Reading is Overrated and The Gospel According to Sargon of Akkad

You know, when I was in college, I was the lead singer of a rock band, and you know, we played a number of gigs, I don't know, maybe 20 gigs, in town and in D .C.

and stuff like that. And one of the things we used to do, we used to cover Creed songs. I've said this before,

I like Creed. I don't know, what can I say? But there's this one song, it's stuck in my head, and it goes like this, it goes,

Children, don't stop dancing. Believe, I don't know why it's in my head,

I don't know why. But it just is, let's jump into it today. John Harris, I gotta thank you. If you guys follow, if you guys don't follow

John Harris, first of all, what is wrong with you? He's got a great channel. And he's got a very different style than mine, but in my opinion, he's very informative, and I personally listen to John Harris' podcast probably more than any other podcast.

Sorry, guys, you know, Fight, Laugh, Feast, guys, I love you guys, and I listen to your podcast too, but I like John, man,

I don't know, I don't know what it is. But anyway, yesterday, I had missed my workout in the morning, and it was about 3 o 'clock, and I'm like, man,

I gotta go throw some plates around, you know what I mean? No, I gotta go work out.

So I needed something to listen to while I worked out, and it just so happened that John had just recently released this video, and it's about a

Tim Keller book that if you know me, if you know how I came to faith, you know this book was integral. It's a book called

The Prodigal God, and I read

The Prodigal God. It was referenced in a sermon that I had listened to. I'd gone to my father's house in Ohio, so I went to church, and I was a complete pagan, you know, living like the devil, you know, that kind of thing.

And I went to my father's house for Thanksgiving, went to his church, and this pastor just kept referencing this book, and so I went home and I bought the book,

I read it. I don't remember if I was weeping at the time, but I was very emotional when I read this book, because I was that prodigal son, right?

And Tim Keller, you know, one of the things he is good at is he's good at rhetoric. And so the emotions started flowing, and I was just like, man,

I gotta do something. And so I looked at the author, and it turns out he pastored a church in New York City, and I lived in New York City.

And so I went to his church a few times, and you know, the rest is history, you know, that kind of thing.

But I have not read The Prodigal God since I've come to understand what God is like, and understand the

Bible a little better, and things like that. I always had the feeling, though, that it probably wasn't as good as I remember it.

You know what I mean? I've heard stories of people getting saved, and one of the things that led them on that path was reading the book

The Shack. The book The Shack is horrible, and it's like, but, but, but it gets people thinking about spiritual things, and sometimes people can, you know,

Christ can find people through that horrible, horrible book. That can happen. It doesn't mean that you should recommend these books, it just means that it can happen.

And so I kind of had this feeling, though, knowing what Tim Keller is now, that there's probably stuff in that book that I don't want to face.

You know what I mean? Because that's part of my story, and it's like, it's almost too hard to face. But I wanted to do it, and this is a perfect opportunity for me to do it.

And John did a great job sort of, kind of reframing this book to understand really what he's up to.

And he's really, this is an anti -church book. This is an anti sort of, you know, it's an antinomian book for sure, but there's a lot of things going on here that are subtle if you're not paying attention.

But it's not good. It's not good. And so I recommend you watch this video.

It's called What Hath Tim Keller Wrought? And it's, when I was listening to this podcast, you know, because there's a lot of books like this that like I read when

I was younger, but like I probably wouldn't recommend now, but they did help me along, but there's a lot of risk in these books as well because there's error mixed with truth.

But I haven't really re -read these books because like I said, I almost don't want to face it. You know what

I mean? But that one line from Star Wars, which I think this line's really good.

I mean, the new movies kind of suck, but this line is really good. It's when Kylo Ren says, let the past die.

Kill it if you have to. Man, that's how I felt yesterday. But anyway, but one of the things that, one of the things that, so by the way, go watch this video.

It's a good video. But one of the things that John said about Tim Keller, which I know is true, is that he's got this

TED Talk style. And that was very appealing to me when I was a new Christian, this TED Talk style.

And he would reference these philosophers and stuff like that. And he just sounded like this wise yogi.

And it's like, wow, he's so smart. And I'm so smart for listening to it. And he obviously wants to appear very intelligent and very smart.

And he's just like, references this stuff. And you know, when you listen to it, you feel very sophisticated.

That's how I felt. Listen, I'm not proud of this, but this is how I felt. Man, I mean, he referenced

Foucault. I mean, I need to listen to some Foucault. Jacques Cousteau. Oui, oui. You know, like that kind of stuff. And so like,

I would feel smarter having heard him. This is not like necessarily a good impulse, but that's how it was.

But there's just this air of Tim Keller that really, really wants to appear smart. Speaking of people that want to appear smart,

I was just thinking about this as well. This is going to be a transition in this video.

There's this thing, and it's not just the woke that do this. This is something that a lot of people do, where they just have this idea that reading, in and of itself, is like the solution to our problems.

It's like a good in and of itself. And it's like, well, why don't you read a book? Read a book.

That's how you get right. That's how you get moral. You read more. If only people read more, we would have a better society.

And I got to say, reading is overrated. Reading is overrated. Now, what

I'm not saying is that reading is bad. What I'm not saying is that I don't read.

I used to read a lot more than I do now, I'll admit that. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't enjoy reading.

Some people really do enjoy reading. But I think, and I think you all kind of know this, when you enjoy reading, it's like one of those things that you have to tell everybody about, because it kind of makes you feel superior.

Because there are people out there that really don't enjoy reading that much. So like, I was talking to a guy the other day, he seems like a real smart guy to me, and he says,

I don't read novels. I don't enjoy it. I don't feel like I get much out of it. I like to read. I read, you know,

I read a book yesterday about the World War II, or the Great War. And you know, it's like, I like that stuff.

I just don't read novels. It's not my thing. But it almost is like he was like ashamed to admit it. Because there's this thing where it's like, if you read, then you're like superior.

You're like, you're like up here. If you don't read, you're like down here. And honestly, like, reading doesn't solve anything, guys.

Like reading doesn't solve anything. Because there's a lot of awful books out there.

And there's a lot of awful books that a lot of people think are smart. So the peer pressure on you to think it's smart is also good.

I'll never forget this. I remember I bought the Barack Obama book because I had heard, what was it,

The Audacity of Hope. This is when I realized reading was overrated. I bought

The Audacity of Hope because I kept hearing how intelligent it was and how smart it was. It was just an amazing work of genius and all this.

And I just kept hearing this and hearing this. And I was like, yeah, you know, okay, I got to read it. I mean, Barack Obama, he gave the best speech on race since Martin Luther King.

I mean, this guy's obviously intelligent. So I bought the book and I started reading it. This was the most boring book

I have ever. I didn't finish it. Did I finish it? Man, I can't even remember. But I do remember thinking this was awful.

This is not smart. This is not intelligent. This is really dumb. And so I just, I don't know if I threw it away, but I just put it down and I just didn't finish it.

I mean, I don't know. There's this idea that reading is this superior pastime.

And if you're not reading, then what good are you? And I just got to say, that's not true. That's not true.

There are plenty of men out there. Look, reading is for certain kinds of people. What I mean is that not that reading shouldn't, everyone shouldn't read.

No, everybody should read. But what I'm saying is like this whole thing, look at the screen here. Russell Moore really wants you to think that he is super intelligent.

So what does he do with his set? He sets it up in his library, in his study. And he's got all his books, all of these books.

Some of them are even leather bound. It's like, look at these books. I'm just so well read. It's like this thing where you kind of present yourself in a certain way and it's like, okay, but he's an academic and that's fine.

If you're an academic, this is your life. Reading is your life. And so if you're a plumber, you might read.

You might be interested in, you know, the Great War. You might be interested in a certain historical thing.

Maybe you're interested in novels. Maybe you like Star Wars books. I read some novels. Not that many. I read some novels.

You know the ones I read? The ones I'm interested in. You know the ones I'm interested in? The Star Wars novels. Timothy Zahn's novels are great.

But the thing is like, there's almost like this embarrassment that you're expected to have if you're not spending your evenings reading.

I'll never forget this one meme where it's like, enough of the man cave. Let's bring back the study.

And it's like, okay, I see what you're saying. Yeah, like sports are kind of a waste of time.

But, you know, look, let's just face it. Like, not every guy needs a study. They just don't.

Pastors need studies because that's a big part of their job. Academics need studies. But you see, not every man has to be an academic and a pastor.

I've got books. I have books. I don't display them. And it's an intentional choice. And listen, I know this sounds petty, but like everyone nowadays, because we're so used to Zoom calls, makes an intentional choice about their set, what they present themselves.

It's saying something about me, what you see back here. I've got my fishing rods back there. I've got a picture of the

Rangers winning the Stanley Cup. I've got my kids' drawings up there. Let's see, what else do I got up there? I've got a clock.

I've got a sword. I've got a Boba Fett, not a Boba Fett, the Mandalorian.

I've got some certain things back there. Listen, that's presenting something about me.

And the thing is, we all know the one Zoom guy who takes the Zoom calls from his kitchen table. So it's like,

I just don't care. Yeah, he's presenting something, too, though. Let's just face it. When you take your

Zoom calls in terrible lighting at the kitchen table, that's saying something, too. You know what

I mean? The person who thinks I'm not saying anything by my clothes is the one that's saying something the most aggressively with their clothes.

But anyway, reading doesn't solve anything. You've got to read the right books. You've got to read the right books. Like, if you read

Rush Dooney's Institutes of Biblical Law, that's a totally different thing than reading

James Cone, you know, Kill Whitey kind of thing. Like, both are reading, but they're not equal.

They're not equal. And I'm not even saying read only things you agree with. That's not what I'm saying. But one has value, and the other is completely worthless.

You still might want to read the worthless stuff to know what, you know, these other people are thinking, because, you know, there's a lot of people out there thinking like James Cone these days.

So you might want to read that. But you don't have to. That might be good for an academic or someone who's writing a book about social justice or something like that.

But if you're just a regular Joe, you don't have to read the doo -doo if you don't have time to read it. You don't have to enjoy learning how to read and consume the doo -doo.

You just don't have to. So I don't know. I wanted to say that because there's just this air of reading books.

Look, I would say this. I'm not saying this is only the woke. But if you look at any woke podcast and all the chances are there when they're taking their phone calls, they're taking it in front of their many, many thick multi -volume works.

They're trying to say something through that. Don't feel bad if you don't spend all your time reading.

Don't feel bad if you have a man cave. I don't really have a man cave. I have an office. But if you could see,

I've got fishing lures over here. People might say this is a man cave.

I don't have a study. And I'm fine with it. It's almost like when you take your calls in front of your many leather bound books.

It almost displays a little bit of an insecurity there. Anyway, all that to say, speaking of academics.

Oh man, this is an interesting gab from Sargon of Akkad.

Now, Sargon of Akkad is a YouTuber and a podcaster from the

UK. And he's an interesting character. You know, he's got a pretty popular

YouTube channel. He talks about politics. He talks about society, social justice, all this kind of stuff, feminism.

And I agree with much of what he has to say. He also is an atheist. So obviously, I don't agree with all of it.

He used to be a more aggressive atheist, one of those kind of village atheist types, the annoying kind.

But now he's kind of softened on that. And I think that that's what happens often when you're an atheist that has a decent head on your shoulders.

You're not just a zombie atheist. Oftentimes, you kind of grow less aggressive over time.

Because you actually do see the value in Christianity and all of that.

But he's not a Christian, so I don't want to say he is. But this is an interesting post. I'm not going to read it all because it's pretty long.

But basically, what he said is that he thinks the time for trolling has passed because he says that the power of trolling is to expose idiots, right?

You know, you expose the mask and it looks, oh, look, he's a fraud. You know what I mean? He's a snake oil salesman.

And it's almost like it's a spell breaking thing when you're trolling the right way. But it's really only useful for people that are frauds.

And what he's saying here is that, yeah, there are a lot of frauds out there. There are a lot of idiots. But the people that are kind of pulling the strings are very intelligent.

And they've been scheming for hundreds of years in some cases on how to change society, how to create a communist hellhole for everybody else to live in and all of this.

And I don't disagree with him. I think he's right. I think he's definitely right. So he's diagnosing the issue very well.

But this is the thing. And this is the problem that I think pretty much every atheist has. While they can diagnose the problem fairly well, not completely, but fairly well, they do two things consistently.

One is they give people way too much credit. They give people way too much credit.

And I think that that's because in their universe, there is no God. And so man is like the pinnacle.

And so man is very capable and maybe even potentially close to infinitely capable and perfect and all of these things.

They're very man -centered. And so man, as the pinnacle of nature, is the most capable being ever, the most cunning being ever, and all of that.

And so we have to fight fire with fire is what he's saying. So in other words, we're facing these intelligent people.

And so we need to beat them at their own game. We need to beat them as intellectuals because we can't pretend like our enemy is a bunch of morons because they're not.

And so we can't fight moronic. We can't fight intelligent people with foolish games is essentially what he's saying.

We got to fight fire with fire. We got to fight intelligence with intelligence. And so this is like a call for, you know, basically like philosophical, intellectual, you know, he calls them crusaders.

That's what he says. He calls them crusaders. And again, I find this so interesting about atheists.

They can't help but use religious -sounding language when they're talking about their things because it is religious, because God is there.

And this is a spiritual battle. See, that's the other thing. That's the other thing that atheists consistently mess up.

So they give man too much credit and they misdiagnose, no, they don't misdiagnose, they misapply solutions, right?

Because he's trying to fight this as a philosophical crusade, as an intellectual crusade.

And all of that sounds very spiritual, right? And in fact, you can even see, listen to what he says.

He says, the fight, the right must construct the framework of modern alternative that addresses modern issues and prevents leftist corruption of its metaphysics in order to draw away the lost souls that have been enchanted by the forces of disorder.

Providing a better alternative to the debauched swamp of left -wing politics is the only way to win.

This is all very spiritual -sounding language. He's talking about saving lost souls through a crusade.

He's talking about enchanting people or disenchanting people that have been enchanted by the liberal hellhole scape that has been created.

And it's like, right, but you can't do these things without having this framework that is reality, the spiritual enchanting framework of reality.

Like we need to be enchanted by what's real, not by what's fake, right? And so God has created, we do have to save lost souls, but they're lost for a very particular reason.

And they've got a very particular problem. And there's a very particular solution. And it's like, man,

Sargon, you're like, you're right there. You're right there. You're exactly right. This is a spiritual thing.

But, and this is basically where Sargon's at. I was like, you know, reading and academics, that's the only thing that can solve this.

And it's like, no, actually, it's the foolishness of preaching. It's the foolishness of preaching.

And the thing is, that doesn't exclude academics. That doesn't exclude philosophy.

Like, yes, those things are valuable. They're part of this world. And God has given us what to, you know, the truth of these things.

And he's also hidden some things away from us. And we get to search that stuff out. So it's not like we have this book and we never learn.

No, no, no. We've got this book. It gives us the guardrails. It gives us the truth. But there's lots of, he's revealed some things, but then he's hidden other things.

And so we still have this great place to live with full of mysteries, full of things to explore, full of things to discover.

And it's awesome. And so we need the academics as well as the philosophy. But here's the trick, guys.

When you accept God's worldview, his framework, because that's what a framework is. It's a worldview. When you accept the worldview presented by God as real, which is real, is real.

I meant Israel, not Israel. All of these things are legitimate.

You see, trolling is totally legitimate because God is there. Laughing and making jokes and mockery is totally legitimate because God is there.

Yes, academics and books, books, everything. But also you could be just a great fisherman and fight this fight and accept the real framework and do what

God has actually said, make disciples of all nations. That's what Sargon is talking about here, making disciples.

Of a better secular nation. That doesn't work. It's not going to work that way.

Secularism always tends towards this kind of tyranny that you're trying to fight here. And there's only one way out of this.

And that is accepting the worldview presented by the triune

God of Scripture. It's just that simple. Sargon is so close. You can even see the language, the spiritual language that he's talking about here.

But he's wrong about this. He's wrong about this. Academics will not save us. Philosophy will not save us.

There's only one thing that can save us. And that is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ preached, applied to sinners, saving sinners, not only for heaven later, but for today, for now.

So that we can sort of start building, right? That's what the second part of the Great Commission is.

It's like, yes, you get baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And then you are a disciple.

You start learning everything that Christ commands. Everything. And you use that framework, that worldview to go and to build and then discover, make new discoveries to do all.

That's the solution here, guys. That's the solution. You need to have your sins forgiven. You become regenerate, born again, and then get to work.

And then all kinds of work is legitimate. Academics, totally legitimate. Philosophy, totally legitimate.

Fishermen, totally legitimate. Troll, totally legitimate. Is that a real job, trolling? I don't know. I don't know, man.

I hope this episode made sense. I tried to tie it all together like a real pro, but you know, I'm not really one.