Christianity Is a Contradiction! | #DECONSTRUCTING Tik Tok | Pastor Reacts
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Welcome to #deconstructingchristianity Tik Tok! In this video someone will claim that Christianity is built off a contradiction, that Christians are the only ones who have the burden of proof, and that God needs faith in order to heal people. As always, let's respond based on what the Bible says :)
Do Christians Shoulder the Burden of Proof? https://youtu.be/W1HTKriSUyk?si=w3Uvvqe65c918uSG
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- 00:00
- Christianity is built off of a contradiction. The same concept that got Satan kicked out of heaven, Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden is the same concept that made
- 00:07
- Christ qualify to die on the cross for humanity, and the same concept humanity has to follow to be qualified to get into f***ing heaven.
- 00:15
- That's not what got Adam and Eve kicked out. You gotta think to yourself, why was it a serpent that tempted Eve? You ever ask that question?
- 00:21
- And you'll never understand where I'm coming from if you don't untether God and the Bible. What does this person think you should root your own identity in anyway?
- 00:29
- Your haircut is gonna punish me for falling victim to the devil deceiving me, but I thought God loved me.
- 00:34
- There's a trick to this video, and I'm wondering if you caught it. See, this is why I'm not, I'm just not a fan of TikTok. It's because it caters to attention deficit.
- 00:50
- Welcome back to another TikTok reaction. My name is Nate Sala, and this is Wise Disciple, where I'm helping you become the effective
- 00:56
- Christian that you were meant to be. As Christ followers, this practically means that we should spend our time thinking more like Jesus, speaking more like Jesus, and leading more like him, and that's what
- 01:06
- I'm doing here on this channel. Today, let's look at TikTok videos that are all focused on deconstructing.
- 01:12
- That is, all of these videos can be found if you search the hashtag deconstructing, and there are some interesting artifacts here for us to sift through, so let's jump right in.
- 01:20
- God loves you. Oh, that's awesome. What's up?
- 01:28
- So are you like a Christian now, or? Oh, no, I don't believe in God. Okay, well, you know what the consequences of not believing in him are, right?
- 01:37
- Oh, no, actually, I don't. What are they? Oh, that's okay.
- 01:44
- Okay, well, the point is, if you don't believe in God, then things aren't gonna turn out great for you.
- 01:54
- Bad behavior? Well, yeah, but you said he loves me, so why does that matter?
- 02:03
- I don't believe in the devil. Wait, so am
- 02:09
- I the devil's God? No, you're the devil's victim. Oh, so then God's gonna punish the devil for what he's doing to me.
- 02:15
- Well, no, he's gonna punish you. He's gonna punish me for falling victim to the devil deceiving me, but I thought
- 02:21
- God loved me. Well, yes. Doesn't really make any sense.
- 02:29
- Okay, the first question right out of the gate should be, what specifically is this person critiquing, right?
- 02:36
- Is it Christianity, or is it something else? Because there's a trick to this video, and I'm wondering if you caught it.
- 02:42
- I'm actually wondering if it's because of this trick that many people find this kind of video interesting and compelling, especially people who don't really know about Christianity and haven't read the
- 02:50
- Bible. But the trick is, none of what this person said are actual Bible verses. These are all
- 02:56
- Christian slogans. Do you see that? So what this person is doing is, he's pitting various Christian slogans against each other in order to suggest at the end that Christianity does not make sense.
- 03:08
- I mean, that's what he literally says right at the end there, it doesn't make sense. There's probably a legitimate critique here against the various slogans that Christians have actually used in the past, but I think that's as far as this video goes, because this person is not really dealing with Christianity.
- 03:22
- He's dealing with a caricature. Many of you might be faced with this kind of situation where you're engaging someone who throws slogans at you, thinking that they somehow undermine
- 03:32
- Christian belief. Here's what to do in those kinds of situations, and this is a simple diagnostic question that sets the stage for the rest of your conversation.
- 03:40
- So this person says, Christianity teaches that God loves me, but at the same time, God's gonna punish me for falling victim to the devil's deception.
- 03:46
- This is what you say. Well, that's interesting. Where specifically in the Bible did you get that? Simple, easy, and this is actually what you would do if you were in a formal debate.
- 03:56
- Somebody makes a claim, all you're doing is asking them for the source material. And you can do this in a manner that still shows that you care about them, that you're not looking to slam them or drop a truth bomb or destroy them with facts, but you actually wanna have a genuine conversation with them about what the
- 04:13
- Bible really teaches. Because the fact is the Bible does say that God loves the world. John 3 .16
- 04:18
- says that God so loved the world that he gave his only son. But wait, what are we talking about when we talk about God's love?
- 04:27
- How does the Bible explain this? That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
- 04:34
- In other words, because God loves, he offers eternal life. Okay, but then the question is, what is eternal life according to the
- 04:42
- Bible? Jesus explains this in John 17. So in verse two, Jesus talks about having authority over all flesh.
- 04:50
- He gives eternal life to all those whom the Father has given him. That's also found in John 3 .16.
- 04:56
- But then what is eternal life? Verse three, this is what it says. This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true
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- God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. So eternal life is knowing
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- God. Do you see anything in there about people getting to go around not believing in God, rejecting him and his desires for us, but God continues to feel some kind of unrequited affection from afar?
- 05:21
- Not at all. If you look at John 3 and John 17, you realize these are two conceptual
- 05:29
- Lego pieces that connect together to create a deeper idea that this TikToker obviously does not understand.
- 05:35
- Again, here it is. The Bible says that God, out of his love that he has, gives his son so that whoever believes in the son will have eternal life.
- 05:44
- And it also teaches that eternal life is knowing God. And the word know, that they know you, it refers to the kind of close, intimate relationship that Adam had with his wife,
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- Eve, in Genesis chapter four. And out of that close, intimate knowledge, that's what produced their children.
- 06:03
- That's the kind of intimacy with God that is offered in eternal life. And if you think about it, doesn't that make perfect sense?
- 06:10
- If God does love us, wouldn't he want to be close with us? And for us to be close with him?
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- Why would anyone who loves somebody want to stay far away from them? Never want to get close with them.
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- Just be perfectly content with their continual rejection. Who does that? That's what's always so strange to me when atheists and skeptics, they try to argue this way.
- 06:31
- Well, you know, if God loves me, why doesn't he just let me do whatever I want? Why doesn't he just leave me alone? Well, the answer is he does, and that's hell.
- 06:38
- God lets people do whatever they want, a lot, but that is the cause of much evil in the world.
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- The Bible says when God lets people do whatever they want, they become futile in thinking, their hearts become darkened, their minds become debased, and the result of this at the end of their lives is hell for those who choose to reject their creator.
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- I am being 100 % real and genuine when I say this. The book that helped me deconstruct
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- Christianity by far the most was the Bible. And I mean this completely wholeheartedly, 100 % genuinely.
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- I read the Bible far more now than I did when I was a Christian. Learning about the different parts of the
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- Bible, what types of literary tools are used in the writing of different books of the
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- Bible, learning which parts of the Bible are letters, who the letters are to, learning which parts of the
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- Bible are poetry, and use metaphorical language, looking at context for everybody's favorite weaponized
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- Bible verses. There's a lot of parts of the Bible that when you look at it with the context that it's written in, you can identify that it is inherently flawed because it's written by humans, not by a metaphysical being.
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- But there's also historical context for a lot of the things that are weaponized against us today that don't necessarily apply to how we live our lives today.
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- It's also really important to analyze different translations of the text and to go back and look at what was happening historically when various versions and translations of the
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- Bible were written. I cannot recommend a better tool. Also, going through the old books that I used to read and really defend my faith with when
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- I was a Christian through a critical lens and actually finding the fallacies in what
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- I was reading. What are the fallacies? You know, like what I'm seeing are a series of claims, illusions, all of these things.
- 08:36
- Where are the specific examples of this? See, this is why I'm not, I'm just not a fan of TikTok.
- 08:42
- It's because it caters to attention deficit. It provides fodder for those who are impatient with their attention.
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- And the bottom line is, the deepest mysteries of the universe, which we should all be pondering and chewing on and wrestling with, you know, all the metaphors here, right?
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- These mysteries, if we're living our lives correctly, should sit with us for great periods of time in our life.
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- They should cause us to undergo much training and study and to seek out wise mentors to engage and learn from.
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- Perhaps some of these mysteries should take us years and years of our lives to truly grasp and consider.
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- Mysteries like, is there a God? If there is a God, has this God spoken? Who are we in this grand universe?
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- Is there objective meaning in our lives or do we just make it up for ourselves? You can neither answer these questions nor explain them in the span of a
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- TikTok video. You just cannot. And so here comes a young girl, deconstructed, right?
- 09:40
- She says she did because she read the Bible. Okay, but we're not hearing any substantive reason why she should have.
- 09:46
- I haven't heard a reason yet, have you? I took a class and it's offered at a lot of universities, but it's called reading the
- 09:53
- Bible as literature. And when you look at the Bible as a work of fiction instead of as complete, hard, 100 % truth and fact, it makes a lot more sense.
- 10:04
- And I find that I don't get angry when I read the Bible anymore. I do get angry about the ways it has been perverted and weaponized against other people though.
- 10:14
- Okay, so let me repeat back what I just heard. Okay, she said, I read the Bible and it contains lots of various types of literature, genre representation.
- 10:22
- Okay, great so far. I agree with that. Then she said, I took a class in college called the Bible as literature.
- 10:29
- And now it makes sense. By the way, I took this same class at my local university when I was an atheist. And it's ridiculous, this class, for one simple reason.
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- These professors typically front load their teaching with the assumption that the Bible is not true and therefore should be read as a piece of fiction by folks who had a very limited understanding of science and anthropology, et cetera.
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- But it's this very assumption that must be questioned. And you don't get to do that in this class. It's just assumed.
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- And then a lot of conclusions are extrapolated from there. Okay, so she read the Bible, didn't make sense, took a class that treats it like fiction.
- 11:02
- Now it makes sense. Okay, am I missing something? What if there is another option? What if the people she perceives are weaponizing the
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- Bible are just misinterpreting the text, but it's still actually true? So right now
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- I'm granting her claims about the weaponization of the scripture for a moment because she doesn't explain what she means by that.
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- But what if those folks were just misinterpreting the scripture? Considering the fact that it is a collection of 66 books with varying types of genre and literature contained within it.
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- Of course, because TikTok is so brief, she doesn't explain anything. And so all we're left with in this video is,
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- I read the Bible. Some of it's been weaponized. Part of it didn't make sense. I took a Bible as literature class.
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- Now it makes sense. So therefore what? Therefore, what follows from this?
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- God does not exist. Jesus Christ did not resurrect. Are these really your only options for a conclusion?
- 11:56
- If this person is really reading the Bible a lot right now, more so than when she was a Christian, that's what she said.
- 12:03
- She should read the Bible alongside an actual Bible teacher or a pastor who can provide her not only biblical exegesis, but also the traditional understandings of the books of the
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- Bible for the past few millennia so that she can make a much more informed decision about what she's rejecting, right?
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- And she should put that on TikTok, her Bible study with a Bible teacher. I would watch it.
- 12:25
- These are five things that I learned while deconstructing from Christianity that I wish
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- I had fully understood earlier. The first one has to do with the burden of proof. The burden of proof is on Christians, not on non -believers.
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- Christianity makes the claim that there is a God. Not only that, but also it makes the claim that the
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- Christian God is the one true God and definitely the only God worthy of worship. Non -believers or atheists lack a belief in this
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- God. There is insufficient evidence to convince us. So in debates or arguments with Chri...
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- So in debates or arguments with Christians, it is important to remember who has the burden of proof.
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- I've heard atheists and skeptics say this quite a bit. You know, Christians are the ones making the claim, right?
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- We lack a belief, therefore Christians have the burden of proof. This is simply not the case for a couple of reasons.
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- First, and I'll say this as a debate teacher, the burden of proof only rests with the one who challenges what's called presumption in a debate.
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- Okay, I've spoken about this at greater length in a video called, Do Christians Have the Burden of Proof? I'll leave that link in the notes below.
- 13:36
- Presumption represents the status quo with regard to belief. And so in a debate where the presumption lies is clearly identified by either stating it outright as part of the terms of debate, you know, the agreement to get to the debate stage in the first place between two interlocutors, or it's identified by looking at the audience in the debate.
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- In other words, what is the status quo of belief with regard to most people? Well, when it comes to the existence of God, particularly the
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- God of the Bible in this country, Christianity is still the status quo. As a matter of fact, atheism is still a large minority in this country.
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- So when we get into debates, as this person said, right? And when we try to figure out who properly shoulders the burden of proof, atheists cannot get away with saying, oh,
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- Christians are the ones claiming God exists, so they should hold the burden of proof. Because if the criteria is, whoever makes the claim bears the burden to prove it, which is known as the burden of proving assertions in debate, well then guess what?
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- Atheists shoulder this burden too. The moment they disagree with Christians about the existence of God, even if they wanna say it's because they lack a belief, right?
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- They do so based on their own claims that seek to clash or undermine the
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- Christian's claims. And the claims and the arguments that they make then must also be proved.
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- So atheists are not off the hook at all. The second thing is falsifiability or the ability for something to be proven wrong.
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- In science, having a hypothesis that is falsifiable is a good thing because it means that we can test that hypothesis.
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- What I learned while deconstructing is that the proposition that God exists is not falsifiable.
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- Specifically the God of the Bible, the Christian God. There are some gods that are falsifiable.
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- For example, if I made the claim to worship a God named Betty that appeared every single time I did a pirouette, we could definitely figure out a way to test that claim and falsify it.
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- As far as I can tell though, the God of the Bible is not falsifiable because he exists outside of space and time.
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- What is happening? Is she slowly getting ready for bed? Can't she just talk to the camera?
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- Is she really that busy with her life that she has to squeeze in putting moisturizer on and doing her hair and also explaining why
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- God does not exist? I certainly hope the next shot is not gonna be her on the toilet or something.
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- Like she's cutting her toenails and flossing her gums. It's invisible. He works in mysterious ways.
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- You have to have faith in him. How on earth would we demonstrate that this particular definition of God wasn't just some figment of our imagination or an idea?
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- Looking at claims and figuring out whether or not these propositions are falsifiable has been an incredibly useful tool for me to identify assumptions embedded in my beliefs.
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- Is this person not aware of the minimal facts of the resurrection? In other words, that we
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- Christians make an inference based on the disciples' eyewitness testimony that they saw Jesus alive after he died, that they spoke with him on multiple occasions, that they ate food with him, that they went on to tell everyone else about this eyewitness testimony that they have to the detriment of their own personal safety, many of them being tortured and killed for their testimony.
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- Is this not a series of compelling pieces of evidence for this person to wrestle with? If you could falsify the testimony of the disciples, does that not do some serious work to disprove the claims of Christianity?
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- What about when Paul said this, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 13, but if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even
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- Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
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- We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised
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- Christ, whom he did not raise if it's true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even
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- Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, here it is, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
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- Does this not invite atheists and skeptics to wrestle with the truthfulness of the eyewitness testimony of the disciples?
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- Is this not an invitation into the very falsifiability that this TikToker claims Christianity does not have?
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- From my perspective, I think she's missing a couple of key components here that would help understand what's really going on in Christianity.
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- What's fascinating to me is that with all of these videos being made, all these claims being thrown around, almost none of these folks are actually engaging the very text that they are rejecting.
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- Have you noticed that? Why do you think that is the case? Let me know in the comments below, actually. I'm curious, I'm trying to think through that myself.
- 18:30
- What is your theory? I'd love to get your thoughts. Christians idolize the Bible so much that when I critique the
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- Bible, y 'all think I'm critiquing God. And you'll never understand where I'm coming from if you don't untether
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- God and the Bible. That's the problem with having a faith that's rooted in the supremacy of the Bible, because then any flaw that somebody finds in the
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- Bible invalidates your faith, and your identity is tied up in your faith. So when I critique the Bible, you think
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- I'm critiquing God, and that invalidates your faith, which ultimately invalidates your identity, which is why y 'all think
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- I'm the Antichrist. So no, I'm not gonna debate you about theology when your foundational belief is that the
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- Bible is perfect. And that's the problem with demanding Bible loyalty without Bible literacy.
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- These are very interesting pretzel knots that folks like this form for themselves when they seek to frame the discussion of their deconstruction, right?
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- Found this one also in the hashtag deconstructing. So in other words, you know, this man says, we need to untether
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- God from the Bible. Don't know what that means. Didn't bother to define it for us, so we're left to guess here.
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- Then he says, well, you know, there's a problem with holding the Bible to be supreme in our faith, but does nothing to address the actual scriptural foundation for believing that the
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- Bible is supreme. Second Timothy three, verse 16 says this, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
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- I wonder what this TikToker makes of a passage like this. What does he think
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- Paul meant by breathed out by God, right? In the Greek, it's theonoustos. Is this not a picture of God breathing out of the dust and forming
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- Adam in Genesis chapter two, verse seven? Does this not provide a picture of God creating the very words of scripture in the same way that he breathed onto the dust and created mankind?
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- It's as if this man acts like second Timothy chapter three doesn't exist. As if we are not taught in Psalm 1830 that God's ways are perfect and his word proves true.
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- This God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
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- It's as if we just act this way without being taught these very things from God's word. And then we, what, idolize the
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- Bible? How can you idolize the Bible? What does that even mean? Like, what does he mean by that? Doesn't explain it.
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- Oh, you idolize the Bible because you don't untether God from it. And then he says, well, I'll critique the
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- Bible, but not God, based on the Bible's flaws. Wait, which flaws?
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- No idea. And then he says, and that invalidates your faith because your identity is wrapped up in your faith.
- 21:05
- Yes, sir, it is. Yes, sir. That is the whole point of being a Christian. How is it possible to be a follower of Jesus Christ, trusting in him for your salvation and not root your own identity in that?
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- What does this person think you should root your own identity in anyway? Your haircut, your favorite movie?
- 21:24
- Has this person never read when it says Colossians 3, verse 3, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
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- Verse 5, put to death therefore what is earthly in you. Verse 11, here there is not
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- Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave -free, but Christ is all and in all.
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- That's why Jesus said to die to yourself and follow after him. The whole point of being a disciple of your rabbi is to be as like him as you can possibly be.
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- That's why Romans 8, 29 says that we must be conformed to the image of the son. That's why John the
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- Baptist said in John 3, 30 that Jesus must increase and he must decrease. It's because when you believe in Jesus and become his disciple,
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- Jesus is your identity. The fact that you believe and have faith in him is what makes you found in him.
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- I'm very surprised this person does not know this stuff. I mean, again, to me, this is, it's basic Christianity 101.
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- Hey, real quick, I'm so grateful that you're watching. If I've earned the right to get your sub, I'd love it if you would just click the like and subscribe button.
- 22:31
- It would really help me to get the video out to more and more people. I really do appreciate you. One of the main reasons why
- 22:37
- I'm no longer Christian, I don't believe in the Christian version of God or any religious version of God.
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- I don't believe that the Bible was sent from a God down to us as God's word or there's any truth to it or anything like that.
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- I don't believe in Jesus as being a savior, a redeemer, a healer or any of the things that's associated with those topics.
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- The number one reason why I'm no longer any of those, I don't believe in those things any longer is because when
- 23:08
- I did believe in it, I gave it all of my belief, all of it.
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- I poured every single ounce of my faith and my belief in those things.
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- I believed the promises of God that God would provide, that God would heal, that God would take care of people, that God would protect people, that you can confess
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- God's word over your life and these promises in God's word would manifest themselves.
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- I believed in these things and I poured every single ounce of my faith into these things and I expected these promises at some point after many, many, many, many years of believing
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- I expected that somewhere along the line, this God would say, wow, look at his faith.
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- He really believes me. He really trusts my word. Let me now perform my word and let it do what it says it will do.
- 24:09
- I immediately recognize a couple of key buzzwords and buzz phrases in this video. Did you catch it?
- 24:14
- Let me play it one more time. I believe the promises of God that God would provide, that God would heal, that God would take care of people, that God would protect people, that you can confess
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- God's word over your life and these promises in God's word would manifest themselves.
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- I believed. This sounds like the word of faith movement, right? God will heal.
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- We just need to manifest God's promises when we confess these things over our life. That's what the word of faith teaches.
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- Word of faith movement came out of guys like Kenneth Hagin and E .W. Kenyon and essentially it trades on the notion that God and his blessings are ready and available to anyone who by using the force of their own faith can claim these blessings, the blessings that scripture supposedly promises like health and wealth.
- 25:04
- It sounds like that's what this man was taken with, these specific ideas, which by the way, are completely unbiblical.
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- And I've watched not only in my life, but I've watched countless of people, lives be affected by nothing from those promises over and over and over and over and over and over over and over and over again.
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- So I started asking questions. And my first question was, if a
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- God needs this much faith in order to do something, you know, because without faith, it's impossible to please
- 25:39
- God. If a God needs this much faith to help people that are hurting, if people have to confess.
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- That wasn't the question he should have asked. Over and over and over and over again and believe for long periods of time while they're suffering, while they're hurting, if they need that much faith from a
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- God in order for this God to do something to help people, then there's something wrong with that God, not the people.
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- And that's what sent me on my journey of really looking at this stuff with a different set of eyes and listening to it with a different set of ears.
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- And when I did that, the whole entire, Jesus included, the entire house of cards came crumbling down.
- 26:30
- So a couple of things. First, let me see if we have this person's argument correct. He asked
- 26:36
- God for something on multiple occasions. God didn't give him what he asked for.
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- A good God would have given him what he asked for. Therefore, God does not exist. Is that the argument in a nutshell?
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- Have I captured it? By the way, I'm not trying to trivialize what this man asked God to do. Maybe he asked for money because he couldn't pay his bills, you know?
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- That's a real struggle that I just, I don't want to make light of that, okay? Maybe the man asked
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- God to end his pain because he was in the midst of tremendous suffering. I mean, these are legitimate struggles, okay?
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- But God didn't give him what he asked for, and he says a good God would have, therefore,
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- God does not exist. Well, there's a third option here. Well, actually, there's more than three, but there's an obvious third option.
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- What if God thought it was best not to give him what he asked for? Even in the midst of trial and suffering,
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- Nate? Yes, even in the midst of these things. This is absolutely something the Bible teaches.
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- The question is, why is this not an option for this man? Notice he says
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- God needs people's faith in order to do something about their struggles. Where in the
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- Bible is that taught? Any verse at all that teaches this idea? Guess what? It's nowhere in the scriptures.
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- You know what is? James 4 .3 says, you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.
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- Verse six goes on to say this, but he gives more grace. Therefore, it says God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
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- No doubt the Bible teaches us to pray, okay? But it also clearly says that there are scenarios where when we do pray, we could do so with improper motives, and therefore, we do not receive what we ask for.
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- And that's just one issue, all right? So whereas in James, the issue is pride, in the
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- Psalms, the issue is not being right with God at all. Psalm 66, verse 18 says, if I had cherished iniquity in my heart, guess what?
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- The Lord would not have listened. In the Proverbs, the issue is uncharitability. Proverbs 21, verse 13, whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.
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- First Peter tells us husbands that we must honor our wives because they are fellow heirs of God's grace.
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- But we must do this, or our prayers will not be answered. Verse seven, likewise, husbands live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel since they are heirs with you of the grace of life.
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- Here it is, so that your prayers may not be hindered. Clearly, there are scenarios where God will not answer our prayers.
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- That means that we, as human beings, must get used to the idea that God is not a vending machine. That every single time we ask for something, even if we think it's for a good reason,
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- God may not say yes. And we know this intuitively, especially those of us who are parents. You know, do kids get everything they ask their parents for?
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- Of course not. Now, at some point, one of you is gonna think, well, wait a second, but what about we're in pain, right? So when we're in pain and we're going through a huge difficulty and we pray, what about that?
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- Well, here's where it really helps to identify an assumption that this person is making over here.
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- And many of us make when we have this kind of discussion, okay? But it's this assumption that must be questioned.
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- And here's the assumption. Humans should never experience pain and suffering. Therefore, all pain and suffering should be avoided.
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- Can you see that that is this man's assumption in this TikTok? The question is, is that assumption true?
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- And is that even what the Bible teaches at all? And the answer is no. Jesus, as a matter of fact, taught the complete opposite.
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- John 16, verse 33, Jesus says, I have said these things to you that in me, you may have peace.
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- In the world, you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. Not only that, brace yourselves,
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- Christians, but when you do go through a trial, it's God's will for you. First Peter 4 .19
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- says, therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will, wait, what?
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- Those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good.
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- As a matter of fact, a few verses earlier here, Peter says, when these trials take place, don't be surprised.
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- That is the proper understanding in Christianity of suffering. Does that sound like health, wealth, and prosperity all the time?
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- You know, the word of faith doctrine? Somebody might ask, why, Nate? Why would God want us to go through pain and suffering, right?
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- Pay close attention, friends, because there is redemption in it. Jesus said, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it will not bear fruit.
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- When we suffer well, our bodies may be affected, but our souls grow and mature in the spirit.
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- We gain supernatural endurance. We gain an eternal perspective. We sometimes can see
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- God's redemptive hand of activity through the suffering. We become wiser when we suffer well.
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- And that's the whole point to being a human being, ladies and gentlemen. That's the whole ballgame right there.
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- It's not to get our immediate creature comfort satisfied and get a career, a spouse, and a house, and never not one time suffer or go through pain.
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- It's about growing up. It's about becoming the human beings that God made us to be. By the way,
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- I don't, these are not cheap words. I say this from personal experience of my own suffering and my family's suffering as well.
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- This is not abstract and it's not a game. We all need to understand what it means to suffer well, because there is redemption on the other side of our obedience through it.
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- Does that mean that God never heals us? Does that mean that God never answers our prayers? Absolutely not.
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- He answers prayers all the time, but the difference between this man's expectation and what the Bible actually teaches is that there is something far greater than our physical health, far greater than our physical needs being met, and that is the surpassing power of knowing
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- God and having eternal life. And because that is the case, God will often not swoop in and solve our immediate problems so that we can gain this spiritual perspective.
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- That is what is key in this life, to understand what it means to live by faith and to not put your trust in your health and wealth.
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- The word of faith movement is a wicked unbiblical doctrine. And I wish somebody would have discipled this man properly.
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- Every day my brain breaks when I think about the fact that Christianity is built off of a contradiction. The same concept that got
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- Satan kicked out of heaven, Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden is the same concept that made Christ qualify to die on the cross for humanity and the same concept humanity has to follow to be qualified to get into f***ing heaven, being more like God.
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- Now people will say - Whoa, just so I'm following her line of thought. She said that the same thing that got
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- Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden is the same thing that qualified Jesus to die on the cross and it's the same thing that qualifies people to get into heaven, and that's being more like God.
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- So that's why Jesus went to the cross? That's what got
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- Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden? I'm not following any of this. People will say, well, Satan was disobedient, but nobody will ask, how did
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- Satan have the ability to be disobedient if sin never existed in heaven and disobedience is sin?
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- That's a real question to f***ing ask. Nobody ever asked, how was it after Adam and Eve ate of the fruit in the garden the first thing that they experienced was guilt and shame when the fruit was supposed to make them like God?
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- You mean to tell me this mother f***er walking around feeling guilty and shameful? Tell you Christ was perfect, but my question is, why does the
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- Bible depict God's perfect as being superior to Christ perfect? And if they are God in three person, why didn't
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- Christ have the same knowing that God did? And better yet, why didn't the God of the Old Testament know that he was gonna become the
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- God of the New Testament and have a change of heart and realize he needs to send his son to die like there wasn't another way through love or something like peace,
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- I don't f***ing know, to get his people back to him instead of just smiting people for century after century.
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- Aye, aye, aye. That's a lot. Okay, let's go back. First, she said that being more like God is what got
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- Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden. That's not what got Adam and Eve kicked out. What got Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden was their willingness to be more like a beast.
- 34:40
- You gotta think to yourself, why was it a serpent that tempted Eve? You ever asked that question? Why not just a regular angel or a divine being that was part of God's heavenly council, which is what we're told
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- Satan was originally? Why not just appear in this way? And the answer is because the temptation trades along being led by your desires.
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- This is exactly what beasts do. Whenever a beast, you know, like a lion or a bear or a serpent, whenever a beast is hungry, it feeds, right?
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- And in many cases, kills and then feeds. Whenever a beast wants to procreate, it just does it, right?
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- Maybe the partner doesn't want it, doesn't matter, they just procreate. Beasts are led around by their desires. The reason why it's a serpent in the garden talking to Eve is because it is slyly tempting
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- Eve to be like a beast and to simply be led and satisfied by her creaturely desires.
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- Look at where this specifically falls apart for Eve. Genesis three, verse six. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be, here it is, desired to make one wise.
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- As she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. So Adam's not off the hook either, okay?
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- But here it is, it's the moment that she let her desire drive her actions. That's what caused her to disobey
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- God. And that is the very dichotomy that we find ourselves in even today. We are either going to follow after our own desires, our own creaturely desires, or we're gonna follow after God's desires for us.
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- This person's thought process is not representative of what the scripture teaches at all. She also wonders about why
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- Jesus went to the cross. Well, the Bible says that he went to the cross to restore relationship to God again, the relationship that humanity once had with him in the garden of Eden.
- 36:27
- As a matter of fact, when Jesus is talking to the thief on the cross and the thief says, Luke 23, verse 42, he says,
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- Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.
- 36:42
- You realize the word paradise there in the original language means garden. Jesus died on the cross so that we can all go back to the dynamic that we once had before Adam and Eve disobeyed.
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- That is what is promised to us if we believe in Jesus. Much of what this person said is convoluted and is based on nothing that we find in the scripture.
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- I mean, at one point she asked, why did Satan sin when there was no sin in heaven? Who said that?
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- Where does the Bible teach that? Nowhere. She said, why is God's perfect superior to Christ's perfect?
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- I'm not even entirely sure what that means. She also said, why does Jesus have the same knowing as God did?
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- I mean, this is all basic Trinitarian doctrine, right?
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- This is like Trinity 101. First of all, the Bible clearly teaches that Christ subordinates to the father in Trinitarian relationship, even though he is equal to the father.
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- Philippians 2 verse six says, Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
- 38:01
- Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
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- Lord to the glory of God the father. We are taught that Jesus is equal to the father in eternity past, but that he emptied himself at a point in time in the past, he submitted himself to condescend to earth, to come in the likeness of a human servant in order to number one, be glorified through this sacrifice, right?
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- Jesus' obedience to go to the cross, and then number two, so that the father would also receive the glory because Jesus subordinates to the father.
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- And the whole point of this passage is that we should be living our lives reflecting this kind of interaction with each other.
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- This kind of subordination that Jesus displayed for the father, we should be doing the same thing in our lives.
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- Why? So that our lives speak theology to the rest of the world. You see what I'm saying? These are extremely deep theological concepts that can neither be explained nor understood in 60 seconds.
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- And yet here we are in TikTok and people are just going to town on Christianity. And a lot of them are doing it knowing full well that others are struggling and questioning and will likely be influenced by these garbage hot takes.
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- Whenever I do these kinds of videos, I try. I don't know if I succeed, but I try as hard as I can to differentiate the person from the ideas, okay?
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- We're taught this by the way in 2 Corinthians 10, three through five. We destroy not people, but ideas and every lofty argument raised up against the knowledge of God.
- 39:44
- And yeah, I don't do this perfectly. You're getting my real immediate thoughts in the moment after a ton of coffee, of course.
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- But there's something a little different about these kinds of videos, these deconstruction videos as opposed to the woke stuff that I've done in the past, the progressive stuff.
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- And I'm trying to like find words to put to it, right? These folks, I feel more strongly their need to be properly discipled, if that makes sense.
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- It just seems like a lot of these folks, they missed the boat in some cases by a mile.
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- And now they're here, they're railing against something that they did not truly grasp.
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- I could be wrong about that. But anyway, that's all again to say, let's just pray for these folks.
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- In the same way that we see them making videos against Christianity. Hey, you know, maybe one day we'll see them making videos repenting and following after Jesus boldly.
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- That was me, okay? That was my testimony. That is my testimony. And that's my prayer for them as well.
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- All right, now it's your turn. How would you have responded to these particular scenarios? Let me know in the comments below.
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- I'd love to get your thoughts as well. Now that you've seen this video, I trust that God is going to bring real folks around you where you'll get to respond, hopefully in some similar ways that I did.
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- Well, if you made it this far, thank you very much. You should definitely consider joining my Patreon community where you can get early access to videos like this, exclusive access to videos that I do not post on YouTube at all.
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- We're reading the Bible. We're going through the Bible right now together, me and the Patreon community. So anyway, just click the link to my
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- Patreon below for that. As always, I will return soon with more videos, but in the meantime, I'll say bye for now.