Apologetic Foundations Conference 2019

Reformed Rookie

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Thank you Pastor Colby, and thank you

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Pastor Ryan for that excellent message. I was so excited to be a part of this conference when

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Pastor Ryan said, Listen, we're looking to host a conference November 16. I immediately canceled all my aerobics classes and promised him that I would be here.

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Somebody's laughing too loud. This morning, we're going to talk about foundations.

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This conference is all about foundations. Foundations point us to what we're standing on.

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Ultimately, they're pointing to our ultimate authority. Now, what we're standing on as Christians should hold us up.

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Hopefully. If what we're standing on doesn't hold us up, what's going to happen? We're going to fall.

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And if we fall, it's going to hurt. So we have to make sure that what we're standing on is solid ground.

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Otherwise, we could be building our houses or our lives upon a shaky foundation.

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Now recently, my daughter turned 13 years old. And we had a coming into womanhood birthday party for her.

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And we had a bunch of people go up and exhort her from the scriptures. And finally, it was my turn to pray for her and encourage her and exhort her.

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So after my prayer, I asked her two very important questions that I want you to listen to and consider today also.

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Number one, what are you living for? And number two, what are you building your life on?

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What are you living for? And what are you building your life on? And this really comes right out of Matthew chapter 7 where Jesus says, build your house upon the rock.

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If you're not building your house upon the rock, what's going to happen? When the storms and the wind comes, if you're on a sandy foundation, your home is going to be swept away.

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So my question to her was about her foundations. I want her to start to think about that now as well as us here today.

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The foundation that we stand on will really serve to reveal what our underlying assumptions about life are, our underlying assumptions about reality.

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It is a big $15 word called metaphysics. It's the nature of reality or the study of reality.

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So we want to understand what is our foundation, the foundation for our metaphysics, our reality.

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Because that will either hold us up or cause us to fall. Now what we stand on must be true in order to live life sensibly, correctly, truthfully.

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So our Christian worldview depends on our foundation, on our presuppositions.

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And everyone else's foundation will also rely on their presuppositions.

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Now, I use that word presupposition. A presupposition is something you presume to be true for your thought or idea to make sense.

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Presupposition is something you assume to be true in order for your thought or idea to make sense. And everyone has presuppositions.

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So when I ask you, does anyone in here want tax relief? How many people want tax relief?

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Just a few. All right. What do I assume when

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I ask you do you want tax relief? I'm assuming that taxes are painful, right?

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And living on Long Island, we recognize taxes are painful. Now, when I'm presenting my presentation to you this morning or making a truth claim, and I ask, does that sound logical?

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What am I presupposing? I'm presupposing that logic exists and that ideas are either logical or illogical.

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So this is going to form the basis for our talk today. What I want to talk to you about is our foundations. What does our foundation consist of?

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Where and how do we encounter it in life? And what does the scripture have to say about our foundations?

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When we talk about presuppositions, one of the presuppositions necessary for intelligibility is logic or the laws of logic.

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In order for us to understand anything, the laws of logic must exist. Logic is reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity, the living, known as the laws of logic.

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The laws of logic are principles of correct reasoning. The laws of logic reveal how to draw proper conclusions from premises and are a prerequisite of all thought.

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Do you ever go to take like a college class and they say, well, you need this course as a prerequisite? In other words, you need to go through that course in order to understand and get to this course.

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It's the same thing when we're talking to people and making arguments and presenting truth claims. The laws of logic are a prerequisite to anything we say so that they'll understand them and be able to discover if what

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I'm saying is true or false. The laws of logic are going to help us connect the dots.

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They're going to show us how to properly order our thoughts and form conclusions. They will help us discover if something is true or not and make our experience, our reality intelligible.

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Got it? Without the laws of logic, we can't make sense of anything.

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The laws of logic are what make reasoning reasonable, and they reveal if our thinking is correct.

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How can you reason or think correctly if the laws of logic don't exist?

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Right? And if you deny that the laws of logic exist, what did you just do? You just ended up proving them.

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If you say the laws of logic don't exist, that's either true or false. You can only get a true or false claim if you have the laws of logic to begin with.

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So when you deny them, you end up affirming them at the same time. If the laws of logic didn't exist, you couldn't say anything was true or false.

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In fact, you couldn't say anything about anything. All your truth statements, everything that we say is connected to a bunch of other beliefs that we hold to be true before we get to that statement.

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Like I said before, does anybody want tax relief? I assume taxes are painful. Does my idea sound logical?

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I assume the laws of logic. This happens in everything that we say. So there are three fundamental laws of logic.

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The first one is the law of identity. A is

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A. Basically, an apple is an apple. Then there's the law of non -contradiction.

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An apple is not an orange. Then there's the last law, the law of excluded middle.

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An apple is not an apple and an orange. It is either one or the other.

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Now, these are self -evident laws of logic. In other words, you cannot not know them.

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In order to have any kind of intelligible experience in life, you need to know the laws of logic, and they're embedded into us.

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Imagine reasoning without these underlying rules or guidelines. What would you call that?

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Somebody who doesn't reason using logic. Call that crazy. You'd call that insane.

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And without the laws of logic, think about this. Contradictions would be okay. You know, it's really interesting.

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I was watching a debate one time with a Christian and an atheist. And the atheist did not believe in anything that he couldn't see, touch, way, or feel.

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So the Christian said, well, what about the laws of logic? You can't see, touch, way, or feel the laws of logic. And he said, no,

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I can't. He said, so in your worldview, would contradictions be okay? Now, the atheist, in order to be consistent, said yes.

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So the Christian said, no, you can't. He said, yes, I can. The Christian said, no, you can't.

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The atheist said, yes, I can. No, you can't. Yes, you can. The Christian finally said, I'm contradicting you.

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What you said is okay in your worldview, but you're correcting me. See, the atheist, the naturalist, cannot live consistently in his worldview because he assumes the laws of logic are true.

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The laws of logic are known as self -evident first principles. They're what's known as transcendentals.

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They are what must be true in order for anything else to be true. These form a foundation for us.

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Think about it. You're building a house. What's the first thing you have to put in the ground to build a house?

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A foundation. If you don't lay down a good foundation, your house may not go up well.

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It could falter. It depends on what you're building your house on. And this is true of your worldview.

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Worldview is basically a set of presuppositions by which you look at the world and build your life on.

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So if you're not building your life or your worldview on a firm foundation, you're going to have trouble.

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These laws provide the foundation upon which we can understand anything. Again, deny them, and you end up proving them.

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That's why they're called transcendentals. So, could you be sure or know anything without these laws of logic?

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No. If I said an apple is an apple and the law of identity didn't exist, you'd be like, well, you say it's an apple.

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I say it's an orange. We could have contradictions in our worldview. So no. Building a worldview is like building a house.

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The foundation must be solid and not move. Psalm 127 tells us, unless the

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Lord builds His house, the labor is labor in vain. God is the constructor of reality. He's the one who's laid the foundation already, and it's incumbent upon us to set our foundation on what

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He says. Not what we think. So everyone believes in the laws of logic and uses them.

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They are presupposed by atheists, skeptics, agnostics, and Christians. We all share a common belief in the existence of these laws, and we assume at the start that they exist and are valid.

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In other words, these laws are presupposed by believers. They have a presupposition that the laws of logic exist.

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Every time they ask for proof or evidence, they're presupposing that the laws of logic exist.

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But here's the question. Where do we think the laws of logic come from? Are these conventions that were just made up by man?

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Were these concepts that were invented by us or discovered by us?

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The question becomes, whose worldview can count them? Who has the proper foundation to account for the immaterial laws of logic?

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Everybody with me so far? We're good? Okay. Next slide. What are the characteristics of the laws of logic?

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So, do laws of logic have physical qualities? Do the laws of logic extend into time or space?

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You can talk. Do the laws of logic extend into time or space? No. No.

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They're immaterial. They're not made up of something that can see, touch, weigh, or feel.

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Like you can't go into the deli and say, give me a half a pound of the laws of logic sliced in. The laws of logic are immaterial.

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Are the laws of logic provable by the scientific method? Can you do a scientific experiment to prove that there are laws of logic?

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No. You can't. Right? So, they're immaterial. They're not physical, and they're not provable by the scientific method.

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They exist, but they're not in existence such that we can do a physical experiment to prove they exist.

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Okay. So we know that the laws of logic are immaterial. Next, do the laws of logic vary from person to person?

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Now, if you're married, you might say, yeah, they do kind of vary from person to person. I say one thing, she says another.

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But I'm saying, do the laws of logic, the law of identity, the law of non -contradiction, is that fixed?

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Or does that vary from person to person? Are the laws of logic dependent on what we think?

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Do the laws of logic change based on what I think of them? No. They are fixed.

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They cannot be changed. They're objective. Okay. So the laws of logic are objective.

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They have reality independent of our mind or individual thought, and they're not subjective.

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Got it? So in other words, if I ran into the middle of the street and a truck was coming, you said,

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Anthony, watch out. You're going to get hit by a truck. And I turn to you and I say, I don't believe in trucks. What's going to happen?

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I'm going to get hit by the truck. And depending on the size of the car, maybe if it was a Prius, I'd win. So no, the laws of logic are immaterial and objective.

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They don't change from person to person. Next, where do the laws of logic apply?

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Do the laws of logic vary state by state? Or do they apply everywhere?

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I would present to you that the laws of logic apply everywhere. The law of non -contradiction applies in New York.

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It applies in Japan. It applies in Europe. The only place the law of non -contradiction doesn't apply is in Congress.

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That's your cue to left. All right. So the laws of logic are universal.

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They exist or operate everywhere under all conditions, and they do not vary from person to person.

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The question becomes, whose worldview can account for them? Theism or atheism naturalism?

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Which do you think? Can an atheist naturalistic worldview account for immaterial laws of logic?

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I propose to you know. In fact, every time the atheist opens his mouth, he issues an

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I -O -U to God. When he makes a truth claim and denies the existence of God, he's using the laws of logic, which are immaterial, objective, and universal.

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So he's borrowing from God's capital the laws of logic, stepping into his worldview and trying to deny the worldview he just borrowed those laws of logic from.

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He's standing on shaky ground when he does that. He has no foundation for the laws of logic.

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He must rely on the Christian worldview to get them. Naturalism, which says all that exists is nature, matter, emotion.

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Matter and emotion cannot explain immaterial laws. Matter cannot explain an immaterial mind.

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Matter cannot explain reasoning. Every time the atheist opens his mouth and uses the laws of logic, he's issuing an

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I -O -U to God. The laws of logic reflect perfect thought.

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They reflect the perfect mind of God. And since we are created in his image, we get that written into us, programmed, written in our heart.

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We know the law of identity. We know the law of non -contradiction. It's ingrained into us.

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They're known as first principles. They become the foundation of knowledge again.

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Only possible in a Christian worldview. Now, anybody here of Ravi Zacharias?

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You've heard of Ravi Zacharias? Okay. Ravi Zacharias was invited to the Wexner Center of Arts in Ohio.

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Now, this Wexner Center of Arts was built as the first postmodern building.

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Postmodernism basically says that what's true for you is true for me. What's true for you is true for you.

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What's true for me is true for me. Right? Truth is relative. So, they invite

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Ravi Zacharias to this Wexner Center of the Arts. And the curator is walking him around the museum.

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And he's telling Ravi that the architect who put this building together felt that since life has no purpose or design, why not construct a building that reflected no purpose or design?

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So, he was so proud in building this building, he built staircases to nowhere, uneven scaffolding with no purpose, banisters without stairs, rooms with odd angles and odd angle floors, undesigned ceilings, various heights.

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It was very avant -garde, very postmodern, right? And he did this to represent the genius of evolved postmodern thought.

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So, the curator turns to Ravi and asks, so, what do you think? Ravi looked back at him and said, did he use the same method when he built the foundation?

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You don't use relative thinking when you build a foundation because it's the foundation that holds everything else up.

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If you decided to build uneven stuff on your foundation, you wouldn't be able to build it. The foundation is the most important point.

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You cannot mess with the foundation of the building, and the same is true of your worldview.

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Again, every time the atheist asks for proof, he's relying on God to do it.

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The problem is his worldview has no foundation. He has his feet firmly planted in midair.

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He's not stepping on anything because he has nothing to step on.

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You cannot build a house that will stand the test without a proper foundation. In the same way, you cannot build a worldview without a proper foundation either.

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The problem for the atheist naturalist is that his worldview cannot supply the very thing he relies on, the laws of logic.

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In fact, their worldview negates it. In fact, how can you presuppose and justify a law of logic without presupposing and justifying a lawgiver?

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That's why atheists now are trying to reinvent the language, change the language.

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We don't want to call them laws of logic. It's not good to call them laws. You know why? Because they have recognized that a law means a lawgiver.

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Laws of the spoke pop into existence on their own. So the atheist worldview denies the existence of immaterial realities and yet requires the immaterial and scientifically unprovable laws of logic to do it.

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The worldview is self -defeating. Only the Christian worldview can give you the preconditions of intelligibility.

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Now preconditions of intelligibility are conditions that must be accepted as true before we can know anything about truth.

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They are what must be true in order for anything else to be true. They are our foundation.

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Now, if you affirm immaterial laws without proof for them, how can you now dismiss an immaterial lawgiver based on that same train of thought or that same line of thinking?

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Preconditions of intelligibility include what I'm talking about today, the laws of logic, but it goes much further than that.

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One of the preconditions of intelligibility is the uniformity of nature. In other words, how do we know that tomorrow – do we just have blind faith that tomorrow will be like today?

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No, we know that God upholds everything by the power of his hand. He sustains the universe the way it is and keeps it constant.

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But for the atheist, how does he know tomorrow is going to be like today based on his worldview of a random chance universe based on chaos?

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He doesn't. He has no reason whatsoever based on his worldview to believe that tomorrow will be like today.

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So I told you about one of the go -throughs, what the laws of logic were and why they're our foundation.

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Now I want you to see them in action. One of the most famous debates I've ever watched was between Dr.

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Greg Bonson, who's a Christian, and Gordon Stein, who's a college professor. And in this debate, you're going to hear it and see it in a second.

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Just listen carefully because the sound isn't perfect. This becomes one of the most memorable debate moments in any debate

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I've ever listened to. In fact, it becomes internet gold. I heard you mention logical minds and logical self -contradictions in your speech.

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You did say that? I said it. I used that phrase, yes. Do you believe there are laws of logic, then?

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Absolutely. Are they universal? They're agreed upon by human beings.

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They aren't laws that exist out in nature. Are they simply conventions, then? They're conventions, but they're conventions that are self -verifying.

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Are they sociological laws or laws of thought? They are laws of thought which are interpreted by men and promulgated by men.

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Are they material in nature? How can a law be material? That's the question

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I'm going to ask you. Think? I would say no. Dr.

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Stein, may I have an opportunity to cross -examine Dr. Bonson? Dr. Bonson, would you call

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God material or immaterial? Immaterial. What is something that's immaterial? Something not extended in space.

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Can you give me an example of anything other than God that's immaterial? Laws of logic. Could I ask that you hold that down?

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Dr. Gordon Stein's worldview is self -defeating.

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He's using the laws of logic to try to prove that God doesn't exist. When Fred Bonson asks him, do you believe in immaterial things?

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No. What is something immaterial? The laws of logic. The very thing he's borrowing from our worldview, he's trying to use to defeat it.

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He's basically sawing off the branch on which he sits. So now, I told you

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I want to give you some practical examples. So, Gordon Stein was misusing the laws of logic because the laws of logic are not used in a vacuum.

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They have to be used properly, and if you're not standing on the correct foundation and the correct worldview, you're going to come to some very, very wrong conclusions.

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So, I'm going to do a little role play here. I want you to pretend that I came here. I landed here from Mars.

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I've been on Earth for about three months, and I want you to tell me what this is. That. Who can tell me what that is?

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No. A stainless steel screwdriver. Stop it. Thank you.

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Thank you. Now, I'm from Mars, so what's bothering me? Ah, forget it.

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Okay. So, you call that a butter knife? Listen, I've landed here from Mars, and I've been to several people's houses.

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And I find these things called screws. Do it again.

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And I see men pulling this out of their junk drawer and constantly trimming screws.

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Any guys in here tracking with me? Yeah, okay. Right? You use that thing like a screwdriver.

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Then, do it again, I see when they try and hang pictures up, they take it out and use the back of it, and they hammer these little things called tacks into the wall, and they hang pictures on there.

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Then, I see women who are trying to open jars. And they just can't do it, so they end up prying the edges of the jars around and trying to open them.

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Then, I see these parents have kids, and you know what the kids do? They draw a circle on the wall, and they take this thing, and they throw it, and they try to get it right into the center of the circle.

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So, one more slide. I have scientific, empirical, and forensic proof that that is a multipurpose tool.

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You call it a butter knife, but me, based on what I've observed, call that a multipurpose tool.

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How do you go about proving me wrong? I can show you.

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Get me a butter knife. I'll show you how it can put screws in and take them out. I can show you how you prove me wrong.

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Come on. Lunch is waiting. The only way you can prove me wrong is if you introduce me to the creator or the inventor of the butter knife.

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He's the one who created it, and he's the one who gives it and defines its purpose. Okay? So, using the laws of logic and using evidence will only get you so far unless you come in contact with the creator.

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So, when we look around at the things in the world, and we see how people misuse them, why do we say people misuse things?

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Because God has defined them a certain way. God has defined a man and a woman.

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God has defined marriage. God has defined gender. But empirically, I can say, no, no, no, look,

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I see two women get married. I see two men get married. That's marriage. How can you prove them wrong?

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They need to be introduced to the creator. Using laws of logic independent of God, you will never understand or know for certain that you're correct.

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The only way you can have certainty is if you line up your thoughts with the

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God who knows everything and who's defined everything already. You have to think

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God's thoughts after him. Otherwise, you're going to come to many, many wrong conclusions.

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Okay, this is why – here's another big $20 word for you – epistemology is important. Epistemology is the study of how we know what we know.

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The atheist materialist relies on reasoning and senses independent of the creator.

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How could he ever possibly come to a true knowledge of something with certainty if it's not based on what

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God says? That's why we build our foundation upon Jesus Christ and his word.

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Without God's revelation, we cannot be certain about any of the conclusions we've come to.

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Because we need to use the laws of logic within a biblical worldview. They are part of the foundation that God has given us.

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If you use them outside of the biblical worldview, you can come to a wrong conclusion. The butter knife can be a multipurpose tool, and you can prove it.

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But you would be wrong once you encounter the inventor of the butter knife. Now, both theists and atheists use the laws of logic.

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But only one of those worldviews can account for them – the Christian worldview. The Christian worldview is the only worldview that can account for the immaterial laws of logic.

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Remember, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Without God's revelation, we cannot know anything with certainty.

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The Lord gives wisdom. Knowledge and understanding come from his lips. That's his word.

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So far, we've gone over one of the laws of logic. That's one of our foundations. We've encountered them, and now let's look at the biblical use of them.

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The biblical basis for the knowledge of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Since God is the source of all knowledge, logic must operate under his authority.

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That's why I went over this this morning. Put Jesus first. Set apart Christ as Lord of your heart.

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If you haven't set apart Christ as Lord of your heart, something else is

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Lord of your heart. You will be either a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness, but recognize that you'll be a slave.

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Either way. So we must put Jesus first and allow what he says to govern our thoughts and our conclusions.

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There is no independence. As soon as we separate ourselves from God, which is what Adam and Eve did, they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and guess what?

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Now they didn't know good and evil. You can only know true good and evil when you see it from God's perspective.

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All of our thoughts must be brought under Jesus' dominion. We need to resist independent thinking and think

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God's thoughts after him. The unbeliever sets his own heart apart as Lord.

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He is the authority over himself. That's called autonomy. He's a law unto himself.

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And if you're a law unto yourself, and this guy's a law unto himself, and that guy's a law unto himself, there's going to be many different laws, and you're never going to understand what truth is.

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The only way we can understand truth is if we set apart Christ as Lord and put all of our thoughts under him.

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Next, we have to submit our thinking to Jesus. We have to think like him. 2

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Corinthians 10 says, Take every thought captive to Christ, who is the truth, John 14 6.

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All of our thoughts, we need to think like Jesus did. He is the truth.

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Next, we have to go our own way. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and efficacy.

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According to human tradition, according to the element of...

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Don't be so open -minded that your brains fall out. If you're a Christian, recognize that the source of your authority comes from the scriptures.

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We need to be in them every single day. Next, what we say matters.

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What comes out of our mouth is very, very important. We have to speak the truth.

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2 Corinthians 10, where the weapons of all warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

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We destroy arguments, every lawful opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive.

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Where do arguments, opinions, knowledge, and thoughts reside? In the mind.

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The weapons that we use in this world are not fleshly weapons. We are not going to conquer this world with nuclear weapons, guns, and knives, and bombs.

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We are going to conquer this world correctly, under the dominion of Christ, with our words.

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With the proclamation of the gospel. Now, I have incredible power over you right now.

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So that when I say Empire State Building, guess what you all think? You think about a picture of the

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Empire State Building. Do you see how very important and powerful words can be? And how an eloquent speaker can direct your mind anywhere he wants it to go?

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We have to be aware of that. We need to recognize if our thoughts are not submitted to Christ all the time, if we are not filtering everything that comes into our mind through him, we are going to be swayed.

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Let me ask you something. What's your name? Harold. You live around here? Where's a good place to get a slice of pizza?

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I'm going to go for lunch. Where should I go? Lindenhurst, what's the name of the place?

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Mavericks. Mavericks, okay. So now, I guarantee, next time any one of us are in Lindenhurst and we're craving for pizza, we're going to say, you know what, that guy

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Harold, he said Mavericks is the best pizza. And you're going to end up going there. See how influential you are?

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We don't realize that the words that come out of our mouth are going to shape and mold people's minds.

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Think about it. You go to work on Monday. You eat at a good restaurant Saturday night.

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What do you do? You got to eat at this restaurant. This is the best place ever. You don't understand. It has the best steak you can imagine.

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But Jesus has saved your soul from hell for all eternity.

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And you're not telling people about that. You're telling them about the wonderful movie you saw.

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You're talking to them about the steak that you ate. Okay. But if you don't tell them about Jesus, you're not using the weapons that we are supposed to use to overcome the world.

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You ever hear that term, a war of words? That's exactly what we're in right now. But understand something.

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As Christians, we have the upper hand. We have the truth. And God will use the truth to set people free.

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When we proclaim the gospel, when we proclaim Jesus as Lord, when we give them scriptural thinking, it's going to connect.

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God will use that, shape their mind, and translate them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.

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Now, this is how important and serious this is. Luke 23, 23. This is when they were going to choose

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Barabbas or Jesus to be crucified. But they were urged, the Jews, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified.

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And their voices prevailed. So Pilate decided that their voices prevailed.

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Do you see their voices prevailing in this culture right now? You betcha.

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Why? We're silent. We're not opposing the culture.

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Like Pastor Ryan said, we've imported this word nice. We're trying to marry nice with gentleness and respect.

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Nonsense. We need to speak truth, even if it costs us our lives.

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And it might. Look what's going on. But when we proclaim the truth, God is glorified, and he enters the picture.

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He does things when the truth is proclaimed. We need to speak so that our voices prevail.

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We cannot sit around silently and do nothing. So let me just summarize this up for you.

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The laws of logic are important to help us to discover truth. Truth exists. You can't deny it without affirming it.

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That's the laws of logic. Next, the laws of logic are first principles. They're the foundation of knowledge and only supported in a

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Christian worldview. A naturalist atheist cannot account for them. Next, the laws of logic are immaterial, objective, and universal.

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Every time the atheist opens his mouth and asks for proof or evidence, he's issuing an I -O -U to God.

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Immaterial, objective, universal. Next time you're talking to an atheist and he's asking you for proof, say, why do you want proof?

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Why reason when I use logic? Okay, before we go on, I want to know the basis for your understanding. Where do the laws of logic come from in your worldview?

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They're immaterial, objective, and universal. How do you account for them? Next, the laws of logic can only exist in Christianity and not in a materialistic worldview.

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They cannot be grounded on naturalism or atheism. And last, truth has power.

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It must be used biblically because it ushers in the kingdom. Our words must be used biblically to proclaim truth, expose falsehood, exalt

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Christ, and ultimately glorify God. Finally, last one.

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By faith, Abraham was looking forward to a city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is

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God. It's a city that cannot be shaken. The only place you have to build your house upon is upon Jesus Christ.

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He is the foundation upon which nothing else will be shaken. If you're a Christian, the book of Hebrews goes on to say, therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

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And thus, let us offer to God acceptable. I believe we're going to sing today on Christ the solid rock

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I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Remember, we don't change the truth.

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The truth changes us. You need to confront the truth. If you've sinned and you think you're going to heaven because you're a good person, you're not, and neither am

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I. We all need to be rescued from our sins. That's why God sent his son Jesus into the world.

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You turn from your sin, you recognize that it's sinful, and it will be punished by a holy God. Not every sin in this world will be punished, will be paid for, either by you, turn from your sin, and trust in Christ, and be rescued.