DUMPSTER FIRE: Is the Bible the Mark of the Beast?

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Welcome to another installment of Dumpster Fire. Yeah, here on the

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Fighting for the Faith channel, from time to time we find something that's so bizarre, so delusional, that doing a biblical critique of it may actually be considered cruel and unusual.

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We'll do a biblical critique anyway. So if you've ever heard, what are these people's names?

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Harland and Diana Hoy, and their claim that the Bible is the mark of the beast.

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Even if you haven't, go ahead and hit the like button, subscribe down below, don't forget to ring the bell.

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This is just going to be a mess. We'll do a little solid biblical teaching along the way, because there is a topic that usually comes up in the concept of Mormonism.

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But yeah, I don't even know how to explain what it is that you're going to experience. You might want to put on some tinfoil to protect you from the radiation that will be emanating from this particular

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YouTube video. What does the distimiter say? 3 .6 roentgen, but that's as high as the meter. 3 .6.

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Not great, not terrible. I've been saturated with exposure to this type of radiation, and I'm immune to it.

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Kind of like Iocane powder. But anyway, let's do this. Are you serious?

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I know. This reminds me of Tom and Krista Shirley, you know, the throne builders.

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And yeah. Man, Tom and Krista, you've gotten old.

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But take a look at these aprons, man. These two have just got to be a scream, you know, like a barbecue for Memorial Day or the

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Fourth of July. I mean, the conversations here have just got to keep everybody in stitches.

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But man, I'm telling you, I mean, excuse me, are y 'all with the cult? Look at that. So there's

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Diane and the Bible is the mark of the beast. And Harlan here,

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Harlan Hoy, he's got the Bebop hat going on, apparently meaning

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Bible is the mark of the beast. And their claim is that the Bible is an idol. Now, as we work our way through part of this video, again, this is a dumpster fire segment of Fighting for the

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Faith's channel. We will note that Diane and Harlan do something really weird for people who believe that the

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Bible is the mark of the beast. I'll just kind of let them spin this out, assume the crash position.

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All right, now everybody, get ready.

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Here we go. This message has depth. It's a truth that you'll only hear.

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Yeah, that's right. The lead off is that this message has depth.

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And the claim is we are gods. Yeah, that's not true.

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We'll take a look at the scriptures here shortly. But so the

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Bible is an idol and we are gods. What could possibly be wrong with this?

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We continue. From this message, God is not willing that any of you little children should perish.

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There's the first instance of it. Do you know what he was quoting there when he said that God is not willing that any should perish?

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Oh, I know. He was quoting the mark of the, I mean, the Bible. Yeah. Which he's clearly communicating, he and Diane are communicating that the

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Bible is the mark of the beast. Well, I'm sorry, but once you say that, you don't get to quote the

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Bible anymore. Yeah, that's kind of how that works, you know. So I mean, once you say the

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Bible is the mark of the beast, the Bible is an idol. You got to put the Bible away and you get to do all your theology and your doctrine without it.

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Yeah, that's kind of how that goes. Because I mean, if you really think that the Bible is the mark of the beast, why would you quote it favorably as if it's telling me the truth?

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I mean, maybe only parts of it are the mark of the beast, but let's let them continue to spin this out.

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And yeah, we will be doing some biblical critique here. The angel said, peace on earth and goodwill toward man.

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Yeah, quoting the Bible there. He said, God so loved the world. Yeah. Quoting John 3, 16, again, weird.

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You say the Bible's an idol. It's the mark of the beast. And we got three citations, bang, bang, bang, all from the mark of the beast.

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So you must understand what I'm telling you today. You are gods. Now, a lot of people think that means you belong to God or you're created by God, but that's not what it means at all.

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I noticed the lack of an apostrophe in the way you're describing when you said we are gods.

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Even the name of the video doesn't have an apostrophe, which would make us God's possession.

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So I think you're basically saying that we are deities. Now, real quick here. Let's debunk this before we get to their teaching because, again, the hoys here are looney tunes.

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The Bible's an idol. The Bible's the mark of the beast. And I'm going to be quoting the Bible all over the place. You don't get to do that.

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Once you deny that the Bible is the word of God and you claim that it's actually evil, you don't get to quote it as if it's teaching me something good.

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That's kind of how the rules of logic work. So let's do this.

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And we're going to begin with some clear text.

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Now, normally when we do a biblical analysis here, our three standard rules for biblical exegesis are context, context, and context.

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So there are other rules. And one of the major rules when it comes to biblical doctrine is this rule that states that clear passages govern unclear.

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So you sit there and you go, OK, how does that work? I'm going to show you how this works with these texts and with this concept.

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Because we have very crystal clear biblical texts that claim that there is only one

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God. There are no other gods aside from the one true God. And then you have an unclear text in Psalm 82.

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And the question is, what do you make of that? So when you break this rule where clear texts govern unclear and you make it so that the unclear negate the clear, yeah, you're going to be adrift at sea without a rudder, being blown hither and yon by all kinds of nonsense.

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So this is another rule for sound biblical exegesis, and that is clear texts govern unclear.

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And I'm a confessional Lutheran, and as part of our exegetical and hermeneutical approach, what we look for is the clearest text on a particular subject or doctrine.

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And that clearest text is the singular governing text. And we call that one the Cedes Doctrinae.

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That's the seat of the doctrine. And so we're going to take a look at what

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I would consider to be really good candidates for the Cedes Doctrinae for the biblical doctrine that there is only one

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God and we ain't in that category. Let me explain. So Isaiah 43, 10, and Jesus quotes

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Isaiah as somebody who speaks the word of God. Yeah, he does.

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And that's, in fact, we just covered that on a video we did where we looked at Mark chapter 7.

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And this was the Don't Eat Alone video. Yeah, we'll put a link up to right up in here in this general section.

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We'll put a link up to the Don't Eat Alone video where Jesus quotes

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Isaiah as definitively the word of God. And so I'm going to go with Jesus's opinion here because he rose from the dead.

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So, I mean, if you don't think Isaiah is actually speaking the word of God to me and that it's just chock full of errors and unreliable and stuff,

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I'll listen to you as soon as you rise from the dead. You know, so since Jesus already did that,

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I'm going with him. Okay, so here's what Jesus says. Sorry, Isaiah says this, and this is a quote from Yahweh, and Jesus also happens to be

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God in human flesh. So let's kind of play this out here. Isaiah 4310, you are my witnesses, declares

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Yahweh, my servant whom I have chosen so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.

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And here's our text. Before me, no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me.

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And you know what the Hebrew says? The exact same thing. Before me, no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me.

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That's clear. And like I would say, like insanely explicitly clear.

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Before Yahweh, there were no gods. After Yahweh, no gods.

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You know, and Yahweh's not going away, you know, you get the idea. So before me, no God was formed, nor will there be any after me.

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Now, this immediately rules out Mormonism, which claims their central doctrine is the law of eternal progression, which states, as man is,

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God once was, as God is, man can become. Yeah, no, before me, no

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God was formed, nor shall there be any after me. Isaiah 44, verses 6, 7, and 8.

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Thus says Yahweh, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, Yahweh Sabaoth, the

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Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies. I am the first. I am the last. Besides me, there is no

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God. Yeah, that's pretty clear. Besides me, there is no God.

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So who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people.

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Let them declare what is to come and what will happen. Fear not, nor be afraid. Have I not told you from of old and declared that you are my witnesses?

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Is there a God besides me? There is no rock. I know not any.

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All right, well, we got two competing passages here, and both of them are crystal clear.

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You know, there's no fuzziness. This is like 5K, you know, kind of revelation here.

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Super sharp, in focus. The megahertz are off the chain. This is really clear.

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Isaiah 45, verse 5, then says this. I am Yahweh. There is no other. Besides me, there is no

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God. So I equip you, though you do not know me. All right, that's also clear.

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I would say not quite as clear as Isaiah 43, 10, Isaiah 45, verses 44 that we just read.

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Okay, so let's keep going. Isaiah 45, 14, thus says, Yahweh, the wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, the

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Sabians, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours. They shall follow you. They shall come over in chains and bow down to you.

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They will plead with you, saying, surely God is in you, and there is no other, no

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God besides him. Yeah, that's pretty clear, yeah. All right, declare, 45, 21, and 22.

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Declare and present your case. Let them make, take counsel together. Who told this long ago?

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Who declared it of of old? Was it not I, Yahweh? And there is no other God besides me, a righteous

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God and a Savior. There is none besides me. Yeah, you'll note that the repetition is kind of driving the point home.

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So Isaiah 45, 22, turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other.

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And then just to add a little overkill here, Isaiah 46, 9, remember the former things of old, for I am

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God. There is no other, I am God. There is none like me. The end.

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So, I mean, this is a slam dunk. There are no other gods, period, all right?

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There is only one God, one. No other gods besides God or anything like that.

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So I'm going to basically posit this concept here. These are the clearest texts regarding the exact number of deities that exist and the definitive answer is one, okay?

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In other words, whatever God is, you ain't that. Neither am

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I. We be creatures and we are extremely dependent on the

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God who is. Yeah, to be a creature is to be dependent upon your

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God. So just saying, you know. So now, all of that being said, there is an unclear text and you don't get to overturn the clear text with the unclear text.

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And here is that unclear text. And yeah, you Michael Heiser fans out there, sorry, but he's wrong on this.

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But anyway, so let's take a look at the text and here's what it says. It's Psalm 82, 1.

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God has taken his place in the divine council. In the midst of the gods, he holds judgment.

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Well, look, there's multiple gods there. The Bible teaches polytheism. No, it doesn't.

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Clear passages always govern unclear. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?

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Uh -huh, what's going on here? I'll explain in a minute. Give justice to the weak and the fatherless.

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Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy. Deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

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They have neither knowledge nor understanding. They walk about in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.

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I said, you are God's sons of the most high. All of you, nevertheless, like men, you shall die and fall like any prince.

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Arise, oh God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit all the nations. So what's going on here?

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Well, this isn't God talking to other gods. Remember back in freshman year history.

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Now, I don't know how this works for those of you outside of the United States.

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But when I was a freshman in high school, I had to take World Civ, okay?

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World Civilization. And that was the time, being the young lad that I was, where I first really learned about Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers, right?

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And I distinctly remember learning that one of the features of the ancient world was the belief that kings were gods, the god kings, yeah.

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Yeah, that's right. I see you're sitting there going, in fact, this was an ancient tradition that continued on, on, on, on, even to the time of Christ.

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In fact, the Roman emperor was considered to be a god, a deity, and you were supposed to offer sacrifices to him.

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So what is this text referring to? God kings, earthly governments.

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And so God here is speaking tongue in cheek to them, and basically saying, you need to judge right.

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Because God is the one who has established human governments, and those who are in temporary authority within the left -hand kingdom, which is the civil realm, the government, they have to do things right.

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And so this is a psalm in judgment against earthly god kings.

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Yeah, and that's right, air quotes intended, because God here is speaking ironically. This doesn't overthrow anything from Isaiah 43, 44, or 45, or 46.

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Those are your clear passages. So this is God speaking in irony and speaking in judgment, and then you can tell what's going on here.

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God has taken his place in the divine council. In the midst of the gods, air quotes, he holds judgment.

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How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Oh yeah,

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I can name government officials who do that to this day. The only thing is we don't consider them to be deities.

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But in the ancient world, they were considered little gods on Earth. So God says to these gods, he's instructing them on how to be gods.

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Give justice to the weak and the fatherless. Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy.

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Deliver them from the hand of the wicked, which is what governments are supposed to do. Godly governments are supposed to do that.

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So he says, I said you are God's sons of the Most High, all of you. Nevertheless, like men, you shall die, because they are.

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That's the point. So here God is speaking ironically and clear passages always govern unclear.

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So the option that is off the table immediately because of the explicitly crystal clear text in Isaiah 43, 44, 45, and 46, that there's only one

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God, no other gods have been formed, not after you get the whole point, those govern. So the one that's off the table is that there are multiple deities and you are one of them.

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Yeah, it's just a saying. So yeah, that's so you get the idea how that works.

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All that being said, let's head back to the

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B -Mob crowd here as they ironically quote the Bible to prove that we are gods while saying that the

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Bible is an idol in the mark of the beast. And you could make a decision to live or die.

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Well, that's part of it. We are his offspring. But you do get to make your decision.

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God gives you free will. You have a decision. You can get on drugs and spend your life in a bar room if you want to.

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You can die or you can make a decision to serve Jesus and live after the spirit, or you can make a decision to serve literature and sit in an air conditioned church for 40 years.

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But you have that power. Serve literature and sit in an air conditioned church. Apparently, that's a bad thing.

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Serving literature like, you know, reading and believing the Bible to be the word of God. And also, apparently, air conditioning is also from the devil.

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Who knew? Is there such a thing as a sexist thermostat?

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Bummer for me because I, you know, I generally use air conditioning when possible.

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The church congregations I serve, they also use air conditioning. Oh, no. Oh, no.

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Power to make the decision when you become accountable. Now, most people think this means that your

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God means you belong to God. That's not what he's saying. Jesus said, is it not written in your law?

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I said, you are God's. Yeah. So Jesus there is quoting Isaiah Psalm 82.

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And so we've already taken a look at Psalm 82. And he's quoting that in the Gospel of John chapter 10.

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So, yeah. That means you're a God. You have the power to make a decision.

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You can take your own life or you can face life. Oh, man. I would be, I would make the most miserable deity ever.

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No, I'm quite happy being a creature, being completely dependent upon the one

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God that is, and having no aspirations to deity myself. In fact,

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I've given it up. Yeah. For your sake, I hope this doesn't work. Why not? Once I'm a

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God, I'm sending you straight to hell. I'm offering you immortality.

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It's not for thanks, I guess. So, yeah. I found that trying to be like God, when

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I do that, I am the most like the devil. Yeah. And so I had to repent of it.

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So I have permanently demoted myself to human creature. Yeah.

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Because that's always what I have been and always what I will be. And meet the challenges of life or you can die.

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Either one you want. You make that decision. That's right. You know, animals are under the dominion of mankind, basically.

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I know today animals get out of control, but they don't really have a free will like humans do.

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Humans can make a choice. Now, we are the offspring of God in the sense that God created us in his image.

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He breathed life into Adam and he became a living soul. And then we were corrupted by Satan who took us captivity.

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You're quoting the Bible again. You must be devoted to literature and I bet you sneak air conditioning into your church too.

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I bet you do. Could you imagine having to have

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Christmas dinner with these two? Oh, boy.

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Yeah. That's one year. Whoa, whoa. Yeah, my car broke down.

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Really? What happened? I think I need to change the oil. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, can't make it.

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And he wants to make slaves out of us. He doesn't want us to do our own will.

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And he sure doesn't want us to do the will of God. He wants us to do his will.

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But we are gods because we're not like animals. Well, there you go.

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That's one of the most amazing arguments I've ever heard. We are gods because we're not like animals.

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Okay. Yeah, that one's as sharp as a bag full of wet mice.

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Okay. Have a choice. We have our own will. Many times people do not do even the will of the devil, let alone the will of God.

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And Satan gets very angry if you do not do his will. But God lets you have a choice.

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I have said you are gods and all of you are children of the Most High. Even Lucifer and his angels were created by God.

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God is the father of spirits. You'll note that anything created by God would automatically not be in the category of God.

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Yeah. See, Yahweh himself is self -existing. He has existed all the way into eternity past, into the present.

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He always has been, always will be. There never was a time that he wasn't. He's the creator of heaven and earth, of time and space.

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And because we have a beginning and he don't, we definitely ain't gods.

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The inconsistency here is mind -boggling. I mean, can you say cognitive dissidence squared?

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I mean, cubed maybe even, you know. So in that sense, we are all children of God.

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Although Satan and his angels and all of mankind see are fallen children of God.

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If you understand this, you'll understand yourself better. They said, for God knows, this is what

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Satan was telling Eve. Said, God knows that in the day... Yeah, you're quoting that idol again.

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You know, you're quoting the mark of the beast to try to make your point. I just,

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I'm beginning to doubt that you actually think that the Bible is the mark of the beast. Because it seems like all your theology is extremely dependent upon your weird readings of the

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Bible. Days that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

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So you know good and evil. So you can choose good or you can choose evil. A lot of people choose religion and that's evil, but you can choose

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God. I assure you what you guys are promoting here on YouTube is a religion. Self -made one.

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Just one you kind of like rolled yourself and clearly you're smoking it.

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So yeah, this is your own man -made religion for sure. This is not biblical

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Christianity. But yeah, cognitive dissonance, squared, cubed.

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It's wow. Fun and live forever. Well, they think that doing good in the flesh is good and not doing evil in the flesh.

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But in the garden, Adam and Eve, before they partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they just were sons of God.

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They were holy. But when they partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the woman saw that it was good.

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You're quoting the Bible again. Yeah, you're quoting the

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Bible again. Yeah. To be eaten for fruit. And it was good to make one wise.

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It was good for the flesh, but it was evil because they'll do anything to get their will in the flesh, the things they want.

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They let God, instead of being in the God nature, they become in the dog nature.

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Spell God backwards and you're going to see dog. Satan got them after the flesh because you can bring an animal under your subjection.

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Yeah. And so Satan brought mankind into an animal state so he could bring them under subjection to him.

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And so you have a will because you are a God. And the Lord said, behold, the man has become as one of us.

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You're quoting the Bible again. Yeah. Yeah, if you're going to do this, you know, claiming that the

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Bible is the mark of the beast, you got you got merged all to this effect. Bible's an idol. You don't get to quote it.

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Just you can't make this stuff up. To know good and evil. Now, let's see, put forth his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever.

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Now listen to what you become. You become a God. Prepare to feel my wrath.

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Now, I want you to answer this question. A covenant means an agreement. This is the covenant that I will make with them as of those days, saith the

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Lord. You're quoting another section of the Bible. Visual cues are it's still in effect here.

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Put my laws in their hearts and in their mind. Will I write them? Why does he make a covenant with us?

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Because we're gods. So how exactly did you cross that chasm of logic?

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I'm curious by what route that you accomplished this, you know, because I'm pretty sure evil

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Knievel couldn't jump that gap. And I was a big fan of evil Knievel.

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And so I'm pretty sure the bow and Luke Duke couldn't jump that one either.

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How did you do that? So there you go. So look, God made a covenant with them. And the reason because that because we're gods, you mean

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God's incapable of having a covenant with human beings unless they are deities?

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How do you figure that? And like a man that owns a farm, he said, son, if you work the farm and you're here all the time,

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I won't leave you the farm. Well, God makes agreement with us because we're gods. And that's why he makes covenants with us.

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And that's why we're here today to tell you that you are God. You can decide to serve the

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Bible or you can serve the spirit. Yeah. So whatever you do, don't serve the Bible, man.

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You got to serve the spirit. But Harland and Diane here really spent a lot of time quoting from the

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Mark of the Beast and the idol that they're trying to convince us to not be. I don't get this at all.

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This is bonkers. So, yeah.

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So hopefully you found the little nugget of biblical teaching that we threw in there.

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That'd be helpful. As for Harland and Diane, I pray for them.

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Wow. This is a strong delusion that those two are under. And they are just inconsistent beyond belief.

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So there you go. That's why they made it into a dumpster fire segment. And yeah, if you find other segments like this, send them my way.

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My email address is talkbackatfightingforthefaith .com. And we're always looking for new material.

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But whew, that was pretty bad. So if you found this helpful, yeah, all the information on how you can share the video is down below.

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And as always, I need to remind you that Fighting for the Faith, we're supported by the people we serve. So if you don't already financially support us, all the information on how you can support us financially by joining our crew, sending in a one -time contribution, even making a donation online, all that information is down in the description.

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And so let me thank you for your support. We truly can't do what we're doing here without it.

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And now may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.