Participants: John Bradshaw
Series Code: IIW
Program Code: IIW001374A
00:01 [Music]
00:07 Jesus is talking with His disciples one day and He says 00:10 to Philip, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father. 00:13 That's John 14:9. On Father's Day - Happy 00:16 Father's Day, Dads - some people reflect on the fact that 00:19 they didn't have a great father while they grew up. 00:21 Gone too much, to angry, violent, abusive... Tragic. 00:25 But there's a Father you can love, and even if your earthly 00:28 father didn't give you a perfect picture of what 00:30 a Dad should be, Jesus said that if you want to know what 00:33 God the Father is like, just look at Jesus. 00:36 Jesus reveals what our Heavenly Father is really 00:39 like. He's kind, patient, merciful, 00:42 forgiving, accepting, healing, uplifting... 00:46 If you want to know what the Father is like, look at 00:49 Jesus. And when you do that, you'll 00:51 agree that you DO have a Father you can 00:53 love and trust. I'm John Bradshaw 00:56 for It Is Written. Let's live today by Every 00:58 Word. [music] 01:05 [Theme Music] 01:11 It has stood the test of time. 01:17 God's book, the Bible. Still relevant in today's 01:23 complex world. It Is Written 01:29 sharing hope around the globe. 01:40 Imagine growing up thinking you were someone, and then 01:43 discovering you were someone else. 01:46 And imagine if you found out your own godfather was one 01:49 of the monsters of history. Guntram Weber was 01:52 a 63-year-old teacher living in Berlin, West Germany. 01:55 Like many Germans his age, he never knew his father, 01:59 and that was because his dad was killed during the war. 02:02 Or, at least that's what his mother told him. 02:04 "Guntram, your dad was a truck driver for the Luftwaffe 02:07 in Croatia and he died in the fighting." 02:10 And that's all she told him. For much of his life, 02:13 Guntram remained skeptical about what his mother 02:15 had said regarding his father. He could never quite bring 02:18 himself to believe her story. It always bothered him that 02:21 she never talked about his father, and when he asked 02:24 questions, she would say something quickly and then 02:26 change the subject. And to make things seem even 02:28 more suspicious, there were never any photos of his dad 02:31 around the house, and he couldn't find any 02:33 documentation. Then one day, following a hint 02:36 his stepfather gave him, Guntram did a little digging 02:39 into his past, and much to his shock he found the truth. 02:44 Guntram was what they called a Lebensborn baby, a term 02:47 the Nazis used to describe their plan to use selective 02:50 breeding to create a Master Aryan race that would 02:54 eventually rule the world. They'd pick out what they 02:57 considered to be the most Aryan-looking and racially 03:00 pure men and women, and under the direction of the SS 03:03 and Heinrich Himmler, they ran a special program where those 03:07 people were essentially sent to breeding farms around 03:09 Europe to give birth to supposedly racially 03:12 pure children. And when Guntram went to find 03:15 the truth about his dad, that's what he discovered. 03:18 His dad wasn't a lorry driver killed in Croatia. 03:21 He was a Major-General in the SS who had a wife and three 03:25 children of his own when he got Guntram's mother pregnant. 03:29 His mother then went to one of the "Lebensborn" clinics, 03:32 and thus Guntram came into the world. 03:35 His real father was deemed a war criminal and had to flee 03:37 to Argentina after the war, where he lived until his death 03:40 in 1970. But as bad as that was, 03:45 it wasn't the only dark secret in his life. 03:47 He discovered, to his horror, that Heinrich Himmler, 03:50 the infamous director of the death camps, 03:53 was his godfather. Imagine: thinking one thing 03:56 about your origins all your life, and then discovering 04:00 the horrible truth: your birth was a part of 04:04 a systematic eugenics program. Thousands of Germans, 04:08 after the war, suffered the trauma of making 04:11 that very discovery. [Music] Some of the most 04:14 basic questions people ask during the course of their 04:16 lifetime are things like "Who am I?", and "Why am I here?" 04:26 Anybody who lives long enough and gives life even a few 04:28 moments of serious thought is going to ask those kinds 04:32 of questions. [music] ... 04:44 In his book Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy presents 04:46 a Russian aristocrat by the name of Konstantin 04:49 Levin who asks three essential questions: (1) What am I? 04:54 (2) Where am I?, and (3) Why am I here? 05:03 As the story goes, Konstantin was looking at his estate 05:06 when he suddenly wonders: what does it all mean? 05:10 "When these people are all dead, and I'm dead, too - 05:13 what will all of this mean?" I had a conversation once 05:17 with a philophosy professor in London, England once told 05:20 me that philosophers still wrestle with the big 05:22 questions. I said "Michael, what are those 05:24 big questions?" And he told me: "Here are the big questions 05:26 we are trying to get to the bottom of. 05:29 Who am I? Why am I here? 05:32 There's something in the human heart that cries 05:35 desperately to know what life is all about. 05:38 What a waste to live here without knowing why you're 05:41 here and how you're supposed to spend your time. 05:45 Most people wander through life not knowing what their 05:48 life really means. And then, when it's too late 05:53 they discover what they could have done. 05:56 So let me ask you: how, exactly, are you supposed to 06:00 live your life if you don't know why you're here or where 06:03 you come from? Richard Dawkins, the famous 06:07 Oxford zoologist and atheist, believes quite strongly that 06:10 he's got the answer. He says that we are cosmic 06:13 accidents created by chance through the unconscious 06:17 mechanism of random mutation and natural selection. 06:20 In other words, more conscious thought and purpose 06:23 went into somebody scribbling some graffiti under a bridge 06:27 than went into the creation of you and me - or the whole 06:30 universe even. But look at the world around 06:33 you: everything seems to have a purpose. 06:36 Ears have purpose, the brain of a dolphin has a purpose, 06:39 the sun has a purpose, the DNA of a flower has purpose, 06:44 and yet we're being asked to believe that everything 06:46 around us is an accident and has no purpose at all? 06:51 After more than a century of evolutionary theory being 06:54 taught in the classroom, millions and millions 06:57 of Americans still don't believe it. 07:01 Most of us still believe that God purposely created us - 07:04 in His image. All the hypotheses and 07:07 speculations out there about there being a "the selfish 07:10 gene," or about "natural selection," or about 07:13 primordial soup - just don't make the same kind of sense 07:17 found in the first words of the Bible: Genesis 1:1 says, 07:23 "n the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" 07:28 You know, in those few words, we have a radically different 07:32 perspective on the question of life than the stuff we 07:35 learned in high school biology. 07:37 Are we really just the chance product of cold cosmic forces 07:40 who never even saw us coming? Or are we the purposeful 07:44 creation of a loving God who made us, as the Bible says, 07:49 in His own image? There's quite a stark 07:52 contrast between those two views. 07:55 Guntram Weber thought he had it pretty bad, having 07:58 Heinrich Himmler as his godfather. 08:01 But at least his life had some sort of misguided design 08:04 to it. As bad as the picture was, 08:06 I think it's even worse to be told that your 08:08 great-great-great-great-grand father was a single-celled 08:13 organism coming out of a primordial soup. 08:16 Suddenly, your life has got no kind of meaning at all. 08:21 Now let me ask you this question: Can a painting of a 08:25 water lily suddenly become an actual water lily? 08:30 Are you sure you know the answer to that question? 08:34 I'll bring that answer to you in just a moment. 08:39 [Music] 08:47 When you hear the word 'heaven' what comes 08:49 to your mind? If it's little more than harps 08:52 and clouds my guess is you might not be too excited 08:54 about spending an eternity there! 08:56 But the Bible has good news for you! 08:59 Heaven is a very real place for real people! 09:01 And God has great things in store for you there. 09:04 If you'd like to know what the Bible says about heaven, let me 09:07 send you a booklet called, 'Good As It Gets' 09:09 It's absolutely FREE. Just call (800) 253-3000 and ask 09:14 for "As Good As It Gets." If the line's busy, do keep 09:18 on trying. You can write to 09:20 It Is Written, P.O. Box 6, Chattanooga, TN 37401, 09:25 and we'll mail a free copy to your address in North America. 09:28 Our toll-free number is 1 (800) 253-3000 , 09:32 and our web address is ItIsWritten.com. 09:39 [Music] Time for today's 09:56 Bible question and thanks for submitting Bible questions to 09:58 us at It Is Written. How can a person really 10:01 believe the Bible is true? It was written years ago, it 10:05 has been copied so many times, it was written by 10:08 a lot of different people and those people wrote different 10:11 parts of the Bible at different times. 10:14 Help me believe the Bible is believable. 10:18 Great question. Thank you. 10:20 I'll do my best. You know what's funny? 10:22 There are historical books that not many people question 10:25 when it comes to authenticity. 10:27 Let me explain this a bit. A historian named Tacitus 10:31 wrote The Annals of Imperial Rome. 10:33 Few people question its accuracy or its veracity, 10:37 even though what is available today comes from a copy and 10:41 doesn't NEARLY date back to the original. 10:43 Now I'm not knocking Tacitus at all - just pointing out 10:48 that there's a bit of a double standard when it comes 10:50 to considering the accuracy of the Bible. 10:53 Now there are several reasons you can trust the Bible. 10:56 I'll name just a few. Historically it stands up. 10:59 Luke, who wrote Luke and the Book of Acts, is a very 11:02 accurate historian, and the historical details found in 11:06 what he wrote stand the test of thorough scrutiny. 11:10 Archaeology has validated the Bible again and again. 11:13 On numerous occasions it has been said that portions of 11:16 the Bible couldn't be trusted because they couldn't be 11:18 validated by the archaeological record. 11:21 But again and again archaeologists have found 11:24 records of cities or other evidences that show the Bible 11:28 record was accurate after all. 11:31 It has happened many, many times. 11:34 Then there are the manuscripts. 11:36 There are hundreds of old manuscripts or portions of 11:39 manuscripts that show us that what has come down to us 11:42 today is consistent with what was written hundreds and 11:45 hundreds of years ago. Tthe Dead Sea Scrolls, 11:49 discovered in the late 1940s and early 1950s are 11:51 compelling evidence that the Bible is legitimate. 11:55 They date back as far back as before the time of Christ, 11:59 and they show us that the Bible we read today is 12:01 fundamentally the same as what was written way back 12:04 then. Now the ‘differences' that 12:07 exist in manuscripts are generally so small that 12:10 they're just irrelevant. You don't find a manuscript 12:14 where Jesus says He is not the Son of God, or where 12:17 Christ is teaching something bizarre. 12:20 And consider prophecy. Many prophecies of the Bible 12:22 are being fulfilled and this demonstrates I think, 12:24 conclusively, that the Bible can be trusted. 12:28 When you've got predictions made that name a king before 12:30 he is born or that name a certain invader or conquerer 12:34 before he is born and then these things come to pass... 12:37 When you have got all those prophecies about Jesus coming 12:40 to the world one saying He would be crucified, another 12:43 saying not a bone would be broken, another saying He 12:45 would be born in Bethlehem, another saying He would die 12:48 in dishonour, another saying He would be rejected by the 12:51 ones He came to save, and on and on... 12:55 You've got a real problem if you want to argue against the 12:58 inspiration of the Bible. What are you going to do with 13:01 all that evidence? But you know what? 13:06 At the end of the day we accept the Bible by faith. 13:09 The Bible's critics do raise fair questions at times - 13:12 sometimes questions aren't very easy to answer, 13:15 especially to everybody's satisfaction. 13:17 But there's enough clear - what I would call - 13:20 "evidence" for us to know that the Bible really is the 13:24 word of God. You can accept it by faith. 13:26 Not blind faith, but reasonable, studied faith. 13:31 There are many, many good reasons to trust the Bible. 13:33 So many I"m not sure how someone can really 13:38 be confident in rejecting the Bible. 13:41 If there's a question you would like answered, pleae 13:43 send it to me at ItIsWritten.com. 13:45 I'll do my very best to get your question answered. 13:51 [Music] 13:56 You know, one of the great puzzles of modern science is 13:59 the question of life itself: where, exactly, did it come 14:03 from? How did these chemical 14:07 products - water, carbon, and protein 14:10 how did they make the jump from being - 14:12 well, water, carbon, and protein - to a living thing? 14:16 The idea of a painting of a water lily suddenly 14:20 becoming a real water lily seems impossible. 14:23 How would the painting make that kind of jump? 14:26 It's not just a small tweak here and there and then 14:28 suddenly the painting comes to life! 14:31 It just doesn't seem feasible. 14:33 But the old, old story you find the Bible DOES seem 14:37 feasible. God CREATED life with purpose 14:41 and design - and with human beings, He took special steps 14:45 to make something very special. 14:48 Listen to what the Bible says, in Genesis 2:7 "and the 14:53 LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and 14:57 breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man 15:01 became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). 15:04 I want you to notice the intimacy: it says God 15:07 breathed into our nostrils the breath of life. 15:10 According to the Biblical account, it wasn't an 15:12 accident. Someone who cares deeply 15:15 about our existence put us here on purpose, 15:18 for a reason. Now take that version of 15:21 human origins and contrast it with what the late 15:24 paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould said about human 15:28 origins: He said, "We are here because one odd group of 15:33 fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform 15:37 into legs for terrestrial creatures; because the earth 15:41 never froze entirely during the ice age; because a small 15:46 and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of a 15:49 million years ago, has managed, so far, to survive 15:54 by hook and by crook. We may yearn for a 'higher' 15:58 answer - but none exists." 16:04 I can't imagine anything more hopeless - and when it comes 16:08 to the really important questions in life, it just 16:11 doesn't bring any lasting satisfaction. 16:14 And with all due respect, how could Dr. Gould be so 16:17 certain? He just wasn't there when it 16:19 supposedly happened. He didn't see any of his 16:22 hypothesis take place. Instead, he took a few bits 16:26 of scattered data - a little piece here, a little piece 16:30 there - and then building on a whole bunch of unproven 16:33 assumptions, he cooked up a theory of human origins 16:36 that just doesn't really make sense. 16:39 When I listen to people like Dawkins and Gould, and all 16:42 these other people who seem to insist that life is an 16:44 accident, it reminds me of a passage in the book of Job 16:49 where God asks some pretty tough questions. 16:53 I'm turning to the book of Job, Chapter 38 and verse 4, 16:57 Job 38:4 and it says this, Where were you when I laid 17:03 the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have 17:07 understanding. Who determined its 17:09 measurements? Surely you know or who 17:13 stretched the line upon it? Just try to imagine standing 17:17 in front of God, attempting to answer questions like 17:21 this. And the rest of the chapter 17:23 has a lot more questions. The point of it is really 17:26 pretty simple: none of us were there. 17:28 We're building a theory of human origins from scratch, 17:32 based on a tiny bits of information and a whole lot 17:36 of human arrogance. You know, I've heard people 17:39 say that it's arrogant to suggest that human life is 17:41 special, and that Christians are arrogant to suggest that 17:45 people have a special place on planet earth, but 17:48 sometimes I really have to wonder: when we want to be 17:51 smart enough to think that we think we hold the key to the 17:54 universe, and we're too proud to think that Someone might 17:58 just have a claim on our lives, where does the real 18:03 arrogance lie? And in the view offered by 18:06 Dawkins and Darwin and Gould, the universe doesn't last. 18:11 Follow these guys' theories to their logical conclusion, 18:14 and you get a pretty hopeless picture. 18:17 Eventually, the universe just collapses - and nothing will 18:21 have meant anything. But the story given in the 18:24 Bible bubbless with hope. It admits the sad condition 18:28 of our planet, it explains the pain and suffering we're 18:31 living with, and it holds out a promise that answers the 18:35 toughest questions we can ask. 18:38 To put it simply, God offers us a future. 18:42 Listen to His promise, it's found at the end of the book 18:44 of Isaiah: For, behold, I create new heavens and a new 18:50 earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into 18:53 mind" (Isaiah 65:17). If life were really 18:56 meaningless, I don't think so many people - for so many 18:59 years - would have asked so many questions. 19:02 If you and I are just machines that fell together 19:05 by accident, why would we even care about the meaning 19:08 of life. But if our lives are the 19:11 creation of a loving, caring God, who has our best in 19:14 mind, the questions you've got about life begin to make 19:19 sense. They're kind of a homing 19:21 beacon, steering you back into a relationship with God. 19:25 Now in the book of Ephesians, the Bible says, Ephesians 1, 19:29 He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, 19:33 that we should be holy and without blame before Him...." 19:37 (Eph. 1:4) You didn't just happen: 19:40 you were chosen, and you still are. 19:43 Because of what God did for you at the cross of Calvary, 19:46 you are free to answer the call in your heart and 19:49 rediscover your original purpose. 19:52 Here's another passage found in 2 Timothy 1:9, where the 19:55 Bible tells us that you and I have been called, with a 20:01 holy calling, not according to our works, but according 20:05 to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in 20:08 Christ Jesus before time began." Over and over again, 20:13 the Bible says that you were chosen, you were called 20:17 before the creation of the world. 20:19 There's a reason you wonder about the meaning of your 20:21 life. Dig a little deeper into your 20:23 past, and you're going to make a remarkable discovery: 20:27 your life really does have purpose. 20:31 You were put here intentionally, and there are 20:34 forces at work in this universe to keep you from 20:37 discovering the truth. In a moment, an incredible 20:42 story about two men who found out who they really were. 20:47 [music] It Is Written is a ministry 20:50 dedicated to sharing the gospel around 20:52 the world. God is using It Is Written 20:54 to impact the world. Our television program is only 20:57 one aspect of how we accomplish that goal. 21:00 To discover more about It Is Written, visit our website: 21:02 itiswritten.com, browse the dozens of pages that describe 21:07 what we do and how we're doing it. 21:09 You'll find an archive of past television programs in script 21:11 form and as streaming video and audio files along with many 21:15 other helpful inspirational resources. 21:18 Let's get to know each other better, visit our website: 21:20 itiswritten.com --today. And follow us online, at 21:25 Facebook and Twitter. 21:29 Somebody doesn't want you to know who you really are. 21:33 You know, a little while ago, I came across a remarkable 21:36 story. In the state of Maine, there 21:38 were two men - Gary and Randy - working at the same 21:41 furniture company. Customers and coworkers alike 21:43 couldn't help but notice that they two guys looked a lot 21:46 alike. Both of them had light hair, 21:48 both of them had stocky builds, and both of them wore 21:51 baseball caps and had goatees. 21:54 Their mannerisms and appearance were so much alike that people 21:56 used to ask if they were brothers. 21:58 But of course, they weren't - because if they were 22:00 brothers, they would have grown up together, right? 22:03 Then one day Randy asked Gary if he knew the names of his 22:06 biological parents, and to his surprise, they were the 22:10 same as his biological parents. 22:13 And the fact that they were both adopted really started 22:15 raising some important questions. 22:17 Randy knew that he had a brother out there somewhere, 22:21 and so he asked Gary what his birthday was. 22:24 It was June 10, 1974 - the same year that his brother 22:28 had been born. Now think about this very 22:30 carefully: what are the odds that two brothers actually 22:34 worked together in the same company all those years, and 22:39 didn't realize that they were brothers? 22:41 What twists of fate had to happen to bring them both 22:44 together on the same payroll - and how many days - weeks - 22:49 years , had actually been wasted because they didn't 22:52 realize just how close their family really was? 22:56 And now think about yourself here on planet earth. 23:05 Your heart tells you that your life is important. 23:08 You've got this overwhelming sense that you were put here 23:10 for a reason. You might struggle to know 23:14 what that reason is, but you just can't shake the feeling. 23:20 Maybe at night, you look up at the stars, wondering if 23:22 Somebody is really out there. Maybe, in the quiet moments 23:27 of your life life, you find yourself wanting to talk to 23:30 Someone - wanting to have a relationship. 23:35 In every human heart, there's this feeling that we've been 23:37 disconnected - that we're missing out on the most 23:40 important relationship in the world. 23:42 Some people describe it as feeling a little bit homesick 23:46 - as if we recognize that we really belong somewhere else, 23:49 in a different set of circumstances. 23:52 That feeling, according to the Bible, is universal. 23:55 In Ecclesiastes 3:11, the Bible says that God has put 24:00 eternity in the heart. In the last century and a half, 24:08 there have been a lot of voices telling us that our 24:10 existence doesn't mean anything. 24:14 But after all this time, they're failing to convince 24:17 us. The call in your heart just 24:19 won't go away. New theories of human origins 24:22 have failed to kill the cry of our hearts to know who we 24:25 really are. And who are we? 24:28 We are beings purposefully made in the image of God, who 24:33 promised us eternal life with Him long before the world 24:37 even began. So right now, only one more 24:40 question remains: Are you going to claim your 24:44 meaningful life with God? According to the Bible, it's 24:49 yours for the asking - and when you ask, you're going 24:52 to discover that He's been there all along. 24:55 It's just that maybe you didn't recognize Him. 24:59 But will you recognize Him right now? 25:01 Let's pray. We will thank God that he 25:04 made us for a purpose. He made us in his image 25:09 and he made both you and me so that we might spend eternity 25:13 with him. 25:16 Our Father in heaven, we thank you that we 25:18 are not just accidents. We thank you that life is not 25:21 meaningless, but that it is full of purpose. 25:24 And we pray claiming your purpose for our life right 25:28 now. You made us and not just to 25:31 live and die, but you made us to live on this earth 25:36 and then die or not, live eternally with you forever in 25:40 the place where it is good where the flowers don't ever 25:43 fade and when we will enjoy and where we will enjoy 25:48 meaning and purpose beyond our ability right now to 25:52 comprehend and so we thank you that you are our father 25:55 and that we are yours. We belong to you and we are 26:00 glad and we pray in Jesus' name, amen. 26:16 [Music] 26:40 When you hear the word 'heaven' what comes to your mind? 26:43 If it's little more than harps and clouds. 26:45 my guess is you might not be too excited about spending an 26:48 eternity there! But the Bible has good news for 26:50 you! Heaven is a very real place for 26:53 real people! And God has great things in 26:56 store for you there. If you'd like to know what the 26:58 Bible says about heaven, let me send you a booklet called, 27:01 'As Good As It Gets.' It's absolutely FREE. 27:04 Just call (800) 253-3000 and ask for "As Good As It Gets." 27:09 If the line's busy, do keep on trying. 27:12 You can write to It Is Written, P.O. Box 6, 27:15 Chattanooga, TN 37401, and we'll mail a free copy to 27:19 your address in North America. It Is Written is a faith-based 27:23 ministry supported by people like you. 27:25 Your help makes it possible for us to share God's good news 27:28 with the world. Your tax-deductible gift can be 27:31 sent to the address on your screen, or you can support us 27:34 online at ItIsWritten.com. Thank you for your continued 27:38 prayerful support. Our toll-free number is 27:40 1 (800) 253-3000 , and our web address 27:44 is ItIsWritten.com. [Music] 27:48 Thanks for joining me today. And remember It Is Written: 27:52 man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that 27:56 proceeds from the mouth of God. |
Revised 2016-05-16