Eric Mason is Desperate to Make it Fit (Part 3)

Alright, well, before we begin today, I just wanted to thank everybody who watched yesterday's videos on Pastor Eric Mason's TED Talk.

I refuse to call it a sermon. I refuse. But anyway, thank you for watching. Thank you for commenting. I know a lot of people don't like YouTube comments, but I gotta say, the commenters on this particular channel are fantastic.

I always learn a lot. They're hilarious, and there's always something to discover in the comments section of Ol' A .D.

Robles' YouTube channel. In fact, Carmen, she comments a lot. She always has something interesting to say.

She mentioned to me that the story of Zacchaeus actually isn't about the law. I disagree with her on that, but she mentioned that it was about love because Zacchaeus actually went above and beyond what he should have done, and she cited

Leviticus 6 verses 1 through 6 or something like that, where it basically says if you extort someone, you pay back what you owe plus 20%, not four times.

But I was referring to laws regarding stealing livestock, and if you steal and kill livestock and sell it, then you owe up to five times as much.

And so I looked into this a little bit. This is a very interesting thing because I think she might be right. Probably, according to the law,

Zacchaeus would have only had to have paid probably 20 % or maybe a little bit more because I think still, even the 20 % law that Carmen brought up, it's still kind of a tiered thing.

So if you steal a little bit, if it's more petty larceny, it's 20%. If it's more like a full goat or a full livestock or something, it's more.

So I think she's right, though. He probably would have only owed 20%. So Zacchaeus is actually going above and beyond what he needed to do.

And her point was, it was about Zacchaeus loving, not so much the law. I would disagree.

I would say that it was about Zacchaeus loving, but the law tells you how to love, right? It's the law of love.

Love God, love your neighbor. If you follow the law, you're loving your neighbor. That's how it is. And so I actually think she makes a great point.

I think Zacchaeus probably went above and beyond what he was required to do, and he did it out of love.

But anyway, kind of an interesting little tidbit from the YouTube comments. Thank you so much for the comments.

Let me know what you think about this video in the comments below, and we will continue our

TED Talk review. Dr. Eric Mason, let's dive right in.

Harass them to squeeze resources out of them. It's interesting. Remember, he's talking about extortion.

He's talking about people harassing you or pressuring you to give them money, right? That's what extortion is in his opinion, which is going to be so ironic because that's what this whole sermon is.

It's one big extortion. He's trying to extort white Christians here. That this exegetical statement here is powerful because it says to oppress someone and cheating them and extorting them.

Well, who's more extorted than black people in America? Black people in America were extorted by Europe.

Okay. If you remember last week, we were talking, or last episode, it was yesterday, not last week.

We were saying how a region, a geography, a continent can't commit extortion.

Only people can commit, excuse me, only people can commit extortion, and a skin color can't be extorted.

Only people can be extorted. So, he's trying to make this thing where the nation extorted a skin color in order to make reparations fit the definition that he just set out, but it doesn't work.

It doesn't work. You can't be a nation, like you can't say X nation extorted this skin color.

That doesn't work. Crimes are against people. People commit crimes and people commit crimes against other people.

These nameless, faceless sort of identity politics categories that he wants to use here, it doesn't work, and in fact, it would make everything topsy -turvy, but he needs that.

He needs to make it fit, so he's going to try to ramrod this thing in there to make it fit, but in the end, it just makes a big mess of things, but Dr.

Eric Mason doesn't care about that. He doesn't care about making a mess of things. He wants that cash. He wants that drip, which we'll talk about in a minute.

Were extorted by Islam. Was extorted, and when

I talk about Islam, I'm talking about Islamic slavery. We've been extorted by a substandard form of Christianity.

We have been extorted by America, and we've been extorted, why? Because we gave you 256 years, listen, of free labor with nothing but poor eating and poor place to stay, and what's crazy about that reality is that there's no real belief that we've been extorted, but we worked for free.

Eric Mason doesn't work for free. What in the world is he talking about? There's no belief that we've been extorted.

He's saying the we, if you know about the pronouns, I mean, listen, I'll be honest. When I grew up in public school,

I knew what pronouns were, but I didn't really know how key they were to understanding things. I only really understood pronouns when

I started learning how to read Greek, and if you've ever tried to learn how to read

Greek, pronouns are so important. In fact, I've learned more about English grammar from learning

Greek than I ever did in school. There's just no question about it. But you see, he's saying we, so this is a personal pronoun.

He's part of this group. He's saying we worked for free, which includes him. So he said Eric Mason worked for free.

Eric Mason was extorted. Eric Mason and the collective group, I guess it's the black skin color is what he's talking about, black people, that they've all been extorted.

They all worked for free. And this is just demonstrably false, right? This is a false statement.

And so if you begin your whole exploration of reparations with a false statement, he's going to go hunting for Bible passages to make this false statement work.

And none of them work. This is he's just he's twisting the Bible. Like I said yesterday, he starts off with this idea and he wants to go find passages that he could, you know, in a convincing way, twist to make it fit so that he gets some of that drip.

He gets some of those stacks. He gets some of that gold, silver, hallelujah, and all that kind of stuff. This is pretty bad, man.

This is pretty bad. It's very self -centered. It's very egotistical. And it's like it's sadly it's twisting the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's twisting it. And if you remember yesterday, somebody, a heckler came and he was asking him what he was doing. And he goes out here, we're talking about reparations for black people.

Remember, do you remember that? Remember that hit me the wrong way? Well, I figured out why it hit me the wrong way. And somebody else pointed this out.

I was talking to my brother about this afterwards. He kind of put it. He put the nail, the hammer right on the head of the nail.

And somebody else commented and said, this is why it hit you the wrong way. It's because he's out here. He's not preaching Christ. He admits it.

He gives you a window into what he's up to. He's preaching reparations for black people. And and that's how he he hopes to win people.

He hopes to win people away from the cult, which is a good it's a good goal to get them out of the black

Hebrew Israelites. But he's doing it by saying, look, we got reparations, too. We got all that stuff, except we actually believe in the

Christ that's fully God, fully man and all that kind of stuff. And it's like, well, you know, whatever happened to the big

Eva classic slogan? What you win them with is what you win them to when they realize that actually no reparations ain't in the

Bible. They're going to walk away because they came for the reparations. They came for the benefits.

They came for the silver and gold. Hallelujah. So he might get a shot in the arm from a congregation perspective.

But if someone's in your congregation because they want gold, silver, hallelujah, then they're not there.

They're just they're just in your church on their way to the pit of hell because I'm not at church because I'm going to get gold, silver, hallelujah.

You know what I mean? I'm in church because Christ is the Lord of glory. He's God. He came in flesh and he died on a cross.

He died for my sins. He's God. I'm not. It's his way, not mine. I'm here because God told me to be here.

I'm here because God told me to be here and I love my Lord. And so I'm going to obey him because what does Christ say? He says, if you love me.

Obey my commands, that's what he said. Anyway, let's go, let's continue.

Black folk are lazy. I'm like, well, we we sure built the country on some on some lazy people, huh?

So this is interesting for us. Some black folks are lazy. I've known some black folks that are lazy.

But, you know, lazy people are come from every color of the rainbow, of course. And so Zacchaeus is

Zacchaeus is basically trying to make restitution. Amen. Restitution ain't the same thing as reparations,

Pastor Eric Mason. But I know you're going to try to make it fit. He feels like the grace that God has given him has put him in a position to now seek restitution.

I like the way one writer says that the kids makes restitution in response to grace.

Rather than to just receive grace fits Jesus's ministry, but offers but differs from the common view of his day.

That's what I said yesterday. So what I wanted to do was pay restitution. He said, I'll pay back four times as much.

Now, this idea of paying back four times as much is is is the

Old Testament principle. It's the Old Testament principle. You can you can look at the you can look at some of those passages.

Exodus twenty to one. Second Samuel, twelve, sixteen. You can look at those passages and see some of those things.

One of the ways the blacks have been extorted, even sharecropping. People don't know recognize what sharecropping was.

The sharecropping was when you rented a piece of somebody's land or somebody's land, you work the land and gave them a portion off of it.

But many times or bought or sold to them off of the land or let that be your rent.

What you give them off of the crops. But many times, because my great grandfather, my dad who raised my dad was a sharecropper and a former slave.

And he talked about my dad talked about how difficult it was for him in the in the in the late 20s growing up and in the mid to late 1920s.

That's right. My dad was an OG and into the 30s. How difficult it was watching his grandfather and having to help his grandfather with sharecropping.

But what's interesting, what's happening here? Is in principle is he's basically saying,

I want to make restitution. Now, someone was like, this is a very confusing sermon.

I mean, he's OK. He's in the passage. He talked about the Old Testament. Good stuff. That's what I did yesterday. Talked about the Old Testament principles of giving four times as much to make restitution for what you stole.

OK, great. We're good. Then he talks about sharecropping and he makes it. And listen, I'm not going to I'm not going to dispute anything he says about history.

I don't really care about that. That's not the point. The point is the scripture, right? I don't need to dispute anything. You might want to dispute it.

I don't care. He's probably lying about things because he lies a lot. But the thing is, like, then he talks about sharecropping and says something, how that's that's difficult.

Sharecropping was difficult. It was a difficult life. And somehow that's extortion.

Maybe he'll explain why it's extortion. I don't know. I mean, listen, I don't know what he's about to say, because this is about where I stopped listening the first time around.

So this is all going to be new to me now. But I just found it interesting how he said there's a difficult life. Yeah. Life is hard sometimes.

Right. I don't know. What do you want from me? Say, well, this is personal restitution in the context of this passage with the kids, because the kids is is the one who actually did the wrong.

And in his day, he corrected it. Right. Well, there are layers to this now. And I'll show you in the

Old Testament some passages that will help expand upon this, if you will. So I'll bet you will have the restitution restitution when it comes to generational restitution.

It's because there was no full restitution. We'll talk about some restitution that we got, but that it was removed about by white vigilantes on ground.

We'll talk about that and how the government reversed some of the restitution that we were supposed to get.

When we got out of slavery, there was absolutely no opportunity for African -Americans. We had to basically fend for ourselves or under the guise of going back into work for our slave masters under the guise of not being slaves no more, even though being treated the same way.

And there was economic building. But but but the way he uses the word we is so interesting.

It's a rhetorical device. And and it's it's it's a fantasy, because if I were to say the same thing, if I were to say we and we were treated like this and we were extorted and and we have worked for free, you would instantly be like 80.

What are you talking about? We because you're not black. Well, it's like, yeah, I'm not black, but my ancestors were slaves.

Just like he wasn't a slave, even though he's black. Why is he using this word? We will. The reason is because he's trying to get the cash.

He wants the money. He wants the free counseling. He wants the goods. He wants the restitution, even though he wasn't the one who was extorted.

He's going to try to make it fit generational restitution, whatever. But it's just so interesting to hear him use the word we.

This is a rhetorical device. And then you've got gullible people like Paul Tripp in the audience like, yeah, that's right.

You were extorted. You need to get that cash. You need some drip. I would love to see Paul Tripp talk about drip.

That'd be amazing. Paul Tripp going to give you some drip. But time there was so many and I'll talk about in a minute all the different things that demand restitution and how restitution works.

But look, look at our numbers. Chapter five or seven numbers of the five or seven says the person is to confess the sin.

He or she has committed. He is to pay full compensation or restitution is the word there.

Add a fifth to its value. Wow. Add a fifth to its value and give it to the individual.

He has wrong. Now, if you. Oh, OK. Now, do you do you see this?

This is interesting because maybe there's some hope for Eric Mason. Maybe if there's some hope for Eric Mason, because if you noticed, he's reading this passage and it's a great, very relevant passage.

Somebody extorts you. Somebody steals from you. If somebody robs you of something or, you know, money or whatever it is, tricks you into just taking your money, you know, scammer.

This is a great passage. This is it gives you an idea of what restitution is. Now, a lot of you aren't theonomous and that's totally fine.

But the thing is, what this does is you don't have to apply this one to one. But this principle is valid for for for today.

So in other words, instead of putting people in prison for for for stealing, instead of that, what we need to do is have a law that the person pays back what he owes and then some an interest.

Right. So it's not a one to one thing. We don't make the book of numbers our constitution. But we look at the the principles here.

And there's a there's a principle here that you pay back what you owe. And we don't want to make prison profitable.

And so we we add on, you know, a value to it. We add on more. So it's not a profitable proposition.

You see, with our system today, we put people in prison. Right. And the thing is, like, that's just for for for robbers.

For that's how they make their income. You know, you know, thieves. That's just an occupational hazard. Yeah, I might end up in jail for, you know, a little bit.

Right. They don't look at it like the way you would. They would look at it. Robbers look at prison sentences the way like like a miner would look at the risk to his life from mining in the mine.

Right. It's an occupational hazard. It's part of what they consider when they decide if it's going to be profitable or not.

So robbers aren't real. I mean, they don't want to go to prison, of course. It's like a miner doesn't want to die. But to them, it's an occupational hazard.

But you see, when you do it God's way, he removes the profit from it. You get caught.

You need to pay it back. And then some. There's no profit in it anymore. It's way too risky.

It's like speculating almost. Maybe not even like speculating. But OK, anyway, but let me get back to the point.

There might be hope for Eric Mason because he's reading this very relevant passage. And if you notice, he pauses, he pauses where it says, give it to the individual he has wrong.

And he I think he had a moment of clarity. He's like, this actually doesn't fit what

I'm about to try to make it fit. And he pauses, but he continues. He powers on, right, because he he's got to preach a sermon about reparation.

So he's got to deliver the goods. Right. But but honestly, I think he might have reflected in himself. This is my live thoughts here.

I haven't I haven't seen this part yet. Listen to this pause. This is a very there might be hope for Eric Mason.

Of course, there's hope for Eric Mason. There's there's hope for every sinner, of course. But listen to this pause. And if you if you agree with me, you think that he might have noticed how this actually doesn't say what he's about to say it says.

If you agree with me, comment on it. If you disagree with me, tell me what you think this pause was about. Listen to this has wrong.

Now, if you understand the key is to say Atlantis on ground, we'll talk about it's committed. Here's a full compensation or restitution is the word there.

Add a fifth to its value. Wow. Add a fifth to its value and give it to the individual.

He has. You hear that? There was a big pause there. Give it to the individual.

And all of a sudden he's thinking about that word individual. And then it says he has wronged.

This is a great verse to determine to show exactly why restitution or I'm sorry, reparations is unbiblical because it's talking about individuals.

You see, God doesn't hold Europe, a region, a continent accountable for the sins of an individual when it comes to, you know, person to person justice.

Now, God, God's got a different prerogative. He can judge a nation. God's from God's perspective in the vertical from us to God, God can do things that he commands us not to do because God is

God is perfect. God is different than us. He's other than us. He's different. There's a chasm between who we are and who

God is. Right. And so that was interesting, that pause.

I don't know. Let me know what you think in the comments below. Now, if you understand the kids are saying he's not paying a fifth of the value, he's he's paying the value of what he took four times over.

So he's trying to show you that he's so repentant that he's willing to pay a massive amount for restitution for what he did to show how wrong he is, but also to help catch a person up.

Why? Because whenever you extort someone or ever you take something from someone like you take it from black people, black women have been raped, black men were raped, children were raped from families, men were bred.

When you when you take away from them, from their land, you take their culture. When you take that away, you you you have to make in mind, like, what would their life be like?

This is what you got. This is what reparations does. What would their life be like if I didn't interfere with their advancement?

So he's right about Zacchaeus, I think. And I think thank you, Carmen, for pointing this out. Zacchaeus went above and beyond what he needed to do, according to the law.

That's a good point. But again, you notice how he does this like he's good. He's in the text and he's saying the right thing.

And then he instantly talks about reparations. And if you notice, there's actually no connection to what he's talking about.

So he goes from the text where he's he's he's saying it right. But then he instantly goes to a blacks were raped.

Blacks land were taken. What is he talking about? How does this connect to Zacchaeus? How does this connect to numbers like it's almost like he reads the passage and you're like, right on.

And then he instantly gets out of the passage talking about something unrelated. And he's expecting you to just be like, well, you read the passage and then you said these things.

So I guess this is the passage. And no, it's not. No, it's not. I think that's why you had that big pause there.

He's like the individual who he has wrong. And he put a big pause there thinking about that, because what he's about to say doesn't match up with what he said in numbers.

That's interesting. We're going to stop right there. This video is about 20 minutes. Stay tuned.

I'm going to drop another one today and we'll continue this right away. Hope you found this video helpful.