Book of Acts Part 12

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, again, as we open up your word, we ask you, Holy Spirit, to help us to rightly understand what is revealed there, so that we may properly believe, confess, and do according to your holy word, we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen. Now, as I pointed out last week, it was very, or was it last week or the week before, that it's very important to remember that a lot of the earliest Christians there in Jerusalem were visiting from out of town.

Generosity in the Early Church and the Difference from Communism

And so, I think it was Dan Johnson who pointed out that helping each other was kind of a necessary thing, because extended stays, you require, you need help. So there's a reason, there's like a practical reason why the believers shared everything in common.

Again, this is not pro-communism. The Bible's not teaching such a thing. And I would note that the big marked difference between what's being described in this next portion of Acts 4 and communism is actually quite simple.

Oh, okay, hang on a second here. Am I feeding back? Okay, all right. So the reason why they, so the difference between communism and Christianity here is simple. Communism takes people's money at the end of a gun.

You do not have a right to private property under communism. And by the way, it's failed in every country it's ever been tried. Just want to point this out. And yet, it's advocates here in the States here, well, they say that no one's done it properly.

You know, it doesn't sound like it can actually be done properly then, does it? Right, so like every single nation that's ever tried it, including the nation that created it, it's never worked out for them.

But here's the difference. Christianity, this is called generosity. The people had every right to possess private property, to sell it, and to do whatever they wanted with it. I would note when you consider the seventh commandment, you shall not steal.

Okay, you shall not steal. And another one, you shall not commit murder. Those commandments 100 presuppose that individuals exist and that individuals have a right to life that's given to them by God, and that they have a right to their property given to them by God, right?

You steal, God say, I'm going to punish you. How long? Eternity, right? So you'll note that when we look at the presuppositions of the Ten Commandments, contrary to collectivist ideas, so you'll note in collectivist governments, that's going to include communism and fascism.

Both communism and fascism are collectivist. You do not have any individual rights. Now, I would note that does not mean that somehow rabid individualism is correct, too. It's not. But collectivist governments deny the existence of the individual.

And as a result of them, they justify murder, and they justify theft. That's what they do. So fascism and communism are both contrary to Scripture. But I would note that rabid individualism is also not correct.

That you are kind of an island unto yourself, and that you do not have any responsibilities to your nation, your family, your tribe, your state, your city, or whatever. You are just your own person. That's contrary to Scripture, too.

So you'll find that in fighting collectivism and individualism, the biblical position is that we are individuals that have rights, and we also are individuals that are part of families and communities, and we are expected to be—so the answer is that we're both.

It's not one or the other. And I would note bad things happen when you break that tension. So here in Acts 4, the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul. No one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.

And with great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them. Watch the focus here. Great power, the apostles were doing what? Giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord.

Again, I point this out, and I'll make the point again, that miracles are not the point. Miracles are always there to support the message. And so even if somebody comes along and performs great signs and great wonders, and the message that it's supporting is contrary to the Scripture, we are not to listen to them because that's not the definitive proof that somebody's true.

Because Jesus in Matthew 24 says that in the last of the last times, that false prophets would arise and perform great signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. That being the case, if you do not want to be led astray by somebody who's actually legitimately going to be able to perform, as Jesus says, great signs and wonders, how do you protect yourself?

You know the Word. That's the point. The Word is the point. So there was not a needy person among them. As many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

They did this willingly, of their own volition. The IRS was not involved. And they were not compelled by the church. You'll note that the apostles weren't saying, If you want to be blessed, you need to sell everything.

Forget that 10%. You've got to give 100%. And if you don't, then you're going to go to hell. This is not how this works. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas, which means the son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, he sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

So far, so good. This sounds like really amazing stuff that's taking place in the early church. But here's the thing. What follows next is dark. And I would note it happened in a time when paperwork was not required.

I can't imagine how much paperwork there would be if something like this happened at Kong's Vineyard. But all that being said, a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property. And with his wife's knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet.

Now, the issue is that he's putting on airs. He's making it look like I'm doing exactly the same thing that Barnabas did. I'm giving the entire proceeds to the church. Now, here's the issue. The apostle Paul is in direct communication with the Holy Spirit in ways that most are not.

So Peter isn't going to fall for it. So Peter said to Ananias, Ananias, why has Satan so filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?

After it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You've not lied to man. You've lied to God. And when Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last.

And great fear came upon all who heard it. The young man arose and wrapped him and carried him out and buried him. That's a pretty severe punishment. And again, you'll note, no need to call the coroner.

There was no autopsy. They just wrapped him up and buried him. Now, here's the issue. Let's kind of take a look at one of the big points in all of this. Is that in the day that we live in, there are very vocal people who are denying the doctrine of the Trinity.

Most notably is a channel that calls itself Truth Unedited. They have nearly 800 ,000 subscribers on YouTube. And the guy who runs it, his name is Ron. He never shows his face. And he claims that this idea that there is one God in three persons is, he says that that's Greek philosophy.

He doesn't know what he's talking about. And the guy is, let's just say, a hot mess theologically. But here's the thing. There's a reason why those who believe in the doctrine of Trinity, like we do because the scriptures teach it, that we say that there is one God, three persons, is because they talk to each other.

So today we heard the voice of the Father say regarding Jesus, You are my beloved Son. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. If Jesus wasn't a different person than the Father, then Jesus would have had to be throwing his voice and be engaging in ventriloquism, which he wasn't.

That's a form of deception. And now we've got an interesting thing here. Peter asks the question, Why has Satan so filled your heart that you lie to the Holy Spirit? Now, those who deny the doctrine of the Trinity oftentimes will say that the Holy Spirit is not a person.

If you look at the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Jehovah's Witnesses say the Holy Spirit is a force. It's like electricity. It's like gravity. This is how they talk. Well, let me ask you a question. When was the last time y 'all lied to electricity?

I tried it once and electricity told me to buzz off. What? You guys don't appreciate humor. It was shockingly bad. Okay, very good, very good. Have any of you ever lied to gravity? Huh? You wish you could lie to gravity?

I wish gravity would lie to me, but that's a different story. Yeah, something like that. But you've got to know, you can't lie to a force. But I can lie to a person. And you'll note here that Peter says that you've lied to the Holy Spirit, and then he further clarifies you have not lied to man, but to God.

Here, Peter is equating God and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. And in lying to the Holy Spirit, you have to lie to somebody who is a person. And so that's the idea. And then Christ himself says that we are to baptize in the name, singular, of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

At Jesus' baptism, all three showed up. Jesus was in the water, the Father was speaking from heaven, the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove. It's pretty simple stuff. But you get the idea. So here Ananias has now lied to the Holy Spirit, and fear has gripped the church.

Basically, this is God warning people, don't be doing this.

Don't be doing it.

Now, if you've ever heard bad preaching on this text,.

Oh, wow.

Let me just say it goes something like this. Are you holding back from God what you should be giving to him? That's not the point, right? Well, look what happened to Ananias and his wife when they held back.

Are you robbing God? Now write the check and make it payable to Pastor Chris Rose, bro. Let's sow that seed. No, this is not how this works. You'll note the problem was that they held back part of it and made it appear.

The problem was not that they held it back, it's that they put on the pretense that they were giving the entire amount. They basically saw that people had a very high opinion of Barnabas after he did that, and they wanted that same high opinion for themselves.

So Ananias is now dead, and he's already buried. And after an interval of about three hours, she was clearly at Macy's getting a makeover, reworking her wardrobe and stuff with the new money that they had.

His wife came in not knowing what had happened. So Peter said to her, so tell me whether you sold the land for so much. Was this the amount that you sold the property for? Oh, she said, oh yes, for that amount, for so much.

But Peter said to her, how is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out. Immediately she fell at his feet, and she breathed her last.

And when the young men came in, they found her dead and carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

Okay.

The Holy Spirit is the spirit of what? Truth.

Okay.

There is no room in Christ's church for airs of piety and pretenses of holiness and stuff like that. That's where the real warning is. Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people, watch this, by the hand of the apostles.

Now again, it is not exclusive to the apostles. There were some, just a small number of notable non-apostles who were also able to operate in signs and wonders. And they did so because they had an apostle lay hands on them.

But the primary signs and wonders, guys, were the apostles. There's just no way around it. They were all together in Solomon's portico, or Solomon's colonnade is another way of talking about this. So in the temple that was in Jerusalem at the time, you had an outer court, you had an inner court, and in between the outer and the inner court you had this colonnade, which was a great place to meet and do things because it had a roof over it, you can get shade in the day and covering during the rain and stuff like that.

Now none of the rest joined them, but the people held them in high esteem. So things are starting to turn at this point. Remember Peter and John and the guy who was healed were arrested, and that was last week.

And now the mood is changing a little bit. And the mood is changing where it's like, yeah, I want to join them and I believe what they're, but I'm going to hold them in high esteem, but I don't want to be seen there because I can see what's coming.

They could see, looking down the track, yeah, it's just a matter of time before somebody gets killed. And people at this point are starting to avoid that because they can see that this is going to lead to a collision.

More than ever though, believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. I like the fact that they're now at this point, we're going to count the women too, men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by, at least a shadow might fall on some of them.

And the people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. So you'll note, just like Jesus' ministry, now the apostles are able to do the same types of miracles, same quality of miracles that Christ was able to perform.

And demons cast out, people being healed, and this is all the buzz of the town. Everybody in Jerusalem knows what's going on. But here we go again, the apostles arrested. The high priest rose up, and all who were with him, that is the party of the Sadducees, that does not sound like a fun party.

And again, if you don't know, the Sadducees were, if you look in the Old Testament, they were the Zadokim. That's actually how it's pronounced in Hebrew, Zadokim. They were the sons of Zadok, and they were in charge of basically running the temple complex.

And over time, they became influenced by kind of a liberalizing factor, and the Sadducees, at the time of Christ, denied the resurrection. That's the reason they were sad, you see.

Yeah, just to say it.

Get better material.

I'll hail the kale.

So the party of the Sadducees, they were filled with jealousy, so they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. Now, this section of Scripture, I call this the worst prison break in all of history.

We've all seen movies where there's prison breaks, right? And what's a person supposed to do as soon as they break out of prison? Run, okay? There's going to be helicopters, infrared, there's going to be dogs and a posse, and there's going to be a reward and all this kind of stuff.

Okay? Huh? And chase music too, right? Exactly. And even like a chase scene montage. We know how this is supposed to go. The apostles did not watch any of these movies, and as a result of it, they're going to do something that's just like, no, no, no, listen guys, this is not how a prison break works.

But the high priest rose up and all who were with him, they were filled with jealousy, and they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. During the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, now go stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.

In other words, return to the scene of the crime and commit it again. Have you guys heard the story? It's apparently about a guy from around these parts. I don't know which town. But he drove up to rob a bank when there was no snow on the ground, but he drove up in a snowmobile.

And the snowmobile was his getaway vehicle. They captured him after the bank robbery, put him in prison. When he was eventually released, he drove up to the same bank on a snowmobile, out of season, and they just called the police because they knew he was going to rob the bank.

And guess what? He was there to rob the bank again. Dumbest bank robber in all of human history from these parts of the world. I just want to let you all know. So the angel said, go back to the scene of crime and commit it again.

So when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and they began to teach. Now, when the high priest came and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent them to the prison to have them brought.

So we have both the left-hand and the right-hand kingdom now meeting. The high priest has called everybody. You go and you go in prison, you bring those guys up here, and we're going to have a chat before the entire government.

So when the officers came, they did not find them in prison, so they returned and reported. We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.

Now, when the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. So someone came and told them, hey, look, the men who you put in prison are standing in the temple and they're teaching the people.

Worst prison break ever, right? So then the captain, with the officers, went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. You could just see these guys coming up to Peter and John and going, we need to talk, right?

So when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest questioned them, saying, we strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us.

Too late for that, okay. But Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader.

Interesting word, archegos. That leader doesn't quite get it, but it's in the same ballpark. Leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins, and we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.

When Christians Must Obey God Rather Than Men

Now, at this point, we need to have a little conversation, a conversation about when do we disobey the government, okay? Because as Christians, we note that we have an example here from the apostles that they were told by the government, the left-hand kingdom, to stop preaching in Jesus' name.

Did they obey? Did they sin by disobeying the government?

No.

So we'll note this then, that in the scriptures, there are notable instances of people disobeying government or doing things that are shady and sus when it comes to saving lives. Let me give you an example.

One of my favorites is in Exodus. Exodus chapter 1, I believe. So Pharaoh oppressed Israel. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives,.

Here we go.

In Exodus 1 .15, the king of Egypt, he's Pharaoh, he said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other, Puah, when you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it's a son, you shall kill him.

If it is a daughter, she shall live. That comes all the way from the top of the government. Pharaoh himself, right? Are Shiphrah and Puah obligated to obey this commandment? No, they're not. They're obligated to not obey it.

Okay?

So, but the midwives, they feared God and they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded. So here you can argue they broke the fourth commandment. But did they? Does the fourth commandment require you to obey authorities regardless of what they command you to do?

Nope.

Okay?

So they did not obey, but they let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, why have you done this and let the male children live? Midwives said to Pharaoh, well, because the Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women, they're vigorous and they give birth before the midwives come to them.

Now they lie. So they have disobeyed the fourth commandment and they've technically broken the eighth. Shouldn't God strike them down, right? But it says this, God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew very strong and because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

So they lied to the face of Pharaoh, disobeyed his command. And so here's the idea. As Christians, we have to recognize that there are times when the government is going to overstep. And when the government oversteps, we must disobey the government.

But that does not mean that we have the right to not suffer consequences for that disobedience. And this was the attitude of the apostles. And the attitude basically is this, is that yeah, that's a rightly established government and they can punish us if we want, but what they've commanded us to do, we cannot obey because we must obey God.

Remember, the purpose of the government is for the purpose of punishing the evildoer. And at times, governments have a funny thing that they do. They identify Christians as evildoers. And when they do that, they have misidentified who the evildoer is, right?

I would note that the evildoers are the ones stealing stuff and no, you shouldn't set the threshold at $999, right? The evildoers are those who are stealing. The government needs to punish them. And you'll note in regimes like California's, the thieves go unpunished and the Christians, the God-fearing people, live in fear of their government, right?

So we need not fear our government. We just need to be prepared that if the government decides that we're gonna suffer consequences, then we're gonna suffer consequences. And don't sit there and say, well, President Trump just made Paula White the head of the new Department of Faith.

And she's going to fight against those who are fighting against Christianity. To which I would say this, well, by putting her in that position, he's come dangerously close to making her the whore of Babylon, okay?

She is not sound. And whatever is gonna come out of her department is going to be corrupt to the core. How do I know this? She is in defiance of the clear commands of Christ that women are not to be pastors.

She is a notorious word of faith, money-grubbing prosperity heretic, okay? Putting her in charge of a government department, well, might as well have foxes guarding hen houses at this point, okay? Trust me when I tell you, you do not have to be a prophet to know this isn't going to end well.

And here's my concern, okay? When the inevitable happens and we find out that Paula White has ingratiated herself financially and exploited people and all this kind of stuff, which she will do, you don't have to be a prophet to see this, when all of that comes to light, the blame will be placed first at Trump and then on Christians, and there will be a severe backlash.

Against Christianity as a result of it.

You thought things were bad in the previous administration. Wait till the one that comes up with a righteous anger against the wickedness of Paula White.

Yeah, mm-hmm, yeah.

That was a very, very unwise choice. All that being said, so then as Christians then, we need to be ready to suffer. We must disobey the government when the government commands us to go contrary to Christ.

They don't have the authority to do that, but they still have the authority to arrest us. They have the authority to prosecute us. They have the authority to put us in prison. They have the authority to take our lives if they want.

Which is why the disciples basically say, we're gonna obey God, but you do whatever you're gonna do. That's their attitude. So when the government heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.

What did they hear again? We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at the right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

We are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. And now they come unglued.

I kill you!

It's a miracle they got out of there alive. And it was like all of the apostles. But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while.

And he said to them, Men of Israel, you take care of what you are about to do with these men. For before these days, Thutis rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about 400, joined him.

He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. And after him, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered.

So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or undertaking is of man,.

It'll fail.

If it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found to be opposing God. So they took his advice, and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them. Which had to hurt.

And I would note, having been beaten, they were probably in need of some medical attention after that. As a 56-year-old man, if I had been beaten like this, I would be probably spending a few days.

In the hospital.

When they called them, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and to let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

Nobody saw that one coming.

They're leaving going,.

Woo-hoo, ah, ah, ah, yay, ah. They are rejoicing, why? Because they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Christ. Keep this in mind in dark days ahead that some of us may be chosen to suffer dishonor for the name of Christ.

Every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ, that's the Messiah, is Jesus.

Gamaliel, Descriptive History, and the Danger of Misusing Acts 5

Now, real quick,.

I want to talk about a misuse of this text that I have seen done. There's one notable historical version of the abuse. The abuse goes something like this. Along comes a new theology in Christianity. Maybe it's the Word of Faith movement.

They're Johnny-come-latelys. They didn't exist really prior to World War II. It was Kenneth Hagin that popularized that whole movement. Maybe it's the modernist liberals who were running rampant in the early 20th century.

In the mainline denominations,.

Particularly Presbyterianism and the Anglican Church. What happens is that they come along and people are going, that's not biblical. This stuff is wrong. Well, I've heard people argue, go, well, doesn't the Bible say that we should just let it be because if it's from God, then it'll succeed and if it's from man, it'll fail?

No.

That is a misuse of this text. So the idea here is you're going to note, Gamaliel's advice was advice given by a Pharisee to a governing body, but it's not a prescription for how we're to deal with false teachers today.

So I remember decades ago when Joel Osteen first came on the scene. I was teaching an adult class at Ocean Hills Community Church in San Juan Capistrano, California, and I warned the people in my adult class.

I said, listen, Joel Osteen's a bad guy. He's teaching false doctrine and this book of his that had just come out and hit the New York Times bestseller list called Your Best Life Now, I just looked at him and I said, this is not Christianity.

And I said, your best life now? If you have your best life now, that means you're going to hell. It's just simple logic, right? And I even made a point of finding some things that Joel had said that contradict the scripture and pointed it out to him.

Well, afterwards, some lady came up to me and says, well, Chris, I understand he's new and all this kind of stuff, but shouldn't we just wait and see? I mean, if it's from God, it's going to succeed. If it's from man, it's going to fail.

That's what it says in Acts 5. And I said, no, we're to follow the instructions of Titus chapter one. Let me explain. So when it comes to biblical hermeneutics, one of the things you have to identify is the difference between a descriptive text and a prescriptive text.

And in this passage in Acts 5, we are not prescribed to let heretics be. Okay, does that make sense? It is only describing what transpired historically. And in no way does this passage then put on us a prescription that when some new theology shows up, that we're supposed to just wait and see, okay?

Instead, what you have to do in sound biblical hermeneutics is you need to identify which passages prescribe to us what we're supposed to be doing under any given circumstance, okay? So for instance, Titus chapter one.

Titus chapter one, okay? Talking about the duties of an overseer. Paul says to Titus, 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.

If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, his children are believers, not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination, for an overseer is God's steward, must be above reproach. Note here, pastors are God's stewards, okay?

They must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant, quick-tempered, a drunkard, violent, or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined, okay?

Anyone have a problem with that list so far?

And here's the issue.

In so many churches today, that's their only focus, is our pastor above reproach. We don't care how much money he steals from people. We don't care how much he twists the scriptures. We don't care how much he talks about stuff that isn't even in the Bible.

As long as there's a veneer that he is not a drunkard or greedy and he's hospitable and self-controlled, and he's above reproach, we'll put up with him. Except when he's hiding money in the bathroom walls or trolling chicks with God told me my wife is gonna die and we can get married.

Stuff like that, right? But here's the next part. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. So note, there's a standard. There's a standard. The standard is this. The Bible as already taught.

Is new theology allowed under that rubric? Nope, it's not. So that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine, and here we go, and also to rebuke those who contradict it. And there's more to it.

And he says, for there are many, not some, who are insubordinate, always with the heretics, that's the case. They are empty talkers. You know, like coulda bought a Hyundai, shoulda bought a Kia, that's empty talk.

Or, God told me that we're entering into a season of suddenlies and that in this coming season you'll experience breakthrough. That's empty talk as well, isn't it? So there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party, and here's God's will, are you ready?

They must be silenced. Since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. So God wills that they be rebuked, that they be silenced, that they be opposed publicly.

So Gamaliel's advice, which is recorded for us not as a prescription, but a description of what happened, is not the standard for dealing with false teachers. Now, I'm gonna give you historically,.

Let me find him real quick here.

I'm going to look for Harry Emerson Fosdick shall the fundamentalists win, okay? Now, modernist liberalism, it really started the seedbed of modernist liberalism as a theological movement in the church, began with the publication of Darwin's Origin of the Species.

What happened is that Christians didn't know how to combat Darwin, and as a result of it, there was a crack then that formed in Christianity. Two completely different camps. One camp that said, well, the Bible's true, but it must be teaching us some kind of spiritual knowledge, so it's true in the spiritual sense, but we're not gonna push on the material aspect of it.

And the other group that said kind of this idea. All truth is God's truth, and since Darwin is telling us the truth, we as Christians need to embrace Darwinism. That's the thing that God wants us to do.

And it creates then this movement that runs through all of the seminaries of Europe and some of the ones in the States that basically says Jesus wasn't born of the Virgin Mary, Jesus didn't bodily rise from the grave, He didn't truly perform miracles, He did not prophesy the future.

And so they look for ways to rewrite Christian history and give alternate explanations as to why these things are in the Bible, and then they end up reducing the New Testament basically down to the Sermon on the Mount.