Participants:
Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000040S
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00:00 - Today, we're gonna go back to
00:02 one of the four horsemen of atheism 00:03 to finish something |I started on a previous show 00:05 because I'm convinced that at least 00:07 one of these famous atheists really 00:09 didn't understand what he was reading, 00:11 and maybe he even lied about it. 00:14 [country blues music] 00:35 welcome to "Authentic," she show where 00:37 we examine what it means to live a genuine human existence, 00:41 which means that we unpack all kinds of topics, 00:44 including things like ethics and psychology 00:46 and epistemology and faith and, 00:48 well, just about everything under the sun, 00:51 and what we're gonna do today is 00:52 pick up on a topic that I just kinda 00:54 left dangling on another episode, 00:56 and it was, well, frustrating 00:57 because in my typical blabbermouth fashion, 01:00 I ran outta time before I could 01:01 really finish what I was trying to say. 01:04 So, if you missed the first part of this discussion, 01:07 you might want to head on over to our website, vop.com, 01:11 and look for "Hitchens Wasn't Great, Part One," 01:14 and that way, I won't have to review 01:16 everything from last episode in this episode, 01:19 which would mean that I run outta time yet again. 01:22 What I will do is set the table by saying this, 01:26 what we're talking about is 01:27 Christopher Hitchens' bestselling book, 01:29 "God is Not Great," a book that still sells to this day. 01:33 Now unfortunately, Hitchens died in 2011. 01:36 So, he can't defend himself against what I'm gonna say. 01:39 I freely admit that, not that he would 01:41 ever listen to this show, 01:43 but it's not really Hitchens that really concerns me 01:46 as much as the people who might actually read his book 01:49 and think he's giving an accurate picture 01:52 of religion or Christianity or the Bible because he's not. 01:58 Listen, I can absolutely respect an atheist 02:00 who is calm and well reasoned 02:02 and is honest about the subject, 02:04 and I have a number of good friends 02:05 who absolutely fall into that category, 02:08 but Hitchens appears to be less than honest, 02:11 or at least if that's not the case, 02:13 then he's nowhere near as well informed 02:15 as he thought he was, and we kinda looked at that 02:18 a little bit on another episode. 02:20 So, you might want to go back and give that a listen. 02:23 Today, I wanna pick up with his chapter 02:25 on the reliability of the Old Testament 02:27 because he seems to be making a caricature of God, 02:30 and only presenting snippets of information 02:33 that are removed from the context 02:35 of the rest of the Bible. 02:36 I believe I gave you a few examples last time 02:39 and then we zeroed in on the way that 02:41 he ridicules the great moral contribution 02:44 that the Hebrew people made to Western civilization, 02:48 and that's The Ten Commandments, 02:50 and it's here that we really find some holes 02:52 in the way that Hitchens thinks. 02:55 Some of you will remember 02:56 that he called the first three commandments 02:58 a prolonged throat-clearing by God, 03:00 and so we took a little time 03:02 and asked a really important question. 03:06 If God is real, and I happen to think he is, 03:08 if God is real, do these three commandments 03:11 make really good sense? 03:13 And the answer was, well, yes, they do. 03:16 If there is a God and only one God, 03:18 and he is loving, then the prohibition 03:21 against serving something or someone else makes sense. 03:24 You're actually jeopardizing your own wellbeing 03:26 if you ignore that fact. 03:28 The Creator God, according to the Bible, 03:31 is the only source and only sustainer of life, 03:33 and that makes it very important 03:35 to be clear about the way you're gong to relate to him. 03:39 Then we saw that a prohibition 03:41 against taking God's name in vain 03:43 isn't really just about careless language. 03:46 It's about professing publicly to be God's child, 03:49 and then making a mockery of his name or his character 03:52 through the way you behave, 03:54 which was interestingly a huge part 03:57 of Christopher Hitchens' complaint against religious people. 04:00 He pointed out that the religious 04:02 have behaved abysmally over the centuries, 04:05 and I don't deny that. 04:07 In fact, people who have listened to me over the years 04:09 know full well I openly admit it. 04:11 It's true. We have misbehaved. 04:13 And if you take the time to read the Bible honestly, 04:16 you quickly discover that the Bible 04:18 never tries to hide the 04:19 embarrassing behavior of God's people. 04:22 In fact, their bad behavior is 04:25 one of the biggest themes in the book. 04:27 So, Hitchens is completely right about this. 04:30 There are a lot of very toxic religious people, 04:34 and I strongly suspect, by the tone of his book, 04:37 that Mr. Hitchens had been exposed 04:39 to more than a few of them, 04:42 but in condemning the bad behavior of God's people, 04:44 Hitchens is actually underlining the validity 04:47 of the third commandment, which tells us that 04:50 taking the Lord's name in vain is a sin. 04:52 What that commandment is really driving at 04:54 at a fundamental level is people who 04:56 pretend to represent God in front of the world, 04:59 but then go out there and live like the devil. 05:01 That brings dishonor to God's name. 05:04 Hitchens' protest underlines that 05:07 the commandment is valid. 05:08 It serves an important purpose, 05:11 but then he goes on to the fourth commandment, 05:13 which for some reason, he didn't lump together 05:15 with the first three, and this is the commandment 05:18 that deals with the Sabbath. 05:20 Here's what he says about the Sabbath. 05:23 He says, "The fourth commandment insists 05:26 on the observance of a holy Sabbath day, 05:28 and forbids all believers and their slaves 05:30 and domestic servants to perform 05:32 any work in the course of it. 05:34 It is added that, as was said in the book of Genesis, 05:37 God made all the world in six days 05:39 and rested on the seventh, 05:41 leaving room for speculation 05:42 as to what he did on the eighth day." 05:46 I realize that I'm probably straining at gnats here, 05:49 but that last statement kinds gives you an idea 05:52 of the sarcastic flavor of the whole book. 05:55 Hitchens is not a well-reasoned rebuttal of faith 05:57 and definitely has the feel of a personal attack. 06:00 I mean, there's absolutely no point in saying, 06:03 we don't know what happened on the eighth day 06:05 because the pattern shown in the bible is that 06:07 once the seventh day, the day of rest was over, 06:09 the weekly cycle just started over again. 06:12 What Hitchens is trying to do 06:14 is make his readers think the story is completely silly 06:17 before they ever have a chance to read it, 06:19 but now that I've lodged that complaint against Hitchens, 06:22 let me point out the real problem. 06:25 He simply doesn't understand the nature of the Sabbath 06:28 because he doesn't read it in light 06:31 of the rest of the Bible. 06:32 We have hundreds and hundreds of pages 06:35 of very important commentary in the bible 06:37 on what those commandments mean, what they represent. 06:40 But, Hitchens conveniently ignores all of that, 06:43 even though he insists quite firmly 06:45 he knows what the Bible says. 06:48 So, let me just put the question like this. 06:51 What in the world is wrong with a God 06:54 who wants you to have a day off, 06:55 who wants you to use a little time each week 06:58 to invest in a close and personal relationship with him. 07:02 That's the point of the Sabbath. 07:04 For six days, human beings do 07:06 what human beings need to do, 07:07 but on the seventh, God says, 07:09 listen, I want you to understand that 07:11 at the end of the day, I've got your back. 07:13 You don't have to earn my love. You already have it. 07:16 You don't have to win the kingdom of Heaven 07:18 through your personal efforts 07:20 because I've already won it for you. 07:22 I made you. 07:23 I gave you life, and I'm eager to spend time with you. 07:27 The Sabbath is a day where you can 07:28 quit trying and just be, and honestly, 07:32 that's the picture you get when you study this commandment 07:35 throughout the rest of the Bible. 07:36 I mean, just consider the way that 07:38 Jesus taught the fourth commandment. 07:40 When the Pharisees condemned his disciples 07:43 for picking a few heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath, 07:45 as if they were performing some kind of 07:47 strenuous farm labor, here's what Jesus says. 07:52 "And he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, 07:55 and not man for the Sabbath." 07:59 And then on another occasion, he told his disciples, 08:01 "He who has seen me has seen the Father," 08:04 which completely shuts down all those people 08:07 who say that the God of the Old Testament 08:09 was harsh and severe and completely different from Jesus. 08:13 From the very beginning, the Sabbath was created 08:16 as a gift for the human race, 08:19 and you really really have to do 08:20 a lot of mental gymnastics to find something wrong 08:23 with a God who gives you the gift of rest. 08:26 I mean, just think about the way the world 08:28 beats you up day in and day out, 08:30 and ask yourself how many times you've been glad 08:32 that you work around the clock seven days a week. 08:35 That's not how you were designed, 08:38 and the God who made you, the God who loves you 08:40 recognizes this, and he simply asks you 08:43 to come and rest with him one day a week. 08:46 It's a mandatory day off. 08:49 How in the world anybody could be 08:51 angry about that is beyond me, 08:53 and frankly, I think it means 08:54 you might have the wrong perspective 08:56 about God in the first place, 08:59 but now it's time for a break, so don't go away. 09:01 I'm gonna take a little rest. 09:02 You take a little rest, 09:04 and then we got a lot more stuff to talk about. 09:08 [dramatic music] 09:09 - [Narrator] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues, 09:13 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 09:17 If you've ever read Daniel or Revelation 09:20 and come away scratching your head, you're not alone. 09:23 Our free Focus on Prophecy guides are designed 09:26 to help you unlock the mysteries of the Bible 09:28 and deepen your understanding of God's plan 09:30 for you and our world. 09:32 Study online or request them by mail 09:34 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 09:39 - You know, it occurs to me that 09:40 it might be really useful to look at 09:42 how The Ten Commandments are actually structured 09:44 because that might make all the difference in the world 09:47 when it comes to understanding them. 09:50 Let me show you something in a story 09:51 from the New Testament, where the religious leaders 09:54 of the day were trying to trip Jesus up 09:55 because they saw him as a threat to their own authority. 09:58 Here's what the Bible says. 10:00 "Then one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, 10:03 testing him, and saying, "Teacher, which is 10:06 the great commandment in the law?" 10:08 Now, listen carefully to what comes next. 10:10 "Jesus said to him, "You shall love 10:13 the Lord your God with all your heart, 10:15 with all your soul and with all your mind." 10:17 This is the first and great commandment. 10:20 And the second is like it: 10:21 "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 10:24 On these two commandments hang 10:26 all the Law and the Prophets." 10:29 Now, I've heard some people say that 10:31 Jesus was replacing the Old Testament with that statement, 10:34 as if the Old Testament had nothing to do with love, 10:38 but look at this carefully and you find 10:40 the two tables of The Ten Commandments 10:42 being explained in a world that had 10:44 long forgotten why those commandments 10:46 were given in the first place. 10:48 The moral principles found in the decalogue 10:51 were simple and easy to understand, 10:54 but the Pharisees had made them 10:55 unbearably complicated and severe. 10:59 They were so paranoid about breaking the law, 11:02 which is what led to the Babylonian captivity 11:05 that they added 600 extra rules 11:07 so that you couldn't even get close 11:09 to breaking the commandments. 11:11 What they did was to create a legalistic atmosphere 11:14 that was really really hard to live in. 11:18 So, when somebody asked Jesus 11:20 what the greatest of the commandments was, 11:22 he gave a remarkable answer. 11:24 There are two. 11:26 One of them is to love God 11:28 and the other is to love your neighbor as yourself. 11:31 What Jesus gave us was a recipe 11:33 for an authentic human existence, 11:35 an easy way to live in harmony 11:37 with God and your fellow human beings, 11:40 and that's exactly what you find in The Ten Commandments. 11:43 The first four deal with your relationship with God. 11:47 Do not have other gods. 11:48 Do not worship idols. 11:50 Do not take God's name in vain, 11:52 and spend the sabbath day resting with God. 11:55 That's how you show your love for God. 11:58 Then the next six commandments outline 12:00 a peaceful coexistence with your neighbors. 12:02 Honor your parents. 12:03 Do not murder. 12:05 Do not commit adultery. 12:06 Do not steal. 12:08 Do not bear false witness and do not covet. 12:10 That's how you love your neighbor. 12:13 What Jesus is telling us is how to live with love. 12:17 You know, I've heard a lot of people grumble 12:19 that God is just trying to ruin our fun 12:21 with these 10 rules, but try to imagine a world 12:24 where everybody just did those things. 12:26 Nobody steals. Nobody kills. 12:28 Nobody takes what doesn't belong to them. 12:30 Nobody cheats on a spouse and nobody lies. 12:34 I mean, imagine a world that isn't driven by greed and envy, 12:37 where people actually respect each other. 12:40 What in the world would be wrong with that? 12:44 Absolutely nothing. 12:46 What we get in the moral law of God 12:48 is actually a picture of what God himself is like. 12:51 God says, I want you to respect life 12:53 because I respect life. 12:56 I want you to be honest because I'm honest. 12:58 I want you to respect covenant relationships 13:01 like marriage because I respect covenant relationships. 13:05 What God does in The Ten Commandments 13:07 is reveal himself, his own character, 13:10 and he invites us to be remade in his image. 13:14 So, honestly, once you start to see that, 13:17 it's hard to understand how anybody 13:19 could hate the commandments unless they had 13:21 no interest in being moral. 13:23 Now, I completely understand. 13:25 Lots of atheists are really good moral people. 13:28 They really are, and Hitchens mentions that, 13:31 but it's kind of beside the point 13:33 because what Hitchens is doing is 13:35 lambasting these 10 moral principles 13:37 as if there's something inherently wrong with them, 13:40 and it's hard to see how that could possibly be true. 13:44 I mean, here's the way that Hitchens 13:47 characterizes The Ten Commandments. 13:49 He says, "It would be harder to find an easier proof 13:52 that religion is man-made. 13:54 There is first, the monarchical growling 13:57 about respect and fear, accompanied by a 13:59 stern reminder of omnipotence and limitless revenge, 14:03 of the sort with which a Babylonian or Assyrian emperor 14:07 might have ordered the scribes to begin a proclamation." 14:12 Honestly, this is the part of Hitchens 14:14 that's kinda mind-boggling. 14:16 He's reading the same ten commandments that 14:19 I've been reading to you, and he sees them 14:21 as the unreasonable demand of a vengeful God, 14:25 which tells me that either Hitchens 14:27 never read the whole Bible or he was so blinded 14:30 by his own anger over some issue, 14:32 something that happened that it made him 14:34 conveniently ignore the rest of the story 14:36 or another possibility, he's just being downright dishonest, 14:43 and because he's dead, I guess we can't ask him about it, 14:45 but I guess what I want for you 14:46 is an honest understanding of 14:48 what the Bible actually teaches, 14:49 and Christopher Hitchens is not 14:52 an honest introduction to the subject. 14:55 Okay, let's keep forging ahead now 14:56 because we have a little more time 14:58 and Hitchens does make a few other assertions 15:01 that really make no sense. 15:03 After listing The Ten Commandments 15:05 in a rather disdainful tone, here's what he says. 15:08 Let me just read the whole quote to you first 15:10 and then we'll circle back and just 15:12 bring up a couple of points. 15:13 He writes, "But however little one thinks 15:16 of the Jewish tradition, it is surely insulting 15:19 to the people of Moses to imagine 15:21 that they had come this far under the impression 15:23 that murder, adultery, theft and perjury were permissible. 15:27 The same unanswerable point could be made 15:30 in a different way about the alleged 15:31 later preachings of Jesus: when he tells 15:34 the story of the Good Samaritan on that Jericho road 15:37 he is speaking of a man who acted 15:39 in a humane and generous manner without, obviously, 15:41 ever having heard of Christianity, 15:44 let alone having followed the pitiless teachings 15:46 of the god of Moses, who never mentions 15:49 human solidarity and compassion at all." 15:53 well, here's what I need to ask. 15:55 How in the world does Hitchens come to the conclusion 15:58 that the moral law of God was suddenly 16:00 sprung on the Jews as a huge surprise? 16:03 You'd have to be willfully ignorant of the context 16:05 leading up to Exodus 20 to come to that conclusion 16:09 because violations of those same moral principles 16:12 are roundly condemned in the previous book, Genesis. 16:16 Cain was condemned for murder. 16:19 Jacob was disciplined for deceiving his family. 16:21 Sexual immorality was considered a sin and so on 16:25 for hundreds of years leading up to 16:27 the presentation of the tables of stone at Mount Sinai. 16:31 These things have always been wrong, 16:33 and they've always been wrong 16:35 because God has always been there, 16:37 and the moral guidelines in the law 16:39 are a picture of what God is like, and honestly, 16:43 it takes quite a bit of imagination 16:45 to pretend that the Hebrews had 16:47 no concept of sin before they received the tables of stone. 16:52 I mean, if you want a really good summary 16:54 of what sin is, you'll find it in I John 3:4, 16:57 where it says, "Whoever commits sin 16:59 also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness." 17:03 The old King James says, 17:04 "Sin is the transgression of the law." 17:08 And if there's one thing that's abundantly clear 17:10 in the Bible, it's the fact that 17:12 sin existed well before Moses and well before Mount Sinai. 17:16 So, if sin existed, there must have been a moral law 17:21 that people were breaking, 17:24 but you know what Hitchens says 17:25 actually goes deeper than that, 17:26 and I do have to take another quick break, so hang on. 17:29 I'll be right back after this. 17:33 [upbeat music] 17:34 - [Announcer] Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 17:36 we're committed to creating top quality programming 17:37 for the whole family, 17:39 like our audio adventure series, "Discovery Mountain." 17:42 "Discovery Mountain" is a Bible-based program 17:44 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 17:47 Your family will enjoy the faith-building stories 17:49 from this small mountain Summer camp and town. 17:52 With 24 seasonal episodes every year 17:55 and fresh content every week, 17:57 there's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 18:04 - Just before the break, I was looking at 18:05 this unfortunate statement in Hitchens' book 18:07 regarding The Ten Commandments, where he wrote this. 18:11 "But however little one thinks of the Jewish tradition, 18:15 it is surely insulting to the people of Moses 18:17 to imagine that they had come this far under the impression 18:20 that murder, adultery, theft and perjury were permissible." 18:25 The answer to that silly objection is pretty simple. 18:29 It's not true. 18:30 It's impossible to read the whole Bible 18:32 and come to the conclusion that murder, adultery, 18:35 theft and perjury were ever permissible. 18:37 So what he's doing is creating another strawman argument. 18:41 He's stating something that was never true, 18:43 never taught in the Bible, and then 18:45 he's triumphantly knocking that argument over 18:47 like a pigeon strutting around on a chessboard 18:50 kicking over the pieces. 18:52 He might be causing a lotta damage, 18:53 but he's certainly not winning the game 18:55 and he's not even playing chess, 18:59 and I guess what really bothers me about this 19:01 is the way that Mr. Hitchens will not give God 19:04 the same benefit of the doubt that he 19:06 undoubtedly would give to a secular government. 19:10 Just because everybody knows something is wrong 19:13 doesn't mean that that wrong never needs to be codified, 19:16 that it never needs to be stated 19:18 because human beings are terribly flawed 19:21 and we are forever making huge messes. 19:24 We all know murder is wrong, 19:26 but some people still go and do it anyway. 19:28 We know stealing is wrong, but some people 19:30 still go out there and do it. 19:32 Yet, nobody's suggesting that we don't need 19:35 a criminal code or law books 19:37 because it's really really obvious that we do. 19:41 Look, when God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, 19:44 they had just come out of long years of slavery 19:47 while being immersed in a foreign culture 19:49 with different gods. 19:51 As he led the Israelites out of bondage, 19:53 he established a covenant with them, basically saying, 19:56 I will be your God and you will be my people, 20:00 and the moral law of God was the basis of that covenant. 20:03 It describes what it means to be the people of God. 20:08 God expected them to reflect 20:10 his character and his values. 20:12 It was only appropriate at that point in history 20:15 to restate those principles and encode them in stone, 20:19 the same way you spell things out when you sign a contract. 20:23 Everybody knows that you should be honest 20:25 when you sell a house, but you still 20:28 pull out a document that spells out 20:30 exactly what your agreement means. 20:33 Even a neophyte in history knows 20:35 that you have to review and restate 20:37 the law of the land more than once 20:38 because those laws are the guidelines 20:40 that hold civilization together, 20:42 and The Ten Commandments were the laws 20:44 that held the nation of Israel together. 20:47 None of those moral principles came 20:49 as a surprise to anybody, 20:50 and so Hitchens is frankly arguing against something 20:53 that was never ever true, 20:56 and when it comes to the story of the Good Samaritan, 20:59 wow, did Hitchens ever miss the boat. 21:01 When Jesus told that story, he was pointing out 21:04 that the people who live next door to Judea, 21:07 the Samaritans, the people who didn't have 21:09 the same privileges as Jerusalem, 21:12 the people that were despised by those 21:14 who profess to teach the true religion of God, 21:18 well Jesus was pointing out that 21:19 the Samaritans understood God's moral principles 21:22 better than they did. 21:24 The Hebrews, the Jews in Jerusalem 21:27 had made a perversion of the law 21:29 because they made it loveless, 21:30 but the Samaritans they despised as unclean garbage 21:34 were actually closer to God than they were 21:36 because they knew how to love. 21:38 They were keeping the law while the Jews were breaking it. 21:42 Remember, Jesus said that the easiest summary of the law 21:46 is to love the Lord your God 21:48 with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. 21:52 If anything, the Samaritan in the parable 21:55 is naturally keeping the moral law 21:58 while the professed children of God 22:00 are defiantly breaking it, 22:02 and that's the point of the story. 22:06 And do you know, I guess it all boils down to this. 22:07 If you wanna read an atheist, at least read an honest one. 22:11 Hitchens' book, to be honest, is more than disappointing, 22:15 and Mr. Hitchens obviously had an ax to grind. 22:19 He plays loose with the facts. 22:20 He makes unfair caricatures out of the biblical teachings. 22:24 He rips things out of context. 22:26 He ignores parts of the Bible 22:27 that completely contradict him, 22:29 and he indulges in ridicule, sarcasm and insults. 22:32 This is a really sloppy book, 22:36 and the fact that Mr. Hitchens calls 22:38 the God of Moses pitiless and devoid of compassion 22:42 is probably the biggest misrepresentation of them all. 22:46 I mean, let's just consider the most 22:48 famous verse in the whole Bible, which says, 22:50 "For God so loved the world that he gave 22:53 his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him 22:56 should not perish, but have everlasting life. 22:59 For God did not send his Son into the world 23:01 to condemn the world, but that the world 23:03 through him might be saved." 23:06 Now, tell me again about this 23:08 so-called pitiless God, Mr. Hitchens. 23:11 The fact is, you completely ignored 23:12 the biggest theme in the Bible, 23:14 and I think that for just a few moments, 23:16 I'm gonna let God himself refute 23:18 what you tried to make people believe. 23:20 I John Chapter 4 says this, 23:23 "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; 23:26 and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 23:29 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 23:33 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, 23:36 that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, 23:38 that we might live through him." 23:41 And then you have this statement from the Old Testament, 23:44 the book of Isaiah. 23:46 "For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, 23:49 but my kindness shall not depart from you, 23:51 nor shall my covenant of peace be removed." Says the Lord, 23:54 who has mercy on you." 23:57 Then you got this one from the book of Romans, which says, 24:00 "For when we were still without strength, 24:02 in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 24:04 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; 24:07 yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 24:10 But God demonstrates his own love toward us, 24:13 in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." 24:19 So no, Mr. Hitchens, you've been less than honest 24:21 about the tone and tenor of the Bible, 24:23 and I'll be right back after this. 24:28 [soft music] 24:29 - [Announcer] Are you searching for answers 24:31 to life's toughest questions, like, 24:33 where is God when we suffer? 24:35 Can I find real happiness or 24:37 is there any hope for our chaotic world? 24:40 The Discover Bible Guides will help you 24:41 find the answers you're looking for. 24:43 Visit us at BibleStudies.com or 24:46 give us a call at 888-456-7933 24:51 for your free Discover Bible Guides. 24:54 Study online on our secure website 24:57 or have the free guides mailed right to your home. 24:59 There is never a cost or obligation. 25:02 The Discover Bible Guides are our free gift to you. 25:05 Find answers in guides like, 25:07 Does My Life Really Matter to God and 25:09 "A Second Chance at Life." 25:11 You'll find answers to the things 25:12 that matter most to you in each 25:14 of the 26 Discover Bible Guides. 25:16 Visit BibleStudies.com and begin your journey today 25:20 to discover answers to life's deepest questions. 25:28 - You know, it's really too bad that 25:29 Christopher Hitchens is gone now 25:31 because there was something about the world of religion 25:33 that made him really angry about God 25:35 and he spent a lot of his time sort of fighting God, 25:39 blaming God for whatever that something was. 25:42 I know that his religious friends 25:44 tried to reason with him on occasion 25:46 because he says as much in his book 25:48 and while he valued those peoples' friendship, 25:51 he never accepted what they were trying to tell him, 25:54 and now he's gone, so we leave Mr. Hitchens in God's hands, 25:58 but maybe you've been led to believe 26:00 that the God of the Bible is angry 26:02 and vindictive and unreasonable. 26:04 Maybe the behavior of a religious person 26:06 has made you more convinced that that's true. 26:10 Listen, if you wanna try and figure out 26:12 what God is like from other people, 26:13 I can guarantee that the church is gonna 26:16 make a mess of it over and over and over. 26:19 I mean, the Christian church has 26:20 burned heretics at the stake. 26:22 We have driven so-called unbelievers out of their homes. 26:26 We have treated other people as less than human 26:29 and we have been involved in very serious scandals, 26:34 which is why I want to encourage you 26:35 to just go to the source. 26:37 Just read the Bible for yourself, 26:39 not what people say about it, 26:41 but actually pick it up and read it for yourself. 26:44 If you want a little help getting 26:45 started with that, we'll help you. 26:47 Just visit vop.com and click on the study tab 26:51 near the top of the page. 26:53 I honestly think you'll be delighted 26:54 with the free resources we have 26:56 to help you read the Bible for all its worth. 26:59 We've got free study courses that will 27:01 take you through all the major themes of the Bible, 27:04 and right now, more than a million people 27:06 have gone through this, finding meaningful answers, 27:09 and if you've got a Bible question, 27:11 consider hopping onto our other website, 27:13 BibleInfo.com to see if maybe we've already answered it, 27:17 and if the answer's not there, 27:19 if we haven't tackled it yet, ask us your question. 27:22 We'll see if we can deal with it, 27:24 but please, be honest about your search. 27:28 Be honest with what the Bible actually says 27:30 and what it doesn't say. 27:32 Pick up a copy of the book and read it for yourself. 27:35 I think you're gonna be surprised by what's in there. 27:38 Thanks for joining me again. 27:39 I'm Shawn Boonstra and this has been 27:41 another edition of "Authentic." 27:44 [country blues music] |
Revised 2022-02-16