Canon Conversations

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Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus?
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Well, it's true, there's no shortage of candy -coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.
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But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed
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Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women,
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No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies -only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.
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My name is Mike Ebendroth and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.
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Well, hello ladies and welcome to Equipping Eve. I am your host, Erin Benzinger, and this is the show that seeks to equip you with fruits of truth from God's Word.
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Why do we need fruits of truth from God's Word? Why do we need God's Word? Why do we need truth?
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Well, we need truth because does anybody want to exist in lies?
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I mean, do you appreciate it when you find out that your family member has lied to you?
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Do you enjoy it when you know that your boss or your management is lying to you?
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No, nobody wants to be lied to. You can't trust a liar, can you?
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Ladies, that is what is so beautiful about God's Word. It is truth. It is
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God's Word and God cannot lie. So, every single word contained in the 66 books of the
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Bible is God's Word and therefore is truthful because naturally
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His words would reflect Him. The Bible reflects its author and therefore the
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Bible is true. It can be trusted. Isn't that wonderful? And it's the only true objective truth.
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It's black and white. It's not subjective. You know, when
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I have an emotion or I have an experience, it's all subject to A, my fallenness and B, subjectivity and how
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I interpret it. But scripture is true. It has one meaning and scripture is true whether I exist or not.
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Scripture is true whether I believe it or not. Scripture is true whether you believe it or not. Scripture is true whether you exist or not.
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And that is precisely why it does not matter what the Bible means to you. What matters is what the
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Bible means, right? Because God wrote it with one meaning and that's the meaning that matters, not the meaning that you want it to have.
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And that is why we love it. That is why we treasure God's Word and that is why here at Equipping Eve, we talk about God's Word.
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We dig into God's Word to use that wonderful Christian cliche that we all use way too much.
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Dig in. It makes me feel like I should get a little shovel when I read my Bible. But you know what
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I mean and we all know what that picture means. We love to open God's Word. We love to study it, learn it.
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Why? Just to know it? No. Because we want to know its author. We want to know
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God. And we want to know Jesus Christ who is revealed in the Scriptures.
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That's how we come to know Christ. We don't wait for him to come to us in a dream because that doesn't happen.
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No. We know Christ through God's Word. And in fact,
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God says in that word in Hebrews 1, God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in his
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Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world.
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And he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power, i .e.,
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ladies, Jesus is God. When he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels as he has inherited a more excellent name than they.
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That is our Lord Jesus Christ. And that is why we love the
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Scriptures, because the Scriptures reveal that Christ to us. Can I get an amen?
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I hope you're amening on the other end of the podcast. Well, since we're on the topic of the
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Scriptures and the sufficiency of the Scriptures that we see right there in Hebrews 1, 1 and 2, that God has spoken fully and finally in his word,
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I wanted to skim through a little article that I found. It's from a website called deliveredbygrace .com,
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and it was posted on February 14, 2017 by Josh Weiss.
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I don't know if I'm saying his name correctly. So if somebody knows Josh and I'm mispronouncing his last name, please tell him
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I'm sorry. And tell me how to say it so that if I use his material again, I can actually get it right.
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B -U -I -C -E. Anyway. The article is entitled, Please Stop Saying God Told Me.
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Well, amen to that. Why were we ever saying that in the first place, unless we were referring specifically to the
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Scriptures? But of course the phrase God told me just convolutes the message. Anyway. Josh writes,
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It happened again recently. I was listening to a sermon online and the preacher said, quote, God told me.
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Apparently everyone in the congregation enjoyed it from the response I heard, but I immediately turned it off. This type of communication is becoming more prevalent in Christian circles.
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It's showing up in conversations because people are hearing it from the pulpit and reading it in books they purchased from the local
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Christian bookstore. Perhaps it sounds spiritual or is emotionally stirring to the congregation. And this is a problem and it's becoming more prevalent.
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It just straight up is prevalent. You hear these Bible teachers stand up there and they might not mean an audible voice, but they'll say things like,
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God spoke to my heart. Well, what does that mean? Your heart doesn't have ears. So I don't understand what that means. Speak clearly.
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Say what you mean. Did you hear a voice? Did you get an impression? If so, that impression is subjective and can be subjectively interpreted and cannot be trusted because it cannot be tested.
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Ergo, don't tell me your impression. Tell me what the word says. The word of God. Josh goes on.
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Although the God told me method of communicating makes for interesting, suspenseful and entertaining stories, what people need most is to hear from God.
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I would like to make a simple request. Please stop saying God told me unless the phrase is immediately followed up with a text of scripture.
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Hey, I like that. Josh, I am with you. Have you considered the connection between the God told me language and the sufficiency of scripture?
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What connection does the God told me phrase have with the third of the 10 commandments? Interesting questions he asks there.
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So the first thing Josh says is the God told me language violates the sufficiency of scripture. If God spoke to Moses from a burning bush to Samuel in the dark of night, to Elijah in a cave, to John the
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Baptist and others at Jesus' baptism and to Saul, subsequently Paul and his traveling companions on the road leading to Damascus, why would
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God not speak to us today? Well, that's a fair question, says Josh, but it might surprise you to know that God does still speak to us today.
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He does so through his sufficient and authoritative word. In chapter 1 in paragraph 6 of the
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Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1689, we find these words. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the
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Holy Scripture, unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelation of the spirit or traditions of men.
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And again, can we just keep saying amen? We're getting a little charismatic here because we're hollering out amens all over the place.
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And Josh goes on quoting the 1689 confession. And then he says,
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Amen. So I love this little examination that Josh gives us of how saying
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God told me and then not reciting a text of Scripture violates the sufficiency of Scripture.
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Scripture is sufficient. It contains everything we need pertaining to life and godliness.
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And this is a great place for me to put in a shameless plug, which I actually did not plan on when
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I started recording. But I don't think this show will air before this happens.
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So anyway, I will be speaking at the Answers in Genesis Answers for Women conference.
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The theme this year is Defend. And that is April 7th and 8th, 2017. And I will actually be speaking on the topic of the sufficiency of Scripture.
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And that's why Josh's article caught my eye. Because, of course, I'm doing research and preparing my presentation.
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And so, of course, that caught my eye. And I did not intend to throw in a shameless plug for the conference. But ladies, if you are available that weekend, we would love to have you.
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So if you go to the Answers in Genesis website, you can find information on how to register for that.
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And we would love to see you there. And when I say we, I mean I. And everyone else who's there would love to see you as well.
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But I can't speak for them. But I'm sure they would love to see you. Anyway, I apologize for the shameless plug.
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I can't promise it won't happen again. Anyway, moving on through Josh's wonderful article here.
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He says, the God told me language uses God's name in vain. It's an interesting argument. He says, although some people unintentionally use the
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God told me vocabulary without understanding the implications, in other cases, certain people and preachers use the phrase as a means of claiming that they actually heard directly from God.
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And the intentional use of God's name is a clear violation of the third commandment. And that's a really interesting point.
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He says, for whatever the reason, some people feel compelled to use God's name as a stamp of approval on their stories, their decision to move churches, their decision to go into the ministry, or their decision to take a job transfer.
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You know, it's funny that he says their decision to move churches. I remember speaking to someone at a garage sale several years ago.
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And this man claimed that he was at his current church because God told him to go there.
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Like he heard an audible voice from God that said to go to this church. And then he described his church, and I thought, oh, no, that was not
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God telling you that. Anyway, Josh goes on. He says, this is not true.
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You know, you shouldn't be using this God told me as a stamp of approval for your decision. He says it's intellectually dishonest.
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As evangelicals, we must not allow people to continually get away with using this language, and we certainly shouldn't celebrate it.
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Hear the word of Charles Spurgeon from a sermon he preached titled The Paraclete in October of 1872.
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Spurgeon said, take care never to impute the vain imaginings of your fancy to him, the Holy Spirit.
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I have seen the spirit of God shamefully dishonored by persons. I hope they were insane who have said that they have had this and that revealed to them.
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There is not for some years passed over my head a single week in which I have not been pestered with the revelations of hypocrites or maniacs.
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Some of my lunatics are very fond of coming with messages from the Lord to me, and it may spare them some trouble if I tell them once for all that I will have none of their stupid messages.
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Never dream that events are revealed to you by heaven, or you may come to be like those idiots who dare impute their blatant follies to the
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Holy Ghost. If you feel your tongue itch to talk nonsense, trace it to the devil, not the spirit of God.
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Whatever is to be revealed by the spirit to any of us is in the word of God already. He adds nothing to the
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Bible and never will. Let persons who have revelations of this, that, and the other go to bed and wake up in their senses.
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I only wish they would follow the advice and no longer insult the Holy Ghost by laying their nonsense at his door.
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Can I get another amen? I had not seen that Spurgeon quote previously, and that is some blunt talking right there.
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Mr. Spurgeon, thank you for your truthfulness. It is through the word of God that we hear
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God proclaim to us the reality of sin, writes Josh. From the scriptures we hear God declare good news that makes us wise unto salvation.
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God speaks from his word to correct and warn us from error. As we continue to hear God speak through his word, we grow into spiritual maturity and experience the ongoing renewal of our minds.
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God speaks today, but we must not cling to extra -biblical revelations. Such words are empty and impotent sayings that are more closely associated with mysticism rather than Christianity.
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And he goes on and offers some questions to ask when you hear someone using the God told me language. And he offers an appeal to those who preach and teach the
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Bible. And so, of course, as always, we'll link to this article at the equippingeve blog.
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So if you go to equippingeve .org, you can get to the blog from there. And I updated the blog a little bit.
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It's not fantastic, but it's a little better than it was. But the actual equippingeve website,
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I'm working on that. It still needs work, and I've been saying that forever.
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Anyway, we'll get there. We'll get there.
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Okay, so we will link to that. That's a great article. Thank you, Josh, from Delivered by Grace. Josh, I cannot pronounce your last name, so let me know how to say that.
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And thank you for that excellent, excellent article on the God told me language and discussing how it denies the sufficiency of Scripture and how we even are being disobedient to the third commandment and taking the
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Lord's name in vain by using such language. We don't necessarily always think of it that way. And so that was some really helpful insight.
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And so thinking about Scripture, you know, we've talked on this show and the lifespan of equippingeve.
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We've talked about the sufficiency of Scripture. We've talked about extra -biblical revelation and the claims by some of these teachers that they're hearing from God.
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And, you know, God doesn't speak with less authority from one place to another. I think
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Sarah Young has said, you know, only the Bible is inspired and then errant.
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And she does that to cover herself because her book, Jesus Calling, is basically claiming to be what
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Jesus told her, and she wrote down in her journal. And she's trying to cover herself and say, well, that's not inspired and inerrant.
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But if it's Jesus or God speaking to you, then you're trying to tell me that he speaks with less authority when he speaks to you than when he spoke through the
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Scriptures. It doesn't work like that. He's God, right? So Scripture, the sufficiency of Scripture, and the finality of Scripture, and the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture, these are important doctrines to consider.
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The Bible is the very Word of God. And as Christians, I mean, that is, if you don't believe the
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Bible is the Word of God, you really should not call yourself a Christian because what do you have to base your faith on?
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If you doubt a portion of Scripture but not this part over here that you like, well, then what's to say that the portion that you like is true?
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You like the part where Jesus saves you from your sins, but if you don't believe the part where Jesus condemns those who don't repent and trust in him, well, how do you know the part you do like is true?
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You can't have it both ways. In very many situations in my life,
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I remember a sign that used to hang in my 5th grade science teacher's classroom. And it said, and I quote, because I have remembered this since 5th grade, which was a very long time ago.
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It said, quote, This is not Burger King. You do not have it your way.
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You have it my way, or you don't have it at all, end quote. And so, of course, that was back in the time when
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Burger King had their slogan as, I want it my way, or I don't know, have it your way.
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Was that it? I don't know. Anyway, that was their slogan. And so the implication, of course, is you're in Mr.
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whatever his name was classroom. And so you don't get to mess around and break the rules because it's his classroom.
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You have it his way and he has his rules. Well, we don't get to have it our way when it comes to the truth of Scripture.
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We have it God's way. And why? Well, he's God. He is the sovereign creator of all things.
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And so he gets to have it his way. He wins. And I'm okay with that.
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I'm okay with a sovereign God having authority over me and over all areas of my life because he's perfectly holy and righteous and just and good and gracious and loving and caring and forgiving.
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Why would I disdain that authority?
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Think about it. That's nonsensical. That is borderline lunacy to not treasure and love and respect and honor and revere that.
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So thinking on all these things, we've talked about all these things quite a bit in the past.
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Sufficiency of Scripture, extra biblical revelation, the nonsensicalness of that. So let's talk a little bit in the time we have left about the actual
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Bible. These 66 books that we believe to be because they are the word of God.
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Let's talk about the canon of Scripture. We've said over and over again, the word of God, the
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Bible is the word of God. The Bible is the centerpiece of the Christian faith.
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So how did we come to get these scriptures, Old and New Testament?
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Well, it's really important for us to understand, and most of us probably realize, that the early
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Jews believed that the Old Testament canon was given to them from God. They believed it to be the divinely inspired word of God.
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And many of the early Christians in the first century and thereafter already held to the
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Old Testament. They already believed it to be sacred because many of them were Jewish. But then they also affirmed the authority of the
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New Testament. And there's a really good quote by H .G. Wood on that.
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And he says, quote, The coming of the Messiah had revealed God with a completeness that could not be discovered in the
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Old Testament. And so the Old Testament pointed to this Messiah and pointed to Christ. And the
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Jews knew that that Messiah was coming. But there in the New Testament, he is revealed.
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The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old. And if the
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New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament that you've already held sacred and authoritative, then naturally that New Testament would be considered to be just as authoritative.
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But what about those early Christians who were Gentiles? They weren't Jewish. They weren't raised on those
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Old Testament scriptures. Well, think about it, ladies. Jesus and the apostles repeatedly affirmed the
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Old Testament scriptures in their teaching. In fact, almost one -third of the New Testament is actually quotations from the
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Old Testament or allusions to the Old Testament teaching. And that's why we can say that the New Testament fulfills the
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Old Testament. Christ, who was pointed to in the Old Testament, is revealed in the
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New Testament. And he and his apostles repeatedly refer back to the
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Old Testament, thereby giving it its authority. So those Gentile Christians then would come to see that Old Testament as authoritative as well.
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And so we have this canon, C -A -N -O -N, of scripture. Canon is a collection or list of books that is accepted as an authoritative rule of faith and practice, according to one definition.
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And the word for canon is actually like a reed, R -E -E -D, or a stalk, something that was used as a measuring stick.
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And so that's a really interesting concept to consider. So like we said, the
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Old Testament, it had been preserved through the ages and was considered to be divinely given by God.
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It was considered to be authoritative. And it's really important to realize this, ladies, that the
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Old Testament canon did not receive its authority because it was placed in the quote -unquote canon.
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I'm using my air quotes. But it was already recognized as authoritative, and that's why it was included.
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And we'll actually see that even with the concept of the New Testament canon. So I have one book in front of me that I would highly recommend, but it is actually a textbook.
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Actually, it is a textbook, but it was my textbook. But I've always really appreciated this book.
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It's called The Journey from Texts to Translations, the Origin and Development of the Bible. And there's a lot of really great information in here.
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And so this book actually points out that the basis for the concept of a canon containing authoritative information comes directly from Scripture itself.
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And then it points out a few verses. It looks at Deuteronomy 4 .2. It says, So it's really speaking to God's Word and this collection of God's Word.
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Deuteronomy 12 .32. And so I think most of us understand how the
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Old Testament was recognized as a canon, a collection of writings inspired by God.
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And when Jesus and the Apostles affirmed that, it really just solidified the writings and the law, the writings and the prophets as the
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Old Testament canon. And so then we take a look at the New Testament canon. And this is like a flyby overview of the canonization of Scripture.
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So don't, you get no seminary credit for this, ladies. This is just an overview.
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But what's interesting is the New Testament books, the majority of those books were very likely already accepted as canonical or accepted as divinely authoritative by the early church by the mid -2nd century.
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And that's really important because a lot of times you hear claims that, yeah, well, the canon, those 66 books, the 27 books of the
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New Testament weren't determined until centuries later by all these church councils.
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And that's kind of a nonsensical argument because they were already recognized as early as the mid -2nd century, most of them.
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So that's really important to remember. And the books, when we go back to what we saw earlier, that the books are not included in, are not authoritative because they're included in the canon.
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They are included in the canon because they are authoritative. Does that make sense? So the fact that a church council says the
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Gospel of Matthew is part of the canon does not make it authoritative.
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It was placed in the canon because it was already seen as authoritative.
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Canonization is determined by God, not man. But it was recognized by the early church and then later by these church councils.
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So all the early church did, all that the church councils did was acknowledge the canonicity of the scriptures that was already there.
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And so there are four questions that were primarily used to determine the canonicity of a
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New Testament book. Four principles for the New Testament canon. The first is, was the book written by an apostle or at least someone of recognized authority?
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So apostolicity, apostolic authorship. And that's really the chief means of determining this, right?
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The apostles were eyewitnesses to Jesus and to his life. And so that is why our
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New Testament is written by the apostles or their close associates. Luke learned very much from Paul.
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Mark was not an apostle, but he learned from Peter. Like this textbook says, the apostles had heard
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Christ's teachings and were faithful to record and pass them on to others. Anonymous books such as the
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Gospels and several epistles were accepted because they were apostolic in content. The apostolic content of books was known from the apostolic teachings that was well established.
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Does that make sense? I mean the teaching had gone from church to church and so that teaching was well understood.
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Everybody knew what the apostles were teaching. And so if a book affirmed that apostolic teaching, then it would be considered canonical.
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And actually the apostolic teaching, says this book, was sometimes called the canon of truth, which is really kind of interesting.
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So that leads to the next principle that was looked at. Does it agree with the canon of truth? And so this is the canon of truth is defined as a body of apostolic teaching by which the truth of other teaching could be evaluated until the written word was completed.
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Certain books of scripture were considered canonical almost immediately, especially the Gospels and the letters of Paul.
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And so their teaching was then used to evaluate the other books.
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Do these other books agree with those that were immediately accepted as canonical and immediately accepted as authoritative?
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And if they do affirm that same teaching, then that would help them to be considered for inclusion into the canon.
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A third principle is does that book enjoy universal acceptance? At the time, you had, eventually through church history, you had the
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Eastern and the Western churches. And so if a book was accepted by both the Eastern and Western churches, recognized as canonical, recognized as authoritative, then it's going to be more likely to be included in the canon because you don't have a division within the church over certain books and certain doctrines.
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And then finally, does the book have a self -authenticating divine nature? Each book of scripture has a divine element because it is
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God -breathed. We know this from 2 Timothy 3, 16. And F .F.
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Bruce says, We may well believe that those early Christians acted by a wisdom higher than their own in this matter, not only in what they accepted but in what they rejected.
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Divine authority is by its very nature self -evidencing. And one of the profoundest doctrines recovered by the reformers is the doctrine of the inward witness of the
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Holy Spirit, by which testimony is born within the believer's heart to the divine character of Holy Scripture.
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This witness is not confined to the individual believer but is also accessible to the believing community, and there is no better example of its operation than in the recognition by the members of the early church of the books which were given by inspiration of God to stand alongside the books of the
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Old Covenant, the Bible of Christ and his apostles, and with them to make up the written word of God.
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So those are four principles. Apostolic authority, does it agree with the canon of truth?
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Is it universally accepted among the church? And does it have a self -authenticating divine nature?
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And so that's what was being looked at when the canon was being determined.
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But again, canonization was determined by God and merely recognized by the early church.
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And that's what is so important to remember when we start hearing arguments otherwise.
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And so thinking on all of this, we naturally ask the question, does
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God still speak today? We heard what that article said at the beginning of the show. But is the
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New Testament canon closed? You know, some Bibles, my Bible has blank pages in the back with lines on it.
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Am I supposed to write down what God is saying to me there? Well, we've seen from Hebrews that God has spoken fully and finally through his son, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture is closed. We are not to add or take away from the books that he has given us.
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We've seen that God does not speak less authoritatively if he were to speak today.
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And so anything that we would claim he is saying outside of Scripture, we would have to see as authoritative as Scripture.
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We would have to add it to the backs of our Bibles, wouldn't we? But the problem with all of these claims to extra -biblical revelation is they're silly and nonsensical.
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You know, you have a Bible teacher over here saying that God told her to go get a cappuccino and go on a play date at the zoo or go build a snowman or, you know, take a nap.
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I don't know. But if you look through Scripture, the argument is always, well, God doesn't change and he's been speaking all through Scripture.
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He spoke to people. But what he spoke was for the good of the church.
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It was something that affected God's people. What he spoke through the prophets was something that Israel needed to hear.
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It was for Israel. He didn't speak to people in their personal life.
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You should go buy this house. You should take this job. You should marry this person. Hosea being an exception there.
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But that was an illustration for the people of Israel. Do you understand?
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Do you see? So is the New Testament canon closed?
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And this book says it is reasonable to say that the canon was complete by the end of the first century when all the apostles had died, though it took significantly longer for all of the books to be recognized.
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But ultimately, Christ is God's final revelation. And not simply that the final revelation came through him.
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Even Paul, who wrote many of the New Testament letters, did not claim to have new revelation, but merely explained what
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God had already revealed in Christ. And, again, that's so important. And I don't think that I've heard that truth expressed that way often enough.
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The apostles, yes, they came after Christ. They didn't add anything new. They merely explained what
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Christ had already taught through his ministry. And F .F. Bruce, there's another quote from him.
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He says, quote, there is no teaching in the New Testament which is not already present in principle in the teaching of Jesus himself.
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The apostles did not add to his teaching under the guidance of the promised spirit. They interpreted and applied it.
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And that's the reality. And that's the reality. And we are so fortunate that God has been gracious enough to have that word written down.
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He's preserved it through the centuries so that here it sits on our desk. It's on our phone.
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We carry it in our pocket with us. The word of God is final.
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The word of God is true. It can be trusted. It is sufficient. We don't need more.
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Why, why are we asking God for more when he's been so good to give us what he's already given us?
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And so saying God told me, gave me a new word from the Lord, that denies the sufficiency of scripture.
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It spits on the 66 books that have been graciously given to us by a gracious and loving and caring
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Lord. In the New Testament canon, in the Old Testament canon, those have been recognized by the early church.
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Those can be trusted. These 66 books are God's word. He has preserved it.
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Don't you think if man got the wrong book in there, God would have seen to it that that book got out?
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That's why, yes, we hear about these ridiculous, you know, gospel of Judas or whatever.
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They're not in scripture. They've not been preserved through the ages. They've not been known by the church through the ages because they are not part of the canon.
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They are not God's inspired word. They are not God's inspired, inerrant, infallible word. 66 books that we have in our
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Bible are. You can trust them. You can love them.
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You can treasure them. And as you study them and learn them, you desire to obey them.
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You desire to love Christ more. You do love Christ more simply through his word. You are convicted.
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You are comforted. You are encouraged. You grow. It's an amazing thing the way God uses this word.
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And that is why we love it. And that is why at Equipping Eve, we love to give you fruits of truth from God's word.
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So hopefully you've enjoyed taking a little look at the canon today. Ladies, I don't know what we'll talk about next time.
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So we'll see what God tells me to talk to you about next time. We'll see. Just kidding.
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All right, ladies, until next time, get in your Bible. Get on your knees and get equipped.
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Thanks for listening. You've been listening to Equipping Eve, a no -compromise radio production.
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If you'd like to get a hold of Erin, you can reach her at equippingeve at gmail .com. Or you can check out one of our two websites, donotbesurprised .com