WWUTT 1945 Q&A The Chosen Pride Flag, Events at Christ’s Return, Did Jesus Have Faith

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Responding to questions from listeners about the pride flag on the set of The Chosen, what will be the sequence of events at the return of Christ, and did Jesus have faith. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!

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Have you heard about all the drama surrounding the TV show The Chosen? What is the sequence of events that will take place surrounding the rapture and Christ's return?
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And did Jesus have faith? The answers when we understand the text. Many of the
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Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry dedicated to teaching the
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Word of God in context, promoting sound doctrine while exposing the faulty. Here's your teacher,
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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky, who is not with me this week. She's been very ill the last few days.
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So if you would say a prayer for her, we would both appreciate it. This is the
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Friday edition of the broadcast, when we take questions from the listeners. And you can submit those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
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On Friday, I've been reading through Psalm 68, kind of starting things off. Let me pick up where I left off last time.
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So this would be Psalm 68, beginning of verse 11, and I'm going to go through verse 19, reading from the
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Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. The Lord gives the word.
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The women who proclaim the good news are a great host. Kings of armies retreat.
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They retreat. And she who remains at home will divide the spoil. If you men lie down among the sheepfolds, you all would be like the wings of a dove covered with silver and its pinions with glistening gold.
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When the Almighty dispersed the kings there, it was snowing in Zalmon. A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan.
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A mountain of many peaks is the mountain of Bashan. Why do you look with envy,
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O mountains, with many peaks, at the mountain which God has prized for His habitation?
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Surely Yahweh will dwell there forever. The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands.
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The Lord is among them at Sinai, in holiness. You have ascended on high.
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You have led captive your captives. You have received gifts among men, even among the rebellious also, that Yah, God, may dwell there.
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Blessed be the Lord who daily bears our burden, the God who is our salvation.
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Selah. The name Jesus literally means Yahweh saves.
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God is our salvation. And wherever God dwells, that is
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His holy mountain. God's habitation is Zion. Where is God dwelling?
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That is Mount Zion. Perhaps you know the song, very popular hymn. One of my favorites growing up.
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We're marching to Zion, written by Isaac Watts. We're marching onward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.
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That's where we are going as Christians, as believers, following Jesus Christ. We're marching onward to Zion.
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That place where God dwells in His holy habitation is Mount Zion.
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Of course, God dwells with His people. Jesus, who is with us, His Holy Spirit poured into us.
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But that holy, perfect place where God's throne resides in heaven above in glory, that is the place where we are going, marching onward to Zion, that we may join
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Him there forever. And it is because Christ has saved us, Jesus being our access, our gateway to Mount Zion, that we can get there and dwell with God, the
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God who is our salvation. If you want to submit a question to the program, when we understand the text at gmail .com
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is the address, reminding you once again. We're talking about the Chosen today, and you had probably heard about the hubbub, all the stuff that had happened with the
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Chosen in just the past week. If you haven't heard about it, hang tight, because I got some questions and some comments
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I'm going to be responding to in just a moment. First, let me get to a couple of others not related to the
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Chosen. This is from Cheryl. She says, can you tell me about the rapture? I've always believed that the church would be raptured maybe before the seven years of tribulation, maybe later into it.
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Yeah, you're getting into a couple of different beliefs there. The pre -trib rapture, which is the idea that Jesus returns and raptures
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His church at the beginning of the seven -year period of tribulation, or the mid -trib rapture, that it happens somewhere in the middle, perhaps three and a half years in.
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So, yeah, you're kind of bouncing between two possible theories there concerning the rapture.
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So, Cheryl goes on to say, then there would be a great white throne of judgment, etc., of course, talked about in Matthew 25 and in the last three chapters of Revelation.
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She says, a friend who is a retired Lutheran pastor's wife says that we are—I'm pretty sure you mean that the pastor is a retired
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Lutheran pastor. Not the wife is a retired pastor's Lutheran's wife.
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She's not a retired wife. Anyway, I just thought that looked funny. I don't think you worded that in a funny way,
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Cheryl. It just looked funny to me. Anyway, so she goes on to say, this retired
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Lutheran pastor's wife says that we are in the tribulation now, and when
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Christ comes again, He will take up His remnant and then judge the rest along with Satan and his angels.
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Have I missed something? Have I been misleading people? Well, let's go to 1
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Thessalonians and read what the apostle Paul said there to the Thessalonians who were curious about the return of Christ.
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They were worried that their friends who had died would not get to join them on the day that Christ returns.
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Did they miss it because they've already died? And then when Paul wrote his next letter to them, 2
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Thessalonians, the Thessalonians were concerned that they had already missed the day of the Lord. So there's two different approaches that Paul is taking with these two letters.
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But with this one, they're concerned that their friends won't get to be there on the day of Christ because they've already died.
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They've passed away. And so to give them this encouragement, Paul says the following. I'm going to read from 1
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Thessalonians 4, 13 through chapter 5, verse 11.
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I'm just going to read straight through it, and you hear it. I'm not going to give any verse markers or even tell you where the chapter divides.
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Just listen and hear what Paul says in encouragement to the churches. This is the word of the Lord. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
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For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
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For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the
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Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
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Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
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Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
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Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need of anything to be written to you.
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For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.
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While they are saying peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman who is pregnant, and they will never escape.
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But you brothers are not in darkness that the day would overtake you like a thief.
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For you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness.
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So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be awake and sober.
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For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.
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But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation.
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For God has not appointed us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our
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Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with him.
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Therefore comfort one another and build up one another just as you are doing.
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So there you go, Cheryl. There's the passage from 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 to chapter 5, verse 11.
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Let me simply ask of you, did you hear in there anywhere it was said that there's going to be a seven -year period of tribulation?
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There's going to be a rapture at the beginning of that, and then seven years, and then Christ returns again.
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Is that in the sequence at all? Or does it sound like from that description of Christ's return that his return and the judgment are all the same event?
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When Christ returns, he takes up his saints and he brings judgment upon those who did not believe.
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Let me fast forward a little bit and go to the next letter. 2 Thessalonians 1, I'm going to begin reading here in verse 5.
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This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which indeed you are suffering.
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Since it is right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to give rest to you who are afflicted and to us as well at the revelation of the
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Lord Jesus from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, executing vengeance on those who do not know
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God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the
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Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day and to be marveled at among all who have believed for our witness to you was believed.
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And there we have once again a description of the day of the Lord where his taking up of his saints, the marveling of his saints at his return and the judgment that he brings are all the same event.
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That's what we're looking forward to. That's what's going to happen next. Christ returns the dead in Christ rise first.
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We are caught up together with them and then he brings judgment on those who did not believe all of that happening on the same day.
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It's all the same event. Now you ask this question, Cheryl, have I missed something?
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Have I been misleading people? Well, I want to encourage you to continue to come back to the word of the
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Lord in this test me even in what I say, according to the scriptures. Have you been misleading people though?
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You believe that Christ is going to return, right? You believe that he's going to take up his saints, that he's going to judge those who do not believe and that when
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Christ returns, we will be caught up together with the Lord. And so we will always be with the Lord. And the instruction that Paul gives with these words is to encourage one another.
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He says it twice in 418, therefore, comfort one another with these words. And in 511, therefore, comfort one another and build up one another just as you are doing.
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There are differing opinions concerning the end times. Somebody's wrong.
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Somebody's right. And somebody's wrong. We can't all be right. But would you say that a person who has a different opinion about the sequence of events that are going to happen at the very end, would you say that person is a false teacher?
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See, I wouldn't. And I better not because all four end times views are represented among the elders that I serve with at First Baptist Church Lindale.
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I've mentioned this before, and there was somebody that emailed. This was a while back. But there was someone that emailed that said, you have one view of the end times, and there are guys that you serve with who have a different opinion about the end times.
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But somebody's wrong. So would you call them a false teacher? And no, I would not call them a false teacher because these things are prophetic.
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They have to do with future things. These are things that have not transpired yet. And so we have different opinions about what the scriptures say concerning those future events.
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Somebody's definitely wrong, but I wouldn't call them a false teacher because we hold to the basics.
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Now, there are definitely some wrong end times views. I mean, views that we should not adopt at all, like to say
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Christ is already returned. I would say that's heresy. Paul put people out of the church for making that kind of a claim.
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You can't say that. You can't say that Christ is already returned. His return is going to be like lightning.
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He said in Matthew 24, it's going to be seen by the whole world. And even the events that we see here in First Thessalonians four and five, that day is going to be bright and loud.
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It's not going to be mysterious to anybody as to what's happening. It's going to happen in the whole world is going to see it.
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So there's no way Christ is already returned. And somebody for somebody to say such a thing would therefore be false teaching.
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But even though I don't share the view, if somebody said to me that Jesus returns at the beginning of a seven -year period of tribulation, and then he comes back again, and then we dwell forever with Christ in a thousand -year kingdom on earth,
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I don't necessarily agree. I don't see that that's the sequence of events according to scripture.
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But I'm not going to call that person a false teacher, as long as we're not going to be divisive over it, as long as we can encourage one another with these words, because that's the instruction, not divide from one another, but be an encouragement to each other.
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And together, we rejoice to look forward to that day when we will be caught up together with the
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Lord in the air. Hey, if I'm wrong about my view of the end times, and we're getting raptured together, the guy who had it right is more than welcome to look at me and say, see,
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I told you. And hey, if I'm right, I'm going to say the same thing as well.
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However, I don't think it's going to matter to us on that day. I think we will be so overwhelmed with being in the presence of Christ, we're going to forget about whatever view of eschatology that we had here on this earth.
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Let's continue to hold fast to our hope of the promise of Christ's return and encourage one another in that.
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It's good to study these things. We should. It's in the Bible. But let it not become a dividing issue.
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Make sense, Cheryl? And I hope that I've challenged you to go back to the scriptures and understand what's said about that day in particular.
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This next question comes from Aramena. I hope I'm pronouncing that right.
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That's a beautiful name. I don't think I've ever seen it before. Aramena said, I watched a, uh, the
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Bible project video where they said something like Jesus believed he had to die as if there were other options, but he did what he did because of some random belief, not as part of God's plan.
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That was probably the first, but not the last time I saw an issue of concern from the
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Bible project. I even mentioned it to a friend who was studying with me and she had the same thought.
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Have you covered that video? I probably did at some point. I think that there was a podcast episode where Becky and I played that video because I remember,
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I remember seeing it anyway. I remember, I remember there being a comment in one of the
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Bible project videos I watched in which they said Jesus believed he had to die. I seem to remember that and probably even covered it, but I would,
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I wouldn't be able to tell you which episode or which program it was. Jesus submitted to the will of the father and he knew exactly what the father's will was that he was submitting to.
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It wasn't that he had faith like we had faith. If, if someone said
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Jesus believed that he had to die, I'm not immediately going to dismiss that as, oh, you're messed up.
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I would probably want to know exactly what they mean by that. But Jesus did not have faith like we have faith.
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He knew the will of the father and he was absolutely doing the father's will.
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Now he said he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, Lord, if there is any other way father, if there is another way, let this cup pass from me, not as I will, but as you will.
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But Jesus was still fully submitted to the will that he knew the father was having him carry out in Philippians chapter two, beginning in verse five.
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This is where we have what's called the Carmen Christi, the hymn of Christ have this way of thinking in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although existing in the form of God did not regard equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a slave by being made in the likeness of men being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
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Therefore, God also highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name, which is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of God, the father. This was the will of the father that Jesus was submitted to, and he was carrying out.
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Now we know that in his humanness, Jesus being fully man and fully
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God, or vera homo vera Deus, very man and very God, as it is said in Latin.
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We know that in his humanness, there were things of knowledge of divine knowledge that Jesus had put aside.
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Like, for example, as he said to his disciples, nobody knows the day and the hour in which he is going to return.
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Only the father knows that. But there were still things about his return. He did know that he shared with his disciples, which we have in the
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Olivet discourse, as I mentioned earlier in Matthew 24 and 25. So there were things about the end.
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Jesus absolutely did know, but there were things in his humanness that he also set aside.
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Jesus was not Jesus, the man, okay, the God, man, God incarnate,
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God who put on human flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus was not in his earthly ministry, omnipotent, omniscient or omnipresent.
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He wasn't all powerful because we read that Jesus got tired and he got hungry.
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That's not something that someone who is all powerful experiences.
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He was not omniscient because per the example I gave you a moment ago, there were even things of divine knowledge that he had set aside.
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He was also not omnipresent. He was a human being in human form. He wasn't all over the world all the time, nor did he have to be because the father and the
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Holy Spirit would do that. But Jesus is that now as he has ascended back to heaven, where he is seated at the right hand of the father, he is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.
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I put them in a different order, but you got it right. These are divine qualities only
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God has only he is all knowing, all powerful, all present. Jesus had set those things aside when he took on human flesh and dwelt among us, but having ascended back to the father, he has resumed those godlike qualities.
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And all of this was in submission to the will of the father. Jesus did not merely believe he was doing the father's will.
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He knew the father's will and he did it. And has received the name that is above every name.
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This next question comes from Tim. He says, Dear Pastor gave this might be kind of an out of the blue comment as I've never emailed you before, but I wanted to say, thank you for opening back up the comment section on YouTube.
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I remember one time hearing you say that they would remain closed. What made you change your mind?
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Yeah, I think the comment that I said specifically was that they were closed indefinitely, which means I'm not going to open up the comment section on the
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YouTube channel until I feel like it now. Some things have changed since I first started the channel.
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It was only like the first 20 videos or something like that where the comment section was open.
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I finally closed it. And then for the next, you know, 200 plus videos, the comment section has been closed until recently.
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I opened it back up again. I think it was sometime toward the end of last year. YouTube is obviously changed certain standards regarding their comment section.
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I feel like their filters are a lot better. Most of the comments that I get are fairly positive.
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There are some dissenting comments that are in there as well, of course. I mean, that's a that's a comment section for you, but it's not nearly as filthy as it used to be.
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I used to get death threats in the comment section, people saying either I'm going to kill you or you need to go kill yourself.
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You know, something like that. The comment section was awful. It was terrible. And I think
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YouTube's cleaned that up. Plus, they've improved their algorithm so that comments in the comment section will help your videos come up more positively in searches for similar subjects and things like that.
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I think the algorithm is grabbing from wording that's even in the comments to the video and helping that video get boosted in search results.
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So because of that, I went ahead and opened the comment section back up. And not every video is open because I don't remember how many there are where the comment section is closed.
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You actually have to go back through and literally open every comment section individually. If I ever come across a video and I notice that the comment section is closed,
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I'll go in and open it back up. Any new videos have the comment section open. But but yeah, it's just because YouTube changed their policies.
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They they've improved the comment section. We'll put it that way. YouTube has improved the way that a person could leave comments in the comments that you read on the channel.
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I don't feel embarrassed about it anymore. And I've got certain filters in place, like even on my end,
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I can adjust the filters so that certain words will be screened out. And a comment that includes such language won't even be seen by anybody.
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All right, this next question, well, it's actually a series of comments. And this has to do with a whole drama that is unfolded with the popular
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TV show, The Chosen. All of this has transpired just in the past week. I don't think I've ever received so many emails about a single subject in one week as I've gotten this past week about The Chosen.
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In case you're unfamiliar with the drama. Well, first of all, the show
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The Chosen is a show about Jesus and his disciples during the time of his earthly ministry.
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The way the show was pitched to me before I had ever seen an episode, someone said it's about Jesus through the eyes of his disciples.
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And that's not it at all. I mean, there might be one or two episodes in there that are definitely more from the perspective of the disciples than Jesus himself.
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But this is not about the life of Jesus through the eyes of his disciples. It's like every character has their own story, and sometimes episodes will go into that story.
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But it's not Jesus through the eyes of his disciples. It's a drama that show creator and director
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Dallas Jenkins is coming up with on his own. So this is his telling of Jesus.
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It's not the Bible story of Jesus. OK, that's the gist of The Chosen. It's also the largest crowdfunded show ever made by crowdfunded.
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I mean, people have put forth the money like a pay it forward sort of a thing.
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They pay for the show to get made and then watch it. There's different projects out there, movies and stuff like that that have been funded through crowdsourcing in this way.
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But nothing has ever raised more money than The Chosen. It has blown every other record out of the water.
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Now, the thing about this, though, The Chosen actually took a grant or something like that.
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I can't remember who funded the grant. I'd have to go back to the story to read it and find out. They took a grant that was like tens of millions of dollars to have the show made, and they're still taking crowd support.
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And I don't think the people that are giving to the show are aware of that. The show doesn't need the money.
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They don't need anybody's money. They have taken money from other investors, and yet they're still receiving money from their audience as well.
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It seems a little dishonest to me because this is a money making show. And even Dallas Jenkins has said so.
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It is a it is a for profit program, and they're making a lot of profit to make this program.
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So anyway, everything that happened this past week, there was a video, a behind the scenes video of the filming of season four.
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And in that video, there was a gay pride flag that was perched on some of the filming equipment.
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So somebody asked a question about that. Why is there a gay pride flag on set? And then a whole drama has blown up as a result of that.
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The ins and outs of the whole thing, I'm not going to bother to cover here. I've been thinking about doing an article on it. I mean, writing articles takes time, too.
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And when do I have time to do that? So anyway, I did a quick what video kind of summarizing the drama and the things surrounding it.
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I just dropped that video this weekend. So let me go ahead and play that minute and a half video, and then I'll get to some comments here.
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The popular TV show The Chosen shared a behind the scenes look of the filming of season four.
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And right there in the shot, someone propped up a gay pride flag. When asked about it, The Chosen responded.
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Just like with our hundreds of cast and crew who have different beliefs or no belief at all, we will work with anyone who helps us portray or honor the authentic Jesus.
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Portray or honor the authentic Jesus, huh? Actor Giovanni Cairo, who plays the disciple Thaddeus, posted a pride flag and said we stand with our brother.
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Jordan Ross, who plays the disciple James, said that he stands by the LGBTQ members of our chosen family and called criticism of the pride flag hateful and unlike Jesus.
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One of the show's cameramen is Daniel Fritz, who claims to be married to a man. He is often wearing a pride flag and putting them on set on his
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Instagram and TikTok. He shared nude photos of himself. This is who Dallas Jenkins hired to film his crowdfunded
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Jesus show. These men do not portray or honor the authentic Jesus. In Matthew 19,
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Jesus said, Apparently, the cast and crew of The Chosen haven't read.
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The real Jesus said sexual immorality and pride are evil and unless you repent, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.
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When we understand the text. Now, as you heard there, show creator
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Dallas Jenkins has prided himself on just picking the best people for the job, and it doesn't matter what they believe.
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They can be Christians. They might be Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, unbelievers. As long as they work hard and do a good job, he's just trying to get the best people to make this story come alive.
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Well, I made this comment months ago. He's got unbelievers that are part of the cast and crew.
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It's only a matter of time before one of them comes out expressing their support of the
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LGBTQ agenda. And what's Dallas going to do on that day? I mean, it was inevitable that it was going to happen.
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Now, the funny thing about this whole drama, not talking about the show, but the stuff that's happening behind the show.
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The amusing thing about this drama is that it wasn't a cast or crew member that did this on their own.
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Like, you know, with June coming up, it wasn't a cast member of The Chosen coming out and saying, you know,
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I stand with my gay brothers and sisters or whatever. It was the show. The show did themselves in.
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How did they not catch that? Or maybe they did it on purpose. Maybe it was intentional that that pride flag was in that behind -the -scenes look of season four to see what kind of press we can generate from this.
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I don't know. I wouldn't be able to make that judgment. I don't know anybody's heart. I don't know if it was done on purpose or not.
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The irony being that the show has done themselves in. It wasn't cast members that came out first.
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The show released the pride flag, and now cast members have come out in support of it.
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So anyway, here were some of the comments that I've had as after posting this video. This one's from Matthew, who
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I've read on the program before. He has a YouTube channel called Truth For You. He said, thank you for your work.
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I know Dallas and have interacted with him for years before he blew up in fame.
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I can assure you he promotes Richard Rohr, a universalist who promotes the
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Enneagram, wrote the Universal Christ and said in the intro of the book, my dog
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Venus is Christ to me. Dallas also pushes a poor grasp on repentance and argues the writings of Christ and Paul are different.
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There's plenty of problems here. And we are just now starting to see the fruit become obvious.
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Thank you for that insight, Matthew. I've had some interaction with Dallas Jenkins in the past. I wrote a review of his movie,
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The Resurrection of Gavin Stone, which was a terrible film. When Dallas read my review, he contacted me and I simply asked him, can you tell me what the gospel is?
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And he couldn't tell me what it is and was absolutely defensive that the gospel message was in his movie.
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It was not in that film. There was no gospel in the movie, The Resurrection of Gavin Stone. So I got a pretty decent insight in the very beginning into Dallas's very loose understanding of what
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Christianity even is. So he thinks that everything that he's doing is biblically based.
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He thinks the whole show is is based on the Bible, but it's not. They portray a different Christ.
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This is a different Jesus than the Christ of the Bible. Even those stories that you're familiar with in the
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Bible, like Jesus talking to Nicodemus or Jesus talking to the woman at the well, that's John three and four successively.
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Even those stories, like when you go to the actual dialogue and you compare it with the dialogue in the show, it's different.
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They've even moved lines around. They change the meaning and the intention of the text, and they do it for the sake of the story that Dallas wants to tell, which is not the
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Bible narrative. It's Dallas's own narrative. So, yeah, I appreciate your insight there,
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Matthew. I've had some run ins with Dallas myself, and I'm I know he doesn't understand the biblical
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Jesus, the true Jesus of the Bible. This person whose name is Newby.
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He says this is probably why Yoshi, the actor who played the disciple Philip, left the chosen
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Yoshi. Birgus left the chosen before season four, so he's not in any of the scenes in season four, though he was in seasons two and three.
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I don't know the reason why Yoshi left the show. He did post something on his Instagram saying that it was personal and professional reasons.
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I highly doubt that Yoshi has sound doctrine, though, because he just recently filmed a show with TBN, which is a very heretical network playing
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Jesus in a show called the Passover or something to that degree. It was it aired just this past Easter on TBN.
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So the guy who played Philip in the chosen played Jesus in the
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Passover. And of course, a show made by TBN is not going to get everything accurate either.
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So hence why I say I doubt Yoshi actually left over arguments regarding doctrine, or at least because he was sound and Dallas wasn't.
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I don't think that was really the reason. Time will tell if Yoshi wants to embellish on his reason for leaving the show anymore.
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This next comment comes from Zachary. He says, I'm a Christian, and this made me cringe. Now, before continuing,
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I don't know if Zachary means my video or the fact that the chosen had shared a gay pride flag on set.
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I'm not sure. So anyway, he says, I'm a Christian, and this made me cringe. I'm the only person in my church who doesn't care for the chosen, but I just didn't like that.
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It wasn't biblical or entertaining there. I said it. That said, I have to confess something.
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I have two gay cousins. One has been married to a guy, but they are now divorced and put those things in quotations, right?
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Not really married, not really divorced. They're my family, he says, but I still love them. Do I agree with their sexuality?
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No, but that doesn't change my love for them. Also, my cousin's ex was an agnostic, and I got to tell him a little bit about the
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Bible here and there. While I'm not conflicted on whether the Bible is for or against gay marriage, it's clearly not for gay marriage.
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I am conflicted when it comes to reacting to it. I try to have a hate the sin, not the center view, but I'm sure that's not exactly biblical.
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Anyone else in this boat? What are your thoughts? Well, like I said, I don't know if Zachary was calling my video cringe or if he was calling the whole drama with the pride flag and everything cringe.
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My video was kind. It is a kind and loving thing to warn people about the judgment that is to come and to repent and turn to the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Lest you perish. Very few presentations of the gospel these days include a warning of judgment or even include the law.
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Like you use the law to convict a person of their sin so that they will recognize that in the eyes of God, they have done unrighteously and they need a savior.
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And then you can share with them the gospel that Christ is that savior. But as it says in Romans 3 19, it's through knowledge of the law that everybody comes to an understanding of their sin.
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So you have to give that's that's verses 19 and 20. So you have to give them the law so that they will recognize their sin.
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And then you give them the gospel. Here's the solution to our sin problem. The sin that we've committed against God means that we're deserving of judgment.
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And that judgment is the fires of hell for all eternity. But Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins rose again from the dead so that all who believe in him will not perish under the judgment of God.
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But we'll have everlasting life. When we call Jesus savior, what is it that he has saved us from?
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He has saved us from the wrath of God. I believe these are important elements to sharing the gospel of Christ.
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And so it is a loving thing to warn a person about the judgment of God that is coming and to and to tell them to repent before it's too late.
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And see, that would be my question concerning this whole debacle behind the scenes at the chosen.
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How often is the gospel shared with these individuals who are said to be
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LGBTQ? Are you just kind of hoping that because they work on a Jesus show that they're going to come to a knowledge of, oh, hey, this
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Jesus who, by the way, is not the Jesus of the Bible, right? And even Dallas Jenkins, by his own admission, 90 to 95 % of the show is not in the
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Bible. So how much of what the word of God actually says is getting to these individuals who work on set who are not even believers?
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Would any of them ever actually be convicted of their sin? And people who are sodomites are not going to be working around a
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Jesus show perfectly comfortable with that unless the true Christ is being spoken and represented.
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And I'm not saying that that we should be creating shows with Jesus in them.
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I'm really not a fan of the whole concept. And I've shared my reasons why in the past. There's no way that we sinful human beings could accurately represent the sinless
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Christ anyway. And then there's also the matter of a second commandment violation. I don't necessarily hold this particular view of the second commandment, but there are some that believe that any kind of portrayal, visual portrayal of Christ at all, is a violation of the second commandment, which says you will not raise up a graven image.
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That aside, if the true Christ were being represented and his words were being spoken and the way that he said them on top of that, if he was accurately being presented in this show, sodomites would not be working on this show.
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I mean, how does a man claiming to be married to a man stand there with a camera as Jesus is reciting the words that I quoted there from Matthew 19, a man shall leave his father and his mother hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.
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So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What God therefore has joined together. Let man not separate.
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This is Jesus giving the definition of marriage as he created it in the very beginning.
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According to Genesis one and two, he is the author of all of this.
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He's explaining to the Pharisees, here's what it is that I made marriage to be. So a man and a man getting married to one another is wicked.
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And Jesus absolutely would have called that wicked. He did call it wicked. And Mark seven, where he talks about out of the heart come evil thoughts, sexual immorality and pride being among the wicked thoughts that Jesus says comes out of the evil heart of man.
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How does a person waving a pride flag stand there and hear that and not be offended by that?
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So how much has the commandment of Christ and his gospel actually been shared with those who are unbelievers on this set?
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And especially when you consider what Matthew said earlier, I'm talking about Matthew left a comment, not the gospel of Matthew.
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But he said, knowing Dallas Jenkins, uh, how disconnected he is from a true biblical understanding of Christ and his gospel.
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This is surely not being shared behind the scenes. Vero left this particular comment.
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He said, I wonder if the cameraman was positioned there in order to hear God's truth on a daily basis.
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Wouldn't it be something if he received salvation instead of the reaction of how the
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Pharisees used to judge. Now, I'm sure Vero means to call me a
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Pharisee in that. I am. That's what I'm sensing from his comment there that I am acting like a
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Pharisee. How much is anyone on that set confronted their homosexual co -workers and told them that unless they repent, they're going to hell.
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Has anybody been told that is that message being shared at all? And in fact, let me ask you this.
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With all the gay pride flag drama that unfolded this past week behind the scenes of the chosen and now is out there on social media and everything.
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We heard from several cast and crew members who came out expressing support for the
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LGBTQ pride movement. How many cast members came out and said,
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Hey, I'm with you guys. If these pride persons don't repent, they're going to hell.
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So I hope they turn from their sin to the true Christ of the Bible and live because I don't want to see my friends go to hell.
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Was there any cast or crew member of the chosen that came out and said anything like that?
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I mean, if there was, I didn't see it. And if no one made any kind of expression like that, my friends, is there one brave Christian soul on the set of that show?
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Is there one person that knows the scriptures and actually shares it with those who don't now?
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Dallas Jenkins said something similar to Vero in an interview that he did with the
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Christian post in response to this whole hubbub. So let me quote to you. I'm about halfway down in the article from the
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Christian post. Dallas said the people hired to work on the chosen often come from a broad spectrum of beliefs and an individual's qualifications and willingness to work are considered when hiring someone for the project.
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When we hire someone to work for us, our number one objective is who is the best person for this job?
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He said, we made a decision from the beginning that our standard is going to be.
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Will you work hard? Unquote. You know, I worked behind the scenes in the
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Christian music industry for a long time, and I can tell you that that was largely the standard in the
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Christian music industry as well. The first consideration is, is this person a talented musician?
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Do their songs fit a certain catchy formula? Are they going to work hard?
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Do they have longevity? Those are some of the questions that got asked. I very rarely heard anything about anyone's faith.
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And when you came to meet some of those artists, you found out their faith was really quite fragile and really, really shallow.
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Hence why you hear so many stories of a lot of Christian artists going LGBTQ or even leaving the faith altogether.
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Some of those artists that have expressed being allied with the LGBTQ movement include
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Amy Grant, members of Jars of Clay, members of Switchfoot, former members of DC Talk, some of the biggest names out
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Reliant K, some of the biggest names from Christian music in the 90s and 2000s have since gone the way of the world.
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And I'm telling you, I work behind the scenes back in those days, and I saw it and I knew I knew these guys.
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Theology, their faith was like a mile wide and a half inch deep. There was hardly anything to it.
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They could do all the Christian ease they could do the song and dance, but they really did not truly know the gospel could not even give you a true articulation of the gospel.
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And so this stuff behind the scenes with the Chosen is really all the same thing. Dallas is more interested in will you work hard and do the job?
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Well, rather than he rather than are you going to represent this show? Well, do you represent
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Christ? Because that's what we're trying to do. The show that that's what we're doing with the show. And I don't think that is their main objective.
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I think they get just enough of it right to earn a whole bunch of Jesus followers. And the reason why the show is so popular is because the people who watch the show likewise have a very immature understanding of the scriptures.
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If people were more knowledgeable of scripture and scripture for them would be sufficient, they wouldn't be watching the
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Chosen. So anyway, Dallas goes on to say the director and co -writer clarified. Sorry, the article goes on to say the director clarified that if someone is vulgar or harming someone else, that's not appropriate in a professional environment.
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However, Jenkins says he does not discriminate against people regarding their personal belief systems. Okay, now let's let's rewind 15 years.
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Would you call sodomy vulgar? Yes, you absolutely would.
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The whole LGBTQ movement is extremely vulgar. And anyone in it, anyone waving that pride flag is is waving glee at sodomy, lesbianism, transgenderism, and all of the horrors that come along with that.
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The preying on children that's being done right now, the propaganda that's being pushed on kids, the massive number of sexual partners that gay men will have the high, high rate of sexually transmitted diseases, the increased rates of depression, substance abuse, drug abuse, suicide, all of that that comes with the
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LGBTQ movement. It is when you look inside the movement, and I don't advise you to because it's very, very disgusting.
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And it's really hard to filter out the images that come along with it as well. When you're doing those internet searches, if you look into the movement, and it is a dirty, dirty, filthy movement, you want to talk about something vulgar, you're talking about the
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LGBTQ movement. And so, like I said, you rewind 15 years ago, and we all understand that.
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And if a person called themselves gay, if this show was being made 15 years ago, a
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Jesus show and somebody is as openly homosexual working on that set as Daniel Fritz is in just the few images that I saw.
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And I saw those images on his own Instagram. It wasn't like I'm just seeing stuff that's been floating out there as a result of this whole controversy.
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I went to his own Instagram, stuff that he posted that he was doing on the set of The Chosen. If Dallas 15 years ago was making this show and had somebody behaving in that way, the way this guy is behaving on Instagram, he would remove them for being vulgar.
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But Dallas, remember the thing that I said earlier with regards to how the show is funded, he's now got investors that are giving tens of millions of dollars to the creation of this show.
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Unbeknownst, I'm sure, to the crowd that's continuing to fund the show. So he's receiving crowdfunding dollars and these investment dollars.
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The whole audience behind The Chosen that has been supporting The Chosen, they could be totally turned off by this story and stop funneling money into the show.
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Dallas still has enough money to be able to finish the show the way that he wants to do it. But because he's got these outside investors now that are funneling tens of millions of dollars into the show, the grants that he's been receiving that he applied for and got for the show, well, he can't turn away somebody who's gay.
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He'll get sued out the wazoo and then he'll lose his show. He's more afraid of this other money that he's getting for the show than he is of from the crowdsourcing, because none of the audience is going to sue
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Dallas. But the people behind the money that he's received from these investors, they will sue if he discriminates, especially against the
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LGBTQ movement. I mean, he's got to do it at this point. He's got to hire them. And he's got to support when his own cast comes out and expresses solidarity with the
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LGBTQ movement. There's nothing he can do about it now. And Dallas doesn't care about these people. He cares about not getting sued.
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And he cares about his show. But he doesn't care about the people that are walking in sin that will incur the wrath of God if they don't repent and turn to Christ.
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Because if what Matthew said earlier is true, Dallas believes in universalism. Anyway, if he's following the universalism of Richard Roar, he doesn't believe anybody's going to hell.
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The article continues with this quote from Dallas when it comes to their personal belief systems or what they wear.
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We're not going to do what we've seen other people do, where sometimes you'll see a Christian not allowed to wear a hat or express themselves or put a sticker on their desk that expresses their beliefs.
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He said, commenting that it's unfortunate when employers engage in that type of behavior.
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Well, see, this is coming from the approach that we're all just kind of on this neutral ground, like free, free, free speech neutrality.
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That's what we should all be for. So secular employers should not be discriminating against Christians and Christian employers should not be discriminating against LGBTQ employees.
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You know, discrimination has become such a dirty word, but there is discrimination that is good. We have lost a healthy sense of good discrimination.
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If you need to get a babysitter for your kids, you will discriminate and you have every right to.
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If a person lives that kind of a lifestyle and you don't want them employed at your place of business, you have any and all right to say,
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I don't want that lifestyle represented in my place of business. You're fired. You should absolutely have a right to be able to do that.
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But the times, they are a changing going on with this quote from Dallas. And as long as you're contributing to that and helping make sure the show is great, as great as possible, we think our viewers should be saying thank you, he said, especially to those who might have different beliefs than we do and yet are still willing to work their tails off for this show and for the message of the show.
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The message of the show is not the message of the Bible. The article concludes with this paragraph as some on the cast have come to faith in Christ while working on the show.
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I highly doubt that. Jenkins said he thinks it's a great thing for non -Christians to be able to work on the set and get this kind of exposure to a story like this and to someone who is leading the team who has the beliefs that I do and the passion that I do for Christ.
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And now Jenkins is just praising himself. It's great for these people to be around me because they get to see the real
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Jesus, the authentic Jesus, as I mentioned there from the video. But no, the
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Christ that's being represented in the chosen is not the Christ of the
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Bible. Let me get to one last comment here. This is from a person whose username is time to roll.
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There are three other considerations I can add. He says, I'm assuming this is a heat. Does this person do the best job?
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If the person is gay but does their job really, really well and is committed to do their job without their beliefs influencing the final product, the show, then
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I would hire that person. In this case, does the cameraman Daniel do a good job as well as not influence his camera work?
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I would say he's doing a pretty terrible job, to be honest with you. I mean, yeah, if you're looking at it as like, is he pointing the camera in the right way?
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And is he getting the best shot? But my friends, a job is more than that.
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A cameraman's job is more than that. He is influencing the people on set with his openly flamboyant gay agenda.
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He's not just there to point a camera at stuff and shoot. He is there to express his homosexuality.
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That, in my view, absolutely affects the job and it affects people around you.
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And it's absurd to say that it doesn't just because he can point the camera in the right place. Time to roll, says number two.
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Does this person's affiliations affect the work or final product? As Christians, we are the salt and light of the earth, meaning that we want to be a good representative of Christ and our work should be excellent that the secular world can see that and may respond in kind.
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That's not what it means to be salt and light. But anyway, going on, if the group that creates this film hires people that are gay or proponents of pride, does that taint the picture that is presented to the work as representatives of God?
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Well, just think about the news that we've heard in the past week. What have you been hearing about the great Jesus story that comes out of the chosen?
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Or are you hearing all about how the chosen is embracing gay pride? That's what you're hearing.
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And the show or the creators of the show have not put anything out to try to persuade people away from from that opinion.
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No one from the show. Again, as far as I can tell, no one from the show has come out and said, yes, this whole gay pride movement is the movement of Sodom and God will destroy it with fire, just as he did
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Sodom and Gomorrah. If they don't repent and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, no one from the show is coming out and saying that they're all speaking in solidarity with the
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LGBTQ movement, not in opposition to it. Number three, time to roll says, what about the audience?
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If the audience are Christians, how would the hiring of pro pride persons impact their opinion of the show?
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Well, I sure hope this impacts their opinion of the show. If they were not persuaded that the show is unbiblical, perhaps they will be now.
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How would that impact the validity of the show's content and impact the confidence that the show is aligned with the
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Bible as its source? I would say it's pretty evident that the creators of the show are not aligned with the
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Bible as its source. But you know, this whole thing is kind of like a slow fade, right? As I said earlier, we knew it was going to get to this point.
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Those who were discerning who could read the signs, we knew it was going to get to this point eventually, that all of this was going to come out.
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But it didn't happen until the filming of season four. And so the people who are on who are on board with the chosen have been on board with it because they liked the soft
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Jesus that's being represented there. Not a true representation of the Christ of the Bible, but Dallas's own invention of Jesus.
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This is who their Jesus is. So are they really are the vast majority of viewers really going to be put off by hearing all this stuff going on behind the scenes of the chosen?
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I'm sure they won't be. And eventually, even even the stuff that goes on behind the scenes, like the behind the scenes videos that get released on the chosen channel and whatever, they'll be more open about receiving and accepting of LGBTQ persons than they already have been.
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This is a section of Mark seven that I had read with my kids not that long ago.
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Jesus said, this is Mark seven versus 20 to 23, that which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.
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For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.
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All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.
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I mean, it's right there. It's right at the beginning and end of that list, sexual immorality and pride.
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Jesus calls evil, and we know that the wrath of God is coming against such things.
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Colossians three, five, put to death what is earthly in you. Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry on account of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.
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So turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and live even something as repulsive and as disgusting and deeply disturbing as the
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LGBTQ movement is and all of the sins that are tied up in that acrostic lesbianism, gayness, homosexuality, bisexuality, transgenderism, queer, plus whatever else we can add to that.
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Even pedophilia is all part of that LGBTQ acrostic. All of these different sins that are represented by that movement,
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Christ can even redeem someone from that, can rescue somebody from that and wash them clean and give them a new heart and a new mind that no longer goes after the passions of their flesh, but desires the righteousness and holiness of God that we are given through Christ our
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Savior. Share the gospel with them. It is necessary to tell them that what they are doing is sin that the judgment of God is coming against so that they will recognize if I don't repent of this, if I don't have a
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Savior to redeem me from this, I'm going to perish. So they will turn to the
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Lord Jesus Christ and live. There needs to be that warning of judgment even in our proclamations of the gospel.
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The apostles did it. Go to Acts and read it. Read Paul's sermon at the
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Areopagus to the Greeks in Acts chapter 17. He even mentions the judgment of God there.
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I've seen so many apologetic organizations or ministries out there that say that they do things the way that Paul did.
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They'll call themselves Acts 17 something or Mars Hill or the Areopagus sermon or something to that effect.
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But I'm astonished at how many apologetic ministries there are out there who will align themselves with Acts 17 in some way and not have any message of judgment in the proclamation of the gospel that they give.
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Jesus talked about hell more than anyone else in the Bible so that we would not go there, so that we would turn to the
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Lord Jesus Christ and live. I thank you for listening to the program today.
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If you have any questions you want to submit, send them to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
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Let me finish with prayer, and that'll be it for this week. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the goodness that you show to us in Christ.
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As it says in Romans 5 -8, you show your love for us in that while we were yet sinners,
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Christ died for us. So teach us to turn from our sin to the Lord Christ and live.
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Give us courage in this present day to hold fast to the word of Christ and hold it out to those who are perishing so that they would know of the judgment that is to come and the
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Savior who can save them from it, Jesus Christ. May we honor him in all that we say and do, living lives of holiness before you and also declaring the gospel to those who need it, and even those who have it, that we may be encouraged in this message until the day of the appearing of our
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Lord Christ in glory. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. This is
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When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours.
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But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family. Find a good, gospel -teaching,
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Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend, and join us again Monday for more Bible study when we understand the text.