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Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000074S
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00:01 - On today's episode of "Authentic,"
00:02 we're gonna be talking about the devil, 00:05 and we'll see if we can't separate fact from fiction. 00:08 So buckle up and get ready for a bit of 00:10 a strange ride through history. 00:13 [dramatic music] 00:34 Welcome to a very special episode of "Authentic," 00:36 where I'm gonna quite literally speak of the devil, 00:39 or, to be more precise, 00:41 I'm gonna talk about how we got our current understanding 00:43 of who or what the devil is in Western Christianity. 00:48 And that's important because when I mention the devil, 00:51 most people get this mental image 00:53 of a red guy with horns, and a pitchfork, and a tail. 00:56 He's kinda half man and half goat, 00:58 and that's the way that pop culture 01:00 almost always portrays him. 01:03 The only problem with that portrayal 01:04 is that there's nothing even close to that description 01:07 to be found in the Bible 01:09 because it's really a better fit for pagan mythology. 01:14 The description of Lucifer that you find in the Bible is 01:16 anything but grotesque. 01:18 In fact, the Bible suggests that the devil 01:20 is really quite attractive. 01:22 I mean, just listen to this passage from the book of Ezekiel 01:26 where God is talking to the king of tire, 01:28 but it becomes obvious after a few sentences 01:31 that he's actually speaking to the devil 01:34 by appealing to the king's reputation. 01:36 Here's what it says. 01:38 Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, 01:40 "Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tire, 01:44 and say to him, 'thus says the Lord God.'" 01:48 Now, here's where it becomes obvious 01:50 that he's actually speaking to the devil. 01:52 It says, "You were the seal of perfection, 01:56 full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 01:58 You were in Eden, the garden of God." 02:01 And of course, the literal king of Tire 02:03 was never anywhere near the Garden of Eden. 02:05 So this is actually talking to somebody else. 02:08 It continues. 02:09 "Every precious stone was your covering, 02:12 the sardius, topaz, and diamond, 02:14 beryl, onyx, and jasper, 02:16 sapphire, turquoise, turquoise, and emerald with gold. 02:19 The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes 02:21 was prepared for you on the day you were created. 02:24 You were the anointed cherub who covers." 02:28 Now, remember in the Old Testament sanctuary, 02:31 the covering cherubs were the angels 02:33 on top of the Ark of the Covenant. 02:35 And the Ark of the Covenant 02:37 was a symbolic representation of God's throne in heaven. 02:41 So what this is actually telling us 02:43 is that Lucifer used to have 02:45 one of the most exalted positions in God's government, 02:48 right next to the eternal throne of God. 02:52 It says, "I established you. 02:54 You were on the holy mountain of God." 02:57 Now, in the Bible, that's where God's throne is located. 03:02 "You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. 03:05 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created 03:09 till iniquity was found in you." 03:12 Now, here's what I want you to notice. 03:14 There are no horns, no tail, no red skin. 03:19 The Bible describes a fallen angel. 03:21 And in his second letter to the Corinthian Church, 03:24 the Apostle Paul suggests that the devil appears 03:27 as an angel of light. 03:29 So you've got to wonder, 03:31 where in the world did we get the pop art devil 03:33 that looks like a red version of the Greek God Pan? 03:37 Well, it's a pretty long story, 03:39 but I think it's worth exploring 03:41 because after 2,000 years of Christianity, 03:45 we've got a lot of non-biblical artifacts 03:48 that have made their way into our belief system. 03:51 And while most of them are perfectly harmless, 03:55 there are some cultural artifacts that have skewed the way 03:58 that people actually think about the Christian faith. 04:02 When the Christian Church started taking over Western Europe 04:04 in the wake of Constantine's conversion, 04:07 and then especially after the conversion 04:10 of the Frankish King Clovis, 04:12 Christian bishops found themselves 04:14 continually running up against the pagan beliefs 04:16 of the Celts and the Germanic tribes. 04:19 And these were pagans who had no desire 04:22 to convert to Christianity at all. 04:27 And just like the Greeks, the Romans, and the Egyptians, 04:29 the pagans of Europe had a rather large stable of gods. 04:33 And that pantheon was such 04:35 a fundamental part of their culture 04:36 that you still find remnants of it in our culture today. 04:41 For example, some of the days of the week 04:44 are named for Roman gods, like Saturday, 04:47 which is named for Saturn. 04:49 But some of the other days are named 04:50 for Teutonic or Germanic gods like Wednesday, 04:54 which is literally Woden's Tag or Woden's Day. 04:58 And Thursday is Thor's Tag, and so on. 05:02 Now, there's nothing particularly wrong with that, 05:04 and I sincerely doubt that anybody thinks 05:06 I'm worshiping Thor just because I used 05:09 the Germanic name for the fifth day of the week. 05:12 Now, in some places, Christian missionaries 05:15 openly challenged these pagan gods, 05:17 like the famous missionary Boniface, 05:19 the man who tried to convert my ancestors, the Frisian, 05:23 who were tree-worshiping pagans through and through. 05:27 So what Boniface did was cut down their sacred oak tree, 05:31 which really upset a lot of people, 05:34 and eventually they beheaded the missionary. 05:37 But in other places, 05:38 the church looked for ways to compromise, 05:40 to incorporate some of the local culture 05:43 into the church in order to make Christianity 05:46 seem more attractive. 05:48 So for example, you'll notice 05:50 that in some parts of the Christian world, 05:52 we still have patron saints who are dedicated 05:55 to the various activities of daily life. 05:58 You have St Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, 06:01 and St. Joseph, the patron saint of dying people. 06:05 And that really harkens back to the days 06:08 when our pagan ancestors 06:09 had various gods dedicated to different activities. 06:13 They had Venus, the goddess of love, 06:15 and Mars, the god of war, 06:17 and Mercury, the messenger god, and so on. 06:21 So what the church really did 06:22 was find a Christianized substitute 06:25 that would allow the pagans 06:27 to keep some of their customs. 06:30 You'll notice that the same thing happened 06:32 with a lot of pagan holidays. 06:34 The 31st of October was known to the Celts as Samhain, 06:37 the day when they believed 06:39 that the veil between the living and the dead 06:41 became really, really thin. 06:43 So they built massive bonfires 06:45 and put candles inside of carved out turnips 06:48 in order to keep the spirits of the dead at bay. 06:51 It was such a prominent part of Celtic culture 06:53 that the church decided they couldn't just get rid of it. 06:57 So they rebranded it as All Hallows' Eve or Halloween, 07:01 which was a special festival 07:02 the night before All Saints' Day 07:04 on the 1st of November. 07:06 And that's just the tip of the iceberg. 07:08 Over the course of time, 07:09 a lot of the pagan gods and festivals 07:11 were just Christianized, rebranded. 07:16 But there was one major deity among the European pagans 07:18 that the church really could not adopt, 07:21 and it posed a major problem 07:22 because it was such a deeply entrenched part 07:24 of pagan culture. 07:26 He was known as the horned god, 07:28 and he was a very ancient figure 07:31 for a lot of ancient pagan traditions, 07:33 not just in Western Europe. 07:36 He was the god of nature 07:38 and was probably derived from a time 07:40 before the pagans of the Western world 07:42 had adopted agriculture and the domestication of animals. 07:46 Before that time, they were hunters. 07:48 And this horned god was the god of hunting, 07:51 a character who held the keys 07:53 to the darkest parts of the forest. 07:57 Now, among some of the Celtic tribes, 07:58 this horned god was known as Cernunnos, 08:01 a name that contains the root word for horn. 08:04 I mean, the Latin word for horn is cornu, 08:07 and Cernunnos was the Celtic cognate of that Latin word. 08:11 Most of you know what a cornucopia is. 08:13 It's a horn of plenty. 08:15 And you'll see that Cernunnos starts the same way, 08:18 with the Latin word for horn. 08:20 So when we come across some of the ancient depictions 08:23 for this horned god, 08:24 he's usually shown sitting in a lotus position, 08:27 kind of like the Buddha, 08:29 and he's got deer antlers on his head. 08:32 In one hand, he's often holding a torc, 08:34 which is a stiff braided ring of metal 08:37 that you wore around the neck. 08:38 And in his other hand, he holds a serpent. 08:41 He's usually depicted 08:43 with all kinds of wild game all around him 08:45 because he was the patron god of hunting, 08:49 but he was also the god of the underworld, 08:52 the one who welcomed you to the afterlife. 08:55 Among some tribes, he was also considered 08:57 the god of fertility. 08:58 So he was a really practical god, 09:01 covering all the major concerns 09:02 that a tribe of hunter gatherers might have. 09:05 He's the solution for hunger because he gives you game. 09:08 He's the solution for the propagation of the species 09:11 because he's in charge of fertility, 09:13 and he's the solution to death 09:15 because he escorts you into the afterlife. 09:18 So this was a really major god. 09:21 Now, in most cultures, 09:23 Cernunnos was at the very apex of the pantheon, 09:25 and he's probably the oldest pagan deity in the world. 09:30 And what the Christian Church discovered 09:31 was that a lot of their would-be converts 09:34 were not willing to abandon this god. 09:37 So what did the church do? 09:39 I'll be right back after this. 09:45 - [Announcer] Life can throw a lot at us. 09:47 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 09:50 but that's where the Bible comes in. 09:53 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 09:56 Here at The Voice of Prophecy, 09:58 we've created the Discover Bible guides 10:00 to be your guide to the Bible. 10:01 They're designed to be simple, easy to use, 10:04 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 10:07 and they're absolutely free. 10:09 So jump online now or give us a call, 10:11 and start your journey of discovery. 10:15 - At the beginning of the year, in the month of January, 10:17 the priests of the horned god 10:19 would often dress up in animal skins 10:21 and put on a set of horns 10:22 that they could lead their people 10:24 in ecstatic dances and other pagan rituals, 10:27 and they would offer sacrifices 10:29 to this major god, Cernunnos. 10:31 Now, this took place all over Europe, 10:34 and it kept on taking place 10:36 long after the Catholic church showed up. 10:38 In fact, we have records of people still dabbling 10:42 in the cult of the horned god as recently 10:45 as the 1800s, believe it or not. 10:48 Now, in the beginning, when the church was new to Europe 10:51 and relatively weak, 10:53 it was more inclined to put up with pagan rituals. 10:56 But then as time moved along 10:57 and the church became more and more powerful, 11:00 it felt less inclined to be tolerant. 11:03 So what they did with this horned god 11:05 was to compare 'em to the devil, the enemy of Christ. 11:09 Suddenly, pictures of Lucifer started to look like 11:12 these pagan priests wearing their horns and animal skins. 11:16 European pagans were now said to be devil worshipers, 11:20 which might be the reason that people 11:22 still confuse European paganism with satanism, 11:26 and they're not the same thing. 11:28 In fact, today's practitioners of Wicca 11:30 will tell you that Satan is a Christian character 11:33 who doesn't play any part in their belief system. 11:37 Now, of course, for Christians, 11:38 every belief system outside of the Bible 11:40 is said to be at least inspired by the devil, 11:44 but the pagans of Europe did not recognize 11:46 an individual named Lucifer or Satan. 11:50 Now, as a point of clarification, 11:52 when the church continued to become more powerful 11:55 and they started to persecute pagans, 11:57 some of those pagans gladly labeled Cernunnos as Satan, 12:01 in order to let the bishops know 12:03 that they were indeed enemies of their church. 12:07 They said, "Look, if that's what these people hate, 12:09 then that's who we are." 12:11 And to really push back, 12:12 they started taking aspects of the Catholic mass 12:15 and mocking it during their own rituals 12:18 in order to clap back against these aggressive missionaries. 12:22 So I guess over, time, some of these pagan cults 12:24 really did start to look like devil worship, 12:28 but it was the Christian Church that made the first move 12:31 by quite literally demonizing this horned god. 12:34 And then starting in the 13th century or so, 12:37 Satan suddenly began to appear in Christian artwork, 12:40 looking the way that we think about him today, 12:43 half man, half animal, and horns. 12:47 But that's not an image that you'll find 12:49 in the pages of the Bible. 12:51 It just doesn't exist. 12:54 So to make a long story short, 12:56 when the church couldn't find any way 12:58 to redeem this pagan deity 13:00 or rebrand him as some kind of Christian character, 13:03 they made him into Satan in order to get rid of him. 13:07 And if you look through the records of the Catholic bishops, 13:09 you'll find some of them wringing their hands 13:11 in anguish over this problem, 13:12 like this account from the seventh century, 13:15 from the British Archbishop Theodore. 13:18 He wrote, "If anyone at the Kalends of January 13:22 goes about as a stag or a bull, 13:25 that is making himself into a wild animal 13:27 and dressing in the skin of a herd animal, 13:29 and putting on the heads of beasts, 13:32 those who in such wise transform themselves 13:34 into the appearance of a wild animal, 13:36 penance for three years because this is devilish." 13:42 So in the beginning, 13:43 Satan actually appeared with deer antlers, 13:45 not the goat horns that we see today. 13:48 And over time, we added the goat horns 13:50 so that he looked more and more like the Greek God Pan 13:53 who was another pagan god of the wilderness, 13:57 which brings me to another rather notorious 13:59 depiction of the devil that modern occultists use, 14:02 which is Baphomet. 14:04 Chances are you might be familiar with this one 14:06 because some modern occult groups 14:09 have provoked an awful lot of animosity by insisting 14:12 that they wanna put a statue of children 14:14 adoring Baphomet on government property. 14:18 And they want that as a way of pushing back 14:19 against Christians who want 14:21 the 10 Commandments or nativity scenes 14:23 to be on display at the government courthouse. 14:27 But again, you'll notice that Baphomet is goat-like. 14:31 He's a horned god with a goat's head and a man's body, 14:33 and it comes with a pentagram drawn on his chest, 14:36 which comes from the ancient mystery religions 14:39 of the very distant past. 14:41 And from what I can tell, the first time this figure 14:44 showed up in Western culture 14:45 was shortly after the Crusades started. 14:48 Some people actually think that Baphomet 14:50 is a corruption of the name Muhammad 14:53 because Christian soldiers were trying to 14:55 demonize the Muslims, 14:56 which means that they were kind of doing the same thing 14:59 the church did with the pagans. 15:01 They were casting their enemies in the role of the devil 15:04 in order to make them seem really, really evil. 15:08 Now, what's kind of interesting 15:10 is the way that the Knights Templar 15:11 eventually got smeared with a rumor 15:14 about this horned god, Baphomet. 15:16 They were the order of knights charged with protecting 15:19 the holy land from Muslims 15:20 or, more specifically, the city of Jerusalem 15:24 and the Temple Mount. 15:25 When the order eventually fell out of favor 15:27 with the official church, 15:29 people started spreading a rumor that 15:32 these Templars had been worshiping the horned god. 15:35 So we still have all kinds of fantastic stories 15:37 about Templars in circulation to this day, 15:41 and they even still show up in modern conspiracy theories. 15:45 The Baphomet that you see today, 15:47 like the one they wanted to put on government property 15:49 in the state of Oklahoma, 15:51 well, it's a modernization of a much older version 15:54 of the same thing. 15:56 The finishing touches were added by a famous occultist 15:59 named Eliphas Levi 16:01 who published a famous book on occult practices 16:03 back in 1897. 16:06 So to recap, during the medieval period, 16:09 we picked up all kinds of pagan leftovers from the cultures 16:12 we were trying to bring into the Christian Church 16:15 because we were trying to grease the conversion process. 16:19 And while some of these customs like, I don't know, 16:21 kissing under the missile toe were harmless, 16:25 there were other cultural artifacts 16:26 that began to distort our understanding 16:29 of Christianity itself, 16:31 like the way we think about Lucifer. 16:34 In the Bible, Lucifer is a covering cherub, 16:38 and he's the only angel whoever gets commended for beauty. 16:41 We saw that in the famous passage from Ezekiel 28, 16:45 but then in Isaiah 14, 16:47 we find a description of the very moment 16:50 that this covering cherub fell from grace. 16:53 Here's what it says, starting in verse 12. 16:55 How you are fallen from heaven, o Lucifer, 16:58 son of the morning. 16:59 How you are cut down to the ground, 17:01 you who weakened the nations. 17:03 For you have said in your heart, 17:05 "I will ascend into heaven. 17:06 I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. 17:09 I will also sit on the mount of the congregation 17:12 on the farthest sides of the north. 17:14 I will ascend above the heights of the cloud. 17:17 I will be like the Most High." 17:20 yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, 17:23 to the lowest depths of the Pit. 17:26 What we have in the Bible is a highly exalted angel 17:29 who let his power and position go to his head. 17:32 He began to crave a higher status 17:35 than the one God had given him, 17:36 right up to the point where he started to think 17:38 he actually belonged on God's throne. 17:41 And so for that reason, 17:42 he had to be removed from the presence of God 17:45 before he did any more damage. 17:48 Now, the damage he did do was substantial. 17:51 In fact, the Bible mentions 17:52 that he managed to poison the minds 17:54 of 1/3 of heaven's angels, 17:56 who then joined his rebellion, 17:58 which you find described in Revelation 12, 18:01 where it describes how the struggle 18:02 between good and evil in this universe began. 18:05 Here's what it says. 18:07 And war broke out in heaven. 18:09 Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, 18:11 and the dragon and his angels fought, 18:13 but they did not prevail, 18:15 nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 18:18 So the great dragon was cast out, 18:20 that serpent of old called the Devil and Satan, 18:23 who deceives the whole world. 18:25 He was cast to the earth 18:27 and his angels were cast out with him. 18:30 What we have in the Bible is a serpentine devil, 18:33 not a goat-like devil. 18:35 He's the serpent in Eden, 18:36 and he's the dragon of the Book of Revelation. 18:38 It says that he managed to deceive a large number of angels. 18:41 And back in verse four, 18:43 it tells us that 1/3 of the stars in heaven joined him. 18:47 Now, stars are a common symbol for angels, 18:50 and what it's telling us is that one third 18:52 of the heavenly host turn their backs on their creator 18:55 at the beginning of this cosmic war. 18:58 I'll be right back after this. 19:04 - [Announcer] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues. 19:08 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 19:12 If you've ever read Daniel or Revelation 19:15 and come away scratching your head, you are not alone. 19:18 Our free Focus on Prophecy guides 19:20 are designed to help you unlock the mysteries of the Bible 19:23 and deepen your understanding of God's plan 19:25 for you and our world, 19:27 study online or request them by mail 19:29 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 19:33 - When the Bible tells us that the devil 19:35 was thrown out of heaven, 19:37 it doesn't say that he was sent to live 19:39 in the bowels of the earth 19:40 where he shovels coal on the fires of hell 19:42 for all eternity. 19:44 You just won't find that anywhere in the Bible. 19:48 The Bible simply says the he and his angels 19:50 were cast to the earth. 19:52 This idea that the devil lives down there somewhere 19:55 beneath our feet in some fiery cave, 19:57 well, that's just another medieval hangover 19:59 that has no biblical foundation whatsoever. 20:04 I mean, just remember that the horned God of the Celts 20:06 was also the keeper of the underworld, 20:09 and the same was true for Greek pagans. 20:11 Hades was their God of a shadowy realm of the dead. 20:15 It was a decidedly pagan way of thinking about death, 20:18 and the devil, as we conceive of him today, 20:21 was reassigned to step into that pagan role, 20:24 which kind of makes you wonder 20:25 just how much of what we believe 20:27 about death, hell, and the afterlife 20:29 is actually found in the Bible. 20:32 There was also this ancient pagan story from Europe 20:34 about a creature known as the Herlechin, 20:37 a world that eventually morphed into Harlequin, 20:40 which is a jester or a fool, 20:42 as in the joker that you find in a pack of playing cards. 20:46 The Herlechin was a giant monster 20:48 who escorted the spirits of the dead. 20:50 So Europe was permeated with these very old stories 20:53 about people encountering the Herlechin 20:56 in the dead of night. 20:58 Now, in a lot of Germanic languages, like Dutch, 21:01 this same character was known simply as the Hellekin, 21:05 a ghostly creature who hunted at night. 21:08 It's a word that should look familiar 21:10 because it's got the word hell in it 21:12 or the pagan underworld, 21:14 and it's got the word kin, which means a troupe or a family. 21:18 So the Hellekin was a creature who led a troop of beings 21:20 from the underworld. 21:22 What we did was recast all these pagan characters 21:26 as the devil. 21:28 And Satan now became the god of the underworld, 21:30 even though the Bible never says any such thing. 21:34 Now, that doesn't mean the Bible doesn't talk about fire 21:38 because it does. 21:39 In fact, in Matthew 25, Jesus mentions a fire 21:42 that is prepared for the devil and his angels. 21:45 But at the same time, there's nothing, anywhere in the Bible 21:48 to suggest that this fire is under the ground 21:51 or it's just a Christian version of the pagan Hades. 21:55 Instead, the fire is said to burn 21:56 on the surface of the earth. 21:58 In fact, if you look at Matthew 13, 22:01 you'll find Jesus parable of the wheat and the tares 22:04 where he says that the fire doesn't burn 22:06 until the end of the world, 22:08 and then it burns up here on the surface of the earth. 22:14 So this idea that the devil is living 22:15 somewhere beneath our feet 22:17 is really just a lot of medieval superstition, 22:20 and you will not find it in the pages of the Bible. 22:24 So of course, now you've got to wonder, 22:26 why am I spending so much time talking about this? 22:29 Well, let me put it this way. 22:31 Christianity has an awful lot of critics 22:33 who like to poke holes in our faith. 22:36 And personally, I believe that Christianity 22:38 will stand up against that criticism. 22:40 After all, it's still here after 2,000 years 22:43 in spite of some rather determined efforts to get rid of it. 22:47 But what I quite often find 22:49 is that people who mock the Christian faith 22:51 are marking caricatures and fairy tales 22:55 that aren't actually found in the Bible. 22:57 And the sad part is that many Christians 22:59 try to defend those ideas 23:00 even though they were never taught by Jesus 23:03 and never taught by the disciples. 23:05 These are just fairy tales and they're not biblical. 23:09 Now, to be clear, the Bible does describe a devil, 23:12 a fallen angel who led a rebellion against heaven 23:15 and then convinced the human race to follow his example, 23:18 but he doesn't have horns, he isn't part goat, 23:21 and he doesn't live in a fiery cave. 23:24 And at least part of the reason people 23:25 mock the idea of a devil 23:27 is because the Christian Church has actually participated 23:30 in the cartoon version of this character. 23:34 And and the same thing has happened 23:36 with other aspects of the Christian faith. 23:38 More often than people might realize, 23:40 well-loved Christian teachings 23:42 actually don't have a basis in scripture. 23:44 For example, most of us think of cherubs 23:47 not as impressive creatures 23:48 who stand next to the throne of God, 23:50 but as little babies with wings 23:52 that you find on Victorian Christmas cards. 23:55 Not in the Bible. 23:57 We talk about St. Peter letting people into heaven 23:59 as if he's the guardian of the afterlife. 24:01 But again, not in the Bible. 24:03 It's just another rewrite of pagan mythology. 24:06 And of course, there's almost no chance 24:07 Jesus was actually born on the 25th of December. 24:11 It's a date we borrowed from a Roman winter festival. 24:14 Here's another one. 24:15 It comes as a huge surprise for a lot of people 24:17 when they learned that Christians 24:19 actually continued to observe the Sabbath and not Sunday, 24:22 and they did that for hundreds of years. 24:24 And while the Bible absolutely talks about 24:26 heaven as a real place, the location of God's throne, 24:30 it doesn't actually say that you and I 24:31 are gonna live there for eternity. 24:34 Instead, it says that we're gonna go there for a little bit, 24:36 but then Jesus, who is God in human form, 24:38 takes up residents with us here on this planet. 24:42 I mean, just listen to this. 24:43 It's one of my favorite passages from Revelation 21. 24:47 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, 24:50 coming down out of heaven from God 24:52 prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 24:55 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, 24:56 "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, 24:59 and he will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. 25:02 God Himself will be with them and be their God." 25:05 So I guess what I'm saying is this. 25:08 If you're gonna discuss the Bible with people, 25:10 at least you make sure you know what it actually says. 25:13 Read the whole thing, 25:15 because I think you might be surprised by what you find. 25:18 I'll be right back after this. 25:23 - [Announcer] Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 25:24 we're committed to creating 25:26 top quality programming for the whole family, 25:28 like our audio adventure series, "Discovery Mountain." 25:32 "Discovery Mountain" is a Bible-based program 25:34 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 25:36 Your family will enjoy the faith-building stories 25:39 from the small mountain summer camp Penn Town. 25:42 With 24 seasonal episodes every year 25:45 and fresh content every week, 25:47 there's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 25:53 - Okay, maybe let me wrap up by saying 25:56 that one of the biggest problems modern Christians have 25:59 comes from the fact that we've had 20 long centuries 26:02 that involves some pretty bad thinking. 26:05 A lot of people think they know what the Bible says, 26:08 but there's enough water under the bridge now 26:10 that we really need to go back 26:12 and do our homework and make sure. 26:14 Sometimes we just think the Bible teaches something. 26:17 So maybe it's time to go to the basics again 26:20 and have a look at what the founders of this movement 26:23 actually wrote under inspiration. 26:25 And when you do that, you can't just pick and choose 26:28 what you're gonna read or believe, 26:30 or you'll end up with the same problem again. 26:34 To be honest, a lot of the criticism 26:35 that people leave on the church's doorstep, 26:38 a lot of it is perfectly justified. 26:40 And sometimes when somebody says 26:42 that one of our beliefs is ridiculous, 26:45 they might actually be right. 26:47 So it's really important to know for sure 26:50 what the Bible teaches. 26:52 And in order to know that, you have to read it. 26:55 And as Paul told the church in Thessalonica, 26:58 "Do not quench the spirit. 27:00 Do not despise prophecies. 27:02 Test all things, hold fast what is good." 27:06 It's the same thing that he said 27:08 to his young protege, Timothy, when he wrote, 27:10 "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, 27:13 a worker who does not need to be ashamed, 27:15 rightly dividing the word of truth. 27:18 But shun profane and idle babblings, 27:20 for they will increase to more ungodliness." 27:24 Of course, I'm under no illusion 27:25 that being more accurate with the Bible 27:27 is going to stop criticism or mockery 27:29 because that's been going on since day one 27:32 with the Christian Church. 27:33 But at least let's shoot for an honest conversation 27:36 and deal with the text itself, 27:38 instead of the fairy tales we imported 27:40 from other sources during the Dark Ages. 27:44 Thanks for joining me today. 27:45 I'm Shawn Boonstra, 27:46 and you've been watching "Authentic." 27:50 [dramatic music] |
Revised 2023-04-05