F4F | Progressive Idolatry

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. Now, in all of my years of doing

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Christian apologetics, being a public theologian and a pastor, you know, one of the things that just baffles me is when people call themselves

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Christians, but they invent their own gods. Yeah, there's a term for that.

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It's called idolatry. It's a breaking of the first commandment. First commandment is, you will have no other gods before me.

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What does this mean? It means we should fear, love, and trust in the one true God above all things.

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We listen to Him and what He has revealed about Himself, but within the visible spectrum of the church.

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If you were to think of the church kind of like a spectrum, you know, within the visible church itself, the the devil has sown weeds among the wheat, tears among the wheat.

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That's the idea, and you can always tell by their theology that, you know, what they are.

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But all that being said, we're gonna spend some time today looking at examples of progressive idolatry, progressive idolatry, and then we'll take a look at what the

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Bible says both Old and New Testament as it relates to to idolatry.

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You sit there and go, well, Roseboro, why are you quoting them Old Testament texts? We're New Testament Christians.

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Yeah, the Old Testament and the New Testament agree. Idolatry es no bueno.

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It's really bad, and it'll send you to hell. Yeah, it makes you a heretic. But before we get started, let me whirl up the desktop.

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I want to give a upcoming conference. In June, June 24th and 25th, in Chicago, Illinois, I'm gonna be speaking at the 2022

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Issues Etc. Making the Case Conference. Now, if you do not listen to the Issues Etc.

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podcast, you need to be listening to the Issues Etc. podcast, especially today, especially as the world is heading into just absolute abject insanity.

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Issues Etc. will help you to have, you know, to frame up what's going wrong according to a biblical worldview.

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One of their slogans is that they're all about truth, speaking truth in an age of anti -truth.

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So, you know, they're not even sponsoring this video. You need to listen to their podcast.

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But in Chicago, at Concordia University, Chicago, I will be speaking along with William Barr, Al Muller, Dr.

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Pavi... I can't even pronounce that lady's last name... Pavi Rassanen, and then

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Joel Biermann, great fellow. Myself, Pastor Brian Wolfmuller, Pastor Will Whedon will be all speaking, and I'm going to be speaking on making the case for sola scriptura from Scripture alone.

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Can it be done? Yes, it can be. It's super simple. It's really easy to do. So, that's what my lecture is going to be on.

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And those of you who are watching, and it's like long past the date of the conference, don't worry.

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Just go to the issuesetc .org website, issuesetc .org. And in fact, that's how you get there, issuesetc .org.

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Click on the 2022 conference button, and you can register and attend. It's very reasonable.

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And if you ever wanted to meet me in person, this would be a great opportunity to do that. But anyway, if it's past the date, just go to issuesetc .org,

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and you'll see opportunities for purchasing the lectures for the conference from the previous years.

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So again, highly recommended. All of that being said, I'm going to throw one other plug in here.

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Many times I get questions about, where do you learn about finding Jesus in the

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Old Testament? Answer, this is not a bad book. This is a pretty good one. It's a recent book that came out from Concordia Publishing House, and it's called

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The Messiah Revealing Jesus in the Old Testament. It reads kind of like a textbook.

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So, it's not, it's prose are a little stilted. But if you're looking for some type of a workbook to work through and start to learn how to find

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Jesus in the Old Testament, this is a great book. So, you can go to cph .org

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and just look in the search bar for Messiah Revealing Jesus in the

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Old Testament. I recently downloaded the Kindle version of this and walked my way through a large portion of it.

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And very, very helpful, great book, good primer, a good kind of one -on -one text on learning how to see

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Jesus in the types and shadows in the Old Testament. So, throw that plug in. We won't even charge extra for it.

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Didn't charge anything for it anyway. All of that being said, boy, I want to get to that, but let's wait on this.

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So, we're gonna dive into our topic properly. The topic is progressive idolatry, progressive idolatry.

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And to help frame what we mean by this, this is the idea.

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Now, note, progressives who call themselves Christians, they still use words like God the

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Father, God the Holy Spirit. They use the word Jesus. And they might even talk about sanctification and read

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Bible texts and stuff like this. But here's the issue. How they define those words is different than the way the

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Bible defines them. So, that's the real problem. It's kind of sneaky. It's very cult -like if you think about it.

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But in fact, the late Walter Martin, one of the very last lectures he did before he died was on the cult of liberal theology.

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But the idea here is that just because somebody says the word

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Jesus doesn't mean that they're referring to the

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Jesus as defined by the parameters and the standards and the definition of Scripture.

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They make up their own definitions. Now, a decade ago, it might even be more than a decade ago now, a decade ago when we were doing the daily podcast, we did these sketches called

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Max Holiday Sketches. And we did a sketch called the

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Build a God Sketch. And this is going to help us to kind of frame up what's going wrong here.

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And so, without any further ado, let's go back in time. And we're going to listen to this, the

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Build a God Sketch from more than a decade ago from the podcast and let that kind of frame up what we're going to do.

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So, here we go. What do you provide?

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Do you want her to be kind, loving, compassionate, just, angry, righteous, wrathful?

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The goddess I believe in would only be loving and kind. Perfect. Now, is there any kind of sin that needs tending to by your goddess?

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Sin? You know, things like lying, cheating, stealing, murder, homosexuality.

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Well, I definitely want my goddess to be gay affirming. And sin itself just feels so negative.

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I'm a good person. And I think my goddess will think everyone else is too. Oh, wonderful.

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Your goddess is coming along beautifully. Now, we have to get to the difficult questions.

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Does your goddess offer an afterlife? Yes. My goddess would let everyone go to heaven, except for Hitler, Genghis Khan, and good for nothing ex -boyfriend.

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Oh, excellent. Excellent. Now, for the final step, you have to name your goddess.

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Hmm. I think I'm going to name her

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Jesus. Oh, wonderful. That's what everyone names their god.

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I think I'll name her Jesus. Right. You get the point.

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Is that when people are engaging in idolatry, they are naming their own deity that they created from their own imagination.

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But the weird thing is, is that in the visible spectrum of the church, when people do that, when they're engaging in idolatry, they always name their deity

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Jesus. Now, case in point, we're going to take a look at a recent tweet from Jory Micah.

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If you're not familiar with Jory Micah, she is a theological train wreck. So, Jory Micah from March 21st of this year.

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So, here's what she says. And she says she has, she always is very proud about this. She has an MA in Christian doctrine and history.

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Didn't seem to help. So, here's what it says. I believe very much in one higher power.

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I grew up calling him Jesus, but maybe you grew up calling them, her, he, someone else.

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That is idolatry. Yeah, that's right. Today's episode of Fighting for the Faith is brought to you by the word idolatry.

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That's a breaking of the first commandment. That's right. This isn't Christianity.

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Now, listen, you are free to believe whatever you want. Okay. You can use your freedom any old way you want to.

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You want to believe that, well, you know, God is, you know, a higher power.

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You're free to do that, but you don't get to do that within Christianity. So, for instance,

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I decided that I was going to convert to Buddhism and even better,

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I'm going to convert to Hinduism, right? And as part of my beliefs, I deny the existence of Shiva and Vishnu.

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Instead, I believe in Yeshu -nu, some new deity that I created.

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How well do you think the Hindus would embrace Yeshu -nu?

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I don't think they would at all. You get the idea. I'm making up my own stuff. People might politely say to me, you know, you can believe in Yeshu -nu if you want, but that's not

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Hinduism. Same thing here. This isn't Christianity. This is something else.

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In fact, those of you who know how to read these things, I think this is a telling photograph from her social media.

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Don't be scared, be light. And note here, she's kind of highlighting one of her eyeballs there.

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Now, some of you are saying, oh, she's a Freemason. Freemasonry doesn't allow women, but keep this in mind.

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There are sister societies that all kind of work under the same roof, if you would, you know,

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Order of the Eastern Star, the Hermetic Order of, you get the idea.

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There are other secret societies that allow initiates in, whereas Freemasonry doesn't.

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So, you can't say she's a Freemason, but that's pretty weird. That's some just weird stuff right here.

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So, you're going to note here, Freemasonry and other initiatic societies, which are steeped in Gnosticism, they require that you believe in a higher power.

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This particular photo was taken from the Masonic Temple in Washington, DC. And this is their altar.

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This is their center altar. This is the actual place where people go through the initiation ceremony for the 33rd degree of Freemasonry.

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And you're going to note here, look at all these different holy books. You see, in order to be a Freemason, you just have to believe in a higher power.

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And wouldn't you know it, the Masons, whichever higher power you believe in, well, you know, good on you.

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That's how they think. And that sounds a lot like, I believe in one higher power.

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Grew up calling him Jesus. Maybe you grew up calling them her, he, someone else. I can definitely say that ain't

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Christianity. That is idolatry. But before we get any further,

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I'm actually going to spend some time in the biblical texts. Let's take a look. Now, I heard about this from a social media account,

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Reformed in Christian. And then this particular clip is found on the Woke Preacher Clips YouTube channel.

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And in Iowa, in a Presbyterian church, PCUSA, they offered up a prayer recently.

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But the deity they were invoking definitely is not the same deity revealed in scripture or believed by biblical

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Christianity. Let's listen in on it. This past Thursday, March 31st was the

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International Transgender Day of Visibility. In the PCUSA, we welcome all of our transgender and queer siblings into this family and relationship with the creator

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God. So today I wish to pray a prayer that was written for this incredible day.

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All right. So the question on the table is going to be which deity is she going to be praying to? Who you pray with.

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Because already I can tell you that the deity who is, the deity who inspired the

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Old and the New Testaments, he's not in favor of the things that you've been describing.

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What? Maybe your God is asleep.

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Maybe he's on a journey. Maybe he's relieving himself. What on earth? The God of pronouns?

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We give praise to the great one. The one who is identifiable as God.

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I am what I am, you say. The great they. I am what?

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The great they? Which Old Testament or New Testament text refers to God as the great they?

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The incarnate he and she, the God of. The incarnate she?

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So God was incarnate in him, Jesus Christ.

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You see, the son of God, second person of the Trinity, humbled himself, took on human flesh.

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He was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, made man. Yeah, and he was circumcised, but there was no incarnate she.

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Trans being. Hang on a second. Let me back this up. I am what I am, you say. The great they.

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The incarnate he and she, the God of trans being.

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The God of trans being. Impregnating Mary, fathering

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God, breastfeeding God of many breasts. The God of many breasts.

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You shatter all stereotypes, making every single person male and female.

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Male and female, intersex, non -binary. No, scripture's clear.

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The God of the Bible, the God of biblical Christianity, creates human beings, male and female.

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You're invoking a different deity. Now, you're free to believe in that deity. I mean, for right now, but that deity doesn't exist.

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The deity you're invoking here, that deity is not the God of the scriptures. This is a different deity altogether.

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You're praying to your image. Exactly. And your image. Spectrum Rainbow God who put your.

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Spectrum Rainbow God, is he a care bear? What on earth? Non -binary in your image.

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Exactly. And your image. Spectrum Rainbow God who put your promise for non -violence in the symbol for queer love before humanity knew because you knew who had

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Joseph, who could not sleep with a woman and a beautiful lady's cloak, perhaps of rainbow colors before we knew.

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She's inferring that Joseph of the Old Testament, that the coat of many colors was because he was trans and that the reason why he didn't sleep with Potiphar's wife is because he was attracted to a different sex.

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How do you explain the fact that he had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh? Yeah.

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From Potiphar, a priestess of own. Yeah. He got married right after he was got out of prison.

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Yeah, that's a little inconvenient. You knew. God of pronouns who said you can call me he or she or they, whatever makes you feel closest to me.

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Well, that ain't the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible never said anything like that. So, I mean, they're invoking a deity.

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They're free to worship that deity. No problem if they want to do that, except for the

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God who is isn't going to be keen on that on the day of judgment. But this is a deity of their own making.

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Invisible and visible God on this day where visibility and celebration, belatedness, affirmation and acceptance is the bare minimum.

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Remind us that you are the God of pronouns. So you affirm and you celebrate them.

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God of Saul, Paul, Simon, Isaac, Jacob, Isaac, Simon, Peter, Abraham and Sarai and Abraham and Sarah.

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You know, you know, you dialed the wrong number here, you know. So, you know, you shouldn't have used the 666 area code.

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You just it doesn't work when you do that. See, you're trying to reach the God of the Bible, but everything in the early part of this prayer, you were invoking a different deity altogether.

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God of Joseph, of the coat of many colors, of the Ethiopian eunuch, of the Virgin Mary, God of all found families in the

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Bible, remind us that you affirm us in our full identity. Yeah.

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Christians have their identity in Christ. Yeah. Think of it as a baptismal identity, you know, because we're baptized in the name of the

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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God puts his name on us in our baptism. But again, the deity you're invoking here, it's a different deity than the

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God of the scriptures. And that's the problem. Now let's take a look at some scriptural texts along these lines.

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So, we're going to start, we're going to start, let's see here. I think I want to go here.

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There we go. So, Fundamentals 101. So many Christians nowadays have never learned or memorized the

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Ten Commandments, and that is a problem. And so, part of the way to learn how to think biblically requires you to actually know the

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Ten Commandments. They are relevant even for Christians today. First Commandment.

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You will have no other gods before me. Scripture's very clear. No other gods.

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Not a single, none, none other. All right? So, Isaiah 43 verse 10 and 11 says this,

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Yahweh is speaking. And by the way, you know, sometimes people say, why do you say Yahweh? Well, here's the reason why.

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So, when you look at your Old Testament text and you see the word Lord, and it's all capitals,

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L -O -R -D, yeah, behind that word is the

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Tetragrammaton right here. Yahweh. That's God's name.

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So, I do not go with the Pharisaical superstition and their imposition upon Christians that somehow you can't say

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God's name. That's ridiculous. God's name, every time I read a Hebrew text, I see it.

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Am I not allowed to so I always vocalize it. So, whenever I get to the word

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L -O -R -D, I vocalize God's actual name, Yahweh. So, you are my witnesses, declares

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

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Before me, no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. Full stop.

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Okay? I am Yahweh. Besides me, there is no savior. So, there are no other gods.

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So, idolatry is when you make a deity using your own imagination, and then you name it

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Jesus, or whatever. But that's the type of idolatry that is taking place today, thanks to so many people, including progressives.

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Isaiah 45 verses 5 and 6, I am Yahweh, there is no other. Besides me, there is no god.

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I equip you, though you do not know me, that may, that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none besides me.

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I am Yahweh, there is no other. Now, I could marshal a whole lot of texts along this line.

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But I just, that makes the point super clear. You will have no other gods.

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Are there any other deities? Nope. Nope. Biblical Christianity emphatically teaches that there is no other deity than the one true

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God. So, it's in that regard then, we'll take a look at the New Testament because I can hear some of you know, you're just pointing out stuff in the

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Old Testament. We live in New Testament time. All right. So, New Testament text, okay? First Corinthians chapter 8 verses 4 to 6.

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All right, we'll start here. Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no

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God but one. For although there may be so -called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, note the quotes, there are many gods, many lords.

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Yet for us, there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one

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Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. So, note then,

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First Corinthians chapter 10 has a whole section that the ESV titles,

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Warning Against Idolatry. Okay? We still need to be warned about idolatry.

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We need to learn how to spot it, how to flee from it, or in certain circumstances to confront it and rebuke it.

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First Corinthians 10. I don't want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, all passed to the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was

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Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

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Now, these things took place as examples for us, New Testament folks to follow, that we might not desire evil as they did.

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Do not be idolaters as some of them were, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and to drink, they rose up to play.

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We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and 23 ,000 fell in a single day.

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We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

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Now, these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come.

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Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation is overtaking you, that is not common to man.

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God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

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Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

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All right? So, if you're attending a church and that calls itself a Christian church, and they've prayed to a deity like that, run!

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Absolutely flee the building. By the way, there's a great story in the writings of the

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Church Fathers regarding the Apostle John. Now, the Apostle John ended up in the city of Ephesus, and he, think of him as like the apostle slash bishop of the churches in the city of Ephesus.

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This was for some time. And in one particular account, the Church Fathers write that the

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Apostle John had gone into one of the public bathing facilities for the purpose of cleansing his body, you know, cleaning up.

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They didn't have, you know, individual showers in their homes at the time, so the only place you can go and clean up was in a place like that.

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And upon arriving inside of the building, there was an arch heretic, one of the

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Gnostic heretics, by the name of Serinthes. And the Church Fathers record that when the

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Apostle John saw Serinthes in there, he was so incensed, he stormed out of the building, and he said, let us fly lest the building collapse upon us, for the enemy of Christ, Serinthes, is in the building.

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That's Roseborough's paraphrase of what he said. Even the Apostle John modeled this for us.

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Flee from idolatry. You don't stick around. No, these are people who are going to poison your soul and kill your faith and have you worship a deity that doesn't exist.

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So, flee from idolatry. I speak to you as sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say.

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The cup of blessing that is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? Yeah, it is. The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

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You betcha. Yes, it is. So, because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, we all partake of the one bread.

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So, consider the people of Israel. Are not those who eat sacrifices participants in the altar?

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So, what do I imply then? That food that is offered to idols is anything?

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Or that an idol is anything? No. I imply that what pagans sacrifice, they offer to demons.

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That's the biblical explanation for world religions, by the way, that are not Christianity, right?

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What they sacrifice, they offer to demons, not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.

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You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the

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Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than him?

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Flee idolatry. That's a New Testament command. Now, let me give you another, I'm going to give you two more stories because, you know, we might as well, we got the

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Bible open. Let's take a look at what it says. So, consider what happens in the city of Athens.

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The apostle Paul has been driven out of Thessalonica, went to Berea, has had trouble kind of hounding him all the way and they kind of have to, you know, get him to slink away in the middle of the night.

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And he ends up in the city of Athens, kind of on himself, by himself with, you know, without his camera.

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So, you know, he decides to kind of go around the city and take a look at what's going on and look, watch what happens here. So, Paul, standing in the midst of the

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Areopagus, he said, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way, you are very religious.

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For, hang on a second, let me back up. This is addressed to the Areopagus. I need a little more context.

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Here we go. So, while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.

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So, he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

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Now, some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also confers with him and said, and some said, what does this babbler wish to say?

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And others said, well, he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching about Jesus in the resurrection.

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Look who he's preaching about. So, they took him and brought him to the Areopagus saying, may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?

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For you are bringing some strange things to our ears and we wish to know, therefore, what these things mean.

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Now, all the Athenians and the foreigners who live there would spend their time in nothing except for telling or hearing something new.

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So, Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, he said, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way, you are very religious.

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Now, here's the thing, progressives are really religious. Absolutely. It's just that the religion that they're practicing is a biblical

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Christianity. It's a religion of their own making. So, I perceive that in every way, you are very religious.

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For as I pass along and I observe the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, to the unknown

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God. So, what therefore you worship is unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being

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Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

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And he made from one man, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek

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God and perhaps feel their way towards him and find him. Yet, he's not actually far from each one of us.

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For in him, we live and we move and we have our being as even as some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring.

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So, being then God's offspring, we ought not to think the divine being is like gold or silver or stone or an image formed by the art and the imagination of man.

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That's what an idol is. You know, you want your own deity, you can just use your imagination.

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Imagination, right? But, you can use your imagination on your what?

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The deity you've created with your imagination isn't the God who is. It's just a deity that you invented, right?

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So, the times then of ignorance, God is overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.

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And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. And so, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, others said, ah, we'll hear you again about this.

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So, Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed among them whom were also were

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Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

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It wasn't a huge harvest, just a few people believed, but indeed God, through the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of Christ brought some of them to faith in the one true

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God and Jesus. All right, coming then to Acts 14, last of our stories for our, for today's lesson.

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Here's the Apostle Paul. He's with Barnabas. They're on a missionary journey and they're coming into the city of Lystra.

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So now, at Lystra, there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth, had never walked, and he listened to Paul speaking and Paul looked intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, he said in a loud voice, stand upright on your feet.

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And he sprang up and began walking. And when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices and saying in the

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Laconian language, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men.

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Whoops. Barnabas they called Zeus, Paul Hermes, these are the false gods of the

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Greco -Roman world because he was the chief speaker and the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds.

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But when the Apostle Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying, men, why are you doing these things?

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We also are men of like nature with you. And we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living

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God who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In the past generations,

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God allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

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Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifices to them.

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You'll note the Apostle Paul, New Testament guy, by the way, says of false gods, they are vain things and God is calling us all to repent.

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There is only one God and anybody who calls himself a Christian, who has redefined

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God according to their own imagination, kind of like the way the woke crowd has done, they've invented their own deity.

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Now they're free to, you know, here in the United States, you can worship whatever God you want, but that's not

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Christianity. Why don't you start your own religion? Why don't you create a name for your deity and worship him according to the way you want?

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But you staying within visible Christianity and claiming that that's the

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God of the Bible, that makes you not only an idolater, it makes you a deceiver and a heretic and a wolf and somebody the scripture says that we should mark and avoid, flee from you.

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So flee from idolatry. Progressives are guilty of it in spades.

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And if you listen carefully how they define the deity, the deity they're invoking, the deity they believe in, the deity they're praying to, it's a different deity than the deity who has revealed himself in the pages of scripture.

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Hopefully you found this helpful. If so, all the information on how you can share the video is down below. And until next time, may

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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.