WEBVTT 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:03.680 It is the 26th of December. 00:00:03.840 --> 00:00:06.000 2025. I am Corey J. 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:09.840 Mahler and this is the At Any Cost podcast. 00:00:09.840 --> 00:00:12.560 This is the eighth episode of 2025. 00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:17.280 also incidentally, the eighth episode of actually no, this is the ninth 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:20.800 episode. I was just editing the show art for the eighth episode. 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:25.680 This is the ninth QA episode, and I tried to select questions 00:00:25.680 --> 00:00:29.120 this time that aren't topics that are too particularly heavy since it 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:31.360 is the second day of Christmas, so I figured it would be 00:00:31.360 --> 00:00:33.600 a little lighter this week. 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:36.480 I will still be doing an episode next week as well, so 00:00:36.480 --> 00:00:39.280 we'll dive back into some of the heavier questions then. 00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:42.560 So if you have an outstanding question as it were that is 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:45.440 a heavier topic, I may not get to it this week, but 00:00:45.440 --> 00:00:47.520 it will probably be up next week. 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:47.840 So 00:00:49.120 --> 00:00:53.040 with that being said, I will leave housekeeping and such for the 00:00:53.040 --> 00:00:55.520 end, so I will jump right into it. 00:00:55.520 --> 00:00:58.560 The first question is language learning. 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:04.480 I've been asked this one a lot with regard to German particularly, 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:06.240 and this time it's Greek. 00:01:06.240 --> 00:01:08.960 The question is a little different, and so the answer is a 00:01:08.960 --> 00:01:12.720 little different for a reason that'll be obvious in a second here. 00:01:12.720 --> 00:01:15.360 My son and I have begun trying to learn Greek. 00:01:15.360 --> 00:01:17.040 How would you recommend we do this? 00:01:16.960 --> 00:01:20.800 and are there any resources you would suggest? 00:01:20.800 --> 00:01:26.800 My first suggestion is going to be just learn modern Greek. 00:01:26.800 --> 00:01:30.960 Because once you know modern Greek, it's going to be trivially easy 00:01:30.960 --> 00:01:34.560 to read various other kinds of Greek, maybe not you know ancient 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:38.480 Attic Greek or something, but certainly Koina Greek, the Greek of the 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:43.360 scriptures. And so the other advantage of that of course is if 00:01:43.360 --> 00:01:47.520 you learn the modern version of the language, you're going to be 00:01:47.520 --> 00:01:50.880 able to access a wealth of resources and also you'll have access 00:01:50.880 --> 00:01:53.200 to things that are in modern Greek that you otherwise would not 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:56.320 be able to read, which Is kind of nice. 00:01:56.320 --> 00:02:00.000 And really the big difference is going to be: you're not going 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:05.440 to learn the constructed pronunciation of Erasmus or a number of other 00:02:05.440 --> 00:02:06.960 schools of pronunciation. 00:02:06.960 --> 00:02:10.800 And so your pronunciation will be different from what, say, a lot 00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:13.920 of pastors have learned, a lot of priests historically. 00:02:13.920 --> 00:02:15.600 That doesn't really matter. 00:02:15.600 --> 00:02:20.800 Honestly, it's sort of the equivalent of, say, learning the ancient pronunciation 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:23.440 of Latin, which is what I learned when I was in high 00:02:23.440 --> 00:02:27.040 school, versus the medieval pronunciation. 00:02:27.040 --> 00:02:32.160 So if you for instance sing any of the various hymns written 00:02:32.160 --> 00:02:36.560 in Latin, they're almost always going to be medieval pronunciation instead of 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:40.000 classical. And so there's some differences there, but they're not big enough 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:40.880 to make it difficult. 00:02:40.880 --> 00:02:43.200 Same thing is true with Greek. 00:02:43.200 --> 00:02:47.280 And so what actual resources would I recommend? 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:50.800 I think I would say first podcasts, and not just because I'm 00:02:50.720 --> 00:02:54.400 a podcaster, I guess, and you know I'm biased, it's not that. 00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:56.800 Listening to the language helps a lot. 00:02:56.800 --> 00:03:02.240 And for most languages now, major languages anyway, there are podcasts meant 00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:04.960 to help you learn the language so you can listen to how 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:08.160 it is spoken, you can pick up the sounds and start to 00:03:08.160 --> 00:03:12.560 develop sort of that foundation in your mind, how the language functions, 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:15.120 and you start to build up a little bit of the structure 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:17.840 of it as well, because you sort of get a bit of 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:20.400 an ear for the grammar and things like that. 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:24.640 In addition to that, children's books, because you're learning a new language, 00:03:24.640 --> 00:03:27.040 you should learn it the way you learned your first language. 00:03:27.040 --> 00:03:32.080 Of course, ideally for language learning immersion, but you're probably not going 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:35.040 to pick up your life, move to Greece for five years to 00:03:35.040 --> 00:03:35.840 learn Greek. 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:37.440 Most people don't do that. 00:03:37.440 --> 00:03:42.080 But second best is immersing yourself in it as much as you 00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:45.920 can. So however many you know minutes or if you can spare 00:03:45.920 --> 00:03:49.120 an hour a day by all means that'll certainly benefit you. 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:53.040 But make sure it's consistent, even if it's just fifteen minutes a 00:03:53.040 --> 00:03:55.040 day, dedicate that time. 00:03:55.040 --> 00:03:58.160 You're making those neural pathways, you're developing the habit, there's a lot 00:03:58.160 --> 00:04:01.520 of benefit to doing it every single day. 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:04.080 And so, of course, one of the ways that will be helpful 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:07.440 in doing that is any of the various apps that are available. 00:04:07.440 --> 00:04:10.720 I don't like Duolingo for a number of reasons. 00:04:10.720 --> 00:04:13.680 I used it for many years I had like a twelve hundred 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:15.680 day streak or something going, and then I just stopped using it 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:20.160 because it finally annoyed me enough with all of their nonsense politics, 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:21.680 to put it mildly. 00:04:21.680 --> 00:04:24.400 However, there are other alternatives that are better. 00:04:24.400 --> 00:04:26.480 For German I've recommended Babel. 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:29.600 They do not have a Greek course yet, so you can't use 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:34.400 them. But there's Primsler, which is not going to be free, but 00:04:34.400 --> 00:04:37.120 they have very good deals usually at the end of the year 00:04:37.200 --> 00:04:40.720 because people are making the resolutions to learn a new language, and 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:44.640 so they run discounts you can usually get a year or perhaps 00:04:44.640 --> 00:04:46.880 even lifetime for a pretty reasonable price. 00:04:46.880 --> 00:04:49.040 Lifetime is probably gonna be $200. 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:52.720 That tends to be how it goes for language learning companies, with 00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:56.160 the exception of some of the more expensive ones. 00:04:56.160 --> 00:05:00.800 And then there's also Rosetta Stone, which is a good option for 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:05.360 Greek. And that definitely has a lifetime deal, sometimes for as little 00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:06.880 as $80. 00:05:06.880 --> 00:05:08.320 Great option. 00:05:08.320 --> 00:05:12.480 So I would say those are probably the best recommendations. 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:13.520 That's what I have here. 00:05:13.520 --> 00:05:16.240 So I think that's probably your your best way to learn Greek. 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:18.000 And then once you get up to the level where you can 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:19.600 do it, read scripture. 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:23.920 That's one of my recommendations for learning any language because You're familiar 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:26.720 with it in English and so when you're reading it in another 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:30.400 language, you already have sort of that foundation to help you understand 00:05:30.400 --> 00:05:33.120 what's happening in this language you're trying to learn. 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:36.560 Same thing if you're trying to learn German, French, Japanese, whatever it 00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:37.840 happens to be. 00:05:37.840 --> 00:05:41.040 Focus perhaps on one book of the Bible, whichever one you happen 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:43.600 to know really well, whether it's a gospel or the Psalms or 00:05:43.600 --> 00:05:46.400 Proverbs, it's probably one of those. 00:05:46.400 --> 00:05:50.640 Pick that book, and then read it in your new language until 00:05:50.640 --> 00:05:52.880 it flows naturally for you. 00:05:52.880 --> 00:05:55.840 And then of course, once you've done that, you can start picking 00:05:55.840 --> 00:05:57.200 up more advanced books. 00:05:57.200 --> 00:05:59.760 Pick whatever topic you like and read about it. 00:05:59.760 --> 00:06:02.960 I have the entire Dune collection in German, for instance. 00:06:02.960 --> 00:06:06.800 So it's helpful to read something you've read before in your natural 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:10.560 language, your native language, in the language you're trying to acquire. 00:06:13.280 --> 00:06:18.480 The next question is more directly, obviously Greek is tangentially related to 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:23.440 scripture in this case, but this one is sort of more directly 00:06:23.440 --> 00:06:26.640 related, a doctrinal or dogmatic question. 00:06:27.520 --> 00:06:32.480 Could you speak on 2 Maccabees 12, 43 through 46 and where 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:36.800 Catholics get the idea of purgatory slash praying for the dead? 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:39.920 Also, if you could touch on the difference between the Catholic slash 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:43.200 Lutheran canons, that would be helpful. 00:06:43.200 --> 00:06:48.320 So I think I'm going to leave the canon question for next 00:06:48.320 --> 00:06:50.480 time. There were a couple people who asked about the difference in 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:51.280 the canons. 00:06:51.280 --> 00:06:54.080 I can give the short answers that Lutherans don't have one. 00:06:54.080 --> 00:06:56.880 You can search the Book of Concord as many times as you'd 00:06:56.880 --> 00:06:59.600 like. We don't define our canon. 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:02.720 We sort of left that up in the air because Christians have 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:06.320 been fighting over certain edge cases, which is to say the apocryphal 00:07:06.320 --> 00:07:09.680 books, for centuries, and we were not trying to settle that during 00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:10.960 the Reformation. 00:07:10.960 --> 00:07:13.840 We haven't tried to settle it since, because it just doesn't matter. 00:07:13.840 --> 00:07:16.640 You have the core books, we all know those are scripture. 00:07:16.640 --> 00:07:18.960 And then the fighting over some of the others is just going 00:07:18.960 --> 00:07:19.600 to continue. 00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:21.200 That's sort of the short answer to that. 00:07:21.200 --> 00:07:27.360 But to get into second Maccabees here, I will pull up Logos. 00:07:30.080 --> 00:07:32.480 Actually I think I may just read 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:36.320 I will pull up Logos anyway because I think I'm going to 00:07:36.320 --> 00:07:38.720 use Logos in a second here, but I think I'll just read 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:43.600 from my physical copy because I don't remember which copy of the 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:47.840 Apocrypha I happen to have in Lagos, and I'd like to have 00:07:48.080 --> 00:07:49.440 this particular one. 00:07:49.440 --> 00:07:53.840 Which if you're interested in the Apocrypha, I definitely highly recommend this 00:07:53.840 --> 00:07:55.120 volume from CPH. 00:07:55.120 --> 00:08:00.480 As much as I don't really particularly love CPH's pricing and things 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:05.840 like that, which is you know unfortunate, but it's the reality of 00:08:05.840 --> 00:08:10.160 it. Their volumes are very good in terms of the quality of 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:12.800 the scholarship for things like this and so it's the 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:19.040 camera. It is the Apocrypha with Lutheran edition they have to call 00:08:18.960 --> 00:08:21.680 it of course, but it's just a scholarly edition of it with 00:08:21.680 --> 00:08:23.440 helpful footnotes. 00:08:23.440 --> 00:08:24.560 But anyway, Maccabees 00:08:26.720 --> 00:08:30.160 twelve okay here we are. 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:33.600 The header, which of course is not part of the text. 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:36.240 I wouldn't say part of scripture because I don't consider Maccabees to 00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:41.040 be part of scripture, but prayer Prayers for those killed in battle. 00:08:41.040 --> 00:08:44.720 Then Judas assembled his army and went to the city of Ajalam. 00:08:44.880 --> 00:08:48.720 the as the seventh day was coming on, they purified themselves according 00:08:48.720 --> 00:08:51.520 to the custom, and they kept the Sabbath there. 00:08:51.520 --> 00:08:54.880 On the next day, as by that time it had become necessary, 00:08:54.880 --> 00:08:57.200 Judas and his men went to take up the bodies of the 00:08:57.200 --> 00:08:59.760 fallen, and to bring them back to lie with their kinsmen in 00:08:59.760 --> 00:09:01.760 the sepulchres of their fathers. 00:09:01.760 --> 00:09:04.320 Then under the tunic of every one of the dead they found 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:07.920 sacred tokens of the idols of Jomnia, which the law forbids the 00:09:07.920 --> 00:09:09.120 Jews to wear. 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:14.320 In other words, they were praying iners seeking intercession of foreign false 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:17.840 gods in order to help them in battle And it became clear 00:09:17.840 --> 00:09:21.360 to all those that this was why these men had fallen. 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:24.320 So they all blessed the ways of the Lord, the righteous judge, 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:27.760 who reveals the things that are hidden, and they turned to prayer, 00:09:27.760 --> 00:09:30.560 imploring that the sin that had been committed might be wholly blotted 00:09:30.560 --> 00:09:34.960 out. And the noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:37.840 from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had 00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:40.320 happened because of the sin of those who had fallen. 00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:43.760 He also took up a collection, man by man to the amount 00:09:43.760 --> 00:09:47.680 of two thousand Drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to 00:09:47.680 --> 00:09:49.360 provide for a sin offering. 00:09:49.360 --> 00:09:52.720 In doing this he acted very well and honourably, taking account of 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:56.080 the resurrection, for if he were not expecting that those who had 00:09:56.080 --> 00:09:59.840 fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:01.040 pray for the dead. 00:10:01.040 --> 00:10:03.600 But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:06.720 up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy 00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:07.840 and pious thought. 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:11.520 Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered 00:10:11.520 --> 00:10:14.000 from their sin. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:16.080 Now of course there are a number of things in that passage, 00:10:16.080 --> 00:10:18.960 some of which are actually quite useful to Christians. 00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:24.960 For instance, the fact that obviously you have the anticipation of the 00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:28.240 resurrection already here in the intertestamental period. 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:31.200 And so that was not something new that Christ brought in. 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:36.240 That was something that was expected already by those who actually believed 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:37.120 in Scripture. 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:40.080 And so the Pharisees obviously were more correct than the Sadducees at 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:42.240 least on that point. 00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:45.760 With regard to praying for the dead, I think there are really 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:51.280 two questions there that are related questions but they have different answers. 00:10:51.280 --> 00:10:55.280 The first one, and the one to which I'm going to object, 00:10:55.280 --> 00:11:00.400 is can we pray for the dead that their sins be blotted 00:11:00.400 --> 00:11:04.880 out, which is to say that their sins be blotted out after 00:11:04.880 --> 00:11:06.160 they have died. 00:11:06.160 --> 00:11:09.760 I think the answer to that is very clearly no. 00:11:09.760 --> 00:11:13.840 Now, of course, you have the issue of purgatory, which I will 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:18.560 get to that and so Roman Catholics, for instance, believe they're praying 00:11:18.560 --> 00:11:19.840 for those who in purgatory. 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:21.920 I don't think they're praying for those who are in hell. 00:11:21.920 --> 00:11:24.400 There's obviously a difference there, and so obviously it would be worse 00:11:24.400 --> 00:11:26.400 if you were praying for those in hell. 00:11:26.400 --> 00:11:31.200 But Scripture does very clearly say that it is appointed for man 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:34.400 but wants to die, and after that the judgment. 00:11:34.400 --> 00:11:40.240 So I think that actually forecloses purgatory as well, but certainly it 00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:44.560 forecloses praying for those who have already been judged. 00:11:44.560 --> 00:11:47.200 Now the caveat that I'm going to give for that and this 00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:51.280 answer to the second related question is can we pray for the 00:11:51.280 --> 00:11:51.840 departed 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:57.520 that they didn't die in impenitent sin? 00:11:57.520 --> 00:11:59.360 There's a difference there. 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:04.000 I say we can't pray, logically according to what scripture teaches, for 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:08.800 those who died in impenitent sin, and then pray they are forgiven 00:12:08.800 --> 00:12:12.480 after they've been judged, because again appointed for man but once to 00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:14.320 die and then the judgment. 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:18.400 But can we pray that they died in faith or they died 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:20.880 in felicitous inconsistency. 00:12:20.880 --> 00:12:25.600 So for instance, these men who happened to have idols or paraphernalia 00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:30.080 of idolatrous worship on themselves when they died, can you pray that 00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:34.720 they actually died in faith, that they didn't die believing in this 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:37.040 foolishness in which they had engaged. 00:12:37.040 --> 00:12:38.560 I think that's a different thing. 00:12:38.560 --> 00:12:41.440 I think that is probably fine. 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:45.120 It's certainly fine in the cases of individuals where we don't have 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:50.240 any real reason to believe that say they died in impenitent sin. 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:54.480 And so a good concrete example would be we have All Souls 00:12:54.560 --> 00:12:57.760 Day as one of the days in all hollow tide on the 00:12:57.760 --> 00:12:59.760 calendar, on the church calendar. 00:12:59.760 --> 00:13:04.400 I posted an article about that last year, moving things around a 00:13:04.400 --> 00:13:08.000 little bit because I wanted it to be a more reasonable ordering 00:13:08.160 --> 00:13:14.160 of things, particularly for the correct doctrinal teachings on these topics, but 00:13:14.160 --> 00:13:15.200 I'll leave that aside. 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:17.920 I'll put a link to it in the show notes. 00:13:17.920 --> 00:13:21.600 So can we pray for our ancestors? 00:13:21.600 --> 00:13:25.440 In so far as saying we pray to God that they died 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:28.960 having faith, I don't think that that is wrongful. 00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:30.880 I don't think that's a sin. 00:13:30.880 --> 00:13:32.720 Should we focus on it? 00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:36.640 Absolutely not, because we should not be obsessed with the dead and 00:13:36.640 --> 00:13:40.800 the departed and focusing our lives on that, because that will lead 00:13:40.800 --> 00:13:42.400 us astray from Christ. 00:13:42.400 --> 00:13:45.200 We see that for instance probably one of the best examples would 00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:49.760 be the Malagasy, the people who inhabit Madagascar. 00:13:49.760 --> 00:13:55.280 They are so obsessed with their ancestor worship and this attention to 00:13:55.280 --> 00:13:59.760 the dead that they often have tombs that are nicer than their 00:13:59.760 --> 00:14:02.880 homes. That's obvious obviously a problem. 00:14:02.880 --> 00:14:04.960 You should not go down that road. 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:07.840 But taking that one day out of the year on Old Souls 00:14:07.920 --> 00:14:10.800 Day to pray for the departed, I don't think that's wrongful because 00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:15.440 what you're praying is I pray that they departed in the faith. 00:14:15.600 --> 00:14:17.200 That's completely fine. 00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:21.920 You're not saying, dear God, please go into hell and pull this, 00:14:21.920 --> 00:14:25.600 you know, great grandfather who was an evil, terrible man, out of 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:27.440 hell. I don't think you can do that. 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:32.400 Because I think that violates the very clear teaching of Scripture. 00:14:32.400 --> 00:14:37.200 And you're asking God for sort of a special treatment, an exception 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:40.800 to his laws and w what is right and what is good. 00:14:41.040 --> 00:14:44.480 But praying they died in the faith, I think, is entirely fine. 00:14:44.480 --> 00:14:47.360 And so I think that sort of addresses both the issue there 00:14:47.520 --> 00:14:49.520 in Second Maccabees related to this. 00:14:49.520 --> 00:14:54.000 There's some other things as well, but and the issue of Purgatory. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:58.080 But another one that the Roman Catholics like to bring up, I 00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:01.280 guess I should have left Lagos up there, because I do actually 00:15:01.280 --> 00:15:03.200 want Lagos. 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:06.000 Another passage they will bring up. 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:09.280 is from second Timothy. 00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:16.720 Let me pull that up. 00:15:16.800 --> 00:15:19.680 They like to read this one and I'll read it first and 00:15:19.680 --> 00:15:22.800 then comment on what it is that they try to do with 00:15:22.800 --> 00:15:26.240 this passage and why I don't think it necessarily follows. 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:29.360 Notably, I don't think it can't follow, I just don't it doesn't 00:15:29.280 --> 00:15:32.800 necessarily follow and so they can't probably Prop up their doctrine of 00:15:32.800 --> 00:15:35.280 purgatory on this passage. 00:15:35.280 --> 00:15:38.720 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onocephorus, for he 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:41.680 often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. 00:15:41.680 --> 00:15:44.480 But when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and 00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:45.120 found me. 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:47.840 May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on 00:15:47.840 --> 00:15:50.960 that day, and you well know all the service he rendered at 00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:56.880 Ephesus. Now, the argument from the Roman Catholic camp with regard to 00:15:56.880 --> 00:16:01.200 this, insofar as purgatory is concerned, is they try to say that 00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:04.000 this is implying Onocephorus is dead. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:05.520 He's departed. 00:16:05.520 --> 00:16:07.520 I don't think it implies that. 00:16:07.520 --> 00:16:09.040 Can you read it that way? 00:16:09.040 --> 00:16:11.600 Absolutely. Do you have to read it that way? 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:12.080 Absolutely 00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:17.520 not. Because just because it's in the past tense doesn't mean that 00:16:17.520 --> 00:16:20.240 Onocephorus is himself in the past tense. 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:24.480 It simply means the things being referenced that Onocephorus did happened in 00:16:24.480 --> 00:16:26.000 the past. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:29.680 So is this a prayer for the dead? 00:16:29.680 --> 00:16:31.360 Not necessarily. 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:34.720 So and also it's worth noting this is a man who did 00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:36.240 depart in the faith. 00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:40.560 If he died, but I don't think this props up their doctrine 00:16:40.560 --> 00:16:44.640 of purgatory, because you don't have to conclude that he's dead and 00:16:44.640 --> 00:16:48.720 that the that he's being prayed for here. 00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:51.360 So it just doesn't follow. 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:54.320 This is one of their other big passages they try to use 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:57.520 for purgatory, and I just think it's extremely weak. 00:16:57.520 --> 00:17:00.720 You cannot find purgatory in the text in any way that is 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:05.280 convincing. And I know that somewhere there are Roman Catholics who are 00:17:05.280 --> 00:17:10.240 currently screaming because the other one they like to use is speaking 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:14.160 of the purification as if by fire, right? 00:17:14.560 --> 00:17:16.640 And that's talking about the judgment. 00:17:17.360 --> 00:17:22.720 It's not talking about purgatory and then you're purified by fire in 00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:26.960 purgatory and then you get to go to paradise or well, if 00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:29.440 you're being pure purified, you're going to paradise, you're not going to 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:34.960 hell. But that also just doesn't follow because if you read that 00:17:34.960 --> 00:17:40.720 passage itself, it clearly speaks of after the judgment, you go to 00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:44.240 paradise or you go to hell, you go to eternal bliss or 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:45.760 eternal torment. 00:17:45.760 --> 00:17:51.680 There's no in between state, there's no wording there whatsoever implying that 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:56.000 there is a purgatory somewhere where you are purged of these things. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:59.360 Yes, you're renewed when you're resurrected. 00:17:59.360 --> 00:18:02.160 You're not renewed in purgatory. 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:08.400 The doctrine of purgatory, to sort of give the broader picture, is 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:13.760 really built up and propped up by Rome because it has historically 00:18:13.760 --> 00:18:16.720 helped them to sell indulgences and things like that. 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:20.640 It has been linked to monasticism because obviously you have them believing 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:23.520 they have this treasury of merit that they can then sell to 00:18:23.520 --> 00:18:27.760 others. And so it props up the whole Roman system with regard 00:18:27.760 --> 00:18:32.960 to indulgences and increasing your merit and then storing it up and 00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:36.720 giving it to others, well, selling it to others, or the Pope 00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:39.440 giving you a plenary dispensation 00:18:40.400 --> 00:18:43.680 for whatever it happens to be saying this particular prayer on this 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:45.280 particular day this particular year. 00:18:45.280 --> 00:18:47.040 year, that still happens today. 00:18:47.040 --> 00:18:50.960 So I'm not giving some example that's historical and uncharitable. 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:52.960 That still happens to this day. 00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:56.480 That's really why you have the doctrine of purgatory, the dogma of 00:18:56.480 --> 00:18:57.920 purgatory in Rome. 00:18:57.920 --> 00:19:02.320 It's to prop up other things and to facilitate other doctrines to 00:19:02.320 --> 00:19:03.520 which they adhere. 00:19:03.520 --> 00:19:05.520 It's just not in scripture. 00:19:05.520 --> 00:19:08.400 You can find a couple of passages that if you interpret them 00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:12.000 in a certain way, they would be consonant with the idea of 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:17.840 a purgatory, but they don't teach purgatory, and that interpretation is not 00:19:17.840 --> 00:19:22.720 necessary. And so you can't just read passages of scripture and conclude 00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:27.680 this one particular interpretation teaches this doctrine basically created out of whole 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:31.280 cloth. You need to find other places in scripture. 00:19:31.280 --> 00:19:34.000 Scripture is entirely consistent throughout. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:37.040 And when we have places where it speaks of the judgment, it 00:19:37.040 --> 00:19:39.760 says things like it's appointed for man but wants to die, and 00:19:39.760 --> 00:19:43.600 then comes the judgment, and then Christ speaking, in Matthew twenty 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:46.800 twenty-six or twenty-seven. 00:19:46.800 --> 00:19:48.240 I think it's 00:19:49.440 --> 00:19:50.560 might be twenty-five. 00:19:50.560 --> 00:19:52.720 Let me pull that up. 00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:55.200 I may as well read the passage because otherwise I'm going to 00:19:55.200 --> 00:19:58.400 have people who are mad at me. 00:19:58.400 --> 00:20:03.040 Yes, it's the end of twenty-five. 00:20:03.040 --> 00:20:05.680 Then you will answer them saying, Truly I say to you, as 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:07.520 you did not do it to one of the least of these, 00:20:07.520 --> 00:20:09.360 you did not do it to me, and these will go away 00:20:09.360 --> 00:20:12.240 into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. 00:20:12.560 --> 00:20:12.880 So 00:20:14.320 --> 00:20:15.920 there are only two options there. 00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:19.760 There's no third option of purgatory where you go into purgatory for 00:20:19.760 --> 00:20:21.840 a little while and then you go into paradise. 00:20:21.840 --> 00:20:23.040 It's not there. 00:20:23.040 --> 00:20:26.800 And it's nowhere in scripture, nowhere where Christ is speaking about the 00:20:26.800 --> 00:20:30.320 end times and the judgment does he give this sort of third 00:20:30.320 --> 00:20:33.200 option of a particularly nasty waiting room? 00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:38.560 So I know that Roman Catholics don't like that answer, but it 00:20:38.560 --> 00:20:42.640 really is just a dogma that they have built up that is 00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:49.440 not actually based in scripture. 00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:51.680 Can answer a quick question here. 00:20:51.680 --> 00:20:53.680 I saw someone asked me how many languages do I speak. 00:20:53.680 --> 00:20:55.600 It's really just English and German that I speak. 00:20:55.600 --> 00:20:57.840 I happen to know some Latin and Greek, but I don't speak 00:20:57.840 --> 00:20:59.520 either one of those. 00:20:59.520 --> 00:21:04.160 I can fluently read Latin aloud, but it doesn't mean that I 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:06.240 can process it that quickly and understand it. 00:21:06.320 --> 00:21:11.360 My Latin is not that good. 00:21:11.360 --> 00:21:19.600 The next question here, let me pull that up. 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:24.960 Should we pray that our faith not fail? 00:21:25.120 --> 00:21:27.920 Says I've heard you condemn the prayer, O Lord, help me to 00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:30.480 be pure, but not yet, which of course, yes, I'm going to 00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:33.360 condemn that one because you're not supposed to pray the prayer of, 00:21:33.360 --> 00:21:35.840 you know, I'd I'd like to be chaste, but not quite yet, 00:21:35.840 --> 00:21:36.800 Lord, right? 00:21:36.800 --> 00:21:40.240 That's praying that God will permit you to continue in sin, that's 00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:42.160 praying for something that's wicked. 00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:45.200 Should we pray that our faith may not fail, but when restored 00:21:45.280 --> 00:21:46.720 we strengthen our brothers? 00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:51.520 So So there's nothing wrong with praying that your faith won't fail, 00:21:51.520 --> 00:21:54.320 and in fact you should be praying for God to strengthen your 00:21:54.320 --> 00:21:58.240 faith to give you a stronger faith, a more powerful faith. 00:21:58.240 --> 00:21:59.680 Let me open up 00:22:01.040 --> 00:22:01.920 the The 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:05.760 small catechism here. 00:22:05.760 --> 00:22:08.640 I want to open up the small catechism because we actually already 00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:11.360 do pray for this all the time. 00:22:11.360 --> 00:22:13.680 Because we pray for this in the Lord's Prayer. 00:22:13.680 --> 00:22:17.120 There are a couple different petitions where you could say that we 00:22:17.120 --> 00:22:20.960 pray for this, but I think one of the strongest ones, of 00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:24.800 course, is going to be the sixth petition, and lead us not 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:26.480 into temptation. 00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:27.600 What does this mean? 00:22:27.600 --> 00:22:31.280 Answer. God indeed tempts no one, but we pray in this petition 00:22:31.360 --> 00:22:33.920 that God would guard and keep us, so that the devil the 00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:37.040 world in our flesh may not deceive us, nor seduce us into 00:22:37.040 --> 00:22:40.320 misbelief, despair, and other great shame and vice. 00:22:40.320 --> 00:22:43.840 And though we be assailed by them, that still we may finally 00:22:43.840 --> 00:22:45.440 overcome and gain the victory. 00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:48.560 And so of course when we pray that we're praying for a 00:22:48.560 --> 00:22:49.440 strong faith. 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:52.080 We're praying for God to preserve our faith to the end, and 00:22:52.080 --> 00:22:54.880 there's nothing wrong with that, that is That is obviously it's a 00:22:54.880 --> 00:22:56.720 prayer directly from God. 00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:01.280 So praying that our faith will not fail is not a problem. 00:23:01.280 --> 00:23:01.840 It's a good thing. 00:23:01.840 --> 00:23:02.480 You should do that. 00:23:02.480 --> 00:23:04.160 You absolutely should do that. 00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:07.280 And you do, if you're praying the Lord's Prayer. 00:23:07.280 --> 00:23:10.400 And then strengthening your brothers, of course, is part of just being 00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:10.960 a Christian. 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:12.480 That's what you do. 00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:14.160 It's iron sharpening iron. 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:16.880 When you discuss the faith, when you spend time in the Word 00:23:16.880 --> 00:23:19.440 together, things like that, you're strengthening each other. 00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:24.880 And that of course is also a good thing. 00:23:25.040 --> 00:23:27.920 See a sort of follow-up question here in the chat that I'll 00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:31.360 just address because I haven't noticed it. 00:23:31.360 --> 00:23:34.720 Is there a purgatory in quotes in this case, in the sense 00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:36.880 of a holding area per se before judgment? 00:23:36.880 --> 00:23:40.720 In Revelation it mentions the saints asking how long until Christ returns, 00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:43.200 and they're told to wait a bit longer. 00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:47.120 I think in the case of Revelation, you're dealing with mostly figurative 00:23:47.120 --> 00:23:50.000 language, you're dealing with a lot of symbolism, you're dealing with a 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:53.120 lot of things that are not literal, because of course Christ is 00:23:53.120 --> 00:23:56.800 not a literal lamb with seven horns and seven eyes, so you 00:23:56.800 --> 00:23:58.160 can tell that that's not literal at least. 00:23:59.280 --> 00:24:05.040 But when it comes to what happens between death and the judgment, 00:24:05.040 --> 00:24:08.400 I don't get the sense when I read the passages dealing with 00:24:08.400 --> 00:24:12.960 that, that there's any real elapse of time between the two. 00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:15.840 And I think the best answer to it is that there isn't 00:24:15.760 --> 00:24:19.600 an elapse of time because time is tied to this universe. 00:24:19.600 --> 00:24:22.880 Now I'm not saying there won't be time in the renewed creation, 00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:23.520 but time is 00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:26.560 a physical property essentially. 00:24:26.560 --> 00:24:29.520 And so I don't really want to get into physics and space-time, 00:24:29.520 --> 00:24:29.840 but 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:34.800 time is something that exists as part of the universe. 00:24:34.800 --> 00:24:37.440 It does not exist outside of universe. 00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:42.080 And so the judgment and the renewal and all these things, those 00:24:42.080 --> 00:24:43.920 are outside of time. 00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:48.320 And so the chronology breaks down if we try to say that 00:24:48.320 --> 00:24:52.720 what happens between your death and the judgment. 00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:54.640 I don't think there's a between. 00:24:54.640 --> 00:24:58.800 I think you die and you wake up at the judgment seat. 00:24:58.800 --> 00:25:02.320 And so yes, your perception, you're immediately at the judgment. 00:25:02.320 --> 00:25:03.760 I think that is how that works. 00:25:03.760 --> 00:25:06.880 And so there's no need for a waiting room, as it were, 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:10.480 because when Adam died, he appeared at the judgment, and when you 00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:12.800 die, you appear at the same time as Adam. 00:25:12.800 --> 00:25:16.960 Because time is not an issue here because we're dealing with time 00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:20.000 in the universe and then something that is outside of it an 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.320 entirely different thing. 00:25:24.320 --> 00:25:29.200 The next question is about Judaism and how it is a corruption 00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:31.200 of Christianity. 00:25:31.200 --> 00:25:34.720 What are ways by which we can tell that Judaism came from 00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:37.840 Christianity and is a corruption of it so as to refute the 00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:40.640 in quotes Judeo Christian heresy? 00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:43.280 Heresy, not in quotes, notably, because that is correct, it is a 00:25:43.280 --> 00:25:45.200 heresy. And 00:25:46.080 --> 00:25:49.680 there are a lot of answers to this one. 00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:52.080 There are a lot of different proofs you can bring up. 00:25:52.080 --> 00:25:55.280 I think there are three that are probably key and are probably 00:25:55.760 --> 00:25:59.920 the most likely to get you any sort of traction. 00:25:59.920 --> 00:26:02.960 And I think I'll start with the one that is going to 00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:08.000 be sort of the hard sell because it's difficult for some men 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:11.440 to wrap their mind around it because of what they have been 00:26:11.440 --> 00:26:16.080 taught, and even if you explain it thoroughly and in a way 00:26:16.080 --> 00:26:22.480 that is entirely Christian, incontrovertible, unassailable, many men will still reject it 00:26:22.720 --> 00:26:26.240 because it goes against so many of their presuppositions that they have 00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:30.240 been taught with which they have been propagandized for probably in some 00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:34.480 cases decades, particularly if you're dealing with baby boomers, which, as I've 00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:38.880 said before, if you're dealing with your parents, baby boomers, maybe some 00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:43.760 of you grandparents at this point, just don't you're going to cause 00:26:43.760 --> 00:26:48.000 yourself nothing but trouble and annoyance and make things more difficult, and 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:51.760 it's going to make it hard for you, at least in the 00:26:51.760 --> 00:26:55.600 sense of a challenge, to fulfill the fourth commandment, thou shalt honor 00:26:55.600 --> 00:26:56.480 thy father and thy mother. 00:26:56.480 --> 00:26:58.240 And so probably in that case, don't do it. 00:26:58.240 --> 00:27:00.960 But in other cases where you're trying to do this by all 00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:05.360 means, the first of the three then would be pointing out that 00:27:05.360 --> 00:27:09.200 Adam was in fact the first Christian. 00:27:09.200 --> 00:27:12.480 And there are two ways that you need to approach this if 00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:15.920 you are going to advance this argument for someone in order to 00:27:15.920 --> 00:27:17.680 get him to understand it. 00:27:17.680 --> 00:27:22.000 First, you have to point out what is a Christian? 00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:26.640 Seems trivial, but a lot of men have no idea. 00:27:26.640 --> 00:27:28.640 How do you define a Christian? 00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:32.960 A Christian is someone who has faith in the gospel. 00:27:32.960 --> 00:27:34.640 What is the gospel? 00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:40.640 The gospel is that they're Will be or has been a Christ 00:27:40.640 --> 00:27:44.160 who died for you to wash away your sins, and that if 00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:47.040 you believe in him, you will be forgiven and have eternal life. 00:27:47.040 --> 00:27:52.880 That's the sort of the short version formulated for this particular argument. 00:27:52.880 --> 00:27:56.080 That time element, sort of tying into the last question, I guess, 00:27:56.080 --> 00:27:57.760 but that time element is key. 00:27:57.760 --> 00:28:02.080 Because if you died before Christ came, well now you believe in 00:28:02.080 --> 00:28:06.320 the Messiah who is to come, who will come in the future. 00:28:06.320 --> 00:28:11.360 If, like those of us here, you were born after the Christ 00:28:11.360 --> 00:28:16.800 was born, lived his life, was crucified, and resurrected, will you believe 00:28:16.800 --> 00:28:18.960 in the Christ who has come? 00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:21.520 And yes, it's typically better to say Christ than Messiah. 00:28:21.520 --> 00:28:24.400 Sometimes I still use Messiah, but it's one of those words we're 00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:27.760 going to retain just because various reasons we've taken it. 00:28:27.760 --> 00:28:28.080 It's fine. 00:28:28.080 --> 00:28:28.800 It's ours now. 00:28:28.800 --> 00:28:30.160 It's part of our language. 00:28:30.400 --> 00:28:33.040 And we have a wonderful piece of music using it. 00:28:33.040 --> 00:28:40.320 That tangent aside, though, when you're dealing with the gospel, once you've 00:28:40.320 --> 00:28:43.280 established what it means to be a Christian, you point out, well, 00:28:43.280 --> 00:28:43.760 where is the gospel 00:28:44.640 --> 00:28:46.160 first spoken? 00:28:46.160 --> 00:28:47.600 In Scripture? 00:28:47.600 --> 00:28:51.200 It's first spoken by God in Genesis three hundred fifteen, the Proto 00:28:51.360 --> 00:28:55.520 Evangelian. Because that is the gospel. 00:28:55.520 --> 00:28:59.440 When Adam believed in that gospel, and keep in mind, Adam smarter 00:28:59.440 --> 00:29:01.680 than any of us, Adam got it immediately. 00:29:01.680 --> 00:29:02.720 He knew what was going on. 00:29:02.720 --> 00:29:05.760 He knew what God was saying and the implications of it. 00:29:05.760 --> 00:29:11.120 And so Adam believed in the gospel, spoken to him by God 00:29:11.120 --> 00:29:16.320 face to face, incidentally, spoken to him by Christ, perhaps ironically, and 00:29:16.640 --> 00:29:20.240 so he was a Christian, because he believed, because he had faith. 00:29:20.240 --> 00:29:23.920 The same as Abraham was a Christian because he had faith. 00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:27.120 And so you're going to get those who'll push back against this 00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:29.200 and they'll try to say, well, no, they were they were Jews 00:29:29.280 --> 00:29:30.400 and no. 00:29:30.400 --> 00:29:34.560 First off, Adam can't be a Jew because chronologically, Judah, from whom 00:29:34.560 --> 00:29:37.600 we get Jew came long after Adam. 00:29:37.600 --> 00:29:38.240 And so 00:29:39.120 --> 00:29:42.880 if you can get them to recognize that the Old Testament figures 00:29:42.880 --> 00:29:46.000 who believed in the Messiah who was to come were Christians, 00:29:47.040 --> 00:29:50.880 great, you've made a great point and you're well on your way 00:29:50.880 --> 00:29:53.520 to convincing this person of something important. 00:29:53.520 --> 00:29:56.240 But you are also going to have to point out sort of 00:29:56.240 --> 00:30:02.400 the second point here there is a difference between modern Judaism, which 00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:02.720 is 00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:05.360 I'll get into that in a second. 00:30:05.360 --> 00:30:11.680 There's a difference between modern Judaism and the Old Testament ceremonial temple 00:30:11.680 --> 00:30:18.640 religion. The Old Testament ceremonial temple religion, instituted by God, did not 00:30:18.640 --> 00:30:22.560 justify. Very clearly we know that, because we have passages that the 00:30:22.560 --> 00:30:25.840 blood of bulls and goats cannot wash away sins. 00:30:25.840 --> 00:30:28.640 Scripture is very clear about that fact. 00:30:28.640 --> 00:30:32.080 And so hopefully you're not going to reach any sort of contention 00:30:32.240 --> 00:30:35.120 point of contention there, any pushback. 00:30:35.120 --> 00:30:38.640 But that was to prefigure the things that Christ would do, the 00:30:39.040 --> 00:30:42.880 sacrifice of Christ, the institution of the Lord's Supper, the washing away 00:30:42.880 --> 00:30:44.400 of sins and baptism, things like that. 00:30:44.400 --> 00:30:48.240 These are all prefigured in the Old Testament because God really likes 00:30:48.240 --> 00:30:50.000 symbolism and typology. 00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:52.720 And so you have types and antitypes all over the place in 00:30:52.720 --> 00:30:58.160 Scripture. The ceremonial law is not Judaism. 00:30:58.160 --> 00:31:04.240 Judaism is not the ceremonial law, because what Judaism is, is a 00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:06.960 Jewish response to the destruction of the temple 00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:12.160 and the exile, particularly the Babylonian exile. 00:31:12.160 --> 00:31:16.800 Because what can they not do when the temple is gone? 00:31:16.800 --> 00:31:18.640 Well they can't sacrifice. 00:31:18.640 --> 00:31:22.560 For Christians that's not a problem because we recognize Christ was the 00:31:22.560 --> 00:31:24.400 sacrifice once for all. 00:31:24.400 --> 00:31:26.640 The ceremonial law is done. 00:31:26.640 --> 00:31:29.040 It served its purpose, it's dead and gone. 00:31:29.040 --> 00:31:30.480 God got rid of it. 00:31:30.480 --> 00:31:31.680 That doesn't mean it was bad. 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:33.120 It doesn't mean it was wrong. 00:31:33.120 --> 00:31:35.040 It means it was fulfilled. 00:31:35.040 --> 00:31:37.280 This is another thing that's sort of tangentially related. 00:31:37.280 --> 00:31:41.120 You get people who don't recognize that once God's fulfilled a promise, 00:31:41.120 --> 00:31:43.440 he's done what he said he would do. 00:31:43.440 --> 00:31:47.760 Obviously, you can see why that's tangentially related, but the ceremonial law 00:31:47.760 --> 00:31:51.520 having been closed out and the temple having been destroyed, the Jews 00:31:51.520 --> 00:31:52.400 can no longer do that. 00:31:52.400 --> 00:31:54.000 So what did they do in response? 00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:58.000 Well, in Babylon, there's the issue of you know learning black magic 00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:01.120 and things like that and that being distilled into the Talmud, but 00:32:01.120 --> 00:32:05.280 they started to form up the Talmud during the Babylonian exile. 00:32:05.280 --> 00:32:08.960 It wasn't completed and formalized as it were until the five hundreds 00:32:09.120 --> 00:32:12.000 AD, incidentally, not BC. 00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:12.320 And 00:32:13.440 --> 00:32:14.960 that's Judaism. 00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:20.720 Because Judaism is based entirely on the synagogue and on rabbinic interpretation, 00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:24.560 not of the Torah, not of the Pentateuch, but of the Talmud. 00:32:24.560 --> 00:32:27.840 And so one of the sayings about this, of course, is that 00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:32.000 what Torah forbids, Talmud permits. 00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:34.720 This has been something the Jews have been doing for a very, 00:32:34.720 --> 00:32:40.240 very long time And so Judaism is a fundamentally different thing from 00:32:40.240 --> 00:32:42.960 the religion of the Old Testament. 00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:47.360 Christianity has been the only religion that saves all along. 00:32:47.360 --> 00:32:52.400 There was a ceremonial aspect with regard to the practice of certain 00:32:52.400 --> 00:32:56.320 things in Old Testament Israel for a period of time to prefigure 00:32:56.320 --> 00:32:57.200 the Christ. 00:32:57.200 --> 00:32:58.720 That was it. 00:32:58.720 --> 00:33:00.400 There's a clear divide there. 00:33:00.400 --> 00:33:02.720 These are not the same thing. 00:33:02.720 --> 00:33:06.240 If you can get them to recognize the truth of that, you 00:33:06.240 --> 00:33:07.760 will have made a great deal of progress. 00:33:07.760 --> 00:33:10.640 That's going to be difficult in most cases, though. 00:33:10.640 --> 00:33:12.080 So just recognize that. 00:33:12.080 --> 00:33:16.480 But I think most of us know that at this point. 00:33:16.480 --> 00:33:20.720 And I think really I sort of made the the third point 00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:24.640 I wanted to make there in contained within the second point. 00:33:24.640 --> 00:33:28.560 And that is you really have to drive home the fact, and 00:33:28.560 --> 00:33:30.800 this one is going to be a hard sell. 00:33:30.800 --> 00:33:34.480 You have to drive home the fact that Judaism is not the 00:33:34.480 --> 00:33:37.440 religion of the Old Testament. 00:33:37.440 --> 00:33:40.320 Judaism is the religion of the Talmud. 00:33:41.600 --> 00:33:43.840 That is the fundamental distinction. 00:33:43.840 --> 00:33:47.920 And so maybe you can get somewhere by pointing out, I was 00:33:47.920 --> 00:33:50.400 trying to see if the book's on my shelf here. 00:33:50.400 --> 00:33:54.880 There is a book by a Jewish academic pointing out all of 00:33:54.880 --> 00:34:01.200 the places in which the Talmud deals with Christ and blasphemes him. 00:34:01.200 --> 00:34:03.840 And he treats it in a dry academic fashion. 00:34:03.840 --> 00:34:07.040 So sometimes you can get some purchase by having them read that 00:34:07.040 --> 00:34:10.400 book and say, Here's a Jewish academic saying this is what the 00:34:10.400 --> 00:34:15.200 Talmud says about Jesus, this is what Jews believe about Christ. 00:34:15.680 --> 00:34:20.160 So I think those three points are really probably the best approach 00:34:20.160 --> 00:34:24.560 for dealing with this issue of Judaism being a corruption of Christianity 00:34:24.560 --> 00:34:29.440 instead of actually being the old testament religion, because it addresses those 00:34:29.440 --> 00:34:30.560 main points. 00:34:30.560 --> 00:34:35.200 And you have to drive home that Christianity has only ever been 00:34:35.840 --> 00:34:37.440 the one true religion. 00:34:37.440 --> 00:34:40.400 And scripture is abundantly clear about that, of course, because I am 00:34:40.400 --> 00:34:42.160 the way, the truth, and the life. 00:34:42.160 --> 00:34:44.160 Among many other passages. 00:34:44.160 --> 00:34:47.200 There's never been another way to the Father, there's never been another 00:34:47.200 --> 00:34:51.920 way to see forgiveness of sins, to have your wickedness washed away, 00:34:51.920 --> 00:34:54.640 to be given white robes, to enter into paradise. 00:34:54.640 --> 00:34:56.560 It's always been Christ and only Christ. 00:34:56.560 --> 00:34:59.520 The only question is do you believe in the Christ who is 00:34:59.520 --> 00:35:01.360 to come or the Christ who has come? 00:35:01.360 --> 00:35:05.360 These days, of course, irrelevant because everyone you meet was born after 00:35:05.360 --> 00:35:07.600 Christ, obviously. 00:35:07.600 --> 00:35:12.720 But when dealing with history, you're going to have those who who 00:35:12.960 --> 00:35:15.120 lived before Christ came. 00:35:15.120 --> 00:35:18.640 And if they believed in the Christ who was to come, they 00:35:18.640 --> 00:35:21.440 were in fact Christians, not Jews. 00:35:21.440 --> 00:35:23.520 And a great way to point that out, of course, is all 00:35:23.520 --> 00:35:29.040 of the men who came before Judah, who believed in the Christ. 00:35:29.040 --> 00:35:32.000 Many of them are not in the line of Christ, are not 00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:37.280 part of Israel at all, and so they are Christians still, but 00:35:37.280 --> 00:35:38.640 they are not Jews. 00:35:38.640 --> 00:35:40.800 They did not follow Judaism. 00:35:40.800 --> 00:35:49.600 They believed in the Christ, and so their religion was Christianity. 00:35:49.600 --> 00:35:54.320 Sort of a related question here. 00:35:54.320 --> 00:35:57.360 How can I share the word and gospel with others when I 00:35:57.360 --> 00:35:59.280 am not very social? 00:35:59.280 --> 00:36:02.560 I can walk up to and talk to people with no problem, 00:36:02.560 --> 00:36:06.240 but my problem is that I'm monotone and robotic or in quotes 00:36:06.400 --> 00:36:09.840 autistic. However, I think that if I try to force myself to 00:36:09.840 --> 00:36:13.120 be very bubbly, it wouldn't be genuine. 00:36:13.120 --> 00:36:15.520 I'm not going to tell you to force yourself to be bubbly, 00:36:15.520 --> 00:36:19.600 I've certainly never done that in my life, so you don't have 00:36:19.600 --> 00:36:20.960 to be that. 00:36:20.960 --> 00:36:24.320 There are different approaches to sharing the faith that are going to 00:36:24.320 --> 00:36:25.840 work with different men. 00:36:25.840 --> 00:36:28.640 And they're going to work in different times and different places, and 00:36:28.640 --> 00:36:31.440 some men are more suited to them than to others. 00:36:31.440 --> 00:36:34.240 So there are going to be those who are very good at 00:36:34.240 --> 00:36:37.040 apologetics. There are going to be those who are good at different 00:36:37.040 --> 00:36:39.040 kinds of apologetics. 00:36:39.040 --> 00:36:41.840 And it is going to depend on the person. 00:36:41.840 --> 00:36:43.440 You have to tailor these things. 00:36:43.440 --> 00:36:48.560 You're not going to find a one-size-fits-all, as it were, argument. 00:36:48.560 --> 00:36:52.960 Because that's not how human beings work. 00:36:52.960 --> 00:36:58.720 So just because you're not particularly social or you're monotone or robotic, 00:36:58.720 --> 00:37:02.480 I've been accused of those as well, so I truly understand. 00:37:02.480 --> 00:37:06.320 But that doesn't mean that you can't find some way to share 00:37:06.320 --> 00:37:07.600 the faith that will still be very effective 00:37:08.480 --> 00:37:10.240 with certain men. 00:37:10.240 --> 00:37:13.120 If you're going to take it in that direction, approach it in 00:37:13.120 --> 00:37:17.040 that way, you're probably going to take it from the sort of 00:37:17.040 --> 00:37:21.280 intellectual angle, the academic angle, and that can be very effective. 00:37:21.280 --> 00:37:22.080 It's going to be very effective 00:37:22.960 --> 00:37:24.800 almost exclusively with men. 00:37:24.800 --> 00:37:27.760 You're probably not going to convince any women with those arguments. 00:37:27.760 --> 00:37:30.240 That's just the reality of the fact. 00:37:30.240 --> 00:37:31.840 But that's not a bad thing. 00:37:31.840 --> 00:37:34.880 Because by and large, you probably should be arguing with other men 00:37:34.880 --> 00:37:39.360 instead of women topic for another time, but 00:37:40.240 --> 00:37:42.720 No, I I don't think there's a a problem with being a 00:37:42.720 --> 00:37:48.000 little bit reserved or less social when it comes to these things. 00:37:48.000 --> 00:37:51.440 You can absolutely be that kind of man, have that kind of 00:37:51.440 --> 00:37:55.360 disposition, and still share the faith very effectively. 00:37:55.360 --> 00:37:58.880 Look at some of the apostles, they were not all the most 00:37:58.880 --> 00:38:01.280 upbeat and chipper individuals certainly. 00:38:01.280 --> 00:38:04.960 Paul was a particularly cranky man from time to time, and if 00:38:04.960 --> 00:38:07.760 you start looking at the Old Testament prophets, you certainly are getting 00:38:07.760 --> 00:38:09.680 even even crankier territory. 00:38:09.680 --> 00:38:14.080 I don't think anyone would say that Elijah or Elisha was upbeat 00:38:14.080 --> 00:38:18.080 and bubbly and you know, any of those things. 00:38:18.080 --> 00:38:19.360 So there's nothing wrong with that. 00:38:19.360 --> 00:38:23.120 Different men have different dispositions and you're going to find different things 00:38:23.120 --> 00:38:27.040 are effective in different scenarios with other men. 00:38:27.040 --> 00:38:31.600 Some are going to be convinced by cold calculating reason, and maybe 00:38:31.600 --> 00:38:32.720 that's what you're good at. 00:38:32.720 --> 00:38:38.160 By all means use it. 00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:38.880 Zay 00:38:39.840 --> 00:38:42.320 Another question here that 00:38:43.200 --> 00:38:45.760 the person who asked actually deleted it, but I'm still going to 00:38:45.760 --> 00:38:49.440 answer it just because I think it is an important question. 00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:50.880 It's come up a number of times. 00:38:50.880 --> 00:38:54.080 I've answered it a few places, but it's always worth repeating it 00:38:54.560 --> 00:38:58.000 just because there are those who are going to have this question. 00:38:58.000 --> 00:39:01.520 So I'm going to pull up logos again here. 00:39:01.520 --> 00:39:06.800 And we're going to go to the book of Acts this time. 00:39:06.800 --> 00:39:10.000 So here in the book of Acts we're dealing with the twenty 00:39:10.080 --> 00:39:14.000 first chapter. 00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:14.800 Let's see. 00:39:14.800 --> 00:39:17.680 And when he had given him permission Mission, Paul standing on the 00:39:17.680 --> 00:39:20.400 steps motioned with his hand to the people, and when there was 00:39:20.400 --> 00:39:24.880 a great hush he addressed them in the Hebrew language saying, Well 00:39:24.960 --> 00:39:29.120 that sounds like it's directly opposed to the things that we have 00:39:29.120 --> 00:39:32.720 said about Hebrew on the Stone Choir Podcast and elsewhere, right? 00:39:32.720 --> 00:39:33.440 It does. 00:39:33.440 --> 00:39:35.200 Of course it does. 00:39:35.200 --> 00:39:40.000 The problem with that is that there are two different senses of 00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:42.880 that term there, the Hebrew language. 00:39:42.880 --> 00:39:46.320 The way that I pointed it out before that should resonate with 00:39:46.320 --> 00:39:50.800 Americans certainly is if I were to say that I address them 00:39:51.440 --> 00:39:56.000 in the American language, we don't really speak that way these days, 00:39:56.000 --> 00:39:58.800 but if I said that you would all know full well I 00:39:58.800 --> 00:40:03.360 didn't mean American because that's not a separate language. 00:40:03.360 --> 00:40:04.400 We speak English. 00:40:04.400 --> 00:40:06.080 I am speaking English now. 00:40:06.080 --> 00:40:09.280 And so if I said that I addressed you addressed you in 00:40:09.280 --> 00:40:14.000 the American language, what I really mean is that I addressed you 00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:20.000 in English, because I addressed you in the language of the Americans. 00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:25.120 So in this case it's here in the Greek which I have 00:40:25.120 --> 00:40:29.840 up now, Ibraidi dialekto legon, which is 00:40:30.720 --> 00:40:31.680 this is the 00:40:33.840 --> 00:40:35.840 the article here, the definite article. 00:40:35.840 --> 00:40:40.880 So it's it's dative, so it's in the in this case dialect 00:40:40.880 --> 00:40:44.720 of the Hebrews, or the Hebrew dialect, and then he speaks to 00:40:44.720 --> 00:40:46.960 them Lagoon. 00:40:46.960 --> 00:40:51.920 So he's speaking to them in the dialect used by the Hebrew 00:40:51.920 --> 00:40:54.320 people at this time in this place. 00:40:54.320 --> 00:40:55.840 It's Aramaic. 00:40:55.840 --> 00:41:00.240 It should be translated Aramaic, it's misleading when it says Hebrew. 00:41:00.240 --> 00:41:04.960 I have when recording these things I've said Aramaic. 00:41:04.960 --> 00:41:09.840 Because it's just confusing for most people to hear Hebrew and not 00:41:09.840 --> 00:41:14.240 think the Hebrew language as opposed to the language of the Hebrews 00:41:14.240 --> 00:41:16.960 living in first century Palestine. 00:41:16.960 --> 00:41:18.800 Which is what is being said here. 00:41:18.800 --> 00:41:22.080 No one who read the original copy of this letter would have 00:41:22.080 --> 00:41:23.200 been confused. 00:41:23.200 --> 00:41:25.040 Everyone knew exactly what he meant. 00:41:25.040 --> 00:41:27.680 Not least of all because they didn't speak Hebrew. 00:41:27.680 --> 00:41:31.920 They spoke Aramaic and Greek, the language of the letter itself. 00:41:31.920 --> 00:41:36.960 But when you see someone being addressed in the Hebrew language in 00:41:36.960 --> 00:41:42.320 the New Testament, it's Aramaic, because that was their language, their personal, 00:41:42.320 --> 00:41:45.280 as it were, language as a people, even though many of them 00:41:45.280 --> 00:41:49.120 had switched to using Greek, Greek was still the language of empire 00:41:49.200 --> 00:41:53.040 as opposed to the personal language, the specific language of the people 00:41:53.600 --> 00:41:58.640 who were Hebrew by blood living in this area at this time. 00:41:58.640 --> 00:42:01.680 And so sort of a I guess long winded way of saying 00:42:01.840 --> 00:42:04.240 it's not Hebrew, it's Aramaic. 00:42:07.760 --> 00:42:11.680 The next question here, let me pull that one up. 00:42:13.440 --> 00:42:15.440 Where did Firefox go? 00:42:15.440 --> 00:42:16.640 There we are. 00:42:19.360 --> 00:42:24.080 The next one is, I guess, the short version is dieenfrage, or 00:42:24.080 --> 00:42:27.520 otherwise known in English as the Mormon question. 00:42:27.520 --> 00:42:32.480 How do we solve the Mormon question? 00:42:32.800 --> 00:42:35.280 Obviously, there's a very straightforward answer to this. 00:42:35.280 --> 00:42:37.920 I guess I can move logos at this point, as I'm using 00:42:38.080 --> 00:42:40.880 not using it right now. 00:42:41.200 --> 00:42:44.720 Mormonism is a Christian heresy. 00:42:44.720 --> 00:42:48.960 Granted, Islam started off as a Christian heresy too, and perhaps there's 00:42:48.880 --> 00:42:52.240 a little bit of overlap there, not to be unduly uncharitable, but 00:42:52.240 --> 00:42:55.440 there is some overlap. 00:42:55.440 --> 00:43:00.480 Mormonism being a Christian heresy, and it's not heterodoxy, it's not anything 00:43:00.480 --> 00:43:05.440 less, it is rank, open, impenitent heresy. 00:43:05.440 --> 00:43:08.560 It should be punished by a godly prince in the same way 00:43:08.560 --> 00:43:11.600 you would punish any sort of rank heresy. 00:43:11.600 --> 00:43:15.200 You punish the teachers with capital punishment. 00:43:15.200 --> 00:43:18.320 And generally speaking that solves the problem. 00:43:18.320 --> 00:43:21.920 Because when you strike the shepherd the sheep flee. 00:43:21.920 --> 00:43:27.040 Now we should not view the rank and file Mormons as our 00:43:27.040 --> 00:43:31.280 enemies, absolutely not, because the rank and file Mormons are by and 00:43:31.280 --> 00:43:37.280 large our brothers and sisters, deeply deceived, they believe horrible lies, they 00:43:37.440 --> 00:43:43.360 are very difficult to evangelize, very difficult to disabuse of the propaganda 00:43:43.600 --> 00:43:46.160 for a number of reasons. 00:43:46.160 --> 00:43:49.760 Somewhat related to Pentecostalism in that way, because there's the burning in 00:43:49.760 --> 00:43:51.600 the bosom sort of thing, and I don't want to get into 00:43:51.600 --> 00:43:53.760 Mormonism too deeply right now, but 00:43:55.600 --> 00:43:59.680 we want to evangelize the rank and file Mormons because we want 00:43:59.680 --> 00:44:01.280 them to come over to our side. 00:44:01.280 --> 00:44:02.480 We want them to be Christian. 00:44:02.480 --> 00:44:04.080 We want to care for our people. 00:44:04.080 --> 00:44:07.600 You can think of the words of Saint Paul when he says 00:44:07.840 --> 00:44:10.720 that he wishes that his name would be blotted out of the 00:44:10.720 --> 00:44:14.320 book of life, if only he could thereby save his own people, 00:44:14.320 --> 00:44:16.640 his brothers according to the blood. 00:44:16.640 --> 00:44:19.600 And so that's the sort of care that we should have for 00:44:19.600 --> 00:44:20.320 our own people. 00:44:20.320 --> 00:44:26.640 And by and large, in the US, Mormons demographic are white. 00:44:26.640 --> 00:44:30.000 And so they're our problem. 00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:31.520 They're our brothers and sisters. 00:44:31.520 --> 00:44:34.480 We need to deal with them as best we can. 00:44:34.480 --> 00:44:39.040 But insofar as the high-handed impenitent false teachers are concerned, so their 00:44:39.280 --> 00:44:44.400 prophet and various higher-up temple Mormons, people like that, absolutely, it is 00:44:44.400 --> 00:44:46.880 the duty of the Christian prince to deal with them with the 00:44:46.880 --> 00:44:51.360 sword. That is the solution to it when it comes to open 00:44:51.360 --> 00:44:55.840 heretics. And there's also obviously a lot of political and other issues 00:44:55.840 --> 00:44:59.360 like that surrounding the Mormons, particularly many of them have 00:45:00.800 --> 00:45:04.480 I'm tempted to say infested, but perhaps I'll say they have gone 00:45:04.480 --> 00:45:08.800 to work for the CIA, the FBI, and related organizations. 00:45:08.800 --> 00:45:14.160 And so they've infiltrated government, but that's sort of a tangentially related 00:45:14.160 --> 00:45:18.640 issue. But yes, the short answer is they are deeply deceived, but 00:45:18.640 --> 00:45:19.280 there are brothers. 00:45:19.280 --> 00:45:23.680 We want to bring them out of Satan's camp, back into God's 00:45:23.680 --> 00:45:27.680 camp, but false teachers have to be struck down by the Christian 00:45:27.680 --> 00:45:30.720 prince who has been entrusted with the sword by God. 00:45:30.720 --> 00:45:39.600 And so pray that God would give us a godly government. 00:45:39.600 --> 00:45:44.160 Apparently we're going with a little bit of a theme tonight. 00:45:44.240 --> 00:45:46.160 The next question is about 00:45:47.440 --> 00:45:50.240 Elijah and Moses, the transfiguration. 00:45:50.240 --> 00:45:54.320 Let me pull that one up real quick. 00:45:54.320 --> 00:45:58.080 Do you think Christ was speaking with Moses and Elijah across time 00:45:58.080 --> 00:46:02.720 when the disciples saw them. 00:46:02.800 --> 00:46:05.760 I think that that could be an explanation. 00:46:05.760 --> 00:46:08.400 I don't know that it's necessary. 00:46:08.400 --> 00:46:14.400 I think that time is, of course, not really particularly relevant when 00:46:14.400 --> 00:46:18.480 you're dealing with those who have passed from this life to the 00:46:18.480 --> 00:46:24.000 next, because even if there is time in the renewed creation, right, 00:46:24.000 --> 00:46:27.840 it's not our time because again, time is a property of the 00:46:27.840 --> 00:46:29.920 universe in which you're located. 00:46:29.920 --> 00:46:32.320 And so time is a property of this universe. 00:46:32.320 --> 00:46:36.000 If you're in the renewed creation, if there's time, it's not the 00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:37.040 same time. 00:46:37.040 --> 00:46:37.680 And so 00:46:38.800 --> 00:46:43.840 Is it Christ speaking to Moses when Moses is standing on the 00:46:43.840 --> 00:46:50.000 mountain back in time from his perspective here in time, say when 00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:52.000 he received the Ten Commandments? 00:46:52.000 --> 00:46:54.160 Maybe it could be. 00:46:54.160 --> 00:46:57.840 But it would be pure speculation on my part as to say 00:46:57.840 --> 00:46:59.120 which one of those it is. 00:46:59.120 --> 00:47:00.960 I don't think there's any reason to believe it is. 00:47:00.960 --> 00:47:03.200 I don't think there's any reason to believe it's not. 00:47:03.200 --> 00:47:06.720 So whichever one of those you want to believe is entirely fine. 00:47:07.120 --> 00:47:11.920 I am personally more inclined to think that it is simply Moses 00:47:12.080 --> 00:47:18.880 and Elijah having already been separated from this world and now dealing 00:47:18.880 --> 00:47:23.680 with the next, the renewed creation, being pulled back for a minute 00:47:23.920 --> 00:47:27.840 in order to paint this picture of the fulfillment of all things 00:47:27.840 --> 00:47:28.960 in Christ. 00:47:28.960 --> 00:47:31.520 Because that's sort of what you're dealing with here. 00:47:31.520 --> 00:47:34.160 And I'm inclined to agree with many of the church fathers, and 00:47:34.160 --> 00:47:39.440 Martin Luther also agreed with this that Moses and Elijah are effectively 00:47:39.440 --> 00:47:43.120 representative of the law and the prophets, and Christ is standing there 00:47:43.520 --> 00:47:45.840 as the fulfillment of those things. 00:47:45.840 --> 00:47:48.720 I think that's probably the the best way to look at the 00:47:48.720 --> 00:47:56.080 transfiguration. The next question 00:47:56.080 --> 00:48:00.320 here. I have no running timer in OBS, which would certainly be 00:48:00.320 --> 00:48:01.760 something I should probably do. 00:48:01.760 --> 00:48:04.640 It would be helpful, but I will at least go on to 00:48:04.640 --> 00:48:05.120 this question. 00:48:05.120 --> 00:48:10.240 I don't know how long I will necessarily go This week. 00:48:10.240 --> 00:48:12.880 Wouldn't want to keep any of you away from your your families 00:48:12.960 --> 00:48:16.960 if you still have family in town. 00:48:16.960 --> 00:48:20.880 I am convinced monarchism is the truth taught in scripture, but I 00:48:20.880 --> 00:48:24.240 grew up in an Arminian church it is difficult to keep that 00:48:24.240 --> 00:48:27.360 theology from creeping back in after screwing up and committing a sin 00:48:27.440 --> 00:48:29.120 I personally struggle with. 00:48:29.120 --> 00:48:32.240 Can you speak to this topic for those of us with this 00:48:32.240 --> 00:48:38.320 background? This is sort of an expansive question, so I will start 00:48:38.320 --> 00:48:43.840 off by highlighting the difference between monergism and synergism, and I guess 00:48:43.840 --> 00:48:47.200 I'll comment very briefly on semi-pelagianism, which is sort of between the 00:48:47.200 --> 00:48:50.400 two. And it's relevant because that's what Rome teaches. 00:48:50.400 --> 00:48:53.680 They don't like calling it that, but it's what they teach. 00:48:53.760 --> 00:48:54.080 So 00:48:56.080 --> 00:49:00.880 there are a couple of different places where the human will and 00:49:00.880 --> 00:49:04.320 what it is capable of doing at that time in that place 00:49:04.880 --> 00:49:06.400 is relevant. 00:49:06.560 --> 00:49:08.800 Couple of different places where that's true. 00:49:08.800 --> 00:49:12.720 The first is with regard to justification. 00:49:12.720 --> 00:49:15.280 And I'm for the first part of this, I'm going to speak 00:49:15.280 --> 00:49:17.440 specifically about justification. 00:49:17.440 --> 00:49:20.080 So ignore everything else, put it out of your mind. 00:49:20.080 --> 00:49:23.040 This is just for justification. 00:49:23.040 --> 00:49:27.920 With regard to justification, what the scriptures teach, and I'm just going 00:49:27.920 --> 00:49:31.200 to assert the truth here, I'm not going to argue that, you 00:49:31.200 --> 00:49:34.800 know, the Reformed disagree a little bit, the Roman Catholics disagree a 00:49:34.800 --> 00:49:35.600 lot a bit. 00:49:35.600 --> 00:49:39.360 I'm just going to assert what Scripture teaches. 00:49:39.360 --> 00:49:44.240 With regard to justification, your will can do nothing, because you are 00:49:44.240 --> 00:49:47.680 dead in your sins and your trespasses, and the dead do not 00:49:47.680 --> 00:49:51.840 act. Corpses don't act, they don't do anything, so if you are 00:49:51.840 --> 00:49:56.640 dead spiritually before you are regenerated, you cannot do anything, you cannot 00:49:56.640 --> 00:50:02.240 contribute anything towards your own salvation before you are regenerated. 00:50:02.240 --> 00:50:04.320 How are you regenerated? 00:50:04.320 --> 00:50:05.520 You are regenerated 00:50:06.560 --> 00:50:10.880 by the Holy Spirit, granting you the free gift of faith that 00:50:10.880 --> 00:50:14.960 is granted by the means of grace, baptism, and the word of 00:50:14.960 --> 00:50:15.680 the Lord. 00:50:15.680 --> 00:50:18.240 Yes, there's also the Lord's Supper, but that is for strengthening your 00:50:18.240 --> 00:50:20.880 faith once you're already a Christian. 00:50:20.880 --> 00:50:24.880 And so you are regenerated at the same time you're given faith. 00:50:24.880 --> 00:50:28.560 There's no chronological gap there, there's not an order of operations as 00:50:28.560 --> 00:50:29.120 it were. 00:50:29.120 --> 00:50:32.160 Regeneration and faith are the same thing essentially. 00:50:32.160 --> 00:50:33.760 You can go ahead and think about it that way. 00:50:34.000 --> 00:50:36.880 It's close enough to completely true. 00:50:36.880 --> 00:50:40.160 That's monergism, that's what scripture teaches. 00:50:40.160 --> 00:50:47.680 Synergism teaches that you cooperate with God by contributing works, effort, 00:50:47.680 --> 00:50:51.840 something, whatever it happens to be in the particular system, towards your 00:50:51.840 --> 00:50:57.120 justification. The problem, of course, is scripture doesn't teach that, you can't 00:50:57.120 --> 00:50:57.520 do that. 00:50:58.160 --> 00:51:00.640 The debt of sin against God is infinite. 00:51:00.640 --> 00:51:02.720 I've gone into that previously. 00:51:02.720 --> 00:51:07.520 And so you cannot contribute at all, because again you are dead 00:51:07.520 --> 00:51:10.080 in your sins and your trespasses. 00:51:10.080 --> 00:51:14.240 So synergism with regard to justification is false. 00:51:14.240 --> 00:51:16.960 And then the last of the three I want to comment on 00:51:16.960 --> 00:51:20.320 here I don't really need to comment on Pelagianism, which basically is 00:51:20.320 --> 00:51:25.840 just works righteousness, the rank form of Pelagianism, but semi Pelagianism, which 00:51:25.840 --> 00:51:29.840 is what Rome teaches, is that due to what they call that 00:51:29.840 --> 00:51:33.280 I'm going to say is not in scripture, because it's not, what 00:51:33.280 --> 00:51:39.280 they call prevenient grace, which just means preceding grace that comes before, 00:51:39.280 --> 00:51:44.560 due to that, you are capable of making a step toward God, 00:51:44.560 --> 00:51:49.840 basically. You are capable of putting in some initial effort and then 00:51:50.640 --> 00:51:54.640 God will come alongside you and provide you the strength you need 00:51:54.640 --> 00:51:55.760 to continue down the path. 00:51:55.760 --> 00:52:01.040 That's Rome's teaching that's semi-Pelagianism, because you can see there's works righteousness 00:52:01.120 --> 00:52:04.400 at least at the beginning, but they at least admit that God 00:52:04.400 --> 00:52:06.320 has to help you you can't do it all on your own. 00:52:06.320 --> 00:52:11.120 So it's not rank Pelagianism, which was a heresy condemned universally essentially 00:52:11.200 --> 00:52:15.200 in the ancient church, but it is a form of Pelagianism as 00:52:15.200 --> 00:52:18.400 well, because they are still saying that you do nothing. 00:52:18.400 --> 00:52:21.600 It is still a form of synergism, it's just a minor form 00:52:21.600 --> 00:52:22.720 of it. 00:52:22.720 --> 00:52:28.960 Now, justification having been dealt with, there's the issue of sanctification. 00:52:28.960 --> 00:52:31.600 Sanctification is the renewal 00:52:32.640 --> 00:52:37.920 in which you do participate in this life working with the spirit 00:52:38.160 --> 00:52:39.920 that is synergistic. 00:52:39.920 --> 00:52:45.360 And of course the difference between monergism and synergism is just manas 00:52:45.360 --> 00:52:50.080 ergon, soul work, and sun ergon working together, basically. 00:52:50.080 --> 00:52:54.000 So it's the difference between God being the soul worker and you 00:52:54.000 --> 00:52:56.480 working alongside and with God. 00:52:56.480 --> 00:53:00.160 Very weakly, mind you, you're the weak horse, certainly. 00:53:00.160 --> 00:53:04.880 But once your will, your person, once you have been renewed by 00:53:04.880 --> 00:53:09.440 the Spirit, you have been regenerated, then you are actually capable of 00:53:09.440 --> 00:53:14.400 cooperating with God weakly and in an imperfect fashion, and you will 00:53:14.400 --> 00:53:17.840 still sin, you will still fall, you'll backslide, you'll have all sorts 00:53:17.840 --> 00:53:21.840 of problems in this life, but you are You are capable of 00:53:21.840 --> 00:53:24.880 cooperating in sanctification. 00:53:24.880 --> 00:53:28.480 Because you have been renewed, you're no longer dead. 00:53:28.480 --> 00:53:32.240 Because, of course, the greatest picture of that is baptism. 00:53:32.240 --> 00:53:36.560 You pass into the water, into death, into the grave, you come 00:53:36.560 --> 00:53:38.240 up renewed to new life. 00:53:38.240 --> 00:53:42.160 It's regeneration, it's the resurrection, it's a picture of the resurrection from 00:53:42.160 --> 00:53:42.800 the dead. 00:53:42.800 --> 00:53:46.640 It is the first resurrection, and those who participate in the first 00:53:46.640 --> 00:53:50.160 resurrection do not taste the second death. 00:53:50.160 --> 00:53:50.240 So 00:53:51.840 --> 00:53:55.840 that's the difference between monergism versus synergism. 00:53:55.840 --> 00:54:00.240 So monergistic with regard to justification, God alone acts because God alone 00:54:00.240 --> 00:54:01.920 can do it, because you are dead. 00:54:01.920 --> 00:54:02.880 You can do nothing. 00:54:02.880 --> 00:54:04.320 You are spiritually dead. 00:54:04.320 --> 00:54:06.880 You are worse off than a stone. 00:54:06.880 --> 00:54:11.840 But with regard to sanctification, you can do things because at that 00:54:11.840 --> 00:54:13.440 point you have been renewed. 00:54:13.440 --> 00:54:14.720 Your will has been renewed. 00:54:14.720 --> 00:54:18.400 You are actually able to act and do good to cooperate with 00:54:18.400 --> 00:54:22.080 God in your sanctification. 00:54:22.080 --> 00:54:25.440 And sort of to address the the middle point there, it's not 00:54:25.440 --> 00:54:27.440 a question, but just to address it. 00:54:27.440 --> 00:54:32.320 When you have a besetting sin, just recognize that that's generally how 00:54:32.320 --> 00:54:33.920 it is for most men. 00:54:33.920 --> 00:54:36.560 Most men are going to have some sin that is a besetting 00:54:36.720 --> 00:54:40.240 sin, because if you found all of them easy to deal with, 00:54:40.240 --> 00:54:40.560 then 00:54:41.680 --> 00:54:45.440 you're almost attaining perfection, which is diff difficult to do in this 00:54:45.440 --> 00:54:46.800 life, which is to say impossible. 00:54:46.800 --> 00:54:48.800 No one attains perfection in this life. 00:54:48.800 --> 00:54:51.840 And so if you have that sin, depending on what particular sin 00:54:51.840 --> 00:54:54.400 it may be, just work at it. 00:54:54.400 --> 00:54:59.120 Remove whatever you can from your environment that leads you toward that 00:54:59.120 --> 00:55:02.560 temptation, that makes it more difficult to avoid that temptation. 00:55:02.560 --> 00:55:03.840 Whatever it happens to you. 00:55:03.840 --> 00:55:05.200 Don't despair. 00:55:05.200 --> 00:55:07.760 God knows that you're a sinner. 00:55:07.760 --> 00:55:09.200 God knows that you're fallen. 00:55:09.200 --> 00:55:11.920 God knows that you're going to backslide, that you're going to fall 00:55:11.920 --> 00:55:14.560 into these sins, and he is there to pick you up again 00:55:14.800 --> 00:55:18.320 and there to come alongside you and to And to get right 00:55:18.320 --> 00:55:21.120 back to the work of sanctification. 00:55:21.120 --> 00:55:22.880 That's an important thing to remember. 00:55:22.880 --> 00:55:25.760 Don't despair because you have sinned. 00:55:25.760 --> 00:55:29.120 You're a sinner because you are living in a fallen world having 00:55:29.120 --> 00:55:33.200 inherited original sin, which is not purged from you in baptism, you 00:55:33.200 --> 00:55:36.720 still have original sin, it's not counted against you. 00:55:36.720 --> 00:55:40.160 It's not removed, but it's not counted against you. 00:55:40.160 --> 00:55:43.200 And so you are going to continue to sin because you are 00:55:43.200 --> 00:55:44.400 a sinner. 00:55:44.400 --> 00:55:49.280 Yes, in time, through sanctification, you will do less of that. 00:55:49.280 --> 00:55:53.360 But the thing is, as you sort of get rid of these 00:55:53.360 --> 00:55:57.440 obvious sins in your life, the Holy Spirit is going to start 00:55:57.440 --> 00:56:00.800 pointing to other things and going, Well now maybe we should look 00:56:00.800 --> 00:56:04.240 over here, because there will always be more work to be done. 00:56:04.240 --> 00:56:08.240 And so don't despair if you have trouble in this life with 00:56:08.240 --> 00:56:11.200 regard to sin, because you are always going to be fighting against 00:56:11.200 --> 00:56:16.000 it. You're always going to be putting to death the sinful flesh. 00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:19.200 That's part of the Christian walk, and it does not end until 00:56:19.200 --> 00:56:24.240 death and final renewal when you when you are actually restored to 00:56:24.240 --> 00:56:34.240 what God wanted you to be. 00:56:34.640 --> 00:56:38.640 The next question, we're just really kind of following a theme tonight, 00:56:38.640 --> 00:56:42.160 is about whether or not there are any sins that 00:56:43.040 --> 00:56:45.680 by their very nature extinguish faith. 00:56:45.680 --> 00:56:47.840 Let me see if I can actually find the wording here to 00:56:47.840 --> 00:56:48.720 make sure that I 00:56:51.600 --> 00:56:54.400 That's pretty much exactly what the wording is, so I think my 00:56:54.400 --> 00:56:57.440 wording is sufficient for this. 00:56:57.440 --> 00:56:59.360 The answer to that is no. 00:56:59.360 --> 00:57:02.560 Now, this is another place where you're going to have a difference 00:57:02.560 --> 00:57:06.800 between Lutherans and most Protestants are pretty much going to agree on 00:57:06.800 --> 00:57:08.640 this one, and Rome. 00:57:08.640 --> 00:57:14.960 Because Rome's distinction with regard to mortal versus venial sins is that 00:57:14.960 --> 00:57:17.840 mortal sins drive out the Holy Spirit and extinguish faith? 00:57:17.840 --> 00:57:19.920 That is generally their formulation of that. 00:57:19.920 --> 00:57:23.440 I know that there are some Roman Catholic apologists and theologians who've 00:57:23.360 --> 00:57:27.360 defined it differently, but that's the general teaching of it. 00:57:27.360 --> 00:57:31.520 That's why they are so concerned about mortal sins, because they believe 00:57:31.520 --> 00:57:33.520 it extinguishes faith. 00:57:33.520 --> 00:57:36.960 A mortal sin is still a bad thing, and Lutheran theologians have 00:57:36.960 --> 00:57:40.080 used the distinction between mortal and venial sins. 00:57:40.080 --> 00:57:45.280 Gerhard basically makes the distinction a mortal sin is a sin committed 00:57:45.280 --> 00:57:48.720 against conscience, and a venial sin is a sin committed due to 00:57:48.720 --> 00:57:54.400 weakness. And so obviously, yes, the sin against conscience, the high handed 00:57:54.400 --> 00:57:56.480 sin, is worse. 00:57:56.480 --> 00:58:00.160 And so if you want to call it mortal versus venial, fine. 00:58:00.160 --> 00:58:04.480 But does it by its very nature extinguish faith? 00:58:04.480 --> 00:58:05.760 The answer is no. 00:58:06.560 --> 00:58:10.400 Now, if you persist in it, if you continue to pursue it, 00:58:10.400 --> 00:58:13.840 if you continue to sin against conscience, yes, you run the risk 00:58:13.840 --> 00:58:18.800 of searing your conscience, falling away from the faith, and finally apostatizing. 00:58:18.800 --> 00:58:20.560 Because apostasy is very much possible. 00:58:21.040 --> 00:58:22.880 Scripture warns about it all over the place. 00:58:22.880 --> 00:58:25.680 I know the Reformed don't like to hear that, but Scripture warns 00:58:25.680 --> 00:58:27.280 about it, God's very clear. 00:58:27.280 --> 00:58:28.400 You can apostatize. 00:58:28.400 --> 00:58:30.880 And it's not because you were never a Christian, because if you 00:58:30.880 --> 00:58:34.240 were never a Christian, well it wouldn't be apostasy. 00:58:34.240 --> 00:58:37.280 Because apostasy is from the faith. 00:58:37.280 --> 00:58:39.120 So necessarily you were part of the faith. 00:58:39.120 --> 00:58:40.160 You had a living faith. 00:58:40.160 --> 00:58:41.120 You had a real faith. 00:58:41.120 --> 00:58:43.840 You were a Christian, you apostatized. 00:58:43.840 --> 00:58:45.040 So is that possible? 00:58:45.520 --> 00:58:47.760 The answer is yes. 00:58:47.760 --> 00:58:53.200 Should you become, you know, neurotic about this, so anxious about it 00:58:53.520 --> 00:58:58.160 that you are so obsessed with the danger of committing a mortal 00:58:58.160 --> 00:59:00.880 sin that you just obsess over that day and night? 00:59:00.880 --> 00:59:02.880 The answer is no. 00:59:02.880 --> 00:59:05.360 Because are you going to commit sins? 00:59:05.360 --> 00:59:06.640 Again, absolutely yes. 00:59:06.640 --> 00:59:08.240 Sort of similar to the last question. 00:59:08.240 --> 00:59:10.720 The answer the answer to last question. 00:59:10.720 --> 00:59:15.680 And when you do, you repent, and you try again. 00:59:15.680 --> 00:59:19.760 And if you fall again, you repent, and you try again. 00:59:19.760 --> 00:59:23.680 It is the repenting and the trying again that marks a Christian, 00:59:23.680 --> 00:59:27.040 because a life of repentance is the Christian life. 00:59:27.040 --> 00:59:29.840 A life of perfection isn't the Christian life. 00:59:29.840 --> 00:59:33.360 The men who believe they are perfect are the Pharisees standing up 00:59:33.360 --> 00:59:36.320 and saying thank God I am not like that man a sinner 00:59:36.480 --> 00:59:38.160 and a tax collector. 00:59:38.160 --> 00:59:42.320 The Christian life is the tax collector repenting of being a sinner. 00:59:42.320 --> 00:59:45.440 It's go and sin no more, of course, but you're going to 00:59:45.440 --> 00:59:47.600 fall. You're not going to be perfect, you are not going to 00:59:47.600 --> 00:59:51.600 be able to resist all temptations all the time, because you are 00:59:51.600 --> 00:59:54.320 imperfect. You're living in a fallen world. 00:59:54.320 --> 00:59:56.640 And it's a point that is worth repeating. 00:59:56.640 --> 00:59:59.440 You're not a sinner because you sin, you sin because you're a 00:59:59.440 --> 01:00:03.200 sinner. Now there's a bit of a feedback loop there, of course, 01:00:03.200 --> 01:00:07.200 but because of the fact that you have inherited original sin, you 01:00:07.200 --> 01:00:11.440 are a sinner, you have concupiscence, you have this desire to sin 01:00:11.760 --> 01:00:14.720 that would not be in you if our first parents had not 01:00:14.720 --> 01:00:18.720 sinned and brought sin into the world and transmitted it to us. 01:00:18.720 --> 01:00:22.640 And so you will continue to sin even as a Christian. 01:00:22.640 --> 01:00:25.680 It is not a cause for despair, it is a cause for 01:00:25.680 --> 01:00:28.960 trying harder, it is a cause for standing up and giving it 01:00:28.960 --> 01:00:30.160 another go. 01:00:30.160 --> 01:00:32.240 That is what matters in this life. 01:00:32.240 --> 01:00:35.680 You keep trying, you keep fighting against the sinful flesh and the 01:00:35.680 --> 01:00:39.120 temptations of the devil and the temptations of the world, you use 01:00:39.120 --> 01:00:43.040 the tools that God is giving you, which is obviously His Word, 01:00:43.040 --> 01:00:47.760 the sacraments, other Christian men and women, talking to them, spending time 01:00:47.760 --> 01:00:51.520 in God's word, and prayer, of course, never forget prayer, it is 01:00:51.520 --> 01:00:54.880 something that we certainly neglect in the modern world because many men 01:00:54.880 --> 01:00:57.200 have decided it doesn't really do anything. 01:00:57.200 --> 01:00:58.960 Always be in prayer. 01:00:58.960 --> 01:01:01.920 At the very least, as I've recommended so many times, pray the 01:01:01.920 --> 01:01:04.720 Lord's prayer when you wake up and before you go to bed. 01:01:04.720 --> 01:01:06.640 That's sort of the starting position. 01:01:06.640 --> 01:01:09.040 Then maybe pray it before meals. 01:01:09.040 --> 01:01:10.880 It is a wonderful thing. 01:01:10.880 --> 01:01:13.440 It is the prayer that God taught us, it is the prayer 01:01:13.440 --> 01:01:14.880 that He wants to hear. 01:01:14.880 --> 01:01:15.680 It is a good prayer. 01:01:15.680 --> 01:01:17.200 It doesn't mean you don't pray other things. 01:01:17.200 --> 01:01:19.360 I'm not saying it's the only prayer, and I'm certainly not saying 01:01:20.400 --> 01:01:23.200 repeat it mindlessly ten thousand times a day. 01:01:23.200 --> 01:01:26.800 You know, I just said say it four or five, right? 01:01:26.800 --> 01:01:27.120 But 01:01:28.080 --> 01:01:30.400 that is an important part of your walk with God. 01:01:30.400 --> 01:01:33.200 That is an important part of being a Christian, living a Christian 01:01:33.200 --> 01:01:37.520 life. And And we pray for the forgiveness of sins every time 01:01:37.520 --> 01:01:38.880 we pray that prayer. 01:01:38.880 --> 01:01:40.560 And we don't pray that idly. 01:01:40.560 --> 01:01:44.080 We pray it because we probably sinned in between when we last 01:01:44.080 --> 01:01:46.960 prayed the prayer and when we're praying it now. 01:01:46.960 --> 01:01:50.560 Even if it was a venial sin, right, a minor sin, because 01:01:50.560 --> 01:01:52.960 all sin separates from God ultimately. 01:01:52.960 --> 01:01:57.680 Some sins are worse than others, but all sin separates from God. 01:01:57.680 --> 01:02:01.280 The sin that separated mankind from God. 01:02:01.280 --> 01:02:03.120 Of course there's other things involved. 01:02:03.120 --> 01:02:06.480 There's pride and rebellion, all that, but it was eating a fruit 01:02:06.480 --> 01:02:08.640 God told us not to eat. 01:02:08.640 --> 01:02:11.680 All sin is infinite in its nature. 01:02:11.680 --> 01:02:12.080 And so 01:02:13.120 --> 01:02:18.160 if you have some besetting sin, some sin that is clearly a 01:02:18.160 --> 01:02:21.920 trouble for you, do what you need to do in order to 01:02:21.920 --> 01:02:24.640 put yourself in a position where you're better able to resist that 01:02:24.640 --> 01:02:28.560 temptation, better able to fight against it, and do not despair if 01:02:28.560 --> 01:02:30.000 you fall into it again. 01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:31.280 Stand up and try. 01:02:31.280 --> 01:02:31.840 That's it. 01:02:31.840 --> 01:02:32.720 That's all you have to do. 01:02:32.720 --> 01:02:34.240 That's the Christian life. 01:02:34.240 --> 01:02:36.480 Repent, fall, repent, fall. 01:02:36.480 --> 01:02:38.320 That's how it goes. 01:02:38.320 --> 01:02:43.040 So despair is what you don't want because when you fall into 01:02:43.200 --> 01:02:46.880 that sort of pit, that is when you're falling into where the 01:02:46.880 --> 01:02:48.320 devil wants you to be. 01:02:48.320 --> 01:02:51.760 The devil wants you to think, no, I'm I'm too terrible of 01:02:51.760 --> 01:02:52.160 a sinner. 01:02:52.160 --> 01:02:53.680 I am a horrible person. 01:02:53.680 --> 01:02:56.720 God could never forgive me again for this sin that I've done 01:02:56.720 --> 01:03:00.000 four hundred eighty seven times this year or whatever it happens to 01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:02.400 be. It's false. 01:03:02.400 --> 01:03:06.960 Because Christ's sacrifice on the cross was of infinite worth. 01:03:06.960 --> 01:03:11.440 And so no matter how many sins you commit, Christ already paid 01:03:11.440 --> 01:03:12.160 for them. 01:03:12.160 --> 01:03:14.320 Christ knew you were going to commit them when he went to 01:03:14.320 --> 01:03:15.120 the cross. 01:03:15.360 --> 01:03:18.480 Christ knew he was going to pay for those, he knew you 01:03:18.480 --> 01:03:20.720 were going to commit them, not just when he went to the 01:03:20.720 --> 01:03:25.120 cross, before he was born, in the manger. 01:03:25.120 --> 01:03:28.000 He knew absolutely everything that you were going to do in your 01:03:28.000 --> 01:03:30.960 life, and he still died for you, he still paid for your 01:03:30.960 --> 01:03:34.240 sins, he paid for each and every one of them, even before 01:03:34.240 --> 01:03:35.520 you committed them. 01:03:35.520 --> 01:03:37.760 So there's no reason for despair. 01:03:37.760 --> 01:03:41.040 You can be chagrined, of course, you can hate that you fell 01:03:41.040 --> 01:03:43.200 into that temptation, that sin again, but 01:03:44.240 --> 01:03:47.040 use that to drive you forward, use that to be angry at 01:03:47.040 --> 01:03:50.640 the devil and the fallen flesh, use that to fight against those 01:03:50.640 --> 01:03:54.320 temptations and stand up and try again. 01:03:54.320 --> 01:03:57.840 That's what matters. 01:04:06.880 --> 01:04:09.600 I think maybe I'll answer one more question. 01:04:09.600 --> 01:04:11.920 I think I'm at just a little over an hour. 01:04:11.920 --> 01:04:15.200 I have I do actually have a timer, it's just very tiny 01:04:15.200 --> 01:04:19.760 at the bottom and not a hundred percent accurate. 01:04:19.760 --> 01:04:20.240 So So 01:04:22.480 --> 01:04:32.720 let me see if there is a short one here. 01:04:33.760 --> 01:04:37.280 Unfortunately, I answered the short ones last week, and those were the 01:04:37.280 --> 01:04:42.560 easy ones that took me mere seconds to answer. 01:04:42.560 --> 01:04:45.680 So I think I may call it here for this week. 01:04:45.680 --> 01:04:46.800 I don't see any 01:04:48.720 --> 01:04:51.600 Short questions in the chat which I could just answer quick. 01:04:51.600 --> 01:04:52.000 Let's see. 01:04:52.000 --> 01:04:54.720 How does a person simply believe in the gospel with faith? 01:04:54.720 --> 01:04:57.680 What could a person do to accept the gospel as true without 01:04:57.680 --> 01:05:00.560 being able to prove the details of the story? 01:05:01.840 --> 01:05:04.800 That's not necessarily a simple question, but I think I can give 01:05:04.800 --> 01:05:08.480 a relatively simple answer before I close out this episode for this 01:05:08.480 --> 01:05:09.440 week. 01:05:11.200 --> 01:05:15.040 I answered it to some degree in the answer to the question 01:05:15.360 --> 01:05:20.480 about justification about monergism because faith is a gift. 01:05:20.480 --> 01:05:25.280 Faith is not something that you can make yourself have. 01:05:25.600 --> 01:05:28.400 Faith is something that God gives you. 01:05:28.400 --> 01:05:31.040 That doesn't mean you can do nothing. 01:05:31.040 --> 01:05:35.840 Because just because you are spiritually dead before you're renewed doesn't mean 01:05:35.840 --> 01:05:36.880 that you can do nothing. 01:05:36.880 --> 01:05:41.920 Because obviously you are still biologically alive, right And so even if 01:05:41.920 --> 01:05:44.960 you are not a Christian, even if you do not have faith, 01:05:44.960 --> 01:05:48.400 you can read the scriptures, you can go to church, you can 01:05:48.400 --> 01:05:52.960 listen to a sermon, you can do those things. 01:05:52.960 --> 01:05:56.720 Those things are where God has said that He is going to 01:05:56.720 --> 01:05:59.520 meet you and will give you the free gift of faith. 01:05:59.520 --> 01:06:02.480 And so all you have to do is do those things. 01:06:02.480 --> 01:06:03.840 God will fulfill his part. 01:06:03.920 --> 01:06:07.280 God is always always going to follow through with what he has 01:06:07.280 --> 01:06:12.640 promised. And so even if you can't prove the details every little 01:06:12.640 --> 01:06:18.160 minutia of all of the various stories in scripture, that's not the 01:06:18.160 --> 01:06:21.440 point. I I've highlighted this before, and I think this is where 01:06:21.440 --> 01:06:25.120 I'll close out answering this question in the episode. 01:06:25.120 --> 01:06:31.120 There's a difference between how you approach proving scripture to be true 01:06:31.120 --> 01:06:34.160 with an unbeliever versus a believer. 01:06:34.160 --> 01:06:36.400 I'll deal with the unbeliever first. 01:06:36.400 --> 01:06:40.880 With an unbeliever, you point to all of the things in Scripture 01:06:40.880 --> 01:06:44.560 that are so highly consistent Consistent over so many authors and such 01:06:44.560 --> 01:06:47.840 a great period of time and all those things like that, right? 01:06:47.840 --> 01:06:51.120 All the apologetics with which we are many of us anyway are 01:06:51.120 --> 01:06:52.320 quite familiar. 01:06:52.320 --> 01:06:56.400 And so you can point to external sources as well, various historians 01:06:56.480 --> 01:07:00.560 you can point to Tacitus, you can point to Josephus, you can 01:07:00.880 --> 01:07:02.640 hostile witnesses. 01:07:02.640 --> 01:07:06.560 You can point to these various things that corroborate what is present 01:07:06.560 --> 01:07:07.520 in Scripture. 01:07:07.520 --> 01:07:10.880 You can point to the proofs of archaeology and things like that. 01:07:10.880 --> 01:07:15.680 What do you're doing is you are trying to prove the reliability, 01:07:15.680 --> 01:07:19.040 at least of parts of scripture, to this person who doesn't believe 01:07:19.280 --> 01:07:23.680 on the basis of things that person holds to be at least 01:07:24.960 --> 01:07:26.800 presumably true. 01:07:26.800 --> 01:07:28.560 At least they bear some weight, right? 01:07:28.560 --> 01:07:34.080 Archaeology, digging these things up, finding various engravings and carvings that have 01:07:34.080 --> 01:07:37.040 the names of people who are present in the Old Testament, for 01:07:37.040 --> 01:07:39.120 instance, many of that has been found. 01:07:39.120 --> 01:07:42.320 And so And so with an unbeliever, you approach it in that 01:07:42.320 --> 01:07:45.920 way. Because what you're trying to do is you're trying to prove 01:07:45.920 --> 01:07:51.360 the reliability of scripture as an historical document, essentially. 01:07:51.360 --> 01:07:54.240 You're trying to prove it like you would any other history, any 01:07:54.240 --> 01:07:56.320 other nonfiction book. 01:07:56.320 --> 01:08:00.880 Now, with a believer, you approach it fundamentally differently. 01:08:00.880 --> 01:08:04.560 Because as a believer, you have already been given the free gift 01:08:04.560 --> 01:08:08.720 of faith, you already believe in God, you know that this is 01:08:08.720 --> 01:08:09.920 his book. 01:08:09.920 --> 01:08:14.640 You don't believe God's book because Tacitus 01:08:15.520 --> 01:08:18.640 said that some of these things happened in the way the book 01:08:18.640 --> 01:08:22.720 says, or because Josephus, a Jewish historian, says that some of these 01:08:22.720 --> 01:08:26.720 things happen in the way and at the time that Scripture says 01:08:26.720 --> 01:08:28.080 they happen, right? 01:08:28.080 --> 01:08:31.120 That's not why you believe the Bible as a believer. 01:08:31.120 --> 01:08:34.320 If you have the free gift of faith from God, you believe 01:08:34.320 --> 01:08:38.160 the Bible because it's God's word, and you believe in God. 01:08:38.160 --> 01:08:41.600 So you believe the book because you believe the author to be 01:08:41.600 --> 01:08:45.840 truthful. Now, that even works with human authors, but the benefit of 01:08:45.840 --> 01:08:48.720 course of God is that God does not lie ever. 01:08:48.720 --> 01:08:49.840 God is perfect. 01:08:49.840 --> 01:08:54.400 Everything God writes is exactly perfectly true, whether, you know, he writes 01:08:54.400 --> 01:08:58.800 it himself, the Ten Commandments, or he inspires authors to write it 01:08:58.800 --> 01:08:59.920 for him. 01:08:59.920 --> 01:09:03.520 And so there's a difference in the order of the operations, as 01:09:03.520 --> 01:09:04.320 it were. 01:09:04.320 --> 01:09:10.080 You are proving externally to inward with regard to those who are 01:09:10.080 --> 01:09:14.480 not believers, you're really going sort of the opposite direction with those 01:09:14.480 --> 01:09:18.320 who are believers, because you're pointing out you already believe in the 01:09:18.320 --> 01:09:19.280 author of this. 01:09:19.280 --> 01:09:20.400 He's infinite. 01:09:20.400 --> 01:09:21.840 He is truth. 01:09:21.840 --> 01:09:22.960 He cannot lie. 01:09:22.960 --> 01:09:23.920 He does not lie. 01:09:23.920 --> 01:09:26.240 Everything he says is true, and so you can rely on his 01:09:26.480 --> 01:09:30.880 word. But with regard to a person who doesn't have faith, it 01:09:30.880 --> 01:09:35.120 is a matter of just read the scripture, go to church. 01:09:35.120 --> 01:09:37.280 God will do what he has promised to do. 01:09:37.280 --> 01:09:38.800 He will meet you in these things. 01:09:38.800 --> 01:09:40.800 He will give you the free gift of faith. 01:09:40.800 --> 01:09:42.640 Because God does not lie. 01:09:42.640 --> 01:09:45.520 God always follows through with everything he has said. 01:09:45.520 --> 01:09:49.440 Not a single one of his promises is ever proven false. 01:09:49.440 --> 01:09:54.320 So that's sort of the difference there between the unbeliever versus the 01:09:54.320 --> 01:09:58.240 believer. And so no, it it doesn't matter if you can prove 01:09:58.240 --> 01:10:03.120 every single detail of every single part of scripture, because as a 01:10:03.120 --> 01:10:06.320 believer, that's not why you believe that's true. 01:10:06.320 --> 01:10:08.880 It's because you trust the author. 01:10:08.880 --> 01:10:12.640 But with the unbeliever, yes, you use the external sources because you're 01:10:12.640 --> 01:10:14.400 doing a fundamentally different thing. 01:10:14.400 --> 01:10:20.000 You're trying to convince a skeptic versus someone who already has the 01:10:20.000 --> 01:10:22.320 fullness of the reason to believe in scripture. 01:10:22.320 --> 01:10:26.480 I'm not saying that it's useless to teach Christians about the archaeology 01:10:26.480 --> 01:10:28.480 and all these other things, because of course that can help to 01:10:28.480 --> 01:10:29.520 shore up your faith. 01:10:29.520 --> 01:10:32.960 You can look at this and go, I believe this because it's 01:10:32.960 --> 01:10:36.880 the word of God, but it's certainly comforting that everything I see 01:10:36.880 --> 01:10:43.120 in secular history as it were, agrees with scripture, that philosophy agrees 01:10:43.120 --> 01:10:46.960 with scripture, that you can mount a philosophical defense of the existence 01:10:46.960 --> 01:10:48.960 of God and the goodness of God and all these other things. 01:10:49.520 --> 01:10:51.840 It's helpful to have those. 01:10:51.840 --> 01:10:54.720 But by and large, those are things that you use with those 01:10:54.720 --> 01:10:59.760 who are unbelievers because you are trying to knock down their objections 01:10:59.760 --> 01:11:03.040 to the faith so that they will be open to believing in 01:11:03.040 --> 01:11:06.640 the faith. 01:11:06.640 --> 01:11:10.640 And I think that is where I will close it out for 01:11:10.640 --> 01:11:12.240 this week. 01:11:12.240 --> 01:11:17.360 I will do the quick bit of housekeeping, just mention that the 01:11:17.360 --> 01:11:21.600 place to submit questions should be in the description of the video 01:11:21.920 --> 01:11:24.240 on whichever platform you're watching it. 01:11:24.240 --> 01:11:29.120 It will certainly be in the show notes for the podcast version 01:11:29.120 --> 01:11:31.600 of this, and I do put out a podcast version. 01:11:31.600 --> 01:11:36.720 The podcast version is the audio from this, just put out by 01:11:36.720 --> 01:11:42.640 itself every week, and that has a little higher quality, but by 01:11:42.640 --> 01:11:46.000 and large, it's just nice to have the audio available as well. 01:11:46.000 --> 01:11:48.720 There is a transcript and all things like that. 01:11:48.720 --> 01:11:52.320 If I put out episodes that are not QA's, they will probably 01:11:52.320 --> 01:11:56.320 just be in the podcast feed, not necessarily a live stream, as 01:11:56.320 --> 01:11:57.200 it were. 01:11:57.200 --> 01:11:59.280 Just not the point of that. 01:11:59.280 --> 01:12:01.920 So I think that pretty much covers the housekeeping. 01:12:01.920 --> 01:12:05.200 The reason for the forum, of course, is because it is more 01:12:05.200 --> 01:12:07.600 helpful. One of the reasons that I'm doing this is to build 01:12:07.600 --> 01:12:10.960 up the catalog of questions and answers so they can be pointed 01:12:10.960 --> 01:12:12.240 to in the future. 01:12:12.240 --> 01:12:16.320 Much easier to do if it's centrally located instead of my running 01:12:16.320 --> 01:12:19.280 around trying to find it on this thread and that thread and 01:12:19.280 --> 01:12:23.520 this stream and these comments and all these other places, right? 01:12:23.520 --> 01:12:25.120 It's just easier for me. 01:12:25.120 --> 01:12:27.680 And for future users as well. 01:12:28.000 --> 01:12:32.160 But I think that pretty much covers it for this week and 01:12:32.320 --> 01:12:38.080 I will I will do the QA next week on Thursday. 01:12:38.080 --> 01:12:40.960 I do not believe that that conflicts with anything, because that is 01:12:40.960 --> 01:12:41.840 the first, right? 01:12:41.840 --> 01:12:43.520 Yes, that is the first. 01:12:43.520 --> 01:12:46.720 I will not be overindulging on New Year's Eve, and so I 01:12:46.720 --> 01:12:49.920 won't have to call off on the first, but I will do 01:12:49.920 --> 01:12:52.800 the next QA on Thursday of next week. 01:12:52.800 --> 01:12:57.360 And I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, merry second day 01:12:57.360 --> 01:13:00.880 of Christmas, because of course Christmas season is not over yet. 01:13:00.880 --> 01:13:03.920 We are looking forward to Epiphany next, but we are still in 01:13:03.920 --> 01:13:06.640 the season of Christmas, and so I hope that you have at 01:13:06.640 --> 01:13:09.040 least some of your decorations up still and didn't tear them all 01:13:09.040 --> 01:13:12.160 down immediately after Christmas Day. 01:13:12.160 --> 01:13:16.560 So go and enjoy the rest of the evening, whatever's left for 01:13:16.560 --> 01:13:20.080 you, whichever time zone you're in, with family, friends, whoever happens to 01:13:20.080 --> 01:13:21.040 be around. 01:13:21.040 --> 01:13:22.160 Merry Christmas. 01:13:22.160 --> 01:13:22.880 God bless. 01:13:22.880 --> 01:13:25.920 I look forward to talking to all of you next week. 01:13:25.920 --> 01:13:29.440 Thank you for submitting questions and please submit your questions for next 01:13:29.440 --> 01:13:31.600 week. See you in a week.