Christian, Where is Your Here?

Alpha & Omega Ministries

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Welcome to The Dividing Line. My name is Rich Pierce, and I am sitting in for James today as he ministers in South Africa.

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I believe that we are currently seeing a great confusion that is infecting the Christian church today.

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That confusion is being wrought by something known as critical theory and intersectionality.

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It's really part of critical theory, but it oftentimes gets set apart. When we were last together, it was a couple of years ago, and I had just completed the review of the

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Romans 9 debate. And if you'll recall, in that review, I presented a case regarding how we view the

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Scriptures, how we understand the Scriptures, how we approach the Scriptures. And when we look at Romans chapter 9 as a

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Reformed people, we see the case that is being made in Romans chapter 9.

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We see the building blocks, concept upon concept upon concept, that the Apostle Paul unfolds as he makes his case.

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And we get to that point where we all identify with that one phrase, Who are you,

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O man? And when we hear that phrase, we know exactly where we are, we know exactly what we're talking about, we've seen the case come to its culmination.

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Who are you, O man, who talks back to God? We've also seen how many in the church who don't share our views have avoided and dismissed this text and its direct teaching.

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I submit to you that this problem, as I said in that review, the problem isn't

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Calvinism. It wasn't Calvinism in that debate. The problem had to do with how you handle the

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Scriptures and the methods that were employed were methods that had been taught and have been taught for decades and have infected the

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Christian church in how to handle the Scriptures. But I would like to take you today to a different text, taking the same approach, and that is

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Colossians chapter 3. I want to remind you of the phrase that I used in the

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Romans 9 debate review, that the way that you handle the Scriptures is a reflection of how you view the

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Scriptures. I want to repeat, the way that you handle the Scriptures is a reflection of how you view the

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Scriptures. My goal here today, just like in that review, is to draw a straight line through the middle of all the chaos, a straight line that leads us all back to the clear teaching of Scripture, shows us what the standard is from Scripture, and brings us to that place where Christ would have us be, what the

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Apostle Paul will call here. And as such, I ask the question, and I want this to be in the back of your mind as we move forward in this study, brother and sister, where is your here?

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It is a question that Paul, it is a statement that the Apostle makes in Colossians 3 .11

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that prompts us to ask the question. I want to go ahead and bring up my slideshow so you can follow along with me as I unfold the teaching today.

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The question of sola scriptura is oftentimes referred to within the context of the

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Protestant Roman Catholic debate and divide. The problem is that sola scriptura isn't just within the confines of that debate.

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It is actually a profession. It is a Christian Orthodox profession of faith, if you will.

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The Scriptures are the sole infallible rule of the faith and practice for the

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Church. The Scriptures are the sole infallible rule of faith and practice for the

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Church. We say these things, we sometimes simply either throw them out like a baseball into discussion or into debate, or sometimes we use it just as a mantra.

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Oh, I'm a sola scriptura man. I'm a sola scriptura Christian. But do we actually let that sink into our minds and in our hearts and realize, ask ourselves, how does that actually come out in how we handle the

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Scriptures and in the way we daily view and treat the Scriptures? The question of whether or not we understand sola scriptura is then posed.

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What does this mean? What does the question of sola scriptura or the claim of sola scriptura mean in practice to the individual

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Christian? They are the rules by which we conduct the Christian Church and its persons.

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You're not going to find that, by the way, and it's just simply a phrase the way I decided to phrase it, okay?

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The Bible is the rule by which we conduct the

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Christian Church and its persons. The Scriptures alone are the only analytical tool by which we're bound.

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If you're familiar with what I'm referring to there and you understand the phraseology, great.

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Hang on to those thoughts. If you don't, you will soon. So, the

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Scriptures are the only analytical tool by which, as a Christian, you're bound. What it doesn't mean, we're instructed by the

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Scriptures in moral, procedural, theological, historical, etc.

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But we are not looking to the Scriptures for instruction on extraneous subjects.

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As I put on here, the Scriptures don't tell us how jet propulsion works.

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They don't tell us the principles of the internal combustion engine. They don't tell us how to do computer coding.

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If the Scripture is silent, then we need to understand that it's not addressing those subjects.

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There may be moral concepts that we find in Scripture that apply to how we do those things, but the

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Scriptures are not intended to tell us how to build and operate an internal combustion engine, for instance.

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So, are we bound then when subjects are not addressed in the

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Scriptures? Do we look to supplemental information? Is supplemental information needed?

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What if the subject, though, is there? If you're following and tracking with me, maybe not,

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I've been a little vague here on purpose, the concept of critical theory,

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I see its champions promoting it in such a way as if the subject of critical theory, the issues presented in critical theory, are not addressed in Scripture.

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And I believe that they are. I believe that the problem here, much like those who want to do anything but read

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Romans 9 in order, there are those even among us in our own ranks who do not want to read

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Colossians 3. They don't want to deal with it, they don't want to face it, and they don't want to put it on, as the

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Scripture says. And they certainly don't want to put its list of things to put to death to death.

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You've got to think about that. So, the question is, what do we do if we're encountering a system of thought or an approach to the

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Scriptures that, you know what, it just doesn't address that? So, as we, just like the internal combustion engine, the concepts of critical theory are not addressed in Scripture, so we need critical theory to inform us.

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Well, accordingly, as I said, what if the subject is, in fact, there, but it's being ignored?

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But it's being ignored or, at worst, even overridden. And I believe that that is the case when it comes to what is called

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Resolution 9 of the Southern Baptist Convention 2019. We're instructed in these things in Scripture.

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They are, in fact, addressed. And we need to ask the question, why are these things being ignored or even overridden?

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Well, let's take a look. I'm not going to go through all of Resolution 9. I want to, though, zero in on one particular portion of Resolution 9 that I have on the screen for you, and that is this statement, that critical race theory and intersectionality should only be employed as analytical tools subordinate to the

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Scriptures. What's wrong with that? Rich, you just went through the

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Scriptures and that they are the only analytical tool by which we are bound, and Resolution 9 just simply said, stated outright, critical theory and intersectionality is only to be employed as an analytical tool subordinate to the

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Scriptures. Okay? Well, I have a counter -resolution, a resolution of my own, okay?

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And I want you to think on this, and as we go through the issues here, I hope you will find and track with me that critical race theory and intersectionality are, in fact, incompatible with authentic Christianity.

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That's right. I used one of James's debate theses, resolutions, to formulate that in, and usually that's within the confines of homosexuality.

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That's where we've seen those debate topics, and I believe I'm going to be able to make a case here that not only is the

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Scripture not silent, the Scripture addresses it directly, and critical theory and intersectionality falls within the confines that is directly addressed in Colossians 3.

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So Christian, the question has to be asked of all of us, where is your here?

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Because if you're not standing in the same here that the Apostle Paul is standing in in Colossians 3 .11,

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then you are in dangerous ground. You're standing in dangerous territory, and you're certainly not standing where God intends his people to stand.

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And as we break down and walk through Colossians 3, I think you're going to find, as we walk through it, there are warnings here, warnings that are being ignored, overruled, and avoided in contrast to that which

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God will put his blessing upon his church as it stands in that same place.

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We're going to see that. So again, as you have it up there that they are incompatible, first of all, first point, they're incompatible because they cannot be considered to be a valid analytical tool.

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I want to walk through that here for a little bit. I want to ask the question, first and foremost, when it comes to Resolution 9, as we look at it, it needs to actually be a valid tool to begin with, doesn't it?

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Is critical theory and intersectionality something that can actually be considered valid to the

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Christian in the way the Christian is supposed to think? Going back to, again, that sola scriptura concept, that the

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Scriptures are the sole infallible rule of faith for the Church, and faith in practice.

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This portion is the portion about the practice. So let's go ahead and go forward here. The question of supplemental sources.

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There are supplemental sources that we use all the time. The question is, what are they and are they valid analytical tools?

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What is the standard for something to be a valid analytical tool, first of all? First of all, it needs to be consistent with Scripture.

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For it to be a valid analytical tool, there needs to be a consistency with the

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Scriptures that show that it's faithful to them. I am not going to look to the

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Doctrine and Covenants of the Mormon Church and look to find a way in which I can bring that in as a supplemental source or an analytical tool.

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It's an invalid source and it's an invalid tool because it is inconsistent with authentic Christianity, and I find the consistency of authentic Christianity to be found in the

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God -breathed Scriptures. And so any tool that I put on the table needs to meet that standard of being consistent with Scripture.

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Secondly, well, guess what? It says it right there in Resolution 9 that it is to be subordinate to Scripture.

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But I ask the question, can an inconsistent concept actually be subordinate to Scripture?

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I believe that if one goes through Colossians 3 faithfully, in the same way that one goes through Romans 9, the only conclusion here can be that any subordination to Scripture that critical theory has is that Scripture quashes it and squashes it and destroys it, because it cannot be something that is in the life of the faithful believer.

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It cannot be. Supplemental sources continued here.

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We do use them, we use them, and again, as I said, consistent, it needs to be consistent and subordinate to Scripture.

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We use them form of creeds. We have various creeds that we adhere to.

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For instance, you've heard of the Nicene Creed, and there are various other creeds in which they are subordinate to Scripture, but they are consistent with Scripture.

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The goal of the creed is to capture a concept from the Scriptures and put it in a nutshell kind of form so that we take concepts and teachings that we find in various places and we bring them to one place to put forward a creed.

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So, we have creeds. We also have councils that we've had. I've used the example for Reformed people.

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We have the Council of Dort, but we have other councils. Again, the creeds and the councils are not equivalent to Scripture.

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They're supplementals. They're supplementals in the LC. There is a consistent theme here as we look at these issues here that, guess what?

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The councils aren't necessarily perfect. The creeds aren't necessarily perfect. They're subordinate, but they are to be governed and tested by the

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Scriptures because it is the pillar and foundation of our faith. We have confessions.

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For instance, the Westminster Confession, the London Baptist Confession. We have confessions, and again, they are tempered and tested by Scripture.

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That is the concept here. We even have systematics. We have systematic theologies that address soteriology, ecclesiology, and theology.

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But here's the question then. If you look at those kinds of things—the list is not meant to be exhaustive by any stretch, nor is it—but if you look at those kinds of things, these are the things that we look to to answer the question of analytical tools.

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That's right. I can look at the confession of the London Baptist Confession of faith, and I see concepts through it as an analytical tool by which

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I can go to the Scriptures and test and see, oh yeah, those concepts are there, and I can see that borne out as I look at the

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Confession of faith. Okay? But here's the question here. I'm kind of curious.

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Where is the Declaration of Proper Use? Why is there a need for a

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Declaration of Proper Use? Perhaps I need to say it that way. Why is there even a need? Are these concepts—and

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I haven't looked, so I might be wrong—but are the creeds that I've got up on the screen, are these things listed in the same way that critical theory and intersectionality are in this particular resolution?

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Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it? Well, let's take a closer look at critical theory and intersectionality and whether or not it's consistent with the

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Scriptures, because it's the Scriptures that governs this issue within the confines of the church.

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And again, I ask the question, where is your here? Colossians 311, let's start there.

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And we're going to go back and we're going to go through the whole passage here to make it clear, but here there is not

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Greek and Jew. There is not circumcised and uncircumcised.

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There is not barbarian, Scythian, slave, free.

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These categories don't exist in the here. And you're going to find as we walk through the whole text that here is what's going on in here.

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We're back to that concept of renewing your mind. Put on this concept.

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Have this mindset. Have this viewpoint.

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Have this worldview. There is not any of these things.

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So, what is there? What is there? In the Christian mindset, there is

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Christ. He is all, and he is in all. We need to look the list of Colossians chapter 3, break it down, and see what there is not versus what is.

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There is the not, and then there is the what is. So, that's the question that I ask when

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I ask, where is your here, brother and sister? Where is your here? Your priorities are what's on the line here.

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Your values, whether or not they actually stack up to the

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Scriptures and are consistent with the Scriptures, that's what's at stake here.

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So, let's look at the not. It's simple. There's not Greek and Jew. There's not circumcised and uncircumcised.

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There's no barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free. And with that in mind, we want to walk through the text.

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But before we walk through the text, I want to lay some ground rules out here. And I know there's going to be some, oh, here he goes, the

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Western European, white Western Europeanism. He's going to tell us how we have to read the

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Bible to understand it the way he wants us to understand it. I call this the

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Western European exegesis accusation, understanding the text versus the cultural accusation.

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The idea here is pretty simple, and that is that those of us who have looked to the

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Scriptures in a particular way, like, for instance, as we did in the Romans 9 debate, and we see that flow of thought coming through it, we call that exegesis, okay?

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That we derive that method from a white Western European culture.

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That culture is what tells us how we are to understand the Scriptures. Well, in contrast to that, you're also going to see the, what

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I call, esoteric imposition approach, that we bring an esoteric idea or an esoteric approach to the

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Scriptures. And guess what? Before you know it, you're John Dominic Crossan or John Shelby Spong, and you're drawing things from the

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Scriptures that are random and can simply be compiled into whatever pile of mush you want to put together.

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But if you think about it, what does exegesis actually do?

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This, I want to put this accusation aside, but I also want to answer it. What we're actually doing is we're not leading the text.

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We're following it. So, if you have a problem with the manner in which we're reading the text, your problem actually goes back 2 ,000 years in how the text was actually written out.

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That's right. Romans chapter 9 and Colossians chapter 3 were put forward in this form long before the

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Western Europeans were on the scene, long before. So, if you look to the

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Scriptures and let the Scriptures, the manner in which the Scriptures were written and the style in which the

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Scriptures were written, we can see various approaches in various ways. If you look at Romans 9, it is verse by verse using a flow of thought with one concept built upon another.

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We see Jesus doing this in John chapter 6 and several other places. But we also see

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Jesus using a parabolic, parables approach. And there are places in which we follow the flow of the text, that's right, and we find parables there.

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If you go to the book of Proverbs, you're going to find a proverbial approach to the Scriptures as the proverbs are laid out concept upon concept and some unrelated.

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It's that proverbial, drop the concept out there, here's the thought, and move on to the next thought.

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There is a way which seems right unto a man, but therein thereof are the ways of death, Proverbs 14, 12.

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You get the concept. I truly hope you do. So, but here in Colossians chapter 3, it is not written in an esoteric manner.

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It is written in a thought by thought, flow of the text, flow of thought manner.

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What's also interesting to me, take that down for a minute, what's also interesting to me is this.

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If you think about how we communicate, how am I communicating to you right now?

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Well, hopefully I'm putting, again, that thought by thought together, stringing a series of things together, and having it make sense that there's reasonable communication happening here as I'm putting these things out there for you.

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Last week, I received a phone call from a man that he wanted me to comment on four female politicians that are rather popular right now in the media.

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And I didn't really understand why he wanted me to comment on it, and he rattled off a couple of things that they've said and things that were going on, and wanted to know if I agreed or if I disagreed with it.

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And I explained to him the problem here is what's going on in their minds, that they've approached these issues antagonistically, and that there's very little rational thought, in my opinion, going on.

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And that's my evaluation. Where was my focus in that answer?

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My focus is on what they're thinking, okay? And his response to that, based on what he heard come out of my mouth, was, you're a white supremacist.

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Now, that's not a rational conversation to me. I don't see how one can actually have anything meaningful in the back and forth.

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I was asked a direct question. I gave a direct answer, and there was no race whatsoever involved in my answer.

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It had to do with their worldview, and how my worldview differs from their worldview, and had nothing to do with their race or mine.

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So is it possible that critical theory has so infected some folks around us that it is now how they actually go about thinking?

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Everything they hear goes through that critical theory filter and comes out the other side.

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And if you doubt me on this, in the description of this video, I'm going to put a link to a video that my friend

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Michael Fallon has put together, where he interviews Drs. James Lindsay and Peter Boghossian.

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They're unbelievers, but they go through how critical theory and intersectionality has affected fields that they are in, were in, organizations that they were a part of.

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The organizations aren't even around anymore, because this way of thinking came in, infected the group, and it splintered, and it destroyed within.

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This is one of the major reasons why I believe that as we proceed towards this text—and

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I'm going to go ahead and put it back up on the screen—we're going to find that, at the very least, the fruit that critical theory and intersectionality bears is utterly polar opposite from that which is taught in the

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New Testament to us. Polar opposite. But this particular passage, in particular, militates against that kind of thinking, that worldview, as worldly and something that we are to be getting rid of.

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We are not to be embracing. We are supposed to be different. So, the question is, how are we to be different?

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Let's read. Colossians 3, verse 1. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

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Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

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I want to repeat that verse. Where's our mind supposed to be? Our mind is supposed to be on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

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For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. I want to stop a moment, and I want to illustrate that particular verse in a way.

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You've seen James do this before, but it's very effective to get the point across. You, you are like this ring, and you've died,

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Christian. You've died. You're dead to this world, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

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There is to be nothing worldly about you. We're to put those things off, but we're going to come back to that concept about the fact that if you are in Christ, where you stand, that's the here of Colossians 3, verse 11.

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Your life's hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, then you will also appear with him in glory.

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Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

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Please consider those words carefully if you are teasing with or considering critical theory or intersectionality to have any merit whatsoever.

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Think on that verse, please, I beg of you. On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming.

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Think on that one for a minute, too. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

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Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

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Here, there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian,

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Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the

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Lord has forgiven you. So you must. So you also must forgive.

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Think on that. So you also must forgive.

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And above all these things, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

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We're going to come back to that word later on, the harmony of it all, the harmony that is the

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Christian walk, the Christian life, and the Christian church, harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful.

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Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

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And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the

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Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. So, as we consider all of what we just read, that entire section, verses 1 through 17, did you see critical theory in there anywhere?

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Did you see intersectionality in there anywhere? I did, actually.

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I did. But where I didn't see it was in the section that we are to put on, the things that we are to put on.

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You got the put -offs, you got to put the deaths, and you got the put -ons. First of all, the question is asked in verse 1, have you been raised?

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This is what's going on in your head, Christian. This is what's going on in your heart. Have you been raised?

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If you've been raised, then seek the things that are above. That's your worldview, ladies and gentlemen.

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That's your worldview, the things that are above. You are to set your mind, according to verse 2, above, not on the earth.

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Above. Verse 3, if you aren't getting the picture yet, you've died.

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You're dead. The old man is gone. He's dead and he's buried.

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And accordingly, you are now hidden with Christ in God. And as a result of that, when he appears, when he appears in glory, you're going to be with him.

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This is the worldview that we are to put on because we've been raised.

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This is part of seeking the things above. That's where our mindset is.

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And in the process of that, we're to put off that old self, that old self with all of its baggage, all of its baggage.

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And we do it along with its practices, the baggage, right? Right? How do we think?

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How are we supposed to think? By putting on the new self, verse 12.

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And that new self is renewed in knowledge. What is the basis or the nature of that knowledge?

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It is the image of God. That's what it says. So, as verse 12 tells us, as God's chosen ones that are holy and beloved, what are we supposed to have?

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What's supposed to come out of us? Compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another, bearing with one another.

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Just in case the idea isn't getting through to you just yet, let's say you're just still got some issues, you got a complaint, ladies and gentlemen, you got some issues, you got a problem with your brother across the way, you are commanded to forgive.

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You must forgive. How do you forgive? How are you to forgive? You are to forgive in the same way that the

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Lord forgave you. You know what? That might just apply to some people who are now dead and gone.

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You're to forgive. And you forgive as the Lord forgave you. Because just as they stood in that spot that was once appointed for all men, once to die, they have faced judgment in the same way you will too.

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You got to think on that. You got to think on that before you point that bony finger at others.

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Oh, your great, great, great grandfather did this, that, and the other and I hold you accountable for it.

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Really? I don't see that here. You're to forgive in the same way the

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Lord forgave you. Got a complaint? Put on love.

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Why? Because it binds everything together. Got a complaint? Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

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Why? Because you were called in one body. Got a complaint?

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Let his word dwell in you. Let Colossians chapter 3 dwell in you, folks, teaching, admonishing in wisdom, singing, and being thankful to God.

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If you can't look across your church and see the man or the woman who was once your enemy, who is now in Christ, who has now got that same mindset that you have, that same worldview that is heavenly -minded, thinking on things above, something's wrong.

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You're not standing in that place, in that same here that Paul is talking about.

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Got a complaint? Do everything in Jesus' name. Everything, by word or deed, and give thanks to God the

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Father because of it. In contrast to that, we have a different list.

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In contrast, we have the things that we are ordered to put to death.

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It's not a suggestion. Christian, you are to put these things to death.

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Why? Because they're earthly, sexual immorality, impurity, passions, evil desires.

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It's a broad category there. And covetousness, which is idolatry. Isn't it interesting how that word gets sectioned off, set apart as that thing which is idolatry?

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Pardon me. Because of these things, verse 6, the wrath of God is coming.

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You've got to think about that for a minute. Look at the list in verse 5.

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Because of these things, verse 6 says the wrath of God is coming. I want to pause here for a minute, and I want to consider the question of the wrath of God.

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We look at Romans chapter 1, we see verses 18 through the end of the chapter. We're familiar with what is there and the idea of God delivering them over to a reprobate mind.

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I happen to be one that reads that in such a way of this is the judgment of God being poured out upon men.

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The way in which we understand that is that we have God's restraining hand upon our sin nature, all mankind.

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This is in the category of common grace things. And so when we say,

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God bless America, or God bless us in our family, or whatever context you want to put that in, what are we actually saying?

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We're actually saying, God, we want you to restrain the sin that is all around us, our own sin.

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Keep your restraining hand upon us, that that which is inside us does not grow, kindle, and come loose, if you will.

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The nation, the people that is under the judgment of God is actually seeing the hand of God, his restraining hand, being moved off.

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He is restraining less of what we are capable of doing and being. Well, what comes loose when that happens?

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Our sin nature. Our sin nature. It's like taking the safeties off, taking the chains off, taking the restraints off.

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And in that way, as we see this, look around. Ask yourself.

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We talk about God blessing America. Well, what if he doesn't? What does that look like? What if the hand of judgment is to come upon our nation, upon our people?

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What does that look like? Well, we see it there, right there in Romans chapter 1.

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They're delivered over to a reprobate mind. Right? Have you seen the news lately?

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Have you looked at the news lately? Have you wondered why we are seeing so much chaos?

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If you doubt the existence of God, look around you. You can see his hand being lifted off of all of us, our entire society.

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And he's showing us how we really are and what we're really capable of. That's the judgment of God.

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Because of these, the wrath of God has come and is coming.

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It's upon us. I believe that. And we are seeing it all around us. You can go back through history and you can see these events happen in that same way.

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But here's the thing, verse 7, you know this. I'm not telling you things that you don't already know.

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Why do you know this? Because you used to them. You used to live in them.

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They used to be part of your life. So, again, we go back to the previous list.

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With critical theory and intersectionality, what is it that you're going after here? Are you going after the things that are above?

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Are you going after that old man, trying to dredge him back up out of the grave and bring all of that baggage that you put to death and were supposed to put to death?

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You're dragging that all back out and dredging it up. Your mind isn't on things above anymore.

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It's on this stuff. It's doing this stuff. It's on what is earthly, verses 8 and 9, and it's producing that old self stuff all over again.

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That is what critical theory will get you. And pastor, if you bring critical theory into your church, if you start, if you give it an inch, it will take a mile.

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It'll take your whole church. Because it is filled with anger, it is filled with malice, it is filled with obscene talk, it is filled with wrath, and it is filled with slander and lying.

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Doubt me. Go ahead. Doubt me. Take a good look around. Take a good look around.

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Where to put these things to death and keep them there? Here, ladies and gentlemen, here, verse 11, there is no race.

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None. There is no critical race, theory, or intersectionality.

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It doesn't fit. It doesn't go in that place that has its mind set on the things above.

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It can't be. There is no Greek, there's no Jew, there's no barbarian, there's no

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Scythian, there's no circumcised, there's no uncircumcised, there's no slave, there's no free. Here, our minds are set on the things above.

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Look at this passage. We're not to lie to one another. Why? Because we've put off the old self and its practices, its baggage, because we've put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator.

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Are you renewed? Is the case that you're making, is the ministry that you're performing being renewed in knowledge after the image of your creator?

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Or are you dredging up all of that stinky, filthy garbage that's in the grave that is supposed to be dead, and you're shoveling it into the middle of your church?

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And your life, and your family, and your whole worldview. Where is your here,

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Christian? Where is your here? As we start to sum up, we look at the points.

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The question is a question of diversity or unity. One Christian seminary actually has a department of kingdom diversity.

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That's an oxymoron to me. I read chapter 3 of Colossians, and I go, kingdom diver—what?

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If you're going to have the office, it needs to be the office of kingdom unity. That's what

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Colossians 3 is about, kingdom unity. The diversity is down in the very pit of hell.

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We don't lie to each other because we've put off the old self. We've covered this, and we've covered this, so where is your here,

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Christian? You put on, as God's chosen ones, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

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Please don't try to tell me that you can find any of those things in critical theory. You can't.

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You can't. You need to bear with one another. Critical theory does none of that.

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There's no bearing with one another. It is filled with accusation. If you've got a complaint, forgive.

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Critical theory can't allow for forgiveness. It can't. And you do so as the

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Lord has forgiven you, so also you must forgive. Ladies and gentlemen, cultivating division versus unity,

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CRT forgives nothing and actually heaps on a greater burden than what is actually real, because it has to heap on the burden that is to be borne by those who came before you.

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They are the ones that stand before God. I don't stand before God for the actions of another man.

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I stand before God for my own, and they are plenty. They are plenty, but those who came before me in my family line, they'll stand before God and they'll wear either the robes of Jesus Christ and his righteousness that they got, not through anything they earned, but through the grace and mercy and forgiveness of the

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Lord Jesus Christ in his blood, the same as I will, the same as I will.

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And accordingly, while I'm on this earth, I must forgive. And what does this all produce in your ecclesiology?

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Here's the thing. The doctrine of the Church and how the Church is to function and be.

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The Church is to function and be in perfect harmony, ladies and gentlemen, perfect harmony.

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And how does that happen? By letting the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, to which indeed we were called in one body.

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In critical theory, there is no harmony, there is no peace, and there is no

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Christ. It's not there. So we come back to my case.

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The critical race theory and intersectionality are incompatible with authentic Christianity, and as such can never be considered a valid tool of any kind in the

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Christian Church, in the Christian life. I call on you.

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If you have teased with the ideas of critical theory and intersectionality, put them in the trash can where they belong, right next to the doctrines of every other cult out there, because that's what this is.

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It is a mind -controlling cult, bent on division, divisiveness, and destruction in every place it goes.