Think like a Christian with Eddie Roman

Creation Fellowship

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see. All right. Well, first of all,

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I'm going to open up in prayer. So everyone can join me. Lord God, thank you for this time as we dive into your word, and really get the foundation of what it is to be a

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Christian and what you expect from us as we walk in the path of righteousness, Lord. We love you.

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And I thank you for this time. I pray you'd be with our speaker, Eddie, and that you would use him mightily.

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And that everyone who attends would be blessed by this message and use it to equip themselves and others.

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And we thank you so much, Lord, in Jesus name. Amen. So I am Stacey Gaona with Throughout All Ages.

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Actually, recently, I have became the founder of Throughout All Ages, the

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CEO, and God just opened those doors wide open. So what

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I do, what we do is go into the public high schools and build up the students character to intellectually think about their worldview, and weigh it with truth.

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And if you want to learn more about Throughout All Ages 1530 apologetics, you can go to my website at throughout all ages .com.

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During this time of the presentation, I just want to let you know, at the end, feel free to turn on your cameras, and you can participate when q &a is going to begin.

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So first of all, I'm excited to introduce my speaker. And his name is

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Eddie Roman. He is a Christian evangelist, teacher and encourages believers to share their faith.

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He is a speaker and a team leader at Living Waters Ambassadors Academy. The evangelist is evangelism training seminar led by Ray Comfort.

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Eddie has a book called Search and Rescue. It has been used by churches and individuals who desire to be used by the

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Lord in evangelism. Eddie is the producer and director of the

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Way of the Master television program and host by Ray Comfort.

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And Eddie has created has been a creator of programs, and many

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Christian ministries, including the Billy Graham Association, Samaritan's Purse, and Harvest Crusades with Greg Laurie.

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During his time as a missionary, he was a photographer, video autographer, and Eddie worked in Sudan, Indonesia, Burma, Pakistan, and many other third world countries.

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Eddie lives in Marietta, California with his family. And tonight's message is evangelism can be difficult, but these apologetic principles will help you reach the loss.

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And tonight's message or title is Think Like a Christian.

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And I am super excited to announce not just our guest speaker, but a good friend,

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Eddie Roman. Go ahead, Eddie. Thank you so much. Boy, that was a lot of information.

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Sorry, I gave you so much information about me. Well, tonight, we're going to be talking about apologetics, specifically, how are we to think and act when we are engaging unbelievers?

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You know, I understand this fellowship has been around for a long time, you know, thinking and learning about the subject of biblical creationism, very important topic.

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And I would guess that a lot of people in this fellowship know quite a bit about how to answer questions, how to, you know, engage with atheists about all the different issues that come up.

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But even before we get to answering questions, it's really important that we as Christians just understand how to think.

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I have the great opportunity of leading my church's evangelism squad, and we go out at least once a week, and just talk to unbelievers.

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And in that environment, it's very easy to, you know, enjoy the debate itself.

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And I've met a lot of guys over the years who street preach and evangelize and do apologetics. And if we're not careful, it's possible for us to, you know, do these things in a way that just isn't

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Christ like at all. You know, I've seen evangelists and apologists, when the argument but, but lose their testimony in so many different ways.

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And so tonight, what we're going to look at is just some, some things to keep in mind, as we're engaging in these things.

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So I'm going to share my screen with you got a little PowerPoint presentation. I'm gonna

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I'm gonna present here. So let me see if I can get back into my zoom mindset.

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Alright, so we're going to be looking at apologetics. So the gospel is good news.

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If you're a Christian, you know that. But unfortunately, for a lot of the people we talked to, it's not so good news.

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As a matter of fact, if you witness to people, if you do apologetics for any length of time, you're going to run into people who not only don't like what you have to say, but they don't like you just for bringing these things up.

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So tonight, we're going to look at how are we to deal with in being rejected.

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And just in thinking through the the objections and things that come our way.

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You know, the word apologia. It just means speech in defense, we're defending what is what it is we believe in.

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The word comes out of First Peter 315, which says sanctify sanctified Christ is

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Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asked you to give an account for the hope that is in you.

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And with apologetics, so often, ministries and apologists, they focus on that first part, they know the be ready to give an answer part really good.

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And yet a lot of times, we forget about the very last part of that verse, which says, yet with gentleness and reverence.

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And we need to remember that that is so important. It's not just being able to answer questions. It's the way we answer questions, as well.

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You know, first First Peter 315 is just so important, not only in in the

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Lord's command to us to be ready. And it's great that we study these things. But we also need to keep in mind the manner in which in Howard to represent our

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Lord. Alright, so when you think about defense, defending the faith, the faith, you know, think about a castle.

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And when when there's a battle going on a cancel, you cancel, you see these old movies, and you think of like, fiery arrows coming to this castle.

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And what happens, you know, they bounce off the castle. And then what do the people in the castle do?

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Well, they fire back, you know, so when we when we think of a war, a spiritual war, a lot of us tend to have that same mindset where people, atheists, whoever skeptics, they fire at us, and we're just going to fire right back.

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And that's, that's the flesh. That's a natural reaction. But But again, that's, that's not the way that's not what we see

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Jesus doing. You know, Jesus didn't fire back, he, he was humble, he lived in humility.

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And, and we just need to look at what the scriptures have to say about how we're to act.

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So what are we defending against? We're defending against false religion, unbiblical tradition, you know, you think about so I was raised a

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Catholic, and in Catholicism, and even specific

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Christian groups, Christian churches, there's a whole lot of unbiblical tradition.

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And we can, you know, that can be someone's argument against us, we defend against cultural norms.

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And now more than ever, we are seeing the separation between Christians and non

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Christians in many different ways, you know, it's just becoming more normalized, that Christianity is less and less normal in this culture.

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So that's something we're defending against. We're defending against political ideas, you know, and without turning this study into a whole nother subject, we all know that politics is at the forefront, right now of so many people's minds.

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And there's times when we're defending against that, because it comes against our Christian way of thinking, we defend against haters of God, you know, some people just straight out hate

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God, and when they see you as someone who loves God, well, then you become the target. So we were defending against this as well.

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And then we're also defending against demonic influence. And this is really important to remember, so often, we can read a book on how to answer the creationist questions, we can read a book on how to deal with Mormons, or you know, any group, and we get into this intellectual mindset to where we just know all the answers.

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And we become dependent on our intellect rather than realizing there are demons out there, and they are real.

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And this is a big part of the issue here. So we need to remember, remember all these different things.

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Attacks come in the form of questions about our faith, you really believe that stuff, assertions, and boy, this is a big one, especially when you're dealing with skeptics, an assertion is basically a truth claim a statement with nothing to back up, to back it up.

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And so many people just believe what they believe. And they tell you, you know, you know what, the

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Bible just isn't real. Everybody knows this, you know, that kind of thing. And in their mind, they just believe that as a fact.

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And yet, it's, it's, they have no, nothing, no evidence, no worldview to back it up.

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They just say these things. That's just an assertion. And I would say this is actually the majority of the kind of attack that we get just, you know, this is how it is kind of thing.

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Attacks come in pressure to follow the world. They come in ridicule and mocking perfect pressure to conform politically and boy, again, we're seeing quite a bit of that lately.

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And also pressure to remain silent. And I think that's, that's actually probably the big one right there.

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Just remain silent. Yeah, you can be a Christian on Sunday, you can you can do whatever you want, you know, in your private time.

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But when you come to work, when you come to school, you need to keep your faith to yourself. I actually have a young woman on my evangelism team who recently lost her job.

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Because in you know, behind the scenes, another employee asked her, what do you what do you think about women pastors, and this young lady told her what the

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Bible had to say about it. This other employee got upset, told the boss and within a week, she was fired.

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Well, and what was the reason for past for harassing another employee, the one that asked her a question, and she just answer, you know, so, so the pressure there is just to remain silent, if she would have just kept her mouth shut, no problem at all.

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And yet, in her conviction, fiction, she just answered the question, she told the truth.

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And so that's the pressure. And, and, and, you know, a little bit about myself,

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I spent the majority of my Christian life, not saying anything, because I was afraid

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I had the fear of man, and women going on, and I just didn't want to rock the boat kind of thing.

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And so that's a very big pressure, you know, and it's something that we need to just trust the

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Lord and be able to get over. Okay. Now, one of the things that's really important, and we're talking about thinking like a

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Christian here, is just to look at God's description of the loss, you know, now we see people on TV, we see atheist skeptics, you know, whatever, these people who oppose the faith, you know, this is a six day creation fellowship.

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So we see these evolutionists or whatever it is that that, you know, crawls under your skin.

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In this, this era of the, you know, whatever you want to call it that the

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COVID days, there's a lot that can get under our skin right now, you know, our patients level is being tested constantly.

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And so we can see these people we see as enemies of the faith. And there can be a fear there, there can be an anger there, there can be just a lot of angst against what we perceive is the enemy.

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And our description of the lost might include words like scary, or, you know, hateful or whatever.

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And this can be one of the reasons we keep silent, we just don't want to get into it. Because as far as we're concerned, you know, that that person is too much for us to deal with, they're too smart, they're too forceful, they're too whatever.

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But you know what God has to say about these people who so often we just put on this pedestal of fear, or, or, or this, you know, we see these people as like, we could never win an argument or talk to this person.

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And yet God sees something totally different. You know, when

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God looks at unbelievers, he sees children of wrath, he sees children of wrath, he doesn't necessarily see this great, smart, intellectual person.

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He sees children of wrath, you know, Ephesians two, one to three describes every human being before they become a

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Christian. So if you're a Christian, this describes you as well, before you were a Christian, it says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formally walked according to the course of this world, according to the

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Prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we to all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and whereby nature children of wrath, even as the rest, this is important to remember, that not only are the people that are coming against us, like we used to be, but one of the traps we can fall into is

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Christians, we see unbelievers as victims, or, oh, these poor, these poor unbelievers, if they only knew this one thing, if they only knew this fact, if they only knew this, this argument, then they would come to their senses and be saved.

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And there is a lot of coming to their senses that is involved, but it's not like they're innocent.

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And that's the important thing to remember here. It's not like unbelievers are neutral. And they just need to know something.

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No, God looks at them and says, they're children of wrath, even the nicest skeptic, the nicest atheist you will ever meet from God's perspective.

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That's a child of wrath. You know, you meet you meet skeptics, sometimes they say, you know what, that Christianity stuff, that's good for you.

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You know, and they'll say, Oh, so and so he was in jail. And now he's a that's good for him.

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You know, like, like, as if they need it. And I don't Why? Well, because I'm smarter than them.

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Or I would never be so dumb as to do what they did. Or but God says, No, you're not smart.

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You're not innocent. You're not neutral. You're a child of wrath. This is this is important to remember the the opponent of God is not neutral.

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God also says that unbelievers are blind. Second Corinthians four, three, three and four.

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And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

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You think of all the scientists who just reject

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God, you think of the people, the atheists who have made a name for themselves, they sell books, they, you know, speak publicly, and they give all this, this intellectual, so called knowledge, to just show their position.

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And they consider themselves being really smart. And God looks at them and says, you're blind.

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That's what you are. You're blind. And so we shouldn't fear the knowledge of an unbeliever.

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We just need to think of them think as a Christian from God's point of view, and what

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God says about them, you know, they're not as smart as you think they are, they might be smart, but intellect, intellectual capacity is very different than morality, you can be very smart, you can you can be, you know, college professor, and still be evil, and still be an enemy of God and still not come to the right conclusions with all that information.

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Why? Because the person is blind, it's important to remember. Another thing that God says about unbelievers is that they're held captive, right?

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People call themselves free thinkers, I'm so free. I talked to a woman the other night who she's in the new age, and she's living in a van, and she's just driving around, she has no more responsibility.

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She escaped the stronghold of her religious religious parents, according to her, and she's free.

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And God says, No, you're held captive. Second, Timothy to 2426. The Lord's bond servant, that's us must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all able to teach patient when wronged with gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition.

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Why do we need to do that? Here's why, if perhaps God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, haven't been having been held captive by him to do his will.

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unbelievers are held captive by the devil. It's not just an intellectual issue.

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It's not that they're, they're free, somehow, they're being held captive, right?

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And the reason we're kind, the reason we walk in the spirit, the reason we think and act according to God's word, is simply because God knows best about how to reach people.

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We walk in the spirit, you know, we don't just plot and scheme and try to figure out,

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Oh, if I could say this to this person, you know, communication is important. But even more important, is doing things

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God's way, praying and reaching out to people since sincerely in love, not seeing people is just a bad enemy, but realizing these people are held captive.

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So as we're as we're thinking through these things, it's good to have a little strategy, you know, we need to think about what is it?

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How is it? How are we to think? And how are we to act? You know, what is it we're supposed to be thinking about here?

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It's just a good thing to keep in mind how to think first of all, we're just going to believe the

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Bible. I mean, it really is as simple as that, you know, we're going to believe the

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Bible. So so let's, let's look at, you know, what that might look like. So how to think

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Colossians 289. This is this is directly talking about the

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Christian way of thinking, I believe, specifically when it comes to dealing with unbelievers, it says, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy, and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ, for in him, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.

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And in him, you have been made complete. And he is the head over all rule and authority.

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This is so important. It says, see to it. In other words, this is something you need to do.

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This, this is your responsibility, you need to see to it. I talked to people once in a while who, you know, say,

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Well, I used to go to church. But then I got into Mormonism, I used to go to church, and now

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I'm a Catholic, or, you know, I used to be a six day creationist. But now I believe in evolution.

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And how does that happen? Well, one of the reasons is because those people did not see to it, they did not guard their thinking, they did not arm themselves with a biblical way of thinking about biblical worldview, you know, see to it, those people have been taken, taken captive by the enemy, because they didn't guard their own thinking, you know, we need to see to it, this is something that we need to do.

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And I just want to commend you all who, who've been studying the scriptures and studying, you know, the differences between the creation way of thinking and the evolution way of thinking, all these things, evolution is just simply another way that the enemy has taken people captive through empty deception.

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It's a philosophy, like, this verse describes evolution, it's a philosophy, it's empty deception, it's according to the tradition of man, it has it has nothing to do with the scriptures, we need to see to it, we need to, we need to guard our minds, when it comes to the way we think, this is how to think.

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Another really important issue, again, it's just the issue of spiritual warfare. You know, there's a lot of things that we can look at and just kind of get, get scared, you know,

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Islam, I remember a few years back, I don't know, five, 10 years back, there was so much stuff in the news constantly about people being executed, you know, when the war was going on, and ISIS and all that.

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It's like, never before did we see CNN news coverage of a bunch of guys getting their heads chopped off, because they were

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Christians, and the Muslims were chopping their heads off. Now, I understand that not all Muslims do that.

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And I'm thankful, because there's some live in my neighborhood. But the reality is that happens, you know, and so when we see that stuff on the news, we hear about it, we can become fearful of Islam, or, you know, take your pick.

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There's like, there's all kinds of religious out religions out there that tend to be militant in the way they do things.

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We can, we can, we can just hide in fear of what could possibly happen.

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And yet, Ephesians six, 10, and 12, tells us how we're to think concerning these things.

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Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his mind. Now, that first verse, if you just do that, if you just do that, that is going to solve so many of our issues.

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Be strong. In our intellect, no, in our stack of creation books, no, in my apologetic know how, no, be strong in the

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Lord. Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Now that that's the issue evangelism, apologetics, these things are an act of faith.

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We do these by faith. We're saved by faith, we live by faith, we walk by faith, we evangelize, we speak to people, we reason with people by faith.

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Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

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For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places,

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Ephesians six. This is such a well known verse. You know, it's one we hear in church pretty regularly.

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And yeah, we're talking to someone and we just forget it. We forget that there's a spiritual war going on here.

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And we resort to, how do I answer this? And what do I know? You know, so often when

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I'm on the street and I'm talking to someone, what I try to do, I don't do this all the time, but what I try to do when

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I'm approaching someone to talk to them, and this would be the same with friends, family, someone at school.

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When I know I'm about to talk to this person about spiritual things, I just pray.

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And my prayer is usually something like, God, I have no idea what this person's about to say.

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I have no idea how smart they are. I have no idea what they know, but by faith,

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I'm going to explain the gospel to them because that's what you want me to do. And this person needs you.

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Something simple like that. I just pray that, you know, it can be intimidating talking to someone who you don't know.

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And that's part of the fear, right? Just fear of the unknown. We don't know what's going to happen.

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And so we're hesitant. And yet, entering into it, knowing that it's a spiritual war that Jesus Christ has already won, by the way, right?

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He just has us here, and we're doing stuff in the interim between now and glory.

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But it can be intimidating unless we're trusting in the

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Lord and the power of His might. We need to remember to do that. Okay? We need to remember to do that.

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Another way to think, very important. Think like a Christian. It's to take every thought captive.

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This is something that we need to purposely just think about. When these objections come in, when someone says something that just, you don't understand.

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I've never been asked that before. What is that? How do I answer that? You know, it seems like every other week, there's some new article coming out in National Geographic, you know, scientists discover this rock, and that proves evolution, you know,

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I don't know anything about that rock. I've never heard about that before. What about this rock? You know, and it's like, you can be overrun with these things.

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If you don't take every thought captive. It says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

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We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

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And here's a very simple way that that can look like, you know, let's say you're a college student, and you're sitting in your class.

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And my wife, when she was in college, she actually heard a professor say, you know what

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Christians will tell you, in Romans chapter one, that the Bible says that everybody knows that God exists.

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And yet, we all know that's not true. And so I just want to tell you right now, if there's any

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Christians in this class, don't even try to to bring it up in this class, because it's not going to go well for you.

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First day of class. How's that? And, and so if my wife didn't have the mindset of basically, you know, as simple as whatever, you know,

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I could see where a lot of people could get really tangled up in that, and be fearful, you know, we need to take every thought captive, not let our mind wander into into all these places, where it really doesn't need to go knowing that Jesus Christ rules and reigns from heaven sits on the throne.

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And he's not ignorant of all the evil that mankind does, you know, we need to take everything thought captive against everything raised against the knowledge of God.

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And so even just just hearing an objective hearing a question that you don't know the answer to.

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And instead of allowing it to take your thoughts away and all these different places, just simply saying, you know what,

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I don't understand what that means. But I do know this. God's Word is true.

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God is in control. And that's all that matters. I don't need to know everything.

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But I do know this. God is in control. And God knows the answer to that question or that objection, he might not have given it to me yet.

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But you know, he knows it's not a surprise to him, we need to take every thought captive.

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Okay, so that's, that's just some different ways of how we're to think even before anything comes out of our mouth.

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Just thinking this way, just having the filter of God's Word over your mind. As he starts coming in, it's so important.

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That's how to think. But now how about how to act? You know, it is very easy to get angry.

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When you're talking to skeptics who are just saying the most ridiculous things, it's very easy to allow yourself to just get in the flesh.

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So how are we to act when we engage people? Well, again, we're to follow the

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Bible. You know, Colossians four, five, and six, it directly addresses how we're to act how we're to conduct ourselves.

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It says conduct yourselves with wisdom towards outsiders, unbelievers, making the most of the opportunity.

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Let your speech always be with grace as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

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So, you know, there is a difference between what you say, and how you say it.

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And this is so important. There could be something that is absolutely true. And yet, if it's said in a way, that's mean or angry, or just distasteful, that that's that's going to ruin the message.

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You know, it really is. I mean, every once in a while, you'll see these, these guys holding up big signs, and they'll say something just obscene.

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And they're supposedly a Christian, it'll say, God hates and then derogatory word for a homosexual, sexual right here at the bottom,

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God hates this word that I didn't want to say. And they're holding up a sign. And they somehow think that that's like a good, a good way to witness.

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That person is not conducting themselves with wisdom, that is not wise to do that.

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It's just not, you know, it's okay, for you as a

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Christian to be repelled against the way that other Christians sometimes act, when you see that it's unbiblical, like that's just unbiblical.

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You know, I have one person who sends me text messages once in a while, unfortunately, he got he got my number, and he's a

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Christian. And he kind of picks apart and criticizes everything that I do, that don't line up with his exact doctrinal statements.

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But he just blasts me like he sends all caps. And he knows that that means yelling in text messages, you know, and so what he's saying, sometimes it's actually biblical, you know, but if he was giving it to me in a way where he's being gracious, or at the least using lowercase texting,

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I might actually listen to it. But since he's not conducting himself in a

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Christian way, I don't even pay attention to it. And I would say most people respond the same way we need to conduct ourselves with wisdom.

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We need to be wise, we need to make the most of opportunities, we need to speak with grace. That's the issue.

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We need to be representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ, not just knowing the truth, but displaying it and how we act as well.

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Back to Second Timothy 224, a little reminder about how to act.

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It says the Lord's bond servant must not be quarrelsome. Don't argue. Okay, there's a difference between talking, communicating, presenting evidence and arguing.

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And I think all of us, we know where the line is, like we know when we're no longer being effective, we're no longer communicating in a gracious way, and now we're just like, yes, yes, it's true.

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No, I'm right, you're wrong. You know, we understand that. We don't need to do that. The Lord's bond servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, except for the atheist.

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No, it doesn't say that. We're supposed to be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged.

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Man, so I have the opportunity of working with Ray Comfort, and I've gotten to know him over the years and, you know, kind of seeing how he is when the cameras aren't on and when people aren't around.

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And I've learned so much from that man in the area of just being kind to people.

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You know, some of you might have seen the videos of him open air preaching, and he's standing up on a box in Huntington Beach, and there's just, you know, people cussing at him and people belittling him and just saying all kinds of rude stuff.

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And, you know, he's up there preaching, and he does an amazing job of answering people in situations like that.

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But something that you don't see is after the cameras are turned off and, you know, the crowd is gone.

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You don't see Ray approaching this atheist who he just had this debate with, maybe a homeless guy, maybe just a really upset guy, and saying, hey, man, you know, just wanted you to know that I care about you.

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And, you know, there's been many times, Ray would probably hate me saying this, but I don't care because he's not here.

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There's been times when Ray has bought people's shoes, like homeless guy who just ragged on Ray forever, just screamed at him.

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And afterwards, Ray goes up and says, hey, I noticed you don't have any shoes on. Can I buy you some? They go across the store to the surf shop, most expensive place to buy anything.

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And Ray just says, pick some shoes. And the guy does, and Ray pays for them. Like that's being kind to all.

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That's loving your enemies. And man, I pray that I can just have a mindset of being like that all the time.

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It's amazing. And yet, that's Jesus Christ right there. Jesus Christ.

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He loved his enemies. That's what he did. You know, the Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome.

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He must be kind to all able to teach patient when wrong. This is so important. Don't look at your opponent.

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If you're arguing, debating with a skeptic, don't look at your opponent as the enemy, all bad.

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Look at them with compassion, understanding that after this debate is over, after your time with them is over, let's say you have a relative who you just can't stand because they're constantly mocking you.

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Understand that after your five years or 10 years or 60 years of living with this person and over, it's heaven or hell, right?

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And whatever discomfort they're bringing you now, um, in reality, the

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Bible says life is like a vapor. It's going to be over just like that. And it's heaven or hell.

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And so don't look at this person as, you know, just someone that you need to just get off your back, but look at them with compassion.

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They are in peril. They don't know it, but they are in peril.

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We need to be kind. We need to be patient when dealing with unbelievers. I'm going to get a drink real quick here.

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Alright, with all that in mind, we're going to look at specifically atheism.

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All these principles can apply to any different belief system, but we're just going to take a little time to look at some specific atheist beliefs.

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And I'm talking about beliefs about themselves in general. This is what I've seen in talking to atheists.

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And when I say atheists, I'm usually talking about someone who is actively spreading their faith.

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They do have faith. They do have beliefs. They're, you know, people who are actively reading books, and they're into this.

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They like being an atheist, and they're kind of active about it, you know.

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And of course, it's just a generalization. Not all atheists are like this, but in general, this is kind of what

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I've seen. Atheists, many atheists, when they think of themselves, who they are, they see themselves as being independent, as free thinkers, as reasonable.

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They're the ones that are reasonable. You know, they're not like you dumb, dumb Christian person believing in this book of fairy tales.

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That's that's what they think about themselves. They're reasonable. They're logical. And they're just in general, more intelligent than those religious folks.

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That's what atheists in general, believe about themselves. But what does God say about atheists, you know, we already looked at this a little bit, but the reality is this.

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And again, when I say the atheist reality, this is what I mean. God's Word is what's real.

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Okay? If you're a Christian, God's Word is what's real.

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And that's why I titled this message, Think Like a Christian. Like, this is just the fact, right?

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God's Word is what's real. The reality is, concerning atheists, is that they're not free thinkers, they are held captive, they're not independent, they are slaves of sin.

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They are not reasonable, they need reason. They are need a reason, you know, come let us reason together,

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Isaiah 118 says, that your sins be as scarlet, I'll make you white as snow, they need to be reasoned with.

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According to the Bible, Psalm 14, one. Atheism is foolish.

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Okay, it's foolish. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Right?

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And so often, atheists see themselves as the intelligent one. Oh, I read this book by Richard Hitchens.

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And I know more than you do. I'm smart, right? That's, that's kind of what the, but the reality is no.

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A person who actively, or even inactively is saying there is no

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God, that person is a fool, no matter how nice they are, no matter how mean they are. They're, they're foolish.

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There's a difference between intelligence and wisdom, you can be very, very smart, you can have a whole lot of stuff up here, a whole lot of facts.

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What you do with those facts determines whether you are wise or unwise. Okay? The smartest, the smartest person in the if they are not using that intelligence, in the way that God has told us to, they're not using it for what

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God has given us to use it for. That's a fool. According to Psalm 14, one, they're unable to understand the things of God, they're, they're, they're, they're blind, they don't have the

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Spirit. Second Corinthians, 214. All right. And so, again, we need to balance this, this is, this is the truth.

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And yet, we are to approach the atheists or our opponent, whoever it is, in a gracious way.

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Right? We can't, we can't let all these, these facts drop, you know, come to the conclusion.

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So then I'm going to be bad to them, I'm going to be mean to them, you know, that that's not Christianity, we need to think like a

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Christian. According to Romans chapter one, atheists are suppressing the truth.

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You know, this, this verse is so important to keep in mind for any kind of apologetical dialogue.

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It says, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident with them, for God has made it evident to them.

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For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what is been made, so that they are without excuse.

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On the day of judgment, no one is going to be able to look at God and say, you know what?

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I just didn't know. You know what? I didn't, I didn't know that there was a

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God. They are going to be without excuse. According to this verse, every person in the world understands that there is a creator, and they understand that he is powerful, and they understand, you know, some, some general things about who he is, you know,

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Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God. And it goes out to to everyone.

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People understand this. And so when a person is telling you,

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I don't believe in God, one thing, one way that you need to just keep in the back of your head is just realize this person is blind.

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This person is suppressing the truth. It's like they're holding it down. They have no reason to not believe in God.

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You know, it is like Ray Comfort says that they're like a criminal who can't find a police officer.

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Why is that? Well, it's because they're not looking for him. As a matter of fact, they're hiding from him. They're hiding behind their so -called science or hiding behind their so -called reasons.

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They're suppressing the truth. And it's so important to remember, you know, they're not innocent.

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So how should you answer the assertions of an atheist knowing all this? Well, Proverbs 24, 26, four and five.

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Speaking of the fool, it says, do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will also be like him answer a fool as his folly deserves that he will that he not be wise in his own eyes.

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If you, if you see this verse and it's, it could be kind of confusing sometimes and in different, um, you know, different Bible versions, but it's, it's, it's pretty simple.

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It's basically saying you're not going to get anywhere with the fool. You know, when, when, when a fool says to you, well, you need to prove to me that God exists.

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Let me, let me show, show me how you do that. Okay. I'm not going to answer that. Why? Because I understand according to Romans chapter one, this person already understands that God exists.

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They're just suppressing it. Um, you know, cause cause what normally happens while I give them the evidence and they go, okay, well, what about this?

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And they go over here and Oh, what about this? And they just keep shifting. Um, and if that's the kind of person you're dealing with, this is telling you how to deal with them.

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You don't answer him according to his foolishness, according to his fault quality, according to his light of thinking.

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Cause if not, you're, you're going to be just like him. What's that a fool wrapped up in this dumb argument going on forever.

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You answer a fool as his folly deserves. And what does that look like?

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Well, very quick, very quickly. Um, back, back to strategy. We're going to believe in God.

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We're not going to believe this person. We're not going to answer him according to his foolishness. You know what?

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One of the classic questions is if God's so powerful, could he make a rock so big that he couldn't even lift up?

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That's a foolish question. And the way I usually answer that as well,

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God's not stupid. He doesn't do stupid things. So he wouldn't do that. Okay. I'm not going to answer the fool according to his, his, his little folly here.

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Um, or I'm not even going to answer the question at all. Cause after you answer that, he's going to move on to something else. I'm going to deal with his presuppositions, his, his worldview.

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And I know in this group, this that's, that's a word that is talked about a lot world worldview, just the way a person views the world.

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Um, I'm going to speak the truth in love. Again, this, this way of thinking, it can lead a

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Christian to just be very sharp and very quick and very mean. And you don't want to do that. You want to, you walk in the spirit, um, speak the truth in love, but we're going to, we're going to get to the gospel.

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Right. Um, and so just really quickly, I just got a few minutes left here. Um, we're going to, we're going to look at how

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I would answer a fool in, in one specific situation. Um, relativism, relativism is the philosophical position that all points of view are equally valid.

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In other words, everything's true. That's your truth. This is my truth. And in general, not always, but in general, atheists are relativists.

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They basically say, well, what's true for you is true for you. What's true for me is true for me. Why is that?

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Well, because if there is no absolute standard of right and wrong, if there is no

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God who, who has, has made the 10 commandments and all the other examples of, of truth and, and good and bad, if, if, if that standard does not exist, well, then we get to make up our own truth.

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And what's good for me is good for me. And, and, and, um, God basically is what they're saying.

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Right. And so, and so if they're thinking like that, they're going to put certain assertions on you, you know, some very common ones you'll hear is, uh, the claim that there is no truth, you know, or you can't know anything for sure, or you shouldn't judge what's true for you is, is, is not true for me.

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And nobody's right. So these are just common things that skeptics say. Um, and when they say these things, we need to answer them according to their own foolishness.

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These, these, these are our foolish statements. Okay. And they kind of destroy themselves.

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For instance, there is no truth. How would you answer that? Someone says to you, there is no truth.

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Well, the way I answer it is, is that true? Is it true that there is no truth?

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Because if it is true that there is no truth, well, then there is truth. And, and, you know, usually, usually basically showing them their own folly, answering, answering the cool as his folly deserves.

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It kind of shows them that their, their way of thinking is, is ridiculous.

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Another thing they'll say is you can't know anything for sure. And we can ask them, do you know that for sure?

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Are you sure about that? You can't know anything for sure. It destroys itself. You shouldn't judge.

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Well, is that your, is that your judgment that no one should judge? Are you judging me? You think

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I'm judging someone? No, you shouldn't judge. And then what's true for you is not true for me.

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Was that true? Is it, is it, is, is that true? Because that's not true for me, you know, and then nobody's right.

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Is that right? Because if that's right, then you're right. And you're somebody. So, so, so again, these, these are just common examples of answering a according to his folly.

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Let's see. I am going to rush through some of these slides here because they,

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I went very long. And so the goal is the gospel. The goal is the gospel in our apologetics and every, in everything we do in our answering people and, and, and striving with people.

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That's the goal. We need to always keep that in mind, you know, and once we answer the question, once we show a person that is thinking just doesn't make sense, we can't leave them there.

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We can't just be happy that we've had the victory and we've proven that the Bible is true.

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No, we need to graciously walk alongside this person and present the gospel to them.

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That's what we, we need to do. We are going to open up for a little question and answer in a minute.

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Just wanted to let you know, if you wanted to see the rest of my presentation that we skipped through, just kidding. So, so I wrote, wrote a book a while.

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It's, it, it's a mix of evangelism and apologetics. And I wrote it in a very down to earth kind of way that even a dummy like me could understand.

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And so if you wanted to check that out, you can go to the living waters bookstore, livingwaters .com. If you'd like it on Kindle, if you're an ebook reader, you can get it on Amazon as, as well.

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So I am now going to end this PowerPoint presentation.

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Thank you, Eddie. That was great. And you really didn't have to hurry through that.

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It was so good. You could have gone a little bit longer. I probably should have, you know, 45 minutes, 50 minutes, two hours.

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It's all the same. Okay. Well, I think I got the gist of it. No, that was very good.

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Stacey, did you notice, did we have any questions? Stacey?

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Oh, sorry about that. Yeah, I actually have a question.

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First of all, I did see one. And if you guys want to open your cameras, you can now and join in.

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Someone needs help with theistic evolutionists. And is Hope still in here?

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Yeah, Hope, why don't you take off your mic and go ahead and ask? Are you going?

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Stacey, were there any questions in live stream? Because I've been? Yes, that's where I'm looking right now.

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Okay. All right. In the

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Facebook live stream? Oh, Facebook live stream. That's what you're asking. Okay, did you want to?

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I wanted? Okay, let me look. I'll check that out. And I do have one question.

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While I'm looking on live stream. Eddie, there's a lot of Christians out there that are too scared to witness.

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How could you encourage them to take those baby steps in doing so?

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Because it's the way when we read the scriptures, it says go into all the world.

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So how do you encourage? How would you encourage someone say, hey, you know, God did command us to do this.

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And here are some easy tools that you can maybe start out with passing out a track.

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I'm going from there. Yeah, that's a great question. Very common question. Like I said, it's something

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I dealt with for years. And it really just comes down to a

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Christian admitting that you struggle with the fear of man. That's what it is.

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You know, we don't like to be the odd person out at work or at school, or with our family.

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And yet we are commanded to go. So I think that the important thing to do is, is first of all, just to pray and just admit to the

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Lord that you're just afraid and you know the right thing to do, but you're just afraid and just to ask him to help you to deal with your fear.

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You know, in Joshua chapter one, Joshua is about to go out to battle and he's afraid and the

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Lord speaks to him and he says, do not be afraid or dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

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And boy, if we can just remember that simple Sunday school fact that God is with us wherever we go, when we're going to our relatives house and we're about to share the gospel with them, wherever it is, we just need to believe that again, this, this is how we're to think like a

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Christian is we just believe the Bible. God is with us. He will never forsake us.

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And he's given us a great commission and he wants us to be a part of that. So I don't believe that fear is, is, is a good excuse for us to exclude ourselves from the great commission.

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So, so really comes down to before any kind of handing out a tract or anything, it's really dealing with our own fear.

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And then once we're honest about that, um, that then, you know, I would say, go to livingwaters .com.

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Just, just start watching videos. There's, there's so many great tips and things there, but handing out a gospel tract.

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So, so one thing I do at my church is I lead an evangelism outreach at least once a week, and maybe you can find a group near you, but, but it's, it's, it's a great thing to be able to go out with the other, with a group of people who are evangelizing and just go and watch, you know, when, when people at my church want to come out for the first time,

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I'll tell them, you know what you can just observe, you don't have to say anything. You just come and stand right next to me and just listen.

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Right. And if they start hitting me, just run away. No, that's a joke. Um, but it's so important just to be involved in discipleship.

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We think of discipleship and we think of going to a coffee shop and reading a book with someone once a week, and that's important, but discipleship is also you as a

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Christian, um, meeting up with other mature believers and just learning from them. And so that's another way.

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I know not everyone has that opportunity. Um, but I would say if you ask

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God to, to help you with that and even to put someone in your life, you can learn from that's a really great way to, to, to just see the example of, of someone else.

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And again, if you can't get that personally go to livingwaters .com and just get it, uh, get it, get it through the videos.

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Okay. Thank you, and then someone had a question on the chat section.

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It says they need help with theistic evolution. What's wrong with believing in God and evolution and will they ever change their mind?

56:29

Yeah. So, so I would say that, um, you know, one of the, one of the main things it's, uh, it just goes against what the

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Bible says. You know, you look at the book of Genesis and it's very clear how this world was created when it was created and how many days it took to, to create it.

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Um, and then not only that the gospel in so many places is directly related to what

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Jesus says about what happened in the beginning. So, so if evolution is true, then all these examples where Jesus is saying things like, as it was in the beginning, as in the days of Noah, you know, and, and referring to the creation and to Noah's Ark and all these different things, when

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Jesus talks about what happened in Genesis, he's using that as, as a, a true example to prove some point that he's making now.

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So, so if, if evolution is true, then so much of what Jesus said is just kind of thrown out the window.

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That's one thing, but, but the more important thing is, is that the Bible says that through one man, sin entered the world and through one man, um, we're saved by sin.

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And the whole reason that we need a savior is because of what happened back in the garden in Genesis chapter three, when, when, when the fall of man occurred, that's the reason for, for, uh, the gospel.

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And so if all that's just a, a, a fairy tale or, or a parable or, you know, something like that, then there is no reason for the gospel.

58:14

Boy, I can't think of the verse right on the top of my head, but maybe one of you Bible scholars in here can, you know, in, in the book of Romans, I believe it just talks about how sin entered the world through one man,

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Adam, you know, that, that's the issue. It didn't happen through a parable sin is real.

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And, and that's why we need a savior, you know? So, so that, that, I would say that would be the bigger overarching issue.

58:45

That's good. Tim, did you have a question? No, I was just saying,

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I'm really enjoying this. This is amazing. You know, it's funny. Um, just yesterday, um, I'd never heard of Ray Comfort before.