"Don't Be Stupid" the Message of the Bible - AD on FLF Network Video Version

Hello there, this is AD Robles, and you're listening to AD on the Fight Laugh Feast Network. Alright, alright, well, today I want to start off, I haven't started this way in a while, but I just wanted to remind you that if you enjoy this content on the Fight Laugh Feast Network, please consider becoming a club member.

It would be greatly appreciated, especially at an uncertain time like this, if you want to support us and make sure that we can continue pumping out the good content here. I'll just say it, I'm just going to say it, I know it's going to sound very self-serving, but it's true.

You are not going to find a group of people that are thinking more level-headedly, refusing to despair, rejecting fear, and rejecting all of the insanity that we're seeing. We're seeing a lot of insanity out there these days, aren't we?

We're not getting a whole lot of clear thinking from a lot of our leadership, and that's not just political leadership, but also church leadership and things like that. A lot of muddled thinking, a lot of sort of pious-sounding rhetoric, but really, when you look at the meat and potatoes of what people are saying, there's really not a lot of substance there.

Not a lot that you can hold onto, and we're going to actually explore a little bit of that in the episode today. But if you want to continue to see more of this stuff, we've got lots of plans. We've got lots of plans for the Fight Laugh Feast Network.

Please consider becoming a club member. Use the show code ROBLES, R-O-B-L-E-S. Also, I am selling shirts, t-shirts, that say No Despair on them, No Despair 2020. This is a perfect year for a t-shirt that says No Despair 2020.

So if you want to support me in particular, go ahead and purchase one of the No Despair t-shirts. I will put the link in this description for this podcast as well. All of that being said, let's jump right into it today.

The Bible as a Guide to Not Acting Like a Fool

There's a lot of ways you could summarize the message of the Bible. And they're not contradictory. They're not wrong ones, wrong ones, right? Well, some of them are probably wrong. That's probably true.

But there are a few different ways you can do it. Some people say, well, the Bible's about God. And that's certainly true. The Bible is first and foremost about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There's no question about that.

Some people will say the Bible is about how God loves his people. That's also true. A lot of people will say, well, the Bible's about Jesus and the gospel and things like that. That's also true. The Bible can also be described as an explanation of our transition from wrath to grace.

That's a really good I love that explanation, from wrath to grace. That's what the Bible's about. But there's something else that the Bible's about. If you really sit down and think about it, the Bible can be summarized as an explanation for how to not be an idiot.

That's right. The Bible tells people how to not be morons. That's very true. You know, morons and the word moron, it's got its roots in Greek, and it means foolish, right? And if you look at the scriptures and you look up the word fool, and there's a variety of forms, different words that are used and translated as fool.

The Bible references fools very often. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. It also talks about foolishness a lot in the Proverbs, and the Proverbs also says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise correction.

I think that's it. Did I misquote that? I might have misquoted that. But yeah, there's a lot of times in the Proverbs, especially where it talks about being a fool, and the reality is that there's a lot of fools today.

Anyone who rejects scripture outright at the forefront, I mean, the first thing you know about someone when they reject scripture, they say, well, that didn't come from God. I don't believe the Bible's from God.

You know one thing right off the bat, that they're a fool. That's what the Bible says. The Bible says that they're a fool because the fear of the Lord, if it's the beginning of knowledge, only a fool would reject the foundation, the beginning of knowledge.

The fool says in his heart, there is no God. And so when somebody tells you they reject the Bible outright, you know right away that they're a fool. But unfortunately, there are a lot of people who don't reject the Bible outright, who do believe in the Lord, who do trust in the Lord, but sometimes still act foolishly.

And if we're all honest with ourselves, we know that despite how much work the Lord has done on us, despite all of the sanctification, the regenerating of our hearts and our minds, and the making us holy that the Holy Spirit has done for us since we turned to Christ, despite all of that, there are still times when you and I act like fools.

And for the Christian, someone who understands that without Christ, they're a sinner before God, there's nothing good in them, in and of themselves. But because we have Christ's righteousness, because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross and all of that, God sees us as holy, and God has us, has claimed us as his covenant people.

So we have that. We know that. And so now when we read the Scripture, we can look at some of the things that it says that we should do, and some of the things that it says we shouldn't do, and how to, essentially as a guide, how to not act like a fool.

How to not act like an unbeliever. How to not act like an atheist. And that this is especially important in complicated situations like this coronavirus situation. There are so many moving parts to it, right?

There's so much craziness going on, and it's not all related. Like, you know, we've got oil prices tanking. We've got the economy shut down. We've got, can you go outside? Should you go inside? The governor's telling you you can't have church.

What do we do? Like, there's just so many moving parts here. It's just, and part of me thinks that's by design. That this is just, there's so many targets here. It's hard to even keep up with all of this insanity that's going on.

And so it could be, it's very easy to want to despair, but we must not despair. We must not despair, because the Bible tells us what to do in almost any situation. Now the details might be different, but God gives you a handbook for how to not act like a fool.

We don't need to be groping in the dark like, okay, the corona, what do I do? Maybe I'll choose this solution. Maybe I'll choose that solution. I don't know. Like, we're over here rubbing two sticks together, trying to figure out how to light a fire.

But God has provided us with a blowtorch. He's given us the foundation. He's given us the law. He's given us the wisdom literature. We should have the ability to apply this stuff in every situation. This is just an example I'm going to use.

But you could, in anything that you see, any article that you see about a government policy or something like that, like this is just an example. You could apply this kind of an analysis to any situation.

The Paycheck Protection Program, Unemployment, and the Incentive Not to Work

This is an article that I saw that there's a small business owner, a woman. And she owned, I guess she owned a spa, I think it was. Yeah. She got a spa, and so she had to like furlough her people or something like that.

Or they were working or something like that. And she couldn't pay her people anymore because the spa had to close because of coronavirus. And so she had to like let people go. I don't know if she furloughed them or if she fired them or whatever.

But anyway, the government comes in. They say, well, hey, what we're going to do is we're going to give you loans, small business loans. And what we'll do is we'll give you loans, but most of the money has to go to the employees.

Most of the money has to go to the employees. And you can pay for other things like expenses, things like that. But you can't fire anybody because if you fire anybody after you've taken this loan, then you have to pay the loan back.

But if you don't fire anybody, then it'll be just a grant. We'll forgive the loan. So the intention is that you get to keep your employees. The whole program is called the Paycheck Protection Program.

So even in the name of it, the intention is to protect people's paychecks. So she gets on a call. She gets on a call with her 35 employees. And she says, good, great news, guys. Great news. I've got the Paycheck Protection Loan so I can pay you all.

I can keep you guys on salary. Isn't this great? And her employees are pissed. They were like, no, this is not great. And you might be asking yourself, well, why would they be pissed? That doesn't make any sense.

They were fired. And now they're not fired. This is great. They weren't getting a paycheck. And now they are getting a paycheck. This is wonderful. Well, this is why they're pissed. Because also, along with the Paycheck Protection Program, the Congress also had the genius idea of guaranteeing unemployment insurance benefits and adding to them.

And so whatever the unemployment insurance you would have gotten, they add $600 a week on top of that. And these employees are making more from unemployment insurance than they would be making if they have a job.

And so you can't blame these employees. Because if you're being given money to not do anything, and you don't even have to look for work under the new rules. That's the other thing. Normally in unemployment insurance you have to look for work.

But now they kind of relaxed that requirement because it's just impossible. They don't want you outside looking for work because it's COVID, coronavirus. So you're making more to do nothing. And then your employer comes along and says, hey, I want to hire you back, but I can't pay you as much as you're making to do nothing.

The short-term rational decision is, well, I don't want to do anything because I'm making more doing nothing. You can't blame those people for that. Now you could argue that short-term, yeah, you'll make a little bit more.

But long-term, if the company closes because she has to reject this loan and she can't pay her other expenses, well, that's a problem for you long-term. But short-term, they're making a rational decision.

You can't blame them. You don't get mad at the people for not wanting to work, except for one thing, and we'll get back to that in a minute. But the reality is that was this intentional? Did the government do this intentionally to make this disincentive to actually have a job?

Like you're actually de-incentivized to work if you get more money from unemployment than you get from working at, I don't know, the grocery store or something like that. Did they intend that? I don't know.

I don't know if they intended that. The cynical part of me says, yeah, they sure did intend it because we often like to say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. But I like to think eventually you've got to stop assuming good intentions though.

You know what I mean? Like the more you keep walking towards hell, like eventually you're like, well, maybe you just want to go there. You know what I mean? Maybe we've got to stop assuming good intentions sometimes, I think.

But maybe they didn't intend this. Maybe they didn't. And so how did this happen? How was there a disincentive, a de-incentivization to work? These employees were pissed when they found out they had their jobs back.

And it's a rational kind of a feeling too. You can't blame them. How did this happen? Well, I'll tell you how it happened. Because we're over here grasping in the dark as if we don't know what to do. What do we do?

We've got to figure it out. I don't know. We're over here like two cavemen with a stick trying to light a fire desperately. We're working hard. We're working, but there's a little spark. There's a little smoke, but we can't light that fire.

You ever seen one of those survival shows when they're trying to start a fire with one of those rubbing two sticks together methods? And they're sweating. They're pouring sweat. It's just a lot of work.

They're sitting there for hours trying to start this fire. But God's given us a blowtorch. We could just go and the fire is out. Because in God's system, there is no unemployment insurance. In God's system, the government doesn't pay people to do nothing.

That's not allowed in God's system. It's not allowed in God's system. And so you might think, oh, that's heartless, Adam. That's heartless. How could you say that? How could you be so cruel? How could you say in a situation where we got the coronavirus, we all got to stay indoors and all this, how could you be so heartless?

Why do you hate poor people? I don't hate poor people. I don't hate poor people. Many in my family are poor. But I got this word. I got this word, and I have to follow this word. And in this word, it says, anyone who's not willing to work, let him not eat.

It says, anyone who is not willing to work, let him not eat. And so I've got this word. And I've got this word that says there is no such thing as unemployment insurance. It got this word that also says there is no such thing as quarantining healthy people.

So, like, we've created this problem from ourselves by rubbing two sticks together. We're trying to avoid this plague. What do we do? I got a great idea. Let's quarantine everybody. Yeah. And God's given us the blowtorch.

He's told us what to do. Someone has symptoms of a disease. You show yourself to the priest, and they tell you to quarantine yourself if you have it. And if you don't have it, you go about your business and take precautions.

Be wise. But there's no quarantining healthy people. This is insane. This is insane. God's system is there. It works. We've got the blowtorch. Why are we rubbing two sticks together? Trying to make it happen.

It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense. And the thing is, like, we all have to get over this, right? Like, I would rather be called heartless by every pagan neocon, by every fake conservative, by every crazy progressive socialist liberal on the planet than to be called fool by God.

I would rather be called heartless than be called a fool by God. Because God says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise correction. I don't remember off the top of my head.

Sorry. Hold on. Let me look it up. Yeah, I had it. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. And so I've got this word, and I've got to do something with this word.

Here's what I've got to do with it. Some people say, well, I've got to wrestle with it. I've got to struggle with it. Okay, sure. Wrestle and struggle, but ultimately submit to it. That's what you have to do.

That's what you have to do. So these people, I can't blame them for making the economically rational choice. I mean, if someone's going to pay me $1 ,000 to do nothing, and then someone's going to say, you can work for me for $500, and I need the money now, then that's the rational choice to take the $1 ,000 to do nothing.

But the thing is, though, for Christians, though, we can't act that way because we need to remember that what God said is, if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. And so that's the situation that we find ourselves in.

We cannot allow ourselves to fall for this idea that we've got to figure this one out. We're in the dark. We've got to poke around and say, no, we're not in the dark, man. We've got a flashlight. We've got a blowtorch.

Let's not act like we're handicapped somehow. We don't understand what to do. No, God gave us the tools for what to do. Somebody pushed back when I shared this article on Twitter today, and he said, well, you know, if unemployment insurance pays more than you do, then maybe you need to reconsider the wages.

And the idea that he was putting forward is that a Christian cannot just have a profit motive. He has to also consider equity. He cannot have a profit motive. He can't try to get the most out of his employees for the least amount of money.

And at least this guy was consistent. He also said that an employee can't try to get the most out of his employer at his expense. He was at least consistent enough to do that. This is obviously an intelligent person.

He didn't want to have that inconsistency. Most people wouldn't care about that inconsistency, but this guy did. I'll give him credit. But the reality is that he's using equity as a weasel word because God doesn't give price controls.

God seems to indicate in his scripture that whatever two people agree to voluntarily, that contract ought to be enforced. That's what's fair. So if I am a spa worker and I decide to accept a contract for $15 an hour, then that's totally fair, or I can renegotiate it.

And the way this guy was using words like, oh, you can't do it at their expense. Well, every single transaction that we have is at someone else's expense. It sounds very pious. It sounds very nice. Yeah, I don't want to do anything at somebody else's expense.

But think about any transaction, any transaction that you've ever done. So just the other day, I'll give you an example. Just the other day, I bought some Sunoco stock, the gas company, Sunoco stock. I bought Sunoco stock at about $20 a share.

And the reason I bought Sunoco stock at $20 a share is because I believe that Sunoco stock is going to be worth more than $20 a share in the future. I think in the near future, to be honest. But I don't know that for a fact.

It's a little bit of a risk. But I bought Sunoco stock from someone. Now, it wasn't a face-to-face transaction, but I bought it from someone. Somebody sold it. I bought it. And when I bought Sunoco stock, let's just say the price goes to $35 per share.

So I'm making $15 per share on that transaction. You could say, you could argue that I'm making that money at the other person's expense. That guy was foolish, and I won. I was the smart guy. I bought a silver mining stock the other day at like $1 a share.

And today, it's, I think, worth like almost $1 .70. So I almost made 70%, I think, on this stock in like two weeks. And so you might say, well, dude, you robbed that person. You robbed that person who sold you those shares of that silver mining company.

And it's like you can only use that kind of rhetoric when you're not thinking biblically. I didn't rob anybody. I went to the market, and I said, hey, I'd like to buy this company for $1 a share. Is anyone interested in selling me this for $1 a share?

Now, when we entered that transaction, I was thinking to myself, this is worth a lot more than $1 a share. That's why I'm willing to pay for it. And that person was thinking about me. He was thinking, those dollars are worth more than my shares.

So this guy's an idiot. I'm going to get one over on this guy. And we were both thinking that. We were both trying to not take advantage of each other in a bad way, but we were both trying to get the better end of the deal.

And when we walked away from that transaction, we both thought to ourselves, we had the better end of the deal. The person would rather have the dollars than the shares. I would rather have the shares than the dollars.

And that was a voluntary, beautiful market transaction. Nobody abused the other. Nobody got one over on the other. And yet, if I sold those shares today, I would have gotten the better end of the deal, at least in my opinion.

But who knows? Maybe that guy needed the cash right then and there. And it was worth it to him, even though he thought it might go up. It was worth it for him to have the cash. That's the thing. When you enter a business arrangement, you might think, man, I really think I'm worth $20 an hour.

And the spot owner might only be able to give you $15 an hour. And you take it because you need the cash. That all goes into it. That goes into the voluntary transaction. The market is beautiful. And not only is the market beautiful, but the market was invented by God.

The market was God's idea. He said, look, I can have both of these parties be motivated to profit, to increase what they have, to make revenue, to increase their net worth. And I can do it in a way that's completely voluntary.

That both people can be satisfied with the transaction. God invented the market. And so when you rail and say, well, the market is not enough. We need something else. Price controls, equity, whatever it is that you're saying.

You're telling God that his idea was not good enough. That's what you're telling him. And that's not something that I'm willing to do. Anyway, that's what I wanted to talk about today. I hope you found this video helpful.

God bless. Don't forget to tune in next week on Thursday for AD on the Fight, Laugh, Feast Network.