F4F | John Pavlovitz's Latest Attack Against Scripture

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. So John Poplovitz, we've covered this guy in the past.

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We're going to cover him again. Recently he published an article asking the question, have we made the

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Bible into an idol? And I've heard these arguments before. I've heard them so many times.

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I'll tell you where they come from. They come from liberalism, all right? And Poplovitz is a

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Unitarian. Unitarians deny the doctrine of the Trinity and he's one of these social justice woke guys and he's a

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Bible twister extraordinaire. But here's the thing. He's engaging in the exact same tactics that the devil employed all the way back in the garden of Eden.

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Remember when the devil showed up, he said, did God really say, you know, and so the idea here is, is that, you know, people who are doing the devil's work, they do the same thing all the time, but he's, he's very clever.

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And so what we're going to do, in fact, let's do this. I am going to a whirl up the desktop and, and we are going to first take a look at the article, at least visually.

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This is from Relevant Magazine. And let me explain why that is so important.

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Relevant Magazine is, is well, like one of the go -to magazines of the skinny jeans set.

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So the big mega churches, their worship leaders and stuff like that, they, they go to conferences put on by Relevant Magazine.

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All of it is this idea that we've got to rescue the church. We've got to rescue the church from irrelevancy.

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So you got to get rid of hymns and, and you got, you got to get rid of the cross that that's got to go.

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You got to get rid of things like this. And of course, you know, what do we do? Well, let's monkey around with the

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Bible a little bit. And so what Poplovitz does in this article, have we made the

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Bible into an idol? He engages in something called postmodern deconstruction and his arguments are really, really awful and bad.

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And so all of that being said, I tasked my son, Josh, who's my editor.

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And what we did is, well, we made a video. And so there's

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John Poplovitz and we don't have his voice, so we'll have

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John read it for us. But it sounds kind of like one of those, you know, TikToks, you know, it's kind of got the voice of that.

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And we'll walk through some of these really bad arguments. But in order to kind of get to the juicy bits, you have to go through the preamble parts of this article of his, where, you know, he's trying to subtly engage in deconstruction.

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And listen to what I'm going to tell you here. When people are doing this, they are overtly attacking

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God's word, despite the fact that they're hiding behind pious sounding affirmations of the importance of the

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Bible. They sound like they're being really pious and faithful. But in reality, they're doing the exact same thing the devil did.

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Did God really say that you shouldn't eat? You know, you get the idea. So let's let

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Poplovitz spin this out. And again, my apologies for the voice. It's not faithful to what

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Poplovitz really sounds like. But these are his words from the article.

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And I might visually, you know, jump back and forth, you know, when he's making points. But let's listen in to the opening portion of his argument.

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The Bible says it. I believe it. And that settles it. You've heard that phrase before.

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You've read it on bumper stickers. You may have even said it a time or two. It's an odd little religious mantra that perfectly captures the strange, often paradoxical relationship we modern

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Christians have with our mysterious ancient text. See, already, we got a problem here.

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And let me explain here. So in the article, he says, you know, that you've heard that phrase.

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You've read it on a bumper sticker. You may have even said it from a time or two. And that is this idea that the

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Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it. Yeah, right.

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Especially where God's word speaks clearly, you know. So, so already we've got a problem because what is he going after?

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The sufficiency of Scripture, the perspicuity of Scripture, the, you know, the fact that it's understandable and easily understandable.

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And now, you know, and now he's creating doubts in our minds about the

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Bible and what it says and the authority that it actually has. And that's the problem is that that's what he's going after.

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So no, we have some work to do here. We have some work to do. But what he's engaging in is called deconstruction.

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And I want you to think of it this way. Basically, what he's saying is we can trust

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John Poplovitz's words more than we can trust the

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Bibles. That's literally what's going on here. So, you know, don't listen to the

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Bible. Listen to Poplovitz. I think you get what I'm saying. Let's keep going with this, shall we? "...have

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made the Bible a single pillar of our faith, but not all of us have a complete grasp on what it actually says, especially not the earlier, weirdest stuff.

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We'll agree without question that it is filled with words from the very mouth of God, and yet we can't really be bothered to crack it open all that often, and again, definitely not the earlier, weirdest stuff.

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We so crave a Bible that we can use quickly and neatly to support our various arguments and discussion points, but that Bible doesn't really exist.

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That doesn't mean the Bible isn't true or divinely inspired or used." All right, hang on a second here.

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What we're going to do is we're going to come back to the article, all right? So, watch what he says here.

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We so crave a Bible that we can use quickly and neatly to support our various arguments and discussion points, but that Bible doesn't really exist.

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This is a backwards argument. It's a form of deconstruction here. We have a Bible. The Bible predates me.

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The Bible predates you. The Bible predates all of us. That being said, the idea here is that the

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Bible is not the result of my cravings for anything or your cravings for anything, and the

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Bible reveals what the Bible reveals, and the Bible is authoritative. Now, let me explain what

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I mean here. So, let's whirl up our Bible text here, and we are going to go to the

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Gospel of Mark chapter seven, Gospel of Mark chapter seven, and you'll note that the

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Bible was not complete at the time that Jesus had his earthly ministry.

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During the time of his humbling himself, the only Bible they had up to that point was the

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Old Testament. But that being the case, you're going to note that Jesus makes some very important statements as it relates to what the

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Bible is and who's speaking and how inspiration works, and in order to understand this, you need to understand a little bit about the

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Pharisees. So, if you were to read from Genesis to the Book of Malachi, how many times are

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Pharisees mentioned? Zero times. They are mentioned zero times. They came up during the intertestamental period, and they are rank heretics.

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They are not orthodox at all. They are rank heretics, and they added to the scriptures.

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What they added to, they claimed that God, when Moses ascended Mount Sinai, that God gave

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Moses two Torahs, one written and the other oral, and they, of course, were the the keepers of the oral

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Torah, and that became known as the tradition of the elders, and it's in the tradition of the elders, not the written

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Torah, not in your Bible, for the command to wash your hands, all right?

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So, and let me explain how this little procedure went. So, the tradition of the elders, the oral

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Torah stated that when you were out among the unwashed goyim, when you were out in the marketplace and there was pagans and things like that, that you would become unclean and, you know, being in their presence among the unwashed pagan masses.

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And so, if you went out to the agora, did your grocery shopping, when you came back into your house, you, especially before you ate, you were required to do a ceremonial washing, okay?

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And so, there was a wash basin and a pitcher, you know, at the entryway to these, the houses of Pharisees, and the way the procedure went, you take your left hand, palm up, and then what you do is you take the pitcher and you pour water on your left hand, then you take your right hand, palm up, pour water on the top of your right hand, palm up, then you left hand, palm down, you pour some water on that, then you right hand, palm down, pour some water on that, and then kind of shake out the water off of your hands, and then you say this little prayer,

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I thank you, Lord God, maker of heaven and earth, that you have given us the command to wash our hands. But did

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God command people to do that washing ceremony and to wash their hands?

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Answer, no. And so, the Pharisees added to the scriptures using the so -called oral

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Torah, and watch where Jesus goes with this. Now, the Pharisees gathered to Jesus with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem.

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They saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. For the

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Pharisees and all the Jews, they do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders.

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And that should be in caps, tradition of the elders. It's a body of work. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.

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And there are many other traditions they observe, such as the washing of cups, pots, copper vessels, and dining couches.

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And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but they eat with defiled hands?

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Do they now? So, you're going to note, Jesus did not permit his disciples to obey the commands of the tradition of the elders.

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Why? Because they weren't from God. Not even close.

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Here's what Jesus' response was. And you're going to note, this is where they drew the line. The Pharisees had spent the whole day watching

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Jesus heal the sick, raise the dead, give sight to the blind, preach good news to the poor, you know, things like this, right?

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And where do they draw the line? Well, he didn't make his disciples wash their hands with our little religious ceremony, right?

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Here's Jesus' words. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

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In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Okay.

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That's a pretty strong response, Jesus. Oh, it goes on. Listen to what Jesus says. You leave, watch what he says.

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The commandment of God, the entelei tutheo. That's what it says here in the Greek. The commandment of God.

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Tuteo means that God is the one who gave that command. You leave the commandment of God.

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Who commanded? Where do we find these commandments? In the written Bible.

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You leave the commandment of God and you hold to the tradition of men. And then he said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting.

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Here we go again. The commandment of God, the entelei tuteo. Rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.

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And then watch what he says. Moses said, honor your father and mother.

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Now note that Jesus has a perfect, and I mean this, perfect doctrine and understanding of how inspiration works.

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The Bible is truly inspired. So in the commandment, you shall honor your father and mother.

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Moses wrote it down. God is the one who gave the command. He gave the command through Moses and what he wrote.

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And that's what the scriptures are. The inspired, inerrant, infallible. Well, and I would even say sufficient word of God that we are all bound to as Christians, not to attack, but to apply ourselves to, to understand.

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So you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.

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For Moses said, honor your father and mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.

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But you say, if a man tells his father or mother, whatever you have gained from me is korban, that is a gift given to God.

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You no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother. Thus making void the word.

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Tan lagan tutheyu, the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.

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And so note here, Christ makes it undeniably clear that the written word of God is that, the words of God, and that people by adding to it, they are making it void and they are leaving it in order to follow after the traditions that they've established.

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That's not what we're supposed to be doing. So let me come back then to our little article here.

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And I'm going to back this up just a little bit for the sake of context and listen again to his argument.

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Definitely not the earlier, weirder stuff. Yeah, he knows he talks about the weirder stuff.

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I would point you to the interview I did with Will Whedon. We talked about all the weirder stuff in the Old Testament, which is no way to talk about the

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Old Testament at all. So you're going to note here by talking about the Old Testament, like it's that older, weirder stuff.

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It's ancient stuff and things like that. But watch where he goes. This is all obfuscation.

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This is deconstruction so that he can smuggle in a second source, a different source than the

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Bible into Christianity. So crave a Bible that we can use quickly and neatly to support our various arguments and discussion points.

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But that Bible doesn't really exist. That doesn't mean the Bible isn't true or divinely inspired or useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.

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It just means that it is not a simple book and should not be treated like one. Try putting any way.

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People don't treat the Bible as a simple book, especially those who believe that it's the inspired word of God.

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One has to study and show yourself approved as a workman who need not blush with embarrassment who can rightly divide the word of truth.

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That's what the Apostle Paul says, Meaning good intentioned, faithful handful of seminary students, pastors or pew sitters in a room.

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And you will be hard pressed to find any two who can find unanimous agreement on very much, let alone the totality of its 800 000 words.

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Now, let's take a look at the article itself in question here, because I think this will help us out.

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So this is another one of these deconstructing arguments. Try putting any well -meaning, good intentioned, faithful handful of seminary pastors or pew sitters into a room.

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And you'll be hard pressed to find any two who can find unanimous agreement on very much, let alone the totality of its 800 words.

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This is this is obfuscation. I would note that true biblical unity might begin with what are called the three ecumenical creeds,

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Apostle's Creed, Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed. Yeah, there's a reason why those are called ecumenical creeds, because for millennia, people have held these to be faithful, you know, if you would, summaries of what the

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Bible teaches. But here's the other bit. So what he's trying to basically do here is say, listen, listen, and you'll hear the argument a little more clear here in a second, you know, is that, you know, that people come to differing opinions regarding the

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Bible. And of course, they've done so prayerfully, they've done so while seeking

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God. And so, you know, we shouldn't judge them. They're really pious and stuff. Were the

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Pharisees pious? Oh, yeah. They love praying out in the marketplace and stuff. You know, so you're going to know,

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Jesus says that wolves come to us in sheep's clothing. They don't come to us dressed like the devil.

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All right. They come to us dressed in sheep's clothing. Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

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So I put these out a few weeks ago, and it's time to pull them into our discussion here if I could.

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So here we go. I put a series of memes together, and hopefully this will make the point along these lines.

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Scripture teaches that the job of a pastor is to, quote, preach the

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Word. Now, as a pastor, listen, it ain't my church. It's Christ's church.

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It ain't my church. That being the case, I'm going to be keen to listen to what

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Jesus says. As a pastor, I am only authorized to preach the

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Bible. 2 Timothy 4 .2, it makes it clear. Job of pastors to preach the

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Word. In season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort. You get the idea here. So that being the case, on any given

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Sunday, I am only preaching through biblical texts. Okay?

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So that being the case, since that's my job, preach the Word. That's the positive thing.

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And another way to put it is if we were to come to like Matthew 28, right? It says that Jesus came to his disciples and said to them, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me.

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Go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the

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Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. And behold,

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I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. So in order to make a disciple of Jesus, you have to teach the things that Jesus taught.

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Where can I go with confidence and know that I'm teaching

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Jesus's words? That's kind of the point here. And so as a pastor, there's only one place

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I can think of, you know, the Bible. In fact, Paul kind of puts it this way.

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So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, you are fellow citizens with the saints.

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You are members of the household of God built on the foundation of what? The apostles and the prophets.

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Old and New Testament, right? Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the

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Lord. So the idea then is that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

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That foundation, if you would, of the apostles and prophets, they come together, they mesh perfectly because they all have the same

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Holy Spirit that inspired both of them. I think you get the idea. So that being the case, coming back to my meme, this is one of many.

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So the question then, if the job of pastor is to preach the word, right? Which biblical text will he, the pastor, be preaching through when he gets to the part about burying a statue of St.

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Joseph in your yard to help you sell your home? And I know some of you are going, is that a thing?

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Yes, it's a thing. It's a big thing in Rome, by the way. And so here is a screenshot in the middle portion of it of six, a six pack of St.

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Joseph statues that if you're a realtor, you can purchase for the purpose of surreptitiously burying a

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St. Joseph statue in your client's yard to help them sell their home.

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That's a thing. That's from an Etsy store. That's for real. But the answer to the question, which biblical text will

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I be preaching through to teach people to do that? There isn't a biblical text that teaches this.

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So never will I be preaching the doctrine of burying

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St. Joseph statues. But you're going to note here, people who've been to seminary and stuff, people who pray and stuff, people who are very religious and stuff and say they believe in Jesus and stuff.

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They think that's legit, but it's not found in the Bible. Like not at all.

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How about this one? Scripture teaches job of pastors to preach the word, which biblical text will he be preaching through when he gets to the part about praying to Jesus's mother?

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There is no biblical text that teaches that. So never from the pulpit where I, in the congregations

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I serve, will I ever be preaching that doctrine because it's not in the word of God, the job of a pastor is to preach the word, right?

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The word. And that ain't in the word. That's not a doctrine that's authorized to be taught in Christ's church.

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How about this one? Scripture teaches the job of pastors to preach the word. Which biblical text will he, the pastor, be preaching through when he gets to the part about filing lawsuits in the courts of heaven?

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By the way, we did a whole video on this bizarre doctrine, and there are many in the

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NAR who think this is for real. There is no biblical text that teaches us to file lawsuits in the courts of heaven.

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This is a completely man -made delusional doctrine. Well, how about this one?

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Scripture teaches that the job of a pastor is to preach the word. Which biblical text will he, the pastor, be preaching through when he gets to the part about humans evolving from monkeys?

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The scriptures don't teach that. The scriptures teach that God created

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Adam and Eve. Jesus affirms that. That's what he believed. And he rose from the dead.

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So, the Genesis account teaches us that God created mankind. He created everything that is.

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We're not the product of evolution, micro or macro. We are the product of God's creation.

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All right. How about this one? Scripture teaches that the job of a pastor is to preach the word.

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Which biblical text will he, the pastor, be preaching through when he gets to the part about women pastors?

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There is no biblical text that affirms women pastors. There are very clear biblical texts that prohibit women from being pastors.

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All right. Well, what about this one? Scripture teaches that the job of a pastor is to preach the word. Which biblical text will he be preaching through when he gets to the part about non -binary human beings?

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Well, actually, scripture says, in the beginning, God created them male and female.

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Whoops. I guess I won't be preaching about non -binary human beings. And here's the thing. Anybody in any pulpit that calls itself a

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Christian church that is preaching about these things, they ain't preaching the word. You get my point.

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How about this one? Scripture teaches that the job of a pastor is to preach the word. Which biblical text will he, the pastor, be preaching through when he gets to the part about defeating water spirits, including the sneaky squid spirit?

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That doesn't exist either. All right. Scripture teaches that the job of a pastor is to preach the word.

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Which biblical text will he be preaching through when he gets to the part about a second baptism of the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues?

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Well, Ephesians says there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all.

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And 1 Corinthians 12 says that not all speak in tongues. That ain't a biblical doctrine.

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Scripture teaches that the job of a pastor is to preach the word. Which biblical text will the pastor be preaching through when he gets to the part about all middle -aged white males being racist oppressors?

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That ain't in the Bible either. Or scripture teaches that the job of pastors to preach the word.

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Which biblical text will he be preaching through when he gets to the part about Christians having authority to blow away

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COVID -19? COVID -19, I blow the wind of God on you.

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Yeah, that went over well, didn't it? Yeah, a lot of good that did. Scripture teaches that the job of a pastor is to preach the word.

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Which biblical text will he be preaching through when he gets to the part about someone giving false prophecies, but still being a true prophet of God?

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That biblical text doesn't exist either. There are clear passages to the contrary. Scripture teaches that the job of a pastor is to preach the word.

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Which biblical text will he be preaching through when he gets to the part about Christians having authority to command hurricanes to go back to sea?

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That text doesn't exist either. Scripture teaches that the job of a pastor is to preach the word.

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Which biblical text will he be preaching through when he gets to the part about God releasing a new prophetic word at the beginning of each year?

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That one doesn't exist either. Scripture teaches that the job of a pastor is to preach the word.

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Which biblical text will he be preaching through when he gets to the part about Christians being able to use the

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Holy Spirit to give tarot -like readings? No biblical text like that exists.

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In fact, there are very clear prohibitions against divination fortune -telling. See Deuteronomy 18 if you're unclear about this.

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And yes, this is a real thing. We've covered it in the past. And just look for our videos on Christ alignment.

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I think that'll help you out here. I think you get the point here. You're going to note here the people who do these tarot card readings, they're prayerful people.

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Some of them have been to something like a seminary, right? And this woman preaches in churches and they pray before they take your tithes, right?

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And this woman, I mean, she even affirmed that Hank Kuhneman saw

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Jesus, you know. And well, this guy, I mean, he's a Christian apologist.

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And so, it's got to be true that somebody can give a false prophecy and still be a true prophet.

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And that guy, I mean, he makes a bazillion dollars serving the Lord. So, I mean, it's got to be true that he can blow away

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COVID, right? And of course, everybody knows this just goes without saying that all middle -aged white males are just totally racist oppressors.

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So, they just need to just confess that. And everybody knows there is a second baptism of the

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Holy Spirit, even though the scripture says there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And everybody who has the Holy Spirit speaks in tongues, even though 1

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Corinthians 12 says that not everybody speaks in tongues. Same with water spirits, same with non -binary human.

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You get the point that I'm making here? There's a lot of folks out there who say they believe in the

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Bible that have gone way, way beyond it. In fact, it's akin to what

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Christ was telling us here that, you know, this people honors me with their lips, their heart is far from me.

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In vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Yeah, you get the idea.

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So, let's come back to our friend, Mr. Poplovitz, and I'll back this up just a little bit so we can keep our context.

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Here we go. Yeah, I've heard the same rhetoric from Mark Driscoll and Rob Bell, oddly enough.

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Oh, yeah. See, now the problem why there's so much division has nothing to do with the Bible. It has to do with sinful human beings.

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Let's come back then to kind of our little bit of a primer here. Christ says that the written word of God that he had in his day, that God is the one who spoke through Moses, that God is the one who spoke through the prophet

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Isaiah. In fact, Christ quotes all three sections of the Tanakh and it says that God is the one speaking through them.

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So, he's affirmed that all three sections of the Tanakh, the written Old Testament, are the word of God, right?

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And so, here's the idea then, is that God himself has chosen to speak to us through the

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Bible. And not only that, he wills that we recognize that's where his voice is to be found and heard and what he has spoken is authoritative and it's sufficient.

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So, if I were to kind of come back over here to 2 Timothy, right? Listen to what

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Paul says. 2 Timothy chapter 3. As for you, young Pastor Timothy, continue in what you have learned, firmly believe, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you've been 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 theanoustos, breathed out by God. That doesn't mean that it's a fourth member of the

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Trinity, it just means that that's the voice of God, right? The scriptures, all scriptures, breathed out by God.

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It's profitable for teaching, reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every pun, every good work.

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Now, I want you to think about this for a second. There are people who attack the idea of sola scriptura and here's how they attack it.

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One of the ways they attack it. Well, John says that Jesus did so many more things than were written down in his gospel.

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And so, therefore, we don't have the entirety of what he taught and did. That's correct.

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But John says, but these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you might have life in his name.

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The scriptures are sufficient. But not only that, I want you to think about this. If the scriptures are not sufficient,

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Christ said, teaching all that I have commanded, and there's only one place I can go and know that I'm preaching the words of Christ, and that's the

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Bible, all right? If the Bible isn't sufficient, then what Paul says here is not true.

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Listen to what he says, okay? All scripture is breathed out by God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete.

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Now, if the Bible isn't sufficient, then no man of God can be complete merely by the

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Bible. But not only that, that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.

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If the Bible is insufficient, then you are not equipped as a

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Christian for every good work that God would have you do. You need something else, okay?

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Coming back, then, this is the major basis, then, of the argument that Rome puts forward, okay?

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Oh, well, not everything that we're supposed to believe is in the Bible.

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And yeah, it's true, there is no biblical text that teaches us to pray to Jesus' mother, but this has been handed down to us through the oral tradition.

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It sounds a lot like what the Pharisees said regarding Korban and regarding the requirement to wash your hands, right?

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There is no biblical text I can go to that tells me I need to pray to Jesus' mommy.

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Not one. And that being the case, since that doesn't exist there,

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Rome will say, you're not really complete, you're not really fully equipped for every good work, because in their view, it is a good work to pray to Jesus' mommy.

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Well, and where did we find that? Nowhere in the Bible. It ain't in the

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Bible. In other words, what Paul says is not true. The Bible cannot complete you.

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You cannot be equipped for every good work that God would have you do if the Bible is insufficient.

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It's just that simple, right? And I would note, everybody who claims that they get direct revelation from God, they're the ones giving us doctrines like the courts of heaven.

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They're the ones giving us doctrines like that you can blow away COVID -19, or that false prophets can be true prophets, or that, let's see here, that there's a second baptism of the

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Holy Spirit, or that, you know, that you can defeat water spirits and, you know, things like that.

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Yeah, those are all extra biblical. In fact,

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I would note that this is as extra biblical as the doctrine of praying to Mary. I'm just pointing it out.

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So, we got a problem here. Scripture is very clear that the Scripture is sufficient to make the man of God complete and equipped for every, not some, every good work.

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And the job of a pastor then, watch, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom to what?

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Again, preach the word. I, as a pastor, am only allowed to preach the

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Bible. Oh, well, guess we'll never get to that courts of heaven, sneaky squid spirit, or praying to Jesus as mommy, or planting, you know, statues of Saint Joseph in my yard to help sell my house.

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Never hear that from my pulpit, because it's not my pulpit. It's Christ's church, and I'm only authorized to preach the word.

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And you'll note that Peter has that same, well, kind of obnoxious obsession with the word of God.

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Listen to what he says here. Peter writes, we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and the coming of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty when he received honor and glory from the

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Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory. This is my beloved son with whom

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I am well pleased. Yeah, Peter's recalling the Mount of Transfiguration. He actually heard the

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Father's voice giving glory to Christ. All right. And he's not saying, now chase after those kind of experiences.

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Listen to what he says. All right. So we heard, we ourselves heard this voice born from heaven, and we were with him on the holy mountain.

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And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in the dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart.

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What's he pointing to? The written word of God. And Peter is about to be crucified for his confession of faith in Jesus and him claiming that he's an eyewitness of the resurrection of King Jesus, Caesar himself.

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Nero is going to make sure he's going to be crucified. All right. So knowing, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

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For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God. Even Peter affirms that the scriptures are the very voice of God as they were carried along by the

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Holy Spirit. And then he warns, but false prophets also rose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies.

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And then at the end of second Peter, he even affirms that what Paul has written is scripture.

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Listen to what he says. Second Peter chapter three, verse 14. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace and 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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Again, the problem isn't with the word of God. The problem is the ignorant and the unstable and the false prophet and the false teacher, the wolves in sheep's clothing.

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They twist the scriptures. And Peter affirms that what Paul has written, that the

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Pauline epistles, that they are scripture and they are the word of God.

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I'm just saying. In fact, did you know that Christ even prayed for us? Let me explain.

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In the gospel of John chapter 17, Christ's high priestly prayer, listen to what

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Jesus is praying to the father says, I have given them your word. How many books did

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Jesus write by the way? Zero. He didn't write a single book. Who did he give the task of taking the words that he received from the father and then proclaiming and writing down?

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He gave that to the apostles. So I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world.

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Just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

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They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. So sanctify them in the truth.

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Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

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And for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth.

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I do not ask for these only, talking about his apostles, but watch where he goes, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one just as you father are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

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So Christ prayed for each and every one of us who believes in him. How did you come to believe in Jesus?

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How do you know about him? How do you know what he taught, what he said, what he did? You believe in Jesus through the words written by the apostles and also the prophets before them who testified about him.

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Scripture is sufficient. Scripture. In fact, Christ says that you have to abide.

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If you abide in his word, he abides in you. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, this is John eight. If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.

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Yeah. And you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free. You know that the apostle

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John warns about those who go beyond the scripture and second John, let me type this in properly here.

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Second John, which has only one chapter. John writes to the elect lady.

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This is a lady who has a congregation, a church meeting in her home. He says, grace and mercy and peace be with you with us from God, the father, from Jesus Christ, the father, son, and truth.

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And in love, note the emphasis in truth. I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking in what truth in the truth, just as you were commanded by the father.

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And now I ask you, dear lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but one that we have had from the beginning that we love one another.

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And this is love that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning so that you should walk in it.

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For many deceivers have gone out into the world. Those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, such a one is the deceiver and is the antichrist.

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Watch yourself so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have

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God. Goes on ahead, doesn't abide. Sits there and goes,

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Jesus plus whatever this other stuff is. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the father and the son.

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If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, don't receive him into your house.

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Talking about the church, don't receive him into your church or give him any greeting. Whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

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And I would note all these memes that I put together, has she, has she gone beyond the written word of God?

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Does she abide in it? Nope, not at all. How about these folks? Nope, not at all.

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And that's a real photo of them actually giving tarot like readings at a new age festival. Has she abided in the word of God or has she gone beyond it?

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Uh -huh. You kind of get the point that I'm making here. So, you know, I seem to think that the scripture teaches sola scriptura, that we are bound by those words and warned that if you go beyond them, you don't even have

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God. So, you know, I'm making my argument from the biblical text.

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I don't know what Paplovitz is doing. Let me back this up again. We'll listen to a little bit more of this nonsense because you'll see where he's going in a minute.

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Too many Christians simply hide behind some incendiary line drawing, black and white, all or nothing rhetoric.

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Maybe that's because the Bible has become... You mean all or nothing rhetoric like, you know, John here, the

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Apostle John, you know, the guy who reclined on the breast of Christ on the night he was betrayed.

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And he says, everyone who goes ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ doesn't have God. You mean incendiary black and white rhetoric like that?

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Yeah, okay. I see what you're getting at here. Who does that?

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Everyone agrees that it's the voice of God and it makes one complete and prepares them and equips them for every good work.

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Other than what it was for the earliest believers, essential reading material on the way to the promised land.

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Essential reading material on the way to the promised land. I want you to consider what he's saying here, that he is saying that really what the

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Bible is, is not the real word of God. It's just essential reading material on the way to the, on the way to the promised land.

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Hmm. You know, because Paul says it's theanoustos, it's God breathed. And Peter says that it's inspired by God, the

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Holy Spirit, as men were carried along by the Spirit. I don't recall any of the apostles or any of the prophets saying, oh yeah, the

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Bible's just essential reading material on the way to the promised land. You know, it's like one of those magazines in the, you know, in the thing and while you're on a flight to, you know, to Poughkeepsie.

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No, no one talks like that. That's weird. So we've got a problem here. And the way he's describing scripture is less than the way scripture describes itself.

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Weird. Can see this misplaced worship everywhere on message boards and on talk shows and from pulpits and in conversations over coffee.

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Many of us wield the Bible like an oversized power tool that we couldn't be bothered to consult the manual for.

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We wield the Bible like an oversized power tool. Hang on a second here. Seem to recall something about the

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Bible. In Ephesians chapter six, Ephesians chapter six, remember

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Peter says that what Paul writes is scripture.

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So, you know, I, so listen to what he says. So in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.

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Take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

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Oh, look at that. An oversized power tool. A sword. Okay.

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Yeah. I'll just go with Paul on this one. It's an oversized power tool indeed. And I've read the manual, studied and showed myself approved.

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The difficult reality to come to terms with for so many who claim Christ is that those who have come to a different conclusion about the

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Bible in both large and small ways have done so through the same thoughtful study, the same prayerful reflection, the same sincere desire to know the very heart of God that.

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Yes. Thoughtful study, thoughtful study. That's how they came to believe.

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Hang on a second here. How they came to believe that, you know, you can give tarot card readings.

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It's thoughtful study. Yes. Then that you can give vague, vacuous words of the

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Lord at the beginning of every month and every year, and that you can, you know, send hurricanes often too.

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Yeah. Thoughtful. Yeah. Yeah. That's awkward here.

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Yeah. The problem is clearly, clearly the Bible. The Bible's got to go. Have the real problem.

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Is that too many of us are choosing to simply deify the Bible as divinity itself? It's the word of God.

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God is speaking. That's what Jesus said in Mark 7. They made void the word of God.

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The thing the Bible itself never asks us to do. It is not, as we so often mischaracterize it, the word of God from John 1.

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One. Jesus is. We've decided that. Now, let me show you what he's doing here, because that is a form of obfuscation.

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And let me explain here. So he said, this is the paragraph. The real problem is that too many of us are choosing simply to deify the

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Bible. No, I don't know anybody who's doing that. As divinity itself. Again, I don't know anybody, a single person who is doing this.

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Something that, by the way, so this is a straw man argument. Something the Bible itself never asks us to do.

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It is not, as we so often mischaracterize it, the word of God from John 1. One. Jesus is.

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So this is basically a slippery one. It is absolutely true that in the gospel of John 1, verse 1, that it says that Jesus is the word of God.

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But that is talking about something different, a different use of the word word than the use of the word word that Jesus uses in Mark 7 when he talks about the word of God.

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Jesus wasn't pointing to himself. He was pointing to the scripture. So, enarke en halagas, kai halagas en pros ton theo, kai theos en halagas.

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In the beginning was the word. That's halagas here is referring to Christ. But that's not the same thing that Jesus was referring to in Mark chapter 9 when he talks about the word of God, thus making void the word of God, the logon to theo.

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He wasn't saying you've made me void. He's talking about the written word. Yeah, this is all deconstruction on the part of our friend,

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I don't even want to call him that, John Poplovitz. He's engaging in deconstruction and obfuscation to attack the word of God.

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This is the voice of the devil from the Garden of Eden. Did God really say? Listen again. It is not, as we so often mischaracterize it, the word of God from John 1, 1.

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Jesus's. We've decided that the Bible speaks every necessary thing that God ever has or ever will say, and that he's said it exactly as we've determined, translated and believe it to be.

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In other words, by elevating the Bible to the same level as God and by leaning on our own understanding of its 66 books, we've crafted a divine being who, upon closer inspection, seems to think a lot like we do.

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Vote like we vote. Hate who we hate and bless what we bless. Sneaky here.

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So, listen to what he says again. We've decided, we've decided that the Bible speaks everything necessary that God ever has or ever will say, and that he said it exactly as we've determined, translated and believed it to be.

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That is absolutely patently false. Scripture has made it clear that God has spoken to us in the written word of God, and we are duty bound as Christians to recognize those are his commands.

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That's his voice. Nor do we believe that that's God, that God will never say anything else ever again.

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Nope, that's not true either. God will have plenty to say, I'm sure, in the future, especially in the new earth.

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But all that being said, we are bound to recognize that what is in Scripture is the very voice of Christ.

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It is the word of God, and that God has spoken, and we are duty bound to say those words are from God.

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Think of it this way. Let me come back to a biblical text here to kind of, you know, make the point.

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In two texts, Joshua 23 and Deuteronomy 4, listen to what is said in the

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Old Testament as Moses has written certain things down. Joshua wrote, Joshua, but listen to what

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Joshua says, therefore be strong to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it, neither to the right hand or to the left.

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This is, Joshua wasn't saying that God will never say anything more. Instead, what he's saying is, is that what

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God has said, you can't deviate from it. These are words of God, do not turn aside to the right or to the left.

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And obviously, God added more books to the Bible long after Joshua, you get the point.

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And in Deuteronomy, you know, God through Moses gives this command, you shall not add to the word that I have commanded, nor take from it that you may keep guard the commandments of Yahweh your

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God that I command you. God has bound us to his word.

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And when he ever speaks again, that's really none of our business. We know that what we have,

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God has spoken and we are duty bound to believe it. And that's kind of the whole point that Jesus is making.

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If you abide in my word, how do we have his word? Through the apostles. We believe in Jesus through what they wrote.

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If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. So, what Pavlovitz here is doing, he's engaging in this black and white rhetoric for the purpose of blurring your faith and trust in the

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Bible. And that's part of what makes him so, so dangerous. But we continue.

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Let's listen a little bit more. The question we need to ask ourselves as modern believers is whether or not we really trust

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God to speak clearly and directly to someone, independently of the Bible. We know, of course, that God can and does communicate through scripture.

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But must that be the only method he employs? It's the only method I can trust.

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In fact, anybody claiming to speak nowadays that God has told them,

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I always have to test what they say according to the word of God. And as a pastor,

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I'm not authorized to preach anything other than what the scripture says. I'm only authorized to preach biblical texts.

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You know, so these aren't even arguments. And I would note that, you know, if you want to, you know, to read the article yourself, it's at Relevant Magazine.

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And it's called, Have We Made the Bible Into an Idol? And the answer is no.

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These, this is just postmodern deconstruction designed to attack the scriptures and then smuggle in other voices, to smuggle in and say, well, you know,

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I theoretically believe that God can speak through other people, you know, therefore, you know, tarot cards,

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Cindy Jacobs, Cat Kerr, people who give false prophecies, they're still true prophets,

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COVID, yeah, you get the idea. So, hopefully this helped give you a better understanding of the sufficiency of God's word.

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And the reality is, is that if scripture isn't sufficient, then no

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Christian is complete with only the Bible. And you are not equipped for every good work that God would have you do with only the

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Bible if the scripture is incomplete. Yet, as a pastor, I'm only allowed to preach the word.

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And so, all this other stuff, when you hear these other doctrines that are not found in scripture, my question for you, why do you tolerate it?

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Why do you think this is okay? I understand these people claim that they are hearing

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God's voice, but they demonstrate that they're not by their additions to the scripture, by their man -made and delusional doctrines.

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I think you get the point. I think John was right. The one who doesn't abide and goes beyond what's written, they don't even have

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God. Food for thought. Hopefully you found this helpful. If so, all the information on how you can share the video is down below.

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And until next time, may 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.