WEBVTT 00:00:37.040 --> 00:00:39.520 Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast. 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:40.320 I am Corey J. 00:00:40.720 --> 00:00:44.400 Mahler. And I'm still Woe. 00:00:44.400 --> 00:00:48.640 On today's Stone Choir, we're going to be discussing God's active hand 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:49.840 in the universe. 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:53.040 Uh one of the terms for that is providence, something that we 00:00:53.040 --> 00:00:56.560 talked a little bit about in the Thanksgiving episode that we did 00:00:56.560 --> 00:00:59.840 last fall called God's Gifts Man's Duties. 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:02.960 And in that episode we were mostly focused on after God gives 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:05.040 you gifts, what do you do with them? 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:09.520 This episode is going to be focused entirely on the activity of 00:01:09.520 --> 00:01:13.520 the supernatural in our lives, both God and evil. 00:01:13.520 --> 00:01:17.600 And the reason for doing this is that as we've said before, 00:01:17.600 --> 00:01:20.800 there's I think a very strong case to be made that the 00:01:20.800 --> 00:01:25.840 vast majority of people in church pews are somewhere between functional deists 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:27.520 and functional Gnostics. 00:01:27.520 --> 00:01:30.240 And some they manage to combine both of those. 00:01:30.240 --> 00:01:33.680 And so today we want to make the case from scripture that 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:37.680 it's important for us as Christians to realize when and how God 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:41.520 is active, and when and how Satan is active, when and how 00:01:41.520 --> 00:01:46.240 there's evil, actual supernatural evil acting in the world in our lives 00:01:46.240 --> 00:01:48.320 and in the lives of those around us. 00:01:48.320 --> 00:01:52.320 Because when we separate one from the other, when we when we 00:01:52.320 --> 00:01:54.960 pretend that, well, this is just random happenstance. 00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:59.600 When we take God out of the equation, that's the watchmaker theory. 00:01:59.600 --> 00:02:00.560 That's deism. 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:02.880 That's saying, well, God doesn't really do anything. 00:02:02.880 --> 00:02:04.080 He's just kind of up there. 00:02:04.080 --> 00:02:05.440 You know, he's trapped in heaven. 00:02:05.440 --> 00:02:06.720 And he gave it this book. 00:02:06.720 --> 00:02:08.480 And so we read the book on Sunday and try to, you 00:02:08.480 --> 00:02:09.600 know, follow the rules. 00:02:09.600 --> 00:02:11.840 But otherwise, God's not doing anything. 00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:15.040 And that's really how most Christians actually view the world. 00:02:15.040 --> 00:02:18.400 Even the ones who will pay lip service to say, no, God's 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:21.760 doing stuff when push comes to shove and you say, Well, did 00:02:21.760 --> 00:02:22.480 God do this? 00:02:22.480 --> 00:02:23.760 Like, who could say? 00:02:23.760 --> 00:02:25.920 And so we're going to give a number of examples today from 00:02:25.920 --> 00:02:31.040 scripture where Christians who are given to us as examples don't behave 00:02:31.040 --> 00:02:32.080 the way we do today. 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:36.000 They set an example that we, by and large refuse to follow. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:40.560 And it's not simply that we're not copying their pattern of behavior. 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:42.800 We don't believe the way they believe. 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:46.400 We don't believe that God is active and that Satan is prowling 00:02:46.480 --> 00:02:48.160 like a roaring lion. 00:02:48.160 --> 00:02:52.560 And because we don't believe those things, it affects the way we 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:55.280 act. It affects the way we work with others, the way we 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:56.560 communicate with others. 00:02:56.560 --> 00:03:00.560 And crucially, it affects how we confess the Christian faith in the 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:04.480 very moments where God is making Himself known through both good and 00:03:04.480 --> 00:03:05.680 evil events. 00:03:05.680 --> 00:03:07.680 So that's we're gonna lay out today. 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:09.120 Fifteen seconds of housekeeping. 00:03:09.120 --> 00:03:12.400 Corey got a shipment of the challenge coins out last week on 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:14.880 Saturday. So some of you are already receiving those. 00:03:14.880 --> 00:03:16.960 He thinks he'll probably be able to get the rest of them 00:03:17.040 --> 00:03:18.240 out by the end of the week. 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:22.240 So hopefully by the time you hear this recording next week or 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:26.640 next week's recording, everyone who had pre-ordered or had ordered subsequently will 00:03:26.640 --> 00:03:29.200 have received their Stone Choir Challenge coins. 00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:31.040 Thank you to everyone for your support there. 00:03:31.040 --> 00:03:33.520 And we'll probably be talking a little bit about how that plays 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:35.120 into Providence because that's part of it. 00:03:35.440 --> 00:03:39.120 When we receive these gifts from you for something that we've done. 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:42.400 In a sense, that is truly God's providence in our lives. 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:44.000 And that's the way I see it. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:48.000 One of the first things that Christians typically teach their children is 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:49.920 to say grace before meals. 00:03:50.160 --> 00:03:52.880 You pray at bedtime and you pray before you eat. 00:03:52.880 --> 00:03:55.920 And if you as a parent aren't doing that or haven't doing 00:03:55.920 --> 00:03:57.440 that, please start. 00:03:57.440 --> 00:03:58.480 It's an important thing. 00:03:58.480 --> 00:04:00.560 It doesn't need to be a long, elaborate prayer. 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:03.600 It can be as simple as I often just say, Come Lord 00:04:03.600 --> 00:04:06.080 Jesus, be our guest and let thy gifts to us be blessed. 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:09.280 Amen. Takes eight seconds. 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:13.600 Should do more maybe, but I always try to pause and to 00:04:13.600 --> 00:04:18.240 remember that whatever I'm about to eat came from God and that 00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:22.400 is the essence of the Christian life is to know the good 00:04:22.400 --> 00:04:25.520 things that we receive didn't just come out of nowhere. 00:04:25.520 --> 00:04:27.920 Food doesn't just come from the grocery store. 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:30.000 It's an example we've given before. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:33.120 Gifts from others don't just fall from the grocery. 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:36.560 And it's not just one person being kind to another person or 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:38.080 helping another person. 00:04:38.080 --> 00:04:41.680 Those are good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:42.960 do for each other. 00:04:42.960 --> 00:04:46.160 And so when the time comes and those good things happen, if 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:50.480 we're recipients of them, we need to remember where they came from. 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:53.600 And to fail to do that is to fail to acknowledge that 00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:57.200 God is active in our lives, both when we act and when 00:04:57.200 --> 00:05:01.040 we receive the acts of others, for good or for ill. 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:03.840 And so some of the examples we'll give are when bad things 00:05:03.840 --> 00:05:06.160 happen. You know, this is the crux theologorum. 00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:09.600 It's the question that has long challenged theologians. 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:10.720 I don't think it's really that difficult. 00:05:11.200 --> 00:05:13.360 You just have to keep your head on straight. 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:15.360 Where does evil come from? 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:19.040 How is it the good men are the subject of evil things? 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:21.520 And there's an entire book in the book of Job that we'll 00:05:21.440 --> 00:05:23.680 talk about today that that goes into that. 00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:25.920 It's that's what the whole book is about. 00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:28.880 And what's interesting there is we'll get into the the text. 00:05:28.880 --> 00:05:32.240 This whole episode could just be about Job and we can make 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:34.080 the point we're not going to belabor that. 00:05:34.080 --> 00:05:37.200 And we're not going to end with the Job 38 through 41 00:05:37.200 --> 00:05:40.400 reading that we so often commend, but I am going to read 00:05:40.400 --> 00:05:44.480 parts from chapters one and two because it lays out very clearly 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:49.280 that God, at least in that one particular circumstance, was active in 00:05:49.280 --> 00:05:50.080 the world. 00:05:50.080 --> 00:05:51.920 God was interacting with Satan. 00:05:51.920 --> 00:05:54.080 Satan was active in the world. 00:05:54.080 --> 00:05:58.320 And while that is a specific example that's recorded in scripture for 00:05:58.320 --> 00:06:02.240 us of events that happened, of conversations that occurred. 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:04.880 It's also an example of the principle here. 00:06:04.880 --> 00:06:07.120 And I think that one of the dangers that we have when 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:11.360 we treat what's in scripture as Bible stories is that it becomes 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:14.560 the story of Job or the story of Noah, where it's the 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:18.560 self-contained thing where it's an old dead guy who did something and 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:22.400 God talked to him face to face and so somehow he is 00:06:22.400 --> 00:06:26.080 gonna have a different experience than we would have when it comes 00:06:26.080 --> 00:06:27.440 to our own faith. 00:06:27.520 --> 00:06:31.760 And that's true to an extent, but the gift that they had 00:06:31.760 --> 00:06:37.840 of interacting with God face to face, in some ways, is fundamentally 00:06:37.840 --> 00:06:38.480 different than. 00:06:38.480 --> 00:06:41.840 And I think in some ways it's arguably almost lesser than the 00:06:41.840 --> 00:06:44.960 way that we interact with God, where we receive scripture. 00:06:44.960 --> 00:06:47.680 God laid everything out in writing. 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:49.680 You know, it's over a thousand pages. 00:06:49.840 --> 00:06:52.000 You can sit down, you can read in in a couple weeks 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:53.520 if you put your mind to it. 00:06:53.520 --> 00:06:56.400 And it And it's God laying down everything that he ever wanted 00:06:56.400 --> 00:06:58.560 to communicate to all of mankind. 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:02.480 The conversations that he had with Noah and with Abraham and with 00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:05.040 those other men, absolutely a blessing. 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:07.600 They were blessed in ways that we have not been to speak 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:11.040 with God face to face and to know things that He said 00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:13.360 to them that were not recorded for our benefit. 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:14.800 That was for them. 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:18.000 And so they're certainly superior in that sense. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:24.000 But we have the superior advantage, particularly after Christ's birth, death, and 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:27.280 resurrection, is that all of those promises, all those gifts, all those 00:07:27.280 --> 00:07:30.400 prophecies for us are in the rearview mirror. 00:07:30.400 --> 00:07:35.200 And so we've received scripture just it lands in our laps, especially 00:07:35.200 --> 00:07:38.480 if you're raised a Christian, if parents are Christians and then they 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:40.240 raise Christian children. 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:43.040 This is just given to you as an inheritance. 00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:46.080 In a way, that's much richer than what those men had to 00:07:46.080 --> 00:07:46.560 go through. 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:49.760 We call them the patriarchs, justifiably so. 00:07:49.760 --> 00:07:52.400 But they kind of had to do it the hard way compared 00:07:52.400 --> 00:07:55.920 to us in terms of receiving all the bounty of God. 00:07:55.920 --> 00:07:58.480 And so when He gives us these things like, you know, the 00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:03.520 story of Job and these other examples where men specifically interacted with 00:08:03.520 --> 00:08:07.360 God and they were blessed and they also went through tremendous travails. 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:10.400 You know, most of those stories are about loss and suffering and 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:14.320 And hardship and chastisement. 00:08:14.320 --> 00:08:16.000 And that's another element to this. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:19.440 There are things that God does and that God permits to happen 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:20.800 that are evil. 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:23.280 And we'll talk about what that means because we're not saying that 00:08:23.280 --> 00:08:29.440 God is evil or that God does evil things, but the scripture 00:08:29.440 --> 00:08:32.320 very clearly says that God permits evil to occur and he will 00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:33.760 actually have a hand in it. 00:08:33.760 --> 00:08:37.360 And Job says that straight out, and then God says that he 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:38.560 didn't sin by saying that. 00:08:38.560 --> 00:08:41.200 So it's it's a very tricky thing to understand because you have 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:44.080 to be careful not to turn to a heretic where suddenly God 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:46.480 is doing bad things and it's like, oh, whatever, he's God, so 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:48.240 I guess he can do bad things. 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:50.720 When God does it, it isn't bad. 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:54.560 But that's not the same as saying that God is capricious. 00:08:54.560 --> 00:08:56.240 It's talking about his nature. 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:58.480 It's not talking about him having license. 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:00.720 It's two different things. 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:04.320 For us to look at the way God acts in those Bible 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:08.000 stories is a template for us understanding how he acts in our 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:10.240 lives because it's ongoing. 00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:10.560 And 00:09:11.520 --> 00:09:14.240 I think one of the particular challenges that we have in the 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:18.400 church age, you know, after Pentecost, is it it's clear from both 00:09:18.400 --> 00:09:24.000 scripture and from church history that basically after the last of the 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:30.720 apostles died, it seems like by and large miracles stopped occurring routinely. 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:32.320 Miracles have certainly still occurred. 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:33.600 We're not cessationists. 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:36.400 We're not saying all miraculous activity stopped. 00:09:36.400 --> 00:09:38.960 In fact, part of this episode is a point that that's not 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:40.320 the case at all. 00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:43.040 However, when you look at what was going on in the first 00:09:43.520 --> 00:09:47.360 century of the church, you have the apostles in particular running around 00:09:47.680 --> 00:09:49.760 raising the dead, healing the lame. 00:09:49.760 --> 00:09:52.240 They were doing the same miracles that Jesus did. 00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:55.520 And then those miracles themselves don't happen. 00:09:55.520 --> 00:10:00.320 They're people aren't being raised from the dead later on. 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:03.280 I think the important thing when we're looking at those is to 00:10:03.280 --> 00:10:07.440 recognize that as the gospel was spreading in the very earliest days 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:11.200 of the church, people didn't have the benefit of scripture, not certainly 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:12.720 of the New Testament. 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:17.200 And even the Septuagint, which they had the correlation, the teaching that 00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:20.640 the apostles were giving to the church and to unbelievers being brought 00:10:20.640 --> 00:10:24.080 into the church was, hey, all these prophecies in the Septuagint have 00:10:24.160 --> 00:10:25.440 been fulfilled in Christ. 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:29.520 They're being fulfilled in us giving you this good word today. 00:10:29.520 --> 00:10:34.720 And the miracles were there as proof that the promises of Scripture 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:37.520 were also true, just as in Jesus' day. 00:10:37.520 --> 00:10:40.080 He wasn't there to heal all of the lame or to raise 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:41.040 all of the dead. 00:10:41.040 --> 00:10:45.200 Those specific miracles were performed to say, I can do this, I 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:46.320 can also forgive sins. 00:10:46.640 --> 00:10:49.040 I can do all the things that are promised of me in 00:10:49.040 --> 00:10:54.640 scripture. And the miracle was the physical performance of his power, of 00:10:54.640 --> 00:10:55.520 God's power. 00:10:55.520 --> 00:10:58.080 And so when the apostles continued that in the first century, it 00:10:58.080 --> 00:10:58.800 was the same thing. 00:10:58.800 --> 00:11:03.360 It was a physical performance of miraculous power that could only possibly 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:04.720 be supernatural. 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:09.920 And then the question is, is it supernaturally good or supernaturally evil? 00:11:09.920 --> 00:11:12.720 This is one of the admonitions is given in the New Testament. 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:15.280 Paul specifically says, test the spirits. 00:11:15.280 --> 00:11:19.040 It said that there will be false prophets who will you know 00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:23.840 the the passage we frequently quote where those false prophets cry out, 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:26.720 Lord, Lord, do we not prophesy and cast out demons in your 00:11:26.800 --> 00:11:29.760 name? And Jesus said, I never knew you. 00:11:29.760 --> 00:11:31.440 They were performing miracles. 00:11:31.440 --> 00:11:35.120 Evil wicked men, in some cases, are able to do things that 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:36.240 seem miraculous. 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:39.600 There's supernatural activity that is demonic. 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:42.800 And when we refuse to acknowledge that there's an aspect of this, 00:11:42.800 --> 00:11:47.760 certainly a lesser aspect than God's activity, but nevertheless real, there are 00:11:47.760 --> 00:11:50.800 times and places where evil will do things, and it's not always 00:11:51.040 --> 00:11:52.480 apparently bad. 00:11:52.480 --> 00:11:55.680 I gave the example recently in another interview I did with someone 00:11:55.680 --> 00:12:00.080 else that I watched a documentary about mushrooms about psilocybin, you know, 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:04.240 psychedelics. And there was a man who's apparently f very famous in 00:12:04.240 --> 00:12:05.040 that community. 00:12:05.920 --> 00:12:06.800 Terrible name for it. 00:12:06.800 --> 00:12:07.600 It's not a community. 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:09.600 It's a they're lost. 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:13.920 But he was up a tree in a storm, tripping his mind 00:12:14.160 --> 00:12:18.640 out on psilocybin, and he communicated with an entity. 00:12:18.640 --> 00:12:22.960 And he had a horrible stuttering problem and he asked the entity 00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:27.680 up this tree in this thunderstorm to cure his stuttering and it 00:12:27.680 --> 00:12:30.560 did his he he he was a lifelong stutter and went away, 00:12:30.640 --> 00:12:31.600 never happened again. 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:35.040 And he attributed that to being on a silocybin trip and saying, 00:12:35.040 --> 00:12:38.560 What a wonderful thing, what great blessings we can all have if 00:12:38.560 --> 00:12:40.240 we go down that rabbit hole. 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:42.880 There's something down there that's gonna fulfill our wishes. 00:12:42.880 --> 00:12:44.320 And it didn't hurt him. 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:45.440 It fixed something. 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:50.000 It fixed a malady similarly to the sort of miracle that Jesus 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:54.560 performed, where he healed people who had, you know, problems that were 00:12:54.560 --> 00:12:59.120 similarly medical in nature, psychological in nature, but inexorable. 00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:02.640 And then when they're miraculously healed and someone's life improves. 00:13:02.640 --> 00:13:04.960 When Jesus did, it was proof of his power. 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:07.840 When that guy was up a tree in a thunderstorm and the 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:12.240 psilocybin entity, it was a demon, said, What do you want? 00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:13.440 And he said, I want to stutter. 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:15.280 And he said, Okay, you're not going to stutter anymore. 00:13:15.280 --> 00:13:16.320 And it went away. 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:17.920 That was a performance of a miracle. 00:13:17.920 --> 00:13:19.040 That was absolutely a miracle. 00:13:19.040 --> 00:13:20.320 That was supernatural. 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:24.240 And it was wicked, even though the outcome itself was good. 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:26.960 And so these things occasionally happen. 00:13:27.040 --> 00:13:31.280 And God willing, you'll never see anything wicked like that, because it's 00:13:31.280 --> 00:13:35.680 particularly troublesome for those who deny that there's any supernatural. 00:13:35.680 --> 00:13:38.400 And because we don't see us anymore, you know, after the first 00:13:38.400 --> 00:13:43.360 century, there are occasional miracles that I do believe were sincerely miracles. 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:46.640 And certainly in our own lives, there are individual cases where people 00:13:46.640 --> 00:13:48.000 are miraculously healed. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:49.840 That happens fairly frequently. 00:13:49.840 --> 00:13:52.560 It's not the sort of big ticket thing that you don't hear 00:13:52.560 --> 00:13:57.040 a voice, there's no flash of light, it's just there's the intense 00:13:57.040 --> 00:14:01.040 prayer of the faithful, and then something that seemed medically impossible is 00:14:01.680 --> 00:14:05.520 granted and someone is spared what seemed like was going to be 00:14:05.520 --> 00:14:06.880 a terrible outcome. 00:14:06.880 --> 00:14:08.800 That is no less miraculous. 00:14:08.800 --> 00:14:12.320 And historically, Christians have always viewed things that way. 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:15.200 And so one of the challenges that we have to get over 00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:20.640 today as Christians in the 21st century is not thinking that scientific 00:14:20.640 --> 00:14:24.640 knowledge of things gives us an excuse to say that God didn't 00:14:24.560 --> 00:14:25.120 do it. 00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:27.040 I think that's one of the key lessons from this whole episode 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:32.240 today. The fact that we have an explanation, some natural explanation for 00:14:32.240 --> 00:14:36.880 how something came about, doesn't mean that there was no supernatural element. 00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:41.360 So we'll give some examples throughout this episode today, but It's part 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:44.160 of the reason that I still am not shaded of saying that 00:14:44.160 --> 00:14:45.200 I love science. 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:47.440 That's a completely cursed comment today. 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:49.280 Used to say someone loves science. 00:14:49.280 --> 00:14:52.800 I love it, not because it's an abandonment of God in my 00:14:52.800 --> 00:14:57.120 heart, but because when I see discoveries made by intelligent men who 00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:02.080 are generally atheists, I see them revealing God's creation in amazing new 00:15:02.080 --> 00:15:06.960 ways. I see them revealing God exactly as he wants us to 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:10.160 find him, in creation as well as in scripture. 00:15:10.160 --> 00:15:12.480 I don't mean to set those against each other. 00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:17.280 But when I see a scientific discovery, whether it's you know molecular 00:15:17.280 --> 00:15:23.120 biology or astronomy, whatever it is, some amazing new learning about the 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:26.160 world. Like, thank God, what a miracle. 00:15:26.160 --> 00:15:30.160 We have a natural explanation for something that's just staggeringly beautiful. 00:15:30.160 --> 00:15:33.760 It's inconceivable the things that actually happen. 00:15:33.760 --> 00:15:37.280 And so the I Love Science guys who are all atheists, they're 00:15:37.280 --> 00:15:39.920 able to just merrily trot down that path because they feel the 00:15:39.920 --> 00:15:44.160 sense of ebulliance and and discovery and it's so much fun to 00:15:44.160 --> 00:15:48.240 be seeing these beautiful things, but they don't understand why it's beautiful. 00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:51.440 They see it as beauty for its own sake, whereas scripture makes 00:15:51.520 --> 00:15:54.960 very clear that that beauty is revelatory of the creator who made 00:15:54.960 --> 00:15:58.720 them. And so Christians should celebrate those things too. 00:15:58.800 --> 00:16:00.720 We shouldn't be snarky about it. 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:02.240 We shouldn't be dismissive. 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:05.920 We shouldn't say there's no space, you know, it's only this planet 00:16:06.160 --> 00:16:08.320 because somehow that's in the Bible. 00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:11.200 That's anathetical to Christianity. 00:16:11.200 --> 00:16:15.600 All the things that these idiot pagans, these genius pagans, who are 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:20.480 complete idiots, because they don't believe the Creator, they worship creatures, they 00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:22.320 worship themselves. 00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:24.400 But the things that they discover are true. 00:16:24.400 --> 00:16:29.440 When they discover things, you know, thirteen billion years away, that doesn't 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:32.400 mean that the creation story is not true. 00:16:32.400 --> 00:16:34.640 It's not just a story, it's what actually happened. 00:16:34.640 --> 00:16:36.880 We covered that in six thousand years in counting. 00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:42.480 The more we learn about creation itself, the more we see God's 00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:44.240 active hand in it. 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:47.280 And that is how Christians should view these things. 00:16:47.280 --> 00:16:51.440 We're not set in opposition to the world as it's discovering more 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:55.200 things. We're the only ones who can actually put them in context. 00:16:55.200 --> 00:16:59.600 Because the context is that God is creator of all things and 00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:04.560 his supernatural power is not only unlimited, but it's continuously active all 00:17:04.560 --> 00:17:05.600 over the place. 00:17:05.600 --> 00:17:09.360 And so to see that distilled down to one specific detail or 00:17:09.360 --> 00:17:12.320 scientific moment is itself wondrous. 00:17:12.320 --> 00:17:13.680 It should be a source for joy. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:15.840 If you don't care about that stuff, okay. 00:17:15.840 --> 00:17:18.480 It's not everybody's cut out to care about science. 00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:22.080 But it's not inherently lame to think that those things are wondrous. 00:17:22.080 --> 00:17:25.440 What's foolish is to think that those aren't God's activities. 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:28.960 Because when it comes down to when you look at scripture, all 00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:33.600 the things that are natural processes are themselves miraculous because God is 00:17:33.600 --> 00:17:34.560 driving them. 00:17:34.560 --> 00:17:37.600 And so I hope you'll take that away from this episode today 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:42.000 is that to understand something better naturally is not to separate it 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:46.880 from the Creator, but to link those two together inextricably, because creation 00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:51.200 testifies to the creator, and we see that around us every day. 00:17:51.600 --> 00:17:54.960 I think part of the problem when it comes to seeing God's 00:17:55.280 --> 00:17:57.200 active hand in creation 00:17:58.320 --> 00:18:02.240 is that we think of those miracles in the Old Testament or 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:03.280 in the New Testament. 00:18:03.280 --> 00:18:07.360 We think of someone being brought back to life or or mana 00:18:07.600 --> 00:18:10.640 falling from the sky or any of these other things that are 00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:16.720 very in your face as it were, very clearly miraculous and really 00:18:16.880 --> 00:18:21.680 undeniable for those who see them, unless you are just entirely impenitent 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:23.200 and hard hearted. 00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:27.920 And so we miss just how many miracles are around us every 00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:28.560 single day. 00:18:28.560 --> 00:18:30.880 We could go all the way to saying that everything is a 00:18:30.880 --> 00:18:34.960 miracle, which is very well true, because of course creation itself and 00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:38.720 everything in it is an act of God, and God must continue 00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:40.080 to act to sustain it. 00:18:40.080 --> 00:18:44.880 It cannot exist apart from God because nothing exists apart from God 00:18:45.120 --> 00:18:46.880 in that sense of being apart from God. 00:18:46.880 --> 00:18:52.160 Separated from God certainly, but that is a different matter. 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:56.800 And so we ignore all the small miracles in our lives, and 00:18:56.800 --> 00:19:01.360 certainly our lives are dotted with small miracles. 00:19:01.360 --> 00:19:06.480 I think that when we get to paradise or the judgment, whatever 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:10.480 it happens to be, if God permits it, we will look back 00:19:10.480 --> 00:19:16.320 on our lives and see a chain of events and circumstances that 00:19:16.320 --> 00:19:20.320 at the time here stuck in time we may very well have 00:19:20.320 --> 00:19:26.400 thought were random or chance occurrences, and yet will recognize that God 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:28.560 did have a plan for us. 00:19:28.560 --> 00:19:32.000 Now we need to be careful when we go down that particular 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:34.960 road because you can fall off both sides of the horse as 00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:36.240 is often the case. 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:38.880 If you are a deist, you fall off the left side of 00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:39.360 the horse. 00:19:40.080 --> 00:19:43.600 But the right side of the horse, if you fall off, that 00:19:43.600 --> 00:19:47.920 would be saying that every little detail and everything that happens, every 00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:50.800 occurrence, all of it, were exactly what God intended 00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:55.840 were part of his plan that is so detailed that every last 00:19:55.840 --> 00:20:00.000 thing that happens in your life is according to that plan. 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:02.880 And the problems with that should be obvious, because of course that 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:07.120 would attribute to God All of the actually evil and wicked things 00:20:07.120 --> 00:20:08.160 that happen in the world. 00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:12.000 Not evil in the sense of harmful or bad, because some of 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:13.360 those do come from God. 00:20:13.360 --> 00:20:17.040 Certainly afflictions and things like that can be from God. 00:20:17.040 --> 00:20:21.280 The thorns that make it difficult to farm are from God, those 00:20:21.280 --> 00:20:26.720 are evil in that particular sense of evil. 00:20:26.720 --> 00:20:31.600 But there is another sense of evil, which is the sort of 00:20:31.600 --> 00:20:36.880 evil that is committed by other agents, other sentient beings. 00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:41.120 So the evil that is done by Satan is from Satan. 00:20:41.120 --> 00:20:45.360 Now, God has a leash on Satan because the devil is God's 00:20:45.360 --> 00:20:49.520 devil. He can act only in so far as God permits. 00:20:49.520 --> 00:20:54.240 But the evil done by the devil, that is wickedness, is not 00:20:54.240 --> 00:20:56.960 attributable to God Himself. 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:01.360 The same as if one human being were to murder another. 00:21:01.360 --> 00:21:03.920 God did not plan that murder. 00:21:03.920 --> 00:21:07.120 God did not cause that murder to take place. 00:21:07.120 --> 00:21:10.880 That is wickedness that lies in the heart of man, not in 00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:12.640 the heart of God. 00:21:12.640 --> 00:21:16.080 And so we cannot fall off the right hand side of the 00:21:16.080 --> 00:21:20.160 horse, and attribute absolutely everything to God. 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:23.280 That would, of course, be to deny any sort of free will 00:21:23.280 --> 00:21:23.920 to man. 00:21:23.920 --> 00:21:26.800 We won't get into the depths of that issue today because it's 00:21:26.800 --> 00:21:29.360 certainly not the focus. 00:21:29.360 --> 00:21:31.200 But all of these things 00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:37.920 are not absolutely attributable to God univocally as it were. 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:40.080 So don't fall off either side of the horse. 00:21:40.080 --> 00:21:44.400 Don't become a deist, and don't become a fatalist, perhaps, or something 00:21:44.400 --> 00:21:48.400 even more than a fatalist in this case. 00:21:48.560 --> 00:21:55.680 But to turn to scripture and really providence proper, we should probably 00:21:55.680 --> 00:21:59.680 start in Genesis, which is appropriate it being the first book in 00:21:59.680 --> 00:22:03.120 Scripture. We won't start with the first chapter, but I'll do a 00:22:03.120 --> 00:22:08.800 reading from Genesis twenty two, which covers the idea of providence very 00:22:08.800 --> 00:22:14.480 well. After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:19.040 and he said, Here I am, he said, Take your son, your 00:22:19.040 --> 00:22:22.480 only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:25.840 Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of 00:22:25.840 --> 00:22:28.160 the mountains of which I shall tell you. 00:22:28.160 --> 00:22:32.240 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:35.440 two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac, and 00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:38.480 he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went 00:22:38.480 --> 00:22:40.640 to the place of which God had told him. 00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:44.080 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the 00:22:44.080 --> 00:22:45.360 place from afar. 00:22:45.360 --> 00:22:49.440 Then Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the donkey, 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:52.400 I and the boy will go over there, and worship, and come 00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:53.600 again to you. 00:22:53.600 --> 00:22:56.560 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it 00:22:56.560 --> 00:22:59.520 on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire 00:22:59.520 --> 00:23:00.560 and the knife. 00:23:00.800 --> 00:23:03.920 they went both of them together, and Isaac said to his father 00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:07.920 Abraham, My father, And he said, Here I am, my son. 00:23:07.920 --> 00:23:11.200 He said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the 00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:12.960 lamb for a burnt offering? 00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:16.960 Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt 00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:18.240 offering, my son. 00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:21.120 So they went both of them together. 00:23:21.120 --> 00:23:24.080 When they came to the place of which God had told him, 00:23:24.080 --> 00:23:27.360 Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, and 00:23:27.360 --> 00:23:30.880 bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on top 00:23:30.880 --> 00:23:31.840 of the wood. 00:23:31.840 --> 00:23:35.040 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter 00:23:35.040 --> 00:23:35.920 his son. 00:23:35.920 --> 00:23:38.480 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and 00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:42.880 said, Abraham, Abraham, and he said, Here I am. 00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:45.680 He said, Do not lay your hand on the boy, or do 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:49.840 anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing 00:23:49.840 --> 00:23:53.440 you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. 00:23:53.440 --> 00:23:56.960 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold behind him 00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:00.720 was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns, and Abraham 00:24:00.720 --> 00:24:03.600 went and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt 00:24:03.600 --> 00:24:05.600 offering instead of his son. 00:24:05.600 --> 00:24:09.520 So Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide, 00:24:09.520 --> 00:24:12.160 as it is said to this day, on the mount of the 00:24:12.160 --> 00:24:16.320 Lord it shall be provided. 00:24:16.320 --> 00:24:19.840 Here we have a very good example of a man who truly 00:24:19.840 --> 00:24:24.960 trusted that God would provide, which is really what providence is Providence 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:26.160 is God providing. 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:27.920 It is God's active 00:24:28.800 --> 00:24:33.760 working out in time of what he intends for his creatures. 00:24:33.760 --> 00:24:35.280 Because God does have a plan. 00:24:35.280 --> 00:24:38.400 Don't mistake what I said earlier for implying that God does not 00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:39.280 have a plan. 00:24:39.280 --> 00:24:43.520 He most certainly does, and we'll get into many verses that deal 00:24:43.520 --> 00:24:46.320 with that specifically. 00:24:46.320 --> 00:24:50.800 But God acts in time, in order to test, we see that 00:24:50.800 --> 00:24:54.480 here with Abraham, and indeed also in order to bless, we see 00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:57.680 that also with the provision of the ram. 00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:01.760 Incidentally as a side matter, the angel of the Lord here is 00:25:01.760 --> 00:25:04.960 Christ, which you should think every time you read this passage. 00:25:04.960 --> 00:25:08.320 It's very obvious in this passage, some others it's not as clear 00:25:08.320 --> 00:25:10.960 if it's an angel or Christ himself. 00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:12.800 Here it's very obvious it is Christ. 00:25:12.800 --> 00:25:13.920 How do we know that? 00:25:13.920 --> 00:25:18.240 Well think back to what the angel of the Lord says, You 00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:23.840 have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. 00:25:24.160 --> 00:25:28.160 And so that is Christ, who is God, because only God can 00:25:28.720 --> 00:25:30.960 say what is said there. 00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:35.200 So obviously we have an instance of not the Trinity here because 00:25:35.200 --> 00:25:39.600 we don't have the Spirit explicitly mentioned or really implicitly mentioned either 00:25:39.680 --> 00:25:43.840 in this particular passage, but we do have God the Father and 00:25:43.840 --> 00:25:45.760 God the Son. 00:25:45.760 --> 00:25:50.400 And that's right here in Genesis, so the Trinity is found throughout 00:25:50.400 --> 00:25:53.440 Scripture. It is not simply something that was constructed by the Church 00:25:53.440 --> 00:25:56.640 later on as some would conclude, something to pay attention to when 00:25:56.640 --> 00:25:59.840 you read the Old Testament, particularly when you see the angel of 00:25:59.840 --> 00:26:01.680 the Lord. 00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:08.000 But to return to Providence, the core of what Providence is is 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:08.880 God's action in 00:26:09.760 --> 00:26:14.320 time for the good of the elect. 00:26:14.320 --> 00:26:16.880 We're not going to get into election in this episode, at least 00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:19.360 not deeply, because we did an episode on that, and so And 00:26:19.360 --> 00:26:22.320 so you can go and listen to that. 00:26:22.320 --> 00:26:26.640 But it is important to remember when you think about how God 00:26:26.640 --> 00:26:31.520 acts in time, what God is doing in time with his actions, 00:26:31.520 --> 00:26:34.960 is that all things work together for the good of those who 00:26:34.960 --> 00:26:37.760 have been called, of those who love God, and of course you 00:26:37.760 --> 00:26:40.640 can only love God if you have in fact been called. 00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:43.680 We love him because he first loved us. 00:26:43.680 --> 00:26:46.000 So that is what providence is. 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:49.760 We used to recognize this as a society, and we don't really 00:26:49.760 --> 00:26:51.200 do that anymore. 00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:54.880 We used to have sayings and things like that that were just 00:26:54.880 --> 00:26:57.840 part of the social fabric, and we recognized 00:26:59.280 --> 00:27:02.880 That what happened to us in this life was very much up 00:27:02.880 --> 00:27:03.840 to God. 00:27:03.840 --> 00:27:08.960 We were in God's hands, and whether good or ill, all things 00:27:08.960 --> 00:27:10.800 were in his control. 00:27:10.800 --> 00:27:13.680 We have this a little bit even in our language today, although 00:27:13.680 --> 00:27:15.680 we don't recognize it. 00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:19.440 When you say goodbye, you're saying God be with you. 00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:22.880 Now we've modified it somewhat, and so we've sort of taken God 00:27:22.880 --> 00:27:23.840 out of it. 00:27:23.840 --> 00:27:25.600 But it's a recognition that 00:27:26.640 --> 00:27:29.760 whether or not we will meet again and what happens to you 00:27:29.760 --> 00:27:31.840 when you leave is up to God. 00:27:31.840 --> 00:27:36.320 It's ultimately in his hands, because all things are in God's hands. 00:27:36.320 --> 00:27:39.760 Yes, there is wickedness and there is suffering and there is evil 00:27:39.760 --> 00:27:42.880 in the world that is caused by men and devils, because there 00:27:42.880 --> 00:27:46.800 is that supernatural evil, which is something we as Christians must never 00:27:46.800 --> 00:27:51.920 forget. But those things can happen only insofar as God permits them 00:27:52.080 --> 00:27:55.600 and only to the extent that God permits. 00:27:55.600 --> 00:27:57.760 Because God is absolutely in control. 00:27:57.760 --> 00:28:01.360 There is nothing that is beyond his control. 00:28:01.360 --> 00:28:02.400 It's not to say that God 00:28:03.280 --> 00:28:07.280 causes all of it, but he does permit it. 00:28:07.280 --> 00:28:12.160 And so the things that happen to you in this life, you 00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:16.400 have to look to God as not the immediate cause of those, 00:28:16.400 --> 00:28:19.360 but as the one who is in control of them, the one 00:28:19.360 --> 00:28:22.080 who dictates how far they can go. 00:28:22.080 --> 00:28:25.520 And so when things go well you rejoice and you give thanks 00:28:25.520 --> 00:28:26.400 to God. 00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:31.200 When things go poorly you still rejoice and give thanks to God, 00:28:31.200 --> 00:28:34.480 because we know that all things will work together for the good 00:28:34.800 --> 00:28:37.840 of the elect, of those who are called, of those who have 00:28:37.840 --> 00:28:41.920 faith. These terms can all be used interchangeably essentially. 00:28:43.040 --> 00:28:46.480 Another phrase, of course, comes to mind, and it's one that I've 00:28:46.480 --> 00:28:50.960 used before in a number of places there but for the grace 00:28:50.960 --> 00:28:53.680 of God go I. 00:28:53.680 --> 00:28:57.280 That's a recognition of providence. 00:28:57.280 --> 00:28:59.840 That is a recognition of God's control. 00:28:59.840 --> 00:29:03.760 It's also recognition, of course, of God's gifts, which really is also 00:29:03.840 --> 00:29:06.400 to an extent what providence is. 00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:11.360 But when we say something like that, we are placing ourselves in 00:29:11.360 --> 00:29:15.120 a proper mindset instead of believing that everything I have is a 00:29:15.120 --> 00:29:18.720 result of my hard work or my parents' hard work or my 00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:24.640 grandparents, those things are important to recognize, but ultimately we must give 00:29:24.640 --> 00:29:27.040 all credit to God. 00:29:27.040 --> 00:29:31.120 He does these things in time through means, as we mentioned many 00:29:31.120 --> 00:29:31.920 times before. 00:29:31.920 --> 00:29:35.760 God acts in time through means, and so many of the good 00:29:35.520 --> 00:29:38.800 things that you will receive will be by the hand of other 00:29:38.800 --> 00:29:43.680 men. Evil things as well sometimes, unfortunately, in a fallen world, but 00:29:43.680 --> 00:29:46.960 the good things you receive will often be by the hand of 00:29:46.960 --> 00:29:52.000 other men, or some creature, some part of creation. 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:55.680 Ultimately, those things still come from God. 00:29:55.680 --> 00:30:01.200 The ram that replaced Abraham's son was a creature. 00:30:01.200 --> 00:30:05.520 That was just a ram that was wandering around and got stuck 00:30:05.520 --> 00:30:06.560 in those bushes. 00:30:06.560 --> 00:30:09.520 Now, God, of course, ordained that to happen. 00:30:09.520 --> 00:30:13.120 It's unlikely that God just snapped and a ram came into being 00:30:13.280 --> 00:30:14.720 stuck in the thicket. 00:30:14.720 --> 00:30:19.680 God ordained orchestrated things such that that would happen at the right 00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:24.160 time. That Ram was a blessing, that was providential. 00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:28.240 That Ram replaced Abraham's son on the altar. 00:30:28.240 --> 00:30:33.200 That was God acting in time for the benefit of Abraham, for 00:30:33.200 --> 00:30:36.480 the benefit of a believer, because of course Abraham was a Christian. 00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:37.200 He was a believer. 00:30:37.200 --> 00:30:39.920 He had faith in the Messiah who was to come. 00:30:39.920 --> 00:30:42.960 Incidentally, he got to speak with the Messiah who was to come 00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:47.280 in this particular instance, although he may not have realized that at 00:30:47.280 --> 00:30:49.520 the time. 00:30:49.520 --> 00:30:55.200 But as Christians we need to change our mindset from, as Wo 00:30:55.360 --> 00:30:59.520 said in his opening, the deistic mindset that is so common in 00:30:59.520 --> 00:31:06.320 our age, because we've reduced everything to scientific knowledge, in the very 00:31:06.320 --> 00:31:11.280 much lowercase s sense of science, not in the expanded proper sense, 00:31:11.280 --> 00:31:16.160 which is just knowledge or understanding, even. 00:31:16.160 --> 00:31:17.680 But science does not give us 00:31:18.560 --> 00:31:20.800 all truth, most certainly. 00:31:20.800 --> 00:31:26.160 And we should recognize this most definitely as Christians, because all of 00:31:26.160 --> 00:31:30.000 these good things, everything, flows from God. 00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:33.920 And so if we want to attribute everything to the material world, 00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:38.480 to the universe, what we're saying is that the creatures are greater 00:31:38.480 --> 00:31:40.400 than the creator. 00:31:40.400 --> 00:31:43.200 And that's exactly backwards. 00:31:43.200 --> 00:31:47.680 Because there is nothing that the creatures have that did not come 00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:49.120 from the Creator. 00:31:49.120 --> 00:31:53.120 Because obviously the Creator created the creatures. 00:31:53.120 --> 00:31:56.480 And so all of it flows from God. 00:31:56.480 --> 00:31:57.680 And we have to recognize that 00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:03.600 instead of just absorbing sort of the background radiation of the times 00:32:03.600 --> 00:32:07.280 in which we live, which want us to be materialists. 00:32:07.280 --> 00:32:11.520 They want us to deny the existence of the supernatural. 00:32:11.520 --> 00:32:15.360 They want to say that well, that happened because of gravity or 00:32:15.360 --> 00:32:18.080 because of X or Y or Z. 00:32:18.080 --> 00:32:19.680 Maybe it did. 00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:23.120 Maybe there is a physical explanation for something that happened. 00:32:23.120 --> 00:32:27.600 That does not in fact preclude it from also being miraculous. 00:32:27.600 --> 00:32:31.280 If something that is a one in a billion chance happens, and 00:32:31.280 --> 00:32:34.320 it just so happens to be the thing for which many Christians 00:32:34.320 --> 00:32:38.160 were praying, you should absolutely view that as a miracle. 00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:42.560 Was it within the realm of the possible given the physical reality 00:32:42.560 --> 00:32:43.840 of the universe? 00:32:43.840 --> 00:32:47.840 Sure. That doesn't preclude it from being a miracle. 00:32:47.840 --> 00:32:50.960 Yes, there are times where God does things like raise someone from 00:32:50.960 --> 00:32:55.920 the dead, not these days typically, but those things are undeniably a 00:32:55.920 --> 00:33:00.560 miracle because they are fully outside of what happens in the physical 00:33:00.720 --> 00:33:04.960 world, according to natural laws, men do not come back from the 00:33:04.960 --> 00:33:11.120 dead. Cancer can go into remission, without seemingly any reason for it 00:33:11.120 --> 00:33:13.280 having done so. 00:33:13.280 --> 00:33:16.000 But as a Christian, if you are If you are praying for 00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:19.200 a loved one who has cancer and you are praying for that 00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:22.960 to go into remission and it does, yes, you should thank the 00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:26.720 doctors who were working on that, who did their duty, who helped, 00:33:26.720 --> 00:33:29.840 but you must give ultimate thanks to God, because that is a 00:33:29.840 --> 00:33:32.160 miracle. And God did give that to you. 00:33:32.160 --> 00:33:33.440 That's providential. 00:33:33.440 --> 00:33:38.000 The fact that doctors exist is providential in that case. 00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:42.480 So just because you have a physical explanation does not mean that 00:33:42.480 --> 00:33:45.760 you deny the existence of the supernatural and the miraculous. 00:33:45.760 --> 00:33:48.960 Again, this is a matter of falling off one side or the 00:33:48.960 --> 00:33:49.840 other of the horse. 00:33:49.840 --> 00:33:51.520 You have to stay on the horse. 00:33:51.520 --> 00:33:54.800 You don't want to fall off the cliff side, that's certainly worse, 00:33:54.800 --> 00:33:56.880 but you also don't want to fall off the other side of 00:33:56.880 --> 00:33:57.760 the horse. 00:33:57.760 --> 00:34:01.040 As a general rule, you want to stay on the horse when 00:34:01.040 --> 00:34:02.640 you are riding the horse. 00:34:02.640 --> 00:34:05.680 And so don't chalk everything up to the physical, don't become a 00:34:05.680 --> 00:34:12.320 materialist or a deist, but simultaneously don't fall off the enthusiastic side, 00:34:12.320 --> 00:34:16.320 where you attribute absolutely everything to some sort of detailed fatalistic plan 00:34:16.320 --> 00:34:20.720 that God has, where he dictates every second of your life. 00:34:20.720 --> 00:34:24.080 That's not the way that God has organized the universe because that 00:34:24.080 --> 00:34:25.760 isn't what he wanted. 00:34:25.760 --> 00:34:28.160 He did not want us to be automata. 00:34:28.160 --> 00:34:31.200 He could have created robots if he wanted that. 00:34:31.200 --> 00:34:34.880 He absolutely could have done that, and some creatures do approach that 00:34:34.880 --> 00:34:35.760 to a certain degree. 00:34:35.760 --> 00:34:38.960 Ants don't really have free will. 00:34:38.960 --> 00:34:40.720 Man is something different. 00:34:40.720 --> 00:34:44.320 He has given us a level of freedom that is different from 00:34:44.320 --> 00:34:49.440 the animals, not just different in degree, but different in kind. 00:34:49.440 --> 00:34:54.800 And so as his creatures, as the pinnacle of his creation, it 00:34:54.800 --> 00:34:58.080 is incumbent on us to recognize that he is still active in 00:34:58.080 --> 00:34:59.680 his in his creation. 00:34:59.680 --> 00:35:01.680 It's not the clockwork universe. 00:35:01.680 --> 00:35:05.120 He didn't wind up the universe, step back, and then watch it 00:35:05.120 --> 00:35:08.880 go. God is still intimately involved in creation. 00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:14.240 Every cell division happens because God wills it to happen because God 00:35:14.240 --> 00:35:16.160 permits it to happen. 00:35:16.160 --> 00:35:21.440 Nothing happens without God's approval, in the sense of Him permitting it 00:35:21.440 --> 00:35:22.000 to happen. 00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:24.720 Not in the sense that He says it is good, because again, 00:35:24.720 --> 00:35:29.200 there is evil in the world, but everything happens because God permits 00:35:29.200 --> 00:35:33.440 it, and many things happen because God wills it and God directs 00:35:33.440 --> 00:35:36.480 it by intervening in creation. 00:35:37.120 --> 00:35:40.560 To give you a sense of how God speaks of himself in 00:35:40.560 --> 00:35:44.880 these terms, it's important to look at a number of passages in 00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:51.120 scripture. In Revelation 4, when John is receiving his vision from God 00:35:51.520 --> 00:35:54.000 when he's effectively in heaven. 00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:56.080 Here's what he records. 00:35:56.080 --> 00:35:59.040 And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four 00:35:59.040 --> 00:36:01.920 living creatures, full of eyes in the front and behind. 00:36:01.920 --> 00:36:05.360 The first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like 00:36:05.360 --> 00:36:08.480 an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, 00:36:08.480 --> 00:36:11.680 and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight, and the 00:36:11.680 --> 00:36:14.880 four living creatures each of them with six wings are full of 00:36:14.880 --> 00:36:18.400 eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease 00:36:18.400 --> 00:36:23.360 to say, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and 00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:25.200 is and is to come. 00:36:25.200 --> 00:36:28.160 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to 00:36:28.160 --> 00:36:30.720 him who is seated on the Seated on the throne, who lives 00:36:30.720 --> 00:36:32.640 forever and ever. 00:36:32.640 --> 00:36:35.920 The twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the 00:36:35.920 --> 00:36:38.480 throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. 00:36:38.480 --> 00:36:44.640 They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy are you, our 00:36:44.640 --> 00:36:48.640 Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you 00:36:48.640 --> 00:36:54.080 created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. 00:36:54.560 --> 00:36:59.520 Now I highlight this passage because this is the very second thing 00:36:59.520 --> 00:37:01.760 that's said in heaven. 00:37:02.160 --> 00:37:06.080 the angels are testifying to the Trinity, holy, holy, holy, the Lord 00:37:06.080 --> 00:37:07.280 God Almighty. 00:37:07.280 --> 00:37:11.840 And then the twenty four elders surrounding the throne testify that God 00:37:11.840 --> 00:37:15.360 is the creator of all things and by his will they exist 00:37:15.680 --> 00:37:17.440 and were created. 00:37:18.160 --> 00:37:20.800 that's a present ongoing thing. 00:37:20.800 --> 00:37:23.840 Existence is because God wills it. 00:37:23.840 --> 00:37:27.120 And so when we talk about God's will being active in the 00:37:27.120 --> 00:37:29.840 universe, this is the root of it. 00:37:29.840 --> 00:37:32.720 It's not that God is simply doing fiddly stuff here and there 00:37:32.800 --> 00:37:34.960 because he's a bored tinkerer. 00:37:35.120 --> 00:37:38.880 It's because everything is sustained because he desires it. 00:37:38.880 --> 00:37:43.040 You know, I talked recently, I I mentioned that God chooses to 00:37:43.200 --> 00:37:46.560 kill the damned eternally rather than annihilating them. 00:37:46.560 --> 00:37:49.040 And although I didn't say it out loud at the time, I 00:37:49.040 --> 00:37:51.920 I thought it, but I didn't get to the point. 00:37:51.920 --> 00:37:57.440 It's crucial to mention that the reason that the damned are not 00:37:57.440 --> 00:38:01.280 simply winked out of existence, is that they were brought into existence 00:38:01.280 --> 00:38:02.400 by God's will. 00:38:02.400 --> 00:38:06.960 It was God's will from before eternity that they be created, not 00:38:06.960 --> 00:38:08.080 for destruction. 00:38:08.080 --> 00:38:09.840 They chose to be destroyed. 00:38:09.840 --> 00:38:12.640 But God did not err by creating them. 00:38:12.640 --> 00:38:15.680 And so the fact that men choose to rebel against God and 00:38:15.680 --> 00:38:20.640 to hate him with their whole lives is the reason that they 00:38:20.640 --> 00:38:24.240 are damned and they're not winked out of existence, they're not annihilated, 00:38:24.240 --> 00:38:27.600 they're resurrected from the dead just like the rest of us. 00:38:27.600 --> 00:38:30.720 Because God didn't make a mistake when he made them either. 00:38:30.720 --> 00:38:33.520 God wills everything into existence. 00:38:33.520 --> 00:38:36.880 The things that he created were created for a purpose, and God's 00:38:36.880 --> 00:38:38.240 purpose was perfect. 00:38:38.240 --> 00:38:41.920 And so his act of preservation of all things, it's not random. 00:38:41.920 --> 00:38:44.160 He's not some kid with a simulator. 00:38:44.160 --> 00:38:47.200 This is everything that God desires to be. 00:38:47.200 --> 00:38:50.080 And so, of course, we find him to be active in the 00:38:50.080 --> 00:38:52.480 world around us. 00:38:52.480 --> 00:38:57.520 This is also testified later on in Revelation fourteen, when a passage 00:38:57.520 --> 00:39:00.960 I use frequently because it's so challenging to a lot of Christian 00:39:00.960 --> 00:39:04.080 views of things, John records. 00:39:04.080 --> 00:39:08.400 Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel 00:39:08.400 --> 00:39:11.840 to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and 00:39:11.840 --> 00:39:15.440 tribe and language and people, and he said with a loud voice, 00:39:15.440 --> 00:39:19.040 fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment 00:39:19.040 --> 00:39:22.800 has come, and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the seas, 00:39:22.800 --> 00:39:26.080 and the Springs of Water. 00:39:26.080 --> 00:39:30.480 Part of the Eternal Gospel is that God is creator, once again, 00:39:30.480 --> 00:39:33.440 and it specifically names things that he created. 00:39:33.440 --> 00:39:36.640 He made heaven and earth, the sea, and the springs of water. 00:39:36.640 --> 00:39:38.720 Why those things, we don't know. 00:39:38.720 --> 00:39:42.480 I'm sure there's some specific spiritual import. 00:39:42.480 --> 00:39:46.720 To me, just reading it superficially without trying to dig into it, 00:39:46.720 --> 00:39:49.360 I see it as correlating to all the other passages. 00:39:49.360 --> 00:39:50.640 God created everything. 00:39:50.640 --> 00:39:53.440 And so there are angels flying in heaven and their eternal gospel 00:39:53.440 --> 00:39:55.520 is God is a creator of all these things. 00:39:55.520 --> 00:39:57.760 And we should fear God because of it. 00:39:57.760 --> 00:40:00.640 We did an entire episode on the fear of God precisely for 00:40:00.640 --> 00:40:01.760 this reason. 00:40:01.760 --> 00:40:04.400 God is the God of all things because He is the creator 00:40:04.400 --> 00:40:05.600 of all things. 00:40:05.600 --> 00:40:06.960 We belong to Him. 00:40:06.960 --> 00:40:08.240 We obey Him. 00:40:08.240 --> 00:40:10.000 Not because it's a good idea. 00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:13.760 Not because it's a specific religion that teaches us a better way 00:40:13.760 --> 00:40:14.640 to live. 00:40:14.640 --> 00:40:18.320 We recognize that we are his creatures, we are his property, we 00:40:18.320 --> 00:40:22.400 are functionally his slaves, not in the sense of being beat down, 00:40:22.400 --> 00:40:25.120 not in the sense of being unloved. 00:40:25.120 --> 00:40:27.760 And he elevates us as sons of God. 00:40:27.760 --> 00:40:29.520 But we are creatures nevertheless. 00:40:29.520 --> 00:40:31.200 We belong to him. 00:40:31.200 --> 00:40:35.600 And by whatever title we're received as believers, the simple fact is 00:40:35.600 --> 00:40:39.600 that we fall on our face knowing that God is almighty in 00:40:39.600 --> 00:40:41.040 a way that's incomprehensible. 00:40:41.040 --> 00:40:44.560 That's exactly what John did. 00:40:44.560 --> 00:40:47.280 It's also recorded in Colossians 1. 00:40:47.280 --> 00:40:51.120 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over 00:40:51.120 --> 00:40:55.120 all creation, for in him all things were created, things in heaven 00:40:55.120 --> 00:40:59.360 and on earth visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or powers 00:40:59.360 --> 00:41:04.480 or principalities, all things have been created through him and for him. 00:41:04.480 --> 00:41:09.680 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 00:41:09.680 --> 00:41:13.600 This is there's a lot packed into this passage that reveals a 00:41:13.600 --> 00:41:17.840 great deal about the structure of the universe in without detail, but 00:41:17.840 --> 00:41:20.080 with a sense of what's going on. 00:41:20.080 --> 00:41:24.880 Crucially, the sun, the image of God, he's a cornerstone of creation, 00:41:24.880 --> 00:41:27.920 and in him all things hold together. 00:41:27.920 --> 00:41:31.520 This is the very sustenance that was mentioned in the previous passage. 00:41:31.520 --> 00:41:36.240 God is creating and sustaining by his will through the Son, the 00:41:36.240 --> 00:41:39.680 Word by whom all things were made is the Word through whom 00:41:39.680 --> 00:41:40.960 all things were redeemed. 00:41:40.960 --> 00:41:42.480 That is Jesus Christ. 00:41:42.880 --> 00:41:48.080 This is it's an active participation in the sustenance of all things, 00:41:48.080 --> 00:41:49.600 great and small. 00:41:49.600 --> 00:41:52.960 And so, you know, one of the reasons I I talk occasionally 00:41:53.040 --> 00:41:55.440 about astronomy and I I don't know much about it. 00:41:55.440 --> 00:41:57.280 I I'm a dilettante at best. 00:41:57.280 --> 00:41:59.040 I just check in every once in a while because I think 00:41:59.040 --> 00:42:01.440 it's really cool and I'll never grow up about that. 00:42:01.440 --> 00:42:05.120 I think having a childlike wonder about these things is part of 00:42:05.120 --> 00:42:08.080 being an adult, it should be part of being a Christian to 00:42:08.080 --> 00:42:10.800 see something really cool and say, wow, that's amazing. 00:42:10.800 --> 00:42:13.360 If you ever get too cool for school, you have really missed 00:42:13.360 --> 00:42:16.560 the boat because this stuff it's beautiful. 00:42:16.560 --> 00:42:21.200 And when we see it, we should remember all of these things. 00:42:21.200 --> 00:42:24.240 It's not that it's just a pretty painting in the sky. 00:42:24.240 --> 00:42:26.800 It's not that it's a bunch of really big numbers that are 00:42:26.800 --> 00:42:28.320 almost inconceivable. 00:42:28.320 --> 00:42:30.800 It's that God is doing all those things. 00:42:30.800 --> 00:42:34.960 And the difference between the Christian interacting with that sort of knowledge 00:42:35.120 --> 00:42:39.600 and the atheist unbeliever interacting with the same universe is that you 00:42:39.600 --> 00:42:42.400 will very commonly hear them say, Oh, it's it's such a big 00:42:42.480 --> 00:42:44.640 empty void and we're nothing. 00:42:44.640 --> 00:42:49.200 We're absolute nothing monkeys on a nothing planet in a nothing galaxy. 00:42:49.200 --> 00:42:50.240 We're nothing. 00:42:50.240 --> 00:42:51.680 There's no point to any of it. 00:42:51.680 --> 00:42:53.440 It's just emptiness and despair. 00:42:53.440 --> 00:42:56.640 That's really their conclusion to seeing God's glory. 00:42:56.640 --> 00:42:58.640 The Christian has the exact opposite view. 00:42:59.440 --> 00:43:02.480 The more we learn about the universe, the bigger we understand it 00:43:02.480 --> 00:43:06.880 is. In fact, I think most people don't realize that until just 00:43:06.880 --> 00:43:10.640 over a century ago, in fact less than a century ago, we 00:43:10.640 --> 00:43:14.880 had no proof that the universe was bigger than the Milky Way. 00:43:14.880 --> 00:43:16.800 We thought that our galaxy was it. 00:43:16.800 --> 00:43:20.480 We had seen other galaxies, we called them nebulae, but we didn't 00:43:20.400 --> 00:43:22.400 realize that they were really far away. 00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:25.840 And there'd been some speculation and there was some arguing just over 00:43:25.840 --> 00:43:29.520 a century ago, but it wasn't till Edwin Hubble proved it with 00:43:29.520 --> 00:43:34.880 a telescope and doing some calculations that made him very famous, that 00:43:34.880 --> 00:43:38.560 we realized that those things were so far away that they weren't 00:43:38.480 --> 00:43:42.880 local. the distant was so distant they was in fact outside of 00:43:42.880 --> 00:43:43.920 our own galaxy. 00:43:43.920 --> 00:43:47.680 And those nebulae that we were seeing, they were spinning like our 00:43:47.680 --> 00:43:52.000 own galaxy and like atoms and like whirlpools and like these patterns 00:43:52.000 --> 00:43:56.880 that repeat at every molecular scale, from the most infinitesimally small to 00:43:56.880 --> 00:43:58.720 the incomprehensibly large. 00:43:58.720 --> 00:44:02.480 Every time we see that rotary pattern playing out, what Hubble Hebel 00:44:02.480 --> 00:44:07.760 discovered was that those nebulae that Kant had speculated existed over 150 00:44:07.760 --> 00:44:11.200 years previously, turned out they were real. 00:44:11.200 --> 00:44:15.440 And they were in fact distant as a few had hypothesized. 00:44:15.440 --> 00:44:19.760 They were outside of our galaxy, which meant that suddenly the universe 00:44:19.760 --> 00:44:22.640 was way more universal than we thought before. 00:44:22.640 --> 00:44:24.640 Everything was a whole lot bigger. 00:44:24.640 --> 00:44:29.920 And so the more the astronomers and those other physicists delve into 00:44:29.920 --> 00:44:35.040 the size and the mysteries of the universe purely in physical realm, 00:44:35.040 --> 00:44:38.720 the more they reveal just how powerful God is. 00:44:38.720 --> 00:44:44.240 They've reached the absolute limits of Of what we're able to discern 00:44:44.560 --> 00:44:46.800 with our instrumentation. 00:44:46.800 --> 00:44:50.480 And there's you know a lot of theory involved, and again, unfortunately, 00:44:50.480 --> 00:44:54.880 they're virtually all pagans, so they only believe in evolution. 00:44:54.880 --> 00:44:56.400 They don't believe in a creator. 00:44:56.400 --> 00:45:00.720 They're trying to find where creation came in the Big Bang while 00:45:00.720 --> 00:45:04.240 denying that there was any entity that was involved. 00:45:04.240 --> 00:45:08.880 And one of the particularly funny things about the discoveries that have 00:45:08.880 --> 00:45:13.760 happened in the last number of decades is that now they're struggling 00:45:13.760 --> 00:45:18.000 continuously with what they call dark matter and dark energy. 00:45:18.000 --> 00:45:22.800 And between the two of those, those two forces, the mass energy 00:45:22.800 --> 00:45:27.040 of dark matter and dark energy makes up ninety five percent of 00:45:27.040 --> 00:45:28.240 the universe. 00:45:28.240 --> 00:45:32.640 We have very precise measurements now of well not precise, but fairly 00:45:33.120 --> 00:45:35.760 accurate, and in some ways they're fairly precise. 00:45:35.760 --> 00:45:38.720 Measurements of the scale of the universe. 00:45:38.720 --> 00:45:41.920 And we can certainly look at you know particular galaxies, we can 00:45:41.920 --> 00:45:46.400 calculate what we see, and we can calculate the masses of what's 00:45:46.400 --> 00:45:51.200 observable, and we can calculate the motion, and from those calculations, it's 00:45:51.200 --> 00:45:56.080 entirely possible to derive the scientific fact that there is a bunch 00:45:56.080 --> 00:45:59.520 of matter and there's a bunch of energy that's missing from the 00:45:59.520 --> 00:46:04.160 calculations. It's called the baryonic universe is the stuff that the matter 00:46:04.160 --> 00:46:05.040 that we know about. 00:46:05.040 --> 00:46:06.160 And there's this dark stuff. 00:46:06.160 --> 00:46:07.040 They call it dark. 00:46:07.040 --> 00:46:08.080 They don't know what it is. 00:46:08.080 --> 00:46:11.600 There's a force that's acting on the universe that's completely indestructible 00:46:12.560 --> 00:46:14.560 to our scientific instruments. 00:46:14.560 --> 00:46:17.200 And so a great deal of energy is being spent in the 00:46:17.200 --> 00:46:21.200 scientific realm trying to find where's the dark matter, where's the dark 00:46:21.200 --> 00:46:24.640 energy. The measurements seem like they have to be right. 00:46:24.640 --> 00:46:26.400 They're clearly measuring something. 00:46:26.400 --> 00:46:28.240 And yet the math doesn't add up. 00:46:28.240 --> 00:46:32.080 If you just look at the observable universe, the observable mass in 00:46:32.080 --> 00:46:35.600 a galaxy and do the calculations for how those that matter should 00:46:35.600 --> 00:46:37.360 be interacting, it's all off. 00:46:37.360 --> 00:46:39.200 It's off by a substantial factor. 00:46:39.200 --> 00:46:41.920 And so when you add in the fudge factor of the dark 00:46:41.920 --> 00:46:45.360 matter and the dark energy, suddenly those interactions make sense. 00:46:45.360 --> 00:46:48.720 You can make them add up by adding a variable that's not 00:46:48.720 --> 00:46:50.480 detectable. And And 00:46:51.520 --> 00:46:55.120 I'm gonna share something that's probably the wildest idea that I have. 00:46:55.120 --> 00:46:56.960 It's not scriptural. 00:46:56.960 --> 00:46:58.480 It's not anti scriptural. 00:46:58.720 --> 00:47:01.760 it's purely theoretical on my pers my perspective. 00:47:01.760 --> 00:47:03.920 So take it or leave it, entirely possible. 00:47:03.920 --> 00:47:05.360 I'm prong. 00:47:05.360 --> 00:47:09.920 My personal theory is that when they have measured all of the 00:47:09.920 --> 00:47:13.360 universe, they're measuring all these galaxies and nebulae, all these things so 00:47:13.360 --> 00:47:16.880 far away, and it's these scales, and they're finding this dark matter 00:47:17.360 --> 00:47:20.080 and dark energy that's not adding up. 00:47:20.080 --> 00:47:23.840 I think that they're measuring supernatural interaction. 00:47:23.840 --> 00:47:28.240 I think that they're measuring the actions of angels at those scales. 00:47:28.240 --> 00:47:29.360 It's entirely possible. 00:47:29.360 --> 00:47:29.920 I'm wrong. 00:47:29.920 --> 00:47:33.120 It may well be that they find a physical reason that is 00:47:33.120 --> 00:47:34.880 suddenly detectable and measurable. 00:47:34.880 --> 00:47:37.920 It's already measurable and detectable, but if they can identify and say, 00:47:37.920 --> 00:47:42.640 Yeah, it's actually this natural occurrence, it doesn't really change anything because 00:47:42.640 --> 00:47:44.160 it's still God acting. 00:47:44.160 --> 00:47:46.960 I just find it very conspicuous that when we look at things 00:47:46.960 --> 00:47:51.040 like Colossians one, where it talks about the thrones and dominions and 00:47:51.040 --> 00:47:55.200 powers and principalities, those are all part of the the hierarchies of 00:47:55.200 --> 00:47:58.960 angels. And there are a few different taxonomies that have emerged over 00:47:58.960 --> 00:48:03.680 the millennia of how God has ordered the angels. 00:48:04.080 --> 00:48:05.120 You can pick one. 00:48:05.120 --> 00:48:08.160 I've spent maybe three hours of my entire life sort of very 00:48:08.480 --> 00:48:11.680 briefly looking at it, I don't really care. 00:48:11.680 --> 00:48:16.000 It's clear that these distinctions exist in the hierarchy of angels. 00:48:16.000 --> 00:48:21.360 But what I find important for thinking about this is the yeah, 00:48:21.360 --> 00:48:25.600 the one of the common hierarchies is angels and archangels, which we 00:48:25.600 --> 00:48:26.880 know about. 00:48:26.880 --> 00:48:32.800 And then there are principalities and powers, virtues, dominions, thrones, and cherubim 00:48:32.880 --> 00:48:34.240 and seraphim. 00:48:34.240 --> 00:48:37.920 And we know that the cherubim and seraphim are interacting at the 00:48:37.920 --> 00:48:41.680 throne of God, that they exist in God's presence. 00:48:41.680 --> 00:48:44.080 And then there are various bits and pieces where there are a 00:48:44.080 --> 00:48:46.800 few passages that tell us a little bit about what some of 00:48:46.800 --> 00:48:47.920 the others are doing. 00:48:47.920 --> 00:48:49.440 For example, principalities. 00:48:49.760 --> 00:48:53.120 There's the references in Daniel to the Prince of Purdue we've talked 00:48:53.120 --> 00:48:54.560 about once before. 00:48:54.640 --> 00:48:59.200 Again, this stuff is there's very little said about it in scripture 00:48:59.360 --> 00:49:01.040 because there's very little we need to know. 00:49:01.040 --> 00:49:03.440 If we needed to know more, God would have told us more. 00:49:03.440 --> 00:49:06.480 All God has done is mentioned just as an aside, yeah, this 00:49:06.480 --> 00:49:07.760 stuff exists too. 00:49:07.760 --> 00:49:10.000 As Christians we don't need to worry about it, and so I 00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:12.880 don't, and I don't want to engender a bunch of excitement and 00:49:13.040 --> 00:49:15.360 listeners to say oh I gotta delve into this stuff because you 00:49:15.360 --> 00:49:19.200 end up like Michael Heiser, where you take one little bit that's 00:49:19.200 --> 00:49:23.920 in one book and extrapolate this whole universe of myth, of fan 00:49:23.920 --> 00:49:25.200 fiction, basically. 00:49:25.200 --> 00:49:27.360 Please don't do that. 00:49:27.360 --> 00:49:30.000 What I find interesting is that when you look at things like 00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.640 the principalities that we know interact with nations, with human nations, we 00:49:34.640 --> 00:49:36.640 know that there are scales beyond that. 00:49:36.640 --> 00:49:41.440 And so personally, my theory, again, maybe completely wrong, but I think 00:49:41.600 --> 00:49:43.200 I'll find out when I'm dead. 00:49:43.200 --> 00:49:46.400 And it matters not one way either way. 00:49:46.400 --> 00:49:49.440 I think it's possible that one of the larger scales, one of 00:49:49.440 --> 00:49:53.520 the things where we see entire galaxies being held together by invisible 00:49:53.520 --> 00:49:57.280 forces, I think it may well be that those are angelic forces 00:49:57.280 --> 00:49:57.840 doing that. 00:49:57.840 --> 00:49:59.600 Like I said, it's a wild theory. 00:49:59.600 --> 00:50:01.760 I don't know if anyone else has ever said that. 00:50:01.760 --> 00:50:02.880 Don't care. 00:50:02.880 --> 00:50:07.120 You shouldn't put any stock in it, you shouldn't particularly interesting. 00:50:07.120 --> 00:50:10.480 I find it interesting just because when I look at the scientists 00:50:10.480 --> 00:50:14.960 measuring creation and God talks about his creation and talks about these 00:50:14.960 --> 00:50:17.520 orders and doesn't really tell us what they're doing. 00:50:17.520 --> 00:50:21.200 And then we find these huge gaps at these stellar scales. 00:50:21.360 --> 00:50:22.240 Like, huh? 00:50:22.240 --> 00:50:23.680 There's something invisible. 00:50:23.680 --> 00:50:28.800 There's something that seems to be supernaturally interacting with matter. 00:50:28.800 --> 00:50:31.440 I know one example where that happens. 00:50:31.440 --> 00:50:32.640 I wonder if that's it. 00:50:32.640 --> 00:50:36.160 So it's pie speculation doesn't go beyond that. 00:50:36.160 --> 00:50:36.480 But 00:50:37.600 --> 00:50:40.400 the only reason I share that is I think it's crucial for 00:50:40.400 --> 00:50:45.680 us as Christians to at least leave open the possibility that the 00:50:45.680 --> 00:50:48.720 God who has revealed all these things, who's talked about how the 00:50:48.720 --> 00:50:52.560 cherubim and seraphim in heaven, when they're testifying to him being the 00:50:52.560 --> 00:50:56.880 creator, and the twenty-four elders are falling on their faces, testifying that 00:50:56.880 --> 00:50:58.960 he is sustaining the world. 00:50:58.960 --> 00:51:04.400 And Colossians testifies that Christ sustains the whole world as its cornerstone. 00:51:04.400 --> 00:51:08.880 World not being earth, world being the entire universe, all the heavens 00:51:08.960 --> 00:51:10.240 and the earth. 00:51:10.960 --> 00:51:16.240 All those things are God's active sustenance of his good creation. 00:51:16.240 --> 00:51:18.480 Everything that he made was for a reason. 00:51:18.480 --> 00:51:21.280 So I don't see a void out there. 00:51:21.280 --> 00:51:25.120 I see God's glory at a scale that all you can do 00:51:25.520 --> 00:51:26.320 is wonder. 00:51:26.320 --> 00:51:27.760 You can't understand it. 00:51:28.080 --> 00:51:30.560 the people who think they can don't understand it any better than 00:51:30.560 --> 00:51:33.440 the people who just, you know, it's it's it's the the bell 00:51:33.440 --> 00:51:36.960 curve meme where you have the the far left, uh the bell 00:51:36.960 --> 00:51:39.280 curve and the far right both just kind of staring up in 00:51:39.280 --> 00:51:42.640 wonder and it's the people in the middle that have very detailed 00:51:42.640 --> 00:51:44.480 explanations for what's going on. 00:51:44.480 --> 00:51:47.840 Everyone else just think wow that's really big and cool. 00:51:47.840 --> 00:51:49.680 It's not just big and cool. 00:51:49.680 --> 00:51:51.920 It's also God doing his stuff. 00:51:51.920 --> 00:51:54.880 And he's testifying to his own glory when he does it. 00:51:54.880 --> 00:51:58.640 And so as Christians, it's not that we sh need to fixate 00:51:58.640 --> 00:52:02.000 on I gotta figure out how this thing or that thing works. 00:52:02.000 --> 00:52:04.160 Just receive what you see. 00:52:04.160 --> 00:52:07.600 When God says here is the full scale what I do, when 00:52:07.600 --> 00:52:10.960 God says I sustain the entire universe by my will, that what 00:52:10.960 --> 00:52:15.120 I've created is very good and I preserve it by my will, 00:52:15.120 --> 00:52:16.480 take that seriously. 00:52:16.480 --> 00:52:19.600 And then at the very small scale, rather than being an atheist 00:52:19.600 --> 00:52:23.200 or being a deist, when these small things happen, when you have 00:52:23.200 --> 00:52:25.840 a good meal, give thanks for it. 00:52:25.840 --> 00:52:29.600 That's no less miraculous than the scale of a galaxy. 00:52:29.600 --> 00:52:32.400 The fact that we have these good things right in front of 00:52:32.400 --> 00:52:33.760 us every day. 00:52:33.760 --> 00:52:35.520 It's God's providence. 00:52:35.520 --> 00:52:40.000 It is God actively working in our world and our lives for 00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:42.960 our benefit and for the benefit of all mankind. 00:52:42.960 --> 00:52:45.840 There are blessings that accrue only to the elect, and there are 00:52:45.840 --> 00:52:49.520 blessings that accrue to everyone simply by virtue of being in creation. 00:52:49.520 --> 00:52:54.000 And so I I highlight this distinction of scales between what Corey 00:52:54.000 --> 00:52:56.560 was saying a minute ago and what I'm pointing to here to 00:52:57.040 --> 00:53:01.680 emphasize that if you hear God's providence acting in lives and maybe 00:53:01.680 --> 00:53:04.640 you personally feel like you're not a party of that, like well, 00:53:04.640 --> 00:53:05.920 I don't know if that includes me. 00:53:05.920 --> 00:53:07.600 I don't know if I get any of the good stuff. 00:53:07.920 --> 00:53:09.040 Look around you. 00:53:09.040 --> 00:53:11.040 Do you have air in your lungs? 00:53:11.040 --> 00:53:12.640 Do you have a full belly? 00:53:12.640 --> 00:53:15.120 Has that happened in the last 24 hours? 00:53:15.120 --> 00:53:16.720 God is blessing you. 00:53:16.720 --> 00:53:18.720 God is blessing all of us. 00:53:18.720 --> 00:53:24.400 And And when we fail to recognize that sort of miraculous interaction 00:53:24.400 --> 00:53:28.560 at the most trivial level, we're gonna miss when the really big 00:53:28.560 --> 00:53:30.000 miracles occur. 00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:33.520 And there are prophecies and we'll get to maybe in this episode 00:53:33.840 --> 00:53:36.400 or and certainly in future episodes. 00:53:36.400 --> 00:53:39.120 They're promises that have yet to be fulfilled. 00:53:39.120 --> 00:53:41.920 And one of the real dangers for us, a pet especially in 00:53:41.920 --> 00:53:45.920 these days where things seem f so fraught, is is if we're 00:53:45.920 --> 00:53:47.040 completely checked out. 00:53:47.040 --> 00:53:49.760 If we think that well, God doesn't really do anything anymore and 00:53:49.760 --> 00:53:52.480 yeah, you know, he promises he's gonna do stuff, you know, the 00:53:52.480 --> 00:53:55.760 Bible and we'll have our faith and sing songs, but you know, 00:53:55.760 --> 00:53:57.360 that's kind of the it for Christianity. 00:53:57.360 --> 00:53:59.520 There's no more out there's nothing else to it. 00:53:59.520 --> 00:54:02.960 Yeah If that's all there is, we don't have anything to share 00:54:02.960 --> 00:54:04.160 with the world. 00:54:04.160 --> 00:54:07.440 And we have no way to reach our neighbors and say, look, 00:54:07.440 --> 00:54:10.480 there's stuff going on around you that I can help explain. 00:54:10.480 --> 00:54:14.960 And it's not just the gospel in the sense the the gospel 00:54:15.120 --> 00:54:16.960 reductionists have treated it. 00:54:16.960 --> 00:54:19.760 There's a lot more going on in scripture than most people want 00:54:19.760 --> 00:54:20.880 to talk about. 00:54:20.880 --> 00:54:23.360 It's one of the reasons that people enjoy Stone Choirs. 00:54:23.360 --> 00:54:26.320 It we'll delve into stuff that's not like it's not weird or 00:54:26.320 --> 00:54:30.160 esoteric. It's just it's other places where God said other stuff. 00:54:30.160 --> 00:54:33.440 When God calls that the eternal gospel and revelation, we should take 00:54:33.440 --> 00:54:34.320 it seriously. 00:54:34.320 --> 00:54:37.280 That is good news that God is to be feared and that 00:54:37.280 --> 00:54:39.200 God has created the entire universe. 00:54:39.200 --> 00:54:42.720 That is the gospel, just as much as Christ dying and rising 00:54:42.720 --> 00:54:43.920 again from the dead. 00:54:43.920 --> 00:54:46.880 Because the reason he did that is that he is the creator 00:54:46.880 --> 00:54:48.880 and sustainer of all things. 00:54:49.120 --> 00:54:52.480 All this works for God's glory, and all of it is to 00:54:52.480 --> 00:54:55.280 our benefit, but only if we have eyes to see and ears 00:54:55.280 --> 00:54:56.400 to hear. 00:54:56.800 --> 00:55:02.720 One of the surest signs that atheism is not true is the 00:55:02.720 --> 00:55:05.840 fact that it cannot recognize beauty. 00:55:05.840 --> 00:55:09.840 And one of the places, as Woe mentioned, where that is the 00:55:09.840 --> 00:55:14.720 most obvious, is that atheists cannot find any actual beauty when they 00:55:14.720 --> 00:55:16.240 look at the universe. 00:55:16.240 --> 00:55:19.680 When you actually find somewhere that still has a nighttime sky with 00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:23.920 out too much light pollution and you can actually see the stars, 00:55:23.920 --> 00:55:25.520 they don't see beauty. 00:55:25.520 --> 00:55:28.080 They see themselves as a speck, as nothing. 00:55:28.080 --> 00:55:34.560 They don't see the majesty, the awe of God's creation, and a 00:55:34.560 --> 00:55:40.400 philosophy, a worldview that has no place for beauty in it is 00:55:40.400 --> 00:55:43.520 just obviously patently false. 00:55:44.160 --> 00:55:45.440 It cannot be true. 00:55:45.440 --> 00:55:49.200 Because again we could speak of the transcendentals and the transcendentals being 00:55:49.200 --> 00:55:51.120 one, and so truth and beauty. 00:55:51.120 --> 00:55:56.000 If your worldview has no beauty in it, it simply cannot be 00:55:56.000 --> 00:56:02.480 true. But we should also mention it's worth considering. 00:56:02.480 --> 00:56:05.600 When you look at the grand scale, when you look at the 00:56:05.600 --> 00:56:10.640 universe, when you look at galaxies, when you look at these megastructures, 00:56:10.640 --> 00:56:15.840 and they are structures, it is organized, there is a design, a 00:56:15.840 --> 00:56:20.080 very obvious design behind it, but when you look at the grandest 00:56:20.080 --> 00:56:25.440 scale of the universe itself, bear in mind, the very same forces 00:56:25.920 --> 00:56:30.000 that make all of that work that are holding that together are 00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:33.600 the forces that are holding you to the planet and that make 00:56:33.600 --> 00:56:35.200 your body work. 00:56:35.200 --> 00:56:40.080 The same physical rules that God set for the universe work from 00:56:40.080 --> 00:56:43.200 the smallest scale all the way up to the grandest scale. 00:56:43.200 --> 00:56:47.680 Yes, we do not yet have a unified theory, and so we 00:56:47.680 --> 00:56:53.760 have trouble transitioning our explanations from the grand scale to the infinitesimally 00:56:53.760 --> 00:56:56.400 tiny scale, or vice versa. 00:56:56.400 --> 00:56:57.520 But they are the same. 00:56:57.520 --> 00:57:02.160 They are all governed by rules, by constants set by God. 00:57:02.160 --> 00:57:06.240 And so the very same sort of thing that is holding together 00:57:06.240 --> 00:57:10.800 that distant galaxy and making it behave as it does. 00:57:10.800 --> 00:57:14.560 Well those are the very same rules, the very same sorts of 00:57:14.560 --> 00:57:18.960 constraints and constants and constructs that are holding you together. 00:57:18.960 --> 00:57:24.480 That's the unified glory, that's the beauty of God's creation. 00:57:24.480 --> 00:57:29.200 And so don't think of yourself as a speck because that's entirely 00:57:29.200 --> 00:57:30.320 the wrong way to go about it. 00:57:30.320 --> 00:57:31.760 That's not what a Christian would do. 00:57:31.760 --> 00:57:36.480 When a Christian sees creation, when we discover something new in w 00:57:36.480 --> 00:57:40.960 whatever field it happens to be, whether it's biology or astronomy or 00:57:40.960 --> 00:57:46.320 something else, the Christian sees that discovery as revealing a little bit 00:57:46.320 --> 00:57:49.840 of God's glory that he hid in his creation, that he hid 00:57:49.840 --> 00:57:50.960 in nature. 00:57:51.280 --> 00:57:57.040 Because as we've mentioned many times before, all truth is not contained 00:57:57.040 --> 00:57:58.720 in Scripture. 00:57:58.720 --> 00:58:04.080 Scripture contains the things that we need to know for certain purposes, 00:58:04.080 --> 00:58:08.400 it most certainly and most saliently contains the gospel. 00:58:08.400 --> 00:58:10.400 But there are other truths as well. 00:58:10.400 --> 00:58:14.640 There are things that God put into, for instance, creation, that we 00:58:14.640 --> 00:58:19.520 can discover through these various methods that we have discovered or devised, 00:58:19.520 --> 00:58:22.960 depending on how you want to look at that. 00:58:22.960 --> 00:58:26.720 God did not just put the truth in one book. 00:58:26.720 --> 00:58:28.320 He wrote two books. 00:58:28.320 --> 00:58:31.280 The truth is contained in both of them, and so we can 00:58:31.280 --> 00:58:34.960 see the glory of God in both of those, and we should 00:58:34.960 --> 00:58:39.360 see the glory of God in both of those as Christians. 00:58:39.360 --> 00:58:42.320 When it comes to the topic of Providence, which is of course 00:58:42.320 --> 00:58:47.760 the topic for this episode, that's going to be dealing largely with 00:58:47.760 --> 00:58:52.480 nature, with the natural world, with creation, with the universe. 00:58:52.480 --> 00:58:56.720 Because God has so organized and so ordained things that Things in 00:58:56.720 --> 00:58:59.440 the universe that they do work to our benefit. 00:58:59.440 --> 00:59:05.200 Even in the fallen state of creation, the ground still produces food 00:59:05.200 --> 00:59:09.680 for us, trees still produce fruit, animals are still able to reproduce, 00:59:09.680 --> 00:59:11.600 and so are human beings. 00:59:11.600 --> 00:59:16.640 All of these various blessings from God are still present, even in 00:59:16.640 --> 00:59:18.640 creation's fallen state. 00:59:18.640 --> 00:59:20.160 All of those are providential. 00:59:20.160 --> 00:59:23.920 They are all provided by God. 00:59:23.920 --> 00:59:27.200 We can turn to the words of Christ in the New Testament, 00:59:27.200 --> 00:59:34.000 and he frequently speaks of this providence, of this activity of God 00:59:34.000 --> 00:59:38.480 in creation, providing for us and taking care of us. 00:59:38.480 --> 00:59:42.080 And so from Matthew seven, ask and it will be given to 00:59:42.080 --> 00:59:45.600 you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be open 00:59:45.680 --> 00:59:49.840 to you, for everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks 00:59:49.840 --> 00:59:53.280 finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened, or 00:59:53.280 --> 00:59:56.400 which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will 00:59:56.400 --> 00:59:59.280 give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, will 00:59:59.280 --> 01:00:02.560 give him a serpent, if you then who are evil know how 01:00:02.560 --> 01:00:05.760 to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your 01:00:05.760 --> 01:00:08.800 Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask 01:00:08.800 --> 01:00:14.000 him? This should certainly be incentive to pray. 01:00:14.000 --> 01:00:17.360 God has promised He will answer prayers. 01:00:17.360 --> 01:00:20.880 God has promised He will provide good things. 01:00:20.880 --> 01:00:24.720 He doesn't necessarily require that we ask for all of the good 01:00:24.720 --> 01:00:26.560 things that He provides for us. 01:00:26.560 --> 01:00:29.920 We know that is not the case because the rain falls on 01:00:29.920 --> 01:00:31.760 the wicked and the good alike. 01:00:31.760 --> 01:00:36.640 God provides food for all flesh, not just those who believe, not 01:00:36.640 --> 01:00:39.360 just those who are numbered amongst the elect. 01:00:39.360 --> 01:00:42.880 But God does promise to bless us when we ask him for 01:00:42.880 --> 01:00:43.440 those blessings. 01:00:44.240 --> 01:00:49.040 God is not stingy, God is not going to be miserly with 01:00:49.040 --> 01:00:50.880 his gifts. 01:00:50.880 --> 01:00:55.040 If we ask God for good things, he does promise that he 01:00:55.040 --> 01:00:57.200 will provide good things for us. 01:00:57.200 --> 01:00:59.920 That doesn't mean that you pray for a million dollars and God 01:00:59.920 --> 01:01:01.200 gives you a million dollars. 01:01:01.200 --> 01:01:02.320 That's not how this worked. 01:01:02.320 --> 01:01:03.920 God is not a genie. 01:01:03.920 --> 01:01:07.440 Anyway, you probably don't want the mythological version of the genie, there's 01:01:07.360 --> 01:01:10.080 always a string attached somewhere. 01:01:10.080 --> 01:01:12.960 God provides things that are actually good. 01:01:12.960 --> 01:01:16.160 God provides the things that you actually need, the things that will 01:01:16.160 --> 01:01:19.760 work out for your benefit in the long run, because that's of 01:01:19.760 --> 01:01:24.080 course the ultimate goal here, is to persevere, is to run the 01:01:24.080 --> 01:01:26.560 race successfully. 01:01:26.560 --> 01:01:30.240 God can see the beginning from the end, and so God knows 01:01:30.400 --> 01:01:35.200 if he gives you a good thing at this point, he can 01:01:35.200 --> 01:01:38.880 see the outcome, he can see everything that flows out from that. 01:01:38.880 --> 01:01:41.040 You cannot do that trapped here in time. 01:01:41.040 --> 01:01:42.320 No human being can do that. 01:01:42.320 --> 01:01:44.320 That's impossible for us. 01:01:44.320 --> 01:01:48.080 But God has promised that if we ask him, he will provide 01:01:48.080 --> 01:01:53.120 good things, this is again providence, he has providential care for us 01:01:53.120 --> 01:01:54.960 as his sons and daughters. 01:01:54.960 --> 01:01:58.240 Not only will he provide those good things, but he will also 01:01:58.240 --> 01:02:01.440 do it in a way that will work out ultimately to our 01:02:01.440 --> 01:02:05.600 benefit. Because we see that in many places in Scripture where He 01:02:05.600 --> 01:02:09.200 promises that these things work together for the good. 01:02:09.200 --> 01:02:14.480 And to read another passage from Christ this time Luke twelve. 01:02:14.480 --> 01:02:18.000 Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what 01:02:18.000 --> 01:02:21.120 you will eat, nor about your body what you will put on, 01:02:21.120 --> 01:02:24.880 for life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 01:02:24.880 --> 01:02:29.280 Consider the ravens, they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse 01:02:29.280 --> 01:02:31.840 nor barn, and yet God feeds them. 01:02:31.840 --> 01:02:34.880 Of how much more value are you than the birds? 01:02:34.880 --> 01:02:37.280 And which of you, by being anxious, can at a single hour 01:02:37.280 --> 01:02:39.280 to his span of life? 01:02:39.280 --> 01:02:41.680 If then you are not able to do as small a thing 01:02:41.680 --> 01:02:44.480 as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 01:02:44.480 --> 01:02:48.960 Consider the lilies, how they grow they neither toil nor spin, yet 01:02:48.960 --> 01:02:52.640 I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed 01:02:52.720 --> 01:02:53.920 like one of these. 01:02:53.920 --> 01:02:57.200 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the 01:02:57.200 --> 01:03:00.560 field to day, and to morrow is thrown into the oven, how 01:03:00.560 --> 01:03:03.840 much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith? 01:03:03.840 --> 01:03:06.320 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you 01:03:06.320 --> 01:03:09.600 are to drink, nor be worried, for all the nations of the 01:03:09.600 --> 01:03:13.360 world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need 01:03:13.360 --> 01:03:17.760 them. Instead, seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to 01:03:17.760 --> 01:03:24.800 you. God not only provides for us to some degree regardless of 01:03:24.800 --> 01:03:28.080 whether or not we pray for it, and regardless of whether or 01:03:28.080 --> 01:03:32.000 not we believe, because again, God has a certain level of providence 01:03:32.000 --> 01:03:35.200 that covers the entirety of creation. 01:03:35.200 --> 01:03:39.280 Gravity continues to work whether you're a Christian or not. 01:03:39.280 --> 01:03:42.720 If you apostatize, you don't just float off the planet. 01:03:42.720 --> 01:03:47.760 The rain continues to fall whether you are a Christian or not. 01:03:47.760 --> 01:03:52.560 Now, of course, God does act in time with regard to things 01:03:52.560 --> 01:03:53.440 like weather. 01:03:53.440 --> 01:03:57.840 And so if we have severe weather, to a certain degree to 01:03:57.840 --> 01:04:02.080 a certain degree as Christians, we should recognize that, in the sense 01:04:02.080 --> 01:04:06.640 of severe weather in that case, as a judgment from God. 01:04:06.640 --> 01:04:08.320 Because God controls these things. 01:04:09.040 --> 01:04:13.280 It's not just, oh, it's a natural occurrence and it's because of 01:04:13.280 --> 01:04:17.200 this temperature change here and that and this and Yes, perhaps you 01:04:17.200 --> 01:04:18.960 can explain it physically. 01:04:18.960 --> 01:04:20.880 But why did it happen? 01:04:22.240 --> 01:04:27.360 When you explain how something happened physically, you're not explaining the why 01:04:27.360 --> 01:04:30.240 in the sense of the metaphysical or the philosophical. 01:04:30.240 --> 01:04:33.840 That's the more important matter, and as Christians, we often have an 01:04:33.840 --> 01:04:34.960 answer for that. 01:04:35.360 --> 01:04:40.320 If there is a major disaster that befalls a country, turn to 01:04:40.320 --> 01:04:43.520 God. That may very well be a judgment from God, or perhaps 01:04:43.520 --> 01:04:44.800 it's a test from God. 01:04:44.800 --> 01:04:49.120 We can't always say exactly why it happened or exactly what God 01:04:49.120 --> 01:04:51.040 is communicating with it. 01:04:51.040 --> 01:04:54.800 But we know that in all things we must turn to God. 01:04:54.800 --> 01:04:56.480 This is what we see in Job. 01:04:56.480 --> 01:04:59.680 This is why Woe and I like the book of Job so 01:04:59.680 --> 01:05:02.880 much, and a number of other reasons as well, but it shows 01:05:02.880 --> 01:05:05.680 a proper response to these things. 01:05:05.680 --> 01:05:08.800 Whether it is good from God or evil from God in the 01:05:08.800 --> 01:05:12.560 sense of something that from our point of view is harmful, and 01:05:12.560 --> 01:05:16.480 in an objective sense, in a certain way, is indeed harmful. 01:05:16.480 --> 01:05:19.520 It is harmful to lose all of your cattle, to lose your 01:05:19.520 --> 01:05:21.840 children, and to be covered in sores. 01:05:21.840 --> 01:05:23.840 Those things are harmful. 01:05:23.840 --> 01:05:27.120 They work out for the good, even in Job's case they work 01:05:27.120 --> 01:05:28.880 out for the good. 01:05:28.880 --> 01:05:31.920 And so if your nation is struck by some sort of major 01:05:31.920 --> 01:05:34.160 disaster, you turn to God. 01:05:34.160 --> 01:05:38.160 If your nation is blessed by God, you still turn to God, 01:05:38.160 --> 01:05:42.000 you thank Him for those blessings. 01:05:42.000 --> 01:05:46.080 In the case of the major disaster, of course, you ask for 01:05:46.080 --> 01:05:46.960 God to relent. 01:05:46.960 --> 01:05:49.600 It is perfectly fine to ask for mercy, to ask for God 01:05:49.600 --> 01:05:51.520 to turn to you to bless you. 01:05:51.680 --> 01:05:54.800 But you also recognize that he does the things he does for 01:05:54.800 --> 01:05:55.760 a reason. 01:05:55.760 --> 01:05:58.560 It may very well be that your nation is wicked and needs 01:05:58.560 --> 01:06:01.040 to turn from its wickedness. 01:06:01.360 --> 01:06:04.320 And so, yes, to return to the rain. 01:06:04.320 --> 01:06:07.920 Rain falls on the wicked and the righteous alike, but it is 01:06:07.920 --> 01:06:11.520 God alone who determines whether or not the rain falls when your 01:06:11.520 --> 01:06:13.600 crops need it. 01:06:13.600 --> 01:06:17.360 If there is a drought, God permitted it or God willed it. 01:06:17.360 --> 01:06:21.120 If the rain falls in its season and your crops are bountiful, 01:06:21.120 --> 01:06:22.480 that is also from God. 01:06:22.480 --> 01:06:24.080 That is God's providence. 01:06:24.080 --> 01:06:26.320 You should praise him and thank him for that. 01:06:26.320 --> 01:06:29.520 And as Woe said, the best way to start doing that sort 01:06:29.520 --> 01:06:32.800 of thing is just to say a short prayer before every meal, 01:06:32.800 --> 01:06:38.160 before and after if you're so inclined, as the small catechism recommends. 01:06:38.160 --> 01:06:41.520 You could say the short blessing that is very common to hear 01:06:41.520 --> 01:06:45.040 among Lutherans and some others, or just say the Lord's Prayer, which 01:06:45.040 --> 01:06:47.760 also takes very little time to say. 01:06:47.760 --> 01:06:50.320 That is the way that Christ instructed us to pray, it is 01:06:50.320 --> 01:06:52.320 an excellent prayer to pray before a meal. 01:06:52.400 --> 01:06:54.000 Takes very little time. 01:06:54.000 --> 01:06:57.200 Time, of course, shouldn't be our major concern, but it's not wrong 01:06:57.200 --> 01:06:59.200 to have some concern for time. 01:06:59.200 --> 01:07:02.160 You can't say a three hour prayer before every meal, certainly. 01:07:02.160 --> 01:07:04.720 That wouldn't even be Krishna at that point because you would be 01:07:04.720 --> 01:07:07.120 avoiding things that you should be doing. 01:07:07.120 --> 01:07:09.840 But you can return thanks to God, and it does not take 01:07:09.840 --> 01:07:12.720 much of your time, and it puts you in the right mindset, 01:07:12.720 --> 01:07:16.080 which is another part of this, it's very important. 01:07:16.320 --> 01:07:19.840 Yes, it is important to return thanks to God because it's just 01:07:19.840 --> 01:07:21.280 important to do that. 01:07:21.520 --> 01:07:25.200 But also when you return that thanks, when you give thanks for 01:07:25.200 --> 01:07:28.880 your food, whether it's food you're about to enjoy or food you've 01:07:28.880 --> 01:07:35.440 already enjoyed, you are recognizing that all blessings, all good things flow 01:07:35.440 --> 01:07:36.080 from God. 01:07:36.880 --> 01:07:40.560 And so the next time something goes well, you will be more 01:07:40.560 --> 01:07:44.080 inclined to immediately recognize this is a blessing from God. 01:07:44.080 --> 01:07:45.840 This is a good thing that flows from God. 01:07:45.840 --> 01:07:46.720 This is providence. 01:07:46.720 --> 01:07:50.480 This is not just luck or my skill or my hard work. 01:07:50.480 --> 01:07:56.320 There's more at play here because there's a deeper aspect to life, 01:07:56.320 --> 01:08:00.560 to everything, to the universe, than the material, than just what I've 01:08:00.560 --> 01:08:05.360 done, the work that I've done, the labor I've put in. 01:08:05.360 --> 01:08:09.200 And so having that mindset, you will be able to give thanks 01:08:09.200 --> 01:08:10.000 to God. 01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:13.600 Maybe it's you get a major contract at work or you get 01:08:13.600 --> 01:08:17.520 a promotion or something just goes well in your day, could be 01:08:17.520 --> 01:08:20.240 something as small as you find your keys that you thought you 01:08:20.240 --> 01:08:22.640 had actually lost. 01:08:22.640 --> 01:08:24.800 Give thanks to God. 01:08:24.800 --> 01:08:27.600 You may think it is silly or trivial to thank God for 01:08:27.600 --> 01:08:29.040 something like that. 01:08:29.040 --> 01:08:30.960 Start doing it. 01:08:30.960 --> 01:08:33.520 See how that works out in your life. 01:08:33.520 --> 01:08:37.760 It is important to recognize that even these small things are from 01:08:37.760 --> 01:08:44.480 God, because again, from the smallest scale quarks interacting or atoms interacting, 01:08:44.480 --> 01:08:51.440 molecules, up to the grandest scale of galaxies and clusters, all of 01:08:51.440 --> 01:08:53.040 that is in God's hands. 01:08:53.200 --> 01:08:55.280 All of that is upheld by God. 01:08:55.280 --> 01:08:59.200 All of that exists because God willed it, because God creates it, 01:08:59.200 --> 01:09:01.920 and because God sustains it. 01:09:01.920 --> 01:09:07.600 Absolutely nothing exists by itself and in itself. 01:09:07.600 --> 01:09:11.040 Nothing self-subsists except for God. 01:09:11.040 --> 01:09:14.480 And so everything else is upheld by God. 01:09:14.480 --> 01:09:19.120 It exists because God wills that it continue to exist. 01:09:19.040 --> 01:09:22.080 And so of course we should give thanks to God for small 01:09:22.080 --> 01:09:25.040 things and for great things, and so again, if you lose your 01:09:25.040 --> 01:09:27.600 keys and find them, thank God. 01:09:27.600 --> 01:09:31.120 If you have a child born and the child is healthy, thank 01:09:31.120 --> 01:09:34.000 God. Thank God if the child is sick as well, of course, 01:09:34.000 --> 01:09:36.160 because all children are a blessing from God. 01:09:36.160 --> 01:09:38.240 Pray for the child who is ill. 01:09:38.240 --> 01:09:42.320 But recognize that there are levels of blessing, and every single one 01:09:42.320 --> 01:09:43.920 of those things can be a blessing. 01:09:43.920 --> 01:09:45.760 So you have a child who is born, that's a blessing. 01:09:45.760 --> 01:09:48.400 The child is healthy, that's a blessing. 01:09:48.400 --> 01:09:55.040 The Christian must recognize this as it were pervasive providence of God. 01:09:55.040 --> 01:09:58.160 It's not that God just acts in this little place or that 01:09:58.160 --> 01:10:01.760 little place or we thank him only for the big miracles someone 01:10:01.760 --> 01:10:07.120 came back from the dead or cancer disappeared or war was averted. 01:10:07.120 --> 01:10:09.600 We thank him for all things because all things are in his 01:10:09.760 --> 01:10:13.200 life hands, and all good things flow from him. 01:10:13.200 --> 01:10:15.760 Scripture is very clear on this point. 01:10:15.760 --> 01:10:19.680 Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from 01:10:19.680 --> 01:10:22.800 the Father of lights. 01:10:22.800 --> 01:10:27.840 Scripture states that every good thing we have comes from God. 01:10:27.840 --> 01:10:29.840 All of it is providential. 01:10:29.840 --> 01:10:34.720 And so we recognize, as Christians, that providence, and we give thanks 01:10:34.720 --> 01:10:35.760 for it. 01:10:35.760 --> 01:10:38.400 And I will continue to recommend the Lord's Prayer. 01:10:38.880 --> 01:10:43.440 Not just because it is the prayer that Christ recommended. 01:10:43.440 --> 01:10:46.320 The apostles asked him how should we pray? 01:10:46.320 --> 01:10:48.400 And he gave them a prayer. 01:10:48.400 --> 01:10:49.600 We should certainly use that. 01:10:49.600 --> 01:10:50.240 It would be unwise 01:10:51.120 --> 01:10:53.920 to ignore that fact. 01:10:53.920 --> 01:10:59.280 But also because it is the perfect prayer. 01:10:59.280 --> 01:11:02.320 We thank God for the things that He gives us, because of 01:11:02.320 --> 01:11:04.640 course when you thank God for your daily bread, you're thanking him 01:11:04.720 --> 01:11:05.280 for everything. 01:11:05.280 --> 01:11:09.280 You're not thanking him for just literally your daily bread. 01:11:09.440 --> 01:11:11.440 the small catechism covers this very well. 01:11:11.440 --> 01:11:13.280 I recommend that you go and read that. 01:11:13.280 --> 01:11:15.200 I will link to it in the show notes. 01:11:15.200 --> 01:11:19.200 But when you thank him for that, you're thanking him for providence. 01:11:19.200 --> 01:11:22.400 You're thanking him for all of the things that he has providentially 01:11:22.400 --> 01:11:25.040 provided for you. 01:11:25.040 --> 01:11:28.240 And of course there are the other parts where you confess your 01:11:28.240 --> 01:11:30.960 sins known and unknown, etc. 01:11:31.120 --> 01:11:33.040 It is highly recommended. 01:11:33.040 --> 01:11:35.040 Pray the prayer at least when you wake up and before you 01:11:35.040 --> 01:11:36.080 go to bed. 01:11:36.080 --> 01:11:38.320 Add that into your routine. 01:11:38.320 --> 01:11:41.920 Part of the Christian life is having a set routine for some 01:11:41.920 --> 01:11:43.360 of these things. 01:11:43.360 --> 01:11:46.720 Because again, it puts you in the right mindset and it starts 01:11:46.720 --> 01:11:50.240 to develop that relationship with God. 01:11:50.240 --> 01:11:55.920 Not in the sense of, you know, Christianity in the modern culture, 01:11:55.920 --> 01:11:58.480 they try to say, well, it's a relationship, not a religion. 01:11:58.480 --> 01:12:00.160 That's not what I'm saying. 01:12:00.160 --> 01:12:03.120 But you should have a relationship with God. 01:12:03.120 --> 01:12:06.720 Because God has adopted you as a son or daughter, and you 01:12:06.720 --> 01:12:10.160 have a relation, you should have a relationship with your parents, in 01:12:10.160 --> 01:12:12.000 this case with your heavenly father. 01:12:12.000 --> 01:12:15.280 That's part of the Christian walk, and part of that is talking 01:12:15.280 --> 01:12:17.440 to God, which is what prayer is. 01:12:17.440 --> 01:12:19.920 God talks to us as well, which is why you should read 01:12:19.920 --> 01:12:20.720 His Word. 01:12:21.040 --> 01:12:25.040 Particularly if you do those two things together, and have the Holy 01:12:25.040 --> 01:12:27.440 Spirit, because that is of course what it means to be a 01:12:27.440 --> 01:12:32.160 Christian, God is going to lead you into deeper understanding of the 01:12:32.160 --> 01:12:36.480 faith, into a deeper and more profound faith, because He speaks to 01:12:36.480 --> 01:12:39.360 you in His Word, and you pray to Him, you speak back 01:12:39.360 --> 01:12:42.560 to Him in prayer. 01:12:42.560 --> 01:12:47.360 God hasn't designed these things idly or without reason. 01:12:47.360 --> 01:12:50.080 All of this is meant to work together. 01:12:50.080 --> 01:12:54.640 And so when you recognize God's providential hand in creation and you 01:12:54.640 --> 01:12:57.520 thank him for these things and you pray and then you read 01:12:57.520 --> 01:13:01.520 scripture, you are going to become a better Christian. 01:13:01.520 --> 01:13:07.600 That's what it means to have this Christian walk, this running of 01:13:07.600 --> 01:13:08.480 the race. 01:13:08.640 --> 01:13:12.080 You aren't supposed to stay on the diet of milk. 01:13:12.080 --> 01:13:13.840 You're supposed to progress. 01:13:13.840 --> 01:13:15.840 You're supposed to move on to meat. 01:13:15.840 --> 01:13:18.400 And in order to do that, you do actually have to put 01:13:18.400 --> 01:13:20.720 in some effort and some time. 01:13:20.720 --> 01:13:25.040 You shouldn't view them as laborious or as labor or suffering. 01:13:25.040 --> 01:13:26.320 That's not the point. 01:13:26.560 --> 01:13:29.840 You're not a monk, you don't wear a hair shirt and pray 01:13:29.840 --> 01:13:33.280 by yourself on a concrete floor while kneeling. 01:13:33.280 --> 01:13:37.440 That isn't how you worship or give glory to God. 01:13:37.440 --> 01:13:40.240 God has given you certain things in this life. 01:13:40.240 --> 01:13:42.720 He has given you a family. 01:13:42.720 --> 01:13:45.520 Whether you have a family of your own or you just have 01:13:45.520 --> 01:13:49.200 parents and extended family, you have a family. 01:13:49.200 --> 01:13:53.040 All of these things, all these blessings that God has given you, 01:13:53.040 --> 01:13:55.040 you are supposed to use them 01:13:56.160 --> 01:13:59.920 and respond to God with thanks for them. 01:13:59.920 --> 01:14:02.640 Not shut yourself away from the world and ignore them. 01:14:02.640 --> 01:14:04.560 That's not how you serve God. 01:14:04.560 --> 01:14:09.840 You serve God by serving your fellow man, by serving your neighbor. 01:14:09.840 --> 01:14:13.760 You are in a very concrete way God's hands and feet in 01:14:13.760 --> 01:14:15.840 the world because God works through means. 01:14:15.840 --> 01:14:17.280 As we've mentioned a number of times, 01:14:18.400 --> 01:14:21.680 the good things that you receive in life will often come from 01:14:21.680 --> 01:14:23.520 the hands of other men. 01:14:23.520 --> 01:14:28.480 That's because God is providing those things using the means of those 01:14:28.480 --> 01:14:29.840 other men. 01:14:29.840 --> 01:14:34.400 As we've noticed, God does not just have food typically fall from 01:14:34.400 --> 01:14:35.200 the sky. 01:14:35.200 --> 01:14:37.440 He has done that, he could do that. 01:14:37.440 --> 01:14:40.400 Typically food comes from farmers. 01:14:40.400 --> 01:14:46.160 Food grows on trees, grows in fields. 01:14:46.160 --> 01:14:50.720 Those are means that God uses to provide the good food, to 01:14:50.720 --> 01:14:54.960 provide the things that we need to sustain this earthly life. 01:14:54.960 --> 01:14:57.200 That is providential. 01:14:57.360 --> 01:15:00.000 Those things don't just happen. 01:15:00.000 --> 01:15:03.840 God designed it so that they would happen, so they would work 01:15:03.840 --> 01:15:09.040 that way, because that is God's providence for us in creation. 01:15:09.040 --> 01:15:12.960 And so if we start to recognize in the small things every 01:15:12.960 --> 01:15:16.800 meal we eat, or if we have some small thing happen to 01:15:16.800 --> 01:15:21.360 us that's good, it's easier to recognize God's hand in bigger things 01:15:21.440 --> 01:15:22.960 and other things. 01:15:23.280 --> 01:15:27.120 Really, what I'm saying is that you have to cultivate a Christian 01:15:27.120 --> 01:15:34.160 worldview. Which is in contrast, stark contrast, to the modern worldview 01:15:34.160 --> 01:15:38.480 that is rampant in our society, because our society is by and 01:15:38.480 --> 01:15:43.680 large not atheistic, it's pagan, it has many gods, it just does 01:15:43.680 --> 01:15:45.600 not recognize the Lord God. 01:15:45.600 --> 01:15:47.600 But it is largely materialistic. 01:15:47.600 --> 01:15:52.400 Yes, there's some incoherence in that, but that's sort of a feature, 01:15:52.400 --> 01:15:54.560 not a flaw. 01:15:54.560 --> 01:15:58.880 For Satan in this case, of course. 01:15:58.880 --> 01:16:03.040 But as Christians, we want to cultivate this worldview that recognizes that 01:16:03.040 --> 01:16:05.040 God is not just in control. 01:16:05.040 --> 01:16:07.520 God is not just sitting on his throne, although of course he 01:16:07.520 --> 01:16:10.640 is, but he is still involved in creation. 01:16:10.640 --> 01:16:12.800 He actively sustains creation. 01:16:12.800 --> 01:16:13.520 He works for the good 01:16:14.800 --> 01:16:16.160 of his faithful. 01:16:16.160 --> 01:16:18.320 He works for the good of his elect. 01:16:18.320 --> 01:16:20.000 That is the Christian worldview. 01:16:20.000 --> 01:16:23.840 Deism is not a Christian worldview where you just view God as 01:16:23.840 --> 01:16:25.360 watching if he's even doing that. 01:16:25.360 --> 01:16:27.840 Maybe he's off taking a nap in the deist worldview. 01:16:28.480 --> 01:16:29.920 That's not Christian. 01:16:29.920 --> 01:16:31.920 That is a sub Christian worldview. 01:16:31.920 --> 01:16:34.880 Is it better to recognize there's a God than say there's no 01:16:34.880 --> 01:16:37.920 God? Absolutely. 01:16:37.920 --> 01:16:43.360 But it doesn't compare whatsoever to recognizing the reality of how the 01:16:43.360 --> 01:16:48.000 Lord God interacts with his creation, how he interacts with us, and 01:16:48.000 --> 01:16:50.560 returning thanks for what he does. 01:16:50.560 --> 01:16:53.360 That's the Christian life. 01:16:53.760 --> 01:16:57.680 So as Corey mentioned, Job is one of the books that again 01:16:58.000 --> 01:17:04.960 is really, I think, essential for understanding the non-deist approach to research 01:17:05.600 --> 01:17:07.520 whatever happens in life. 01:17:07.520 --> 01:17:11.120 So I'm gonna read from chapter one and then from chapter two, 01:17:11.120 --> 01:17:12.880 I'm gonna skip a little bit. 01:17:12.880 --> 01:17:15.760 I just want to focus in on the parts that that hone 01:17:15.760 --> 01:17:18.880 in on the point that we're making here today. 01:17:19.920 --> 01:17:23.600 And the Lord said to Satan, Have you diligently considered my servant 01:17:23.680 --> 01:17:26.720 Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a man 01:17:26.720 --> 01:17:30.880 blameless, true, godly, abstaining from everything evil? 01:17:30.880 --> 01:17:34.880 Then the devil answered, and said, Before the Lord, Does Job worship 01:17:34.880 --> 01:17:36.000 the Lord for nothing? 01:17:36.000 --> 01:17:38.960 Have you not made a hedge around him, and about his household, 01:17:38.960 --> 01:17:40.640 and around all his possessions? 01:17:40.640 --> 01:17:43.520 And have you not blessed the works of his hand and multiplied 01:17:43.520 --> 01:17:45.840 his cattle upon the land. 01:17:45.840 --> 01:17:49.600 Put forth your hand and touch all that he has, verily he 01:17:49.600 --> 01:17:51.520 will bless you to your face. 01:17:51.520 --> 01:17:55.120 Then the Lord said to the devil, Behold, I give into your 01:17:55.120 --> 01:17:58.160 hand all that he has, but touch not himself. 01:17:58.160 --> 01:18:01.040 So the devil went out from the presence of the Lord. 01:18:01.040 --> 01:18:03.920 And then next thing that happened was that raiders came and stole 01:18:03.920 --> 01:18:07.120 all of Job's oxen and his female donkeys and killed all his 01:18:07.120 --> 01:18:11.120 slaves. And then the second messenger came and said, Fires burned up 01:18:11.200 --> 01:18:13.280 all of the sheep and the shepherds. 01:18:13.280 --> 01:18:16.720 And then a third messenger interrupted the second and said, An army 01:18:16.720 --> 01:18:19.520 came and stole all of his camels and killed all of his 01:18:19.520 --> 01:18:23.440 slaves. And while the third servant was speaking, a fourth messenger approached 01:18:23.520 --> 01:18:27.280 and said a wind has blown over his children's house and killed 01:18:27.280 --> 01:18:30.240 them all beneath the roof that collapsed. 01:18:30.240 --> 01:18:33.600 And all this happened in the span of a few minutes. 01:18:33.600 --> 01:18:35.280 So the text continues. 01:18:35.280 --> 01:18:38.880 So Job arose, and rent his garments, and shaved the hair of 01:18:38.880 --> 01:18:43.040 his head, and fell upon the earth and worshiped, and said, I 01:18:43.040 --> 01:18:46.800 myself came forth naked from my mother's womb, and naked shall I 01:18:46.800 --> 01:18:47.680 return thither. 01:18:47.680 --> 01:18:51.440 The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, as it seemed good 01:18:51.440 --> 01:18:53.600 to the Lord, so it has come to pass. 01:18:53.600 --> 01:18:55.680 Blessed be the name of the Lord. 01:18:55.680 --> 01:18:58.880 And all these events that befell him Job sinned not at all 01:18:58.880 --> 01:19:04.000 before the Lord, and did not impute folly to God. 01:19:04.000 --> 01:19:07.600 So you may have noticed that verse 21 there was a little 01:19:07.600 --> 01:19:09.440 bit longer than the ones you've probably heard before. 01:19:09.440 --> 01:19:12.640 This is of course the Septuagint because it's what God inspired. 01:19:12.640 --> 01:19:15.760 That portion there that said, the Lord gave, the Lord is taken 01:19:15.760 --> 01:19:18.560 away. As it seemed good to the Lord, so it has come 01:19:18.560 --> 01:19:19.360 to pass. 01:19:19.360 --> 01:19:21.040 Blessed be the name of the Lord. 01:19:21.040 --> 01:19:23.920 That's a part that's deleted from the Masoretic text. 01:19:23.920 --> 01:19:29.200 It's really a crucial one because it explains precisely why he's thinking 01:19:29.200 --> 01:19:32.160 the way he is, which is why the next verse says, Job 01:19:32.160 --> 01:19:35.760 did not sin and did not impute folly to God. 01:19:35.760 --> 01:19:39.280 What that means specifically, it's not simply talking about sin or about 01:19:39.280 --> 01:19:43.920 evil. To say that Job did not impute folly to God references 01:19:43.920 --> 01:19:46.480 back to him saying it seemed good to the Lord, so it 01:19:46.480 --> 01:19:47.840 has come to pass. 01:19:47.840 --> 01:19:50.640 He just lost everything that God ever blessed him with. 01:19:50.640 --> 01:19:53.200 He still had his life, and he still had his wife. 01:19:53.200 --> 01:19:54.640 Everything else had been destroyed. 01:19:55.520 --> 01:19:58.400 And he didn't blame Satan. 01:19:58.400 --> 01:20:00.560 He didn't say it wasn't fair. 01:20:00.560 --> 01:20:03.040 He said, Blessed be the name of the Lord. 01:20:03.040 --> 01:20:05.840 He said, All those things that God gave me, God has seen 01:20:05.840 --> 01:20:07.120 fit to take away. 01:20:07.120 --> 01:20:11.920 He obviously didn't like it, he didn't understand, but he trusted in 01:20:11.920 --> 01:20:16.160 God. And this is a crucial element of the Christian approach to 01:20:16.160 --> 01:20:18.000 God's providence in our lives. 01:20:18.000 --> 01:20:21.280 There are times when bad things happen you're not going to understand. 01:20:21.280 --> 01:20:24.720 I referenced this passage in the Fear of the Lord episode and 01:20:24.720 --> 01:20:28.000 I described having a stroke for precisely the reason that when bad 01:20:28.000 --> 01:20:31.360 things happen, you can either whine about it or you can say, 01:20:31.360 --> 01:20:33.520 I don't understand, but I trust in God. 01:20:33.520 --> 01:20:35.760 I'm still in his hands no matter what. 01:20:36.160 --> 01:20:40.880 this belief that we are to carry as Christians, one that is 01:20:40.880 --> 01:20:45.600 entirely not materialistic, that's not deistic, one that believes that God is 01:20:45.600 --> 01:20:49.280 active and the things that happen, for good or ill, are from 01:20:49.280 --> 01:20:53.680 the hand of God, rob Satan of any power whatsoever. 01:20:53.680 --> 01:20:57.040 Job wasn't terrified by Satan, even though it was Satan's hand that 01:20:57.040 --> 01:20:59.440 had caused these things with God's permission. 01:20:59.440 --> 01:21:02.880 Job said, The Lord permitted it, blessed be the name of the 01:21:02.880 --> 01:21:06.400 Lord. And then it continues in chapter two. 01:21:06.400 --> 01:21:10.640 The devil went back to the divine counsel and said, It's written, 01:21:10.640 --> 01:21:13.200 and the Lord said to the devil, have you then observed my 01:21:13.200 --> 01:21:16.160 servant Job, that there is none of men upon the earth like 01:21:16.160 --> 01:21:21.120 him, a harmless, true, blameless, godly man, abstaining from all evil? 01:21:21.120 --> 01:21:24.000 And yet he cleaves to innocence, whereas you have told me to 01:21:24.000 --> 01:21:26.560 destroy his substance without cause? 01:21:26.560 --> 01:21:29.920 And the devil answered and said to the Lord, skin for skin, 01:21:29.920 --> 01:21:32.720 all that a man has will he give as a ransom for 01:21:32.720 --> 01:21:33.680 his life. 01:21:33.680 --> 01:21:37.280 Nab put forth your hand and touch his bones and his flesh. 01:21:37.280 --> 01:21:40.080 Truly he will bless you to your face. 01:21:40.080 --> 01:21:43.200 And the Lord said to the devil, Before I deliver him up 01:21:43.440 --> 01:21:45.520 to you only save his life. 01:21:45.520 --> 01:21:48.720 So the devil went out from the Lord, and smote Job with 01:21:48.720 --> 01:21:51.520 sore boils from his feet to his head, and he took a 01:21:51.520 --> 01:21:55.200 pot shar to scrape away the discharge and sat upon a dung 01:21:55.200 --> 01:21:58.640 heap outside of the city. 01:21:58.640 --> 01:22:01.680 And when much time had passed his wife said to him, How 01:22:01.680 --> 01:22:04.560 long will you hold out, saying, Behold, I will wait yet a 01:22:04.560 --> 01:22:08.960 little while, expecting hope for my deliverance, for behold, your memorial is 01:22:08.960 --> 01:22:12.720 abolished from the earth, even your sons and daughters, the pangs and 01:22:12.720 --> 01:22:15.920 pains of my womb, which I bore in vain with sorrows, and 01:22:15.920 --> 01:22:18.640 yeah and you yourself sit down to spend the nights in the 01:22:18.640 --> 01:22:22.480 open air among the corruption of worms and I am a wanderer 01:22:22.560 --> 01:22:25.840 and a servant from place to place and house to house, waiting 01:22:25.840 --> 01:22:28.400 for the setting of the sun, that I may rest for my 01:22:28.400 --> 01:22:32.000 labours and my pangs which now beset me, but say some word 01:22:32.000 --> 01:22:34.000 against the Lord and die. 01:22:34.000 --> 01:22:36.800 But he looked on her and said to her, You have spoken 01:22:36.800 --> 01:22:39.920 like one of the foolish women, but we have received good things 01:22:39.920 --> 01:22:41.120 from the hand of the Lord. 01:22:41.120 --> 01:22:43.200 Shall we not endure evil things? 01:22:43.200 --> 01:22:46.480 In all these things that happened to him, Job sinned not at 01:22:46.480 --> 01:22:49.040 all with his lips before God. 01:22:49.040 --> 01:22:52.720 You may have noticed that that verse nine was really long, wasn't 01:22:52.720 --> 01:22:54.480 it? You've never heard that before, probably. 01:22:54.480 --> 01:22:56.400 This is again the Septuagint. 01:22:56.400 --> 01:23:00.480 The reason the the foolishness that came from the wife of Job's 01:23:00.480 --> 01:23:04.880 lips was far more detailed than was preserved in the Masoretic text. 01:23:04.880 --> 01:23:06.720 It's not remotely what was said. 01:23:06.720 --> 01:23:12.000 It was a wicked and profoundly selfish Really, she fulfilled the entire 01:23:12.000 --> 01:23:16.560 curse against Eve in this little soloquy that she delivered. 01:23:16.560 --> 01:23:21.040 She made it all about her, and she was certainly suffering too, 01:23:21.040 --> 01:23:26.000 but she blamed Job and blamed God, and she was in his 01:23:26.000 --> 01:23:28.000 ear telling him to sin against God. 01:23:28.000 --> 01:23:30.480 Not for the first time have we seen a wife encouraging a 01:23:30.480 --> 01:23:33.280 husband to sin. 01:23:34.720 --> 01:23:39.280 When Job attributes for a second time the evil that this passage 01:23:39.440 --> 01:23:42.080 makes explicit came from the hand of Satan. 01:23:42.320 --> 01:23:44.640 first passage leaves it somewhat ambiguous. 01:23:44.640 --> 01:23:48.160 Satan approached God and said You should do evil to Job and 01:23:48.160 --> 01:23:49.200 he'll curse you. 01:23:49.200 --> 01:23:52.240 And the Lord said to the devil, you go do it, and 01:23:52.240 --> 01:23:53.200 we'll see. 01:23:53.200 --> 01:23:56.240 And then Satan went and the bad things happened, but it isn't 01:23:56.160 --> 01:23:58.320 explicit who did the bad things. 01:23:58.320 --> 01:24:01.280 The second time around is very clear that Satan acted directly against 01:24:01.680 --> 01:24:05.120 Job, and Job again says, If we have received good things from 01:24:05.120 --> 01:24:09.600 the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evil things? 01:24:09.600 --> 01:24:13.120 So as I alluded to in my intro, there are cases where 01:24:13.760 --> 01:24:17.040 bad things happen to us, evil things happen. 01:24:17.040 --> 01:24:20.400 And in a sense, it is okay to say that God has 01:24:20.400 --> 01:24:25.680 permitted or God has delivered these things unto us as chastisement, even 01:24:25.680 --> 01:24:27.520 if we don't understand why. 01:24:27.520 --> 01:24:29.920 Even if all we understand is that we live in a fallen 01:24:30.000 --> 01:24:34.320 sinful world and bad things seem to happen for no reason. 01:24:34.320 --> 01:24:37.280 The crucial part is not to be a materialist that says, well 01:24:37.360 --> 01:24:38.080 there's no reason. 01:24:38.080 --> 01:24:41.040 It's all just a void, and there's no point to any of 01:24:41.040 --> 01:24:44.560 it. The Christian response is to say I have no idea what's 01:24:44.560 --> 01:24:47.520 going on, but I trust that God is still God. 01:24:47.520 --> 01:24:51.280 When we have that confident faith, no matter how bad things get, 01:24:51.280 --> 01:24:52.880 they can get worse than they got for Job. 01:24:52.880 --> 01:24:54.000 He didn't die. 01:24:54.000 --> 01:24:55.360 He wasn't close to death. 01:24:55.360 --> 01:24:56.480 He was miserable. 01:24:56.480 --> 01:24:59.600 He was unbelievably miserable, but his life was being sustained. 01:24:59.600 --> 01:25:01.360 That was part of the problem. 01:25:01.680 --> 01:25:05.040 God didn't let Satan kill him or bring him close to death, 01:25:05.040 --> 01:25:08.240 he just brought him to the lowest of all human lows. 01:25:08.240 --> 01:25:09.360 We can get there. 01:25:09.360 --> 01:25:13.120 There are men alive today who have gone to very similar places. 01:25:13.120 --> 01:25:16.160 And they didn't fall as far, but they've been just as bad 01:25:16.160 --> 01:25:19.120 off in the end. 01:25:19.120 --> 01:25:26.800 The Christian view of these circumstances, these evil circumstances, 01:25:26.800 --> 01:25:28.640 is not to curse God. 01:25:28.640 --> 01:25:32.960 It's not to whine and moan and say it's unfair. 01:25:32.960 --> 01:25:36.640 It's to bless God's name and say that the creator of all 01:25:36.640 --> 01:25:38.480 things has permitted this. 01:25:38.720 --> 01:25:40.480 Lord have mercy. 01:25:40.480 --> 01:25:42.880 And that's sometimes that's all you can say. 01:25:43.280 --> 01:25:44.800 Lord have mercy. 01:25:44.800 --> 01:25:46.880 But not curse God when you do it. 01:25:46.880 --> 01:25:48.560 Not say it's not fair. 01:25:48.560 --> 01:25:52.160 And see if if you don't believe that these things are possible, 01:25:52.160 --> 01:25:55.760 these things truly happen, not only in the Bible stories, but actually 01:25:55.760 --> 01:25:58.560 in real life to us in these days. 01:25:58.560 --> 01:26:01.360 Then when the bad things do happen, as they inevitably happen to 01:26:01.360 --> 01:26:06.960 everyone, absent this sort of preexisting view, this sort of hermeneutic of 01:26:07.200 --> 01:26:10.400 when I see something bad happen, how do I approach it? 01:26:10.400 --> 01:26:13.680 Absent this view, you're gonna act just like a pagan. 01:26:13.680 --> 01:26:17.680 You're gonna say it's all void, there's nothing, it's all blackness, I 01:26:17.680 --> 01:26:19.600 curse God and I wanna die. 01:26:19.600 --> 01:26:20.880 There's no point any of it. 01:26:20.880 --> 01:26:21.520 I hate it. 01:26:21.520 --> 01:26:22.800 It's all about me. 01:26:22.800 --> 01:26:23.920 You turn inward. 01:26:23.920 --> 01:26:25.360 That's the natural thing. 01:26:25.360 --> 01:26:26.720 That's what Satan wants. 01:26:26.960 --> 01:26:31.120 That's what he wanted when he made this arrangement with God. 01:26:31.120 --> 01:26:34.320 He said if you let me torment this man who's been blessed 01:26:34.320 --> 01:26:37.040 with so much, he's gonna curse you to his face. 01:26:37.040 --> 01:26:39.680 And interestingly, the Septuagint didn't even say curse. 01:26:39.680 --> 01:26:42.320 It says he will bless you to your face. 01:26:42.320 --> 01:26:45.280 It wouldn't go so far even as to record the sort of 01:26:45.280 --> 01:26:47.840 blasphemy that Satan was wishing. 01:26:47.840 --> 01:26:51.600 So the the notion that Job would bless God to his face, 01:26:51.600 --> 01:26:52.640 it was tongue in cheek. 01:26:52.880 --> 01:26:55.760 It was an ironic statement, but it was one that preserved the 01:26:55.760 --> 01:26:57.680 sanctity of the text. 01:26:57.680 --> 01:27:01.200 As Christians, we have to have this in our hearts and in 01:27:01.200 --> 01:27:02.960 our minds when things are good. 01:27:02.960 --> 01:27:06.560 You know, a lot of the episodes that we do are in 01:27:06.560 --> 01:27:09.520 view of preparing people for bad times. 01:27:09.520 --> 01:27:14.320 You specifically we did the episode last year about normalcy bias. 01:27:14.320 --> 01:27:16.960 At some point the lights are going to go out, the podcasts 01:27:16.960 --> 01:27:18.000 are going to go away. 01:27:18.000 --> 01:27:21.120 You're going to have much bigger things to worry about than you 01:27:21.120 --> 01:27:23.920 know superficial internet stuff. 01:27:23.920 --> 01:27:26.480 You're going to have very immediate needs to tend to. 01:27:26.480 --> 01:27:30.160 And when those days come, if you haven't gotten these things squared 01:27:30.160 --> 01:27:33.680 away and many other things, it's gonna be too late. 01:27:33.680 --> 01:27:38.160 And so when we exhort listeners to think about these things now, 01:27:38.160 --> 01:27:42.080 it's not simply to sort of shake you from your slumber and 01:27:42.080 --> 01:27:44.320 get you excited about something. 01:27:44.320 --> 01:27:48.800 It's specifically to exercise muscles that have atrophied so that when these 01:27:48.800 --> 01:27:52.160 days come to each of us, whether it's in some global calamity 01:27:52.240 --> 01:27:55.920 or it's just your own personal life, when everything's fine for everybody 01:27:55.920 --> 01:27:59.440 else and you seem to be singled out in these terrible moments, 01:27:59.440 --> 01:28:02.720 to be prepared as a Christian is to receive things as Job 01:28:02.720 --> 01:28:03.360 received them. 01:28:03.360 --> 01:28:07.440 He didn't sin against God, and not initially, and then at the 01:28:07.440 --> 01:28:13.040 end, after having finally challenged God and wind, when God showed up, 01:28:13.040 --> 01:28:16.640 as we've said many times in Job thirty eight and following, go 01:28:16.640 --> 01:28:21.840 read the whole thing, when Job challenged God and God shows up, 01:28:21.840 --> 01:28:25.120 he says exactly what the angels in heaven are saying. 01:28:25.120 --> 01:28:27.040 He says, I'm the creator of all things. 01:28:27.040 --> 01:28:28.160 Who are you? 01:28:28.160 --> 01:28:30.960 Where were you when I did all of these things? 01:28:30.960 --> 01:28:34.160 When I created all these things, when I sustain all these things 01:28:34.320 --> 01:28:37.600 throughout the universe, where are you, Job? 01:28:37.600 --> 01:28:41.040 Who are you to speak to me and to challenge my judgment? 01:28:41.040 --> 01:28:44.400 That is the response of God to when we step out of 01:28:44.400 --> 01:28:48.560 line, when we don't have the sort of supplicative view that we're 01:28:48.480 --> 01:28:50.160 supposed to have as creatures. 01:28:50.160 --> 01:28:53.200 If we get too big for our britches and we think that 01:28:53.200 --> 01:28:57.920 we have the standing to challenge God's judgment, then we're put in 01:28:57.920 --> 01:28:58.560 our place. 01:28:58.560 --> 01:29:02.240 And so our exhortation to listeners is don't let that be your 01:29:02.240 --> 01:29:03.200 mental state. 01:29:03.200 --> 01:29:06.320 So that when things are really bad and the mental goes out 01:29:06.320 --> 01:29:09.440 the window and all you have left is the emotional and the 01:29:09.600 --> 01:29:13.200 the anchoring of of your faith and your training, you will have 01:29:13.200 --> 01:29:16.000 been trained in such a way that the instinctual response will still 01:29:16.000 --> 01:29:17.440 be a Christian one. 01:29:17.440 --> 01:29:22.240 But absent thinking about these things, the instinctual response is going to 01:29:22.240 --> 01:29:23.760 be the one that Job's wife had. 01:29:23.760 --> 01:29:28.320 When she said curse God and die as a wicked response and 01:29:28.480 --> 01:29:32.080 as default response of men, it is our default response. 01:29:32.080 --> 01:29:35.120 When things get bad, we say, Well, this isn't fair, I don't 01:29:35.040 --> 01:29:35.760 like this. 01:29:35.760 --> 01:29:37.280 God, you're terrible. 01:29:37.280 --> 01:29:38.880 I'm gonna go another direction. 01:29:38.880 --> 01:29:40.560 I don't I reject all this. 01:29:40.560 --> 01:29:43.600 And there are many men who apostatize when things get tough. 01:29:43.600 --> 01:29:44.720 Scripture talks about that. 01:29:44.720 --> 01:29:47.280 We talked about that some in the apostasy episode. 01:29:47.280 --> 01:29:49.760 There are people who will be Christian when it's easy to be 01:29:49.760 --> 01:29:52.160 Christian, and then as soon as it gets hard to be Christian, 01:29:52.720 --> 01:29:53.680 they pop smoke. 01:29:53.680 --> 01:29:54.640 They're like, I'm gone. 01:29:54.800 --> 01:29:56.960 This is this is not what I signed up for. 01:29:56.960 --> 01:29:58.720 I wanted something happy and easy. 01:29:58.720 --> 01:30:01.200 And I'm getting something that's difficult, that's hard. 01:30:01.200 --> 01:30:02.960 I don't want it anymore. 01:30:02.960 --> 01:30:05.440 That is the very moment of the test of the faith when 01:30:05.440 --> 01:30:07.840 it's proven who is actually true. 01:30:07.840 --> 01:30:09.760 It doesn't count when it's easy. 01:30:09.760 --> 01:30:12.560 It doesn't count when it doesn't cost you anything. 01:30:12.560 --> 01:30:15.600 And to be explicit, this is not us saying that we earn 01:30:15.600 --> 01:30:20.480 salvation. It's saying that the gifts that God gives us are complete. 01:30:20.480 --> 01:30:23.760 All of scripture is given to teach us all of these things. 01:30:23.760 --> 01:30:26.240 And when we start picking and choosing which parts we're going to 01:30:26.240 --> 01:30:29.120 believe, we say, well, yeah, Job is a story, but I don't 01:30:29.040 --> 01:30:32.480 really believe that God created all those things and that they're to 01:30:32.480 --> 01:30:33.120 his glory. 01:30:33.120 --> 01:30:34.640 That's I that doesn't interest me. 01:30:34.640 --> 01:30:36.640 That's some other thing happened in creation. 01:30:36.640 --> 01:30:38.160 It's got nothing to do with it. 01:30:38.160 --> 01:30:41.680 I care about the Jesus version of God that's just loving and 01:30:41.680 --> 01:30:44.240 peaceful and doesn't yell at anybody. 01:30:44.240 --> 01:30:46.080 He's I like Buddy Christ. 01:30:46.080 --> 01:30:47.840 That's the one that works for me. 01:30:47.840 --> 01:30:49.440 Well, that's not God. 01:30:49.440 --> 01:30:52.960 It's some subset, but it cannot be the true God, because the 01:30:52.960 --> 01:30:54.560 true God is all of it. 01:30:54.560 --> 01:30:58.640 And so we point to these neglected parts of scripture that point 01:30:58.640 --> 01:31:01.040 to the rest of God that are being left out a bunch 01:31:01.040 --> 01:31:01.840 of preaching. 01:31:01.840 --> 01:31:04.720 When you look at all of it, suddenly everything makes sense. 01:31:04.720 --> 01:31:08.240 And it becomes very easy to have confident faith in the worst 01:31:08.240 --> 01:31:09.200 of moments. 01:31:09.200 --> 01:31:12.560 And I realized a couple of weeks ago that even confident faith 01:31:12.560 --> 01:31:13.920 is redundant. 01:31:13.920 --> 01:31:15.920 Confident. Confident faith. 01:31:15.920 --> 01:31:17.040 With faith, faith. 01:31:17.040 --> 01:31:21.680 It it's a great term because it emphasizes that confidence is exactly 01:31:21.680 --> 01:31:23.280 what we want all Christians to have. 01:31:23.280 --> 01:31:24.320 It's what God wants. 01:31:24.320 --> 01:31:26.800 That's not a stone choir sentiment. 01:31:26.800 --> 01:31:29.840 God wants us to have faith in Him in all times and 01:31:29.840 --> 01:31:32.720 in all places, especially the hard ones. 01:31:32.720 --> 01:31:35.680 When it's two things happen in our lives. 01:31:35.680 --> 01:31:39.200 Times get easy and we forget about God because it's easy. 01:31:39.200 --> 01:31:42.560 And then times get tough and we remember God and we curse 01:31:42.560 --> 01:31:46.000 him because suddenly we realize that God matters and we don't really 01:31:46.000 --> 01:31:47.920 like what he's doing anymore. 01:31:48.400 --> 01:31:52.640 To focus on the Christian life in every day, having the sort 01:31:52.640 --> 01:31:56.400 of prayer life that Corey was describing, means that you're not going 01:31:56.400 --> 01:31:58.960 to forget about God when times are good. 01:31:58.960 --> 01:32:01.600 You're not going to curse God when times get bad. 01:32:01.600 --> 01:32:05.360 You're going to receive as Job did all things to the glory 01:32:05.360 --> 01:32:06.080 of God. 01:32:06.080 --> 01:32:09.840 And once you are there mentally and you're there spiritually, you can 01:32:09.840 --> 01:32:13.120 also be there emotionally when you're being pulled in every direction and 01:32:13.120 --> 01:32:18.640 you're being compressed, and you have you have nothing left except whatever 01:32:18.640 --> 01:32:23.120 tiny kernel of clinging to God you took into the situation. 01:32:23.120 --> 01:32:25.680 Because you're not going to be able to think clearly, you're only 01:32:25.680 --> 01:32:29.760 going to have the training in righteousness or the training in futility. 01:32:29.760 --> 01:32:33.360 You're going to take some kind of training into those stressful moments. 01:32:33.360 --> 01:32:35.840 And your training will absolutely kick in. 01:32:35.840 --> 01:32:39.040 And so when we do episodes like this, it's in hopes the 01:32:39.040 --> 01:32:42.960 people will be training themselves in God's righteousness. 01:32:42.960 --> 01:32:45.840 Because when the bad days come, it's gonna be one or the 01:32:45.840 --> 01:32:49.360 other. Either you're going to respond like Job or you're gonna respond 01:32:49.360 --> 01:32:50.400 like Job's wife. 01:32:50.400 --> 01:32:52.400 It's one or the other. 01:32:52.400 --> 01:32:55.600 And one of those leads to salvation, and one of those leads 01:32:55.600 --> 01:32:56.720 to damnation. 01:32:56.720 --> 01:33:00.480 Because to apostatize at the last moment is worse than never having 01:33:00.480 --> 01:33:02.400 any faith to begin with. 01:33:03.120 --> 01:33:07.680 Another aspect of providence, of course, is going to be that as 01:33:07.680 --> 01:33:13.360 Christians we have to recognize that not only is there supernatural good, 01:33:13.360 --> 01:33:16.800 but there is also supernatural evil. 01:33:17.120 --> 01:33:20.880 And so there's a sort of anti-providence, as it were. 01:33:20.880 --> 01:33:24.240 There's Satan's involvement in these things. 01:33:24.240 --> 01:33:28.000 We recognize that because to some degree we experience a little bit 01:33:28.000 --> 01:33:29.520 of that frequently. 01:33:29.520 --> 01:33:33.440 That's what external temptation is in some cases. 01:33:33.440 --> 01:33:36.320 It's going to be demonic in origin. 01:33:36.320 --> 01:33:40.640 Not all of it, but some of it certainly. 01:33:40.640 --> 01:33:43.280 Satan is very real. 01:33:43.280 --> 01:33:50.000 Satan has an active role as it were in creation. 01:33:50.000 --> 01:33:52.880 He is fallen and he is wicked and he wants to drag 01:33:52.880 --> 01:33:54.800 everyone else down with him. 01:33:54.800 --> 01:33:59.200 It's not It's not just that misery loves company, it's that Satan 01:33:59.200 --> 01:34:00.720 hates everything. 01:34:00.720 --> 01:34:04.880 There is nothing good in him because he is totally turned against 01:34:04.880 --> 01:34:07.200 and away from God. 01:34:07.200 --> 01:34:10.400 As Christians, we need to take seriously the fact that there is 01:34:10.400 --> 01:34:13.520 a devil, and not only is there a devil, but he took 01:34:13.520 --> 01:34:16.560 one third of the angels with him when he fell, and so 01:34:16.560 --> 01:34:18.880 there are many devils. 01:34:18.880 --> 01:34:25.360 There is a very real spiritual warfare going on every second of 01:34:25.360 --> 01:34:26.560 every day. 01:34:26.560 --> 01:34:27.920 Angels don't sleep. 01:34:27.920 --> 01:34:30.320 There's no lull in this fight. 01:34:30.320 --> 01:34:33.360 There's no quiet period in the battle. 01:34:33.360 --> 01:34:36.640 Yes, there may be moments of greater intensity and we certainly see 01:34:36.640 --> 01:34:40.480 that, and sometimes it is indeed reflected in human history as well. 01:34:40.480 --> 01:34:45.040 We see very high levels of activity in certain parts of the 01:34:45.040 --> 01:34:47.200 world, in certain cultures. 01:34:47.200 --> 01:34:48.240 That's demonic. 01:34:49.040 --> 01:34:51.200 The demons are encouraging that. 01:34:51.200 --> 01:34:55.600 They are running the show in some places in some points in 01:34:55.600 --> 01:35:00.000 history. But that is a battle, that is a war that is 01:35:00.000 --> 01:35:05.680 going on again, every second of every day, Satan is prowling around 01:35:05.680 --> 01:35:10.480 as a lion looking for whom he may devour. 01:35:10.480 --> 01:35:14.480 The Christian life with regard to these spiritual things is war 01:35:15.440 --> 01:35:18.400 The life of man upon the earth is warfare. 01:35:18.400 --> 01:35:21.600 That is true both in the physical realm in many places in 01:35:21.600 --> 01:35:24.720 many times and in the spiritual realm. 01:35:25.040 --> 01:35:28.080 We must take that seriously. 01:35:28.080 --> 01:35:30.320 Many today don't want to think about Satan. 01:35:30.320 --> 01:35:31.280 They want to ignore it. 01:35:31.280 --> 01:35:34.000 They want to pretend like there's no supernatural evil. 01:35:34.000 --> 01:35:36.720 It's just God and we live in a fallen world and so 01:35:36.720 --> 01:35:39.760 things are rough here, but it's just God and that's fine, we'll 01:35:39.760 --> 01:35:41.120 we'll all be good in the end. 01:35:41.120 --> 01:35:43.520 And that's just not the reality of it. 01:35:43.520 --> 01:35:48.960 Because there is also supernatural evil, and it is seeking to destroy 01:35:48.960 --> 01:35:54.640 you. Satan doesn't need you to be the most evil person possible. 01:35:54.640 --> 01:35:56.640 He doesn't care that much. 01:35:56.640 --> 01:36:00.800 He just needs you to give him that little opening where you 01:36:00.800 --> 01:36:05.440 doubt God, or you decide, well, things are rough, so I'll I'll 01:36:05.440 --> 01:36:06.960 try something else for a while. 01:36:06.960 --> 01:36:08.160 I'll leave God over here. 01:36:08.160 --> 01:36:09.520 Maybe I'll come back to it later. 01:36:09.520 --> 01:36:13.760 I'll try all these things the world has on this buffet for 01:36:13.760 --> 01:36:15.440 me. Maybe those are better. 01:36:15.440 --> 01:36:18.160 Satan just wants you to turn away from God. 01:36:19.280 --> 01:36:25.520 Because if you turn away from God, maybe you never turn back. 01:36:25.520 --> 01:36:29.040 You may not apostatize in the end, you may turn back to 01:36:29.040 --> 01:36:32.560 God. God may drag you back to Himself, but that may not 01:36:32.560 --> 01:36:36.960 happen because apostasy is a very real possibility. 01:36:36.960 --> 01:36:40.080 You don't lose your faith, as it were. 01:36:40.080 --> 01:36:44.400 You don't just somehow fall out of faith, but you can reject 01:36:44.400 --> 01:36:47.920 it. You can turn around and walk away from God. 01:36:47.920 --> 01:36:50.800 Scripture is abundantly clear on that point. 01:36:50.800 --> 01:36:54.880 We spoke of this at length in the apostasy episode, and we've 01:36:54.880 --> 01:36:57.280 also touched on the subject elsewhere. 01:36:57.280 --> 01:37:00.160 It's not once saved, always saved. 01:37:00.160 --> 01:37:03.920 It's not that just because you once believed you will certainly go 01:37:03.920 --> 01:37:07.280 to paradise, you will certainly persevere until the end. 01:37:07.280 --> 01:37:11.280 Those are not the terms in which Scripture speaks. 01:37:11.360 --> 01:37:16.080 There are very real things that drag people down in this life 01:37:16.080 --> 01:37:18.480 and cause them to apostatize. 01:37:18.480 --> 01:37:22.320 Which is why we are addressing this subject and why we address 01:37:22.320 --> 01:37:24.080 so many others. 01:37:24.080 --> 01:37:27.920 As a Christian, you need to build up your defenses against these 01:37:27.920 --> 01:37:33.600 things, so that when moments of temptation or trial come along, you 01:37:33.600 --> 01:37:37.040 have the tools at your disposal to respond to them as would 01:37:37.040 --> 01:37:37.920 a Christian. 01:37:37.920 --> 01:37:40.640 And so they don't cause you to fall away. 01:37:40.640 --> 01:37:44.880 You aren't the seed that fell on shallow ground, or among thorns. 01:37:44.880 --> 01:37:47.600 You're the one that fell in the good soil. 01:37:47.600 --> 01:37:49.760 You've cultivated that. 01:37:49.760 --> 01:37:54.080 And so you are ready for those trials when they come. 01:37:54.080 --> 01:37:58.880 Because Satan is going to try to destroy your faith. 01:37:58.880 --> 01:38:00.160 That is the reality. 01:38:00.160 --> 01:38:05.200 God has permitted Satan a certain length of leash. 01:38:05.200 --> 01:38:07.920 And he will use every bit of what he has been given 01:38:07.920 --> 01:38:11.440 to try to drag you away from God, to try to drag 01:38:11.440 --> 01:38:13.040 you away from the faith. 01:38:13.040 --> 01:38:17.280 If you just ignore him, if you pretend he doesn't exist, that 01:38:17.280 --> 01:38:20.160 is not going to prepare you when the trials come. 01:38:20.160 --> 01:38:23.120 We're not saying to focus on the demonic, because of course there 01:38:23.120 --> 01:38:26.720 are those who become obsessed with demons and demonology and all those 01:38:26.720 --> 01:38:30.880 things. That is a dark path, it will lead you nowhere good. 01:38:31.040 --> 01:38:34.960 Rather, what we are saying is that you have to recognize there 01:38:34.960 --> 01:38:38.880 is spiritual evil, there is supernatural evil. 01:38:38.880 --> 01:38:43.680 That is part of the Christian life, is recognizing that exists and 01:38:43.680 --> 01:38:48.640 being ready when those temptations come, when those trials come, when things 01:38:48.640 --> 01:38:49.760 go bad. 01:38:49.760 --> 01:38:52.640 Because bad things will happen in this life. 01:38:52.640 --> 01:38:55.760 It's always the cliche that bad things happen to good people. 01:38:55.760 --> 01:38:56.800 Why is that? 01:38:56.800 --> 01:38:58.080 We live in a fallen world. 01:38:58.080 --> 01:39:00.800 It's actually a very easy question to answer. 01:39:00.800 --> 01:39:04.400 Bad things happen to good people because one no one is good. 01:39:04.400 --> 01:39:05.680 All are fallen. 01:39:05.680 --> 01:39:09.440 All fall short of the glory of God, all are sinful, and 01:39:09.440 --> 01:39:11.280 we live in a fallen world. 01:39:11.280 --> 01:39:15.760 But again, we can take confidence in the fact that God has 01:39:15.760 --> 01:39:19.200 promised, and I feel like I'm obligated every time we speak on 01:39:19.200 --> 01:39:23.040 this or related subject to bring up my confirmation verse, but Romans 01:39:23.040 --> 01:39:26.560 eight is of course something that should always come to mind in 01:39:26.560 --> 01:39:28.240 these matters. 01:39:28.240 --> 01:39:31.520 Because of course we know that for those who love God all 01:39:31.520 --> 01:39:34.640 things work together for good, for those who are called according to 01:39:34.640 --> 01:39:36.880 his purpose. 01:39:36.880 --> 01:39:41.600 So even if evil comes, in God's providence He has ordained that 01:39:41.600 --> 01:39:44.640 it will work out for our good. 01:39:44.640 --> 01:39:47.920 But you have to recognize in this life 01:39:49.200 --> 01:39:51.280 Satan is a very real threat. 01:39:51.280 --> 01:39:53.840 We can turn, of course, to Scripture. 01:39:53.840 --> 01:39:57.040 So, for instance, John fourteen, I will no longer talk much with 01:39:57.040 --> 01:40:00.240 you, for the ruler of this world is coming, he has no 01:40:00.240 --> 01:40:03.520 power over me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, 01:40:03.520 --> 01:40:06.240 so that the world may know that I love the Father. 01:40:06.240 --> 01:40:08.640 Rise, let us be on our way. 01:40:08.640 --> 01:40:11.920 That is Christ speaking of Satan as the ruler of this world. 01:40:13.120 --> 01:40:15.200 Yes, Christ is on his throne. 01:40:15.200 --> 01:40:16.960 Yes, God is on his throne. 01:40:16.960 --> 01:40:19.520 He rules and controls all things. 01:40:19.520 --> 01:40:23.200 But he has permitted Satan to act as the ruler of this 01:40:23.200 --> 01:40:24.560 fallen world. 01:40:24.560 --> 01:40:27.120 And there are more children of Satan in this world than there 01:40:27.120 --> 01:40:28.640 are children of God. 01:40:28.640 --> 01:40:33.120 There are fewer believers than unbelievers in this world. 01:40:33.120 --> 01:40:35.200 That is just the way that things are. 01:40:35.200 --> 01:40:38.240 Perhaps it does not necessarily have to be that way. 01:40:38.240 --> 01:40:42.160 Perhaps we could have more believers if we had a more serious 01:40:42.160 --> 01:40:47.440 church that actually acted appropriately in the world to spread the word 01:40:47.520 --> 01:40:51.440 of God instead of constantly yielding to the culture, but that is 01:40:51.440 --> 01:40:54.240 a discussion for another time. 01:40:54.240 --> 01:40:57.040 And there were times in European history certainly where we had a 01:40:57.040 --> 01:41:00.320 majority of Christians in that particular society. 01:41:00.320 --> 01:41:04.880 But by and large, and certainly in today's world, the majority of 01:41:04.880 --> 01:41:08.480 human beings are wicked unbelievers. 01:41:08.480 --> 01:41:09.680 They are pagans. 01:41:09.680 --> 01:41:14.800 They are part of Satan's kingdom, not God's kingdom. 01:41:14.800 --> 01:41:19.760 And Scripture says that the children of Satan are more astute with 01:41:19.760 --> 01:41:22.320 regard to the things of this life, with regard to the things 01:41:22.320 --> 01:41:25.760 of this fallen world than are the children of God. 01:41:25.760 --> 01:41:28.720 We could get into that in greater depth in another episode, perhaps, 01:41:28.720 --> 01:41:31.360 but that is something that we Something that we as Christians must 01:41:31.360 --> 01:41:34.880 bear in mind. 01:41:34.880 --> 01:41:38.960 Just because we have the providence of God, just because we have 01:41:38.960 --> 01:41:42.080 these promises of God that things will work out for the good, 01:41:42.080 --> 01:41:46.080 does not mean that we can just sit and go, well, God's 01:41:46.080 --> 01:41:49.360 completely in control, I can just do nothing and wait for God 01:41:49.360 --> 01:41:50.720 to do everything for me. 01:41:50.720 --> 01:41:53.360 God has given us work to do. 01:41:53.360 --> 01:41:57.280 We are to work while there is sun, while the day lingers, 01:41:57.280 --> 01:42:00.000 because the night is coming. 01:42:00.000 --> 01:42:03.360 That is part of this life is working for the good. 01:42:03.360 --> 01:42:07.040 Yes, God provides, but you still have things to do. 01:42:07.040 --> 01:42:11.440 There's still work to be done for Christians in this life, and 01:42:11.440 --> 01:42:15.680 part of that is pushing back against the kingdom of Satan, pushing 01:42:15.680 --> 01:42:19.440 back against his children, pushing back against the wickedness that he would 01:42:19.440 --> 01:42:21.680 try to bring into the world, because he opposes 01:42:22.640 --> 01:42:26.000 God at every turn, that is all he exists to do. 01:42:26.000 --> 01:42:30.160 There is nothing good, nothing redeeming in him, it is only wickedness 01:42:30.240 --> 01:42:32.320 and spite and hate and malice. 01:42:32.320 --> 01:42:34.480 That is all Satan has. 01:42:34.480 --> 01:42:38.080 And he wants to drag everyone else down with him. 01:42:38.080 --> 01:42:42.800 And again, from 2 Corinthians, to emphasize the point, and even if 01:42:42.800 --> 01:42:46.320 our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 01:42:46.320 --> 01:42:48.720 in whom the God of this age has blinded the minds of 01:42:48.720 --> 01:42:52.480 the unbelieving, so they might not see the light of the gospel 01:42:52.560 --> 01:42:56.720 of the glory of Christ, which is the image of God. 01:42:57.280 --> 01:43:01.680 Satan here is spoken of as the God of this age These 01:43:01.680 --> 01:43:03.440 are not trivial matters. 01:43:03.440 --> 01:43:07.920 Satan is not some menstrual character that you just laugh at and 01:43:07.920 --> 01:43:08.880 he's comical. 01:43:08.880 --> 01:43:11.280 Now, of course, I'm not saying you can't mock Satan, that's one 01:43:11.280 --> 01:43:12.640 thing you most certainly can do. 01:43:12.640 --> 01:43:16.240 If you are very secure in your faith, feel free to mock 01:43:16.240 --> 01:43:18.160 Satan. He hates mockery. 01:43:18.160 --> 01:43:20.080 It's one thing he absolutely hates. 01:43:20.080 --> 01:43:23.920 Luther writes on this fairly extensively in a number of places, as 01:43:23.920 --> 01:43:26.160 of other theologians as well. 01:43:26.160 --> 01:43:29.760 He takes himself very seriously, so he hates to be mocked. 01:43:29.760 --> 01:43:32.560 And a Christian who is firm in his faith can take the 01:43:32.560 --> 01:43:35.040 liberty to mock Satan. 01:43:35.040 --> 01:43:37.440 Because Christ is already one. 01:43:37.440 --> 01:43:38.720 Our God is one. 01:43:38.720 --> 01:43:40.080 Satan is defeated. 01:43:40.080 --> 01:43:43.280 Yes, he lingers for a time in this life, he still has 01:43:43.280 --> 01:43:47.440 some power in this fallen world, but he is defeated and destined 01:43:47.440 --> 01:43:50.960 for an eternity of fire, along with all of his children. 01:43:50.960 --> 01:43:54.960 Both the angels who fell with him and the men who follow 01:43:54.960 --> 01:43:57.120 him in this life. 01:43:57.120 --> 01:44:02.800 I'll add one more section from scripture dealing with this important point, 01:44:02.800 --> 01:44:06.800 that Satan is the ruler of this world and then perhaps another 01:44:06.800 --> 01:44:11.760 section from scripture that is comforting, tangentially related, but comforting, as opposed 01:44:11.760 --> 01:44:13.920 to the idea of Satan being the ruler of the world is 01:44:13.920 --> 01:44:15.200 not particularly comforting. 01:44:15.200 --> 01:44:16.720 We can all admit that. 01:44:16.720 --> 01:44:19.280 But it is the reality, it is what Scripture says, and so 01:44:19.280 --> 01:44:22.880 we have to take that seriously, and so from John twelve. 01:44:22.880 --> 01:44:26.160 Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? 01:44:26.160 --> 01:44:28.240 Father save me from this hour. 01:44:28.240 --> 01:44:30.720 But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 01:44:30.720 --> 01:44:33.040 Father God Father, glorify your name. 01:44:33.040 --> 01:44:36.480 Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it, and I 01:44:36.480 --> 01:44:38.080 will glorify it again. 01:44:38.080 --> 01:44:40.240 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had 01:44:40.240 --> 01:44:43.760 thundered. Others said, An angel has spoken to him. 01:44:43.760 --> 01:44:48.160 Jesus answered, This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 01:44:48.160 --> 01:44:51.360 Now is the judgment of this world, now will the ruler of 01:44:51.360 --> 01:44:54.560 this world be cast out, and I, when I am lifted up 01:44:54.560 --> 01:44:57.440 from the earth, will draw all people to myself. 01:44:57.440 --> 01:45:00.240 He said this to show by what kind of death he was 01:45:00.240 --> 01:45:01.760 going to die. 01:45:01.760 --> 01:45:05.600 And so even though we see that Satan is, in a sense, 01:45:05.600 --> 01:45:08.560 the ruler of this world, he has been cast out of the 01:45:08.560 --> 01:45:10.080 heavenly places. 01:45:10.080 --> 01:45:13.040 He has been thrown out, he is no longer the accuser of 01:45:13.040 --> 01:45:17.040 the brethren, which we see, of course, in the book of Job. 01:45:17.040 --> 01:45:18.960 And so his power is diminished. 01:45:18.960 --> 01:45:20.960 His power is curtailed. 01:45:20.960 --> 01:45:24.160 It is circumscribed by God. 01:45:24.160 --> 01:45:27.120 There is only so much evil that He is permitted to do. 01:45:27.120 --> 01:45:29.040 And so we can take comfort in that. 01:45:29.040 --> 01:45:32.480 God is still absolutely in control. 01:45:32.480 --> 01:45:34.320 The devil is God's devil. 01:45:34.320 --> 01:45:38.480 He can do only what God permits him to do. 01:45:38.480 --> 01:45:42.080 But of course, we can also read from John 16 where there 01:45:42.080 --> 01:45:46.240 is comfort with regard to this life for Christians. 01:45:46.240 --> 01:45:49.520 I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I 01:45:49.520 --> 01:45:52.880 go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will 01:45:52.880 --> 01:45:55.840 not come to you, but if I go, I will send him 01:45:55.840 --> 01:45:59.760 to you, and when he comes he will convict the world concerning 01:45:59.760 --> 01:46:04.000 sin and righteousness and judgment And judgment, concerning sin, because they do 01:46:04.000 --> 01:46:08.400 not believe in me, concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, 01:46:08.400 --> 01:46:12.400 and you will see me no longer, concerning judgment, because the ruler 01:46:12.400 --> 01:46:15.120 of this world is judged. 01:46:15.120 --> 01:46:20.000 Satan is judged, he is damned, he is condemned. 01:46:20.000 --> 01:46:22.640 But here we see comfort for the Christian because of course the 01:46:22.640 --> 01:46:24.960 helper is the Holy Spirit. 01:46:24.960 --> 01:46:28.960 God has sent the Holy Spirit into the hearts of believers. 01:46:29.200 --> 01:46:32.720 And so we have that security, we have that promise 01:46:33.600 --> 01:46:37.040 of our faith, of what our faith will do for us, not 01:46:37.040 --> 01:46:40.800 just in this life, but in eternity, because that is ultimately, of 01:46:40.800 --> 01:46:44.640 course, the goal in this life is to reach the next life, 01:46:44.640 --> 01:46:49.200 is to persevere, is to run the race successfully, in order to 01:46:49.200 --> 01:46:51.280 reach paradise. 01:46:51.280 --> 01:46:53.440 And that is what we see here, that is the promise of 01:46:53.440 --> 01:46:56.080 God with regard to the Holy Spirit. 01:46:56.080 --> 01:46:58.000 The indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 01:46:58.000 --> 01:47:00.560 And again, this is why you need to read scripture and pray. 01:47:00.560 --> 01:47:04.080 This is how you build this sort of feedback loop, a very 01:47:04.080 --> 01:47:05.680 positive feedback loop. 01:47:06.320 --> 01:47:11.520 The Holy Spirit's indwelling is not just what makes us Christians, but 01:47:11.520 --> 01:47:13.520 what makes us better Christians. 01:47:13.520 --> 01:47:18.000 This is the process of sanctification, and it also guards us against 01:47:18.000 --> 01:47:19.680 the evil one. 01:47:19.760 --> 01:47:23.440 If you are an unbeliever and you do not have the Holy 01:47:23.440 --> 01:47:26.640 Spirit dwelling in you, you may as well have a welcome mat 01:47:26.800 --> 01:47:31.440 laid out for Satan, because there's nothing else in there. 01:47:31.440 --> 01:47:38.560 Demonic possession was an enormous part of Christ's ministry here on earth. 01:47:38.560 --> 01:47:41.920 Casting out demons was a huge part of what he did. 01:47:41.920 --> 01:47:45.680 And the disciples, the apostles did that as well. 01:47:45.680 --> 01:47:50.000 For many centuries, we sort of neglected that matter. 01:47:50.000 --> 01:47:53.200 In Europe, of course, in Christendom it was less of a problem 01:47:53.280 --> 01:47:56.000 because you had a pervasive Christian culture. 01:47:56.000 --> 01:47:59.920 But we have by and large, particularly in the modern era, given 01:48:00.400 --> 01:48:03.680 up on the idea that demonic possession is even a thing. 01:48:03.680 --> 01:48:05.920 We don't really take the demonic seriously. 01:48:05.920 --> 01:48:11.120 We don't take demons seriously, not in the sense of giving them 01:48:11.280 --> 01:48:14.160 honor or respect or anything, but in the sense of realizing that 01:48:14.560 --> 01:48:18.640 they are a real, a siente, and a significant threat. 01:48:18.640 --> 01:48:23.040 Demonic possession is a very real thing, and there are demon possessed 01:48:23.040 --> 01:48:25.600 men walking around today. 01:48:25.600 --> 01:48:29.600 Likely more and more of them, as our culture, as our civilization, 01:48:29.600 --> 01:48:34.640 as our world continues its downward trend into greater and deeper apostasy 01:48:34.720 --> 01:48:38.080 and paganism and wickedness. 01:48:37.920 --> 01:48:41.920 And so as Christians we have to recognize the demonic is real. 01:48:41.920 --> 01:48:47.040 You may very well deal with demoniacs in your life. 01:48:47.040 --> 01:48:51.360 God may not have given you the gift of discernment in order 01:48:51.360 --> 01:48:55.280 to tell which individuals are or not. 01:48:55.280 --> 01:48:57.840 You may have that, you may not. 01:48:57.840 --> 01:49:00.640 But you have to recognize that it is a very real thing, 01:49:00.640 --> 01:49:02.560 that it is a possibility. 01:49:02.560 --> 01:49:06.640 There's a reason that you see exorcisms in the New Testament. 01:49:06.640 --> 01:49:10.000 There's a reason the churches used to perform exorcisms. 01:49:10.000 --> 01:49:12.240 We used to do house blessings and all sorts of other things 01:49:12.240 --> 01:49:13.040 as well. 01:49:13.040 --> 01:49:16.640 Because we took these matters more seriously, and we should take them 01:49:16.640 --> 01:49:18.160 seriously again. 01:49:18.160 --> 01:49:23.040 There is a very real spiritual war going on. 01:49:23.040 --> 01:49:28.160 And when it comes to spiritual warfare, we as Christians need to 01:49:28.160 --> 01:49:29.200 be wiser. 01:49:29.200 --> 01:49:33.840 We have a lot of fools running around, proclaiming themselves Christian, who 01:49:33.840 --> 01:49:37.840 have no idea how to pursue this, how to fight these battles, 01:49:37.840 --> 01:49:40.560 how to win this war, or at the very least how to 01:49:40.560 --> 01:49:42.320 prosecute this war. 01:49:42.320 --> 01:49:47.920 And so you'll see completely ridiculous responses to things. 01:49:47.920 --> 01:49:54.560 If someone stands up and says something that supports Christianity, that supports 01:49:54.560 --> 01:49:56.560 the Christian worldview. 01:49:56.560 --> 01:49:58.800 You do not immediately attack him. 01:49:58.800 --> 01:50:01.600 Whether or not that man is perfect, and of course he won't 01:50:01.520 --> 01:50:04.640 be because no man is perfect, even if he is a wicked 01:50:04.640 --> 01:50:09.840 man, if he stands up and supports Christianity, you amplify the positive 01:50:09.840 --> 01:50:11.040 that he has said. 01:50:11.040 --> 01:50:15.280 You don't take the opportunity to attack him and tear down 01:50:16.160 --> 01:50:17.360 what could be. 01:50:17.360 --> 01:50:19.840 You're destroying a possibility. 01:50:19.840 --> 01:50:23.520 This is sort of the inverse of you do not interrupt your 01:50:23.520 --> 01:50:26.800 enemy when he's making a mistake. 01:50:26.800 --> 01:50:31.440 If someone is doing something that is beneficial to the Christian side, 01:50:31.440 --> 01:50:32.880 let him do so. 01:50:32.880 --> 01:50:35.920 Amplify in so far as it's positive. 01:50:35.920 --> 01:50:40.400 There is no benefit, and there is only detriment to tearing down 01:50:40.400 --> 01:50:44.560 what could be very constructive, what could be a very productive change, 01:50:44.560 --> 01:50:46.800 a turn for the better. 01:50:47.120 --> 01:50:50.640 And unfortunately we see many Christians making the wrong choices with regard 01:50:50.640 --> 01:50:54.480 to this, because it seems like most Christians these days are very 01:50:54.480 --> 01:50:59.120 bad at dealing with what is not necessarily political, but very similar 01:50:59.120 --> 01:51:00.720 to it. 01:51:00.720 --> 01:51:04.480 If you don't know how to navigate these matters, if you don't 01:51:04.400 --> 01:51:07.840 know how to respond to something like this where a wicked man 01:51:07.840 --> 01:51:12.160 says something good, or even a man who's just perhaps it more 01:51:12.160 --> 01:51:16.880 neutral than wicked, the whole church hold your tongue. 01:51:16.880 --> 01:51:20.320 You are able to simply not comment. 01:51:20.320 --> 01:51:24.000 I know that our modern world incentivizes men to comment on each 01:51:24.000 --> 01:51:28.480 and everything that passes by their eyes, but sometimes let it pass 01:51:28.480 --> 01:51:33.120 by. If you do not have reason to comment, if you don't 01:51:33.040 --> 01:51:36.240 have something constructive to add as it were, if you don't know 01:51:36.240 --> 01:51:39.760 how to respond in an intelligent and a useful way, just hold 01:51:39.760 --> 01:51:40.240 your tongue. 01:51:40.240 --> 01:51:44.800 There's nothing wrong with holding your tongue in these circumstances. 01:51:44.800 --> 01:51:50.560 Sometimes it is the duty of a foot soldier to stand there. 01:51:50.560 --> 01:51:52.480 Just stand there. 01:51:52.480 --> 01:51:54.960 Not necessarily, do anything. 01:51:54.960 --> 01:51:57.280 Maybe you don't have orders at the moment. 01:51:57.280 --> 01:52:00.640 Just stand there and don't do anything harmful. 01:52:00.640 --> 01:52:04.720 We need more Christian men to recognize that sometimes that is the 01:52:04.720 --> 01:52:06.960 best course of action. 01:52:07.280 --> 01:52:10.960 Part of the inspiration for us doing this episode this week was 01:52:10.960 --> 01:52:16.000 a comment from Elon just a couple days ago that as of 01:52:16.000 --> 01:52:19.920 a couple hours ago had over 114 million views. 01:52:20.000 --> 01:52:23.200 Over 100 million people saw Elon say this. 01:52:23.200 --> 01:52:26.240 Unless there is more bravery to stand up for what is fair 01:52:26.240 --> 01:52:30.560 and right, Christianity will perish. 01:52:30.560 --> 01:52:35.680 This set off a whole bunch of putative Christians on the internet. 01:52:35.680 --> 01:52:40.880 They were just outraged at the stupidity of the notion that Christianity 01:52:40.880 --> 01:52:44.560 could perish because of course they know better, because it says that 01:52:44.560 --> 01:52:45.360 somewhere in the Bible. 01:52:46.240 --> 01:52:50.640 And so when a man like Elon, who when he was tweeting 01:52:50.640 --> 01:52:56.240 this, is wearing a Halloween costume that has buffomet on it, it's 01:52:56.240 --> 01:52:57.440 it's a horned goat. 01:52:57.440 --> 01:53:01.280 It is a satanic symbol on his chest as he's saying unless 01:53:01.280 --> 01:53:03.600 there is more bravery to stand up for what is fair and 01:53:03.600 --> 01:53:05.680 right, Christianity will perish. 01:53:05.680 --> 01:53:07.440 And this was a lament. 01:53:07.440 --> 01:53:09.920 He wasn't happy about this, he wasn't celebrating. 01:53:09.920 --> 01:53:12.480 He is seeing the world burning down. 01:53:12.480 --> 01:53:18.640 And in his pagan, imperfect way, he's trying to figure out what's 01:53:18.640 --> 01:53:19.440 going on. 01:53:19.440 --> 01:53:20.880 He's a very smart guy. 01:53:20.880 --> 01:53:23.920 He has not nearly enough good influences in his life. 01:53:23.920 --> 01:53:26.560 So the best he can do is to say, I think maybe 01:53:26.560 --> 01:53:29.600 Christianity is a better version than this. 01:53:29.600 --> 01:53:32.160 But of course he doesn't understand what Christianity is. 01:53:32.160 --> 01:53:32.640 And so 01:53:33.760 --> 01:53:37.200 the thing that incensed me when this happened a couple days ago 01:53:37.360 --> 01:53:40.160 is that a whole bunch of people who call themselves Christians did 01:53:40.160 --> 01:53:42.720 the exact opposite of what Corey just said. 01:53:42.720 --> 01:53:46.320 When he said Christianity will perish, implying to over a hundred million 01:53:46.320 --> 01:53:49.680 people, that's a bad thing, something that Something that you know not 01:53:49.680 --> 01:53:52.160 a lot of people are saying that in the world today. 01:53:52.160 --> 01:53:54.160 He thought it was a bad thing, and he's not even a 01:53:54.160 --> 01:53:58.480 Christian. A whole bunch of so-called Christians mocked him and said Christianity 01:53:58.480 --> 01:53:59.760 will never go anywhere. 01:53:59.760 --> 01:54:02.320 You know, God's going to preserve it no matter what. 01:54:02.320 --> 01:54:07.760 The impetus for this episode is the that begs the question that 01:54:08.000 --> 01:54:13.200 there can be Christianity without Christians, which is not the case. 01:54:13.200 --> 01:54:16.720 If there are no more Christians, there is no more Christianity as 01:54:16.720 --> 01:54:17.680 a faith. 01:54:17.680 --> 01:54:20.560 They might be sitting in a book on a shelf somewhere, and 01:54:20.560 --> 01:54:23.600 certainly the faith is eternal and true, but if there's no one 01:54:23.600 --> 01:54:27.600 to who believes it, who has the Holy Spirit to propagate it? 01:54:27.600 --> 01:54:30.720 Yes, that is an absolutely true statement. 01:54:30.720 --> 01:54:34.800 And even though God promises the opposite in places in Scripture, he 01:54:34.800 --> 01:54:38.720 doesn't promise it in the sense that the mockers were describing. 01:54:38.720 --> 01:54:41.760 He promises it in a sense that calls for us to be 01:54:41.760 --> 01:54:44.880 the salt and light of the earth, to be the men who 01:54:44.880 --> 01:54:48.400 show up, to say, yes, Christianity is here and here's what it 01:54:48.400 --> 01:54:49.840 actually means. 01:54:49.840 --> 01:54:53.200 And so someone responded to him and said to Elon, if you're 01:54:53.120 --> 01:54:56.400 going into your born again era, we're so here for it. 01:54:56.400 --> 01:55:00.640 And Elon replied to him and said, I believe in the principles 01:55:00.640 --> 01:55:05.600 of Christianity, like love thy neighbors, thyself, in in parentheses he summarized, 01:55:05.600 --> 01:55:10.080 have empathy for all, and turn the other cheek, any parentheses, he 01:55:10.080 --> 01:55:12.960 said, and the cycle of retribution. 01:55:12.960 --> 01:55:16.400 And so called Christians doubled down on attacking him. 01:55:16.400 --> 01:55:19.360 He said two things that were very clear expressions of part of 01:55:19.360 --> 01:55:24.000 the Christian faith, and they were howling in rage at the idea 01:55:24.000 --> 01:55:28.000 that this wasn't a complete creedal statement that had every possible way 01:55:28.000 --> 01:55:29.680 of describing the Christian faith. 01:55:29.680 --> 01:55:32.800 Now, what blew me away is that some of the very same 01:55:33.120 --> 01:55:36.240 vipers who have said that Corey and I are not and cannot 01:55:36.240 --> 01:55:39.840 be Christian because we do not love our neighbors as ourselves and 01:55:39.840 --> 01:55:42.880 because we don't turn the other cheek, both of which are false 01:55:42.880 --> 01:55:46.880 accusations. But the same people who are mocking him for saying that 01:55:46.880 --> 01:55:49.920 that was Christianity say that Cory and I are not Christian because 01:55:49.920 --> 01:55:51.600 we fail those tests. 01:55:51.600 --> 01:55:56.240 So just as a minor illustration, it's an any stool in a 01:55:56.240 --> 01:55:58.400 bar fight when you're dealing with Satan. 01:55:58.400 --> 01:56:01.360 He will tell any lie because all he cares about is doing 01:56:01.360 --> 01:56:04.560 damage. And this is why proof texting is so monstrous. 01:56:04.560 --> 01:56:06.080 It's demonic. 01:56:06.080 --> 01:56:10.160 Because the passage in scripture no longer has anything to do with 01:56:10.160 --> 01:56:11.760 what God intended it to say. 01:56:11.760 --> 01:56:14.560 It's just how can I do damage to the enemy I've already 01:56:14.560 --> 01:56:16.320 determined I want to kill? 01:56:16.320 --> 01:56:21.360 And so when Elon correctly summarized portions of the Christian faith, rather 01:56:21.360 --> 01:56:26.160 than agreeing and amplifying and saying, Yes, you're absolutely correct, Christianity is 01:56:26.160 --> 01:56:28.240 worth fighting for and preserving. 01:56:28.240 --> 01:56:31.040 A bunch of people who are not Christians, despite the fact that 01:56:31.040 --> 01:56:35.360 they attend churches and they call themselves Christians, they denounced a man 01:56:35.360 --> 01:56:36.960 whose support we need. 01:56:36.960 --> 01:56:39.440 We need someone like Elon to become a Christian. 01:56:39.760 --> 01:56:42.640 We don't need in the sense that we're lost without him, but 01:56:42.640 --> 01:56:46.320 imagine the sort of movement that would begin if men like him 01:56:46.320 --> 01:56:47.360 were converting. 01:56:47.360 --> 01:56:51.200 If guys like Rogan and Elon, who are not Christian, who desperately 01:56:51.200 --> 01:56:55.360 need the gospel as much as anyone and more than most, the 01:56:55.360 --> 01:56:58.240 simple fact is that we don't have kings anymore. 01:56:58.240 --> 01:57:01.840 We don't have someone who will convert an entire nation because he 01:57:01.840 --> 01:57:03.200 rules He rules over it. 01:57:03.200 --> 01:57:06.240 But we do have guys like Elon and Rogan that hundreds of 01:57:06.240 --> 01:57:09.600 millions of people look to as examples, for better or worse, usually 01:57:09.600 --> 01:57:10.400 for worse. 01:57:10.400 --> 01:57:12.960 If such men were to convert, you know what happened? 01:57:12.960 --> 01:57:14.800 A whole bunch of people will become Christian. 01:57:14.800 --> 01:57:17.040 They wouldn't know why, but they would know that the guy that 01:57:17.040 --> 01:57:19.680 they like and respect did it and they would follow suit. 01:57:19.680 --> 01:57:20.800 And guess what? 01:57:20.800 --> 01:57:23.120 That's enough. 01:57:23.120 --> 01:57:27.840 Christianity is about believing what God says and obeying him, is about 01:57:27.840 --> 01:57:29.680 receiving the faith that makes that possible 01:57:30.560 --> 01:57:34.160 Again, not that we save ourselves, but when we believe God, when 01:57:34.160 --> 01:57:37.920 we receive the gift of faith, which makes it even possible in 01:57:37.920 --> 01:57:42.480 the first place to believe, then God gives us everything else. 01:57:42.480 --> 01:57:44.800 And these men are crying out for it. 01:57:45.200 --> 01:57:47.200 Elon's crying out for Christianity. 01:57:47.200 --> 01:57:50.080 He doesn't quite realize it, but that's exactly what that was. 01:57:50.080 --> 01:57:52.320 He says Christianity is worth fighting for. 01:57:52.320 --> 01:57:55.440 And Andrew Tate said effectively the same thing. 01:57:55.440 --> 01:57:57.920 He was out in the streets, I think in Romania, saying, I'm 01:57:57.920 --> 01:58:01.680 a Muslim, and I'm still disgusted with what happened at the Olympics. 01:58:01.680 --> 01:58:06.240 You people, you Christians, should not be letting your God be blasphemed 01:58:06.240 --> 01:58:07.520 in this fashion. 01:58:07.520 --> 01:58:10.880 If a god can be blasphemed like that and the believers in 01:58:10.880 --> 01:58:14.400 that god just shrug, they're not believers at all. 01:58:14.400 --> 01:58:18.400 And it doesn't imply that you go to war physically necessarily, but 01:58:18.400 --> 01:58:21.920 it does necessarily mean that you can't just say, eh, whatever, Christianity 01:58:22.080 --> 01:58:24.080 will survive this blasphemy. 01:58:24.080 --> 01:58:26.720 You don't find that anywhere in scripture. 01:58:26.720 --> 01:58:32.160 The reason that we're focusing today on God's action in our lives 01:58:32.240 --> 01:58:37.120 in secondarily on the action of Satan of demons in the world 01:58:37.280 --> 01:58:43.120 and in actual manifest appreciable ways is that there are prophecies in 01:58:43.120 --> 01:58:45.760 scripture of end times that if you don't believe all the other 01:58:45.760 --> 01:58:48.560 things that we just said, you're not going to believe these things 01:58:48.640 --> 01:58:51.200 if we see them in our lifetimes. 01:58:51.200 --> 01:58:54.560 In Revelation 20, it touches on something that Corey said a few 01:58:54.560 --> 01:58:55.920 minutes ago. 01:58:55.920 --> 01:58:58.640 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his 01:58:58.640 --> 01:59:01.760 hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain, and 01:59:01.760 --> 01:59:05.040 he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and 01:59:05.040 --> 01:59:08.560 Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into 01:59:08.560 --> 01:59:11.360 the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that 01:59:11.360 --> 01:59:15.360 he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years 01:59:15.360 --> 01:59:16.240 were ended. 01:59:16.240 --> 01:59:19.680 After that he must be released for a little while. 01:59:19.680 --> 01:59:20.960 This is a prophecy. 01:59:20.960 --> 01:59:23.760 This was a future prophecy when it was written, saying that what 01:59:23.840 --> 01:59:25.280 Corey just said was absolutely true. 01:59:25.280 --> 01:59:26.480 Satan was bound. 01:59:26.480 --> 01:59:29.680 He was cast down from heaven the moment that Christ died on 01:59:29.680 --> 01:59:30.400 the cross. 01:59:30.400 --> 01:59:34.480 When he said it was finished, Satan fell like a lightning bolt 01:59:34.480 --> 01:59:35.120 from heaven. 01:59:35.120 --> 01:59:37.600 He was cast down out of the divine council and he was 01:59:37.600 --> 01:59:38.880 chained in hell. 01:59:38.880 --> 01:59:42.000 And the church age expanded for two thousand years. 01:59:42.000 --> 01:59:44.080 And at some point that is going to end. 01:59:44.080 --> 01:59:47.600 This prophecy is saying that that is going to end. 01:59:47.600 --> 01:59:51.120 And see the mockers who said that Elon was a fool for 01:59:51.120 --> 01:59:54.560 saying that unless there's more bravery to stand up for what is 01:59:54.560 --> 01:59:57.200 fair and right, Christianity will perish. 01:59:57.200 --> 02:00:01.600 This prophecy is part of saying that Elon's not entirely wrong. 02:00:01.600 --> 02:00:05.120 The church age will at some point come to an end, and 02:00:05.120 --> 02:00:06.960 Satan will be released. 02:00:06.960 --> 02:00:10.960 Now, it's my personal belief, and it's much more of a direct 02:00:10.960 --> 02:00:14.080 belief. I might be wrong, but it's nothing like the thing I 02:00:14.080 --> 02:00:15.520 said about angels earlier. 02:00:15.520 --> 02:00:18.160 I believe that we are in the period when Satan has been 02:00:18.160 --> 02:00:21.600 unleashed. I believe that he is let off the chain in hell 02:00:21.680 --> 02:00:24.880 and that he is actively doing things that he was not permitted 02:00:24.880 --> 02:00:26.400 to do for thousands of years. 02:00:26.400 --> 02:00:29.040 And I defy anyone to look at what we see in the 02:00:29.040 --> 02:00:31.520 world and say, no, that can't be true. 02:00:31.520 --> 02:00:32.480 Can I prove it? 02:00:32.480 --> 02:00:33.520 No, absolutely not. 02:00:33.520 --> 02:00:37.600 But if that were the case, if Satan had been loosed from 02:00:37.600 --> 02:00:41.360 his chains in hell and permitted to again deceive the nations as 02:00:41.360 --> 02:00:44.720 God prevented during the church age, would it look any differently than 02:00:44.720 --> 02:00:45.920 it does right now? 02:00:45.920 --> 02:00:47.920 I don't see how it could be any worse. 02:00:47.920 --> 02:00:50.160 It's obviously getting worse every day. 02:00:50.160 --> 02:00:55.120 There's obviously a dark energy that's being poured into the arc of 02:00:55.120 --> 02:00:59.760 history in our lifetimes, in this century, in this decade, in this 02:00:59.760 --> 02:01:00.880 year, this week 02:01:01.840 --> 02:01:05.440 we are seeing a dark energy that we can measure we can 02:01:05.440 --> 02:01:09.360 calculate its presence but we cannot pinpoint it unless we look at 02:01:09.360 --> 02:01:11.040 the supernatural. 02:01:11.040 --> 02:01:15.120 So it's possible that I'm wrong, but I really don't think so. 02:01:15.120 --> 02:01:18.080 You know, and like I said, if I'm wrong and it's gonna 02:01:18.080 --> 02:01:21.280 get a whole lot worse than this on an exponential scale at 02:01:21.280 --> 02:01:25.920 some future point, Lord have mercy truly on those who see those 02:01:25.920 --> 02:01:31.520 days. Because what we are seeing, what we are witnessing, is a 02:01:31.520 --> 02:01:34.320 falling away in the church where most of the people, you know, 02:01:34.320 --> 02:01:38.000 we did a five-part series at the beginning of this year talking 02:01:38.000 --> 02:01:40.640 about all the ways in which the current church, all the people 02:01:40.640 --> 02:01:44.400 who say they're Christians, are actually actively apostatizing. 02:01:44.400 --> 02:01:46.480 And then we see this sort of stuff. 02:01:46.480 --> 02:01:48.960 This is a spiritual battle. 02:01:48.960 --> 02:01:50.800 It's not just political. 02:01:50.800 --> 02:01:54.400 It's not just, well, Christianity is the solution to this, and these 02:01:54.400 --> 02:01:55.600 people need the gospel. 02:01:55.600 --> 02:01:56.720 Yeah, that's true. 02:01:56.720 --> 02:01:58.800 But this is a spiritual war. 02:01:58.800 --> 02:02:01.760 And they are not coming to talk things over. 02:02:02.000 --> 02:02:03.520 They're coming to kill us. 02:02:03.520 --> 02:02:07.520 And worldwide, we see Christians being slaughtered, we see them being persecuted, 02:02:07.520 --> 02:02:12.000 we see them being arrested, we see them being harmed and hounded 02:02:12.080 --> 02:02:14.880 and despised at every turn. 02:02:15.120 --> 02:02:19.040 If that's not Satan unleashed, then God preserve us if that does 02:02:19.040 --> 02:02:20.640 happen in our lifetimes. 02:02:20.640 --> 02:02:23.280 Because if it's going to be that much worse than this, I 02:02:23.280 --> 02:02:26.480 don't know what that could possibly look like. 02:02:26.480 --> 02:02:29.360 Here's another passage that I want to end with before we end 02:02:29.360 --> 02:02:31.360 on a happier note. 02:02:31.360 --> 02:02:35.680 But this is another prophecy in Matthew 24 that clearly has not 02:02:35.680 --> 02:02:37.520 been fulfilled entirely yet. 02:02:37.600 --> 02:02:40.240 I'm not gonna get into the fulfillment of prophecy thing again this 02:02:40.240 --> 02:02:43.040 time, but those of you who are full preterist, I'm sorry, you're 02:02:43.040 --> 02:02:44.640 just completely full of it. 02:02:44.640 --> 02:02:47.360 There's no possible way to read passages like this and believe that 02:02:47.360 --> 02:02:50.240 they've been completely fulfilled. 02:02:50.240 --> 02:02:54.800 Jesus says, so when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of 02:02:54.800 --> 02:02:58.240 by the Prophet Daniel standing in the holy place, let the reader 02:02:58.240 --> 02:03:01.920 understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, 02:03:01.920 --> 02:03:04.160 let the one who is on the house top not go down 02:03:04.160 --> 02:03:06.720 to take what is in his house, and let the one who 02:03:06.720 --> 02:03:09.520 is in the field not turn back to take his cloak, and 02:03:09.520 --> 02:03:12.160 last for the women who are pregnant, and for those who are 02:03:12.160 --> 02:03:13.920 nursing infants in those days. 02:03:13.920 --> 02:03:16.400 Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a 02:03:16.400 --> 02:03:19.920 Sabbath, for then there will be great tribulation such as not been 02:03:19.920 --> 02:03:23.840 seen from the beginning of the world until now, no and never 02:03:23.840 --> 02:03:24.640 will be. 02:03:24.640 --> 02:03:28.640 And if those days had not been cut short, no human would 02:03:28.640 --> 02:03:31.440 be saved, but for the sake of the elect, those days will 02:03:31.440 --> 02:03:33.600 be cut short. 02:03:33.600 --> 02:03:38.560 So again, this passage directly refutes the mockery of Elon, who says 02:03:38.560 --> 02:03:40.480 that Christianity could perish. 02:03:40.480 --> 02:03:46.320 Matthew 24, Jesus says Christianity would perish if I did not supernaturally 02:03:46.320 --> 02:03:49.520 intervene and end creation. 02:03:49.520 --> 02:03:52.400 This is a prophecy from God that things will get so bad 02:03:52.400 --> 02:03:55.280 that all of the elect would fall away and cease to be 02:03:55.280 --> 02:04:00.320 Christian, every last one of us, me, Cory, everyone who's listening, would 02:04:00.320 --> 02:04:05.760 apostatize because that's how bad things are going to get, unless, through 02:04:05.760 --> 02:04:08.000 God's mercy, he ends things. 02:04:08.000 --> 02:04:10.400 So I don't know when that's gonna be. 02:04:10.400 --> 02:04:12.240 It seems like we're headed that way. 02:04:12.240 --> 02:04:13.840 Will we see it in our lifetimes? 02:04:13.840 --> 02:04:15.920 We're gonna find out one way or another. 02:04:15.920 --> 02:04:19.280 I'm not gonna make a prediction, but I think that the crucial 02:04:19.280 --> 02:04:23.040 thing is we have to take seriously that these things are real. 02:04:23.040 --> 02:04:26.080 Whether they're real today or they're real next year or next decade 02:04:26.160 --> 02:04:29.920 or next century, they will come true, they will be fulfilled. 02:04:29.920 --> 02:04:31.760 These are prophecies from God. 02:04:31.760 --> 02:04:35.120 And so when he says these things, he said they're actually going 02:04:35.120 --> 02:04:40.720 to be physical, material manifestations of evil such that even the elect 02:04:40.720 --> 02:04:41.840 would fall away. 02:04:41.840 --> 02:04:45.760 And then we have people calling themselves Christians scoffing when a pagan 02:04:45.760 --> 02:04:48.400 like Elon, who's wearing Satan on his chest when he says it 02:04:48.480 --> 02:04:52.240 says Christianity's gonna perish, and that's a bad thing. 02:04:52.240 --> 02:04:54.560 We're in deep trouble. 02:04:54.560 --> 02:04:59.040 And unless we get back to taking seriously the fact that there's 02:04:59.040 --> 02:05:02.720 both a spiritual and a material, and that they work together in 02:05:02.720 --> 02:05:08.560 ways according to God's perfect design when these things do occur, whether 02:05:08.560 --> 02:05:11.680 it's in the present or in the future, when they occur, not 02:05:11.680 --> 02:05:13.040 if, when. 02:05:13.040 --> 02:05:16.080 If we have people mocking and scoffing and saying that will never 02:05:16.080 --> 02:05:20.000 happen, that is itself proof that it is in fact happening. 02:05:20.000 --> 02:05:23.040 You cannot say no, there will never be any sort of apostasy 02:05:23.280 --> 02:05:26.960 when God Himself says the apostasy will come and everyone will fall 02:05:26.960 --> 02:05:30.000 away if I don't end it, if I don't end the suffering 02:05:30.160 --> 02:05:33.360 and the horror of those days. 02:05:33.360 --> 02:05:37.600 The reason for talking about these things and armoring people's minds and 02:05:37.600 --> 02:05:40.800 their souls is that should those days come upon us, or should 02:05:41.120 --> 02:05:44.960 they be a thousand years from now, whenever those days come, Christians 02:05:44.960 --> 02:05:49.760 in those days must be prepared to take these prophecies seriously, to 02:05:49.760 --> 02:05:53.760 take God seriously, to take God as seriously as Job did, that 02:05:53.760 --> 02:05:57.120 when the worst thing befell him, he said The Lord giveth, and 02:05:57.120 --> 02:06:00.080 the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. 02:06:00.080 --> 02:06:02.640 He didn't cry about Satan. 02:06:02.640 --> 02:06:04.400 He didn't say it was unfair. 02:06:04.400 --> 02:06:07.760 He said God is still in charge, no matter how bad it 02:06:07.760 --> 02:06:11.760 gets. God promises it's gonna get so bad that even Job would 02:06:11.760 --> 02:06:16.960 have lost his faith in those circumstances, in future circumstances. 02:06:16.960 --> 02:06:20.400 And so when we see people like Elon crying out for Christianity 02:06:20.400 --> 02:06:21.280 without realizing it 02:06:22.160 --> 02:06:25.360 The last thing any Christian should be doing is mocking him. 02:06:25.360 --> 02:06:28.560 We should recognize that what we see at the Olympics, what we 02:06:28.560 --> 02:06:31.680 see in all these other places in these days, where people who 02:06:31.680 --> 02:06:35.520 are not Christian are saying, hey, Christianity's under attack, and that's bad 02:06:35.520 --> 02:06:39.680 news. When the unbeliever is saying that, and the believers so-called are 02:06:39.680 --> 02:06:43.760 mocking and scoffing, the apostasy is among us. 02:06:44.160 --> 02:06:47.520 Job was one of the books that we could have just read, 02:06:47.520 --> 02:06:52.720 large chunks of it for this episode, and it would have reinforced 02:06:52.720 --> 02:06:58.400 again and again the idea of God's providence, of God's active influence 02:06:58.640 --> 02:07:03.680 involvement in creation, that he is not the watchmaker who wound up 02:07:03.680 --> 02:07:06.000 the universe and walked away. 02:07:06.000 --> 02:07:11.200 Rather, he is both transcendent and imminent. 02:07:11.200 --> 02:07:16.720 He is involved intimately in his creation. 02:07:16.720 --> 02:07:20.880 But in addition to Job, we could also have read basically the 02:07:20.880 --> 02:07:22.960 entirety of the book of Psalms. 02:07:22.960 --> 02:07:25.200 Yes, there are some Psalms that do not deal with 02:07:26.320 --> 02:07:29.760 Providence, but many of them do. 02:07:29.760 --> 02:07:34.720 And so we will end this episode with one psalm in particular, 02:07:34.720 --> 02:07:36.560 Psalm 104. 02:07:36.560 --> 02:07:40.000 But before we get to that psalm, I just want to make 02:07:40.000 --> 02:07:46.640 one last comment with regard to how some Christians today incorrectly view 02:07:46.880 --> 02:07:52.640 the world and the ongoing battle between good and evil. 02:07:52.640 --> 02:07:57.120 What we have happening with regard to some in the church when 02:07:57.120 --> 02:08:00.480 they abandon the field, because that is the reality of what they're 02:08:00.480 --> 02:08:04.320 doing, when they simply look to the next life and say that, 02:08:04.320 --> 02:08:08.000 well, what happens in this life doesn't matter. 02:08:08.000 --> 02:08:10.160 They're denying the flesh. 02:08:10.160 --> 02:08:16.160 They're denying the reality of our physical created nature, because man is 02:08:16.160 --> 02:08:19.440 not just spirit and man is not just body. 02:08:19.440 --> 02:08:23.360 You are more than either of those. 02:08:23.360 --> 02:08:26.480 And the sum of them is greater, as we've mentioned before it's 02:08:26.400 --> 02:08:27.840 a gestalt. 02:08:27.840 --> 02:08:32.560 The sum of the parts is greater than the parts themselves. 02:08:32.560 --> 02:08:34.720 They're focusing on the spiritual. 02:08:34.720 --> 02:08:39.280 Many of them actually are heretics in that they deny the resurrection 02:08:39.280 --> 02:08:40.000 of the flesh. 02:08:40.000 --> 02:08:45.600 They focus on some sort of abstract spiritual heaven where you dwell 02:08:45.600 --> 02:08:50.400 as a spirit for all eternity, which is not what paradise is. 02:08:50.400 --> 02:08:53.040 There's a new heaven and a new earth. 02:08:53.040 --> 02:08:54.560 The new earth is paradise. 02:08:54.560 --> 02:08:57.760 That is what God intends for us, and so you will be 02:08:57.760 --> 02:09:02.160 resurrected bodily, that is what we confess in the Creed. 02:09:02.160 --> 02:09:07.680 I believe in the resurrection of the flesh, not just an eternal 02:09:07.680 --> 02:09:13.360 life. It's an eternal life enfleshed, because that is what a human 02:09:13.360 --> 02:09:14.080 being is. 02:09:14.080 --> 02:09:17.760 You are not complete without your body. 02:09:17.760 --> 02:09:20.960 And so when they deny that this life and the things of 02:09:20.960 --> 02:09:23.280 this life means Matter. 02:09:23.280 --> 02:09:27.280 What they're doing is they're denying the reality of what it means 02:09:27.280 --> 02:09:28.640 to be a human being. 02:09:28.640 --> 02:09:32.800 They're saying that you're not really flesh, you're a spirit, you're a 02:09:32.800 --> 02:09:38.160 ghost operating a meat suit, which is not what you are, and 02:09:38.320 --> 02:09:42.560 quite frankly that makes them heretics, whether or not that will ultimately 02:09:42.560 --> 02:09:46.880 damn them is between them and God, but it certainly endangers their 02:09:46.880 --> 02:09:50.960 faith, it endangers their souls, and endangers their body because of course 02:09:51.120 --> 02:09:55.520 the suffering in hell is bodily suffering, it is eternal fire, it 02:09:55.520 --> 02:09:58.960 is not just a suffering of the soul, it is both. 02:09:58.960 --> 02:09:59.840 But to end on a more 02:10:00.720 --> 02:10:07.360 positive note with regard to God's providence, with regard to God's active 02:10:07.520 --> 02:10:14.480 involvement in creation, again being not just transcendent but also imminent. 02:10:14.640 --> 02:10:17.440 Psalm 104. 02:10:17.440 --> 02:10:19.520 Bless the Lord, O my soul. 02:10:19.520 --> 02:10:22.000 O Lord my God, you are very great. 02:10:22.000 --> 02:10:24.640 You are clothed with splendor and majesty. 02:10:24.640 --> 02:10:28.320 Covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens 02:10:28.320 --> 02:10:29.840 like a tent. 02:10:29.840 --> 02:10:33.280 He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters, he makes 02:10:33.280 --> 02:10:37.040 the clouds his chariot, he rides on the wings of the wind, 02:10:37.040 --> 02:10:41.520 he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire. 02:10:41.520 --> 02:10:44.880 He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never 02:10:44.880 --> 02:10:45.840 be moved. 02:10:46.000 --> 02:10:48.400 he covered it with the deep as with a garment. 02:10:48.400 --> 02:10:50.640 The waters stood above the mountains. 02:10:50.640 --> 02:10:54.160 At your rebuke they fled, at the sound of your thunder they 02:10:54.160 --> 02:10:58.880 took to flight, the mountains rose, the valleys sank down, to the 02:10:58.880 --> 02:11:00.880 place that you appointed for them. 02:11:00.880 --> 02:11:04.000 You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they 02:11:04.000 --> 02:11:06.240 might not again cover the earth. 02:11:06.240 --> 02:11:10.080 You make springs gush forth in the valleys, they flow between the 02:11:10.080 --> 02:11:14.080 hills, they give drink to every beast of the field, the wild 02:11:14.080 --> 02:11:16.080 donkeys quench their thirst. 02:11:16.080 --> 02:11:18.240 Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell. 02:11:18.880 --> 02:11:20.880 They sing among the branches. 02:11:20.880 --> 02:11:23.920 From your lofty abode you water the mountains. 02:11:23.920 --> 02:11:27.040 The earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work. 02:11:27.040 --> 02:11:30.320 You cause the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for 02:11:30.320 --> 02:11:34.400 man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth, 02:11:34.400 --> 02:11:37.840 and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his 02:11:38.000 --> 02:11:41.600 face shine, and bread to strengthen man's heart. 02:11:41.600 --> 02:11:45.520 The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon 02:11:45.520 --> 02:11:46.720 that he planted. 02:11:46.720 --> 02:11:50.400 In them the birds build their nests, the stork has her home 02:11:50.400 --> 02:11:54.160 in the fir trees, the high mountains are for the wild goats, 02:11:54.160 --> 02:11:57.200 the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers. 02:11:57.200 --> 02:12:00.640 He made the moon to mark the seasons, the sun knows its 02:12:00.800 --> 02:12:04.800 time for setting, you make darkness and it is night, when all 02:12:04.800 --> 02:12:08.560 the beasts of the forest creep about, the young lions roar for 02:12:08.560 --> 02:12:09.200 their prey. 02:12:09.600 --> 02:12:11.600 Seeking their food from God. 02:12:11.600 --> 02:12:15.600 When the sun rises, they steal away and lie down in their 02:12:15.600 --> 02:12:19.440 dens. Man goes out to his work and to his labor until 02:12:19.440 --> 02:12:21.520 the evening. 02:12:21.520 --> 02:12:25.520 O Lord, how manifold are your works, in wisdom have you made 02:12:25.520 --> 02:12:28.400 them all, the earth is full of your creatures. 02:12:28.400 --> 02:12:32.880 Here is the sea great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, 02:12:32.880 --> 02:12:35.040 living things both small and great. 02:12:35.040 --> 02:12:39.200 There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you form to play in 02:12:39.200 --> 02:12:42.560 it. These all look to you, to give them their food in 02:12:42.560 --> 02:12:43.600 due season. 02:12:43.600 --> 02:12:46.160 When you give it to them, they gather it up. 02:12:46.160 --> 02:12:49.280 When you open your hand, they are filled with good things. 02:12:49.680 --> 02:12:53.280 When you hide your face they are dismayed, when you take away 02:12:53.280 --> 02:12:56.720 their breath they die, and return to their dust. 02:12:56.720 --> 02:13:00.560 When you send forth your spirit they are created, and you renew 02:13:00.560 --> 02:13:02.480 the face of the ground. 02:13:02.480 --> 02:13:06.320 May the glory of the Lord endure forever, may the Lord rejoice 02:13:06.320 --> 02:13:09.920 in his works, who looks on the earth and it trembles, who 02:13:09.920 --> 02:13:12.320 touches the mountains and they smoke. 02:13:12.320 --> 02:13:15.280 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live, I 02:13:15.280 --> 02:13:18.720 will sing praises to my God while I have my being. 02:13:18.720 --> 02:13:22.560 May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the 02:13:22.560 --> 02:13:26.640 Lord. Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked 02:13:26.640 --> 02:13:27.760 be no more. 02:13:27.760 --> 02:13:32.800 Bless the Lord, O my soul, praise the Lord. 02:13:32.800 --> 02:13:37.120 Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the 02:13:37.120 --> 02:13:42.800 Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will 02:13:42.800 --> 02:13:44.720 be forevermore. 02:13:44.720 --> 02:13:51.440 Amen.