeah. They blaspheme him. So they use this name Allah, but he is not
- 54:05
- God. It is not just the name for God in another culture. It is a different God altogether.
- 54:11
- Now, you can also have those cultures or sorry, you can have those religious beliefs that use the name of God.
- 54:18
- And even though they say God or Jesus Christ, they're believing in a different God than the God of the Bible. Right.
- 54:23
- Like Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. Yes. Their Jesus Christ is a different Jesus Christ.
- 54:30
- Yes. But yeah, it very much matters. You have to have a conversation with them to get them to open up about that.
- 54:35
- But yes. And some of them are, I mean, not aware of that at all. But there are in the book that I did on 40
- 54:42
- Mormon beliefs and what the Bible says. I cited in there one of the Mormon prophets who said, it is true that we worship a different Jesus than the evangelicals worship.
- 54:53
- So you'll find moments of honesty from their teachers. Yeah. Otherwise, they do want you to believe that we're all worshiping the same
- 55:00
- Christ. No. And really not. Of loving one another as I love you.
- 55:06
- How can you keep neglecting something so simple? No, I am not telling you to abandon your religions.
- 55:13
- Enjoy your religions. Honor them. Learn from them. Just as you should enjoy, honor, and learn from your parents.
- 55:21
- But do you walk around telling everyone that your parents are better than theirs? Your religion, like your parents, may always have the most special place in your heart.
- 55:29
- I don't mind that at all. And I don't want you to combine all of the great traditions into one big mess.
- 55:36
- Each religion is unique for a reason. Each has a unique style so that people can find the best path for themselves.
- 55:44
- But my special children, the ones that your religions revolve around, all live in the same place in my heart.
- 55:53
- No. Back to universalism, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, it's as if he would be endorsing idol worship in Israel.
- 56:02
- Yeah, that's true. You're all worshiping the same God. It all dwells in my heart. No, God destroyed them for worshiping idols.
- 56:11
- Yeah. He destroyed those pagan nations. He destroyed the Jews when they turned from God. Yeah.
- 56:17
- And we're worshiping false gods. God poured out his judgment and wrath on them. We're reading about that as we're going through Isaiah.
- 56:24
- We read about it when, or in Hosea, we read about it when we were in Isaiah. Over and over again,
- 56:30
- God's promise of judgment on those who had turned from him to worship false gods. Yeah. So it is absurd.
- 56:37
- It's a commandment. Yeah, right. You will have no other gods before me. Yeah. I mean, it's utterly absurd for what
- 56:44
- Harvey is saying here, giving people permission to worship however they want. It all eventually comes back to me.
- 56:50
- It's kind of like this idea that all roads lead to God. Yeah, that's how
- 56:56
- I get the feeling. Anyway, my words are kind of crazy. I believe it was Spurgeon that said there are millions of ways to hell, but only one way to heaven.
- 57:04
- That's right. And the reality of it is that every single philosophy, ideology, religion, on and on it goes, they all get to God.
- 57:13
- Every one of them will get to God. Oh, yeah, for sure. Just are you looked favorably upon?
- 57:20
- Right. They'll lead to the judgment seat of God is where they will get you. Only one way gets you into fellowship with God.
- 57:28
- And that is by faith in Jesus Christ. That is the only way. And not just that name
- 57:34
- Jesus, but who that name is attached to and what he has said and done according to his word.
- 57:40
- To believe in Jesus means you believe everything that he said is true and you live according to it.
- 57:48
- So putting faith in Jesus Christ means that you turn away from all this other nonsense that Harvey is endorsing.
- 57:55
- Yeah. And you read the word of Christ in the Bible and do as he says. And they get along perfectly,
- 58:01
- I assure you. The clergy must stop creating a myth of sibling rivalry where there is none.
- 58:09
- My blessed children of Earth, the world has grown too small for your pervasive religious bigotries and confusion.
- 58:17
- The whole planet is now connected by air travel, satellite dishes, telephones, fax machines, rock concerts, diseases, and mutual needs and concerns.
- 58:27
- Get with the program. If you really want to help me celebrate the birthday of my son Jesus, then commit yourselves to figuring out how to feed your hungry and clothe your naked and protect your abused and shelter your poor.
- 58:41
- And just as important, make your own everyday life a shining example of kindness and good humor.
- 58:51
- Law. Ah, yes. So he's just saying, if you want to, if you want to make me happy, if you want to fulfill what
- 59:00
- I've intended for you to do, then you just need to love each other and do kind to each other, which is salvation by works.
- 59:08
- But really, what works? What works are you talking about? How do we know? How do we know what it means to love one another?
- 59:13
- Yeah. I mean, this is all very subjective. You just need to love each other. Well, okay. The LGBTQ movement says that what they do is love.
- 59:21
- Right. Yeah. And that's not loving at all. It's a perversion of love. So what do we understand love as being?
- 59:29
- And by the way, if we were to go back into the 80s, now that we know this was the 80s and not the 70s, as I kept saying, if we were able to go back to the 80s and talk with Paul Harvey about this,
- 59:40
- I guarantee you he would not be pro LGBTQ. Yeah. This is something that the culture has grown to embrace, has been conditioned to embrace.
- 59:49
- It was not common back in the 80s. Right. So what is love?
- 59:54
- How do we know what love is? When Jesus says, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And a second commandment, the second greatest commandment is like it.
- 01:00:02
- You shall love your neighbor as yourself. What does it mean to love your neighbor? And you find that out by God's law.
- 01:00:09
- Yeah. What he has said, what Jesus instructed us to do. That's how you know what it means to love one another. I've given you all of the resources you need.
- 01:00:17
- If only you abandon your fear of each other and begin living and loving and laughing together. Finally, my children everywhere.
- 01:00:26
- And by the way, there are people that are incredibly evil people that laugh together. That doesn't mean anything.
- 01:00:32
- That's true. I mean, Kamala Harris's whole platform right now is joy. Oh, really? Yeah. We're just going to be happy and joyful.
- 01:00:39
- And when the DNC, the Democrat National Convention happened over a week ago, it was people singing and laughing and dancing.
- 01:00:46
- You'd see clips of it on social media and say, look at how happy Democrats are. And it's because ignorance is bliss.
- 01:00:52
- Oh, man. That doesn't indicate good people whatsoever. There are evil, wicked people that laugh together.
- 01:00:59
- That means nothing. True. So we are to be joyful about what pleases
- 01:01:05
- God. That's what's supposed to make us happy. What we know delights the
- 01:01:10
- Lord should delight our hearts as well. And again, we know that according to his word.
- 01:01:16
- And we find our joy in Christ. Yeah. Make him our greatest joy.
- 01:01:21
- That's in the Psalms. Yeah. And in addition to this, loving one another does not gain us favor with God.
- 01:01:29
- Like you can't even fulfill what Jesus commanded about loving one another. You are incapable of accomplishing it without the
- 01:01:37
- Holy Spirit. It is not possible for any one of us to obey Christ in and of ourselves.
- 01:01:44
- And Harvey is saying, it's such a simple thing. Why can't you do it? Right. Yeah. As said in Romans 8, verse 6, to set the mind on the flesh is death.
- 01:01:52
- But to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.
- 01:01:59
- For it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot.
- 01:02:05
- Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Right. And the only way to live and love in a way that is pleasing to the
- 01:02:13
- Lord is to believe on Christ, who gives you his Holy Spirit. And we are brought into fellowship with God.
- 01:02:20
- Remember whose birthday you honor on what you call Christmas Day, December 25. And the fearlessness with which he chose to live and die.
- 01:02:32
- As I love him, so do I love each of you. Now, I am not really ticked off.
- 01:02:41
- Well, well, he retracts. I remember R .C. Sproul saying that God, or there was a billboard in Orlando that said,
- 01:02:52
- God is not angry. And Sproul said, God is angry about that billboard that says God is not angry.
- 01:02:58
- Well, this statement that Harvey made that I love each one of you the same way that I love my own son, that's true for those in Christ.
- 01:03:07
- Right. For those who are in Christ Jesus, the love that God has for Jesus is the same love that he has for us because we are clothed in his righteousness.
- 01:03:16
- Right. And we are being made to be like him. It's not because in and of ourselves, we are worthy of that kind of love and affection.
- 01:03:25
- Romans 3 says, we made ourselves worthless. It is God who makes us worthy.
- 01:03:32
- And only through the imputed righteousness of Christ that is given to us. Not really.
- 01:03:39
- I just wanted to grab your attention because I hate to see you suffer. But I gave you free will.
- 01:03:46
- So what can I do now other than try to influence you through reason, persuasion, and a little old fashioned guilt and manipulation?
- 01:03:55
- Oh, God is manipulating us. And making us feel guilty. Yeah. Well, I mean, he does.
- 01:04:00
- That's conviction. Okay. So, you know, a godly grief that leads to repentance.
- 01:04:06
- Okay. I just didn't consider it to be like him making like a guilt trip, giving me a guilt trip.
- 01:04:13
- Well, he certainly doesn't manipulate us. Right. So that was that was the silly line. But so anyway, this was following his statement that I'm not really angry.
- 01:04:22
- And of course, that's not true. Once again, God being a righteous judge who feels indignation every day.
- 01:04:29
- After all, you know, I am the original Jewish mother. Oh, goodness. There he goes again.
- 01:04:34
- Say what now? Yeah. I just want you to be happy. And I'll sit in the dark.
- 01:04:42
- I really am. Indeed, I swear with you always trust in me.
- 01:04:53
- True. You're one and only. God. End quote.
- 01:05:04
- Yeah. Paul Harvey. Good day. So. Well, I looked up on Google because, you know, it's always accurate.
- 01:05:14
- Right. And it said that it originally aired on November 22nd, 1963.
- 01:05:20
- What? So you would have been correct. But then apparently he did it again. But I don't understand these other dates.
- 01:05:27
- So it says 2019. Yeah, because that Bobby McFerrin song came out in the late 80s.
- 01:05:33
- Yeah. So he repeated it, but it's still. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that Bobby McFerrin reference. Maybe edited it.
- 01:05:39
- Now, you know, now that you mentioned that, there is a there's a version of that somewhere that I heard.
- 01:05:45
- And I wonder if it was the earlier version, because in the section that he goes through, like different children of mine and different religious leaders, he mentions
- 01:05:55
- Ellen G. White. Oh. And I don't think he did this time. At least not that I caught.
- 01:06:01
- Yeah, unless it went by so fast, I just didn't notice. But Ellen G. White is the prophetess of Seventh -day
- 01:06:06
- Adventism. So I know that in one of the versions that he did of this, he did mention her name.
- 01:06:12
- OK. But didn't this time, apparently. So yeah, that makes sense that there's more than one version of this. Yeah. Very sad.
- 01:06:19
- I don't know if he repented before he got to the end of his life. I'm not sure how Paul Harvey went out, in fact.
- 01:06:26
- Yeah. But this was an absolute lie and led tons and tons of people astray.
- 01:06:32
- Now, it's interesting how much this sounds like the New Age -ism that you hear in our culture or just moral relativism.
- 01:06:40
- Oh, yeah. You could play it today and people would be like, yeah. Sounds exactly like people talk today.
- 01:06:47
- So we have this. Except for the references, of course. Yeah. We have this idea of our culture that going more and more downhill.
- 01:06:53
- And certainly it is. But this this kind of philosophy that you hear in the world today is not so foreign from, you know, decades ago.
- 01:07:02
- Yeah. Same sort of thing that was popular on the radio back then is the way people talk now.
- 01:07:08
- You're seeing our culture decline, going into more and more violence, more and more sexual depravity.
- 01:07:14
- But that's a result of this kind of teaching. Yes. That says, just follow your heart.
- 01:07:20
- Right. So you're seeing people, you're seeing society get worse and worse and worse because they're following with this kind of preaching.
- 01:07:26
- Yeah. Because doesn't the Bible say that your heart is wicked? Yeah. Well, in Jeremiah 17, the heart is deceitful above all things.
- 01:07:36
- And who can understand it? Yes. And that's what Harvey is telling you to follow. In Proverbs, the person who follows his own mind is a fool.
- 01:07:44
- Right. Yes. All right. Well, let's finish that up there. We're done. I can't believe
- 01:07:49
- I made it through that. Yeah. Boy, that got really bad, really fast. Yep. I mean, it started off rough.
- 01:07:57
- Yeah. Well, thank you, Jamie, for that walk down memory lane. From one radio brat to another,
- 01:08:03
- I'd love to hear your critique. Well, you got my critique. If you would like to send an email to us, the address is whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com
- 01:08:11
- or a voicemail by going to wwutt .com. Click on the voicemail link. Thank you for your prayers for us.
- 01:08:18
- Yes, thank you. As we continue to make it through this trying time, but the Lord is doing well with us and we rejoice every day.
- 01:08:25
- Amen. And you hear us laugh. All that laughter is genuine. Yes. We give to you on the podcast.
- 01:08:31
- So thank you for listening and for sharing this with somebody else. Let's finish with prayer. Yes, let's.
- 01:08:37
- Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read from your word, the things we have considered today.
- 01:08:42
- And I pray that we would not be led astray by the false teaching, the false prophecy of this world.
- 01:08:49
- Those who will try to tell you that you just need to follow your heart. Well, that is the path to hell.
- 01:08:55
- We need to follow the heart of Christ. We need to look toward your heart and know what delights you in your son, clinging to Jesus, looking to his cross for our forgiveness, looking to heaven, having a mind that is seated with Christ above is talked about in Ephesians one and in Colossians three, that we seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
- 01:09:23
- Let none of the things that are going on in this world discourage us or cause us to despair or fall into hopelessness.
- 01:09:30
- For we know that Christ has conquered as he said to his disciples, in this world, you will have trouble, but take heart for I have overcome the world.
- 01:09:40
- Lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. So ESV has a
- 01:09:57
- New Testament Psalms and Proverbs. So I was wondering if ESV had one that was like this. So I came out with it last year in 2023.
- 01:10:05
- So I was like, oh, finally ESV has one. That's the size of the LSB New Testament.
- 01:10:11
- No, it's the size of a normal Bible. Bigger print. It's just thin.
- 01:10:17
- Yeah, the print's larger. And thicker paper. But it's single column. So that will automatically make it thicker.
- 01:10:24
- If you have double column, you have fewer pages. Especially with Psalms. But I wanted ESV to have a
- 01:10:29
- Bible just like this. I like the LSB New Testament. It's the perfect size.
- 01:10:35
- It fits right here in front of me just fine. And the... It's an itty bitty Bible. The size of the print.
- 01:10:41
- So I thought maybe ESV came up with that and a great quality cover on it because they were trying to compete with the
- 01:10:48
- New Testaments from the LSB. No, I didn't want a full -size
- 01:10:53
- Bible but thinner. I wanted a smaller compact New Testament Psalms and Proverbs.
- 01:11:00
- Anyway, that's my gripe. Grumble, grumble. Crossway comes up with such great
- 01:11:06
- Bibles. Such an incredible variety. But they can't make a comparable New Testament Psalms and Proverbs.
- 01:11:14
- Maybe it is... Uh, what do you call it? Patent. Yeah, I don't know.
- 01:11:21
- I'm not sure. I mean, it wouldn't be patent but... Or maybe if they even did like, you know, this size full yap.
- 01:11:28
- I'd pay the extra money for that. Full yap? Yeah, where you have the cover that comes out over the edges.
- 01:11:35
- Oh, okay. So that if you drop it in your bag, the cover's made to kind of seal up. I didn't know that was called full yap.
- 01:11:40
- It's a full yap. Yeah, I'm, I yap, but this is a full yap.
- 01:11:47
- Yeah. Is it one word or two? Yap. Y -A -P.
- 01:11:52
- Yeah, no, full yap. Full yap. Okay, so two words. It's two words. I just asked a simple question.
- 01:11:59
- I'm upset. Obviously. Everybody needs to consult me.
- 01:12:05
- Yeah, consult me. You need to consult me. You need to consult me when it comes to your Bible size. Yes, both.
- 01:12:14
- I'll tell you what you need to do. Just grumble. Make it convenient for me.