F4F | Andy Stanley's Bogus Conspiracy Theory RE Creeds

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseboro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. Now, in the archives of the audio podcast of Fighting for the

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Faith, we've done quite a few reviews of the false teaching of Andy Stanley.

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And we're going to go back in time a little bit. This is from a few years ago when he was teaching on the so -called temple model.

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And we're going to note that Andy Stanley has concocted a conspiracy theory that is absolutely easily demonstrably false as it relates to the rise of creeds within the

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Christian faith. So, in this installment of Fighting for the Faith, we'll be listening to a large portion of this sermon from a few years ago.

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The name of it is called Recycled. And we're going to kind of walk you through all the different ways in which he's not only twisting scripture, telling false history, and we'll take a look at what the scriptures teach and we'll do a little bit of patristic work along the way.

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So, lots to do there. So, let's whirl up the desktop and let's pull up my web browser and let me explain what we're going to be listening to to begin this installment.

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Like I said, we're going to listen to a large swath, probably about 15, 17 minutes of this sermon.

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I'm not speeding it up. I'm not slowing it down. We're keeping it at normal pace. And in this early portion of this sermon, which is not a sermon, by the way, in order for it to be a sermon, he needs to be preaching on a biblical text.

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Which biblical text is he preaching on? He ain't preaching on a biblical text. Instead, he's spinning out a conspiracy history narrative.

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It's not real history. It's false history. And he's basically, in previous installments in this particular sermon series, set up this idea that Christianity stands in juxtaposition to something that he has labeled the temple model.

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Temple model equals bad. Temple model bad. Holy places, holy men, holy books, things like this.

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You got to get rid of all of that. And the only thing according to Andy Stanley that matters is love.

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And doctrine doesn't matter at all. Not a bit. So, you'll kind of see that as this plays out.

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So, in this early portion of the sermon, he's going to lay out what he believes is the proper foundation of Christianity.

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In conspiracy narratives like this, you know, you can see this in, like,

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Freemasonry. Freemasonry has these conspiracy narratives as it relates to ancient Christianity.

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You don't know what I mean. Take a look at some of the interesting legends that get kicked forward in, like, the

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Da Vinci Code. These are examples of, you know, of Masonic or Gnostic conspiracy narratives.

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And oddly enough, his idea is similar. But also, you see this in Mormonism. Mormonism, in their way of telling the story,

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Joseph Smith was earnestly desiring to understand, to seek for God. And he prayed,

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God, which denomination do I join? And well, wouldn't you know it, God appeared to him and told him, don't join any of them, they're all apostate.

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And so, he restored biblical Christianity to the earth, which according to Mormons, disappeared shortly after the death of the apostles.

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Oddly enough, Andy Stanley is engaging in some kind of similar retooling, twisting, retelling of history that's completely false.

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By the way, we'll demonstrate some of like, the egregious factual errors that he is engaging in.

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But the idea then is that he's got to explain how come Christianity today doesn't look like what he's describing in its pristine state.

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And so, this conspiracy narrative is going to take us through Constantine and Constantine is going to become the big bad meany guy who's responsible for taking

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Christianity back to the temple model or something like that. I think you get the idea, but let's listen in.

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When Jesus Christ showed up on the planet, he launched something absolutely brand new.

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It was not temple 201 or 301. It was not a knockoff of the Jewish religion.

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It was something that was, you know, sort of a version of something that had ever happened before, that Jesus said,

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I have come to do something entirely new. And whereas the temple model is always geographically specific, every nation had their own version of the temple.

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Every nation had their own version of a religion that looked a lot like their neighbor's religions. Jesus said,

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I have come to launch something that is for all people of all nations for all time.

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Now, no, he's not quoting a biblical text. I feel like in a minute,

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I'm going to need a biblical text to back that up. You know what I'm saying here? So we got a problem.

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And that is, is that he's supposedly paraphrasing Jesus, but from which text?

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He established a new covenant, a new arrangement between God and man. He established, he gave a new command.

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He said, every temple system has lots and lots and lots of laws. I want to give you one command.

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And this one command is - every temple system has lots and lots and lots of laws. So I'm going to only give you one.

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So no, he is literally putting words in the mouth of Christ, as if Jesus was basically saying, we got to scrap the whole temple model, which totally evacuates the temple of what his real meaning is, that the temple of the ancient world in Jerusalem was a type and shadow pointing to Christ, our once for all sacrifice for our sins, who also happens to be our high priest, and our king, and the prophet that Moses prophesied.

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You get what I'm saying here? It's to be the filter through which you view all other commands. This one command is going to serve for you as an ethic through which you make all your decisions.

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Okay, now note, new covenant, new command, new ethic, new movement. So we can kind of see this, how this is playing out.

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Commands are law. The gospel is different than commands.

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The gospel is the good news that Christ has bled and died for our sins, that he rose bodily from the grave on the third day and appeared to the eyewitnesses, which include the 12 and more than 500 people, including the

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Apostle Paul. And so you're going to note here, there's something very fishy going on here.

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And that is, is that this is a form of historical reductionism. It's also a form of theological reductionism, reducing everything to commands and ethics based on love.

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But love is the law. It is not the gospel. And then you're going to note that he is here going to be reducing the church to a movement.

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And that's an important bit. The reason why he's reducing it to a movement is because if the church is an institution, then it has offices.

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And so what he's trying to do is get rid of offices. We don't want holy men. We only want the ethic of love.

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We don't want any dogma that can somehow get in the way of love.

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So this is his, well, recasting of Christianity, according to his own conspiracy narrative.

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When you aren't sure what to do, you ask, what does love require of you? When you aren't sure what to do, you stop and pause and you ask the question, what does love require of you?

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And he launched a new movement. He said, I'm going to establish a new ecclesia, a new gathering, a new congregation.

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And unfortunately, instead of the word simply being translated to gathering or assembly or congregation, a

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German word was stuck into our English text, a German word that meant house of the

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Lord. But Jesus didn't come to establish a place. To the contrary, Jesus came to establish a brand new movement of people.

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Then why does the church have offices, the pastoral office in particular? I would note here, you know, see, already

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I'm wanting to get into some biblical texts. Let me do this. I'll go to Acts chapter 20. All right.

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Acts chapter 20. Let's see here. Eutychius raised from the dead.

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Ah, here we go. Paul's farewell address to the pastors in the church at Ephesus, right?

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And so, let's see here. Paul, in his admonition to them, said, pay careful attention to yourselves in the flock in which the

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Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he have attained with his own blood.

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So, overseers, well, this is an office in the church. In fact, if I were to just do a quick search, office,

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I'm going to do a search for office and we're going to keep it to the epistles. All right.

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1 Timothy 3 verse 1, the saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.

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Office of overseer. So, you'll note then that guys like Andy Stanley, who are, he was like originally part of the original guys in the emergent church movement.

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Yeah, that's absolutely true. Learned that from Doug Paget when I interviewed him years and years and years ago regarding where the emergent church came from.

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Andy Stanley was identified very early on as one of the guys that quote, got it. All right.

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So, we got a problem here and that is that the church is not a movement. It is an institution and it has offices.

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Office of apostle, which nobody fills today. And then you got office of overseer, these are your pastors.

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And so, here he's reducing everything down because temple model equals bad. You don't want guys who are called to be pastors filling an office.

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It was for all people, all ethnic groups, all nations, all generations, forever and forever.

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A movement where love would replace law -keeping. Where self -love will replace law -keeping.

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The law is summed up in two commands. Two. Love the

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Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.

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That is not the gospel. That is the law. And we are all condemned by the fact that we do not love

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God perfectly and we do not love our neighbor perfectly either. Far from it on either case.

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But you're going to note here, he just engaged in a category error. And the category error is he basically says, a church that no longer requires law -keeping, but instead love.

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Love is the law. In fact, I'm going to throw this into the mix. Okay. Two. All right.

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Hang on a second here. I'm going to do on these two and I'm going to search in the gospels.

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Okay. Let's see here. No one can serve two masters, no two sparrows.

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All right. All right. What I'm looking for is Christ saying that basically that there are two commands on these two.

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Here it is. Matthew 22 verse 40. I'm kind of throwing this into the mix. Matthew 22.

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So, Jesus says, this is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. So, when Jesus is talking about the two commandments, that's law.

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That's not gospel. So, here I find it very fascinating that no mention of the gospel is brought up in this regard.

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And instead, Andy Stanley is behaving as if and kind of talking as if somehow love is different than law keeping because law is all about loving

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God and loving neighbor. Let me back it up a little bit. Listen again. Nations, all generations, forever and forever.

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A movement where love would replace law keeping, where self -sacrifice would replace animal sacrifice, where the vertical, the vertical...

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Self -sacrifice would replace animal sacrifice? I thought Jesus' sacrifice of laying down His life,

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His sacrifice is the once for all sacrifice. So, note here, again, what's missing is conspicuous.

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It's the gospel. It's not here. And self -sacrifice is absolutely what

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Christians are called to by virtue of the example of Christ who laid down His life so that we can be forgiven and pardoned.

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Would be measured by the integrity of the horizontal. Jesus would say to His followers, if you are at the temple and you have something that's wrong between you and God, but you...

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Okay, this is a synopsis, a paraphrase from the Sermon on the

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Mount. Recognize that you also have something wrong between you and your brother. God can wait.

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Go make things right with your brother. This was unheard of because this was something brand new.

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The Apostle Paul came along after Jesus. The Apostle Paul was a product of the temple.

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The Apostle Paul was a Pharisee. He was the Pharisee of Pharisees. The Apostle Paul steps onto the pages of history as someone committed to stamping out the church.

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He was a type A personality. He took things to the extreme and he didn't wait around for everybody else to join him.

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And on the road to Damascus, as he was going to arrest some more Christians, he met the one who instigated the church, the

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Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And the Apostle Paul became a convert to Christianity, a spokesperson for Christianity.

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And he more than anyone else understood this, that you dare not mix the old with the new.

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That is an incorrect summary of what Paul taught.

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And we'll do a little bit of work here. So if we were to go to like Acts chapter 15, right?

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The Jerusalem Council. Here's what it says. Some men came down from Judea and they were teaching the brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

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And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.

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So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia, Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the

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Gentiles and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them.

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But some believers who belong to the party of the Pharisees rose up and says, it is necessary to circumcise them in order them to keep the law of Moses.

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Now we're talking about the feast days. We're talking about circumcision. These are known as the

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Judaizers. So the apostles and elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate,

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Peter stood up and said to them, brothers, you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you that by my mouth, the

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Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God who knows the heart bore witness to them by giving them the

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Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. And he made no distinction between them and us having cleansed their hearts, how?

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By faith. And here's where the big distinction is. Paul wasn't making a big distinction between the quote, temple model and the new covenant.

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He was making a distinction between salvation by grace through faith or salvation by works, by keeping the law, the

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Mosaic covenant. The Mosaic covenant is a law. There is no gospel in it.

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So, we got a problem here. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

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But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.

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And so, all the assembly fell silent. They listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the

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Gentiles. And after they finished speaking, James replied, brothers, listen to me. Simon has related how

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God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for his name. And with this, the words of the prophets agree just as is written, after this,

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I will return and I will build the tent of David that has fallen. I will rebuild its ruins and I will restore it.

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And that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord and that all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who make these things known from of old.

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Therefore, at my judgment, we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from what has been strangled and from blood.

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So, you'll note that the Judaizers lost the first church council,

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Council of Jerusalem. And then the book of Galatians also addresses this in great detail.

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In Galatians chapter 1, Paul writing to the churches of Galatia who had come under the influence of the false heretics that they are, the

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Judaizers, Paul says, listen, I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

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Not that there is another, but there are some that trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. And then he says this, even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

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And as we have said before, so I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel that is contrary to the one you've received, let it, let him be accursed.

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The Greek word is anathema, anathema, and that means to be damned. And the book of Galatians isn't written against the so -called temple model.

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It's written against the heresy that we are saved by our works, by our law keeping.

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We are saved by our love for God, love for neighbor, that's law.

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No, we are saved by grace through faith, apart from works, right?

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Now, works always accompany true saving faith, always. This is what scripture is very clear, but you'll note that in his, in Andy Stanley's historical rewrite,

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Paul understood that temple model bad, don't mix temple model with the new covenant.

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That is a false historical narrative. Because a little bit of temple thinking, a little bit of temple model thinking mixed with this new thing, this new ecclesia, this new

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Jesus movement would have the potential to ruin it. A little bit of the wrong thing could impact the entire thing.

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And in his letter to the Galatians, to this Roman area that we call

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Galatia, he wrote a verse last week that we camped out on that is unthinkable in terms of the implications. Here's what he said.

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He said, the only thing that counts, now this is a Hebrew scholar, this is someone that… Petey All right.

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So, the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. And so, this is the big proof text of Paul somehow being against, quote, the temple model.

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Well, let's put it in context. The three rules for sound biblical exegesis are context, context, and context.

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And I want you to see what's going on here in the context. Paul, here in Galatians 5 says, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

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Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Talking about what? Going back to the law.

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Look, I, Paul, say to you, if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.

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I testify again that every man who accepts circumcision, that he's now obligated to keep the whole law.

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You are severed from Christ. This is what Paul says. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law.

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You have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly await for the hope of righteousness.

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For in Christ, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

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Now, I want to point this out because this is really sneaky and snaky on the part of Andy Stanley.

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Note here, he has reproduced Galatians 5 verse 6 out of context and has turned a sub -portion of the sentence into a whole sentence.

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Note the capital T. The only thing that counts as faith expressing itself through love.

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Going back to the context, watch what it says. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

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And why is Paul emphasizing faith? Because it's faith in Christ.

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Faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins, for reconciliation with God, for justification, not faith plus your law -keeping.

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It is faith only. And so then, how does faith then work? In love for neighbor.

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Christians are not set free in order to sin. We are set free from sin and now the law informs us what our good works are to be, right?

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Love is the fulfilling of the law, but as a Christian, you recognize your law -keeping doesn't save you, you are saved to love neighbor and to love

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God. That's freedom. That's why James says the law is the law of perfect freedom.

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So, we got some big problems here and that is that the big proof text that's appeared here in this sermon is like intentionally misquoted and data is omitted because if you put the data in the context, it would contradict his concepts that he's trying to teach regarding the temple model.

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Memorize the Torah. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love, specifically love towards other people.

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This was a brand new thing in the south, we would say it's a whole nother thing. And he didn't stop.

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Where's the gospel, Andy? The apostle Paul said something that if you grew up in church, you've heard a dozen or hundreds of times.

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He said this, and again, for people who, he wrote this, this was in a letter to the Christians who lived in Corinth, they were both

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Jewish and Gentile. The Jewish believers in Corinth would from time to time make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to go up on the temple mount in order to worship there on the mountain of God.

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The pagan Gentiles who were becoming Christians would simply go down the street to their temples to worship their pagan gods as they tried to figure out how to transition from paganism to Christianity.

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And to that group, the apostle... So you got proto -Christians still attending a pagan temple and trying to figure out how to transition into Christianity?

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The book of Acts doesn't describe anybody like that. Paul had the audacity to write. He said, do you not know that your bodies are temples?

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What? Your bodies are temples? Wait, no. A temple is a place

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I go. So, let me, did you, did you note here no context? From paganism to Christianity?

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And to that group, the apostle Paul had the audacity to write. He said, do you not know that your bodies are temples?

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No context provided here. He's created the context of this text by ripping it from its context.

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And now the context is Paul really wants to drive home this idea. The temple model has to go.

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That's not what's going on in 1 Corinthians 6. So, let's take a look at that, 1

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Corinthians chapter 6. And so, let's see here.

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Let's, I know that the verse in question is 19, but we're going to apply, again, the three rules for sound biblical exegesis, context, context, and context.

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And we're going to put it into a bigger, broader context. So, Paul starting 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9, do you not know that the unrighteous, that they will not inherit the kingdom of God, do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

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And such were some of you, but you were washed. You were sanctified.

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There's a reference to your baptism. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the

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Spirit of our God. Now, all things are lawful for me. Not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.

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Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food. And God will destroy both one and the other.

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The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the

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Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.

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Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?

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Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her?

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For as it is written, the two will become one flesh, but he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

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Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

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Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?

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You are not your own, for you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body."

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So, when we put this into context, note the context is all about fleeing sexual immorality.

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In the early context, it lays out all the different types of sexual immorality and other things, talking about the unrighteousness of that, and then

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Paul reminding them that they are temples of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit within them, and this is in the context of what?

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Fleeing sexual immorality. Now, note, Andy Stanley here hasn't made even a hint that the context here is really about fleeing sexual immorality.

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Instead, by quoting these words out of context with dot, dot, dot, the ellipses here, do you not know that your bodies are temples?

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Okay, yeah, and right, that was spoken in the context of sexual immorality.

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But note what he's doing here. I'm going to, again, back this up just a little bit. This is being ripped out of its context and placed into this false conspiracy narrative that he's creating and concocting that, oh, biblical

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Christianity in the time of Paul was all about getting rid of that temple model. Holy men, holy places, holy book, right?

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Sacred men, sacred places, sacred books. And Paul was a big vehement guy against this and he, and according to Andy Stanley, when

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Paul said your bodies are temples, the response from the Church of Corinth would have been, whoa, my mind is blown.

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I thought temples were holy places. You're saying I'm holy? Again, the context is totally missing on purpose.

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Temples to worship their pagan gods as they tried to figure out how to transition from paganism to Christianity.

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And to that group, the Apostle Paul had the audacity to write. He said, do you not know that your bodies are temples?

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What? Your bodies are temples? Wait, no. A temple is a place I go. Paul said that was the old way of thinking.

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No, he didn't. Paul nowhere said that's the old way of thinking.

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You just made that up, Andy. That was the old version. That was the temple model. Jesus has done something entirely new.

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You are as sacred as any piece of dirt you have ever placed your foot on.

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You will never go anywhere. The point Paul was making is you have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you.

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Your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, do not engage in sexual immorality.

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More sacred than you are or the person to your left or to your right. You are a portable temple.

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How can I be a portable temple? He said, do you not know that your bodies are temples of the

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Holy Spirit to which the Jews would say, wait a minute, no, the Spirit of God indwells the holy of holies.

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Paul would say that was the old way. Paul would say that is the old, where does Paul say that's the old way?

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So, note here, we got Paul engaging in a dialogue that he never engaged in. Paul saying things he never said because, you know,

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Paul was never an outspoken critic of the temple model. This is really sick.

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This is creepy, weird as far as what he's doing. Twisting of scripture, twisting of history.

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Paul The new covenant has come. The holy of holies is of no significance anymore. It played its role.

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It was the cocoon that birthed this brand new movement. And you are as holy as the holy of holies.

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You are a portable temple and you are indwelt by the very same Spirit of God that indwelt the temple in Jerusalem.

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And the Christian to your left and the Christian to your right, the slave to your left, the slave owner to your right, the man in front of you, the woman behind you, the child that's running in your directions, they too are sacred in the eyes of God.

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This was mind boggling. Yeah, it's true that regardless of station, you know, whether you're rich or poor, male or female, slave or free, everybody who is in Christ is loved by God equally.

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God is not a respecter of persons. They're all made holy by Christ. Mind -blowing, brand new, nothing about the old moving into the new.

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And what's so fascinating is that the church got off to an extraordinary, an extraordinary start. One of the things

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I love to do because I'm so such a geek about this is I love to read the ancient literature. So apparently the church got off to a good start, but things went wrong.

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So this is where now the narrative changes and all the evil is placed on Constantine who drug

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Christianity back into the so -called temple model. What pagans said about the

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Christians, and there's so much of that literature around, they watched the Christians and they couldn't understand the

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Christians because the Christians would go out into the streets and take the children that had been abandoned. Because in Roman culture, if the child wasn't healthy, if it was a girl, children were abandoned all the time and the children would bring, the

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Christians would bring the children in. The Christians would not only take care of their own poor, they would take care of the poor

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Gentiles and pagans as well. And the pagan Roman Greek thinking culture just couldn't contain the thought, couldn't imagine that these people would actually one another, one another, that they would actually love one another.

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They would actually care for one another. They would forgive one another. But the thing that really got the world's attention is that Christians were not afraid of death because they served a resurrected savior.

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And again, the Christian community began to gain traction. They had no Bible. The Gentile Christians didn't even have an

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Old Testament. Lie. This is just absolutely a lie. Look at the preaching of the

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Apostle Paul and what would they do when they went into a town? The first place they would go to preach the gospel was where?

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A synagogue. Right? And what did the, what did they have in a synagogue?

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An Old Testament. So, for him to say that the early Gentile Christians didn't even have a

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Bible, that is absolutely false. And you'll note that Christians, just like Jews, are people of the book.

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And so, Christians would study the scriptures and many Christians, and when

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Paul would go on his missionary journeys, there would be a mixture of pagan, former pagan

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Christians, who are now Gentiles, who've become believers in Christ, as well as Jewish believers.

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The two come up together and this idea, this claim that they didn't even have a Bible, absolutely false.

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All they had were stories of Jesus, and then 25 years or so after Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, the

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Apostle Paul's letters begin to circulate through the churches. Yes, the letters of the

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Apostle Paul began circulating. Why? Because the churches believed the

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Apostle Paul's writings were scripture. That's why they copied them and circulated them.

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They only had copies. They only had this one and that one. There was no literature, there was no canon, there was just...

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Again, this is false, okay? Really, this shows an absolute rejection on his part of how the canon was formed and what a vital role the scriptures, the

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Old Testament and the work -in -progress New Testament were within the churches at the time.

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An extraordinary faith that was fueled by love one another if you forget everything else.

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Faith fueled by love one another rather than faith fueled by Christ demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners,

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Christ died for our sins. So, the gospel isn't the fuel here.

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It's all the love one another. Sanctification is the driving factor, but not justification.

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This makes no sense. You are a portable temple gathered with other portable temples, and you put the person next to you ahead of yourself, and the church gained traction, and then something extraordinary happened.

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In AD 70, the Jewish temple was actually destroyed, and ancient Judaism came to an end.

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It was as if God had physically in the world punctuated the fact that the temple model is no more.

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Its purposes have been served. How come none of the apostles mentioned the so -called temple model?

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How come it's not a biblical category? Because this isn't a biblical teaching at all.

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How come none of the patristic, you know, the early church fathers railed against the so -called temple model?

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Because that wasn't the divide. The divide was salvation by works or salvation by faith.

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That they pointed toward the Messiah, they pointed toward Jesus, and Jesus himself said, I have come not to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law, and the entire law can be summed up in two rules.

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Love God and demonstrate your love for God by your love for other people. Right. Two rules.

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Love God, love others. That's the law. That's what condemns us.

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That's not the gospel. The gospel is the good news that Christ has died for our sins. And it was extraordinary, and people who had nothing in common found that in Christ they had everything in common.

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And then something else extraordinary happened on October the 28th in the year 312.

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So now we're going to fast forward to 312. Okay.

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Emperor Constantine was on his way to do battle. The big meany head himself who drug

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Christianity back into the temple model. That's why he's telling the story. This is a conspiracy narrative.

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With his co -emperor Maxentius to find out who would be the supreme ruler of the

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Roman Empire. And as history tells us, and as many of you learned in school at some point in your life, on his way in the middle of the day, he had a vision of a cross in the sky beyond the sun.

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Some say he heard a voice. Some say he simply saw an inscription. But he either heard or he read this, in this sign conquer.

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And he stopped and he painted crosses on some of the shields of some of his soldiers. He went to battle and he was victorious.

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And the Christians hailed him as a conqueror. And suddenly his faith expanded.

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And suddenly he began to consider the one true God of the Christians. And suddenly the Christians began to gain status in the kingdom.

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And in this victory, and then there's all this artwork that you can find everywhere, in this victory celebration, suddenly the cross became a symbol, not of crucifixion in general.

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The cross became a symbol of the Christian crucifixion, or the crucifixion of Jesus.

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And what was birthed, even though the phrase wouldn't be used until the 12th or 13th century, was what we now know as the

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Holy Roman Empire. Absolutely false. So with the ascension of Constantine, it was not the creation of, quote, the

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Holy Roman Empire. Even Wikipedia, which isn't the most scholarly of resources, knows better.

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Let me show you. Holy Roman Empire, right? This is Wikipedia. Not to be confused with the

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Roman Empire, or the Western Roman Empire, or the

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Byzantine Empire. Constantine was not the creator of the

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Holy Roman Empire. This is something that, well, has its origin in the

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Middle Ages, long after Constantine. From the ascension of Otto I in 962 until the 12th century, the empire was the most powerful monarchy in Europe, right?

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If you were to take a look at, you know, like their history, 962, there's the Holy Roman Empire, not 1034, 1181, 1378, 1548.

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Constantine has nothing whatsoever to do with the

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Holy Roman Empire. That was a product of European Middle Ages, not anything to do with ancient

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Roman. Constantine was the emperor of the Roman Empire, full stop.

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Okay? Not the Holy Roman Empire. So, you'll note here, why would

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Andy Stanley make such an egregious historical error? Because he's not interested in telling true history here.

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He's concocting a conspiracy narrative and he's got to make Constantine into the bad guy who drug

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Christianity back into the so -called temple model. That's what he's doing. The problem was, of course, that it was far more

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Roman and far more empire than it was holy. And again,

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Constantine had nothing to do with the, quote, Holy Roman Empire. A year later, Constantine legalized, as you know, he legalized

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Christianity. When he did so, he poured so much money into the church.

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He elevated the status of the bishops and the priests. He began to build churches anywhere he heard that a martyr had died.

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Suddenly, he was a collector of relics. Everything he did was about elevating Christianity. He built churches.

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Churches didn't have to pay any taxes. So, guess what? All the rich people began to dedicate their properties and their manors and their houses to God so they didn't have to pay any taxes.

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And the rich got richer and the rich people became Christians. Notice that, oh man, tax exemption led to the rich getting richer.

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How did the rich get richer if they hand over their property to the church?

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The church might get rich, but people didn't get richer that way. What are you talking about?

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Because it paid to follow Jesus and under the leadership of Constantine. The other thing he did was he banned crucifixion.

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He gave rights to children. He actually donated money to families that would take in orphans and children.

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And seemingly and almost overnight, Christianity went from being a persecuted minority to an empowered majority.

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But the problem was, and this was no one's intent. This was no grand plan. The problem was suddenly, suddenly,

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Christianity became inseparable from empire. And the church leaders created their own version of the temple model with a little bit of Christianity sprinkled in.

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Okay, yeah. So, Constantine facilitated this huge transformation. The true biblical

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Christianity disappears for the most part, post -Constantine.

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Okay. Apparently, the gates of hell have overcome the church despite the fact that Christ said the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.

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In Andy Stanley's view, clearly the gates of hell did with Constantine being the guy that the devil used to drag

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Christianity from truth all the way back into error. Now, there would be new sacred places.

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There would be a whole new group of sacred people that began to intentionally collect all the

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Christian texts, bind them together, chain them to the altar, and now they would determine what was taught, what wasn't taught, and how the text would be interpreted.

43:39

Petey Yeah, people with Bibles saying this is heresy and this isn't heresy. Oh, this is terrible, man.

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Is it really? Is it? So, again, we've already noted the Apostle Paul's letters are considered to be scripture.

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Even Peter considers Paul's letters to be scripture. In fact, let me kind of throw this into the mix.

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2 Peter, and then we'll do a little bit more here. 2 Peter, at the end of his epistle, 2

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Peter, last one that Peter writes before he's martyred, he says this, "'Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace count the patience of our

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Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, as he does in all of his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.

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There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and the unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.'"

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That's weird. The Apostle Peter, at the end of his lifetime, references Paul's body of letters and says they're scripture.

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Just saying, you know? Sounds to me like people were people of the book long before Constantine because you'll note it wasn't

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Constantine that had Peter or Paul martyred. That would be

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Nero long, long, long before Constantine. And then note here, Titus chapter 1, qualifications for pastors, okay?

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Let's see here. So, we've got the moral qualifications and we have doctrinal qualifications.

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So, this is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained in order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you, if anyone is above reproach, husband of one wife, his children are believers, not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

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For an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick -tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self -controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.

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Ah, look at that. Love for God, love for neighbor, exemplified in a disciplined life.

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But watch this. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word.

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That's referencing scripture, as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to what?

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Rebuke those who contradict it. There are many who are insubordinate.

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They are empty talkers. They are deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. Here we go again with the

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Judaizers, right? They must be silenced since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

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So, one of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons.

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Well, this testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply so that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

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Seems to me like sound doctrine and an eye toward the scripture is an important thing.

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In 2 Timothy chapter 3, Paul says this, understand this, in the last days will become times of difficulty.

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People will be lovers of self, narcissists, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self -control, brutal, not loving the good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power, avoid such people.

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Among them are those who creep into households, capture weak women, burdened with sins, led astray by various passions, always learning, never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth, just as Janus and Jambres opposed

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Moses. So, these men also opposed the truth, men corrupted of mind, disqualified regarding the faith, they'll not get very far, their follow will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

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You, however, you followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in my life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, at Lystra, which persecutions

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I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me, indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors, yep, there's a bunch of those too, will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

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But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it and how from childhood you've been acquainted with, what?

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The sacred writings. Paul is referencing Timothy, who grew up with a

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Christian mother and probably grandmother, and as a child, as a

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Christian, he was acquainted with the what? The sacred writings.

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I thought Danny Stanley said they didn't even have Bible back then.

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And you know, Timothy was born to Gentile parents,

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Gentile, right? And yet he says, from childhood, as a Christian child, you were acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

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All scripture is breathed out by God, is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.

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Here, Paul, at the end of his life, you know, late 60s, you know, late 60s, he's pointing young Pastor Timothy back to what?

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The scripture, the writings. I thought they didn't have that. And then he says this, I charge you in the presence of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and to preach the

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Word. Paul is telling young Pastor Timothy to do what? To preach the

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Word. I thought that Andy Stanley said that the Bible wasn't really even compiled and put together until Constantine in the 300s, yet Paul is writing here in the middle part of the first century.

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Huh. How is that possible? Right? So, you'll note that just reading the internal evidence of the

50:20

New Testament strongly contradicts what this man is saying. And this man is up to no good.

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And I legitimately mean that. He is up to no good. I'm going to back this up a little bit. I want you to hear that again, this false historical narrative.

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Became inseparable from empire. And the church leaders created their own version of the temple model with a little bit of Christianity sprinkled in.

50:44

Now there would be new sacred places. There would be a whole new group of sacred people that began to intentionally collect all the

50:52

Christian texts, bind them together, chain them to the altar. Yet Paul is pointing young Pastor Timothy to those scriptures that you say were compiled after Constantine.

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Weird. Even Peter considers Paul's epistles to be scripture.

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Weird. And now they would determine what was taught, what wasn't taught, and how the text would be interpreted.

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This is no better understood than through perhaps something you heard about in school that's known as the Arian controversy.

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This was a theological controversy. The only reason I'm going to tell you about it is because of where it leads that we'll get to in just a minute.

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But the Arian controversy was over the word begotten. It was... Not exactly.

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It really came down to an argument regarding one letter in one word.

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So, two different words and the only thing that was different between the two words was one iota. And that's the difference between homoousius or homoiousius of same substance or similar substance.

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That's what the argument was about. Was Jesus God of God, light of light, very

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God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with his Father, by whom all things were made, or was

52:09

Jesus of similar substance to the Father? Either Jesus is God in human flesh, second person of the

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Holy Trinity, or he's a creature who has a similar substance to the Father, which is what the

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Arian heresy taught. Begotten isn't really where the action was.

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It came down to homoousius versus homoiousius, same substance versus like substance.

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It was over the question that I'm sure many of you wrestle with just about every day, did Jesus become

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God after he was born or was he born God? Isn't this something that you talk about over dinner? But this was a really, really big deal in the fourth century.

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And a church leader from Alexandria named Arius actually believed that Jesus' divinity was conferred on him as an adult, as some sort of a reward for his faithfulness to God.

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Yeah, Arius was a heretic. Most of the church leaders, especially Athanasius, who led the charge against Arius, believed that, no,

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Jesus was born divine. So, Constantine didn't want— Now, note here, we're talking about the

53:15

Arian heresy because you have a different Jesus, you're not a

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Christian. Now, let me back that up, all right? So, if you remember, we took a look at Galatians 1 already.

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Galatians 1 makes it clear that if you have a different gospel, that you are anathema, all right?

53:33

Even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed, damned.

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Same problem occurs then in 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 11, Paul talking about the so -called super apostles, which is the dumbest name ever.

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I wish you would bear with me, Paul says a little foolishness, do bear with me, for I feel a divine jealousy for you since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

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But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

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For if someone comes to you and proclaims a different Jesus, another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you received a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

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And Paul here is not commending him, he is rebuking them kindly, but rebuking them for listening to a different Jesus, different spirit, different gospel, which neither of them are able to save.

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So, Paul then goes on to talk about the so -called super apostles who are bringing these different Jesuses, different spirits, different gospels, and he says, what am

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I doing? I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission that they work on the same terms that we do.

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Such men, these so -called super apostles, are false apostles. They are deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

55:01

No wonder even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So, it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.

55:09

Their end will correspond to their deeds, talking about them going to hell. So, all of that being said, the

55:17

Arians were not Christians. They were heretics. They were not brothers in Jesus.

55:25

They were rank heretics who denied what the scriptures taught, and Athanasius was a strong defender of the biblical teaching of the doctrine of the

55:37

Trinity, and that Jesus is eternally the Son of God.

55:43

So, we got a big problem here, because watch how he's playing this out, and wait till you hear what he says about the

55:50

Arians. It's rather disturbing. We continue. There to be a division in this new

55:55

Christian, this new holy empire, and so he called a council meeting. In fact, he hosted the...

56:01

So, Constantine calls a council meeting because it's threatening his new holy Roman empire, which he didn't establish.

56:08

Meeting, paid for it himself, which meant everybody was going to be kind and polite to the emperor. As a result of that,

56:14

Athanasius was the first one to Constantine, and Constantine was no theologian, he was... Note what he just said there.

56:21

Athanasius got to Constantine first. That's his explanation as to where the

56:28

Nicene Creed came from. It's a king. In fact, he did everything that a king would do, and everything an emperor would do, so much so that even though he claimed to be a

56:36

Christian, he waited to be baptized on his deathbed just to make sure all of his sins were covered right up to the last minute, because again, he was more emperor than he was holy

56:47

Roman emperor. You keep making that point, but again, Constantine has nothing to do with the holy

56:53

Roman empire. So, there was this debate, and as a result, we've heard about the

57:01

Nicene Creed that came about as a result of that, and Athanasius, who argued persuasively that Jesus was born divine, won the debate, but after the debate, people didn't go away friends and say, you believe what you want to believe, and I'll believe what

57:14

I want to believe. Suddenly, this was a... So, the expectation is that they were supposed to go away friends?

57:21

Paul in Titus says that those who teach false doctrine are to be rebuked, and they're to be silenced, and those who taught the

57:30

Judaizing heresy were damned, anathema. Huh, that's weird.

57:36

Political issue. This was a financial issue. This was a big issue, and so Emperor Constantine, again, who was no theologian, put out this edict, and I want to read just this part to you, because this explains so much, in some ways, of what we experience even today.

57:52

Here's what he wrote. He said, and I hereby make a public... This is the end of the edict. I hereby make a public order that if someone should be discovered to have hidden a writing composed by Arius, and not to have immediately brought it forward and destroyed it by fire, his penalty shall be death.

58:12

And now, theological division was heresy that was punishable by death.

58:19

Suddenly, believing the wrong thing was a crime, and suddenly, in Christianity, what you believed trumped how you behave.

58:29

What? It's always biblical Christianity, what you believe and what you do.

58:35

It's both doctrine and life. Christianity almost immediately became creedal. Christianity almost immediately became creedal.

58:44

Another historical lie. Let me show you this. Alright, so, have you heard of the fellow by the name of Irenaeus?

58:50

Irenaeus. The Roman Catholic Church calls him Saint Irenaeus. But Saint Irenaeus, he wrote a book, actually, it's several books, called

59:00

Against Heresies. And he, let me kind of put this into its historical context.

59:08

Irenaeus lived in the middle portion of the second century.

59:14

So, this is going to be in the 100s. Constantine is in the 300s.

59:21

Now, let me explain Irenaeus' Christian pedigree. Irenaeus was discipled by a fellow by the name of Polycarp.

59:30

Polycarp is a Christian martyr. He was martyred in his 80s. And Polycarp was instructed in the

59:37

Christian faith by none other than the Apostle John. That's his pedigree.

59:43

So, you got the Apostle John, who basically became the head of the churches in the city of Ephesus.

59:50

Polycarp was discipled by John, Polycarp disciples Irenaeus.

59:56

And then what happened is, is that in the later part of the first century going into the second century, you had the rise of Gnosticism.

01:00:05

And Irenaeus was a Christian apologist and he wrote extensively against the

01:00:12

Gnostic heresy. But in book one, chapter 10 of Against Heresies, I want you to listen to what

01:00:22

Irenaeus talks about regarding how he defines the Christian faith, and you'll note something very interesting about what he wrote.

01:00:31

So, this is the unity of the faith of the church throughout the whole world. So, paragraph one, the church, this is

01:00:38

Irenaeus writing, middle of the second century, long before Constantine, the church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the

01:00:49

Apostles and their disciples this faith. She believes in one

01:00:54

God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are in them.

01:01:01

Now, I'm going to pause here for a second here, because if you know your creeds, Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed, these are the three ecumenical creeds, you're going to note this language sounds really familiar.

01:01:14

So, if we were to look at the Nicene Creed, this is the one that's in the Lutheran service book, Nicene Creed, I believe in God, the

01:01:22

Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible. And in one

01:01:27

Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds,

01:01:33

God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made. Here's where the real argument is, being of one substance, same substance with the

01:01:42

Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the

01:01:49

Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.

01:01:55

He suffered and was buried, the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures, He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the

01:02:03

Father, and He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.

01:02:09

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the

01:02:15

Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And I believe in one holy, or you can say one holy

01:02:22

Catholic and apostolic or universal apostolic church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins,

01:02:29

I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. So, Nicene Creed, I mean, this current form, this form of it, it didn't exist until the 300s in the

01:02:41

Council of Nicaea, but long before the Council of Nicaea, you'll note that Irenaeus defines the

01:02:47

Christian faith with language that is identical in many parts, okay?

01:02:55

The Christian church has always been creedal. So, the church, though dispersed to the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith.

01:03:05

She believes in one God, the Father almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, and of all things that are in them, and in one

01:03:12

Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation, and in the

01:03:17

Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection of the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved

01:03:29

Christ Jesus our Lord, and His future manifestation from heaven in the glory of the

01:03:34

Father, to gather all things in one, and to raise up anew all flesh, and of the whole human race, in order that Christ Jesus our

01:03:42

Lord, and God, and Savior, and King, according to the will of the invisible

01:03:47

Father, every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess to Him that He should execute judgment, just judgment towards all, and that He may send spiritual wickedness, and the angels who transgressed and became apostates together with the ungodly, and unrighteousness, and righteous, and wicked, and the profane among men into everlasting fire, but may in the exercise of His grace confer immortality on the righteous, and the holy, and those who have kept

01:04:19

His commandments, and have persevered in His love, some from the beginning of their Christian course, and others from the date of their repentance, and may surround them with everlasting glory."

01:04:30

The best way to put it is that this is what's called the rule of faith. Just Google it,

01:04:36

Irenaeus' rule of faith. This is a creed, and Irenaeus defines the

01:04:44

Christian faith creedally, and this, I argue, is the template.

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This is the rough draft that they used at the Council of Nicaea, and tightened up the language, and it became, in its current form, the

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Nicene Creed, but this is the nucleus of the Nicene Creed. Now, you'll note there is a mention about love here, but this rule of faith that Irenaeus gives doesn't talk about our love for others.

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Instead, we need those who have kept His commandments and have persevered in Christ's love, okay, which is a reference to the gospel, okay?

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So, all of that being said, look at what he says in paragraph two. As I have already observed, the

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Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it.

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She also believes these points of doctrine, just as if she had but one soul and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them and teaches them and hands them down with perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one mouth.

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For although the languages of the world are dissimilar, yet the import of the tradition is one and the same.

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For the churches which have been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different, or do those in Spain, or those in Gaul, or those in the

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East, or those in Egypt, or those in Libya, nor those who have been established in the central regions of the world.

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But as the Son, that creature of God, is one and the same throughout the whole world, so also the preaching of the truth shines everywhere and enlightens all men that are willing to come to a knowledge of the truth.

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Nor will any one of the rulers in the churches, however highly gifted he may be in point of eloquence, teach doctrines different from these, for no one is greater than the

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Master. Nor, on the other hand, will he who is deficient in power of expression inflict injury on the tradition.

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For the faith being ever one and the same, neither does one who is able at great length to discourse regarding it make any addition to it, nor does one who can say little, say but little, diminish it.

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So, note he was talking about unity of doctrine, and in Irenaeus' rule of faith, which he received from Polycarp, who received it from the

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Apostle John, right? You'll note that Jesus is said to be

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God, and that is exactly what he is. So, here it is, and raise anew all flesh of the whole of the human race in order that to Christ Jesus, our

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Lord and God. So, note that Irenaeus didn't hold to the

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Arian heresy. He believed that Jesus is God, and this is the faith.

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So, this is a creed, that's what that is. And so, here, coming back then to Andy Stanley, Andy Stanley has created a false historical narrative, a conspiracy narrative, that it was

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Constantine who ruled over the Council of Nicaea, and Constantine, Athanasius got to him first, and after the

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Council of Nicaea, Christianity then became creedal. No, it didn't. Christianity was creedal from the start.

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So, let me back this up just a smidge, and you'll hear it again. By Arius, and not to have immediately brought it forward and destroyed it by fire, his penalty shall be death.

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And now, theological division was heresy that was punishable by death.

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Yeah, I mean, that's a new one, you know, punishable by death, but heresy, punishable by God, sends you to hell.

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Suddenly, believing the wrong thing was a crime, and suddenly— It was always something that put you outside of the church.

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Christianity, what you believed trumped how you behaved. Christianity almost—

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Again, true biblical Christianity, doctrine and life. Immediately became creedal. You're familiar with the

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Apostles' Creed, or maybe you memorized a different creed as a child. The Apostles' Creed is an extraordinary piece of theology that states so many things that are so important to theology and to Christendom.

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The problem with that creed, along with other creeds, is there is no mention of love. In fact—

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So, we're going to judge this because there's no mention of love. Again, that's Christian sanctification.

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That's the doctrine of Christian sanctification, and yeah, there is actually references, not directly with the word love.

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So, I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and life, spoke by the prophets. Okay, you get the idea.

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Let me come back up to the Apostles' Creed. Here we go. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, the life everlasting.

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The Holy Spirit, according to the Apostles' Creed, makes us holy, right? So, holiness then is going to result in love towards God, love towards neighbor.

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But he's basically panning them, and watch what he does with this. No, you can't.

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You cannot be a true penitent believer in Jesus and do whatever you want. No, they were not.

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No emperor signed off on the rule of faith that Irenaeus records for us in the middle part of the second century, almost 200 years before Constantine was ever born.

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I mean, his conspiracy narrative is slick, but it's sick. And the emperors had bad behaviors.

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So, the church leaders who were being funded by the emperors had to be very careful what they put into the

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Christian creeds. No, they didn't. In fact, what was put into the

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Nicene Creed, Constantine did not have input, nor did he have veto power.

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And consequently, during this period in history, in fact, during all of history, no one was ever arrested, no one was ever persecuted, and no one was ever executed because they loved too much.

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It was all about what they did and didn't believe. And now you had Christians arresting

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Christians for believing the wrong thing. No, what he's just said there, you have

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Christians arresting Christians for believing the wrong thing. Andy Stanley just said there that those who held to the

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Aryan heresy were Christians. No, they were not. They were heretics.

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I think you get the point. I'm not going to belabor it anymore, but Andy Stanley, very, very dangerous man.

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This whole thing was a conspiracy narrative designed to take you away from the concept of sound biblical doctrine and that doctrine matters.

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Yet, the entire testimony of the New Testament is that doctrine matters and that false doctrine is to be rebuked, and those who persist in it are to be ostracized.

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They are not to be listened to. They are to be marked and avoided, and they are warned by the apostles as those who are going to suffer eternity in hell if they persist in their heresies.

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Yet, Andy Stanley and what he said, I mean, this is a conspiracy narrative like you wouldn't believe.

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And if you buy into this, this will unwind any sound doctrine that you have and lead you into universalism or liberalism or, you know, any kind of ism, but this is not biblical

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Christianity, and this isn't even accurate history that he gave us. So, hopefully you found this useful. If so, all the information on how you can share the video is down below, and until next time, may

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God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.