Emergent Village Officially Denies the Bible is the Word of God

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By the way, you're going to need a Bible for this next segment. These are the sounds of the

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Emergent Postmodern Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Doug Padgett, Tony Jones' second fiddle today, playing timpani,

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Brian McLaren. And on the kazoo, Peter Rollins of Ireland.

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This is their homage to Strauss' also sprach Zarathustra, which is really just a great piece that encapsulates the nihilistic philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.

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Listen in, this is just tour -de -force type of stuff here. Brings tears to my eyes every time

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I hear it. Isn't music so much better when you get rid of, like, modernist definitions of notes and are just led by the spirit?

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Alright, so the folks over at Emergent Village, apparently they're tired of being ignored, you know, because for the longest time, the

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Emergent Village website was the darling of American evangelicalism, was it not? I mean, everybody was all into postmodern obfuscation and deconstruction, and, you know, guys like Tony Jones and Brian McLaren were being invited to speak at major megachurches, and, you know, they were on the speaking circuit, and everybody was just hanging on their every deconstructive word.

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Well, now Emergent Village, apparently, you know, I told you a while ago that they got the band back together, and that we could expect to hear more from the

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Emergent Village folk because they were getting the band back together. Think of the

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Blues Brothers, you know, where John Belushi says, we're getting the band back together, right? Anyway, so what we're looking at here on their website, let me clean my glasses, sorry,

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I smudged them over the break, I'm not sure how that happened. It's a blog post entitled,

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The Bible Is Not the Word of God, A Polemic Against Christendom. The Bible Is Not the

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Word of God, A Polemic Against Christendom. You're going to need your Bible, by the way, for the rebuttal that I will be providing, but let me read a little bit of this tour -de -force piece of theological nonsense written by a young emergent blogger by the name of Eric English.

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Anyway, here's what the blog post says. It says, The Bible Is Not the Word of God. Isn't that a great way to open up a blog post from, you know, the folks who, at one point, were poised to be the next wave of American evangelicals, and they were going to lead the emerging church into the next generation, and all they ended up doing was leading a whole bunch of people astray into a, well, a rehash of liberalism, done post -modern style, of course, but that's all the emerging church is, is just, well, liberalism.

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And I think this blog post does a fine job of demonstrating that. Again, let me go back to this piece.

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So, The Bible Is Not the Word of God. Nope, the Bible's not the Word of God, that's the first sentence.

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And if we believe it is such, then we have made the Bible into an idol. That's weird, because remember the question

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I keep asking, who are you going to believe? Now, I have never heard anybody accuse

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Jesus of idolatry. Have you ever heard of anyone saying, Jesus, you're an idolater?

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You know, because, you know, Jesus taught that the Scriptures are the

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Word of God, he even used that phrase. We'll get to that in a minute, but keep that in mind.

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It's really kind of awkward for those folks over there at Emergent Village. I mean, when Jesus himself now apparently is an idolater.

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The Bible has become the church's idol. It's the golden calf of our day. The ancient Hebrews had taken the

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God of their forefathers and formed him into their image. They made him take out, take on their identity because they could not grasp to what extent the

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Word of God was present with them. Yes, indeed. It has been said for thousands of years that the ancient

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Hebrews were fools for doing so, but my dear friends, so are we. Yeah, I don't recall the

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Hebrews actually making the Scriptures, the Torah, the writings, the histories, into an idol.

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I do remember them actually engaging in idolatry, worshiping Baal and Asherah and Molech and, you know, those false deities there.

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But weird, huh? So just as the Hebrews, we have made the Word of God into our image, the

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Bible, and by doing so have not elevated God but relegated him to the lowliest place.

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Our misappropriation of authority has inevitably resulted in our inability to distinguish between what we think

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God requires of us and what God actually requires of us. This misappropriation has resulted in our use of superfluous language.

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Where is this kid getting any of this? The Bible is not the Word of God, he says. Again, this is going to really be awkward.

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It's going to be painful to listen to. But Jesus actually said the Bible is the Word of God. Isn't that weird?

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He totally disagrees with Jesus. However, our elevation of the Bible to almost divine status, it's weird because the

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Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said, All scriptures say, Anustos, God breathes.

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Anyway, so however, our elevation of the Bible to almost divine status has seemingly resulted in the church believing it is to be the moral authority over the world.

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Uh -huh, it reveals what God's will is and it does have moral authority that's binding on every human being.

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Yes, that's true. Now, as though they speak for God. See, the Bible does speak for God, thus saith the

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Lord. Anyway, we have equated the language of the Bible with the words of God. This has seemingly resulted in the

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Bible being used as a weapon of power to oppress others. Oh, there's the, yeah, that's the old classic postmodern tripe.

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You know, oh no, we're using words as weapons. Oh no! And he's not using his words as a weapon here?

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Give me a break. Anyway, this is, I mean, seriously, I mean, how outmoded and outdated is

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Derrida and Foucault and all those guys? This is just a postmodern rehash. I mean, seriously, where were you, you know,

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Eric? I mean, this is, we've already been around this track. This is 10 years old now. This is like yesterday's, well, yesterday's

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Chinese food. It's kind of making a big stink in the refrigerator and I'm not sure I want to eat it.

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Anyway, let's see here. So this seemingly resulted in the Bible being used as a weapon of power to oppress others. Incredibly, the church's oppression has not been limited to the secular world, but has been used as a weapon to oppress its own people.

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Oh, that's right. If you believe the Bible is the word of God, you're oppressing people. How dare you? This is nonsense.

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When we assert that the Bible is the word of God, we are diminishing what it means to possess the word of God.

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Where is he getting any of these ideas from? Anyway, the Bible is a book just like any other book. It contains words and propositions, stories and ideologies and philosophies, but it contains something that is far greater than any other book that has ever been written.

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It contains testimonies. Yes, I'm reading this straight off their website.

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Ooh, it contains testimonies. Wow. But not just any testimony. It contains testimony about God.

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Not about any God, but the living God. It contains testimonies about who God is and who man is and what man is in light of his discovery of God.

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Man's discovery of God. Have you actually read the Bible? God has revealed himself in history.

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True, yeah. Scripture testifies to that revelation. Scripture is not revelation in and of itself.

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Again, it's weird because Jesus totally disagrees with him. Rather, it is a testimony to the revelation that has occurred.

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This is Boltwann's lame argument. The Bible is what we learn from. It is what we abide by, and it is what strengthens our faith.

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The Bible is not the word of God. It has no special powers. It is not magic.

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Sacred Scripture means nothing if it is not alive inside the individual, embodied, full, and braced.

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This does not mean that we take apart or dissect the Bible in such a way that we're able to extrapolate metaphysical truths about the world around us.

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That is not the intent of the Bible. Rather, the intent of the Bible is to provide context for who we are as human beings, who

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God is as God, and how God has acted throughout history. It's a testimony to our

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Lord Jesus Christ. The word of God is a moment that a human being encounters.

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It is Jesus Christ in his full glory and revelation. The word of God occurs through a compilation of acts that bring forth the word of God within the individual, prayer and sacred

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Scripture and fellowship and worship. Encountering the word of God changes us.

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It makes us whole. It gives us strength and power. Words on a page don't give us strength.

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They do not give us power. It is only when we embody these words on the page that we truly become like the word of God.

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It's what Jesus did. He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. That means that he embodied the law.

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He was sinless. He was perfect. He embodied the law in the truest, purest form of what it meant by the law.

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Likewise, we must embody Scripture. It must become part of us. Our lives and our identity for the truth of God was not found in the words of propositions or abstract ideas but in the truthfulness that exists when we live out the word of God on the world stage.

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The Bible is not the word of God. The word of God is Jesus Christ. Again, read in my, well, most liberal, basically, whiny voice.

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Now, here's the problem, folks. This idea that anybody would claim to be a Christian and then turn around and say the

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Bible is not the word of God basically shows that they have been hamstrung by liberalism and they have no idea what they're talking about.

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Jesus himself calls the Scriptures the word of God. You're going to need your

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Bible. Mark, not Mark, Matthew chapter 15. We'll start at verse 1. Matthew chapter 15.

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We'll be at verse 1. Here's what it says. Then the Pharisees and the scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,

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Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.

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Well, he answered them. And why do you break the commandment of God? Notice what Jesus said there.

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Why do you break the commandment of whom? God. Huh. Where would

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I find that commandment? In the Torah? In the written

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Scriptures? And why do you break the commandment of God? For the sake of your tradition.

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For God commanded, Honor your father and your mother. Notice here, Jesus is basically saying that the written words in the

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Torah that say, Honor your father and mother. Those words were commanded by whom?

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God. Whose authority did they have behind them? God's.

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And here's what it says. For God commanded, Honor your father and mother. And whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.

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But you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother what you would have gained from me is given to God, he need not honor his father.

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So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God. Whoops. What was

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Jesus referring to as being the word of God?

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Yeah. The Torah. And he points them to the words written in the Torah and says that those words were actually, that's the word of God, and that God commanded them through their words to honor their father and mother.

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Whoops. Yeah, this young writer over at the Emergent Village seems to have not paid attention to Jesus' ideas about what is the word of God.

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Now, of course, Jesus is the word of God. Okay? He's referred to by John as the

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Logos, the Logos Tutheu, the word of God. But that's not the only meaning for the word of God.

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It wouldn't make sense if you were to plug in Jesus' name here and basically say every time we see the words word of God in the

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Scripture, and it does occur many times in the Scripture, that every time we see the word of God appear in the

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Scripture that we can just plug in Jesus' name. Watch this. It says, but you say, verse 5, you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother what you would have gained from me is given to God, he need not honor his father for the sake of your tradition you have made void the

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Jesus. Doesn't work, does it? Nope, that's not what Jesus is referring to.

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Then Jesus goes on to say, you hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

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Let me read a little bit from Mark's account of this. Chapter 7, chapter 7, verse 10, cross -reference to this very thing.

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Moses said, honor your father and your mother. Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die. But you say, if a man tells his father or his mother, whatever you would have gained from me is

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Corban that is given to God. You no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.

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Two gospel writers make it clear that Jesus here says that the written commandment is the word of God.

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You know, the words, the propositions, the nouns, those were the word of God and that God commanded them to do certain things through that.

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That's Jesus' view, not mine. That's what Jesus said. Luke chapter 8, starting at verse 4.

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Here's what it says. And when a great crowd was gathering around, the people from the town after town came to him and he said in a parable, a sower went out to sow his seed.

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And as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled underfoot and the birds of the air devour it. And some fell on the rock as it grew up.

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It withered away because it had no moisture. And some fell among the thorns and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.

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And some fell in the good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold. And he said these things, he called out, he who has ears, let him hear.

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And when the disciples asked him what this parable meant, Jesus said, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand.

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Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. The seed is the what?

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The seed is the word of God. Now you can't take the phrase word of God here and plug in Jesus.

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The seed is the Jesus. No, it doesn't work. Or you can't say the seed is

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Jesus. Nope, doesn't work. The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard.

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Heard what? The word of God. Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved.

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And the ones on the rock are those when they hear the word.

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Hear the what? Hear the word of God. Receive it with joy, but they have no root. They believe for a while and in time of testing fall away.

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And as for what fell among the thorns, those are those who hear. Hear what? They hear the word of God.

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But as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and the pleasures of life and their fruit does not mature.

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And as for that on the good soil, they are those who hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience.

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So I don't know who this kid thinks he is over there at Emergent Village, but it's odd that he finds himself diametrically opposed by none other than the

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Jesus he claims to be touting in his blog post. Because the Jesus he claims to be touting, if he were the real one, then he would be paying attention to the fact that the real

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Jesus actually points out the fact that the written word of God is the word of God.

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Let me give you another passage, John 8, starting at verse 48. Here's what it says, The Jews answering Jesus said,

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Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? And Jesus answered, I do not have a demon, but I honor my father and you dishonor me.

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Yet I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps, that means guard, by the way, tereo means to guard, anyone who guards my word, he will never see death.

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The Jews said to him, well, now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died as did the prophets. But you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.

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Are you greater than our father Abraham who died and the prophets who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?

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Notice that Jesus here has offended the Jews because he says to them that if you keep or guard my word, whose words?

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Jesus' words, then you will never die. In other words, Jesus is speaking as if he's

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God himself. And that's exactly who he is. And he expects people to keep, to guard his word.

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Where do we find the word of God? In the written scriptures. That's where we find it.

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Let me give you another passage so that you kind of understand a little bit more of this authority thing here. Who was it that you think sent the prophets?

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Think of Isaiah or Jeremiah or Amos. Who sent them? Because over and again, when you read the prophetic literature from the prophets and the minor prophets, it'll say something to the effect of, and the word of the

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Lord came to the prophet so and so. The word of the

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Lord. And by the way, when it says the word of the Lord, the word

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Lord there is the actual divine name for God. It's God's real name,

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Yahweh. So it says the word of the Lord, it's saying the word of Yahweh, which is the name of God himself.

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So who is it that sent the prophets? It was Yahweh, right? Well, you want to know who sent these prophets to speak and to write and record the quote word of the

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Lord? Jesus answers this question for us, by the way. Matthew chapter 23, starting at verse 29.

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Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you build the tombs of the prophets and you decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying if we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.

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Thus you witness against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your fathers, you serpents, you brood of vipers.

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How are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes.

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Listen again, did you hear that? Jesus is speaking. He says, therefore I send you prophets.

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Who sent the prophets? Jesus did. And yet it always says in the prophets, the word of the

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Lord came to the prophet Isaiah, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, the word of the Lord came to Amos, the word of the

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Lord came to Habakkuk, right? Here Jesus makes it clear who it is who was sending the prophets.

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It was himself. The word of the Lord. Where do we find the word of the

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Lord? In the written text. So who are you going to believe? Who are you going to believe?

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This ne 'er -do -well, post -modern liberal tripe from Emergent Village saying, the

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Bible's not the word of God. The Bible's not the word of God. Yet Jesus said it's the word of God. Who are you going to believe?

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Jesus or Eric English of Emergent Village? I can tell you right now who my money is on.

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It's on Jesus Christ. It's on him. I think he knew what he was talking about.

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I mean, after all, he did die and then rise again from the grave.

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Right? That's exactly who we should trust. Eric English, last time I checked, he's still alive.

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He hasn't died and hasn't risen again. So his authority is not better than Jesus. And Jesus makes it clear.

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He's the one who sent the prophets to speak the word of the Lord. And he's the one, Jesus, who says that the written

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Torah, the scriptures, they're the word of God. So for this guy to come along in the 21st century and concoct his own ideas and say, the

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Bible's not the word of God, shows that, well, he hasn't read his

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Bible. And the Jesus that he's invoking there in that blog post, well, that's not the biblical

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Jesus. That's not the historical Jesus because the biblical and historical Jesus flat out contradicts him.

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All right, we're up on our second break. If you'd like to email me regarding anything you've heard on this edition or any previous editions of Fighting for the

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Faith, you could do so. My email address is talkbackatfightingforthefaith .com or you can subscribe on Facebook, facebook .com

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forward slash piratechristian or you follow me on Twitter, my name there, at piratechristian. Quick break. When we come back, contestant number four in our worst

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Easter sermon of the year, David Hughes, Church by the Glades. Don't want to miss it. Stay tuned. We'll be right back.

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