The Benedict Option, Tim Keller, South Africa and London, and an Important Announcement

Alpha & Omega Ministries

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

Comments are disabled.

00:33

And greetings welcome to the dividing line Yeah, we're back. It's uh

00:38

I noticed the tribbles have not moved a bit since I since I left. I forgot to grab the

00:44

Someone gave me the little Borg sphere that came out of the Borg cube

00:51

In the first contact I forgot to I think it might be a med bag I'm not sure when you get back from nearly 17 days overseas everything is just The first day by the way if anyone wonders what it's like to cross all those time zones

01:09

The first day actually you feel pretty good to slept slept like a rock last night because I had had a 31 hour long day and The rough the rough thing is tonight and tomorrow

01:23

Now, I don't know if that's just because I'm getting old and everything takes longer to start hurting or go bad or something

01:30

But yeah, that's sort of how it works I'm hearing weird things. What are you doing out there?

01:36

I don't know. He disappeared Don't know what's happening. But Anyways, dr.

01:41

Oakley has no kujan. It's 93 degrees in Phoenix. Why in the world would it be wearing a sweater? That would be sort of that'd be weird so anyway

01:52

Back from the trip, but I'd like to hold off on reporting on that until the end of the program

01:58

Because I do there's some really important stuff and if you're a if you're a supporter of the ministry if you think what we're doing is important and once again

02:07

Being overseas lots of folks talk about the dividing line and what it's meant to them and how it's helped them

02:13

So please listen through to the end. We've got some important stuff to talk about then but Want to catch up on some stuff we've got the the

02:24

Gorsuch stuff going on Fascinating Show that's really a modern thing most of the in history there hasn't been this much emphasis upon the

02:37

Senate hearings for nominees and stuff like that now it's become ever since the

02:44

Bork Nomination it's turned into a circus, but the left turns everything into a circus because that's what the left is all about I Got a couple things

02:56

I want to look at Just just three things and then we'll talk about about the about the trip a little bit about what's going on Where do we go first?

03:04

Let's talk about an article that I saw today on the Aquila report Is Tim Keller about to have his

03:12

Rod Dreher moment and what caught my attention about this? Was the fact that I got through about well according to my

03:22

Kindle Voyager, I got 56 % of the way through The Benedict option which is a book that is getting a lot of press especially since Albert Moeller interviewed the author and I listened to that and then

03:45

Started reading the book since I'm only 56 % of the way through I I Don't want to say too much about it

03:53

I may just I'm not sure if I'm gonna have time to sit down and just read through the rest of it or if I'm just going to Pick it up at that point record to mp3 listen to it on a long ride or something along those lines, but It is it's a fascinating book and This particular issue that's raised in this article is about Tim Keller going to speak

04:22

Tim Keller the PCA pastor of Redeemer Church in New York City, etc. Etc Likely needs no introduction though.

04:30

He has his critics myself among them. This is DG Hart writing this He is generally the darling of evangelical gatekeepers the

04:37

New Calvinist and PCA church planners Reputation is that of an apologist who persuade skeptical New Yorkers to give

04:43

Christianity another chance add to that is inspirational exhortation Evangelicals to revitalize the city read

04:49

New York City if Keller were talking about or ministering from Chicago. I doubt he'd be all that in demand

04:55

So impressive as Keller been that even Princeton Theological Seminary has invited him to give the annual Kuiper lecture and award him

05:02

It's prize of reformed theology in public life The oldest mainline for some read liberal Presbyterian Seminary is bestowing its blessing on what used to be regarded as a sectarian

05:12

Fundamentalist that is someone who left the Protestant mainline for a conservative denomination But this is where it gets dicey

05:17

Keller's communion. The PCA does not ordain women nor is it recognized sexual orientation rights? I guess that's the new phrase now is sexual orientation rights

05:26

Over these matters Keller could face the kind of reception Charles Murray recently did at Middlebury College Let's see, what is the

05:38

Duh -duh -duh -duh -duh -duh -duh -duh -duh Okay, here's here's just a comment some it doesn't even say who the commentary is here

05:49

But I'll let others argue finer points of Reverend Keller's theology. Hello This is Princeton Theological Seminary here arguing finer points is what we do

05:55

My personal soapbox is much less refined it boils down to this an institution designed to train men and women for ministry

06:02

Shouldn't be awarding fancy prizes someone who believes half the student body or is it more than half has no business leading churches

06:09

It's offensive and my thingy here. It just doesn't want to leave the text where it's supposed to be

06:16

It's offensive and as I have taught my four and five -year -olds to express it hurts my feelings

06:22

This is a giant lecture with a giant whoop -dee -doo factor there's a place for common ground, but unless the Reverend Tim Keller is

06:29

Prepared to argue for the ordination of all the women students of Princeton Theological Seminary the Abraham Kuiper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology And public life is not that place in my opinion.

06:39

Well, I wonder what Abraham Kuiper would have thought about that. But anyway Here's the here's here's what the what the

06:46

Princeton Seminary president said our seminary embraces full Inclusion for ordained leadership of the church.

06:53

We clearly stand in get this Prophetic opposition to the

06:58

PCA and many other Christian dominations that do not extend ready for this

07:03

The full exercise of spirit filled gifts for women or those of various sexual orientations

07:12

We know that many have been hurt by being excluded from ministry and we have worked hard to be in a firming place of Preparation for service to the church if you weren't aware of the fact that Princeton has

07:25

Jumped off the cliff That should pretty much Tell you right there The seminary has many student organizations and several theological centers that bring speakers to campus while my office issues the official invitations to campus

07:38

I don't practice censorship over the choices these organizations Even when I or the seminary disagree with some of the convictions of these speakers is also a core conviction our seminary to be a serious

07:48

Academic institution that will sometimes bring controversial speakers to campus Can you imagine that Tim Keller is the controversial speaker?

07:56

It sounds like someone defending inviting the KKK and because from their perspective it pretty much is the same thing

08:05

To do to be a serious academic institution that will sometimes bring controversial speakers to campus because we refuse to exclude voices within the church

08:13

Diversity of theological thought and practice has long been a hallmark of our school and so we have had a wide variety of featured speakers on campus including others who come from traditions that do not ordain women or menacing keeps getting longer

08:27

LGBTQ now they've put a plus afterwards. I guess that's just sort of like we don't want to put a more

08:32

So if you do we're not discriminating against you LGBTQ plus What if they're

08:41

LGBTQ minus is that like a a minus Oh positive? Yeah Such as many wings the

08:48

Protestant Church and bishops of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Communions and as he points out note

08:54

Prince this is not the president anymore This is the author note that Princeton Seminary stands in and it says in opposition of the

09:03

PCA It's prophetic opposition What happened to love? Yes, that is we clearly stand in prophetic

09:10

Opposition to the PCA and many other Christian denominations that do not extend the full exercise of spirit filled gifts

09:18

For women or those of various sexual orientations. Oh, I don't know

09:26

This does bring me to The issue of the

09:32

Benedict option I didn't grab my my iPad not iPad Kindle Uh What I've read so far and I I blame

09:45

Someone in channel. He's the guy that's always trying to take over channel, but has failed so far to do so But fellow by the nick of book in channel

10:01

I Had seen some stuff in channel then I started seeing things on Facebook and then

10:06

I was linked to the interview between the author and Albert Moller and The author is a

10:18

Eastern Orthodox member of Eastern Orthodox Church former Roman Catholic Who became

10:23

Eastern Orthodox, which is an interesting direction to go actually? And Fundamentally what the

10:31

Benedict option is is going back to the Benedict Benedictine order and the rule of st.

10:36

Benedict and It's it's monasticism asceticism, it's an organized life a disciplined life.

10:43

It's and What is the fascinating about it at the beginning that the hook that grabs you is?

10:52

a pretty much full -on Statement that this culture is done

11:04

Western culture is is finished The the we've had our

11:11

Waterloo It basically was the Casey decision and then if that wasn't it then clearly a

11:19

Bergefell at that point the process of the individualization the well the statement and I was that's why

11:30

I was gonna grab my My and I just forgot to bring it with me, I'm sorry and I was gonna grab my my

11:37

Kindle's I'd mark these things But he quotes the Kennedy statement which

11:42

I had forgotten about the fact that Kennedy's the guy that got on because Bork didn't and Man has that changed everything that that accelerated everything in a major way major way

11:55

You know the the leftists knew they had to stop it and and the lengths they went to totally subvert the system totally subvert the system and anyway, the

12:06

Kennedy's statement in the Casey decision that I think was re -quoted in a

12:12

Bergefell You know basically Identifying human autonomy as the the foundational principle of American jurisprudence

12:25

Which of course it was not when there was an American jurisprudence, but there isn't really anymore so So he starts off by basically saying it's done

12:40

The battle has been lost And now what are we gonna do? Now the the proposed solutions are

12:52

Troubling the troubling first of all how you read this book and I've actually bought two copies

12:58

For other people because I'd like them to read it and I'd like to hear what if they're hearing the same things

13:06

I'm hearing if they're identifying the same things. I'm identifying and I may

13:11

I may buy a few more copies For a few other friends and say you know when you get the time

13:19

As long as you got a Kindle anyways take a look at this and Obviously for me

13:28

Benedict and That kind of stuff is problematic asceticism monastic rules that kind of stuff is

13:41

Is is problematic, but he's basically saying that there is going to need to be a

13:49

Christian community and Christian communities that are

13:56

Extremely focused upon Disciplined life a life that is not focused upon individuality, but community

14:08

And see that echoes with me Because what those of you who've listened, what have

14:14

I said? for a long long time I've said the only power

14:21

That the world is going to have against Christians when? You know because it looks like if you if you follow the trends

14:31

There is a withdrawing of the hand of restraint Against those who hate the gospel and The only power that the world's going to have against us is our own love of the things the world

14:46

Because that's the only thing they can touch they can take away our jobs and our homes and our security

14:52

They can touch the body. They can't touch the soul That's all they can do so if our if the source of our strength the source of our

15:03

Commitment and and not commitment. This is the source of our contentment.

15:09

I'm sorry is Focused upon that which they cannot touch they can't do anything to us

15:16

But obviously when you look at the church as a whole that's not where we are

15:22

Um Evangelical churches nominal because because he

15:28

He uses the term Orthodox Christians small -o for conservative Roman Catholics conservative

15:34

Easter Orthodox and conservative evangelicals He recognizes that the liberals of all three of those branches are pretty much irrelevant and So there are things that echo with me

15:48

Because there's there's no question that those who love the things the world they're not going to They're not gonna be able to stand against the onslaught that's coming they're not going to be able to make the the sacrifices

16:03

That are going to be necessary to remain faithful in the onslaught that is coming our direction.

16:08

There's there's no no two ways about that But what's missing so far and Maybe it

16:18

Comes up, but I don't I can't see how it can come up primarily because of the

16:25

Eastern Orthodox aspect Well, I was gonna say earlier the reason that the way you're gonna read this book is

16:33

Really going to be dependent upon your eschatology Really is I would

16:38

I didn't shock me that after I started reading. I saw Michael Brown post a response and Michael Brown whether he wants to admit it or not

16:49

Thinks like a post -millennialist really does if you read his books, it's a very much a

16:59

Positive You know the revolution will take place and so on and so forth idea and and he criticized the book for basically being too much of a downer in essence and I would imagine my post -millennial friends will have an allergic reaction to it though at least in my understanding of post -millennialism a

17:26

Post -millennialist cannot say that a particular expression of culture Will be quote -unquote

17:34

Christianized the West may fall The city of Rome fell to the barbarians and It would have been really hard to be a post -millennialist from say 430 onwards

17:48

For quite some time in in the West so isn't it possible that there could be a

17:58

God -glorifying destruction of the hedonism and the secularism of the

18:05

West because the secular humanism cannot provide a meaningful foundation for for culture and We are seeing the secular humanists are totalitarians they have to be

18:17

They have to control what everybody thinks and what everyone rejoices in and celebrates

18:24

But what's missing So far is the gospel. Oh, it's been used but there is such a fundamental difference in how orthodoxy understands the gospel and the emphases in it because of Lack of understanding in orthodox theology of the true deadness of man and sin.

18:48

It's just all there is to it That's why you don't have the emphasis upon Justification and atonement you have much more emphasis upon theosis and union with Christ and Etc, etc

19:02

Just not seeing that yet and what I also haven't seen is even though there is a recognition of the totalitarian nature of The secular left a lot of the

19:17

Attempted suggestions that you go back to when the communists were in power and things like that. The one thing that's missing is

19:24

The technology that will now be available to those oppressing Christians that was never possessed before You know, you could turn everything off and go without electricity out in the woods someplace

19:39

But now they can watch you there, too And It just makes me wonder some of the things

19:46

I'm reading just how practical some of these things are in light of you know,

19:53

I I've used the illustration a number of times, but I I When I visited the

20:02

Stasi prison in former East Germany in Berlin It was it was not a technological place

20:13

If they had had the kind of technology that we have today it would have been a much more hellish place than it was well now we've got it and So I'll be interested to see in the rest of What's there?

20:31

if any of those things are addressed, but one of the key issues for me is The interface

20:38

I'm seeing in regards to the gospel secondary here instead of being primary and that for me is is very very much problematic

20:47

Though I would I I would highly recommend the reading the book to people Some people get confused by that you recommended that book

20:54

That doesn't mean I agree with everything in it If you only read books you agree with well, then again given the average person a doesn't read books anymore

21:04

But you need to read books you don't agree with so you can figure out why you don't it clarifies your own thought

21:10

It's really good for you So I would highly recommend reading it If you don't read it at least listen to the interview with that Al Mohler did in thinking in public on the subject and will help you to to think some of those things through but that's what that's what this article was saying the

21:27

Rod Dreher moment is is this idea that You know, what if Keller shows up at Princeton and they won't even let him speak like what happened with What's -his -face did it that it that it was

21:41

I guess him. I thought it was right there. Oh, yeah Charles Murray In many of these places that the leftist does not care anymore about being straight open in in saying we will not allow freedom of speech since we identify you as a bigot and Your perspectives are evil from our perspective then we will silence you and we will we are totalitarians

22:06

And we admit it We're open about it. So It'll be interesting to see what happens.

22:11

I think you'll get to speak Personally, but you never know you never know in in time in time.

22:18

All right You know what I had a video here that I was gonna take a look at and I just don't know that I have time because It's just the first day back after 16 and a half days away

22:33

You've got a lot of stuff to catch up with got a lot of stuff to catch up with so I'm gonna hold that off for we've got other dividing lines to do and We'll just use that for one of those those issues in because I need to give you a quick report on What has been going on and?

22:52

Sort of bring you up to speed on some things Um 40 hours in a plane not including all the hours in the airports

23:02

I'm starting I know terminals terminals three and five at Heathrow really well now

23:07

Really really well starting to recognize a few people But it is nice to know where you're going

23:16

And things like that love British Airways, but those guys they know what they're doing I got a I got a little luggage thing, you know that luggage thing man that thing works when

23:23

I landed I'm Taxiing in Johannesburg Not first taxing at Heathrow because I went through Heathrow to Johannesburg taxing in Heathrow And my phone goes off and here's a little text message that says

23:39

Your luggage is in such -and -such London. It's like yeah better than being in Madrid Spain You know that's happened land in Johannesburg same thing happens land back in Heathrow there it is again land in Phoenix It's in Phoenix, Arizona It's like cool

23:54

And then when you go down to get it if you turn on the Bluetooth thing Your luggage is 50 feet from you your luggage is 40 feet from you then it comes around the corner

24:02

And there's my luggage. That's nice. You've ever lost your luggage It's it's pretty nice.

24:07

I got it gotta admit that Yeah Well, I don't care if the

24:13

NSA knows my luggage is what you know his dirty clothes is in Washington I don't care.

24:19

It's uh, I don't care if the NSA knows it's irrelevant Anyways, so that was that that's that's pretty cool.

24:26

Um, a lot of people say why? Why South Africa Oh I see

24:36

I see someone in channel asking about the thing I mentioned to you yeah, I I am going to to log us and channel

24:44

I am going to address the the Maranov situation just not today, it's too too quick after I got back and Besides we haven't as we haven't installed the asbestos filters on the lines

24:59

Because you you say anything about Bosch Dar Maranoff and just just be prepared for Acid in your face because the man just doesn't even know how to be nice to somebody.

25:07

It's it's just unbelievable. But anyway There you go Well, we'll get to that later on and that was not the video that I was gonna be talking about That's that's that's another issue, but we'll get to it later on People ask why why

25:22

South Africa and You know It is still amazing that you know

25:29

I'd had the exchange with Simon Brace who is now in Potter's room at Northwest University doing ratio

25:36

Christie work down there But he's South African and and we had met when I went to SES for the

25:44

Debate with Michael Brown and then the debate that didn't happen because we got snowed out and the

25:50

The debate which wasn't planned on apologetic methodology that that context there

25:56

I thought when Rudolf Bossoff contacted me that He was doing so because Simon Brace asked him to it was just out of the blue.

26:07

He just contacted out of the blue and I Would not be doing what

26:13

I'm doing in South Africa without Rudolf Rudolf must have driven. I don't know six seven hundred kilometers this trip put six seven hundred

26:23

Kilometers on his on his car driving me back and forth and stayed with me they put us up at the it's called the sports village at North it's now called

26:35

Northwest University. It's the old historic Christian University called

26:40

Potter's room University But then after the after apartheid the ANC came in and said you can't have a

26:46

Christian University anymore we're gonna put you together with these other these other schools and Change the name

26:53

Northwest University. Thankfully, the school of theology is still there and Great people teaching there and a great bunch of students and Yeah, I have fallen in love with the place and I fall in love with the professors

27:08

Prof Hank Hank Stoker there is trying his level best to help train ministers in South Africa There is a tremendous need for the gospel.

27:22

There's a tremendous amount of false gospel teaching It's a huge missions field and there are good churches there

27:29

Antioch Bible Church Tim Cantrell I've been there pretty much every single time.

27:35

I've gone to South Africa. They just make room for me They they want to have me speak. They want to have me preach. I preach

27:40

I preached a week ago Sunday night on Titus 2 11 through 15 and Tim was late getting there he had been at Shepherds conference and had bad jet lag and fell asleep that afternoon slept for three hours and At 10 minutes, it's a service starts at 6 10 minutes after his phone goes off.

27:58

Where are you? Where am I supposed to be? church, maybe oh and so he shows up late and So I made

28:08

Tim I'm sorry I had to mention it but fully understandable even though I Flew to South Africa on a

28:16

Sunday and the guys at POTS had me lecturing six hours a day Monday and Tuesday I didn't fall asleep.

28:22

So anyway so but Tim and I love each other we

28:28

He'll find something to get back at me later on anyway I preached in Titus 2 11 through 15 found out later on that that was the text that was assigned to Tim For his ordination sermon in front of John MacArthur But I felt tremendous freedom that evening and I'm not sure if it was

28:50

Tim or somebody else that said, you know, we're used to you teaching that was preaching and I was like Yeah, yeah, I was

28:56

That was great, so I've gotten to Meet individuals down there.

29:03

We want to get to Durban next time. I go down. I haven't seen Adrian and and his family down there in Durban in a couple trips and they're just wonderful Christian people and I've told the story for a couple trips back

29:19

I was in a small church in Johannesburg and had these three university students come up to me and You know they said

29:27

The only reason we made it through University was because the dividing line that's the only reason we kept our faith because everything we were being told

29:34

Was against what you were saying, but you would respond to those things and you you just don't know how much that means

29:41

And so it's not like this is the only place. That's the case but because Rudolph is there and because I've gotten plugged in at POTS and because they're

29:53

Willing to have me teach You know the Lord's just really bound my heart there, so I Spent the first few days there.

30:03

Yes. I did tweet out about this and it managed to get through the shadow ban to some people anyways but You can't go there.

30:14

I mean even in the rooms in the rooms the sports complex are these big mural pictures of a cricket batter and And People in the

30:26

United States do not understand cricket and rugby You spend time in Australia, New Zealand England and South Africa all the places.

30:38

I'm going fairly regularly Wow and What's really neat is

30:44

I've now figured out cricket it took a while it it took a while but I figured out cricket and Australia was playing

30:53

India in a in a full test match and I kept turning it on on BBC because wanted to see what was happening and it's it's seven days long

31:05

You know and they take their time out for lunch and tea and it's just so so completely different But it's it's a lot of fun to watch.

31:12

So anyway, I Spent the first two days Lecturing on every subject under the under the

31:19

Sun for hours Hours at a time and it was it was exhausting

31:26

But such a such a blessing be able to do so Wednesday. I sort of had off But not really and I'll tell you why in a second and then we did more lecturing on Thursday Friday night.

31:38

Was it Thursday night? starting to lose track of which day it was but I went over to Simon Brace's house the

31:43

Ratio Christi guys and for some reason they want me to speak on Mormonism and so earlier in the week what

31:51

I did is I said well guys what you want to do is you want to contact the the local missions and Tell them you're gonna have a talk on Mormonism.

31:58

They will send missionaries and They're like really I'm like, yeah, I bet you anything do it.

32:05

We had four of them for missionaries Show up for that talk and it was great because you know,

32:13

I set up my computer Obviously I did more

32:19

Bible that I normally do in it, you know that obviously we know this can't be true because the scriptures say and Here's where the scriptures are in contradiction to what

32:29

Joseph Smith said and and so on and so forth so it's much more of a witnessing situation than normal, but Got through the whole thing and the people were very very thankful And I didn't go over and mess with the missionaries because they're surrounded by students.

32:42

They want to have conversations. I'm the big baddie I stay out of the way and let the students do the do the do the witnessing.

32:49

So That was that was great But again just had a had a great time at POTCH and Then over the weekend had the worldview conference

33:02

With Andy McIntosh as the other speaker at the worldview conference. He was great. It was really funny I did a thing on science in the

33:08

Bible with John Bile at POTCH Then I did Andy McIntosh over the weekend and here's these two guys that are astronomers and remember

33:17

Jason Lyle When we previewed the unpopular movie, I'm just finding myself running into these brilliant Astro -science guys

33:28

That just have these awesome presentations and they're all presuppositional lists and they're all

33:36

Really solid guys just really great to see them out there and It was really really interesting listening to Andy McIntosh and his he did his thing on on hearing again, and then he also did something on math the beauty of God's creation in math and He had a picture of a

33:55

Mandelbrot fractal up and I was like, oh good. He could talk about fractals He never did and so afterwards I said, I'm really disappointed when

34:01

I spoke next I'm really disappointed because he didn't get into fractals So I showed off some of my fractals on the screen and he was like But so anyway, we had a great conference and then

34:14

I spoke at a Baptist Church That's part of the

34:20

Baptist Union on Sunday morning and they were they were pretty packed out and Folks there just are so appreciative of the ministry of the word

34:28

They gave me a specific text in John 14 to preach from and had a great time there with the pastor and his family

34:33

When I when I got in When I got to his house for lunch after the service there was a chessboard

34:43

Sitting on the table. And so I I put this the pieces back where they're supposed to be and all this is

34:49

So do you you play chess? I said This is what I said. I know how the pieces move

34:56

So I said well we got to play then so he sits down Rich is laughing because he knows what the where this is gonna go and it turns out.

35:03

He's an avid chess player Had had until about six months early had been doing a lot of playing online and stuff like that I haven't played

35:13

Probably in two years But those who know me know that when

35:18

I was teenager Well, the guys who have Salt Lake will remember the time when we were playing chess over the

35:26

CB while I was driving and I didn't have a set the set was in the car behind and The only reason

35:32

I lost the position was because we had a real close pass on the two -lane It was that going on the page.

35:37

We had a real close pass and it sort of It was a little hectic and and and hectic by the way in South Africa means something completely different than it does here

35:46

Hectic means dangerous It's really weird. This is a this is a hectic area of the road.

35:51

Okay, whatever. Anyhow, so we we played and And But yeah by a donkey by don't get that's how you say.

35:59

Thank you. Anyways, so we played chess and Yeah, I won. Anyway us so So I felt good about that because if you don't get a chance to play for two years

36:10

You don't get chance study openings stuff like that. You can really get in trouble, but we had we had we had a fun time together and So that'll probably be the only time

36:18

I get to play chess for another two years But it was it was enjoyable had a great time out. There was a really good spirit at that church and Such a all of these churches folks are just massively

36:32

Mixed Mixed churches. I mean you've got You've got Indians and blacks and whites and and it's you know, it's really neat to see the body

36:43

Functioning in that in that way and so Then that evening was when

36:51

I preached at At Antioch and I Honestly, I'm starting to lose track of Which day was which but had a great time in potch very quickly

37:05

I just want to mention this because I want to get to the important part here after I left South Africa and I think that was on was it was it

37:15

Wednesday? I flew it was Wednesday I flew to to yeah Wednesday was my travel day up to up to Heathrow What did

37:23

I do on Monday I did something on Monday. Oh, what's our Tuesday night was

37:31

The debate at the mosque in La Nasia dark with the shirvaniya on the crucifixion and On Monday that's right.

37:44

I I spoke at the Baptist Union thing. We were really confused as what was supposed to be We thought it was just gonna be sort of a little sit -down thing with a few people end up being a big

37:52

Presentation then we had to rush out of it real quick because we we had scheduled a radio interview

38:01

And we end up doing that and It ended up being a pretty pretty hectic day when

38:07

I'm when I'm in Joburg when I'm not a potter's room. I I stay With Damon and Linda at the same plan.

38:14

I've now stayed there. I think this is at least my fourth time I know every footpath around their neighborhood. They're in it.

38:20

They're in a development. That's all fenced off. It's got security I would never go running and sadly you just don't go running in South Africa Unless you're in a situation like that.

38:29

So I know I know everything every path and every road in in that development and so I got some running done there and It's real it

38:42

I Generally stay in hotels. It's easier for me to rest But once you get to know a family and you get to know where everything is, they have the perfect room

38:51

It has its own bathroom. I just I'm like I'm at home and so I can can handle that just great and it's it's wonderful but Stayed there and They they have a chiropractor in that their congregation now.

39:07

He brought his table over gave me an adjustment. It was great It helped me to stay strong.

39:13

I got 100 ,000 meters of rowing on this trip.

39:19

I've never come close to that Between Pachastrum, Randberg, and then they had a single concept to rower at the hotel.

39:28

I stayed at 100 ,000 whoo That means I'm gonna have a million meters for this this this season

39:35

So I was really happy about that Keeping the body going the workouts really help with the stress of travel and sleep and all the rest that kind of stuff makes a

39:42

Big difference. So I was very very excited about that. So we had a great time there and Then went to London and let me just mention real quick quickly.

39:55

I Realize that my Reformed Baptist friends in London don't understand this but I am so thankful for KT for Kensington Temple Yep, they're charismatics and they know

40:10

I'm Reformed Baptist. They love me anyways, and I love them, too They step up they make things work.

40:16

Their volunteers go out of their way and They made the the dialogue with Abdullah Al -Andalusi work on short notice

40:27

I had lunch with Abdullah It was a very interesting conversation

40:32

Very useful then I spoke Sunday night and even though my MacBook Pro died on me It's now being repaired for the next five days three to five days.

40:40

We'll see my iPad happened to work and we did Probably the most energy -filled

40:50

Presentation a new test of reliability ever done It really was

40:56

I mean it was great Got folks excited about manuscripts and stuff like that.

41:02

It was fun and So Sunday morning, I didn't have anything going on.

41:07

So I walked I don't know if I told you but I walked to the Met tab Metropolitan Tabernacle and Because I was right downtown

41:17

I had a great location I ran around the I and Big Ben and stuff like that again and Had had the lunch in my favorite little

41:26

Mexican place called tortilla in Trafalgar Square and did a bunch of stuff around London and Sort of starting to feel like I know what

41:36

I'm what I'm what I'm doing around that place and In fact, I was in the

41:41

Apple Store today and they had this drone thing in London and I'm pointing things out to people Around me and going.

41:47

Hey, see that thing there. Well see that over there that building there That's the Royal Horse Guards and my hotel was right over there and see up there.

41:54

There's there's where Trafalgar Square is and they're all just going who is this guy? So it's sort of fun

42:02

Did get back to the hotel and they had a fire alarm And so I spent an hour waiting to get back to my room after the fire alarm at the hotel

42:09

But that that does happen when you travel every once in a while and then an uneventful trip back yesterday Thanks again to British Airways, which does such a wonderful job

42:18

So that was my time in in in London so with all that said back to Something really important and this is what

42:27

I want to talk about with with our supporters for those who support this work and support the the ministry

42:36

I mentioned that I did something on Wednesday when I was at when I was a potch and What that was was

42:45

I Met with Dr.

42:51

Yuri your dawn Dr. Your dawn Teaches New Testament.

42:56

Actually, he's he's retired now actually, but he's still deeply involved in translation work and Bible translation work

43:02

They're in South Africa. There's a lot of Bible translation work needs to be done the number of languages there's

43:10

Astronomical, it's amazing all the dialects and things like that and I had met with Dr.

43:18

You're done each time that I had gone the past two times out to pot just room and Last year when

43:25

I came back in May I made mention of a project and a number of you helped to I would put things on the ministry source list and a number of you helped us to obtain a number of those resources

43:42

It was this was all in preparation for What I've been talking with dr.

43:48

You're done about now for a little while and as Of last week.

43:54

I didn't bring it in with me I was actually gonna hold it up. But as of last week, I am now fully registered in the

44:02

PhD program at pot just room Working with dr. You're done as my doctoral advisor doing a

44:09

PhD in New Testament specifically in New Testament textual criticism Why all the way down there because dr.

44:16

You're done did his PhD in textual criticism under Bruce Metzger at Princeton Seminary Now some of you automatically know why that is so relevant

44:27

Bart Ehrman was Metzger's last PhD student dr. You're done was before him by about 15 20 years

44:38

The project that we are working on we are both very very excited about I can only

44:46

I can only Say it's divine direction in the sense that I had never encountered any discussion of this particular manuscripts value in Giving us a light into the earliest period of the text of the

45:06

New Testament It's not a manuscript that is normally put forward as being one of the most important and I am referring to papyrus 45 p 45 which is a

45:24

Gospels and Acts manuscript that in and of itself makes it unusual It was about 220 pages originally

45:33

We to this day have portions only portions sometimes small portions of Matthew Mark Luke John and Acts just portions

45:44

Now most of you know, I've already been working on this project because the sermon series

45:51

I'm doing at PRBC right now is based on p45 most unusual sermon series ever Imagined I think where we are covering chapters that are found in p45

46:05

So right now that the section in John 10 That's one of the one of the leafs leaves

46:13

Of that manuscript and so I I provide the the picture the graphic now in the back my

46:20

Translation of it and we're gonna be doing every chapter that is referenced in p45.

46:26

So obviously Last year when I met with dr.

46:31

Yordan, I my thought was to focus upon the Marken portion as part of not only a translation of mark for for Distribution amongst

46:42

Muslims But also just simply focusing upon mark as We have

46:53

Interestingly enough. We have the smallest amount of papyrological Data from mark than we do in comparison to John But then as I started doing that initial amount of reading that you need to do on your source materials in a doctoral program

47:12

Also, and I started encountering something that I saw very little discussion of in the scholarly sources and that was the fact that When you look at the textual orientation of Matthew Mark Luke John and Acts in p45

47:30

If you if you look it up right now if you look up p45 and you look up Some of the charts you'll find online when it talks about text type

47:40

If you look at at p66 p75 is because the Alexandrian When you look at p45, it says mixed.

47:51

Well, what do you mean mixed? and what I started realizing is

47:58

It seems and the first portion of my study for the next year or so The first portion of my study is going to be establishing this

48:07

It seems that the scribe Had access to multiple streams multiple families of texts and chose between them once I realized that I'm like oh, wait a minute and Again, one of the issues dating as early as 180 as late as 240.

48:33

It's normally put between 200 and 220 that early on beginning of 3rd century a scribe having access to multiple

48:43

Families even proto -byzantine readings and choosing between them

48:49

This is contemporaneous with origins work Could this have been

48:58

Part of that work. So what this does is it it raises the the question

49:08

Could this be the one? papyri That allows us to shine a light

49:16

Farther back Into the transmission history of the text of New Testament It doesn't seem like any other papyrus that currently in our possession something could happen tomorrow and change that but right now it seems to like one of the only sources we have that might allow us to shine a light backwards if there are if we can demonstrate that there are these multiple sources from which the scribe is drawing

49:49

I've bitten off a huge task here Huge task. Why do it? Well, you all know

49:56

I've always loved textual criticism and Even my

50:03

Greek professor told me that He could tell immediately

50:09

Early on with the questions I was asking about textual criticism in first -year Greek that that that was an area that I was gonna be working in but that was

50:17

That was gonna be something that was just part of part of my DNA and I think

50:22

God gives you interests and builds you in such a way to Fulfill his purposes.

50:27

I can't think of a greater

50:36

Contribution that I personally could make to the field of apologetics and to the

50:42

Well to use the terminology of the Apostle Paul the establishment of the gospel then

50:48

To complete this program in this area and to equip believers to an even deeper level in an understanding of that extremely important period of time

51:05

Certainly Bart Ehrman recognizes how important that period of time is that's why he's focused so much attention upon it and Tried to basically say we can't know well

51:21

I Have the heart to do it the question is I Ain't closing

51:27

Alpha Omega Ministries down for three years to do it The vast majority of people that would be trying to do this kind of work would focus just on this and It's 2017 and You know,

51:43

I forgot to mention when went to London I Did two unbelievable radio broadcasts the same day.

51:49

I did the dialogue with Abdullah Al -Andalusi and premieres studios were less than half a mile from the hotel is perfect and One I did with use of Ismael on crucifixion standard stuff

52:05

But before that I did a dialogue with Peter D Williams on the

52:10

Reformation Peter D Williams is a believing Roman Catholic you may recall the program he and I did on solo scripture the last time

52:16

I was in London It was an incredible conversation it was a really

52:21

I don't know when it's gonna air because Justin has raised the possibility of Leaving it for October closer to the

52:28

Reformation. I'm actually sort of hoping he won't Because it was one of the best even

52:33

I think Justin Reagan is one of the best dialogues we've ever had on unbelievable Why do I mention that right now?

52:39

I'm not gonna stop doing that kind of stuff and Peter D. Williams wants to do a debate When I come back to London and I want to do a debate

52:48

With Peter D. Williams at his church at a Roman Catholic Church there in London. He mentioned the

52:53

Marian doctrines. Let's do it I He's a believing Roman Catholic and he's brilliant.

52:59

He's really bright It just may be the English accent then again. No kind of think of it.

53:05

So anyway, sorry Peter We all know that if you speak of the British accent, you sound so much more intelligent anyhow,

53:14

I Can't stop doing that kind of stuff I can't stop Doing the work in Islam I'm gonna keep doing these things how

53:25

Not a hundred percent certain I know one thing I want to do one thing that may require your patience as the audience, but You you're gonna end up seeing stuff in p45 you're gonna end up seeing it on the screen

53:42

You're gonna be seeing a magiscule text and Sometimes you're gonna be going.

53:48

Oh, man, I can tell he's been working on his material recently and I Will try to make it

54:00

Understandable maybe even exciting and useful to you, but one of the things we're gonna do in the next few weeks We're gonna have a discussion of the

54:11

Coherence Genealogical methodology That is being utilized in the overhauling of the current text you try to explain it to you.

54:20

I'm not sure I understand it myself Yeah, I almost have to be a computer guru to figure some of this stuff out, but we're gonna

54:26

We're gonna try to tackle some Serious, we're gonna be tackling stuff here on the program that you're not gonna be getting at most seminaries

54:35

It's not Because it takes too much Greek and because they're afraid they can't actually explain it.

54:41

I'm gonna try and The geeks in the in the in the chat in the in the channel and in the audience are gonna love it

54:47

Some of the rest of you might just need to be patient But I really think this may be the most important thing

54:57

I do in my life As far as you know, I've told everybody I want to leave behind A body of work that will bless the church in the future.

55:07

I can't think of a more unique Opportunity than what

55:14

I have right now to do this and It fits perfectly, but it's not about Calvinism and Arminianism.

55:23

No, it's not Yeah, are you gonna stop talking about that no

55:30

No, I'm not But the reality is that there are lots of people

55:40

That can address that subject and have in meaningful and meaningful ways What about something that's unique and Lasting because you all know

55:52

You all recognize I've had a commitment for a long time that whatever you do

55:58

Scholastically, whatever you do in scholarship, it has to benefit the church.

56:04

I want to do this to benefit the church And you might say put seems like a long stretch from in, you know translating all of p45 and knowing every single textual variant in it and then identifying the textual families and and then asking the questions about what the sources were and There are questions about that particular scribe and how he actually approached things.

56:27

I'm gonna be reading stuff that Will seem so esoteric. That's that's amazing.

56:33

But How's that helpful to the church, well, you know that what I'm committed to doing is making that understandable to people and Making that foundational to our being able to You know, we were talking about the

56:50

Dreyer book the Benedict option earlier on believers in the

56:57

West Need to understand Where the Bible came from and why?

57:03

We can trust it over against the most

57:09

Massive collection of attacks upon that text that have ever has ever been launched.

57:16

I think I can help in one way to contribute to that that task and That's what's been opened up did

57:29

I see this coming when Rudolph got in touch with us? No No Is it not is it is a little bit amazing?

57:44

That I have such a Love for the people down there in South Africa even though that nation has serious problems the crime there is just There are certain there are no go zones there.

57:59

You just don't go there Uh That doesn't make me comfortable there are places we're driving back from Lanasia and We're slowing down this one spot and there's a sign along the side of the thick danger high high high danger of hijacking area

58:19

Whoo -hoo great So I need prayer just for safety in those situations, but there are believers there and I the

58:28

Lord's really giving me a real love for the church there and the people there and has put people in my life

58:34

Rudolph is is a is a Tremendous a brother in the faith. I could not do what

58:40

I'm doing without him pray for him and his ministry and his work as well Did I see this coming?

58:48

No, does it fit? Perfectly in the realm of the work. We've been doing for a long time sure does sure does

58:56

So the clock's ticking I'm signed up as full -time PhD student and the neat thing is

59:02

I'm also teaching there I'm involved with the staff. They use me they To teach about apologetics and history and and the whole nine yards

59:12

So I'm both, you know, next time I go back I was having I was having lunch with a fellow PhD student who's doing work on a

59:20

We'll wrap up here just in a second But who's doing work on a cult that is starting right there in South Africa right now you'd be like somebody doing a

59:27

PhD on Joseph Smith in 1834 and Remember remember Mormonism unveiled little blue book

59:35

Remember how important that was to give us an insight into what the early Mormonism was versus versus the the

59:42

That's what this guy's doing 34 or 35. Yes.

59:48

That's my best of our collection and And Here I am talking with this fellow student who's younger than I am and When I come back,

59:57

I'm gonna be helping him with some of the Trinity deity of Christ issues So, you know, this is the third doctrine.

01:00:05

I'm working on so I'm getting to help other people. It's If you can't tell

01:00:11

How excited I am I am very excited. I need some of you all to be excited too because This is one of the main ways that you can some people like how can we help?

01:00:24

There's there's two ways you can help I'm not smart enough to have people actually help me with the work

01:00:32

I I have to do all myself. So the reading Collation the manuscripts all that kind of stuff.

01:00:38

There's two areas Yeah, I know. I know is Edie how I remember Two areas that ministry resource list when

01:00:48

I throw up a Notification on Facebook Twitter if anybody sees it on Twitter on The website, however, we we end up doing it when

01:01:00

I put stuff up there and people Purchase it Just almost immediately tremendously encouraging thing tremendously encouraging thing and Obviously, this is an area where resources can be difficult to get hold of and when

01:01:20

I find a way to get it Really really helps really really helps in a big way secondly the travel fund the travel fund it's

01:01:34

Getting down there isn't cheap and Generally we do not sit me in an economy seat if they want if you want me to be lecturing for six hours the day

01:01:44

After I arrive and not going I've got to be able to get there in one piece and you'll notice here.

01:01:52

I'm sitting 40 hours in an airplane Not a sore throat. I'm not sick. Remember what happened in 2005 when

01:01:59

I first went overseas almost hospitalized There are only certain ways

01:02:04

I can do this and One of the things here is I want to be able to get down there

01:02:12

About every nine months or so, so I have looked at my schedule

01:02:19

My schedule for this year is already ridiculous Because we have the

01:02:25

Reformation tour in September I'm teaching in Wittenberg Somewhere in the

01:02:34

Czech Republic. I need to learn to say the name never been there before and in Kiev Next month.

01:02:42

Well, okay, not April May We've got the debate against Iglesia Ni Cristo in April Speaking a number of churches in Colorado in July two trips to Dallas in October Yeah, this year is already crazy and as I was looking at the schedule

01:03:09

The only way I was gonna get back be able to get back down there To South Africa meet with dr.

01:03:15

Jordan do more teaching for Podge Is to sneak a a trip in in August So I already preached the first two

01:03:28

Sundays in August in my church We need to Find a way the last two weeks

01:03:34

Which only gives me a couple of weeks before the Reformation thing

01:03:41

To get down to South Africa through London and we have the opportunity

01:03:50

To possibly do something with Peter D Williams in London We've got it.

01:03:56

In other words. I want to utilize these trips as opportunities to Continue doing the debates continue doing the things that we need to do along those lines

01:04:10

I've developed some tremendous relationships with the Muslims there in London and in the

01:04:16

UK and One of the issues that was brought up. I was talking with Zakir Hussain one of the things that was said to him is when you come to Birmingham and I'd like to try to work that out if that's possible to do

01:04:33

So that I'll If you want if you want to partner with us if you want to be a part of this that travel fund needs to be

01:04:44

Robust and well -funded To be able to make it possible To be able to do these things

01:04:51

To get to the places we need to go and to in other words even when I'm going down there the due to work to be able to do the extra work of Doing the debates

01:05:03

Presenting the gospel Even while doing this at the same time. That's that's the only way I can see how to do it

01:05:10

I See you have a microphone in front of you. So that must mean I Have to reach all you need to put that thing in your ear

01:05:15

Otherwise, it's not gonna do either one of us any good if I just tell folks you need to know how things work It's all wrapped up.

01:05:21

Okay. Oh, yeah, and for some reason I can't hear through the window today Yeah, well you need to you need to be able to hear this

01:05:27

Folks are some folks have noticed that we're closing the bookstore. Yes, but we're not really closing the bookstore we're moving it over to amazon .com

01:05:36

and what that's gonna do is help me be able to spend more time and energy working on the website in order to keep up with your ongoings and My ongoing the things going on with you like efforting on goings.

01:05:53

Yes, and that's right You're efforting your continual efforting you walked right into that just Thank you.

01:05:59

Anyway there will be punishment the the travel fund those those things we've been using the

01:06:07

Magento shopping cart for all those are gonna move over to a WordPress equivalent and the website that you see all that is being driven through WordPress and All the linking every bit of the presentation there.

01:06:21

That's all gonna be driven through WordPress so Magento is really what's going away and We're letting amazon .com

01:06:29

Fulfill the orders. I've already constructed a I think a good bookstore there and We'll let them take care of that.

01:06:37

Now. I say all that to go to the links themselves and we're gonna have Redirects, so if you've gone to store dot a omen org slash travel dot

01:06:48

HTML before and donated That's gonna work in the future that's gonna translate and move you right over to the new

01:06:57

Interface and it's gonna look pretty much the same as it did before and function the same as it did before There isn't to make it as easy as possible.

01:07:03

That is the idea now we have had Some folks, you know, you'll notice as you read the thing there our preference in donation is send us a check in fact the preference in donation is

01:07:16

Do online banking and have the bank send you it send us a check which is actually using their account number not yours

01:07:23

But don't let me get distracted here The we've had a few folks that have picked up on the need for the travel and they designate

01:07:32

They just put the word travel on the check somewhere like in the account number or whatever and that's a designated gift and that goes

01:07:38

Directly into the travel fund. So when I see those come in I put them directly into the travel account every dollar every dime and That helps but that account after this particular trip

01:07:52

Might have negative one or two dollars left in it. So we've got to rebuild it and one of the things that I'm trying to listen to folks is they're communicating with me as to how they want this to look and work

01:08:06

Some folks have said you need to set a goal Of how much you need to raise for that account to be where you want it to be and so You need to rewrite the pages and reflect that the whole nine yards

01:08:21

The bottom line is when folks donate to that travel fund. There are expenses that are in addition

01:08:29

To what the folks that bring you in are able to afford and South Africa is an impoverished nation

01:08:35

We can't we don't look to them folks to pay your way down there

01:08:42

We pay the freight We take care of that and that is a an expensive amount of money

01:08:50

But the point is we're in a sense. There's a mission going on there there that you know, the funny thing is

01:08:59

Rudolph has told me about how The word faith guys will come down there and we'll just absolutely abuse these people

01:09:07

I can guarantee you The numbers we're talking about are

01:09:13

Tiny in comparison To what those guys rip people off of down there.

01:09:18

It's a sick and saddening saddening thing. But anyway, so yes the link is still there and eventually they'll have a different look to it and and things like that, so But that's what you can you can do to to help is the ministry resource list

01:09:34

Obviously, we need to keep the lights on I can't do this if I'm having to go find a job So the general fund is just as important but specifically the travel and We will always be trying to make sure that even when

01:09:50

I'm traveling for this that we take advantage the opportunities of doing other things as well that will will present the gospel and Will be helpful and encouraging especially to the people where we're going into a particular area

01:10:05

And that's that's what we've been doing for a long long time. So All of that to say that Wednesday I got to spend an hour and 45 minutes with dr.

01:10:16

You're done Sort of in textual critical geek nirvana

01:10:24

It did not seem like an hour and 45 minutes but when you're when you're in conversation with someone like that and you're you're talking about but What about this has anyone thought about this what if we what if this turns out to be the case?

01:10:40

Ah, it was just I was just too much fun. And oh, by the way, look at this

01:10:47

Real quick here. I happen to have Let me throw this over to you Where'd it go

01:10:59

Oh, I really don't like what has happened with this thing anymore I don't know what happened, but it everything changed and There it is

01:11:11

You got that? There she is folks It's stretched out a bit.

01:11:17

That's that's actually it's much taller than that. It's sort of getting getting stretched.

01:11:23

But there's my baby there's p45 and I'm pretty certainly look at this.

01:11:28

Yeah, this is the John 10 section. So this is a section I'm preaching right now and You can actually see a textual variant, right?

01:11:38

there you can see some written in there and There's a gnomon a sacred around here someplace and so on so forth.

01:11:46

So there's there's p45 now. That's actually a very large Section most of the fragments are much smaller than that but it gives you an idea of the work and Pray for my eyesight.

01:12:04

I'm getting more floaters as I get older Yeah, I'm glad there's a high -quality verse that's up in I We need to find someone up in Dublin Which some of the

01:12:16

Irish should like to have me come back Because it's it's up in Dublin and I'd like to go see it so If you ever visit the

01:12:26

Chester Beatty library, please make sure to take an opportunity to see port p45 The what what what of it is being displayed there?

01:12:34

It'll be it'll be exciting for you. Thanks exciting for me. Anyways, so say go that's what's going on And that's why

01:12:41

I skipped over that section to let all of you know Help to explain why you might be seeing some of the things you'll be seeing on the program, but just even if you can't give just pray that I will have the focus to be able to do what

01:12:57

I need to do and keep doing the dividing line and the debates and The preaching and everything else it's it's not like I sit around twiddling my thumbs a lot

01:13:08

I really don't but now I have zero twiddling time whatsoever but I Appreciate your your prayers to support and like I said next up next dividing line whenever that is.

01:13:22

We'll let you know We'll catch up with some of the stuff that we were going to be talking about Today and it'll be interesting and useful.