Jeff Durbin on Roman Catholics & Calvinism

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Are you going to bark all day, little doggie, or are you going to bite?

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We're being delusional. Delusional? Yeah. Delusional is okay in your world view. I'm an animal. You don't chastise chickens for being delusional.

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You don't chastise pigs for being delusional. So you calling me delusional using your world view is perfectly okay. It doesn't really hurt.

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It's hung up on me. What? What? What?

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Desperate times call for faithful men and not for careful men. The careful men come later and write the biographies of the faithful men, lauding them for their courage.

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Go into all the world and make disciples. Not go into the world and make buddies. Not to make brosives. Right. Don't go into the world and make homies.

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Right. Disciples. I got a bit of a jiggle, Nick. That's a joke, master.

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When we have the real message of truth, we cannot let somebody say they're speaking truth when they're not.

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

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In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace.

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Amen. With which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

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There you go, y 'all. That's Ephesians chapter one. If you didn't know where that was, Ephesians chapter one, beautiful, beautiful passage of scriptures.

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I love it so much. Powerful section. The apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus. So welcome back everybody to another episode of Apologia Radio.

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This is Apologia Radio. It is the gospel heard around the world. Coming at you guys from Apologia Studios in an underground bunker,

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But I need you to know something that this is how we see it. What we're doing here in this studio and the content we put out into the world, we're only a part of this ministry.

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You are the other part of this ministry. And so this just doesn't happen without you. So I just need you to know that.

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I want to tell you thank you from the bottom of my heart because if we were to share with you all the emails and comments and stuff we get from around the world, that's literally all we would talk about on these shows.

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That's it. It's just the encouraging, amazing things that God is doing through this ministry. But this ministry isn't just us.

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It's you. So if you give the, what is it? All access? $10? It's like $10 a month. $9 .95. Yeah, $9 .95

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a month. If you do that, this is your ministry. You're doing this with us. And so a big encouragement too.

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So I'm at church on Sunday. I'm just about to walk up on stage to start worship. And I got to meet a woman who was sitting in the front.

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Someone said, Jeff, you need to go talk to her. She was a Mormon. She came to Christ through watching the content. So I went up to her and talked to her.

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She was a Mormon for 41, 42 years, something like that. And she came to Christ watching the content on Apologia Studios, all the stuff on Mormonism and everything else.

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She turned to Jesus because she watched that stuff. And now she's at church with us, worshiping

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God. And there's so many stories like that can be multiplied over and over and over again. It happens on a regular basis. So I just need you to know all that's happening.

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And it's happening because of God's grace and power through this ministry. But this ministry is all of us as saints of God working together to communicate the truth of the gospel around the world.

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And so we just want to say thank you. I know I say it a lot, but I need you to know that that's how we feel. And we're humbled by it.

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So I am Jeff, the calm of the ninja. That is Pastor Luke Pearson, the bear. That's the big bear. And that over there is

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Zach Attack. What's up, everybody? Zach Conover. He is the director of communications for End Abortion Now.

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You guys can get more there at endabortionnow .com. Hey, big praise. We're talking a lot about praises right now.

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By the way, episode we're doing today, just so you stick around, we're talking about Calvinism today. We're going to respond to a very, very poorly done article by Kwaku.

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We just recently had him. Some of you guys are probably tired of us posting stuff about Kwaku and with Kwaku. But we thought this is a different kind of subject really with Kwaku.

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I'm surprised that he chose to broach this subject considering his lack of understanding and knowledge in this area.

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And now he's left a public record of his ignorance yet again. And so we are going to engage with an article he just put up on the sovereignty of God and Calvinism.

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So before we do that, what was I going to talk about? What was I? Sorry. I don't know. It sounded like you said he was going to broach the subject or why he broached that subject, which is funny.

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Yes. I know that's not what you said, but I'm going to be laughing at myself. This is what it is. I'm like, where was I going with that? Oh, End Abortion Now.

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Yes. There we go. So some of you guys have been a part of End Abortion Now with us. You've either been out with your church saving lives outside the abortion mill or you actually gave either two years ago or last year towards the work, the annual work of End Abortion Now.

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I need you to know that there's coming up on close to 300 churches now. We're moving to that mark now of 300 churches who are now out saving lives, preaching the gospel, that are working towards the immediate end or abolition of abortion in our nation.

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We didn't know when we started this what God was going to do with it. We didn't really have any plans. It took us by surprise.

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We just wanted to be faithful and preach the gospel and save these children. But as we started talking about it in here, you guys all started doing it as well.

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And so God gave us the opportunity to actually equip churches for free and to bless them and to train them to do the same work.

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And so this, for us, it wasn't like some grand scheme and plan we had for this. It's just something that God organically brought together and he gave us permission to do.

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So we just didn't know where this was going. And by the end of 2018, we are going to have the message of End Abortion Now in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, the

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United States. And I just got contact recently from Brazil, some churches in Brazil that want some help. So as of now,

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End Abortion Now, your labor's with us and End Abortion Now are international, which is really powerful and it's a humbling thing.

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But with that, we are going to Australia, mate. Australia and New Zealand.

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We are going to be in Australia and New Zealand in November. If you go to endabortionnow .com, you get more details about how you can hook up with us and you guys can register to be part of those conferences out there.

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Pastor Luke is going, Zach is going, Carmen's coming with us, Joy and Pastor Scott is coming.

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We're going to go out to Brisbane first and do a conference up there with our buddy, Josh Williamson. And then we're going to go down to Sydney and we're going to be down in Sydney doing,

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I think actually in the city, doing the conference in Sydney. And we go from Sydney to Christchurch, New Zealand, and then we're on our way home.

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So we're going to be in two different countries in November. Encourage you guys to come and meet with us and be a part of what

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God is doing here in this movement. Anything you want to add to that? I think they booked us in the opera house, didn't they? Wouldn't that be great?

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That'd be pretty great. I'm kidding. It didn't happen. Now, I would just want to say that along the lines, same lines of partnership with Apologia Studios and all the ministry that goes on here and End Abortion now being, you know, organically coming from that, you being partnered with us in this, not only means that physical, actual, tangible lives are saved, but it's an eternal difference that your partnership is making in these ministries.

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And that's so humbling to be a part of. I'm just grateful for the opportunity to be involved in any kind of way with this.

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But I just want everyone to be radically encouraged by those of you that partner with this ministry.

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It's not just lives that you're saving. It's eternal destinies that you are altering for the course of the kingdom.

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And you are participating in the advancement of the kingdom of God by way of partnership with all of the gifts that he has given us in this media to stretch out his gospel message of the kingdom to the ends of the earth.

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And it's beautiful. And if you don't believe Zach's grateful, just read his shirt. That's right.

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It's my favorite shirt, bro. That's right. In like three years, it's going to stretch out and get holes in it soon. So big, big encouragement to all of you guys who are watching and partnering with us and praying with us through this ministry.

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God is doing incredible things. We're humbled. We don't deserve any of this. And so we're just absolutely astonished at times as to the stories.

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And I know we don't even get a chance to hear them all. So I can't wait for heaven one day when we get to actually learn about all the little details that God was bringing together, things we didn't even know about, ways he was protecting us and guiding us and bringing about his perfect plan to transform the entirety of the world.

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And so that's what's up. Hey, so really weird article. Let's see here.

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Well, let's do this one. So this was on Vice. You know, Vice came out and did an episode on us. Vice, just an article on the horrific

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Catholic church sex abuse scandal is about to get a lot worse. The horrific Catholic church sex abuse scandal is about to get a lot worse.

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Quote, I think we're going to look back on this as a Martin Luther moment where someone's nailing the theses to the door.

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That's interesting. Okay. That's coming from Vice. Yeah, it's on there. It's on there,

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I think. So I'm just going to read some of this to you guys. If you don't know, there was a grand jury report that it had concluded that at least 300 priests had prayed on some 1 ,000 children across Pennsylvania since the 1940s.

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Oh my goodness. It's incredible. That's Pennsylvania, friends. Yeah. Pennsylvania.

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So I'll just read some of the article to you because I think it's important to hear. Last week in the wake of a grand jury report that concluded at least 300 priests had prayed on some 1 ,000 children across Pennsylvania since the 1940s.

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Attorneys General in New York and New Jersey announced investigations into Catholic church sexual abuse.

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Missouri, Nebraska, and Illinois have launched state -level probes as well, and more are likely to follow.

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New York went so far as to issue civil subpoenas in all eight of its dioceses. New Jersey has created a special criminal task force to look into seven, calling for the production of internal church documents that relate to the handling of abuse cases.

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The diocese, for their part, have pledged transparency in working with investigators. So this is a very, very big moment.

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Now, we have all obviously become aware of past rumors or examples of sexual abuse within the

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Catholic church, but this is on a whole different scale. Yeah. To have one state, as they did, come out with the 300 priests that had prayed on some 1 ,000 children in one state, and that is, of course, that's not without, they don't have all the information of exactly everything that happens, so we just can't imagine where that actually leads.

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But yeah, I think it's an important thing to finally look at and expose and tackle in terms of justice.

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God loves justice, and these men can be covered in spiritual garb, saying spiritual things.

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Cleaning the outside of the cup. That's right. However, the inside is full of bitterness and evil.

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I'll just go on record here. Of course, I think the Catholic church is apostate. The Roman Catholic church is apostate.

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They preach a false gospel. They officially declared themselves to be a false church, the

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Council of Trent, when they declared anathema upon Paul's gospel, Jesus' gospel.

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The biblical gospel. The biblical gospel. So there's, of course, the problem theologically, doctrinally. We can talk about Mariolatry.

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We can talk about Mary as co -mediatrix, co -redemptrix with Christ.

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We can talk about prayers to the saints. We can talk about purgatory. Transubstantiation. All these different things, these unbiblical doctrines.

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But I just want to go on record here and say that the unbiblical view of the priests within Rome as being quote -unquote celibate and not married and all these different things,

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I think that, of course, has led to a lot of this sexual abuse.

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Now, I'm not giving an excuse for it in any degree. What I'm saying is that you have people that were not gifted with celibacy.

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That's a rare, rare, rare, rare gift. And how do you know you have the gift of celibacy?

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You would not, if you had the gift of celibacy, have any sexual desires towards the opposites.

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You wouldn't have any sexual desire. There'd be no struggle. Because you have the gift of celibacy.

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So the fact that these men still have sexual desires and all these different things shows they don't have the gift of celibacy.

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And they're acting out on it. And they're acting out on it in a way that is horrific, evil, and deserves the death penalty.

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From a Christian perspective, that's what I would say. There's no protection for a spiritual class of people who engage in these acts, these criminal acts of wickedness.

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And just because it's happening within the quote -unquote church doesn't mean that you don't want to involve the civil authorities.

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When there's a crime like this, it doesn't make a difference if it's happening within the church. You have to involve the spiritual authorities.

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That's God's design for justice in the world. And it's a wicked thing. It's a wicked thing that the

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Catholic Church was working to cover these things up because they were happening with quote -unquote priests within the

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Catholic communion. You don't need to involve the other authorities because we're our own authority. No.

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These men committed crimes. They deserve the death penalty. If they engage in these acts of rape among children, that's what they need.

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And the Catholic Church would get my respect if they actually put these priests up and said we're taking them to the law.

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That's what they deserve. Some Catholics, I think, are saying things like that. Good. They need to face justice. And I don't want to say this as it being factual, but I've read a bunch of reports and it seems like it appears as if a lot of these priests became priests because they struggled with homosexuality.

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And so essentially the Catholic Church took them and they were like oh, you're going to be a priest. So a lot of these priests already had perverted sexual desires.

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They made them priests, stuck them in a closet with people listening to their sexual sins all day, gave them access to little kids behind closed doors and stuff.

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And it's just a recipe for disaster. Yeah, I think it is an absolute recipe for disaster.

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And it's a terrible, terrible thing that needs to be addressed in a very serious way.

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When you talk about even a Christian, let's talk about a Christian church for a second, a Christian communion. Let's say, for example, you had a situation where you had elders over a church and they discovered that a father in their congregation had engaged in sexual molestation of one of the children.

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Now he comes to the pastors and says, he confesses, I've done this sin, it's a wicked sin. The right thing to do in a case like that, of course, is to offer forgiveness, but is to immediately hand him over to the authorities and say that there must be justice for a situation like this.

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So whether it happens with a congregant or it happens with somebody in some sort of spiritual authority, when there's a crime of that degree committed, you have to actually involve

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God's civil magistrate. And some might say, well, the civil magistrate's not operating justly at the moment, so I don't trust them.

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Doesn't matter. That's God's ordained function. And it's his position of justice in the world.

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So you have to actually involve them. And we had an instance years ago where there was somebody who we had discovered during a church service.

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He wasn't a member of our church. We didn't really know this man well, but he was bringing two small teenagers.

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They were teenagers. He was bringing two teenagers with him. He was a family friend of the teenager. His dad was buddies and everything.

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And so he's such a good man. He's bringing the kids to church and all these things. Again, we didn't know him very well. But through God's providence,

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I'm telling you through God's providence, it shouldn't have happened. I'm up preaching. Luke is in church with me.

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My daughter, how old was she? Oh, gosh. She was eight years old. Nine.

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Am I right about that? Maybe. Maybe around there. So she's young and she shouldn't have been getting up during church to go use the bathroom numerous times.

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I go to the bathroom 16 times during church. Well, it just so happens she got up to use the bathroom.

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She goes way in the back to actually a private bathroom. She didn't go to the main bathroom.

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She went to a private bathroom. And as she walked back there, she saw this man kissing this teenage girl.

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I think she was 13. She was 13 years old kissing her in the closet. And so as soon as church is over, my daughter walks up to me and she's like, dad, and she told us the moment we found out, the moment we found out

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Luke and I bring this guy over and we confront him on the spot over it. And I would say, what was it?

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Less than 24 hours. He was arrested. Yeah. Cause I, yeah, I had to report him that night.

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I called the dad. That's a whole nother story, but yeah. Yeah. We called the family first and then we called the authorities. And he's in jail today.

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He's in jail today. What we discovered was that he had been involved in this relationship with this young girl for years. The father was allowing this guy to come over and spend the night and all those different things.

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So I'm giving you guys very, very intimate details within our church life. Again, this guy was a member of our church.

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He was a visitor and we discovered this. And as pastors, we recognize that you cannot say, well, this is happening within the church is a church situation.

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Let's work on this. You know, privately it's like, no, this man was involved in molestation of a little girl. He was committing a crime.

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He was a perpetrator. That's right. And there was a victim. And so we turn them into the authorities because that's where it belonged.

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Well, I think it's important to, to note the distinction between a crime and a sin too. Exactly. Right. You know, and I think part,

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I'm just sitting here thinking, I think with the Catholic church specifically, because you have these priests who within Catholicism have the ability to essentially forgive people in their sins.

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Right. And so, you know, you have all these priests, you know, they they're, they're found out and they're guilty, but you know, they probably are forgiving one another, you know, but that's different than if it's a crime, you still have to, you still have to report it if it's a crime.

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Yeah. The majority of Christians, unfortunately, I don't think we've been trained to think in those biblical categories.

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There's, there is no category for justice because Jesus isn't concerned about justice. According to the average modern day evangelical mindset, it's all about the gospel grace, grace, grace, forgiveness, these spiritual aspects, but there is,

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God does demand justice in the present and it pleases him when that justice is executed.

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That's right. Completely. Yes. A good point too. I'm glad you brought that up.

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Zach is to point you all to Isaiah chapter 42, in terms of God's concern for justice in the world. We can give you a number of other passages, passages, but I encourage you to check that out.

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One of the promises of Messiah's kingdom is not merely salvation. That's a truncated gospel.

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God's concern is for justice in the world. Rightness in the world, making all things right.

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And so if you read Isaiah chapter 42, it says that one of the promises of Messiah is that he would establish justice on the earth and he wouldn't grow faint or weary until he had done so that the coastlands would wait for his law.

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So part of the responsibility of the Christian church is not just to proclaim the message of salvation, but it's also to work as God's bride in the world has helped me to bring about justice in the world.

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So if we as representatives of Jesus have a lower standard of justice than the unbeliever in the world, something is not right.

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Because we have the law of God. We have his perfect standard of justice. Just consider this for a moment. And this will be the last thought for me on this point.

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If you look in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy chapter four, one of the things,

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I'm going to go ahead and pull it up so I'm not just talking about it. I want you guys to actually hear this. This is what God said when he gave his law to his people.

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And this is Deuteronomy chapter four, verse one. He says, and now, oh, Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules.

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I am teaching you and do them that you may live and go in and take possession of the land. The Lord, the God of your fathers is giving you.

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You should not add to the word that I command you nor take away from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord, your God, that I command you.

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Now, as you move down, this is obviously about the law of God. What was in the law of God, not just the 10 commandments, but God's case law system of how you're to establish justice in the world.

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So there's proper punishment for thieves, proper punishment for rapists, proper punishment for thieves, murderers.

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You name it, God has laws, just statutes. Perjury. How are you to handle these crimes?

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And so what God says is don't add to these, don't take away from it, because here's what he says. This is powerful. He says, um, see,

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I've taught you statutes and rules as Lord, my God commanded me that you should do them in the land that you are entering and take possession of it.

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Keep them and do them for that will be your wisdom and your understanding and the side of the peoples who, when they hear all these statutes will say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people for what great nation is there that has a

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God so near to it as the Lord, our God is to us whenever we call upon him. And here's the kicker. Ready? And what great nation is there that has statutes and rules?

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So righteous as all this law that I said before you today. Here's my, here's my point on this.

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Um, we know from scripture that Romans chapter eight unbelievers, those who are in the flesh, those who are still dead, alienated from God, spiritually dead, separated from God.

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They cannot submit to God's law. They're not even able to do so. Got it. So that's the condition they're in is they cannot ultimately obey

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God in the flesh in Adam fallen, separated from God. They're not spiritually able to do such a thing.

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They cannot do anything that pleases God because they're separated from God. That's their spiritual condition. You need to be regenerated, made alive, filled with God's spirit, empowered to serve

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God, to love his law and to obey it. Right? We know that. However, God's word doesn't contradict itself.

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It says here that pagan nations, pagan nations look into the law of God, his just statutes and they say,

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Oh my goodness, that's justice. We want that. See, even pagans are supposed to look in God's law and as image bearers of God, they have an inescapable desire for justice.

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That's one thing about, but all of us has fallen human beings outside of Jesus. We still have this undeniable desire for justice in the world, right?

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Fallen people still want justice and fallen people, according to scripture, are supposed to look at God's law and say, dang, man, that's just, that is, that is the best justice.

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That is awesome. That is justice right there. So, so my, my point is, is that Christians, we have with the law of God in front of us, the statutes and rules, right?

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That are so just and righteous that pagans and idolaters are supposed to look at and go, dang, that's just right.

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We want that. Right. Um, it's not to say that they can obey God's law in terms of lust and lying and murdering.

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But the point is, is in terms of just statutes, even pagans look at God's law and say, yep, I want that. If they had to choose a society that was under God's law versus some other unjust law, they would want to live in a nation ruled by God's statutes.

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God's statutes are so good and so powerful and so wise. That's the point is that it's so, it's so perfect.

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The pagans are supposed to say that's justice. So my point is, is just laying it down from my final word here is that we are supposed to, as the bride of Christ, have the highest standards of justice that even the world looks at and goes, wow, those guys love justice.

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What happened to us? Whatever happened to us? Something that our forebearers knew.

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Oh yeah. They knew the Puritans. They knew if you look at the Christians who went as missionaries in the pagan nations and converted entire nations to Jesus.

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And by the end of that, that entire nation fell down before Jesus and upheld the law of God. Those Christian forebears, they knew, they knew what

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God was doing in the world through salvation and establishing justice. What happened to us in the 21st century in the

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West and evangelicalism? What happened to us? I'm not talking about just the Catholic church now. I'm not about Rome, the apostate church.

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I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about the true church. What happened to us and our desire to see justice established in the world, loving the law of God.

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What happened to us? Bad eschatology. Bad eschatology. Yeah. Definitely a big one. That's a big factor.

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Yeah. Final words. Anybody? I don't think so. No. All right, let's do it. So. Sorry, quickly.

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This would be a good transition. I'm glad the, as far as the passage you read at the beginning and Ephesians, someone

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I've been dialoguing with, someone that listens to us, his name is Jordan and he has a really great question. And specifically in regard to this passage,

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I thought it'd be a good transition. I think it'll be quick. Okay. Quick and easy to answer. So his question is, he says

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Ephesians 1, 3 through 4 says that every spiritual blessing, including being chosen to be holy, was given to us in Christ.

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So if we didn't get in Christ until after regeneration, then how can it be said that we were chosen before regeneration?

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That would be God choosing us outside of Christ and not in Christ. So there's definitely some confusion in his question.

28:32

And I've been trying to help him work through some of these things, but I told him he would try to get to it at some point. And the reason he brought this up is because he found a video of some guy on YouTube.

28:40

It was like, I destroyed Calvinism with this argument. And it was like, that's not even how any of this works. I don't see anything at all interesting in the argument at all.

28:48

I don't even, I don't understand what the confusion is. Can maybe I'm, I'm not hearing the, it's weird. And so, because he told me that he's, he's asked a bunch of Calvinists and nobody can answer the question.

28:57

I'm like, well, it's because it's not how soteriology works to begin with. Yeah. So he's, he's essentially saying that if, if Christ chose us before the foundation of the world, he's equating that with us, then receiving every spiritual blessing in Christ.

29:10

Before the foundation of the world. Yeah. And so there's a point in time when that happens. Yeah. Correct. There's a point of application.

29:16

There you go. That's, that's the answer to the question is that there is an eternal decree by God given from before the foundation of the earth by the father.

29:24

Right. The son enters into history to accomplish the means of that. And then the Holy spirit applies the saving benefits.

29:31

Everything that comes with that at a certain point in time, you look at the apostle Paul in the book of Galatians, it says when he was pleased to reveal his son in me.

29:40

So he who set me apart before I was born, when he was pleased to reveal his son in me at that point, then

29:47

I came. So the eternal decree of God takes place in eternity past. It's as sure, as certain as anything it's, it's more sure and certain than anything, right?

29:58

But there is a point in time in which the work of the Holy spirit is applied in history at a certain time at a time that God has ordained.

30:06

And those things take place in the lives of believers to bring about these things in real time. That's right.

30:11

There you go. There you go. Application regeneration. There's a moment of justification, right?

30:16

When I, when, when God grants me eyes to see and he grants me repentance in faith, according to second Timothy two 24 through 26,

30:23

God grants repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, right? So it breaks my heart, it breaks me down, caused me to repent.

30:30

And then there's a knowledge of the truth. So we know Philippians one 29, get a faith as a gift from God.

30:37

We know that Ephesians chapters two, chapter two, verses eight through 10, faith as a gift from God.

30:42

The Bible teaches that that's something that God gives. And we know that faith in Jesus Christ is what brings God's justification declared righteous.

30:50

So when I repent and believe that is when God declares me justified, right?

30:58

However, but it was, it was God's plan all along to save and to have me in Christ and that I would be declared righteous and filled with the spirit of God.

31:07

I think a good verse to point to, to illustrate that is acts chapter 13, verse 48, acts 13, 48.

31:15

It says, and when the Gentiles heard this, I heard the gospel, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the

31:22

Lord. And here it is. And as many as were appointed to eternal life, believed.

31:30

Yep. That's good. It's a big one. As many as were appointed to eternal life, believed.

31:35

So who believed those who had been appointed to eternal life. So watch this. There was a moment where they heard rejoiced, believed, but only the ones who were appointed to eternal life in that crowd believed.

31:48

Right. So what was necessary? There is the appointment to eternal life. They believed. And that's when they received every spiritual blessing.

31:56

And that's when they received justification. They've received all was all, all of that. So all of this is, is from God's perspective before the foundation of the world.

32:04

It's a set thing. It's guaranteed. It's nothing can thwart the purpose of God, but God still acts in history.

32:10

Right. I wasn't born Holy. I was born a rebel against the King, but God had chosen before the world began to save me.

32:17

And there was a moment where he opened my eyes and I believed in Jesus. I had been filled with the spirit of God, regenerated.

32:22

So all that took place in time. Right. I feel like this question almost assumes that God is somehow restrained by time.

32:31

Yeah. Right. It's like, it's like, no, God sits outside of time. You know, he made this, these decisions before he created the world.

32:38

And then at a moment in time, then he, he regenerates individuals. So he's not subject to the constraints of creation.

32:46

Yeah, exactly. Acts 15, 18 known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world known unto

32:54

God are all his works from the beginning of the world. That, by the way, is Acts 15.

33:00

That's two chapters after the verse where it says that those who were appointed to eternal life believed, which tells you something about Luke's theology.

33:08

Luke wrote the book of Acts. And yeah, you, Mr. Luke, he wrote the book of Acts and you see really, really peppered throughout the entire book of Acts.

33:18

You see these, these constant pointing to the sovereignty of God, the sovereignty of God, the sovereignty of God, the kingdom of God, the sovereignty of God, the kingdom of God, the sovereignty of God.

33:27

It's all throughout. Did you say peppered, peppered, like peppered, peppered throughout? Yes. So I never heard that.

33:35

So welcome everybody to the show. If you're just now tuning into the live stream, welcome to apology or radio. Get more at apologyistudios .com.

33:41

All right. We, we wanted to engage this article.

33:47

It is on something called medium .com and it is by Kwaku. Kwaku was on recently here on apology or radio with Dr.

33:56

White and myself, we discussed some issues. It was actually really interesting conversation.

34:02

If you haven't seen yet, encourage you to check through the thread here on the videos here on apology and studios and check out that episode.

34:09

I think it'll be helpful to you. He wrote an article for medium and this is the title of the article.

34:16

The title of the article is the insecurity of Calvinism, the insecurity of Calvinism.

34:23

Now I want to just start and you guys feel free to jump in at any moment here. I want to start by saying that one of the great struggles

34:29

I had with Kwaku while he was on the show and in watching his shows where he talks about Christian theology and doctrine is that he demonstrates that he hasn't done his homework.

34:40

So he, I, from, from my perspective, he doesn't have a lot of my respect in this area because he hasn't done his homework to say, to accurately represent the person he's trying to critique, right?

34:53

Yeah. And I think what's frustrating is you guys corrected him on the show. We did a show last week again, correcting him.

35:00

And then he comes out with this article still saying the same things, even though he's been corrected multiple times. It demonstrates that he did not listen because you even touched on this very subject that we're going to talk about.

35:10

You touched on predestination. You touched on the will of man as a creature and how he's not a robot, right?

35:16

You touched on the will of man making choices as a free agent, but he chooses consistently with what his nature is, what his nature is.

35:23

And this article reflects that there was no listening on that point. Yeah. He, he, he makes very clear that he did not take that in and he did not represent, um, what reform theology teaches essentially what the

35:35

Bible teaches about man's will. So that's just one example. It's one example. And I think, you know, there are people,

35:42

I want to say this, there, there are people who disagree with reform theology. I would say they're, they're in disagreement with the apostle

35:49

Paul and Jesus and the new Testament and, and many in the historic church. And of course during the time of reformation, but they're still brothers in the

35:55

Lord and they do not do what men like Kwaku does. And that's misrepresent us.

36:02

They try to take this from the angle of the scriptures. Let's see if the Bible really says here, but there are at least, they at least have the integrity to not misrepresent our position.

36:11

So one of, one of my friends, Dr. Michael Brown, he is a brother in the Lord, a, a, a stellar follower of Jesus.

36:18

I love him. He's a friend. Um, he, we have disagreements in this area. He's debated Dr. White in this area.

36:24

Um, he doesn't want to misrepresent his Calvinist brothers. He wants to represent faithfully. He just has disagreements.

36:30

So there's a man who has disagreement over this area, but doesn't try to misrepresent. There are other men, uh, who disagree with, uh, us at Apology at Church.

36:38

They're brothers in the Lord. Um, but they, they, you can tell that they are working hard to make sure they represent our position accurately.

36:45

So they deserve our respect. They deserve our respect and they're brothers in the Lord. Um, I believe that they're wrong, of course, but they're still brothers in the

36:52

Lord and they have my respect. A person like Kwaku has no respect from my perspective, uh, in this area because he chooses to, to, to, um, misrepresent the people that he's arguing against.

37:06

Now, if I had done that to Mormons, if I lied about what Mormons believe, if I, uh, created fictitious quotes from their prophets and leaders, then of course

37:19

I would deserve to be condemned rightly. Well, I know what's funny about that is we get criticized a lot for misrepresenting them, but all we are doing is quoting, quoting prophets and apostles.

37:29

And yeah, so I was just going to say quickly, this article is a, is a big field of burning scarecrows.

37:36

It's just one straw man after another. Each point he tries to make another straw man up in flames. And, uh, yeah, it's, it's, it's fun.

37:44

Let's get to it. Cool. Ready? Ready. Here we go. I'm going to go through it. Guys. Stop me at any time. All right, here we go.

37:50

And thank you all for watching. Please go to apologyistudios .com to get more. God arranges all things by his sovereign council in such a way that individuals who are born are doomed to the womb to certain death.

38:04

I think it should say from the womb and are to glorify him by certain destruction. That's a quote from John Calvin.

38:11

That is how Kwaku leads off the article. And here we go. On any given Sunday, practicing

38:17

Christians of all denominations find themselves in the pews or chairs of their respective church building.

38:23

First, he's assuming these are Christian. Okay. Continue. Each denomination will affirm the existence of God.

38:31

We, yes, they may consider, they may consider God to be a man with a body reflective of you.

38:37

And I, sorry, Kwaku. We see what you're trying to sneak in there, which Christian denomination, right? Exactly.

38:42

Um, orthodox meaning standing on the words of scripture actually believes that. Yeah. No one

38:48

Kwaku. We realize what you're trying to do here. And that is you're trying very, very hard. Um, as, as an active

38:55

PR, uh, public relations for the Mormon church to, um, squeeze Mormon theology into the historic

39:01

Christian faith. And you just simply are not, you are part of a false communion. It is not a

39:08

Christian church. You preach a false God and a false gospel. Your Jesus is not the Jesus of scripture.

39:13

And God does not have a body of flesh and bone as tangible as man. They may consider God to be a man with a body reflective of you.

39:20

And I know that's Mormonism. Uh, that is the idolatry of Mormonism. The false God of Mormonism.

39:26

If we're to look at what the Bible says about God, it says, God is spirit. And, uh, those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

39:32

And when Jesus described spirit, and I talked about this in the last episode, he says, handle me and see to Thomas.

39:38

He says, spirit does not have flesh and bone as you see me have. Um, that's his definition of spirit. And so no, um, even

39:45

Ryan, this is one of an infinite number of gods he's talking about. That's right. They may consider God to be a

39:51

Trinitarian essence or a modalist spirit. Okay.

39:56

So this is, and this is what this, the first point that really upset me, because again, we, we talked about this last week on last week's show.

40:03

He, in the show you did with Dr. White, he claims that he did not misrepresent the Trinity and you went back and in their show on three

40:10

Mormon show, that's exactly what he said. Yes. We corrected him on this and he's still saying the same thing. We are not saying essence at all.

40:18

That he is, that his essence is divided. Right. Right. I'm, I'm wondering what he means exactly by that.

40:24

Yeah. It's a little muddy. It's muddy yet. Each denomination can and will affirm the existence of God. Regardless, each denomination will affirm that Jesus Christ is a son of God and savior of mankind.

40:35

Whether they believe Jesus is just a form of the father, a spirit brother of mankind.

40:40

There you go. Kwaku once again, both false doctor in there. Yeah, of course. But Kwaku, we, we see what you're trying to do, my friend.

40:46

And that squeeze a Mormonism into the denomination category of Christianity. It is not, it's a non -Christian cult.

40:54

That's what Mormonism is. So whether they believe Jesus is just a form of the father, a spirit of brother of mankind or a heavenly influence teacher who became perfect, each can and will affirm

41:05

Jesus Christ, Yeshua to be the son of God. None of those are orthodox views of Christ.

41:11

A heavenly influence teacher who became perfect is not Yeshua, right?

41:17

Yeshua is not a mere man. That's the point of standard Christian doctrine is that he is the eternal

41:22

God. Yeah. Christian theology is very well defined, both in, of course, the writings of scripture, the new

41:31

Testament, old Testament, but also all the way into the first, second, third, fourth centuries of the church.

41:36

You have the Christian church very clearly defining what we believe about Jesus Christ. You have the earliest, um, uh, heresies creeping into the church, saying the second century, whether it was the not, whether it was the

41:48

Gnostics, whether it was, uh, Sabellianism, whether it was modalism, uh, to Arianism, all of those different isms were creeping into the church and the

41:58

Christian church responded with confession and creed. Um, you can even find fights taking place with Tertullian near the end of the second century

42:05

AD. Uh, clearly defining what we believe about Jesus Christ and, talking about the Trinity.

42:10

You can even find Santa Claus decking people over it. You can. Yeah. Oh, St. Nick. Um, so here's what's,

42:17

I know we're going point by point here. I just want to make this very, very clear. Kwaku, the way you demonstrate a pure ignorance about Christianity, orthodoxy, biblical theology.

42:31

Uh, and it's just clear that this is just a PR piece to try to promote old ultimately

42:36

Mormonism and to try to cast Mormonism into just another denomination of the

42:41

Christian church. It is not whether they believe Jesus is just a form of the father heresy cast out by the, the historic

42:49

Christian church in the second century. Um, a spirit brother of mankind. That's Joseph's perverse theology or heavenly influenced teacher who became perfect.

42:59

Um, that sounds maybe a little new agey. Maybe, I don't know. Each canon will affirm Jesus Christ, Yeshua to be the son of God.

43:05

Okay, here we go. At face value, this indeed would indeed make Christianity the same at its core.

43:11

No, at face value, this would indeed make Christianity the same at its core. How? In what way?

43:17

Having all of these false Christs, false characterizations of God, and then somehow constructing this inclusivity where,

43:27

Oh, as long as we say Jesus, as long as we use the terminology, son of God, it doesn't matter what we actually believe about that, right?

43:37

Jesus can be just a mere prophet and still be the means of salvation. No, the

43:42

Bible is very clear about defining the son of the living God, what that means, who

43:48

Jesus is and the reality that it is only through the biblical Christ. It is only through the

43:53

Jesus Christ, the Messiah Yeshua that is presented in scripture. You can be saved.

43:59

It's only through him. So if you don't have the true Christ, you are dead in your sins.

44:05

Jesus says, unless you believe that a go a me, I am, he takes the divine title of Yahweh and applies it to himself saying, unless you have me, there is none other.

44:16

I am, you're going to die in your sins because guess what? I'm God. And I'm the only one that's authorized to forgive your sins.

44:24

Just like that story in the, in the gospels where you have, you know, the religious leaders are all upset with Jesus. They say, how dare you pronounce forgiveness of sins on this person that you just healed?

44:33

Right? I think it was the paralytic. Right. And he says, well, by the way, just so you know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

44:42

Hey, take up your mat and walk. The sign was a pointer to the divine reality that Jesus can forgive sins because he's

44:50

God in the flesh. The sign itself was not the thing. The sign was a pointer to God in flesh, being the one that has the authority and the power to forgive sins by nature of who he is.

45:02

Yes, that's right. That's the point. Yeah. They knew only God can forgive sins and be blasphemy to claim to do it.

45:07

That's why they were offended. That's why they were very offended. That's right. And the fact that he says, take your bed and walk demonstrates that he has the prerogatives both ways.

45:14

He gets to, he gets to say this and he gets to say that your sins are forgiven. And that's a good point. I mean, unless you believe the ego and me, you will die in your sins.

45:21

I am. Don't forget. So important. That's where he says before Abraham was a go a me.

45:28

I am. And they picked up stones to kill him. They knew what he was saying. They knew what he was saying. Proof is right after that.

45:34

Jesus says, many good works have I shown you from the father for which of these do you stone me? And they said for that good works, we still need not, but for blasphemy, that you being a man, make yourself

45:42

God. They knew what he was saying. And they knew that it was impossible for any human being to say that they are

45:48

God or have divine divine prerogatives. Unless of course, he actually is God.

45:54

So here we go. Just to point out that this is not just a unique thing.

45:59

That apology, a church, these reformed guys, these Calvinists are saying about their specific little Jesus. Let's go to the writings of scripture.

46:06

Don't forget. In the second, first century of the church, you had the earliest beginnings of Gnosticism creeping into the church.

46:12

The apostle John and Paul deal with Gnosticism and Gnostic thought in the new Testament itself.

46:17

And so you've got these false versions of Jesus already creeping into the church in the first century of the church, and they were being fought against.

46:25

And then second Corinthians chapter 11, this is what Paul says in that context. First three, I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived

46:32

Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from sincere, sincere, and pure devotion to Christ.

46:38

For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus, then the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

46:50

It's a way of saying, you might even put up with these people. He's worried about them. I'm worried that you're going to be deceived like Eve by Satan's craftiness.

46:58

Another Jesus, someone will come and preach a different Jesus than the one that we preach. And he says, and I'm afraid you're going to put up with it.

47:04

You're going to just let it go. And so this is Paul in the first century dealing with false Christ, false spirits, false gospels.

47:11

So when we, as the Christian church, point out that the Mormon Jesus is a false

47:16

Christ. It's not just us being big meanies, just trying to cross every theological T and dot all the

47:22

I's. This is us as Christians, Orthodox, historic, real, genuine followers of Jesus who were saying, we are following the pages of scripture here and saying, that's a false

47:33

Christ. One more here, just to show you this coming from John. This is from the apostle

47:39

John. He has to deal. This is such a short little letter, but it was so serious to the, to the apostle

47:44

John. He's worried about the church. And he says this, watch yourself. Second, John verse eight, watch yourselves so that you may not lose who we have worked for, but may win a full reward.

47:56

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching of has both the father and the son.

48:05

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive them into your house or give them a greeting for whoever greets him, takes part in his wicked works.

48:12

Of course, this is talking to a house church in the first century. Don't let this person into your worship. Don't let them into your home to disrupt your worship, your fellowship, your communion.

48:21

And what is that? The disease deceivers, John says, and here's what they're doing. Those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, they were denying that God had taken on flesh.

48:34

This is dealing with the earliest beginnings of Gnosticism creeping into the church. And John says this, look, these

48:40

Gnostics who are saying they believe in Jesus, they're saying they're followers of Jesus, but they're saying that God would never take on flesh.

48:46

He would never do that because this, this is evil, this is dirty and broken and evil. God would never sully himself with human flesh there.

48:55

John says, anybody doesn't does that. They profess to believe in Jesus, but they deny that God took on flesh.

49:01

He says, this person is antichrist. They don't know God. Do not even let them into your house. That's not very nice.

49:08

So Kwaku, when you write this article and you say, Hey, all these Jesus's, they're all welcome.

49:15

Whatever denomination, I would say, tell that to the apostles, John and P and, and Paul, tell that to them, that they should just be welcoming to all these different versions of Jesus.

49:25

No, I'm sorry. It sounds like universalism to me. Well, it's, it's included. It's how would you say it? It's inclusivism.

49:31

So to summarize it, it's only exclusive faith in the exclusive Christ that will save anybody.

49:38

And that's why this matters because you have a different Jesus. Then you have no hope of being saved or have salvation.

49:45

Yeah. And I think, yeah, I think one final word here, isn't it interesting that Kwaku has all this room and his theology for all these different versions of Jesus, but he doesn't have room for the sovereign

49:57

Jesus who rules over all. Yeah. He's got room for Jesus. Who's Lucifer's brother.

50:03

He's got room for a Jesus. It's just a, it's just a good teacher that became perfect. Um, just a form of the father.

50:09

Just, we make room for all these denominations, but we don't want the sovereign Jesus. Yeah. Not the Colossians one 15, right through 18.

50:16

Jesus, not the John one, one Jesus. Yeah. And to that, I would say Kwaku, I kind of thought you'd say that according to scripture, you would be hostile to the true and living

50:27

God. Um, here we go. He says a face value. This would indeed make Christianity the same at its core.

50:34

We all love God and believe in Christ. Yet. There is one umbrella under the sky of Christian theology that holds a belief so dark, so pernicious.

50:42

It makes morality stare. Allow me to illustrate an example. In 2002, a fourth grade girl by the name of Alexis rode the bus home from school.

50:53

She got off two bus stops too early. She was lost and couldn't find her way home. As she wandered about, she came across a woman watering her garden.

51:03

She asked for help. The woman gave young Alexis a sweet smile and walked her inside her house to call her mother for help.

51:11

Sadly, there was no happy ending to the story. The woman's husband is sociopathic man of vile fabric, tied

51:17

Alexis up, beat her to a pulp, threw into the back of his car and sexually assaulted her in the fullest, most horrid sense of the phrase.

51:23

He then sold her into sex slavery and she spent the next years of her life among the lowest conditions. Any human could be subjected to in despair and without help.

51:31

She took her own life and she was a practicing Hindu. It would seem reasonable to say that every denomination of Christianity would teach to this girl was wronged.

51:39

Yeah. Including the reformed that the evil ensued upon her was detestable.

51:45

Yeah. Including the reforms. Yet there is one denomination of Christianity.

51:50

They would hold to the belief that this girl's subjection of sexual evil was not only known of by God, but that God specifically crafted the events to happen the way they did, that God specifically predestined her to such misery and torment.

52:05

And because of her religion sent her to burn in the flames of hell after years of emotional, mental, physical, and sexual assault.

52:10

The denomination in question, the religion of Calvinism. So. Wow.

52:18

Say a lot about that. Well, Calvinism is not a religion. One, just get that out of the way. A denomination when he calls it a denomination.

52:25

Um, that's, that's interesting. Um, but go ahead. I'll let you, do you want to start? I would just say, um,

52:30

I think there's a reason why unbelievers attack the doctrine of predestination.

52:36

So vociferously, and that's because it carries with it. Such an emotional pull to the unbelievers.

52:42

So they bring it up and they throw it out there and they say, how could you ever believe in a God who would not only allow, but orchestrate all of these things together that would lead to this thing happening.

52:52

Like what an evil, evil version of God that you believe in. So I think that's why people gravitate towards attacking it so much is because it really pulls on people's heartstrings.

53:02

But if you notice, and we talked about this, when we started the segment, the assumption within that paragraph is that there's one branch of Christianity, um, that doesn't see what happened to this girl as wrong because of the association of God, ordaining all the events of history.

53:20

Therefore, man cannot be held accountable for his action. It's, um, not something that we should have any, um, you know, be worked up about, right.

53:31

That, that, that man and his, his creaturely will. We don't believe that, right.

53:36

That that's the assumption, but we do believe an agency. We do believe that man acts of his own volition, his own fallen volition, nonetheless, because Jesus says whoever commits sin is a slave to sin.

53:47

Right. And so man chooses in accordance with his fallen volition until that volition is set free by the grace of God to actually do that, which pleases

53:57

God. So the assumption is that, that Calvinist think that someone's not going to be held accountable or that, um, that God is making them do things.

54:06

He's forcing it, right. He's forcing that upon them. And then I would just point to, you take an example from scripture, like Isaiah chapter 10,

54:14

God uses, uh, the rod of his anger, Assyria, go, go through this.

54:20

Cause this needs to be put on record here. I'm going to explain this in detail. God uses the rod of Assyria to judge his people, his people that have sinned against him, that have rebelled against him, that he is actively placing under his judgment.

54:32

He calls Assyria, this pagan nation, the rod of his anger, right?

54:38

The rod of his anger and Isaiah chapter 10, verse five, whoa, to Assyria. So, whoa, judgment, divine judgment, curse on Assyria, on the pagan nation, the rod of my anger, the staff in their hands is my fury, my fury, my fury.

54:53

It's, it's the mechanism in which I am using you pagan nation. Yes. And you are under my judgment as a result of me doing this against a godless nation.

55:01

I sent him, AKA his own people, right? That he's judging. And against the people of my wrath,

55:06

I command him to take spoil, seize, plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. And this is key.

55:12

Hang on. Okay. Can you, can you just say that last part again? Cause I'm going to get that down on record.

55:18

He rod of my anger. What's he sending them to do against Israel? To judge them? To judge them. The people of my wrath.

55:24

I command him to take spoil, spoil, seize, plunder, seize and plunder to tread them down, tread them down like the mire of the streets.

55:30

Can I ask a question? And please don't forget your thought. Can I ask a question? Are those things painful and awful to think about?

55:36

Because you gave an example from, you gave an example, Kwaku, about a horrific example of a wicked, wicked, evil man who deserves to die and what he did to this young girl and all the evil and the slavery and all the stuff where he just trod her down.

55:49

You gave a phenomenal example of the evil that's within the hearts of men. But in scripture here, God is, is actually using

55:56

Assyria as a rod of his anger to do what? To trod these people down in his judgment.

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Yes. His own people, by the way, his own people. Now, please continue because this gets interesting. So this is critical, but talking about Assyria, the king, but he does not so intend.

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And he gives a description of his heart and what's in it. Yeah. And his heart does not so think, but it is in his heart to destroy.

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Yes. And to cut off nations, not a few. Right. So we have this description in scripture of the king of Assyria's heart.

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His heart is set on doing evil. Right. But his heart is set on doing evil.

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Right. It's not his intention necessarily to go after Israel, but his heart is this wicked, stirred up evil thing.

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And what I, what I like to describe when I talk about Isaiah chapter 10, it's like God has

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Assyria, this rabid dog on a chain. And it is, it is, it is leaping and biting.

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And all it wants to do is destroy and to bite and to devour. And he doesn't realize that he's actually carrying out the purposes of God, the king of Assyria.

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Yes. But in his heart, he does not so intend. Yes. He doesn't realize that all of his actions are under the sovereign will of a

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God that wields history, including his very choices. He is, God is restraining Assyria's evil until the moment where he is going to judge his own people.

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He releases the chain only for his sovereign purpose.

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Now, does he make Assyria want to be bad? Does he put a gun to Assyria's head and say,

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Assyria, you need to be evil here for me. Assyria is wicked. It is evil.

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It wants to devour and destroy. All God must do is lift his, his hand to let him be as evil as he wants to be, but keep going.

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Cause this is where it gets even more interesting. Just to jump down a few verses. So when all this is said and done, right? Verse 12, but when the

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Lord has finished all the work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes.

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For he says by the strength of my hand, I have done it. And by my wisdom, for I have understanding,

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I remove the boundaries of peoples and plunder their treasures. Like a bull, I bring down those who sit on thrones.

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So what happens after all of this, he uses Assyria in his sovereign will and six them on his own people for judgment.

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And then he turns right around and holds the Assyrian king responsible. He said, I'm going to bring the judgment on you, but wait a minute,

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God, how could anyone resist your will and your purposes of launching this pagan king, right?

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How could, how could he, he know, how could he even resist your will? But then God turns right around and holds that same pagan nation responsible for their actions for their sin.

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Yeah. For their sin. Yes. They, he wants sin. He wants destruction. He wants evil. And for God's own purposes in a fallen world, he has two sinful nations and God is the one withholding and he's granting grace and all these different things.

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And in a moment of God's justice and judgment and discipline, he releases the evil person to do what they want to do.

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And then God punishes the evil person for the evil that was within them. Let's not forget.

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This is where Kwaku has no room for this in his theology. Kwaku, this is a fallen world of rebels who hate

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God. When you paint pictures, emotionally driven pictures of people in the world and this evil and that evil, never forget that the

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Bible says that we outside of Jesus have the wrath of God abiding on us.

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It says that we from the womb go astray, that we are fallen in Adam, hostile towards God, sinners, ungodly, wicked, helpless.

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That's what it says. Slaves of sin. We can't paint emotionally driven pictures to portray all of humanity as this is neutral people with evil things happening to us in the world.

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We are all rebels against the king, each and every single one of us. And guess what? I, as a reformed person,

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I would say as a biblical Christian, I have the ability to mourn and demand justice for this young girl who was, who was destroyed by this wicked man because he was doing what his evil heart wanted.

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However, I refuse to worship a false God that has no control over that.

01:00:14

Exactly. Yeah. On one hand, the God that, that we believe the scripture teaches is a guy's perfectly sovereign.

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Everything happens according to his plan, his will throughout time and eternity. And it's all for a purpose, right?

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Like you just said, um, the guy that he's promoting is one of an infinite number of gods has no control over what happens.

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Stuff like this happens, but it doesn't happen for a purpose. It doesn't happen for a reason. And it, and it promotes hopelessness.

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It's a purposeless evil. And yet, as we've also demonstrated, we've just gathered the meaning from scripture.

01:00:49

What it teaches is that God still holds people accountable for their evil actions. Although he wields all of history, that those people that God uses to accomplish his will, even though they have no idea that they're actually doing so, he still holds them accountable.

01:01:05

He didn't give them those evil desires, right? It was within their hearts to do it. And they acted freely with their agency based upon their nature.

01:01:15

So this is where it's really important. I did not create this myself. It was from a pastor long time ago, but it's one of the best ways that I've ever thought of describing this.

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And that is, and I've used it a lot. So for those of you guys that are new listeners in terms of our nature, being the foundation of our will, like our will is, is, is free.

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Well, our will is enslaved to our natural state, which has fallen or regenerated.

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So we're either fallen and our will is operating based upon a fallen nature or we're regenerated alive from the dead.

01:01:45

And our will now is operating on the basis of an alive, spiritual nature. So one of my old pastor friends used to say, if you were to take a pile of meat, a pile of meat, and you put a vulture into a room with a pile of meat and a pile of carrots.

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Now, if you leave the room, shut the door behind you, leave the vulture in there with the meat and the carrots, which pile will the vulture freely choose?

01:02:07

The carnivorous pile. You already know, because by nature, it's going to choose the meat. It's not going to go for the carrots, but now change the scenario.

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And you put a rabbit into a room with a pile of meat and a pile of carrots. What will the rabbit freely choose? Well, based upon what its nature is, it's going to go for what its nature is.

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Now take a sinner against a Holy God fallen, right? Put them in a room and have

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God on one side and their sin on another. What will they freely choose? Not God, freely.

01:02:36

They don't want them. Their nature determines the activity of the will. Now take a regenerated person who's filled with the spirit of God, who now has redeemed and saved, put them in the room with God and their sin.

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What are they going to go for? Well, they're going to now have new affections. They're going to freely want God, right? So that's in terms of the will and our choices.

01:02:53

But let's go to some scripture real fast here. Psalm 135, six, whatever the Lord pleases, he does in heaven and in earth, in the seas and on all the deeps.

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I think that covers just about everything. Don't you in the heavens and on earth, in the seas and in all deeps, the

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Lord does all that he pleases. Not the Mormon God. I wonder if Kolob is included in that.

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I think it was, I mean, in the heavens, right? But our God is in the heavens. Psalm 115, three, he does whatever he pleases.

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That's not the Mormon God. That's not the Mormon God. Would it please the Mormon God to stop all evil in the world?

01:03:31

Would it please the Mormon God? Do you think Kweku would probably say, well, yeah, I think maybe he would want to do that. Well, according to scripture, the

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God in the heavens does whatever he pleases. He should be able to stop all these things if he quote unquote, didn't want them to happen.

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In other words, in Kweku's perspective, please hang on here. In Kweku's perspective, you have a perspective of a

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God who doesn't know about these things, who can't control them, who can't stop them.

01:03:58

Men are thwarting the God of Mormonism and he has nothing, whatever to do with these things.

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He's an impotent God who has no power and no control. He can be thwarted by his own creatures.

01:04:10

He has no purpose in all these evils. What can the Mormon, what can Kweku, I'll say better this way.

01:04:16

What can Kweku tell the victim of sex trafficking? What can he tell them? God has nothing to do with this and God had no control and God has ultimately no sovereign ability to protect you in the future.

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God has no plan in this. This was purposeless evil. You are living in a universe with all of this purposeless evil.

01:04:35

God had no ability to do anything about this or control it or to do anything in the future. This was purposeless evil.

01:04:41

And you present a view of God in which he has to just react to these things. Right. Right. He's like,

01:04:47

Oh man, I was taken off guard. But even in the reaction, he has no ability to connect or correct anything in the future.

01:04:52

Right. He can react only once. But if the men, if men thwarted the Mormon God before, he can try to fix it in the future, but he can be thwarted by men again.

01:05:02

There's really no end. There's no end. Yeah. So essentially this guy just created everything and then just sat, sits back and just watches and has no say whatsoever.

01:05:10

And what happens thwarted by the almighty creature, more of a DSP, Isaiah 46, 10, declaring the end from the beginning and from the ancient times, things which have not been done, saying my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.

01:05:26

Daniel four 35, all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but he does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.

01:05:38

Did you catch that? That's both realms. He's sovereign there and he's sovereign here over the inhabitants of the earth.

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And no one can ward off his hand or say to him, what have you done? Nothing will be impossible with God.

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Job 42 too. I know that you can do all things and no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

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We can go on and gone. Here we go. Isaiah 43, 13, even from eternity,

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I am he, and there is none who can deliver out of my hand. I act and who can reverse it.

01:06:15

I act and who can reverse it. That's rhetorical, by the way. That's right. That's exactly the answer.

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If you try to answer questions that God means to be rhetorical, you're on the wrong side of this thing. That's right.

01:06:29

And there's many, many more, but here's my one point. You brought up an issue of slavery. You decried slavery and you displayed the wickedness of slavery, the evil in this man's heart.

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And you talk about sex trafficking and slavery is this wicked and evil, awful thing, abuse and everything else.

01:06:45

Well, I want to point you to the Bible. And one example is in the book of Genesis. You know, the story about Joseph and his brothers, what did his brothers do?

01:06:55

Where'd they send him? Into slavery, slavery. We already have an example in scripture of evil in people's hearts.

01:07:03

People who could not even say a kind thing about their brother. They hated him and they lied to their father.

01:07:10

They said that an animal killed him and they sent Joseph off. They basically left him for dead. I don't care what happens to you.

01:07:16

And they sold him into slavery into Egypt. Now, when he went to Egypt, guess what else happened in Egypt to add insult to injury, more bad stuff, more bad stuff.

01:07:24

He goes to Egypt and Potiphar's wife lies and says, that he tried to rape her.

01:07:30

So now he gets falsely accused. Now there's not just slavery, it's false accusations. And now Joseph is in a dungeon.

01:07:37

He's in jail now because of a wicked woman who lied and said that he tried to rape her.

01:07:43

So now you've got his brothers hating them. You've got slavery. You've got false accusations of rape and you've got a dungeon.

01:07:49

And then what happens is compelling. You know, the story, God raises Joseph up, rescues all of Egypt and the surrounding nations.

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And here's Genesis 45. Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him and cried, make everyone go out from me.

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So no one stayed with him. When Joseph made himself known to his brothers and he wept, he wept aloud so that the

01:08:09

Egyptians heard it in the household of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?

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But his brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed at his presence. So Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me, please.

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And they came near and he said, I'm your brother, Joseph, whom watch, get this.

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You sold into Egypt. Watch your guilty.

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You did this. You sold me an agency of man. That's right. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here for God sent me before you to preserve life.

01:08:50

God sent me before you to preserve life. And so what he says here is ultimately, you did not send me here.

01:08:58

God did, but you sold me into slavery. And at the end of the story of Genesis, you know, this epic moment where now the brothers are freaking out because dad's dead now.

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And they're like, Joseph, he was just keeping us alive because of dad. He's going to destroy us now. So they're like, look, dad just wanted one thing.

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Like, don't kill your brothers. And Joseph weeps over what they suggest.

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And what does he say? He says, as for you, you meant evil against me.

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You meant it. And in the Hebrew, it's absolutely parallel. He says, but God meant it for good.

01:09:31

He says to preserve for you a remnant. And so what you have there in Genesis, read the last chapter, by the way, it's the part of the chapter that was really there.

01:09:39

Not the part that Joseph added in later, a prophecy of himself. Do you know that Joseph did that?

01:09:45

He actually added a prophecy of himself into the last chapter there. Yeah. And so this is the real Genesis there guys.

01:09:51

But what he says there, watch is that you meant evil against me. God meant it for good. So watch.

01:09:56

Let me ask you a question. Is slavery wicked? Yes. Is that wicked? Yeah. Yeah. That's wicked.

01:10:02

And you brought up slavery in your example, Kwaku. But we already have an example in scripture that says that God meant it for good.

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You meant the slavery for evil. God meant it for good. It was in your heart to do evil.

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God meant it for good. God has a purpose and everything. I would never worship the impotent

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God of Mormonism. Who wants to live in a world where the creature can thwart the purpose of the almighty.

01:10:29

That's not the God of the Bible. It's an emotionally driven argument. Maybe this scripture will give an extra nail in that coffin.

01:10:38

Romans chapter 11 verse 33. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways.

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For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid.

01:10:55

For from him and through him and to him are all things. The judgments of God are inscrutable.

01:11:02

You can't figure out what God is up to in history. And if you try with your three pound brain to do that, you are searching out in vain for a

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God that is nothing more than a mere reflection of you. And that's why you need the true God. Romans chapter 11 verse 33.

01:11:19

Did you hear that in Max McLean's voice? Yeah. When he was reading it. Yes, I did. I always do.

01:11:25

So, one last word here. You brought up the issue of slavery and you brought up the issue of death and abuse.

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Physical torture. You brought up physical torture. She was physically abused and slavery and everything else. You know,

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God could not possibly have a purpose in any of that and still continue to judge the wicked man for doing it.

01:11:44

I would again point you to what you already know because you've heard it from us a number of times. And that is in the book of Acts.

01:11:51

You have Jesus who was actually physically tortured and abused and murdered on a tree.

01:11:57

And of course, the church says God gathered in this city against your holy servant, Jesus, Pontius Pilate, Herod, the peoples of Israel, the

01:12:05

Gentiles to do whatever your hand predestined to occur. The murder, the abuse of the

01:12:11

Lord of Glory, the Lord Jesus on the cross was according to God's predetermined plan.

01:12:17

And you can't give me an example that's worse than that. Nope. Not worse than that. You cannot. Good point.

01:12:22

Calvinism states that every event in the history of the world is predestined. Well, that's what the Bible teaches.

01:12:28

And that God specifically created each person to go to heaven or hell. That no individual has free agency.

01:12:36

We've already debunked that. But all of their choices and intentions were designed by God to do so.

01:12:41

Sorry. That's a lie. People are responsible for the sin that's within their own hearts. God is sovereign even over that sin.

01:12:49

And they don't thwart their God. And their punishment of hell is just a reaction to their actions in which God imposed upon them.

01:12:55

Lies. Kwaku, you're lying. This is pure false witness. And I want to say this, that the one benefit of this,

01:13:02

Kwaku, I'm going to say this to you gently. The one benefit of you writing articles like this is that it leaves behind a public record of ignorance.

01:13:10

A long -term public record of ignorance that you just do not know what you're talking about. And if you continue to propagate these stories, it only demonstrates that you have no intention of having integrity when talking about other people's belief system.

01:13:28

Now, I'm sure that you want us to have integrity when we talk about yours. And I want you to know you have our commitment to do so. But you have no commitment to integrity.

01:13:36

So, let me just talk through this real fast. And you guys jump in. He says, Calvinism states that every event in the history of the world is predestined.

01:13:43

Yes. And that God specifically created each person to go to heaven or hell. Well, let's flesh that out.

01:13:49

Romans. Romans 9 maybe. Chapter 9. John. Chapter 6. I would just point you there.

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Romans chapter 9. John chapter 6. Let me just go ahead and just read the passage for you as an example.

01:14:02

More can be done on this. But this is where I would go to point you in terms of let's look at what

01:14:07

God says about this. In Romans chapter 9, it says in verse 9.

01:14:13

For this is what the promise said. About this time next year I will return and Sarah will have a son. Shall have a son.

01:14:19

And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac.

01:14:24

Though they were not yet born and had done nothing good, either good or bad. In order that God's purpose of election might continue.

01:14:31

Not because of works, but because of him who calls. She was told the older will serve the younger.

01:14:36

As it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. Can we just say one quick thing about that?

01:14:42

Yeah. That directly refutes a sentence that he wrote. And that is that the punishment of God in hell is just as a just reaction to their sins.

01:14:51

That passage you just read said that before they had done either good or bad. Was God's sovereign decree of election?

01:14:57

That's right. So irrespective of their good and bad deeds, God's choice stands. His choice of grace.

01:15:04

Ultimately. That's right. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? Don't you think it's interesting? That's quick.

01:15:10

Who's writing an article accusing God of injustice. Yeah. And Paul's already dealt with that.

01:15:15

Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy.

01:15:21

And I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. See, that's the central reference point that Kwaku misses.

01:15:27

Is that he writes us in such a way as to describe all of humanity as basically these good sort of morally neutral people.

01:15:34

Right. What God says here about election is I'll have mercy on whom I have mercy and compassion on whom I have compassion. The issue here is

01:15:41

God's grace and mercy upon rebellious and hostile people. That's the issue.

01:15:47

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. Here's the point.

01:15:53

What is the reference point here for Paul in this whole discussion about predestination and election? What's the reference point?

01:15:59

God's mercy. Yep. God's mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose

01:16:05

I've raised you up. Then I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

01:16:10

So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault?

01:16:17

For who can resist his will? But who are you, old man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this?

01:16:25

Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump? One vessel for honorable use and one other for dishonorable use.

01:16:32

So here's the point. You have all of humanity, according to Paul, that's one sinful lump. All of us deserve what?

01:16:39

What does this sinful lump of humanity deserve? If they got justice, if God was fair with them and he gave them what they deserved, what does all of humanity deserve according to scripture?

01:16:47

What do we all deserve? Tell us. They burn in a fire. We all deserve punishment. We all deserve to be separated from God.

01:16:52

So the issue here is not this morally neutral lot of humanity that God is just going, hell for you, heaven for you.

01:17:00

No, it's an entire rebellious, hostile humanity that hates God, turns away from God.

01:17:05

They will not have God. And God chooses to give mercy, which is the compelling issue that you miss,

01:17:12

Kwaku. You act like humanity is neutral, morally neutral with God, basically good people.

01:17:18

And how could God just give salvation to some and not to others? Don't they all deserve it? No, what they all deserve is hell.

01:17:24

That whole lump should have gone into the fire. But God chose to give some salvation.

01:17:30

And I actually personally believe that the vast majority of humanity will receive God's grace at the end of time. That's my personal position on that.

01:17:38

That's not universalism. There's no caveat. I am saying in terms of the future, I believe the kingdom of God will have victory over the world.

01:17:43

And I think personally that the largest mass of humanity will be actually given grace. But that would also get into the eschatology question, but that's another issue.

01:17:51

The point is, is that God chose to give grace. Grace is the issue. Undeserved grace and mercy.

01:17:58

Now watch this. When God gives grace to a human being, it is an exercise of majestic resurrection power for God to give grace to a hostile rebel sinner.

01:18:08

It's God acting and moving in a powerful way to give mercy and grace to change hearts and open eyes and give ears and change spiritual condition.

01:18:17

But when God chooses to give judgment to somebody, what does he have to do there? Nothing. Let them have what they want.

01:18:24

God doesn't have to act against them, move against them, make them hate him. They do hate him.

01:18:30

All he has to do is let them be what they want. What do you have to do, by the way, to get clay to get hard?

01:18:36

What do you have to do? Leave it alone. Let clay be clay. Let clay be clay.

01:18:42

And the potter has the right over the clay to do what he wants. Makes vessels of honorable use and some for dishonorable.

01:18:49

This whole lot of humanity deserves hell. We all deserve it. The astonishing thing here, Kwaku, is not that God gives anybody what they want with hell, which is what they all want, not

01:19:01

God. The astonishing thing is that he would save one, anyone. You should be in awe that a holy

01:19:07

God chose to save any of us. And that just goes to show you have a view of God where he's not very holy, not very righteous, not very just, and not really ultimately worthy to be so offended.

01:19:24

Yeah. That's your God. And he's not the potter that scripture describes him to be doing as he will with his own creation.

01:19:31

Yeah. That's the idea is that I think it's powerful that Paul, I think, has in mind Isaiah chapter 45 in this, in verse 9, where it says,

01:19:40

Woe to him who strives with him who formed him. A pot among earthen pots. Does the clay say to him who forms it, what are you making?

01:19:48

Or your work has no handles. Paul has the mindset of Isaiah, the prophet in Romans chapter 9, and saying that all of creation is

01:19:58

God's. He can do with everybody as he pleases to do. And it has glorified him to out of the same lump, make some that are destined for honorable use and some for dishonorable use to his glory.

01:20:11

And he gives the example of Pharaoh as someone that he raises up for that very purpose to be displayed as his power.

01:20:19

And it's not because God is somehow lacking in anything or he is attempting to boast of his own attributes as the article.

01:20:29

I'm sure. I don't know if we have time to get to it today, but it goes on to say that it says that God is essentially boasting and making a big deal about himself because he lacks something.

01:20:39

He's insecure. Why would God do this? God wished to prove his power and omnipotence to whom?

01:20:46

Nobody. Calvinism doesn't teach a plurality of gods in this denomination. There is no pre -earth existence, no grand heavenly council, just an unexplainable nothingness.

01:20:57

Okay, hold on. So that's all of Christianity teaches that. That before the world began, it was

01:21:03

God. Yeah. And it denies a plurality of gods and the pre -existence and all that.

01:21:09

God's a seity, meaning he's self -existent. He doesn't derive his being from the creation. He is before all things.

01:21:16

Not just the denomination of Calvinism. That's right. By the way, Kwaku, if you had listened to what we believe about the triune

01:21:25

God, if you had read some of the books that Dr. White gave to you, if you had listened to our shows, anything at all and worked on this, you would realize this isn't a very powerful reaction or compelling in any way.

01:21:38

We believe that God is triune and from all eternity existed in perfect holy fellowship,

01:21:45

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God was never lacking in anything whatsoever.

01:21:51

John chapter one is a good example. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. Just an unexplainable nothingness except for God.

01:21:59

And he showed his power to the myriads of nothing by creating man and enacting cruelty to benefit him.

01:22:06

You see, this is what's interesting here is that you think man deserves glory. You think man deserves glory in some way.

01:22:13

You think man deserves to be the centerpiece here. You think man deserves to be the center of reference.

01:22:19

That man must be the center of attention. And the fact that you would have a God who does things for his own glory and boasting and power, like, no, you need men there.

01:22:31

You got to have some men there to receive some credit or they have to be a part of this process to glory. Because he wants us to be like him.

01:22:37

This is a person who believes he's going to become a God one day. The exaltation of man is the key assumption. Here we go.

01:22:44

So it says many works can be used to describe this rather pernicious theology. Many would call it backwards, evil, satanic, or cruel.

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However, there's one word I would use, insecure. There's a desperation in the somewhat mainline Christian teaching of eternal pain and damnation for of those outside of your religious preference.

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But there's an undeniable and extreme insecurity in the belief that everyone else was created to fail except for you.

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For example, imagine the 47 -year -old janitor who was recently released from prison. When he reflects back on his life, he feels an unshakable embrace of disappointment.

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He feels broken dreams and regretful decisions. He is angry, he is bitter, and he wants fulfillment. When he searches for solace in religion, he'll be humbled.

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Yet if he embraces Calvinism, he is told he is one of the elect. He was predestined to be with God while everyone else was predestined to fail.

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His life wasn't meaningless, but most others were. Yet... This straw man takes the cake here.

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This is a big one. Light it on fire. Nobody talks like that in Reformed theology, and you're just continuing on displaying that you just do not know what you're talking about.

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Yet one doesn't need to have been in a horrible place like prison to feel that resentment towards humanity or even to feel a deep insecurity.

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However, it is likely they must be burdened by these feelings to embrace the doctrine and teachings of Calvinism. So that's what this is now.

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It's an emotional assessment on the part of Kwaku in all his 22 years of wisdom to basically say what's really happening within Reformed folks is that it's not the word of God that's driving their theology.

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Which he didn't use an ounce of. It's insecurity. They're just insecure. And perhaps such insecurity resonates well with the

01:24:26

God of Calvinism, a God that needed to prove his power, a God that created the world to boast in his own glory, a

01:24:32

God that was insecure in himself and had to resort to bragging, a God that only loves the

01:24:37

Calvinist, a God that only sent his son to die solely for the Calvinist or like -minded Protestants. So, I'll go backwards.

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A God that only loves the Calvinist. I don't know any Reformed person who has ever believed that or taught that.

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Can you reference something, Kwaku, of any Calvinist that's saying God only loves Calvinists? You can't.

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You won't find anything like that. A God that only loves the Calvinist. Interesting.

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I find it compelling that in order to come against Reformed theology, you have to lie about Reformed theology to make your case.

01:25:12

Now, when it comes to God and his glory. Yes, please. Yes. Let's go there. Maybe Isaiah 48.

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Go ahead. You go ahead. For my name's sake, I defer my anger. For the sake of my praise, I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off.

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Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have tried you in the furnace of affliction for my own sake.

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For my own sake. I do it. For how should my name be profaned? My glory,

01:25:36

I will not give to another. Maybe just another example to the promise of the new covenant. In Ezekiel chapter 36.

01:25:43

I was just going there. Why is the redemption of God? For what purpose did he undertake the redemption of a particular people in Jesus Christ?

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Can I read that? Please. He says this. He says to Israel. He says they profaned his name.

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They had no concern for his holy name. He says in verse 21 of 36 of Ezekiel. But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel has profaned among the nations to which they came.

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Therefore, say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.

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I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them.

01:26:27

And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

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So what's interesting here is the promise in a new covenant and God's indwelling spirit. God says, I'm going to do it. Not for you, not for you.

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I'm going to do it for my namesake, for my glory. You've drugged my name through the mud. It's not for your sake that I'm acting.

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It's for my own namesake. And don't you think if you were wanting to somehow represent

01:26:56

Calvinists as believing that God is needy, that God would have said something different in that passage for the sake of you, because I need you so much because I'm not sufficient in myself.

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I must redeem you. No, that's not the God of scripture. The scripture presents to us.

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It is a God by whom no swearing can be higher than him. He's the height of all things.

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You cannot swear by anything higher than him. He there's nothing about him. So of course he acts of his own will.

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And for the sake of his own glory. Because there's none like him. That's right. Just like the

01:27:32

Bible tells us in the verses that we've already quoted for the past few weeks. Isaiah, just read Isaiah chapters 40 through 48.

01:27:38

Talking about there's none like him. Who are you going to compare him to? That by the way is not Mormon theology.

01:27:44

There is none like him. That's where I was going to go. Sorry, go ahead. No, go ahead. I was just going to say, yeah, there's plenty of gods like him.

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Again, an infinite number of gods. And Kwaku hopes to be one of those gods just like him.

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And the point is, I think what drives a person to really dis God. And him glorifying his name.

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Boasting in himself and his own glory. And by the way, he can do that because he's worthy of it. Right, the only one worthy.

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The only thing I think would drive a person to be so hostile to God glorifying his own name. And boasting and all those things.

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What would drive someone to that? I can only speculate that what would drive someone to that.

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Is the fact that they are going to be competing with God one day. In terms of their exaltation, they will also be a god.

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Now, of course, Mormons may not like the fact that I say competing with. My point is, you'll be one god among many gods.

01:28:35

Working through the same process of exaltation that this god did. One of the gods of this earth. You want to be a god of your own planet one day.

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You want to receive glory. And by the way, let's not forget. Kwaku believes that one day he'll be worshipped as a god.

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So I can get what drives a person ultimately to be hostile to the idea that this is one god.

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No one like him receiving all the glory. Doing everything for his own namesake. If you believe that you're going to become a god one day and have people worship you.

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That seems like a bit of competition. And maybe that competition highlights who's the one who's actually insecure.

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Yes. And who's seeking for the praise and the glory. Is it you? Yeah. I don't know.

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We don't know your heart Kwaku. But I can say that there's some logical conclusions to be drawn here in terms of your hostility towards the message of scripture and a god who glorifies his own name.

01:29:30

Jeremiah 9 .23. Thus says the Lord. Let not a wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might.

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Let not a rich man boast in his riches. Let him who boasts, what? Boast in the

01:29:41

Lord. 1 Corinthians 1 .31. So that just as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. 2

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Corinthians 10 .17. But he who boasts is to boast in the Lord. Psalm 34 .2. My soul make it to boast in the

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Lord. The humble hear it and rejoice. We can go all day long in terms of God doing things for his namesake.

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Or God boasting. Us boasting in the Lord. All of it to God's glory. To God's boast.

01:30:04

Because he's worthy of it. That's the key thing. God is worthy of it. Now here's the thing. It wouldn't make sense for a human being.

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A creature. To say these things and act this way. Because we're not worthy of it. We're not worthy of glory.

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We're not worthy of boasting. We're not worthy of those things. But we're talking about the triune eternal

01:30:26

God who is worthy. That's the clear thing. So we're finishing up here.

01:30:32

Let me just finish up this last part here. And perhaps such a personal insecurity resonates well within the

01:30:40

God of Calvinism. A God that needed to prove his power. A God that created the world. To boast in his own glory.

01:30:45

A God that wasn't secure in himself. And had to resort to bragging. A God that only loves the Calvinist. A God that only sent his son to die solely for the

01:30:52

Calvinist or like -minded Protestant. False witness. That is false. That is not what we believe.

01:30:58

In this theology all naysayers can be disregarded. It isn't that your theology is cruel. It isn't that the beliefs hold a selfishness and anger toward the world.

01:31:07

It's just that God created them not to understand. And you're simply better. No person that takes reformed theology seriously or the

01:31:17

Bible seriously. Believes that it is themselves that is simply better. Right. If anyone's of the reformed persuasion.

01:31:25

They should understand better than anybody. That it's only the grace of God. Nothing to do with me. That makes them any different.

01:31:31

Nothing to do with us. We're not better. It's the grace of God. It's vessels of mercy.

01:31:37

We should have been vessels of wrath. It's the grace of God. The Jews of the Holocaust. The Africans of the slave trade.

01:31:43

The Muslims in the Spanish Inquisition. And the indigenous people murdered by colonialism. Were simply created to fail and to burn in hell.

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And serves them right. Because you are better. False. Romans chapter 9.

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Ephesians chapter 1. John chapter 6. John chapter 10. Friends, even if you disagree with us in this area.

01:32:06

This is an example of a person who cares very little. About the truth and integrity.

01:32:12

In representing the other side. None of this. None of this is in accordance with reformed theology historically.

01:32:19

What reformed folks say. It's a very young man. With very little understanding of what the other side is saying.

01:32:25

Who had the nerve and the very odd courage. To write an article like this.

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And to put it out into the public realm. Now, to my mind. I love you Kweku. I hope you come to know the true and living

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God. I hope God opens your eyes to the truth. And you repent and believe the gospel. You're called to repent and believe the gospel.

01:32:42

That's a command of God. But this is now another example. That you've put on record.

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Where you're willing to actually stand before people. And lie about what people believe.

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And you have such a low view of personal integrity. That you're willing to put these things out before the public.

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And you don't care about the repercussions. In terms of your own responsibility before God. To have integrity and be truthful.

01:33:06

I would also say that it's not loving towards your brother. You believe we're all brothers in the pre -existence.

01:33:12

It's not loving towards your brother. Bible says, treat others the way you want to be treated. To love your neighbor as you love yourself.

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It's not very loving to your neighbor or to your brother. To lie about what they believe. I think the thing with integrity to do.

01:33:27

Is to pull this stuff down. Reorient yourself towards what people believe. Prepare yourself to understand what they actually believe.

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And then begin engaging on that basis. With what they really believe. Because we have brothers and sisters in Christ.

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That are not, they're kind of reformed. Not quite reformed. That we love, we respect. We serve

01:33:47

God together with. They would never dare to do what you just did here.

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Ever. They would never want to misrepresent. Someone's position in the way that you did here.

01:33:59

Yeah. Amen. Nothing more to say. Nothing more to say. Alright guys. So that was a pretty long episode of Apologia Radio today.

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We hope it was a blessing to all of you guys. Encourage you all to please go to. ApologiaStudios .com

01:34:13

Get some of the past episodes. Share those. Encourage you guys to sign up for all access. Partner with us in ministry. Please be in prayer.

01:34:19

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01:34:25

Thank you all for watching. This has been Luke the Bear. Peace out. I'm called the Ninja. Jeff. And that is Zach Attack.

01:34:31

See ya. We have of course Daniel in the back right now. We have Carmen on the ones and twos. Thank you guys for all that you guys are doing with us.

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Please pray for the ministry. Non -rock.