WWUTT 480 Q&A Apostles Millennial T-Shirts?

Why the Opening Images and Protest Paint Font Are Used

Is the role of an apostle something a person can have today? Why are fewer millennials attending church? Are Christian t-shirts alright or is it using God's name in vain? The answers to these questions and others, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to encourage your time in the Word. Find other Bible study resources on our website at www .utt .com. Now here's your host, Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky.

You're welcome. And we've got questions from listeners today, which you can submit by email, whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. And our first question comes from Caleb. He says, Dear Watch, ever since the first video I witnessed by you guys, I have been hooked on your content and I plan to continue.

Thank you, Caleb. My question is about the two second opening image. I have a friend I love sharing your content with, but she always has a complaint about the first two seconds due to the image she perceives as a second commandment violation.

Honestly, I kind of feel the same way, but I can't say due to the fact that I have no clue what is actually in the photos or who is portrayed in the images. Could you please provide some clarity on this for me?

Thank you. Alright, well let me, I actually have to bring up the image to remember what's in the image. Okay, so first thing that pops up is that little bar that comes across, it has little thumbnail images of all kinds of different Bible stories.

So the first image is Michelangelo, his painting from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel that has God reaching out to Adam, the two fingers touching, it's like the E .T. thing. I don't know what that's, I don't know exactly what that part of the painting is called, but anyway, so that's the first image and it's all in order.

So that's creation, so then everything else comes in order. Next one is the Tower of Babel, next one is Abraham sacrificing Isaac, then it's Moses and the Ten Commandments, then David playing a harp, then Mary with a baby Jesus, Jesus preaching on the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus being crucified, Jesus coming back again from the grave.

Now, there is a reason for all of those images and the fact that after those images come up, WWUTT appears over the images because the font is actually significant. Oh. Do you know what the name of the font is?

I don't remember. Have we ever actually talked about this? Maybe a long time ago when we first started. Let's see, because that was it.

We came up with this a long time ago before thousands of people were watching the videos, it was just a few dozen from our church was all it was. So the WWUTT is in a font called Protest Paint. Oh. So the whole point is to be a protest against false teaching, against many of the ways the Bible has been twisted and misused, even in the church, and reformed the teaching back to the true meaning of the text.

That's why specifically that font was chosen, even though nobody knows that. It's like, oh, hey, Protest Paint. Now they do. So that's why those images come up, and that's why WWUTT appears over them.

So, and I understand the complaint about it being a Second Commandment violation. I've had that before, and in fact, I've even addressed it before. I cannot tell you which podcast episode that was. I don't remember either.

But the image is going to remain.

Still hope you enjoy the videos, though. Yeah. Just forward past that two seconds.

Yeah, just, that's right. Just skip past the two seconds. I think YouTube does that sometimes, don't they? There's a regular sort of an introduction to a video. Sometimes they'll skip right over the introduction.

I've had it do that with me. I don't know. You don't know? No. Okay. I'm usually on my phone. Well, yeah. I've had it do it on my phone, too. Oh. Just if you're regularly watching videos, sometimes.

I don't know. I have to rewind it so many times that, even the 90 seconds, that I'm not sure what I missed the first time.

You mean you're like a mom of about four kids and they interrupt, they won't even let you watch a video for 90 seconds? No. I can't even close the door. Man. So, that's a theory, then. Maybe YouTube skips, I know Netflix does it.

Right. Like, you've watched a few episodes of a show, actually, you just watch one episode, then the very next episode, they just skip past the theme song. Right.

Unless it has an intro before the theme song. Oh, right. Yeah. Sometimes.

A little teaser at the beginning of it. Yeah. So, maybe that's what I'm thinking of and I'm applying it to YouTube. I don't know. So, anyway. We'll have to binge one day. Thank you for your question, Caleb.

Yeah, we don't binge on what videos. We've seen them all. But thank you to those who have. We get those emails, too. I think that's pretty neat. All right. Next question comes from Hanley. Speaking of what videos, I'm going to use a what video to answer Hanley's question.

Her question is... Or his question? Is Hanley a he or a her? Is that a guy's name or a girl's name? Hanley, I'm sorry that we don't know if you have a guy's name or a girl's name. But anyway, here is what Hanley asked.

I have a friend who calls himself an apostle. Is this still a calling that's available? Becky's texting now. She's not even... I'm not texting. What are you doing? Are you looking up Hanley to see? Okay.

She's doing research on the name Hanley. I'm going to go ahead and play the what video. Is the calling of an apostle still something that a person can have today? In the Roman Empire, a person who was given the power to speak on behalf of the emperor was called apostolos or apostle, meaning sent one.

Likewise, an apostle of Jesus Christ was given the authority to speak the very words of God. To disobey the word of an apostle was to disobey God, and that's still true today. When we read the New Testament, we're reading the words of the apostles as given by God.

Ephesians 2 .19 -20 says that the church has been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. An apostle had the power to speak in other languages, heal diseases, cast out evil spirits, and were given prophetic visions.

The word of an apostle was the word of the Lord, equal in authority to the Old Testament scriptures. And an apostle established and governed the church under Christ. To be called an apostle, one had to meet two qualifications.

They had to have been a witness to the risen Lord, and they had to have been personally appointed as an apostle by Christ himself. Today many false teachers will claim to be apostles, or that God will appoint new apostles.

They'll say they've seen the risen Lord and were personally appointed by God. Some might not use the word apostle, but they will claim to have seen Christ and been given new revelation you won't find in the scriptures.

Avoid such liars and heretics. The office of apostleship is closed. Thanks for applying. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 .8 that he was the last apostle to be appointed. No others would come after him. When the apostle John died at the end of the first century, the apostolic age came to an end.

But their authority remains, having given us the word of God, when we understand the text. Alright, I think that answered the question pretty sufficiently. Yeah, I think so. So in your research, did you find out if Hanley was a guy's name or a girl's name?

Nope.

It told you both? It said both. Oh, okay. It was like girl headline, girl headline, girl headline, and then all boy after that. So I don't know. I'm so sorry.

Sorry, Hanley. I hope that answered your question for you. Okay, this next one's from Matt in Illinois. He says, hello, Pastor Gabe. God bless you as you continue on ministering the gospel and thank you.

My question is in regards to millennials and why you think they are leaving the church. I recently listened to a podcast where they were discussing this topic. It seemed to me that it was mostly about feelings and not being included in things and our voices not being heard.

Now I'm sure these are all areas that need to be addressed, but I cannot relate to any of these. I think a problem is the gospel isn't preached biblically and we don't function how a church is supposed to function.

Any thoughts on this? By the way, I'm 31. You know, I've never felt like I've belonged either to Generation X or the millennials. Right. Me either. Where am I? What generation is that? That's the shift, right?

It goes from Generation X to millennials.

Yeah. Now they've established the end of Generation X and the beginning of millennials like in that kind of gray area for, I don't know, it's less than 10 years, I think. The zennial, like it's X and then ennial.

X, X, ennial. Okay.

So for those of us who feel out of place, there's a reason for that. Yes. We feel like we belong to neither group. Right. I felt like Generation X was all talking over my head and the millennial generation is all talking like under me.

Yeah.

Because we're like the native. We grew up in the house that didn't have it and then all of a sudden had it. The millennials were born with it in the house already. Like all the technology. Born with what?

Oh, the technology. Oh, okay. Sorry. I see what you're saying. Yeah. Like I did not get a cell phone until I graduated high school. I was a senior.

Yeah. But I didn't get my first email address until I was a senior. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was, I think I was in high school. And then I think it was because by that point you're signing up for so much stuff.

They're requiring that you had to have an email address. And that was weird. I was overwhelmed with that.

Yeah. I didn't even know how the internet worked. Whenever my brother was talking about how exciting this was without the internet. I'm like, what? What is this? Yeah. How does that work? You mean it has another line that comes in the house?

No, no, no, no. It's the internet.

Like, I don't understand. I remember some friends I went to school with, but they were a couple of grades higher than me. And they had these jokes they had printed off by email and were passing them around.

So we had, it was actually on paper. Yes. Nobody prints off. Yeah. Nobody prints off emails anymore. Unless you're homeschooled. Exactly. You just forward it to the next person on their phone. But anyway, so they were actually printing the emails off and passing the jokes around, but they all had those little carrots all the way down the page.

And then you'd get to the next joke and there'd be like four or five rows of carrots. Like, what is this? So it used to be that when stuff would get forwarded, the forwarded message had the little carrot by it.

Right. Each time. And that was before I had an email address. So when I was reading this, I'm going, this is dumb. What is with these carrots? Yes. Get these little arrows off of this page. It's distracting.

No line would continue to like jump down. It'd be one word and then it would go to the next line. Right. Yes. Okay. So anyway, here we are griping about old school technology. Back when the computers weren't even flat screens.

Oh, my goodness. Big old honking boat anchors. So what was the question? What were you talking about? Why are the millennials? Why are the millennials? Okay. So there could be any number of reasons for this.

Yeah. I don't really know how. I've not done a whole lot of study on it. I mean, I have done some, but it almost seems like every research report that I've read on this has all come to different conclusions.

Right. As to why millennials are leaving the church. I can say that one thing I think is driving millennials out is contextualization. And that's when a church is focusing on a specific group of people, which is usually families.

And considering that most millennials are not getting married early anymore. They're waiting until their late 20s or even early 30s. Then when churches are putting together these programs for families and for kids, a millennial comes in and they're going, I don't relate to this at all.

And none of this even has to do with me. I'm not married. I don't have kids. I have no desire to get married right now. And so they're quite bored. Might even stick with it for a few weeks and then realize church isn't for me.

There's nothing here for me. Right. So the fact that ministry is done in this contextual sense, which is, by the way, is not a biblical model. I understand being in a specific area and you're kind of taking demographics of that area and realizing, okay, most people in our area, this church where we've planted is this kind of people.

So we need to reach this kind of people. Right. But a church simply needs to stick with scripture, reading, expositional preaching, the gospel, modeling their leadership after the leadership model that we're given in scripture, not trying to focus on a specific kind of specific group of people or specific age group.

Can you imagine if Jesus did that or the disciples did that in the Great Commission? Well, we're really just focusing on women between 25 and 40. So that's mostly who we're trying to reach here.

The Bible is ageless.

Right. The message of the scriptures is not for any specific age group. Right. But all ages. Right. Especially when. And the church is supposed to be modeled that way, too, because you have the model for mentorship in Titus chapter two of older men mentoring the younger men and older women mentoring the younger women.

Right. So churches need to be adhering to the instructions that have been given in scripture. First of all, the pastor needs to be a man. Right. And then the leadership in the church needs to follow plurality eldership that meet all of the spiritual needs of the church deacons who meet all of the physical needs of the church.

As much as possible, the church needs to follow plurality eldership. You got small churches that start with 30 or 40 people. You can't do that yet. There's nobody mature enough to fit a second elder role.

I understand that. But you need to aspire to that because that's the biblical model that we've been given. Right. And then when it comes to encouraging and admonishing one another, that's when you have the olders and the youngers.

You know, the way that we do church, First Southern Baptist in Junction City, is our worship service is fully integrated. Yeah. So it's, you know, four generations or something like that being represented in our worship services from young children all the way up to the elderly.

Right. And we don't even dismiss the kids for a children's church or something else that's going on. We are all worshiping together. Right. The fact that the church has not been multi-generational, I believe, is one of the reasons why millennials have been leaving the church.

They're looking for something that specifically caters to them. And when they don't have it, then to them, church is irrelevant. And they don't have any reason to be there. Decades of false teaching. Has contributed to this as well.

Yes. The number of millennials that I encounter, at least in the Midwest, and when they tell me that they don't go to church and I ask them why, the most common answer that I get, I'm talking about Christians who claim to be or millennials who claim to be Christians.

The most common answer that I get from them is, well, church is not a building. Right, right, right. Church is people. It's the people of God. So I still, I still fellowship and hang out with other Christians.

That's going to church, right? So that, that kind of. Where two or more are gathered. Where two or more are gathered. Right. You get that one, too. There I am in the midst of them, which is a misunderstanding of, of that passage in Matthew 18.

We got a video about that, too. We do. Anyway, that's the most common answer that I'm, that I'm getting. And that has been based on misteaching concerning who the church is and our responsibility to the church as Christians.

We should gather weekly and regularly. Mm hmm. That's stated plainly in Hebrews 10. Mm hmm. First Corinthians 16 and other places where Paul told the church in Corinth that they needed to gather an offering the first day of the week.

So how else can you do that? Except when you're together and you receive the offering. So there's a number of passages about that and videos that we've done on it. If you go to YouTube and you type in WWU TT church, you'll get all the videos that we've done on church.

Finding a good church, leaving a church if you must, but also what it means to be the church, what that actually means and our responsibility as Christians to attend church. So we've done videos on that.

You can find them there or also on our website. We got all that categorized. Mm hmm. So thank you, Matt. Thank you for your question. And I share your concern that millennials would understand the importance of attending church so that we may exercise as Christians the command that Christ gave to us to love each other.

Right. And you can't do that if you're not in regular fellowship.

And that's not online either. That doesn't count.

Yeah, precisely. So this that we're doing here is not church. Right. This is just the extra Bible study that you do during the week. But church is the place where you go and you do the Lord's Supper together.

You do baptism together. You celebrate marriage together. You mourn the loss of friends who have died together. You have the the public declaration of the word of God together. You weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.

You grow together in a common learning and teaching of the Bible, all going through the same passage at the same time. So you're all learning in this together. You're going to have your other Bible studies and stuff like that.

That's fine. But there needs to be that that regular teaching from the pulpit that everybody is in submission to concerning the declaration of the full authority of the word of God.

Slow cooker type mentality towards church instead of the instant gratification of the microwave. Right. Exactly. That's good. Good analogy. All right.

Christian T-Shirts as Conversation Starters, Not Branding

Next, last question here. This one comes from Joseph. He says, I've seen most of your videos and it has been a blessing to me to understand a lot of the things in the word of God. I have a question. Is it right or wrong to buy or sell so-called Christian T-shirts with Bible verses or Jesus name written on the T-shirt or other clothing in order to show your faith or doing evangelism?

Or is this using God's name for marketing? I really need light on this matter. Thank you for your time. Well, you know, there are T-shirts that I really like, but most of them are really hokey. So, yeah, Christian T-shirts can be OK.

We know that. We have a few from the conferences we've gone to.

Yeah, right, right. You go to a conference, they give you a shirt. We bought those. Well, yeah, I guess that's true. They don't give. They don't really give the shirts anymore. It depends on the conference you go to.

I think some of us will do that for free. But yeah, I went to Shepcon. I came home with a T-shirt for my wife. So you got Shepcon shirts. And they had other shirts in there, too, in the bookstore at John MacArthur's church.

It wasn't just the Shepcon T-shirts. So there are. It's just like with anything else. Songs you sing in worship. Teachers that you listen to. I mean, any of these things, it all has to be. You're sure that it's coming from right doctrine.

Right. And this is the same with our T-shirts. So here's some examples of T-shirts I don't like. Well, OK, go ahead. No, go ahead. Go ahead with yours first. No, because then you'll get to the next one.

And that's what I'm going to pipe up. OK, all right. So here's the shirts that I don't like. I saw one that said God, the father. But it was a parody of the Godfather. So it had that same font with the hand and the marionette thing.

You know what I'm talking about? Yes. Which just that whole thing with the hand with the marionette makes it look like we're just puppets in God, the father's hands. That's that's really what that looked like.

So, yeah. No, no to that shirt. One of the most common Christian T-shirts out there. The Lord's Gym. And it has Jesus pushing up a cross. So he's he's on the ground. He's got a cross on his back and he's pushing it up.

That's irreverent. It's disrespectful to take Christ pushing up a cross and tying in a workout with it. The Lord's Gym. Got it. There is one that I saw. It was Jesus surfing on a wave. That was just ridiculous.

There was one that said King of Kings. And it was a parody of Burger King. You get to have God your way. So is that what we're supposed to supposed to get from King of Kings and the Burger King logo? You you get to have God your way.

Well, that would that would be fitting for some churches.

That would probably be their slogan. That would be a good application. There was another one that was in the the same logo as Home Depot, but it said the Holy Spirit. And as a parody of Home Depot, the slogan was if you can do it, he will help.

Oh, yeah. I thought that was a little irreverent. I saw another one that had the fidget spinner that had Father, Son and Holy Spirit on it. Don't do that one. That's that's modalism or partialism. Yeah, that's not a good representation of the Trinity.

And then here was the worst one that I saw. I think of the stuff that I was scrolling through looking for corny Christian T-shirts. Oh, dear. Are you ready? OK, it said heavy drinker. And then in real small print underneath John 737.

Do you know what John 737 says? Go ahead and enlighten me. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Ah, yes. Bad Christian T-shirt. No, no, no. OK, so those are those are bad, terrible, just terrible.

So those are examples of terrible Christian T-shirts. Don't wear those. Here are the good ones. So you wanted to pipe in here. So good Christian T-shirts. One that I really like. And Miss Sonia, who was just over at our house for Bible study this evening.

Shout out. She wears one that says this shirt is illegal in 51 countries. And I think that's a great conversation starter. Oh, definitely. Because somebody sees that. Why would that shirt be illegal in 51 countries?

It's got a cross on it and it has an explanation on the back. And I think she got that shirt as part of a missions group. So it had something about their mission on the back. But that's a that's a great example of how a shirt can be a conversation starter and you can share the gospel with somebody through the question they would ask.

Why would that shirt be illegal? Imputationist is a popular thing right now. Since we're trying to get away from evangelical. That word has kind of been ruined for us after the whole Trump election. Or you've got a shirt that says redeemed.

That can be a conversation starter. What does that mean? Why are you wearing a shirt that says redeemed on it? Yeah, what I saw that was all right. I thought this was OK. It's a transformed, had a Transformers head on it.

Sort of. I think it had a cross on it. So it's like the Transformers head, but it was a cross instead. And Romans 12 to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So that might be that might be a good conversation.

And somebody goes, OK, the Transformers I like, but transformed with the cross. What does this have to do with? And then you can explain how we've been transformed in Christ. I once was dead in my sins and my trespasses.

But Christ has transformed my mind. In my heart to live like him. Repent and believe the gospel. Pretty simple, straightforward T-shirt.

Yes, that's yours. Land the plane.

There you go. Just land a plane that this one I really liked. And this one could really spark some conversation. It had the picture of the of the atom. You know what I'm talking about? It's got the little circles.

OK, like the neutron, right? The neutron, right? Sort of thing. And it said God created science. Oh, I like that. And I can think of some atheists that immediately would go. Oh, hang on.

Yeah, no, we did it. And then that's almost picking a fight, though. That's true.

You're kind of asking for it. Yeah. So you better be prepared. If you can answer with gentleness and respect. Definitely. Then that can be patient. Exactly right. And that can be a great way to get somebody's attention to.

Share the gospel. But you have to have the knack of calming somebody that's irate down. Yes.

You do have to be able to do that. So basically, hang on. Shirts with Bible verses on them, I think, are good Christian T-shirts.

So the one that came to my mind was the one that Anonymou did. Oh, OK. Which one was that? The one that he made from your quote. Do you remember? Oh, he took it from me? Yeah. OK.

Did you remember what it was? You might have to look that one up. I might have to look. I wonder how quick can I bring up Twitter here? Oh, no, because he took all those pictures down. He went back to Anonymou mode and took the picture.

What was it I said? Message him. He might be awake. I just remember really liking it. Oh, I remember what it was now. It was not worth dying for. Yes. You're not. I'm not worth dying for. I think it just said not worth dying for.

Anyway, Anonymou, you can correct us on that. Yes, please do. Whatever I said that you put on your shirt. What, you don't listen to yourself? Well, I even made a comment about the shirt. I was like, that's great.

He goes, good, I got it from you. Like, oh, all right. Yeah. So if you were worth dying for. See, that's another Christian T-shirt that's out there. It says worth dying for on it. No, you're not worth dying for.

If you were worth dying for, then God's grace is not grace. Right. Because he had to do it. You were worth it. You weren't worth it, which is why Christ dying on the cross for your sins is a show of love.

It's why it's grace, because you don't deserve it. Right. And yet he gave it to you anyway. It is by our sin and rebellion against God that we have become worthless. That's Romans 3, 12. All have turned aside.

Together, they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one person. So because you are unrighteous, you are not worth dying for. What you're worthy of is hell. But Romans 5, 8, God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

And by his death on the cross, he clothed us in his righteousness. So now when we call upon the name of the Lord, we are able to lift up praises to God that are received by God. And is glorifying. And is glorifying to God because we have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Right. Which also goes back to imputationist. We have been given the righteousness of Christ and we wear his name. So anyway, so there's some examples of good Christian T-shirts and some examples of some bad Christian T-shirts to stay away from.

Just if you're going to wear a Christian shirt that's got a Bible verse on it or a Bible verse reference. If somebody asks you what that means, please tell them. Yes. Because how many times have we seen.

Look it up. Yeah, something like that. Somebody would say, we'll go look it up or. I never looked it up. There was a video where a person was wearing a very famous logo that was a reference to a certain Bible verse.

And when he was on national television was asked, what does that mean? And his response was, it's my crew. This is my team. And they're like, OK, well, what's that mean? He just says, this is my team.

It was a Bible verse reference that he was wearing and he wouldn't give the Bible verse. And wouldn't take that opportunity when he was asked to share the gospel. So if you're going to wear that, don't wear it as a brand.

Right. You wear it as an opportunity to share the gospel with somebody else. Now, I'll tell you personally, I don't wear a lot of writing. No, you tend to not. Stripes. This shirt has stripes on it. And that's mostly because I don't want to cause anybody to stumble.

I've got a few T-shirts that I'll wear when I'm mowing the grass or something like that. But if it's something that's brand name or has got a logo on it, you know, somebody might. That's been gifted to you.

It's probably been given to me by somebody. But if I wear something that's like, you know, it's got Coca-Cola on it and somebody sees me wearing a Coca-Cola shirt, they're going to go, oh, Coca-Cola gives a lot of money to gay pride causes.

You know that, right? They're struggling in their mind about wearing logos or buying that product when Pastor Gabe was wearing a Coca-Cola T-shirt. So for that reason, I just don't wear logos. I'm pretty bland.

You know, we don't have any what swag when we understand the text where. So you just have to do what Anonymous does and rip off stuff, I say, and put it on a T-shirt.

Or you could write in a few more emails helping promote my cause of, hey, maybe we should get some merch. I don't know how to design stuff. What do I know about doing that? I know a few people.

Thank you for joining us today. Appreciate you listening to the program. If you would like to submit a question, our email is whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. God bless. We will conclude both our study of Jude and our study of 1 Kings next week.

This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

Find a good gospel-teaching Christ-centered church to worship with this weekend, and join us again Monday for more Bible study, When We Understand the Text. Waha, no, whatcha. Whatcha? Whatcha. Whatchamacallit?

Sorry, I'm still tweeting. We're trying to do a show. No, we're not. You're going through the questions with me. So you're ignoring me. I'm not ignoring you. I'm multitasking. Oh, dear.