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Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000036S
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00:01 - The Black Death was easily one of the worst tragedies
00:02 to ever hit our planet killing tens of millions, 00:06 and frankly also in many ways bringing out the worst 00:09 that human nature has to offer. 00:11 Today, we're gonna compare that to the COVID-19 pandemic, 00:15 not because of the death toll, 00:16 which is nothing like the devastation of the 14th century, 00:20 instead we're gonna look at some disturbing parallels 00:22 that might have a lot to say 00:24 about the way that you and I are wired as human beings. 00:28 [uplifting music] 00:49 They called it the bubonic plague 00:51 because of one of the first symptoms that would show up, 00:53 swollen lymph glands or buboes they called them 00:56 which would erupt at the spot where a flee bit you 00:59 and managed to transmit the deadly bacteria 01:02 through your skin. 01:04 About seven days after that initial bite, 01:07 you would get symptoms like fever, headache, and vomiting, 01:10 the same kinds of things you might get from the flu. 01:13 But then three days after that, 01:15 an alarming number of victims were dead. 01:17 In the south of Europe, 01:19 say in countries like Spain or Italy, 01:21 as much as 80% of the population died, 01:24 while Northern Europe lost something like 20%, 01:27 which only seems like a good number next to 80%. 01:30 And of course, if we were to lose 20% of the population 01:34 in a pandemic, we would be devastated. 01:37 I mean, here in my home state of Colorado, 01:39 we lost something like 1/10 of 1% to COVID-19. 01:43 At least that's what the number was this morning 01:46 when I came into the studio. 01:47 And of course we found that incredibly tragic 01:51 because it means that just about everybody knows somebody 01:54 who died from COVID. 01:55 So imagine a disease that suddenly takes out 01:58 one in five people, 02:00 and you get a sense of the magnitude of the bubonic plague 02:03 even in the less affected areas. 02:06 The cities of Paris and London, 02:08 each lost about half of their population. 02:11 And that's because densely populated urban centers 02:14 usually fare more poorly than the countryside 02:17 when exposed to highly contagious diseases. 02:19 You see the same effect in New York city, 02:21 where an incredibly dense population meant 02:24 that COVID hit them particularly hard. 02:28 Of course, there really is no comparison 02:30 between the Black Death and COVID 02:32 at least in terms of death toll, 02:34 but there is a lot of similarity 02:36 when it comes to the way that people responded. 02:38 And I guess I wanna look at that for a little bit today 02:41 because I think it offers us a glimpse into human nature 02:43 that might prove very useful in figuring out 02:45 how you and I might like to conduct ourselves. 02:49 And fortunately, because the 14th century was a time 02:52 when literature and art were starting to flourish, 02:55 we have some vivid accounts of what the world was like 02:58 in the face of the plague. 02:59 In particular, we have books like this one, 03:01 "The Decameron" by Giovanni Boccaccio, 03:04 which was first published in 1352. 03:07 And it's a book I wouldn't recommend leaving 03:09 around the house for your kids to find because it's, 03:11 well, rather blunt when it comes to describing the morals 03:15 or the lack of morals in Western Europe at the time. 03:19 It delivers a particularly rough assessment 03:21 of medieval clergy, many of whom as you know 03:24 were living very decadently back then, 03:27 the fact that eventually helped spark 03:28 the Protestant reformation. 03:30 And it really demonstrates that the problems 03:33 that led to the rise of Martin Luther 03:35 were a very long time in the making. 03:39 In fact, there's one section in this book 03:41 where a wealthy Christian merchant is trying to convince 03:43 a Jewish friend named Abraham to convert. 03:46 And after quite a bit of discussion, 03:48 Abraham is tempted to make the leap, 03:51 but he decides that before he converts to Christianity, 03:53 he should visit the city of Rome to have a look around 03:56 so he can see for himself 03:58 what the Bishop of Rome was really like. 04:00 Would the Bishop of Rome prove to be a model human being? 04:04 If the fruit of the Christian religion 04:06 was better than his own faith, Abraham said, 04:08 he would consider becoming a Christian, 04:10 but if it wasn't, he would rather remain a Jew. 04:14 And it's at this point that his Christian friend 04:16 suddenly becomes very discouraged 04:18 because he knows full well what Abraham is going to discover 04:21 when he gets to the eternal city of the 14th century. 04:25 He's going to find an alarming amount of corruption 04:27 and immorality. 04:29 Here's how Boccaccio puts it in his book. 04:31 He writes, 04:32 "When Giannotto," 04:33 That's the wealthy merchant. 04:35 "When Giannotto heard this, 04:37 "he was stricken with a deep sadness. 04:39 "'I've lost all the pains 04:40 "'that I thought were so well-taken,' 04:42 "he said to himself. 04:43 "'I think I've converted him, 04:45 "'and yet, if he goes to the court of Rome 04:46 "'and sees the wicked and filthy lives of the clergy, 04:49 "'not only won't he change from a Jew into a Christian, 04:53 "'but if he had already become a Christian, 04:55 "'he would without fail, go back to being a Jew again.'" 04:59 I don't know if you've ever felt embarrassment 05:01 over some of the public behavior of notable Christians, 05:04 but I actually felt something when I read that account. 05:07 And it's hardly a ringing endorsement 05:10 of the medieval church, 05:11 and it's exactly what Luther would still find 05:14 about 170 years later on his infamous visit to Rome, 05:18 an incredibly corrupt church. 05:21 I mean, we may as well admit it, 05:22 Western Christians had a serious problem 05:24 in the medieval period. 05:26 And what this tells us is that the story condition 05:28 of the Western church was a long time in the making, 05:32 and even worse, it was widely known, 05:35 which we can see from the writings of a few brave people 05:38 who were actually willing to put 05:39 their objections in writing. 05:42 Now, personally, I have to wonder, 05:44 if the printing press had been invented 05:46 before Boccaccio wrote this, 05:48 maybe the reformation might've gotten off the ground 05:51 just a little bit sooner, 05:53 but of course, I'm getting a little bit off topic 05:55 because we started out by discussing the Black Death. 05:58 So maybe I need to put the reformation aside for a moment 06:00 and come back to it some other day, 06:02 so we can take a look at some of the early forerunners here 06:05 who paved the way for Luther. 06:08 What's important for today is the fact 06:11 that Boccaccio wrote this book during a global pandemic. 06:15 And it's a series of stories being told by 10 people 06:18 who have fled to the countryside 06:20 to escape the ravages of disease. 06:22 It gives us some firsthand insight 06:24 into what the plague must have been like. 06:27 And I guess the reason I want you to see this 06:30 is because it demonstrates that human nature 06:32 really hasn't changed much over the last 700 years. 06:35 For the most part, 06:37 human beings are always going to be human beings. 06:39 And the way we deal with things like anxiety 06:42 and fear says a lot about who and what we are. 06:46 So let's take a look at how some people responded 06:49 to the horrible horror of a disease 06:51 that only gave you three days to live. 06:53 Boccaccio writes, 06:56 "Almost all of whom took one utterly cruel precaution, 07:00 "namely, to avoid the sick and their belongings, 07:02 "fleeing far away from them, for in doing so 07:05 "they all thought they could preserve their own health." 07:08 Now don't forget, this is a long time before germ theory. 07:11 So people don't really understand 07:14 exactly how diseases spread, 07:16 but they're smart enough to realize 07:17 that being in the vicinity of sick people is a bad idea. 07:21 And their basic survival instinct suddenly kicks in, 07:24 and now it's every man for himself. 07:26 It continues, and here's where it starts to get interesting. 07:29 He writes, 07:30 "Some people were of the opinion that living moderately 07:33 "and being abstemious 07:35 "would really help them resist the disease. 07:37 "They, therefore, formed themselves into companies 07:39 "and lived in isolation from everyone else. 07:42 "Having come together, they shut themselves up inside houses 07:45 "where no one was sick 07:47 "and they had ample means to live well, 07:49 "so that, while avoiding overindulgence, 07:52 "they still enjoyed the most delicate foods 07:54 "and the best wines in moderation. 07:56 "They would not speak with anyone from outside, 07:59 "nor did they want to hear any news 08:01 "about the dead and the dying, 08:02 "and instead they passed their time playing music 08:04 "and enjoying whatever other amusements they could devise." 08:09 So what they essentially did 08:11 in addition to just ignoring the pandemic was self isolate 08:14 and keep their lifestyles simple, 08:16 making sure they didn't punish their bodies 08:19 with licentiousness. 08:21 They practiced moderation. 08:23 And I guess that's interesting because 08:24 here in the 21st century, 08:25 we did find that people whose health 08:27 was already compromised with lifestyle diseases 08:31 were the ones who seem most likely to succumb to COVID-19. 08:34 I mean, not exclusively so by any means, 08:36 but there was a trend. 08:39 And so it appears there might be something to be said 08:41 for a temperate lifestyle that chooses to forego excess. 08:46 Things like simple diet, simple habits, 08:49 something you do find in the pages of the Bible, 08:52 well, it turns out it's a pretty good approach 08:54 for bettering your odds in the face of disease. 08:57 Is it guaranteed? 08:59 No, absolutely not because everybody eventually dies, 09:01 but it does seem to better your odds. 09:04 Now, I've got to take a really quick break, 09:06 so I'm gonna self isolate right here in the studio 09:08 for just a few seconds, 09:10 and then I'll come back to show you what else we can learn 09:12 from the Bible and the bubonic plague. 09:15 [light music] 09:17 - [Announcer] Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 09:18 we're committed to creating top quality programming 09:20 for the whole family, 09:21 like our audio adventure series "Discovery Mountain". 09:25 "Discovery Mountain" is a Bible based program 09:27 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 09:29 Your family will enjoy the faith building stories 09:32 from this small mountain summer camp, Penn town 09:35 with 24 seasonal episodes every year 09:38 and fresh content every week. 09:40 There's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 09:46 - One of the interesting things about these people 09:48 who chose to isolate themselves during the Black Death 09:51 is the way they kind of instinctively understood 09:54 the principle of quarantine. 09:57 If you isolate infected people from non-infected people, 10:00 it effectively slows the spread of the disease. 10:03 And it turns out the word quarantine actually comes to us 10:06 courtesy of the bubonic plague. 10:08 At the height of the pandemic, sailors arriving in Venice 10:11 were required to drop anchor and stay on their ships 10:14 for 40 days to be sure they weren't infected. 10:16 And in Italian 40 days 10:18 is quite on the journey or quarantine [mumbles]. 10:21 So here we are 700 years after the fact 10:24 still applying the lessons of the plague 10:26 to our own experience with a pandemic. 10:29 But what's really interesting 10:31 is how the concept of quarantine 10:33 actually dates back thousands of years before that, 10:36 and we find it in the pages of the Bible 10:39 where the children of Israel practiced 10:40 some rather stringent health principles, 10:43 I'll show you what I mean. 10:44 This is dealing with the disease of leprosy, 10:47 which fortunately is not as much of a problem now 10:50 as it was back then. 10:53 Anybody suspected of having this horrible disease 10:55 was immediately isolated. 10:57 And in Leviticus 13, 10:59 we find a description of what they did. 11:02 If somebody was obviously infected, 11:04 they had to leave right away, 11:06 but if somebody might have the disease, 11:09 then the priest would inspect them. 11:11 And here's how that went, Leviticus 13. 11:14 "But if the bright spot is white on the skin of his body, 11:17 "and does not appear to be deeper than the skin, 11:19 "and its hair has not turned white, 11:21 "then the priest shall isolate 11:22 "the one who has the soar seven days. 11:25 "And the priest shall examine him on the seventh day, 11:27 "and indeed if the soar appears to be as it was, 11:30 "and the soar is not spread on the skin, 11:32 "then the priest shall isolate him another seven days." 11:36 So what they were doing was using an abundance of caution. 11:39 If someone was suspected of carrying this disease, 11:42 they were isolated for a week at a time 11:44 until everybody could be certain. 11:46 And if the poor victim did prove to be infected, 11:49 then they were permanently exiled 11:51 because there was no cure for leprosy, 11:53 it was a death sentence. 11:55 This was an early version of quarantine 11:57 and it's still the way we deal 11:59 with infectious diseases today. 12:01 For example, when someone gets exposed to COVID-19, 12:04 we make them go home 12:05 and keep away from everybody else until we know for sure. 12:10 Now, the other thing I want you to notice 12:11 is how the same people who were self isolating 12:14 back in the 14th century decided 12:16 that they should keep their diets and lifestyle simple 12:19 so that they didn't tax their immune systems. 12:22 Of course, they didn't really know 12:23 about immune systems per se back then, 12:25 but that's how we would describe what they were doing. 12:28 And I guess what I find really interesting 12:30 is the way that in recent years, 12:32 something known as the Daniel diet 12:34 has become really popular, at least it was for while. 12:38 It's a fad that God started in a big way 12:41 when a well-known American pastor noticed 12:43 how many of the people he was baptizing were overweight. 12:47 And of course, globally Americans unfortunately 12:49 do have the reputation of being, well, a little corpulent. 12:53 So you might remember how popular news outlets 12:56 were running stories on the benefits 12:58 of this biblical diet designed to help you lose weight 13:01 and achieve a better degree of health. 13:04 And this diet is based on a passage in Daniel 1, 13:08 where a group of Hebrew captives suddenly found themselves 13:10 living in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, 13:14 which means they were exposed 13:16 to the decadent lifestyles of the Babylonians, 13:18 which included food that was offered to idols, 13:21 a big no-no for Jews, 13:23 and an overly indulgent variety of very rich food. 13:27 So Daniel and his friends asked to be put 13:29 on a very simple diet. 13:31 This comes from Daniel 1:5, it says, 13:34 "And the king appointed for them a daily provision 13:37 "of the Kings delicacies and of the wine which he drank, 13:40 "and three years of training for them, 13:42 "so that at the end of that time 13:43 "they might serve before the king." 13:46 So what many people have noticed is that 13:49 this is a little like our typical Western diet, 13:51 which is full of things that used to be the occasional treat 13:54 and not the main course. 13:56 So Daniel and his friends make this request 13:58 which you find in verse 12. 13:59 "Please," 14:00 He says, 14:01 "test your servants for 10 days, 14:03 "and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. 14:06 "Then let our appearance be examined before you, 14:08 "and the appearance of the young men 14:09 "who eat the portion of the king's delicacies; 14:12 "and as you see fit, so deal with your servants." 14:15 And of course, by the end of the story 14:17 these young Hebrew captives proved to be healthier 14:20 and smarter than everyone else who worked for the king. 14:23 And what many people discovered when they started mimicking 14:26 this diet in recent years is that they started losing weight 14:30 and their health improved. 14:33 Now, I don't know how much thought these people 14:35 back in the 14th century put into this, 14:37 but at the height of the bubonic plague, 14:39 there was a group of people who practiced self isolation 14:43 and adopted a temperate lifestyle. 14:45 Now, unfortunately Boccaccio doesn't tell us 14:48 whether or not they fared better than everybody else, 14:51 but common sense and medical research 14:53 kinda suggests they probably did. 14:56 And then Boccaccio mentions a second response to the plague, 15:02 which we also saw over the course 15:04 of our own somewhat less severe pandemic. 15:07 He writes this, 15:09 "Others holding the contrary opinion, 15:11 "maintained that the surest medicine 15:13 "for such an evil disease was to drink heavily, 15:15 "enjoy life's pleasures, 15:17 "and go about singing and having fun, 15:19 "satisfying their appetites by any means available, 15:22 "while laughing at everything 15:24 "and turning whatever happened into a joke. 15:27 "Moreover, they practiced what they preached 15:29 "to the best of their ability, 15:30 "for they went from one tavern to another, 15:33 "drinking to access both day and night. 15:36 "They did their drinking more freely in private homes." 15:40 So in other words, 15:42 these people were pretending that nothing was wrong, 15:44 and they went out partying in the abandoned homes 15:47 they found all over the place, 15:48 and these were probably homes vacated by death. 15:53 These people chose to live it up. 15:54 And again Boccaccio doesn't provide us with an outcome, 15:57 but giving the severity of the plague, 16:00 this probably wasn't the smartest approach. 16:03 Now lemme push the pause button here for a minute, 16:05 so I can give you just a little bit of a disclaimer, 16:07 because unfortunately today with the COVID-19 pandemic, 16:11 the whole thing has become very politicized. 16:13 And no matter what I say next, 16:15 somebody's gonna get their nose out of joint 16:17 and think that I'm taking a political position. 16:19 So lemme state for the record, that is not what I'm doing. 16:23 Please don't waste your energy writing me letters, 16:26 I think there's enough of that going on 16:28 during this pandemic already. 16:30 Personally, I think we've come to a rather sad state 16:33 of affairs here in the West, 16:34 where nobody can say anything or take an objective, 16:37 look at any subject without somebody losing their cool 16:39 and making the whole thing political. 16:41 So here it is, for the record I am not a Democrat, 16:44 I am not a Republican, 16:46 and all I'm trying to do is examine the way 16:48 that human beings tend to respond to a crisis. 16:51 Now, I've got to take another short break, 16:53 but when I come back, I'm gonna show you 16:54 how the very act of politicizing a health crisis 16:57 is also part of how this almost always plays out. 17:01 I'll be right back. 17:03 [light music] 17:05 - [Announcer] Life can throw a lot at us. 17:07 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 17:10 but that's where the Bible comes in. 17:13 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 17:16 Here at the Voice of Prophecy we've created 17:18 the Discover Bible Guides to be your guide to the Bible. 17:21 They're designed to be simple, easy to use, 17:23 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 17:26 and they're absolutely free. 17:29 So jump online now, or give us a call 17:31 and start your journey of discovery. 17:34 - Well, look at that, we are back from the break. 17:37 And we've been looking at the writings of a 14th century 17:39 Italian author, Giovanni Boccaccio 17:41 who was on the ground during the plague 17:43 and gives us a sense of how people dealt with that crisis. 17:49 And one the more unfortunate observations he makes 17:51 is the way that people just stopped caring about each other. 17:53 Here's what he writes, 17:55 "And leaving aside the fact 17:57 "that the citizens avoided one another, 17:59 "that almost no one took care of his neighbors, 18:01 "and that relatives visited one another infrequently, 18:04 "if ever, and always kept their distance, 18:07 "the tribulation of the plague 18:08 had puts such fear into the hearts of men and women 18:10 "that brothers abandoned their brothers, 18:12 "uncles their nephews, sisters their brothers, 18:15 "and very often wives their husbands. 18:17 "In fact, what is even worse, 18:19 "and almost unbelievable is that fathers and mothers 18:21 "refused to attend to their children and take care of them, 18:23 "treating them as if they belonged to someone else." 18:27 Now of course, on the one hand, 18:29 you can kinda understand this, people were contagious 18:31 and they didn't wanna get too close, not even to relatives, 18:33 and on top of that, our natural fallen instinct 18:37 is to think about ourselves first. 18:39 But then on the other hand, 18:40 we've all been witnessing how little 18:42 it really takes to erode our sense of civility. 18:45 Here in the 21st century, I've been a little alarmed 18:48 at the way basic decency seems to be falling apart, 18:51 regardless of the pandemic. 18:53 In many ways it feels like Jesus got it absolutely right 18:56 when He looked into the future and said, 18:58 "Many will be offended and betray one another, 19:00 "and will hate one another. 19:02 "Because of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold." 19:07 Now, peaking of lawlessness, 19:08 Boccaccio also tells us 19:10 that as the plague got worse and worse, 19:12 people began to abandon any sense of the law. 19:14 And by that he meant both secular and religious laws. 19:18 Here's how he describes it, 19:19 "In the midst of so much affliction and misery in our city, 19:22 "the respect for the reverend authority of the laws, 19:25 "both divine and human had declined 19:27 "just about to the vanishing point, 19:29 "for, like everyone else, their officers and executors, 19:32 "who were not dead or sick themselves, 19:34 "had so few personnel 19:35 "that they could not fulfill their duties. 19:37 "Thus, people felt free to behave however they liked." 19:42 Now, here's why I find this so important. 19:44 There's no question that COVID-19 took a toll on our planet, 19:48 and as of right now, as I'm sitting here, 19:50 we're still not out of the woods quite yet. 19:53 Millions of people lost their jobs, 19:55 millions globally lost their lives, 19:57 and here in the West we saw actual scarcity 20:00 in the supermarket. 20:01 I mean, we were running out of basic things 20:03 like toilet paper and cleaning supplies. 20:06 I remember going into Safeway and finding no produce, 20:08 I mean, absolutely none. 20:10 Now in other parts of the world, they laughed at that, 20:13 that's just the way things are, 20:14 but here in the West, we suddenly realized 20:16 just how fragile civilization can be. 20:19 And what really brings this all into focus 20:21 is the way the Bible describes a coming crisis 20:24 coupled with the way Paul describes the generation 20:28 who will be here when it happens. 20:30 He writes this, 20:32 "But know this, that in the last days 20:34 "perilous times will come: 20:36 "For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, 20:39 "boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, 20:43 "unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, 20:48 "without self control, brutal, despisers of good, 20:51 "traitors, headstrong, haughty, 20:53 "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 20:56 "having a form of godliness but denying its power." 21:01 Now know there are people who laugh 21:03 at the prophetic parts of the Bible 21:04 because they can't for the life of them understand 21:07 how some of the catastrophic conditions described here 21:10 could possibly happen to us. 21:13 But look at the last couple of years and ask yourselves, 21:16 is this really all that impossible? 21:18 What if COVID 19 had been worse? 21:20 What if it had been as bad as the plague? 21:23 I mean it took so little to make a stock [mumbles] hoarding, 21:26 and it took so little to bring out the worst in people. 21:29 So you've got to wonder, 21:31 is Paul's prediction really impossible? 21:34 I'm gonna argue it's not. 21:35 And now I wanna return to the fact 21:37 that the COVID pandemic was so quickly politicized. 21:41 And in some people in this already polarized society 21:44 use this crisis to try and divide people further. 21:47 Whenever something really bad happens, 21:49 one of the first things 21:51 we always seem to want is a scapegoat. 21:52 We want somebody to blame, 21:54 and that's exactly what happened in the 14th century 21:58 when people were struggling to understand 22:00 why this horrible outbreak was happening. 22:03 In his brilliant book on the philosophical 22:06 and historical influences that fueled 22:08 the Renaissance and the Reformation, 22:10 Thomas Cahill makes an important observation 22:13 about the way that people tried to explain it. 22:17 "Wherever the plague struck, he writes, 22:19 "waves of accusation and intolerance 22:21 "seem to strike in its wake. 22:23 "Sinners were responsible, or heretics, 22:25 "or foreigners, or beggars, or lepers, 22:27 "whoever was other. 22:29 "None suffered more from these waves 22:31 "than communities of Jews. 22:33 "In early 1349, the Jews of Strasbourg were slaughtered, 22:37 "later that year all the Jews of Mainz and Cologne. 22:40 "By 1351 more than 200 Jewish towns 22:44 "and urban neighborhoods across Europe 22:46 "had been obliterated." 22:49 Take just a short trip through the pages of history 22:52 and you'll see this again and again and again and again, 22:54 when something really bad happens, 22:56 most of us want to blame someone, 22:58 and then sometimes innocent people begin to die. 23:02 Back in the 14th century, it seems like the Jews 23:04 took the brunt of Europe's frustration, 23:06 and all of the pretense of civility 23:08 suddenly evaporated as they were slaughtered 23:11 for their supposed role in the pandemic. 23:15 So you've gotta wonder, 23:17 what exactly would stop our generation 23:19 from doing the same thing? 23:20 In recent memory we've already seen the holocaust 23:23 where a number of minorities were made to carry the blame 23:25 for the political and economic woes of a majority. 23:28 And from what I read in the pages of history 23:30 and what I read in the pages of the Bible, 23:32 I have little doubt that it's going to happen again. 23:36 In fact, lemme show you just one short passage, 23:38 it should arrest everybody's attention, 23:40 we've already kind of peeked at it. 23:42 You should pay attention if you've been contemplating 23:44 the way that we've handled ourselves during the pandemic. 23:47 This is over in Matthew 24, starting in verse 10, 23:51 it's the words of Jesus. 23:53 "And then many will be offended, 23:54 "and will betray one another, and will hate one another. 23:57 "Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 24:00 "And because lawlessness will abound, 24:04 "the love of many will grow cold." 24:07 Now, some people think that could never happen to us, 24:10 but in the 2,000 years since that was written down, 24:13 we've already seen it happen on a tragic scale many times, 24:17 from the scapegoating of Christians by the Romans, 24:19 to the horrors of the inquisition, 24:21 to the scapegoating of Jews 24:23 and other people deemed to be religious heretics 24:25 during the plague. 24:27 You know, interestingly, a lot of students of prophecy 24:29 are actually convinced that the bubonic plague 24:31 was also predicted in the Bible, 24:33 but we'll have to look at that some other day. 24:35 Okay, time for one last break, and then I'll be right back. 24:41 [light music] 24:42 - [Announcer] Are you searching for answers 24:43 to life's toughest questions like, 24:45 where is God when we suffer? 24:47 Can I find real happiness? 24:49 Or is there any hope for our chaotic world? 24:52 The Discover Bible Guides will help you 24:54 find the answers you're looking for. 24:56 Visit us at biblestudies.com, 24:58 or give us a call at 888-456-7933 25:04 for your free Discover Bible Guides. 25:06 Study online on our secure website, 25:09 or have the free guides mailed right to your home. 25:12 There is never a cost or obligation. 25:14 The Discover Bible Guides are our free gift to you. 25:18 Find answers and guides like, 25:19 "Does My Life Really Matter to God?" 25:21 and "A Second Chance at Life". 25:23 You'll find answers to the things that matter most to you 25:26 in each of the 26 Discover Bible Guides. 25:28 Visit biblestudies.com 25:31 and begin your journey today to discover answers 25:34 to life's deepest questions. 25:37 [light music] 25:40 - Unfortunately the way human nature 25:42 appears to work is this, 25:43 you and I don't suddenly build good quality character 25:47 in the face of a major crisis. 25:50 The writer, James Allen once said, 25:52 "Adversity does not build character, it reveals it." 25:55 And history suggests he was absolutely right. 25:59 So the time to figure out how you're gonna respond, 26:01 who your gonna be in the next crisis, 26:04 and believe me, there will be a next crisis, 26:08 the time to determine how you're gonna respond, 26:10 what kind of human being you're gonna be, 26:12 that's right now. 26:14 If the Apostle Paul was right 26:16 and I'm absolutely convinced he was, 26:18 then the world right now is building exactly 26:21 the wrong character for the problems that lie just ahead. 26:26 So I guess this is my challenge for you, 26:28 it seems like human nature never changes. 26:32 And here in the Bible we have a book 26:33 that offers profound insight 26:36 into how the human race is actually wired. 26:39 And it offers us a stunning alternative, 26:42 a different way to live, a way to face any crisis 26:46 and still be an authentic human, 26:47 still reflect the authentic image of God. 26:51 What happened over the last couple of years 26:53 has absolutely happened before, 26:55 and yes, yes, yes it's absolutely going to happen again. 27:00 And eventually the Bible says, 27:02 this is gonna be on a scale 27:04 that few people can actually comprehend. 27:07 So maybe, just maybe it's time to gather 27:10 some age old wisdom from a very old book, 27:14 and we need to do it now when there's still time 27:17 to make what this book teaches written by the Creator, 27:21 an authentic part of who you are. 27:23 This book has wisdom that has never been wrong 27:27 about life on planet earth, not even once. 27:31 Not only does it see what's coming down the pike, 27:35 not only has it been right 27:36 about everything that it's predicted, 27:38 it's been essentially correct about 27:41 who you and I are without God. 27:44 We can be different, 27:45 we can set a shining light in this world that is polarized, 27:49 filled with hate, people acting irresponsibly, 27:52 we can reflect the image of God 27:55 and live an authentic human life. 27:58 I'm Shawn Boonstra. 27:59 Thanks for joining me today, 28:00 you've been watching Authentic. 28:03 [uplifting music] |
Revised 2022-01-19