Betrayed With a Kiss — Eric Ludy

Well, good morning, let's pray. Father, I pray that you would make my ankles strong, my legs sturdy, plant me upon your rock, and I will not be moved. I pray that the truth of Jesus Christ would be represented effectively and well.

And I pray that the immaturities and the weaknesses that I still bear would not hinder your truth from coming forth with power and authority today. Lord, your church is under siege. It's under siege from within.

And I pray that you would raise up the truth in our midst, that you would illuminate, that you would open our eyes as sheep to know what has drawn us to the shepherd and what has drawn us away from the shepherd.

Precious Lord, you deserve the glory, and I pray that you would get it this morning. It's in the precious name of our King that we pray, amen. When Leslie and I had a contract with a publisher, a book publisher, and we were bought out by another publisher, it was one of the big dogs, bought us out, and then that was bought out by another publisher, which was then bought out by another publisher, so as a result, you're gonna have a tough time figuring out who in the world I'm talking about here.

But we were bought out, and so we were being wined and dined into this new atmosphere, and they were wanting us to get familiar with them, them to get familiar with us. And I remember one of the VPs made it very clear in one of the conference calls.

Okay, let's get something straight. Yes, we are a Christian publishing house, but we exist to make money, so therefore, I don't want any of your Holy Spirit-inspired works. We want works that will sell.

And I said, well, at least you're honest about it. I want you to realize, we live in a Christian culture that is not as it seems. Leslie and I have 18 published books. We know the inside of the system, and for the most part, I don't say much about it because it's not edifying.

Unless something's edifying, I really don't care to talk about it. But there is a conspiracy in our midst to undermine our confidence in the word of God. The fact that this has even gotten in to the evangelical publishing system makes me mad.

But what we do about it is what matters to me. So, welcome to this message. Betrayed with a Kiss. The Conspiracy of the Modern Prophets. Most people don't usually know what I'm about to talk about. There's only three people on our staff that usually know the message.

And this one got leaked out to a few people, and so I actually was getting emails before today praying for courage for me. I think I need courage every week, but for whatever reason, this week, I must need extra courage because I have people out there praying for me.

Now, I know that doesn't sound like a very positive title. This message isn't necessarily fun, but you know when you focus on truth, it is exhilarating. The word of God is right. Now, this all started, and the reason this message even popped out this week, because this message has been in me for years, but it came out this week.

There was something that dislodged it. And that is, I think it was Jade who came across a video. A new book is coming out by Rob Bell called Love Wins. And then she showed it to Annie, and then Annie forwarded it to the staff.

And she says, have you guys seen this? And I'm not a guy who tries to follow Rob Bell. Rob Bell is one of the best-selling authors, probably has the fastest-growing church in America, out in Grand Rapids.

And he has massive sway over the Christian world today in America and around the globe. And this new book called Love Wins, it was just a trailer, sort of a teaser, so you could buy your advanced copy.

And long and short, I was so upset over this crazy book that I know nothing more about but a trailer. But long and short, it's basically universalism. Every road leads to God, hell will be empty, okay?

What is the use of Jesus Christ? Well, I'm sure it'll be explained. It's Jesus Christ that's emptied hell. And I'm also sure, because I know the tactic of the emergent movement, and that is when the book comes out, Rob Bell will be very clear to say he's not a universalist.

However, everything he will teach is universalism. There's only one way to Jesus Christ. I'm sorry, there's only one way to the Father, and that's through Jesus Christ, only one way. We believe the word of God here.

Some of the things I'm gonna say may seem a little narrow-minded. Some of them may sound a little closed-minded, but I'll explain exactly what it is that we're teaching today. It's not narrow-minded, and it's not closed-minded.

Betrayal in the Garden and the Conspiracy of Modern Prophets

This title, Betrayed with a Kiss, there is this scene that most of us are familiar with in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus is betrayed into the hands of sinners. And one of his closest, one of the ones that has been living in his very midst, actually comes up and feigns intimacy and love and tenderness towards him.

Just because he can show an outward demonstration of softness and endearment and kinship does not mean that his intention and his motive is pure. He is betraying the Son of Man for money. And unfortunately, that's what we see happening today.

This second, the subtitle, usually don't give subtitles, but we have a doozy of one today. The Conspiracy, which obviously is indicating the fact that something is purposeful. The Conspiracy of the Modern Prophets.

This comes from a scripture in Ezekiel. Doesn't say modern in it, though. Luke 22, so let's get right down to it. Then Jesus said to them, so it says, then he said to them, he's speaking to his disciples, Peter, James, and John, who have fallen asleep.

He's asked them to stay awake three times. They cannot stay awake. Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation. We need to be awake. We need to be sharp, lest we enter into temptation.

And while he was still speaking, behold, a multitude, and he who was called Judas, one of the 12, went before him and drew near to Jesus to kiss him. Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?

When those around him saw what was going to happen, so this is Peter, James, and John. When those around him saw what was going to happen, listen to their question. They said to him, Lord, shall we strike with the sword?

I'm just laying a foundation, because as we go through this, you're gonna first of all probably feel like you've been sleeping, number one, and then your response will be, Lord, shall we strike with the sword?

Okay, so just laying a foundation here. How in the world do we respond to some of the things that you're about to hear? Ezekiel 22, 23 through 31. The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey.

They have devoured the people. Let me stop there for a second. You'll notice I made the conspiracy of her prophets large. Israel, in a time of desperate need where truth has fallen in the streets and judgment has been turned away backwards.

Israel is in a desperate situation, and God is making it clear through his prophet Ezekiel. Look what has happened to my people, and that is because they're men of God. The ones that represent Jehovah in their midst have conspired in their midst.

Publishing, Money, and the Emergent Church

I had a conversation with one of the VPs of Thomas Nelson at Agoni right down the road, and he was talking about their strategy to win over the conservative Christian booksellers because there are a lot of ma pa booksellers.

There are a lot of Christian bookstores that are still conservative, and when Donald Miller's book Blue Like Jazz came out, they refused to accept it. It wouldn't carry that. It was profane. So their strategy, spoken from the VP himself straight across the table to me, was, well, what we did is we went to the big box stores, Borders, Barnes and Nobles, all the big box, and we proved its sales rate, and we knew that they would have to take it because they can't compete in the marketplace if they can't sell the Christian books that are selling, and this is what he said.

Sure enough, they caved. It's a conspiracy. This is purposeful. They know that it's not received by the conservative agenda, so because of money, there is a motivation. Thomas Nelson is not the worst perpetrator.

Zondervan, these are the biggest Bible publishers in America today. We trust them. Zondervan, good household name. Zondervan, if you go to their website, they will see featured authors. Well, they're all their conservative authors.

They are the biggest host of the emergent church movement in America. They put more money behind it than anyone. Almost everything emergent, except for what Thomas Nelson sponsors through Donald Miller and some of Brian McLaren's stuff, is Zondervan, yet we trust them, and yet what they are spitting out is detrimental to the very word of God that they supposedly represent.

Thomas Nelson, who is your other trusted publisher, has now released The Voice, which is an emergent Bible, basically the equivalent of a paraphrase written by Donald Miller himself. A Bible treated as a Bible.

This is not a Bible. This is something that undermines the Bible. This is a conspiracy. In her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey they have devoured people. Her priests have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean.

Her princes in her midst are like wolves, tearing the prey to shed blood, to destroy people, and to get dishonest gain. Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, listen to this, thus says the Lord God, when the Lord had not spoken.

Listen to the conclusion of this in Ezekiel. So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land. Why? Why would there be needed a man? Why would someone need to fill a gap?

Because the very ones that represent Jehovah are conspiring against him and against the people that I should not destroy it, but I found no one. Therefore, I've poured out my indignation on them, I've consumed them with the fire of my wrath, and I've recompensed their deeds on their own heads.

Wrath came because there was no man who stood. This is the statement of religious history throughout the ages. You have an enemy. He's known by various names. He starts out a serpent, Lucifer, Satan, the devil.

His agenda is to destroy the word of God. The word of God in text, the word of God in seed, all throughout the history of the Hebrew nation, and the word of God in person, and the word of God in you. Same agenda, 6 ,000 years of it.

He is not stopping. It's the same purpose, the same end game. Undermine the truth. God did find a man who did make a wall and who did stand in the gap, and his name is Jesus, God himself. Said, if there is no man, I will be that man.

And he stood in the gap, and guess what? The indignation, the wrath of God was poured out upon his head. How dare we trample upon the blood of the covenant by taking advantage of the blood of Jesus and then going right back to where they were then.

We have a wall to protect us and to protect the word of God in us. The word of God in this generation. Let us wield it because we have Jesus, and may we not let truth fall in the streets again. Matthew 7, this is Jesus speaking.

Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. It's a very difficult message to give in our modern day because most of you don't believe that false prophets exist.

Or if they do, they're Muhammad, or they're something to do with Mormonism. They come from in our midst, and they are in sheep's clothing, which means they look like sheep. When Judas is betraying with a kiss, he is feigning an intimacy with Jesus.

But we know, if you read the Gospels, that he had issues with Jesus the whole way, and he was constantly questioning the work of Jesus. He had an agenda, and it was a flesh agenda. It was a self agenda.

Mark them. In Romans 16, Paul says, now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speech is deceived the hearts of the simple.

So we have Paul saying, mark them. In other words, let us know, let us be able to tell the sheep, beware. That one over there, wolf. That's a wolf, wearing a sheep outfit, wolf. It's creating offenses to the doctrine.

It is literally creating a disturbance of how we look at the word of God. It is creating a belittling of our confidence in the word of God. And then this is what he says in Philippians, to the Philippian church.

Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have for us an example. So mark those who are disturbing the flock, and mark those who are representing the truth of the gospel.

We mark them. We need to know who is representing it, and who is walking the narrow way, and who is disturbing and attempting to create an attraction to the broad way. For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

Both scriptures are extremely similar. We need to be sharp. We need to be discerning. Here we have a generation where we're not allowed to mark anything. That's judgmental. I mean, could you imagine if we did that in the security lines at the airport?

You can't do that. That, talk about politically incorrect. Well, it's crept into the church. We're not allowed to say, well, you know what? That's actually opposite of what the word of God says. Well, that's your opinion.

You can't be judgmental and say that that's wrong. Everyone can have their own opinion about what the word of God says. You know what the word of God says one thing? It doesn't say 20 things. It doesn't say 2 ,000 things.

It says one. God doesn't stutter. He knows what he's saying, and it's up to us to get our ridiculous postmodern junk out of the way, the cultural entrappings, the social sensibilities and the political correctness out of the way so we can allow God just to speak straight to us.

He says it, and he means it, and he's meant it for 6 ,000 years, ever since it began. He knows what he's doing, and he's not caught off guard with our culture, saying, oh, no, what am I gonna do with this culture?

Oh, no, I guess we need to change the word. Hmm. The enemy deserves a little credit. Now, I don't usually make slides like this. However, he's done a pretty good job. I have to admit, so I'm gonna admit it, but then I'm gonna hit him in the teeth.

The Emergent Strategy and the Crafty Voice

The brilliance of sneaking liberal thinking into the modern conservative church, that's an impossibility. How could you ever do that? You know what? I was in a radio interview the other day out in Massachusetts, and the man said, isn't it true that the emergent church is dead?

It's an interesting statement, because I wrote on the emergent church in my book, The Bravehearted Gospel, I don't know, three or four years ago, and there's this article that came out a few years ago.

I had a few guys forward it to me. It's like, yeah, the emergent church is dead. The emergent church, who cares what you call something? The satanic agenda to undermine the church today is not dead, and I guarantee you, the voices, by the way, that make up the emergent church are selling just as well as they did before.

So whether you call it the emergent church anymore, it's ridiculous to say it's dead. The younger generation, the collegiate generation is buying these books in droves. Donald Miller, Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, in droves.

Millions of copies. The entire next generation of Christian leadership is being defined by these men. Dead? That's as much a strategy as anything else. We're dead. Oh, we're harmless now. We don't have an agenda anymore.

Yeah, we must have lost. Oh, yeah, right. They're shaping the entirety of the Christian world. Every publisher knows this. I was approached by a publisher a few years ago before The Bravehearted Gospel was written.

They asked me if I could write an emergent book. I said, hmm, I don't know if you know who you're talking to. See, I'm young. I was mid -30s at the time. If you're mid -30s and you're a Christian leader, you're emergent.

It just goes with the territory because you've grown up disillusioned with the religious system. The word of God has been proven to not work because no one can live it. And so now we have a crisis. And so everyone is beginning to come up with justifications and a rewriting of what Christianity is.

This didn't work. Let's rewrite it, as Rob Bell says. Repaint it. Re-image it. So they're changing all the words to mean something new. And I'm dead serious when I say this. I don't necessarily want to encourage you to go out and study it.

However, this is serious business. I'm not gonna write an emergent book. I'll write a book that will speak straight. And if that's what the younger generation is wanting, I can do that. That's the bravehearted gospel, not exactly what they were looking for.

The brilliance of sneaking liberal thinking into the modern conservative church. Can't tell you how many pastors, conservative pastors are sponsoring this message into our culture. Max Lucado was at a Thomas Nelson banquet a few years ago.

Brian McLaren spoke at it. Donald Miller spoke at it. Max Lucado spoke at it. Max Lucado, good old, safe Max Lucado. His favorite author is Donald Miller. This is not unusual. There is a massive movement in the conservative realm towards emergent thinking.

Because it's what brings in the people. If you stand by your old stodgy guard and you actually have the audacity to keep speaking that old, archaic message, repent, your church is gonna dwindle. We need to stay up with the times.

We need to be fashionable. We need to be hip. We need to be cool. The emergent church knows how to do that. So whether you call it the emergent church anymore or not, it's the same exact thing. Same exact lie, still floating around.

No one kicked it out. Leonard Ravenhill, one of my favorite quotes. My Lord is insulted and his church slighted. And believe me, under this double injury I smart. The church has many adversaries. Can my sword sleep than in my hand?

Never. That's just to kick it off. I haven't gotten into the message yet. I'm just warming you guys up. The crafty voice. Calling into question the obvious truth, beckoning a more generous understanding of the clear command.

The Bible speaks clearly. Most of us just don't like to acknowledge that. It says things, and it says things more poignantly and more straightforward than we prefer to have them. I don't think he actually could mean that though because that would cause all sorts of problems.

I mean, that would offend people. Uh-huh. God says it exactly the way he intends to say it. Guess what? He intends it to last from generation to generation too, which means the way he said it was meant to be read that way today.

And he doesn't care about your flesh and your sensibilities and all those things. Those are your enemy within. You want to be freed for Jesus Christ? You let your social sensibilities and that flesh, that craving to be protected and about you.

Hey, I'm offended by that. That needs to die. You take God and his word and you say, God, if this is what you said, I submit to it. Offend me all you want, God. You're right, I'm wrong. This crafty voice calling into question the obvious truth, beckoning a more generous command, understanding of the, a more generous understanding of the clear command.

We need to be a little more generous here. I mean, that's a little too narrow of an opinion. We need to be a little more broad-minded. This is what you'll hear everywhere you turn now. Okay, this is a famous quote from many thousands of years ago.

You'll notice it sounds very similar to the quotes that you'll hear today in many Christian books. Did God really say that? The serpent. Uh-huh, he's the one that coined that phrase. So let's dig a little deeper.

The Word of God as the Unchanging Foundation

Genesis 3 .1, now the serpent was more subtle, which subtle means cunning, shrewd, and crafty, than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said? Now let's look at the different translations of how they deal with this one quote of the serpent.

Hath God said? King James Version. Has God indeed said? New King James Version. Did you hear the British accent I gave to that one? Did God really say? NIV. Did God actually say? ESV. Indeed, has God said?

NASV. Did God say? RSV. Is it true that God has said? Young's. That is the message that is being perpetrated in and amongst the body of Christ today. Let us tag it and mark it. If you ever hear that voice directed to the word of God, you know where it comes from.

Now the serpent was more subtle, cunning, shrewd, and crafty, than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said? Has God indeed said? Did God really say?

Did God actually say? Indeed, has God said? Did God say? Is it true that God has said? Okay? Just get familiar with this. Start to warm up to this. This is the problem. The basis of belief. The word of God is the word of God.

Now I know that sounds sort of obvious to you, but I want you to realize these men are saying the word of God is the word of men. Who wrote it, after all? Yeah, who wrote the book of Luke? Luke. Aha. You're saying it with your own mouth.

But you're saying the book of Luke, the book written by Luke, is written by God? No, you need to be a little more broad-minded and generous here, Eric. Your limited, narrow perspective on this and your ignorance is showing through.

You see, when a man writes a book, a man writes a book. Now God, see we think highly of this book that Luke wrote. And God obviously thinks highly of it to include it in this whole thing. But it's a book written by a man endorsed by God.

God says this is good stuff, but it's written by men. No. I mean, I could say yes. But no. It is the word of God. God carried these men along, whether they knew it or not. And he had an agenda for every word, and he canonized it.

And when you understand canon, I have a whole teaching at Ellerslie called Canon. If you need to get your hands on it after this message, do. We'll make it available somehow, some way. To show how the word of God has been constructed and built throughout the ages.

And it's not accidental. It didn't just somehow come together. It was not voted on in 300 AD. One day they just go, okay, we need to come up with a vote. It was understood by the church for those 300 years.

Everyone knew it. They formalized it. Why? Because it was under siege. And other people were saying, but what about the book of Judas? What about this book? What about this book? They said, let us clarify.

We all know the answer to this, but because the enemy seems hell bent on trying to create question of what is the word of God and what isn't, we'll define it. It's not that a whole bunch of great headed men in 300 AD came together and said, you know what?

Let's pick some books. It's ridiculous. The word of God is the word of God. And guess what? It cannot lie. This is the basis of our belief. It cannot lie, did God say? No, get that voice out of here. My God has spoken.

And if he says, do not eat of the tree, and that serpent goes, wow, you need to be a little more broad minded here. Get thee behind me, Satan. My God has spoken. He didn't stutter. He cannot lie. For this cause also, thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually works also in you that believe.

Hebrews 6, 17 through 19 says, wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things, which means unchanging things, which are the great promises declared and an oath given by God to seal the deal, in which it was impossible for God to lie.

Did you see that? It is impossible for God to lie. He has promised, he has sealed it with an oath, and he cannot lie. Therefore, you have a rock to stand on. We might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul.

You will not be moved. You stand on the word of God. You do not need to be shaken by this voice. God spoke, and it was God that spoke. It was not mere men. It was God that spoke through men, just like God spoke through Jesus and demonstrated, though Jesus was 100 man, he was also 100 God.

And if you have good doctrine, that's the conclusion you come to. Jesus was God, and yet he was also man. Welcome to the word of God in text as well. Written by men, but 100 God. And this is the anchor of our soul, both sure and steadfast, in which entered into the veil, into that within the veil.

God is not a man that he should lie. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? The strength of Israel will not lie. Let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written, that thou might be justified in thy sayings, and might overcome when thou art judged.

Okay, now, I'm making a point here, and that is that our God can be trusted. Do you believe the word of God is the word of men? Because if you do, your foundation will fail you when the winds and the rains beat against your house.

You want to build upon a rock? Then you take God at his word. The word of God is the word of God. And the word of God is as God is, it cannot lie. So therefore, when you have those foundation points, you are not shaken.

If we believe not, yet he abides faithful. He cannot deny himself. In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. You starting to get the point here? Okay, I've probably said it enough, so let's move on.

The Appeal of the Open Mind

The appeal of the open mind. If I was going to give you an option between a closed mind, a narrow mind, and an open mind, I know which one you'd choose. If, you know, they were set out on a table before you, well, who wants a closed mind?

That's, it's despicable to have a closed mind. A narrow mind? Oh, I don't want to be a narrow-minded person. We want an open mind out of those three. The appeal of the open mind, it appears more reasonable, more generous, more accepting, more hospitable, more socially correct.

I mean, Gandhi had some wonderful things to say. Oh, the emergent church loves Gandhi. They don't care about Hudson Taylor, George Miller, Charles Spurgeon, oh, but Gandhi. I mean, you guys are closed-minded.

You're not entertaining what Gandhi had to say. You know, Muhammad, if you listen closely to his teachings, he actually said some wonderful things. Sure, some of the Islamic movements afterwards have distorted a little of it, but you know what?

Muhammad had some good things to say. Let's be open-minded about this. Isn't that reasonable? This is, it's a generous way of looking at life. If you want to live in peace and harmony with those around you, we need to be generous towards those thoughts.

If they have good things to say, then let's entertain them and let's bring them in. Let's be hospitable to them. An open mind is door-open policy. Come on in. Oh, you have a thought too? Come on in. Absolutely, make yourself at home.

Why don't you roost on my kitchen table? Sure, I can see you every morning when I wake up instead of a vase of flowers. This is the open mind. Three mind options of today, the closed mind, the narrow mind, the open mind.

And like I said, every single one of us is predisposed to pick the open mind. Now, some of you are thinking, you haven't given me any other options here. I'm not exactly that intrigued by your open mind option, but do I have to choose between closed mind and narrow minded?

What else is there? Let's walk through these. The closed mind, this is the reason most of us don't want to be this, is a mind that ignorantly and belligerently dismisses and excludes actual facts from having any say in the formation of his or her reality.

They don't want to hear it. You know, here they are walking over a cliff and it's like, hey, by the way, gravity is an effect. And if you walk over a cliff, you fall to the bottom of the cliff. I don't want to hear it.

Okay, it's a closed mind. Anything that would obstruct their narrow view, their closed view, they have a little subsystem and they don't want to hear outside of it. This is, you know, a fantastic environment for cults to foster from having any say in the formation of his or her reality.

A mind not open to reasonable discussion, not open for the business of discussing truth. Well, who wants to be that? It's ridiculous. Okay, let's look at a narrow mind. A mind that strictly filters all fact and information through an individuals or small groups, small group of individuals, small finite human worldview and experience.

A mind unable to break out of traditional religious and or cultural moorings to accept that truth is bigger than what can be comprehended by a singular person or closed off group of people. And so you have your little group that has always grown up in, you know, this little part of the world and they've never seen outside of it and everything they hear is built through their grid.

They have a limited experience, a limited understanding of how the world works and a narrow mind always reasons through just a little slight worldview. Who defined the worldview? They did. It was through their experience that they defined it.

A narrow mind is extremely dangerous. However, out of our options here, because this is the third one, a mind that is reasonable and judicious with facts. I mean, this is so attractive. Desirous to learn, accepting of all, ever ready to consider new and novel thoughts.

A mind hospitable to all notions, whether true or false. A mind open to anything and everything, eager to chew on ideas never before considered. Huh, that's fascinating. Maybe we've had it wrong for 2000 years.

Maybe, I saw a book on the shelf the other day. Paul was not a Christian. That's actually now released. Paul was not a Christian. That's a fascinating thought. Come on in, new thought. Let's entertain it.

Paul was not a Christian. He defines the entirety of Christianity. It's absolutely ridiculous. Anyone that would possibly even think it reasonable. Okay, let me give you the option for us Christians. Not to be closed-minded, not to be narrow-minded, we're not to be open-minded.

I know that sounds terrible to say we're not open-minded. We are open-minded to one thing, to God. And how are we open-minded to God? To his word. We are seemingly closed to the world because they'll say, you're closed-minded.

No. You're narrow-minded. No, it's not our own experience, our own little band of, you know, our little group that has come up with a filter. Our filter is the word of God. It's God's worldview, and he knows more than everyone else.

He's the one that created the heavens and the earth. Don't you think his worldview is a pretty good one to reason through? If you're gonna have a filter, that's about as good a one as you could get. That's Christianity.

It's fidelity and faithfulness to one. I do not have an open marriage, for instance. I have a marriage that is closed off to any other invasive force. Anything else that would try and get in, I don't share and say, oh, come on in.

I am exclusive to my wife. And you would say, well, that's good. That's right. And that's what it means to be exclusive to Jesus Christ. His word is our guide. And anything that would attempt to contradict it, undermine it, is kept outside the house.

It might sound closed, and it might sound narrow. Actually, it's life and life abundant. So here's a canon mind, a mind given wholly to God, implicitly trusting God's definition of reality, exclusively devoted to God's opinion and command, closed to all thoughts, ideas, or philosophies that would lead the mind to another take on reality.