Participants:
Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000066S
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00:01 - How in the world would a preacher ever find
00:02 something good to say about people who publicly desecrated 00:06 a Bible and did it in a really shameful manner? 00:10 [gentle music] 00:31 The other day I was perusing a Twitter timeline, 00:33 which isn't exactly known as a forum 00:35 for intellectual pursuit, but I did come across a video 00:39 of protestors on the West Coast snatching a Bible 00:42 away from somebody and then playing soccer with it 00:45 on the sidewalk. 00:46 By the end of the video, the mangled Bible 00:49 was tossed into an outhouse, 00:50 much to the delight of the people 00:52 who seemed to hate the book so much, 00:55 but you know, as primitive and ignorant 00:57 as their behavior was, it was the thread of responses 01:01 that actually got my attention. 01:03 People were posting that the Bible is a document 01:06 that causes oppression and denies people personal freedom, 01:09 and it was time these people said 01:11 to just get rid of the Bible. 01:13 And I guess what I found ironic about that 01:17 was the fact that the freedoms Americans enjoy, 01:20 the ones you find in the amendments 01:21 to the American Constitution. 01:24 Well, they were largely inspired by the Bible 01:27 in the first place. 01:28 I mean, there were other influences 01:30 that contributed to the building of the American republic 01:33 from the philosophy of the ancient Greeks 01:35 to the works of agnostics and atheists 01:38 during the enlightenment, but the connection 01:41 to the Judeo-christian scriptures is undeniable. 01:45 America really is a Christian nation. 01:48 Now, that doesn't mean that the founders 01:51 were trying to build a theocracy, 01:53 a marriage of church and state 01:54 because, well, they absolutely weren't. 01:57 In fact, they were doing precisely the opposite, 02:01 which is why I get so concerned 02:04 when I see revisionist history being presented 02:06 as actual fact because it seems to me 02:09 that we're losing sight of just how valuable 02:12 the American experiment really is. 02:15 Now, don't get me wrong, it's also obvious to me 02:18 that we sometimes clean up the story of this republic 02:21 as if it's utopia. 02:23 But anybody in possession of sensory organs 02:26 can tell you it's not utopia. 02:28 We have problems and there's a lot to apologize for, 02:31 and we do ourselves harm if we fail to do that. 02:35 But at the same time, I think it's really important 02:38 to recognize just how unique this experiment is. 02:42 I mean, in the year since 1788 02:44 when the Constitution was finally ratified 02:47 and the years since 1791 when we added the Bill of Rights, 02:51 a lot of other countries have imitated 02:53 what the founders of this nation created, 02:55 so that now it appears as if the liberties established 02:59 here in the New World 03:00 have always been a reality for most people, 03:03 but they haven't. 03:04 And it's easy to forget how unparalleled 03:07 the birth of this nation really was. 03:09 In fact, personally, I believe it was prophetic. 03:12 And before you change the channel, 03:14 because you think I'm about to push 03:15 for a marriage of church and state, don't touch the dial, 03:18 because I'm not gonna do that. 03:21 By no means, am I gonna give you some kind of hagiography 03:24 and pretend that this nation is heaven on earth. 03:27 And under no circumstances do I believe 03:29 that the Christian faith should ever be legally coerced 03:32 on anybody because among other things, 03:36 that would be very un-American. 03:38 But I do think it might be important to remember 03:41 how the Bible played a formative role 03:44 in making this place a reality. 03:46 And I guess I wanna underline the irony of people 03:49 who have the freedom to desecrate a major religious document 03:52 while insisting at the very same moment 03:55 that they're being oppressed by it. 03:57 Trust me, if this was a theocracy like the ones 04:00 you find elsewhere on this planet, 04:02 you wouldn't survive publicly desecrating 04:05 a religious document. 04:06 And I get it. 04:08 There are people who claim to be Christians 04:10 who seem to wanna force their ideas 04:12 on everybody else by law. 04:14 I don't deny these people exist and that some of them 04:17 are actually powerful people. 04:19 But what I wanna talk about is original intent. 04:23 And I know, I'm not gonna do this justice in 28 minutes. 04:26 So let me just put an a shameless plug 04:28 for a little book I wrote a few years ago 04:31 and released about the time 04:32 when the 2020 presidential election was warming up, 04:35 because back then, I strongly suspected 04:37 that the political wheels 04:39 were going to come off the American bus. 04:41 And I wanted people to at least understand just a little bit 04:45 why the American Republic exists and why it's structured 04:48 the way that it is. 04:50 The book is called "Final Empire", 04:52 and it's a really short, easy read. 04:53 Trust me, I don't write complicated books, 04:56 and I think that most people will find a few surprises 04:59 when they read this thing, 05:01 because a lot of us have long forgotten 05:03 some key historical realities that everybody used to know. 05:08 In this little book - it's not expensive. 05:10 In fact, if I could, I'd give it to you for free, 05:13 because I'm saddened by the collective amnesia 05:15 we appear to be experiencing here in the western world. 05:18 I can't give it to you for free, 05:20 but I think that most of you would find this book different 05:23 from some of the others you've read, 05:25 because it explains how the United States of America 05:28 really is a Christian nation, but maybe, not like you think. 05:34 It's a Christian nation without an official state religion. 05:38 And the Constitution was designed to make sure 05:41 it stayed that way. 05:42 Now this book isn't exactly gonna win a Pulitzer Prize 05:45 because I wrote it and I'm not exactly Dillard or Steinbeck, 05:49 but I will say this. 05:51 I spent years reading primary sources 05:54 to collect the information you'll find in the book. 05:56 So if you're interested, just go on over to my website, 05:59 vop.com, click on the store tab 06:02 to find your copy of "Final Empire". 06:05 Right now, I think I still have some of these 06:08 in the warehouse, so you can get this book 06:10 as long as supplies last. 06:12 Alright, I'm done with the infomercials. 06:14 So let me try to describe why the rising ignorance 06:17 about the biblical branch 06:19 of the American family tree worries me. 06:22 And again, just to be perfectly clear, 06:25 I don't think I would ever insist 06:27 that we should make desecrating a Bible 06:29 or anybody else's religious text a crime. 06:32 I mean, yes, if you're destroying somebody else's property, 06:36 that is a crime, but if it's your own personal copy, 06:39 I guess you can have at it. 06:41 You're free to do that here. 06:43 I believe that the founders of this republic 06:45 were absolutely correct when they insisted that the church 06:48 should keep its hands off the state, 06:50 and the state should keep its hands off the church. 06:54 As most of you know, Thomas Jefferson described this 06:57 as a wall of separation. 06:59 And it might just be one of the greatest innovations 07:02 since the dawn of Western civilization. 07:05 I mean, let's just back up and talk about 07:08 the religious atmosphere that existed in the old world, 07:11 and think about why the pilgrims chose to leave Leiden 07:15 in the Netherlands to come here in 1620. 07:19 Or maybe we should look at why they were living 07:21 in the Netherlands in the first place, 07:22 because well, they were actually British. 07:25 Historians refer to these people as dissenters, 07:28 because they were refugees 07:30 from an oppressive church state alliance 07:32 that had been created in England. 07:34 And all hopes for freedom of conscience 07:37 had been scuttled by a number of legal developments 07:40 that meant you had to be a member of the Church of England, 07:43 or actually to be more accurate, 07:46 if you weren't a member of the Church of England, 07:48 you had to worship as if you were in their style. 07:52 The government was prescribing forms of worship. 07:56 I mean, technically on paper, back then, 07:58 you could believe whatever you wanted. 08:00 And lots of people living in England at that time 08:03 had widely divergent views about what it meant 08:05 to be a faithful biblical Christian. 08:08 All across Europe in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, 08:11 there were hundreds of brand new variations 08:14 on the Christian theme. 08:15 And as you know, it created all kinds of political tension 08:19 in a world where the church essentially governed the state. 08:23 And in England there was a great deal of insistence 08:26 that everybody had to tow the official line, 08:29 practice their faith in harmony with the Church of England. 08:33 Now, you'd think that Protestants would be more tolerant 08:36 of diversity after shaking off 08:38 the intellectual shackles placed on them 08:41 by the established church in previous centuries. 08:44 But sadly, we've got lots of stories that prove otherwise - 08:48 from John Calvin burning Michael Servetus at the stake, 08:51 because he was an anti-Trinitarian heretic 08:55 to the imprisonment of John Bunyan 08:57 who wrote his "Pilgrim's Progress" while sitting in prison 09:00 for his religious crimes. 09:03 So what happened is that some of the people 09:06 who longed for religious liberty closed shop 09:09 and moved to the Dutch Republic, 09:11 which I'm proud to say as a Dutch kid, 09:14 was the freest nation at that time in Western Europe. 09:17 Somehow in the Netherlands, 09:18 broadly divergent religious groups were living 09:21 in relative peace and harmony. 09:23 And so the people who would become the pilgrims 09:26 found themselves living in the Dutch City of Leiden. 09:29 To this day, you can still see their fingerprints 09:31 all over that city. 09:33 Now in the Netherlands, some of these religious dissidents 09:37 discovered another group that was fleeing from persecution, 09:41 and that was the Jews who were running away 09:43 from the inquisition down south. 09:45 When these two groups got together, 09:47 they discovered something that set the table 09:49 for the birth of America, and I'll be right back after this 09:53 to tell you what that was. 09:58 - [Narrator 1] Life can throw a lot at us. 10:00 Sometimes, we don't have all the answers, 10:04 but that's where the Bible comes in. 10:06 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 10:09 Here at The Voice of Prophecy, 10:11 we've created the Discover Bible guides 10:13 to be your guide to the Bible. 10:15 They're designed to be simple, easy to use, 10:17 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 10:20 and they're absolutely free. 10:22 So jump online now or give us a call, 10:25 and start your journey of discovery. 10:28 - Most of the educated dissenters 10:29 could actually read Latin - the language of learning 10:32 back in that day, but very few of them could read the Bible 10:36 in the original languages, 10:37 which are Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew. 10:40 In the Netherlands when these people came in contact 10:43 with the Jewish community, they began to rediscover 10:46 the Hebrew scriptures and had a chance to read 10:49 some ancient Hebrew commentaries. 10:52 These were documents they hadn't seen before, 10:55 and that's when the Old Testament story 10:57 of Israel's request for a king, suddenly came to light. 11:01 And the dissenters began to consider the possibility 11:04 that human monarchy was not God's plan. 11:07 "Was it possible," they asked, that a lot of their problems 11:11 were happening because monarchy was a departure 11:14 from the system of government originally prescribed 11:16 in the pages of the Bible. 11:18 And if it was, would it be helpful to just get rid 11:21 of the monarchy altogether? 11:24 Of course, back then that was a dangerous idea. 11:26 It was considered sedition, but it was an idea that led 11:29 to a lot of heated debate 11:31 and it became one of the biggest intellectual discussions 11:34 of the 17th century. 11:36 Was it possible, permissible even, 11:38 to have a nation without a king? 11:40 I mean, it was clear to them that God was angry 11:43 with Israel's request for a king. 11:45 And even a cursory reading of the Old Testament 11:48 underlines how problematic 11:49 those monarchies for Israel became. 11:52 They proved to to be a really bad idea. 11:55 So what if the dissenters 11:56 could return to a social structure, 11:58 where individuals answered directly to God 12:01 instead of going through a king or even a state church. 12:06 Back in the 16 and 1700s, 12:08 the idea of birthing a republic was somewhat revolutionary, 12:11 and I mean that literally revolutionary, 12:14 but it was also irresistible. 12:17 The ancient Israelites before the anointing 12:19 of their first king's soul 12:20 had lived in what was essentially a republic, 12:24 a government founded on the rule of law with the Torah 12:28 as the supreme written constitution - 12:30 the first five books of the Bible. 12:32 In fact, if you go back to that time 12:33 and read what the dissenters were writing, 12:35 you'll find a number of them describing Old Testament Israel 12:39 as, quote, "The Hebrew Republic". 12:42 So as these English protestants began to explore 12:45 the intriguing idea of a world without kings, 12:48 they also began to study passages 12:50 like Deuteronomy Chapter 17, where God predicted that Israel 12:55 would one day ask for a king. 12:57 So he gave them careful guidelines to mitigate the damage 13:00 that a human monarch was going to cause. 13:03 These political guardrails mandated 13:06 in Deuteronomy Chapter 17 became really big ideas 13:10 that found their way into the thinking 13:11 of the founders of this country. 13:14 I mean, just listen to this., here's what it says. 13:16 "When you come to the land which the Lord 13:18 your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, 13:21 and say, 'I will set a king over me like all the nations 13:23 that are around me,' you shall surely set a king over you 13:27 whom the Lord your God chooses; 13:29 one from among your brethren, you shall set 13:31 as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you 13:34 who is not your brother. 13:36 But he shall not multiply horses for himself, 13:38 nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, 13:41 for the Lord has said to you, 13:42 'You shall not return that way again.' 13:45 Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, 13:48 lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply 13:51 silver and gold for himself. 13:53 Also, it shall be when he sits on the throne of his kingdom 13:55 that he shall write for himself 13:57 a copy of this law in a book, 14:00 from the one before the priests, and the Levites. 14:03 It shall be with him and he shall read it 14:05 all the days of his life, that he may learn 14:07 to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe 14:10 all the words of this law and these statutes, 14:13 that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, 14:16 that he may not turn aside from the commandment 14:18 to the right hand or to the left, 14:19 and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, 14:22 he and his children in the midst of Israel." 14:26 The safeguards laid out in this passage seem obvious 14:29 to us living in the 21st century, 14:32 the 17th century, these were revolutionary concepts. 14:36 If there was going to be a king, God said, 14:38 he had to be chosen according to heaven's guidelines. 14:42 The top executive of the nation was not supposed 14:44 to become an autocrat, but he had to answer to God 14:47 just like everybody else. 14:49 On top of that, he couldn't be a foreigner. 14:52 He had to be somebody whose identity 14:53 was so completely wrapped up in the nation 14:55 that he wouldn't compromise the nation's integrity 14:59 by importing bad ideas. 15:01 The top executive, in other words, 15:04 had to be one of the people. 15:06 God also prohibited any kind of a return 15:08 to the culture of Egypt, even if building ties to Egypt, 15:11 might promise greater prosperity. 15:14 Because in Egypt, God's people had been slaves. 15:17 And in this new republic they were supposed to be free. 15:21 Now obviously, the American founders 15:23 kind of got that one wrong, 15:24 because they only gave freedom to certain individuals. 15:27 Slavery continues to be a massive black eye 15:30 on the birth of this republic. 15:32 And the horrible consequences for what we did 15:34 are still with us to this day. 15:36 And it's not as if these people didn't know 15:38 they were doing the wrong thing, 15:39 because there were Quakers from Pennsylvania who showed up 15:43 at the constitutional hearings 15:45 and they made a very compelling case 15:47 that if everybody was going to be consistent, 15:49 slavery had to go. 15:51 But the principle still, 15:53 even though they didn't practice it, was there. 15:56 They didn't take it to heart 15:58 for an embarrassingly long period of time, 16:00 but it was there in seed form. 16:04 Let me continue with the basic principles 16:06 these English dissenters discovered 16:07 in this passage in Deuteronomy 17. 16:10 That passage underlined the idea that a king 16:13 should not grow wealthy off the proceeds of office, 16:15 or if you will, there were some checks and balances 16:19 on the king's power. 16:20 And of course, we're still getting that one wrong too, 16:22 because somehow, a lot of people seem to get very wealthy 16:26 as a result of holding public office here, 16:28 but that's probably a topic for another day. 16:32 Most importantly, Deuteronomy said that the king 16:34 had to be subject to the rule of law like any other citizen. 16:38 In reality, a monarch was said to be more responsible 16:42 to the law, and he was required to make a personal copy 16:45 and live by that for the rest of his life. 16:48 So the king or queen, it turns out, 16:50 was just a human being like the rest of us, 16:52 with no intrinsic privilege before God. 16:55 While the monarch may have been vested 16:57 with a degree of power and privilege, 16:59 he or she was not above the people they governed. 17:02 And of course, this is not the way 17:04 that European monarchies functioned, 17:06 because of this misguided notion that emerged 17:09 of the divine right of kings where theologians said, 17:12 the person on the throne was God's special son or daughter, 17:15 and they were untouchable. 17:18 The idea of the divine right of the monarch 17:20 was actually a throwback 17:21 to the pagan deification of emperors, 17:24 and it was not an idea that came out of the scriptures. 17:27 Now to be sure, there were people 17:29 who argued for the divine right of kings 17:31 by misapplying the scriptures, 17:33 just like there were people in the 19th century 17:35 who tried to make a case for slavery 17:37 by appealing to the Bible. 17:39 But in light of Deuteronomy 17, 17:42 the dissenters discovered these people were wrong. 17:45 The Bible from their perspective 17:47 was a very egalitarian document. 17:50 So to cut things short, because we gotta take a break, 17:53 a number of dissenters came to the conclusion 17:56 that very early on, God had not intended 17:59 to have a monarchy for his people. 18:01 Israel was really designed as a republic 18:04 under the supreme rule of law. 18:06 Now, this was not an entirely new idea, 18:08 because the English had already been flirting with that 18:10 for centuries ever since the signing 18:12 of the Magna Carta in 1215. 18:16 Writing in the year 1260, Henry de Bracton, 18:19 who is often called the Father of English law said, 18:22 "The king himself not to be under man but under God, 18:26 and under the Law, because the Law makes the king. 18:29 Therefore, let the king render back to the Law 18:31 what the Law gives him, namely, dominion and power; 18:35 for there is no king where will, and not Law, 18:37 wields dominion." 18:39 So none of these ideas were brand new, 18:42 but as is often the case, it took centuries of debate, 18:45 centuries of trial and error, 18:47 centuries of political struggle 18:48 to make them a day-to-day reality. 18:50 Human beings as a whole are really slow learners. 18:54 And finally, with the birth of the American Republic, 18:56 these ideas were codified as the supreme law 18:59 of a brand new country. 19:01 Now again, that doesn't make America utopia, 19:04 because anybody who lives here knows, firsthand, 19:06 that's just not true. 19:08 We're still a nation of flawed human beings, 19:10 and our application of these rather lofty principles 19:13 has been plagued with all kinds of problems. 19:16 So when people take to the streets to say there's injustice, 19:19 they often have a point. 19:21 But when people begin to suggest 19:23 that maybe the founding principles are the problem 19:25 and we should throw them in the waste basket, 19:28 well that's when I start to get worried, 19:30 because what we have here is exceedingly rare, 19:32 historically speaking. 19:34 And while it's imperfect, 19:35 it still represents the greatest advancement 19:38 in personal liberty ever achieved up to this point. 19:42 I'll be right back after this. 19:47 - [Narrator 2] Here at The Voice of Prophecy, 19:49 we're committed to creating top quality programming 19:51 for the whole family. 19:53 Like our audio adventure series, "Discovery Mountain". 19:56 Discovery Mountain is a bible-based program 19:58 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 20:01 Your family will enjoy the faith building stories 20:03 from this small mountain summer camp and town. 20:06 With 24 seasonal episodes every year 20:09 and fresh content every week, there's always a new adventure 20:13 just on the horizon. 20:17 - John Locke is often considered 20:19 to be one of the greatest minds 20:20 in the history of political philosophy, 20:23 and almost any course dealing with Western political thought 20:25 will include a reference to his works. 20:28 Like the dissenters, John Locke was forced to hide 20:31 in the Netherlands, because he was accused 20:33 of hatching a plot to kill the king. 20:35 And while he was in exile, 20:37 he wrote this, "A Letter Concerning Toleration", 20:40 which made really powerful arguments 20:42 that the proper sphere of government 20:44 should be restricted to civil matters, 20:47 and that spiritual considerations 20:48 were the proper sphere of the church. 20:51 Here's what he said. 20:52 "The only business of the church is the salvation of souls, 20:56 and it no way concerns the commonwealth, 20:58 or any member of it, that this or the other ceremony 21:01 be there made use of. 21:03 Neither the use nor the omission of any ceremonies 21:06 in those religious assemblies 21:07 does either advantage or prejudice the life, 21:10 liberty or estate of any man." 21:13 John Milton, the famous poet who gave us "Paradise Lost", 21:18 wrote these words about the way the Bible describes 21:21 the proper realm of human governments. 21:23 He said, "It follows, lastly, that since the king 21:26 or magistrate holds his authority of the people, 21:30 both originally and naturally 21:31 for their good in the first place, and not his own, 21:34 then may the people, as oft as they judge it for the best, 21:38 either choose him or reject him, retain him, or depose him, 21:44 though no tyrant, merely by the liberty 21:45 and right of free-born men to be governed as seems best." 21:50 I could go on for hours showing you the works 21:52 of these great Christian minds who contributed 21:55 to the birth of the American Constitution. 21:58 But the real point I wanna make is this. 22:00 There's no question that the Bible forms a key influence 22:04 in the birth of this republic, 22:06 but not the way that some modern Christians seem to think. 22:10 To listen to some of the ideas coming out 22:11 of American Christianity since the mid '80s, 22:14 you'd think that the founders of this republic 22:16 intended to build some kind of theocracy, 22:19 that they intended to reinstate the atrocities 22:22 committed by the church state monstrosity 22:24 that came out of the old world 22:26 after the rise of Constantine. 22:28 But the reality is precisely the opposite. 22:31 And yeah, a lot of the early colonists 22:34 failed to live by the principles they professed. 22:36 So we actually had puritans ironically, 22:40 hanging Quakers and persecuting other people 22:42 who didn't agree with their religious convictions. 22:46 It took a while to get to the point of actual liberty. 22:49 And back in the 17th century, 22:51 we had all these little theocracies 22:53 up and down the East Coast of the Americas, 22:55 established by people who should have known better. 22:59 But as imperfect as it was and downright embarrassing 23:03 as some of the chapters are, 23:05 we did somehow land on something very important - 23:08 the notions of autonomy and self-government. 23:12 In principle, every individual would decide 23:14 for him or herself how he or she wanted 23:17 to relate to God or even the idea of God. 23:20 If you wanted to reject the notion of a deity altogether, 23:23 which some of the founders did, 23:25 you were free to do that too. 23:27 The government was not supposed 23:29 to become a religious authority. 23:32 Now, in the brief moment that we've had together, 23:33 I've made a bit of a caricature out of the story, 23:35 which is why I plugged the book at the top of the show. 23:38 There are a lot of complexities, a lot of subtleties 23:41 that emerged as these principles were put into practice. 23:44 And as you know know, there is very little in human history 23:47 that is cut and dried or black and white, 23:50 but the essence of what I'm driving at is this. 23:52 The idea that people should be autonomous 23:55 with a religious thought is an idea 23:57 that was born not from the Greek classics, 24:00 but from Bible study. 24:02 So when I see people protesting in the streets, 24:04 kicking a Bible around, 24:05 and then tossing it into a public toilet, 24:08 I experienced some deeply conflicting emotions. 24:11 On the one hand, I find myself happily reminded 24:14 that we have the freedom to do those kinds of things. 24:16 I mean, consider what might have happened to those people 24:18 back in 14th century's pain. 24:20 They would've died a slow, painful death for doing that. 24:23 So on the one hand, it does remind me 24:25 that we have unprecedented freedom, 24:28 but on the other hand, it saddens me, 24:29 because the Bible seems to be getting the blame 24:32 for intolerance when it's the Bible 24:34 that actually gave those people the right 24:36 to publicly mistreat it. 24:38 Alright, I gotta take one more quick break, 24:40 and I'll be right back after this. 24:46 - [Narrator 3] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues. 24:50 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 24:55 If you've ever read Daniel or Revelation 24:57 and come away scratching your head, you are not alone. 25:00 Our free "Focus on Prophecy" guides are designed 25:03 to help you unlock the mysteries of the Bible 25:05 and deepen your understanding of God's plan 25:07 for you and our world. 25:09 Study online or request them by mail, 25:11 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 25:16 - There's a statement near the end of Luke's gospel 25:17 that sheds a lot of light on what Jesus intended 25:20 when it came to the way he wanted the church 25:22 to conduct itself. 25:23 The disciples who were obviously fallible 25:26 were arguing about which one of them 25:28 was going to be the greatest. 25:29 Here's the story from Luke 22. 25:31 It says, "Now there was also a dispute among them, 25:35 as to which of them should be considered the greatest. 25:38 And he said to them, 'The kings of the Gentiles 25:41 exercise lordship over them, 25:43 and those who exercise authority over them 25:45 are called benefactors.' 25:47 But not so among you; on the contrary, 25:49 he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, 25:52 and he who governs as he who serves." 25:55 It turns out Jesus was egalitarian, 25:58 and he warned us that the Christian Church 26:00 should never have a king. 26:02 Unfortunately, in the fourth century, 26:04 we ignored that advice, 26:05 and essentially invited the Roman emperor 26:07 to take the reins of the church. 26:09 And what followed was many long centuries 26:11 of brutal religious atrocity. 26:14 It's the same thing that happened 26:15 when Israel demanded a king. 26:17 It led to more and more corruption, worse and worse kings, 26:20 to the point where the Israelites 26:21 committed unthinkable atrocities. 26:24 So God shut down the whole operation 26:26 and let the Babylonians burn down the temple. 26:30 And all of that happened in spite of the fact 26:32 that God created the human race 26:34 with a huge degree of freedom. 26:37 Adam and Eve were warned about the consequences 26:40 of disobedience, but they weren't physically prevented 26:43 from doing wrong. 26:45 That's the nature of this book. 26:47 You are free to pursue God or reject him, 26:49 and he leaves that up to you. 26:51 Now, he does offer warnings about what the human race 26:54 would look like when it operates from a selfish perspective, 26:58 because he's a God of love and he wants to warn us. 27:01 He warns us that separating ourselves 27:03 from the only source of life in the universe 27:05 will have dire results. 27:07 But then he leaves the decision up to you, not the king, 27:10 not the government, not your pastor, you. 27:14 And that's one of the primary reasons I find the Bible 27:16 so compelling in the first place, 27:18 because it argues for human dignity 27:20 and preserves the right to conscience. 27:23 So maybe instead of kicking the book down the street 27:27 in an angry form of protest, maybe pick it up and read it, 27:31 and discover why you're free to desecrate this book 27:35 in the first place. 27:36 I'm Shawn Boonstra, 27:38 and this has been another episode of Authentic. 27:41 [gentle music] |
Revised 2023-02-07