James 3, China, the UK, and the Pope!

Well, greetings welcome to the dividing line it is a Friday that's unusual but hey Most of you don't even know what day of the week it is right now.

Anyways It's that after Christmas before New Year's what am

I supposed to be doing? I'm not sure who knows What day of the week is it? I don't know

Rich just got up and walked into his office and walked back and said I forgot why I went in there it's just Yeah, it's just just how things are this time of year and Well, we have 2020 coming at us and we don't have time to be muddle -minded with with 2020 coming

It is going to be an amazing amazing year. Just a couple things off the top here.

I Just took the time just a half an hour ago or so To see if dr.

Allen had finished his Response on Romans 8 he had actually over a week ago

And so I've downloaded those. So one of the things we'll be trying to get to Hopefully Next week of the week after before g3.

Anyways We'll be revisiting Romans 8 and if you're not familiar with what that is, we

Dr. Allen had posted a blog article on Romans chapter 8.

I had responded to it He had basically said hey, I've written all this stuff. No one can respond to what I write.

I Respond to that everything in his published materials. And so now he's done a three blog response and will respond to that because well the text says the text says and It's always a teachable moment when someone tries to get the text to say something and Tries to limit the text.

This is the primary thing here tries to limit the text ability to address an issue and the more synergists seek to Restrict, thank you very much seek to restrict

The Depth to which the scriptures can address a subject

Because it starts. Well, let's just put this way. Remember what happened when we debated

Romans 9 With certain people associated with dr. Allen. Yeah, that that's what happens.

So Gonna be I hope useful but we need to dive into that then

And I haven't been able to find the article that he was quoting But David would put up a video

Again for for Muslims with a quotation from Bart Ehrman. I haven't been able to find the article yet I haven't

I was on my phone and I just I'm not I don't know why I'm not just not as good with phones as I am with with a computer

I think it's just a small print but he put up an article with a

Video that quoted from Bart Ehrman about Christmas and about the God of Christmas and so on and so forth.

I Want to respond to that? Haven't been able to find it yet. But one as I was looking for it

I realized that I had let my subscription lapse had to get that going again but basically,

I Encountered Ehrman addressing the subject of homosexuality Starting the beginning of December as I was searching for this other other thing.

It happens a lot You're looking for one thing run to something else. It ends up being more interesting than what you were looking for and I was really surprised by Ehrman's comments.

Well, I shouldn't have been surprised. I was surprised because it showed so little knowledge of Like Bob Gagnon stuff and and real scholarly stuff on the subject and was just Unusually surface level for for Ehrman, so we're gonna be looking at what he has to say because again if Bart Ehrman says

To a wide audience. The New Testament says X Y & Z Then there's just gonna be not only a bunch of just lay people that I go.

Well, that must be what the New Testament says Because Bart Ehrman said it But the worst part is you've got

You've got the professors like the professor that my daughter ran into what was his name again?

Yeah, that's right. Dr. Carter You got the Dr. Carter's of the world that just simply repeat what

Bart Ehrman says and they're teaching young people and so It's not that CNN's gonna pick up our response

But we've got to get it out there as best we can so we'll be responding to Bart Ehrman as as well

Once they're off real quick with some biblical thoughts for the coming new year it is almost upon us it is

I Remember very clearly It was before we we moved to Arizona so I was less than 10 or 11 years old probably probably even before that.

I think it was around 8 or 9 years old when the I Realized at the end of one summer

That as you get older time passes by faster. I I Came to a lot of conclusions at a younger age.

I was married at 19 engaged at 18 And a lot of a lot of Z Jen go what?

how Been married for almost 38 years and they also go huh Wow at that too

But I remember very very clearly I remember where I was standing which is strange in fact, it's interesting

I was standing within 20 feet of Where I was standing the day I realized that when someone insults you you don't have to run in and tell your mother anymore

It's like that's gonna take time from playing who cares and you just go back to it So I was staying within 20 feet of that position 301 st.

Mark's Road Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania if you really want to know It's behind a bowling alley, it's still there at least it was there last time

I was in Mechanicsburg Probably still there. They don't really it's not exactly a center of lots of building going on But I was staying in the driveway and I Realized that as school was starting that this summer had gone by much faster than the one before and the one before that And that's when

I extrapolated that out and said, huh? I get the feeling that the older you get the faster time seems to pass you by.

Yeah, it's that's true and it's really easy for me to remember when 2019 was

It used to be Young people don't understand this it used to be that us older folks would have a reminder of Of the passage of time that young people don't have anymore and that is for the first two weeks of each year

You'd mess up writing the date on your check when you're writing checks

Because it used to be you wrote checks very frequently Nobody writes checks anymore.

And in fact young people don't even know how to write out a check write a number. What? Yeah, all that stuff anyway one good

EMP and we're all gonna be Kings Because we're gonna have to all the young people have to come to us and go how do you what's this what

How do you dial a phone? Huh? We will rule the world once again, that's exactly anyway

But the the years they do pass by quickly and I remember that last year

About a year ago. I had made a comment. It's not that this popped up in Facebook though. That feature in Facebook is nice Especially when pick before your pictures from four years ago of your grandchildren pop up and you go, oh my goodness growing up so fast,

I Have one that just turned 10. It's like But I remember very clearly talking about a particular verse that I wanted to seek to make application of in my life during 2019 whether I was successful or not will be left up to the

Lord but it comes from the third chapter of James and so as we

I It is a good and proper divine thing

God ordained it Part of part of the wisdom found in God's law for the people of Israel was the

Observation of times and seasons in the sense of the ordained feasts and things like that were connected with the life of the people of Israel and certainly it was an agricultural time and so Harvesting of crops and giving thanks and all these other things that have been a part of human history

Most human beings don't even think about anymore If you live in a city

Your food comes on a truck and it always has as far as you can remember and that has disconnected people greatly from their own history and from the

Celebrations and the feasts and of harvest and planting and and the very idea of being dependent upon God Who would bless the growing of the crops and things like that?

Now you just thank the government for whatever, you know Assistance the government provides and that the government has become

God for There is a reason why when you look at a state and it breaks down by color that the cities are one color and Everything else is a different color.

There. There is a reason for this Which we won't get into right now the point being that When we have celebrations such as Christmas New Year's these mark the passage of time and They force you to think back upon where you were a year ago

Because you think about what you did last Christmas you think about what you did last New Year's and you think about the resolutions that you make when the new year comes and Christians anyways should

Take the good from that and ask the question, you know, where am I now in comparison to last year at this point in time?

What have I experienced what and how have I grown where do I need to address areas of decay?

In my spiritual life so on and so forth And there was a particular verse in James chapter 3

That I had made comment on and had spent a fair time in January thinking about and at other times during the year

But especially a year ago and it comes from James chapter 3 so beginning verse 13

Who is wise and Understanding amongst you now when when

James asks these rhetorical questions sometimes there's there's a bit of a

So you claim to be wise do you claim to be understanding? It's interesting the term for understanding

Epistemology So we have epistemology the study of knowledge how we know we know and so who is

Safas? You're familiar with the term wise who is wise and and knowing

Understanding smart Amongst you any of you claimed me to be wise any of you claim to have

Understanding as normal flowing through from James chapter 2 Let him show that's what you had in in James to let him show you want you make a claim

Live and lie the claim that's that's the point of James's assertions

Let him show by his good behavior and that's that's

How you live your life daily in and out? It's not by A single deed once in a while.

It is a a manner of walking Let him show by his good behavior

His deeds his works again flowing out of James chapter 2 In the gentleness of Safias so if you want to claim to be

Safas wise Then the gentleness of wisdom

There is a Biblical undertone especially when you read

Proverbs There is a strength to wisdom if you are wise it gives you strength because the wise rules over the fool the the fool who lacks understanding

The wisdom and understanding that that fool Will be ruled over by the one who has wisdom and But wisdom and knowledge can be used to puff up and and to damage others and so it is the gentleness of wisdom and If the knowledge that you gain

Causes you to become more hardened in your treatment of others.

You're going the wrong direction It should because Any person who gains great knowledge?

should recognize how much knowledge they have yet to gain and Hence should recognize that God who is all wise

Has so much more knowledge than any of us could ever ever possess that That our level of knowledge is so small.

Our wisdom is so small We are so dependent upon somebody else for it. We stand upon the knowledge shoulders of Giants who come before us

But we are dependent upon God's revelation to know anything about himself at all. Therefore. There should be a gentleness of wisdom

So the more you learn the more you know The more gentle that should make you not and we're gonna have the opposites of this given in a moment

Not harsh Because it should cause humility for you to wisdom should create humility wisdom fear the

Lord wisdom you see all the connections here and James is clearly drawing very much from the the flow of Proverbs But on the other hand

So here's here's the danger but if you have

Zalon Picron bitter jealousy and The you almost don't have to add the the second term because jealousy always creates bitterness and Jealousy I've seen

I See this in the Academy all the time You see people Who want to have the positions other people have and they want to have the knowledge other people have and so they are jealous when one scholar gets published and They don't or gets published in a better journal and they don't and it creates bitterness

There is a bitterness that is a necessary result of jealousy because Jealousy fundamentally is a questioning of God's goodness.

It is a demanding that God give to you What he has given to others in his grace you can't demand grace and so If you have bitter jealousy and then what selfish ambition

Selfish ambition So if you you claim to be wise you claim to have understanding

But if you join those claims with bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart

So this is that it has a place within you it it defines who you are

It is it is poisoning all of your relationships and your words and your speech and your actions

So if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart Do not become arrogant anyone who claims wisdom and understanding arrogance is the

Greatest danger it is something that every single one of us. I don't care who we are must recognize the the danger and the devastation that brings do not be arrogant and Lie against the truth now

What would be the necessary connection there If you're a person of wisdom then you should have great love for the truth

But if you have jealousy, how many times? Have we heard about people who twisted the truth for their own advancement?

Who lied against the truth for their own advancement? Or only gave a part of the truth for their own advancement

Jealousy and selfish ambition destroys any meaningful application of wisdom and knowledge in mankind because Jealousy and selfish ambition are rebellious attitudes

You are rebel you're rebelling as God. You're not seeing yourself properly as the creature of God You're not seeing the vast chasm that exists between the creature and the

Creator you're not acknowledging the great wisdom of the Creator your dependence upon his wisdom and So these are these are all the opposite attitudes that one is to have in comparison

To a godly attitude and the result will be you will lie against the truth you may know the truth, but you'll twist it you'll turn it you'll you'll turn it into something else and You will lie against the truth and So this wisdom this

Safa the person who says I'm so fast I'm I'm wise this wisdom is not that which comes down from above So there's two different kinds of wisdom.

There's that which comes down from above and there is that which is Earthly it is from below.

It is earthly it is Sukaka it is soulish. It's natural.

It's of the creature and It's demonic There is a spiritual when when the enemy of your soul sees that you have

Deep within you that root of bitterness Oh, he will just do everything in his power to grow that thing because it will destroy everything around We are warned about the root of bitterness

And it is indeed this wisdom is not that which comes down from above it's earthly It appeals to the sensual its soulish natural demonic for Where there is jealousy selfish ambition strife division is the the term can be

I Mean how can selfish ambition ambition always results in division everybody knows

That the guy who always wants to get ahead who's gonna step on everybody. You don't want him on your team He's gonna create division because he's not gonna want anyone else to get the credit for what he himself does or she does

So you always in business? Wherever it is you you see

Where jealousy and selfish ambition exists there is a really interesting term there is

It's a term that has its roots stasis you've heard of stasis The situation is in stasis.

There is a there's no change. There is a Consistency, there's a harmony to be in stasis.

Well, this is the opposite of that. So it's disorder Tumult frequently used in the context of rebellion and every evil practice and so You know,

I think back on Philippians chapter 2 and Paul's providing to the church at Philippi the greatest

Teaching on how you can have peace in the church You have peace in the church when you're not looking out for your own things that's jealousy and strife

But you're looking out for the things of others Humility of mind you're acting humility of mind toward others when you have

Maturity in a fellowship That means you have Servants in that fellowship that are not looking for their own self -promotion

They're looking to serve Christ by serving others. That is the church where you're gonna have peace and harmony

That's the that's where you're gonna have peace and harmony and So where jealousy and selfish ambition are that's where you're gonna find clamor and disorder and rebellion and every evil practice

So within the church within your own heart within the family within any organization

Jealousy selfish ambition you've you've it comes in slowly

It can just be the thought He didn't really deserve that. I Deserve that That guy shouldn't have the platform.

He has I should have that and it can be just a quick thought you might dismiss

But if you don't dismiss it with prejudice What am I even thinking that God is in charge of all these things

God's sovereign over these things he gives gifts He places people where they are if this person is a fellow believer

I should rejoice in what they have and the opportunities they have to promote the gospel and whatever it might be and you go on from there, but if you if you nurse it if You you think about it that the thought comes back later on and it comes back later.

It's a slow but dangerous process To create that jealousy

I That that guy shouldn't get the notoriety he does he shouldn't get to speak of the places he

I should have that oh Man, there's a lot of jealousy a lot of jealousy in the church

And that's why there is disorder in every evil thing as well so James 317 was the verse

I was talking about But it's interesting that it's at the end of all these warnings

About what results from jealousy and strife and self -centeredness and a wisdom that is earthly rather than heavenly but the wisdom from above is first pure it is it is pure and Then it is peaceable and Then I'm not gonna go through all this because I did last year and I spent a little more time these terms that are used

Have interesting possibilities as to their meaning their lexical meaning the what's called the semantic domain a

Semantic domain is the range of meanings for a word. There are some some words that have an extremely narrow semantic domain very technical terms

And And then there are words that have massively wide semantic domains that that only context can tell you where in that large domain the author is placing that particular term and these are

Especially when you get into well gentle. Yeah, but reasonable Could be easily persuaded

Someone who's always trying to get two sides together the peacemaker type type thing

Full of mercy is fairly straightforward Full of mercy. I would just ask all of us when we consider the attitudes that are fostered and produced by social media interaction

Do they promote or denigrate mercy I've read a number of articles recently about how there's all these fake

Twitter accounts and stuff and how the The idea is to create division to to divide people to make people hate one another and I don't know much about that.

I just know that Our natural tendency is when we see things online.

We just line up We my tendency your tendency is

To believe what resonates with you what's consistent with all written with your tribe with your prejudices with what you already believe

All that stuff. That's how we are and as I said,

I don't know that we were ever really intended to be Overwhelmed with the level of Information that is available to us every single day and So when we are it's very easy

Even if we want to be full of mercy to instead be full of strife

Vindictiveness and I just wonder how different Our interactions would be

I know that in Normal human interaction like where you actually talk to people

Something nobody does anymore. You know, this is how everybody looks now when they're sitting at dinner you know

You know, that's that's that's a bad thing. And the amazing thing is they'll actually be texting each other at the same table

How does this work this is this is the way things are now but back in the days when you looked at people

I every once in a while I'll be standing at it every once in a while. I flew a hundred and sixty -five thousand miles.

Did you know that? 165 ,000 miles this year was it was my was my total

Remember what you had to do and the last year so I flew a lot more this year than I did last year I'm sorry

Are my arms tired? Yes Not even a dad joke, that's not even a good dad joke, that's that's a that's a that's an uncle rich joke and it's just Anyway But I'll be staying in the gate and Once I'll just sort of look around and yeah most of the time

I'm looking at my phone too because I'm checking the schedule and I'm getting my flight, you know, cuz you know, my my boarding pass is on my phone and I'm and every

You can have that thing ready to go and as soon as you turn it over to put it on that thing the screen shuts off It's just it's just how it works

It's just you know so there's stuff you got to do and you're you're checking what your rides gonna be when you're getting where you're going or you know,

If you're delayed, are you gonna make your connecting flight? You know, there's lots of stuff I understand why we're looking at our phones, but sometimes

I'll put it away I'm ready to go and I'm just looking around and everyone's doing that and I'll find the one other person

That isn't looking at the phone and I'll get their attention I'll go especially if they're as old as I am or at least in my generation.

I'm like remember when We actually used to talk to each other in in airports

Things like that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you know you get sort of get a conversation going somebody else will put their phone down Yeah, you know you get that type of thing going so I just I just wonder if in all of our

When we actually talk to people and if we'd apply this to when we're putting our fingers on the keyboard

Full of mercy full of mercy a person

When you can go after an individual You are assuming you know enough about all of their life what they're going through their relationships everything

To judge them worthy of your attack and condemnation The fact of matter is most of time you don't know

That's one of the reasons why Interdisciplinary interactions are supposed to be done in the local church

Not by someone 500 miles away thousand miles away because they don't live with you they can't get to the bottom of these issues and So Full of mercy the wisdom from above is

Full of mercy because wisdom can be used as a weapon, but for a

Christian it should always First and foremost be full of mercy

You've it's got to be pure No, jealousy, no strife. No self -promotion.

It's Once that's there. It's no longer the wisdom from above It should seek to create peace not division it should be gentle not harsh

Reasonable boy we could go a lot with that full of mercy and good fruits

Good fruits if what you do only destroys and doesn't produce good fruits.

You might want to think about Unwavering that is and really the unwavering and Without hypocrisy very very similar to one another one might have more of an emphasis of standing firm the other you know without hypocrisy without Putting on that mask and pretending to be something else these are descriptions of the wisdom that comes down from above and Honestly, if we just had a if we just had a screen up here

Wouldn't be a great device that for every tweet You have to submit it to the

James 317 device and it would Analyze the tweet and automatically highlight the words that might just violate this one this one in this one

And you have to rewrite it If you had to rewrite every tweet in light of James 317

How many of us would see our tweeting numbers collapse? Massively over the course of 2020 and 2020 folks is gonna be a challenge.

I Mean on One the part of me goes. Yeah, that's just for the United States. Just start.

No, it's not I traveled enough in Primarily Western cultures to realize that the

US presidential election in 2020 will be what everyone's talking about.

I'm gonna be in Brisbane only a matter of weeks before the election this year were

Anywhere, I go South Africa London, Australia Anywhere people speak

English There will be people sadly sadly who will know more about whoever the two candidates are

Than people in my own country will I mean that's just been my experience

I was in New Zealand in 2016 just before the election and I was stunned by how much people knew

I Was I was I think it was in Brisbane when I was Walking through one of the city squares and it had big jumbotron

TVs and there's Hillary and Trump and so 2020 is and The politics and now with the social justice stuff and critical theory stuff infecting everything

It would make a huge difference if we would apply James 317 to our social interaction this year

But it we are going to be constantly constantly constantly barraged with temptations not to do any of that to just Go at it because they're coming at me.

I'm gonna come right back at him. Well We know what the result will be one way or the other so I spent more time on that than I thought it would um a couple things the

Couple things we should be praying about especially God's gonna do something in China because When you have the kind of persecution that is taking place there

You know the blood of the martyrs is the sea of the church and You could end up with a truly purified

Incredible church coming out of China Because Xi Jinping is clearly

Clearly has God delusions The state has God delusions. We are

God you are going to do whatever we tell you to do and So what they're doing to Christians and to Uighur Muslims And if it offends you that I mentioned the

Uighur Muslims, then you don't understand what China is doing You don't understand why this is important And if you're not praying for them, what's wrong with you?

Why are you why do you even call yourself a Christian? Is what I want to know You don't want to see Uighur Muslims saved

You don't care about Uighur Muslims because they're Muslims. Well tells me a lot about where your heart is or where it's not

But have you heard that the the Chinese are Sending other

So like ethnic minority Chinese, I mean cuz China's huge and it and there's all sorts of Minorities that it that it controls especially in the

Western Western portion. Yeah They're sending these non -muslim men in to sleep with the

Uighur women who have not been put in prison their husbands have I mean, it's just You're just like what?

I Mean, it's a rape thing. That's what's going on. This it's horrific The destruction of families and the trying to re -educate people and it's all to destroy

Their commitment to Islam and they're doing the same thing to Christians the difference is

That the Christian faith much more crosses Ethnic boundaries to be honest with you.

It's easier to find the Muslims Because they tend to be in one particular ethnic group.

And so there's dress there's ways they dress that you know Christianity is a little bit more of a

Difficulty for them because it's a little bit harder to identify it, especially when it goes underground

China is setting its Totalitarianism absolutely has to establish an ultimate authority in the state

And that's what China is doing and China recognizes that monotheism

Produces an allegiance to a higher power that the state can never rival which is what is fundamental to the

United States form of government which has now been lost and Will result in a fundamental change the

United States government before long. It's gonna happen because the foundation recognized that rights are not given by states they're given by God and Therefore God has the right to judge nations

China says nobody has the right to judge us ask the NBA they found out

They they found out no one has the right to judge us some assistant coach someplace dares question us we will

Use our economic power to punish everybody for that If you remember that just few few months ago so It is a horrific

Human rights abuse what's happening to the Uyghur Muslims? It's just just unbelievable What's happening to Christians you just we just heard that pastor

Wang Yi Who we've talked about for months there was a you know,

I don't even know why they bother with this part Why do they even bother with trials? We know what's gonna happen.

There is no there is no justice There is no law, isn't it interesting that even the communists try to pretend

That they are that there is some objective standard by which they are justifying themselves.

There is none the state is the ultimate authority and so The under my understanding is it's been tried and convicted no one is shocked at that, but But and it was done suddenly and quickly and these people will simply disappear

And they'll never be seen again We know what what is happening and we know that martyrs are being made every single day in China and in North Korea and That's what is just so insane that there are

Morons to use the biblical term foolish people without understanding running around our

College campuses and universities going communism is a great thing. It's just never been tried, right?

Yeah, okay This stuff is this stuff is taking place and I want to make a connection between the totalitarianism that we see in China and See people differentiate between China and North Korea because you look at North Korea and you you go

Okay, it's a Family Deity Starving people

China you get more of the idea of you know, they like their stuff and they're just really materialists and You know, they've got a

Semi -form of free market going on and and you know, we make a distinction.

There isn't a distinction one's just big and The other is really little but you need to understand that the

Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping are just as totalitarian and just as evil and just as focused upon the fulfillment of their own desires as anybody else

And So we look at these things and we recognize the huge challenge

That is represented there. Not just Oh Lord Let there not be Let our let our world not glow from nuclear weapons but there is likewise the huge challenge from the fact that The Cold War has moved from where it was in the 50s and 60s onto our own shores and The the we lost that the

Cold War that the wall may have fallen But it just fell because the other side didn't need it anymore they already had their shock troops in our universities and They've already accomplished the invasion.

They could not have accomplished with military force and so we are now facing a day where we have to recognize the hatred of God and his law and And Commitment to Christ as your ultimate authority that is part and parcel of the totalitarian left and so you see this

If you want to see this Let's look at let me scroll down to here

This didn't make much news over here But I know that my my British friends were talking about it.

My friends in Europe were talking about it. It was a Employment issue that came before The Tribunal and the decision was made.

Let me let me just read to you First of all, let you got to realize the seeds of this were sown a long time ago 15 years ago the

UK government's gender recognition act of 2004 Reads as follows

The person's gender becomes for all purposes the acquired gender so that if the acquired gender is the male gender the person's sex becomes that of a man and If it is a female gender the person's sex becomes that of a woman.

This is The definition of a gender recognition certificate

So if you have a GRC a gender recognition, so in other words the government Gives you a certificate that says

You are this gender now It is interesting to ask the question.

Are they gonna come up with a hundred and thirty three two hundred and forty five five hundred eighty seven different GRC's what what's what's a

GRC for a Questioning two -spirit Unisex or whatever.

I don't I can't even figure them out there. It's just so absurd It's hard to even talk about it, but that's where we are

But in 2004 the idea was well, if you're a male, you can become a female by what you do up here

This is this is where it happens. So that's 2004 so here is

Paragraph 84 of the tribunal. However, I consider that the claimants view so the the this is a woman

Who does not believe that men can become women or women can become men in other words

This is the person who has a consistent worldview with that which built the United Kingdom and Europe and United States I consider the claimants view in its absolutist nature is incompatible with human dignity and fundamental rights of others so if you believe

What everybody believed up until 20 years ago? Then what you believe is incompatible with human dignity and fundamental rights of others

She goes so far as to deny the right of a person with a gender recognition certificate The government has given them a

GRC This is the ultimate authority this is a see there was a day when this was the ultimate authority and A government was recognized to be under the authority of this.

This is now mythology This is now irrelevant. It has been placed outside And So now all you have left is the government just like Xi Jinping But this is the

United Kingdom She goes so far as to deny the right of a person with a gender recognition certificate to be the sex to which they have transitioned

I Do not accept the claimants contention that the Gender Recognition Act produces a mere legal fiction.

It provides a right a right Where do rights come from?

The Western civilization it used to come from God Now it comes from the government and I would say in the minds of 90 % of Everyone United States under the age of 30 under the age of 40.

It comes from the government, too It provides a right based on the assessment of the various interrelated

Convention rights for a person to transition in certain circumstances there have to be treated for all purposes as the being of the sex to which they have transitioned if Goodwin a fundamental aspect in Goodwin a fundamental aspect of the reasoning of the

ECHR was that a person who has transitioned should not be forced to identify their gender assigned at birth

Such a person should be entitled to live as a person of the sex to which they have transitioned That was recognized in the

Gender Recognition Act which states that the change of sex applies for all purposes Therefore if a person has transitioned from male to female and has a gender recognition certificate

That person is legally a woman that is not something that the claimant is entitled to ignore The government now defines not

God Not the creator. There is no creator any longer. There is no creator so The claimant's position is that even if a trans woman has a gender recognition certificate

She cannot honestly describe herself as a woman. Listen to this That belief is not worthy of respect in a democratic society

It is incompatible with the human rights of others that have been identified and defined

How? By the ECHR and put into effect the Gender Recognition Act. This my friends is what happens when we no longer say in God we trust and God's Word Defines for us what mankind is.

There is nothing to take its place There is nothing to take its place that belief

Historic Christian belief that God makes us in a certain way is not worthy of respect in a democratic society

That was the decision This was only a matter of weeks ago. Do you see the connection to North Korea?

China? direct connection Direct connection. It's just a matter of where we are in the in the process

Where we are in the process Yeah Okay, let's let's

Switch topics big -time here Yeah, I saw the article and Here's the problem

Everybody knows that Pope Frankie is Smoking smoking liberal weed.

Okay. I Mean it Liberation theology

South America Jesuit, this was predictable. This was really predictable.

We know that Francis Would have simply been burned at the stake by Popes only 300 years ago

Would have been burned the state And That says a lot that says

Everything that should need to be said about solo scriptura versus solo Ecclesia Solo Ecclesia doesn't work

Not just on a pragmatic level but the fact the matter is any

Honest person can look at history and go Wow, there has been a lot of change of these people who claim to possess apostolic tradition

But here you have a situation where you've got two living Popes and no person can honestly look at Ratzinger look at Benedict and Francis and say yeah, these guys are on the same page.

No, they are not. They're not in the same book They're not the same continent But here's the problem

There are lots of folks out there in the quote -unquote Christian web Who just love jumping on the most recent thing that Francis says and They can say whatever they want and they can spin it any way they want to Because they are never ever ever ever

Going to be sitting in front of a thousand people With a sharp

Roman Catholic apologist at the other microphone Equal time having to answer questions so you can

You don't have to worry about what the context of what the Pope said was or anything else

You can just throw it all out there and spin it the way you want to and don't worry about that's not my situation and so I Think it is relevant

The Pope's comments that were just released Regarding Proselytization and Conversion and gospel preaching and things like that, but let's keep a couple things in mind.

This is not an official papal pronouncement This is not the

Pope exercising His magisterial authority and the problem is

Almost all of the comments were based upon Google Translate Now, I don't know if you have ever

Used Google Translate Google Translate's really good at some things and it's really bad at others and For example, it's really bad at Latin It'll recognize

Latin It won't translate it very well, but there you go

So what you've what you've got is based upon People's interpreting

Phrases that come out of Google Translate Now do

I think that the gist of what he was saying has come through? Yeah Yeah, I pretty much so pretty much so But does that mean that we need to be careful and say if what the

Pope is saying is this Then it might mean this yeah, it's again What the

Pope says to reporters on an airplane is important when when the Bishop of Rome Addresses the issue of homosexuality on an airplane and says who am

I to judge that is important it does not have the same level of authority as a papal document

And if the Pope comes out and says I declare Announce and define as the successor of Peter That homosexuality is a natural and acceptable

Orientation and behavior, which is about what the

German bishops did a few weeks ago, but they don't have the authority to do that Okay, that says something

But we need to recognize the difference Okay, just fairness demands it.

There's just not a lot of people that are overly concerned about fairness anymore. So What Just just a couple quotes from it

Speaking of having Jewish and Muslim friends. We are all the same all children of God. Well that that's that's

Frank. That's Frankie Frankie said that about about atheists Francis does not have a theology that recognizes alienation from God by sin he really doesn't

I Mean he has to sort of tip his hat to the fact that Rome used to But it's

I think the man minimally minimally minimally is clearly an inclusivist on the

Industrial strength side of inclusivism and if you don't know what inclusivism is an

Inclusivist fundamentally and there's all sorts of different takes on it, but an inclusivist fundamentally Believes that God will include in his grace anyone who responds in a any positive fashion

Toward a God concept. In other words, you don't need to know about Jesus A Muslim's faith in Islam They may not know who the real

Jesus is, but they're still having faith in God. That'll be accepted Buddhist faith toward whatever that'll be accepted.

So an inclusivist would say that any positive religious behavior and And so an atheist that has his kids baptized the inclusivist says

Go into heaven and that's what Francis said when the young boy asked about his daddy You know, he had his children baptized.

Therefore, you know clearly heaven, so minimally, he's an inclusivist and Obviously a industrial strength inclusivist and a

Universalist who believes everyone's gonna be saved there might be a period of purgation or whatever But everyone's eventually going to be saved.

No, it's gonna be no no punishment. No separation gun The gap between the two is not that big it's not that huge and So, I think he's probably universalist but minimally an industrial strength inclusivist

He's as much as said it has he placed that in a dogmatic teaching?

No, but is the man himself Constantly making comments that indicate that is his personal belief

Yeah, now the old -style woman Catholic apologists say but he'll never teach it as Pope So you can't go to what the

Pope is saying? You can't go to the Pope's commentaries on what's going on in the world anything else. You can't trust any of that It's only if he says

I declare announce and proclaim that really makes infallibility Completely worthless and you know it and you know

So anyways, we're all the same all children of God. He plainly does believe that It didn't occur to me and it doesn't have to be like saying to a boy or a girl you are

Jewish You're a Muslim come be converted Come be converted We are not in the times of the

Crusades and he talks about Lining Muslims up and having a priest and a

Baptist baptismal which obviously isn't exactly a baptismal in the biblical sense But that's another issue and A soldier and this is the time of the

Crusades that type of thing actually happened. It's terrible That's not what that's not where we are today. So that's part of the idea of conversion in his mind is

Forced conversion In front of an unbeliever the last thing I have to do is try to convince him never

Now that's where most people going so what were the Apostles up to What what what was the purpose that they had and going into the marketplace and and engaging in debate and that type of thing

But listen never never bring the gospel by proselytizing now What does that mean?

Well one thing we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it means is it's not what happened in the Crusades on either side

So you've got that but that's not really happening Okay in some in some

Muslim context you might make the argument but That's not really happening so he's he's reacting to something modern and so a lot of people have just automatically assumed

That his turn his use the term proselytization is the same as our use the term proselytization That we're saying the exact same things and I think that's pushing a little bit

You might want to try at least to allow him to define His perspective on it some and interpret it in light of his

If someone says they're a disciple of Jesus and comes to you with proselytism They are not a disciple of Jesus. The church does not grow by proselytism, but he does also say toward the end

Proselytism is not done. The church does not grow by proselytism Pope Benedict had said it it grows by attraction by testimony

Football teams proselytize this can be done political parties can be done there but with faith

There is no proselytism. And if someone says to me, but why? Read read read the gospel.

This is my faith, but without pressure. So obviously the

Pope does not have a Biblical view of man doesn't have a biblical view of the gospel

He is far left But I do wonder what it was

I Do wonder what it was like I don't remember when this came out.

Let me see December update December 19. So let's what was it like in the offices of Catholic answers the morning of December 20th

You can just see everybody coming in around the conference table Looking at each other and So who was it was a

Tim Staples who was it that spoke up first? All right, guys What are we gonna do now?

Because what we were based upon The Pope just said Shouldn't be doing

How are we gonna handle this one, how are we gonna spin this baby? Well, I'm sure the

Google Translate element was part of it I I haven't listened to Catholic answers in a while but wow, it is it is

Wow a rough day Rough day to be a Roman Catholic apologist.

There's just no two ways about it. Mm -hmm. Yeah, it's yeah. Yeah. There you go Well, there's a bunch of stuff

We can't go into 2020 with our eyes closed we it would be it would be nice to Find a deserted island someplace and Every once in a while.

It's good to get away. I suppose but the the fact is Much of what our world is talking about Leads directly to a discussion of the gospel

The the Lordship of Christ extends to everything and so everything that will be discussed in the upcoming elections

In light of the elections in the UK, that was a big one And by the way, it was

Very refreshing to hear Boris Johnson talking about persecution of Christians around the world in his

Christmas message that was That will take a bone everywhere where we can get it That was that was very much appreciated appreciated and I listened to the

Queen's Christmas message You know, there's there's still a few connections to the past it's sort of nice to recognize once in a while If you haven't had a chance to look at check it out but it's gonna be a challenging time and So we'll have a lot to talk about so Starting off.

Yes. Oh, yeah, that's right. And now a public service announcement from the man behind the window

I have a few housekeeping matters to talk about If you are a regular donor or a donor at all to our ministry first of all, we we thank you and we appreciate that very much the

Part of our process is that I send emails out regularly to you letting you know

Basically a donation receipt if folks you are a donor to this ministry and you're not receiving that email then

I don't have your email address and So as your end comes up quickly,

I need to get your address and please Email me at our Pierce PIE RC e.

Oh boy. Yeah, I know I get daring at a omen org So our Pierce PIE RCE at a omen org

Let me know your name your address and your email address so that I can get our records up to date

Make sure that we have the correct Mailing addresses and all that stuff so that we can get the receipts out quickly

I do have a lag a lot of churches will get those receipts out like the first Sunday right after the first of the year

We have mail still coming in and we have to credit Donations through the snail mail based on the date stamp on the envelope

So I I have that delayed by about a week, but I'm gonna get these things out as fast as possible

Please send me your email addresses and that's that's it from here. All right

Yeah, definitely Extremely thankful for everyone who allows us to do the things we're doing we've got

Some amazing things coming up, I guess I should mention You know, who knows maybe some some wives gave their husbands or husbands gave their wives a certain trip coming up in late

September of 2020 Where we still have room if you want to join us in going to starting in Rome and visiting

Athens and Ephesus on Our way to and from those are split up by the way as far as I can tell

I forget which one comes first But those are split up by the period of time that we will be spending in Israel on a cruise ship you you dock and then you take buses and you go to locations and you come back and you stay the

Night on the cruise ship. Sometimes the ship stays there. Sometimes it goes to another port That allows you, you know a little closer access.

One of the things about Israel, like I said is it's very small And so you can get on a bus and be pretty much anywhere.

You need to be in a very short period of time It is astonishing. It really really is

What's really exciting about this trip and you can get all the information at AOMIN .org What's really exciting about it is that you you get on the boat you unpack and then you pack back up when you get off the boat

Any other way of doing it means packing unpacking packing unpacking and I don't know about you. I get really tired of that That's a that's a pain but this way

And I sleep so well on a boat, I don't know why it is you just You just go out and you get deep sleep.

Like you just don't get it. I think it's just the constant Of the I don't know what it is. But anyways,

I sleep well on a on a boat anyways That's gonna be a trip of a lifetime

It's before the election so the world probably will not end It's it's a month before Armageddon hits

So we probably will visit Armageddon, but we'll be out in time before whatever. That's whatever that whatever eschatology is

What oh You're I thought you were I thought you were you wanted to add something to no

I was just waiting for you to finish that thought I was wondering what do you want to do about Monday and Tuesday? Oh Well, anyways, so Information about the the trip is on the on the website, you know in the banner ads there and I don't know what on the new

Website where that's gonna be, but I'm sure it'll be even easier to find Because everything will be wonderful and beautiful Once the new website is put up But Please be thinking about that.

We want to we want we don't want anybody left behind We won't be talking about that level of eschatology, but anyways, we don't anybody left behind That's coming up in late

September October and it's gonna be a great great time together. So keep that in mind

I was thinking Tuesday if possible. I know it's New Year's Eve But just you know do another program and because you know, it's

New Year's Eve, okay fine Yeah, pretty much yeah pretty much yeah, yeah

Yeah, so we'll we'll do another program then and then afterwards and because we've got a lot to get to A lot of a lot of developments all the time and it's it's good to be on top of them