Participants:
Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000075S
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00:00 - So here's a question.
00:01 What does an ancient Roman farmer 00:04 have in common with the central character of this book? 00:07 Well, to find out, 00:08 you're gonna have to watch today's show. 00:10 Let's get started. 00:11 [twangy introspective music] 00:32 If there's one thing 00:34 the study of political history should teach us, 00:36 it's that people who seek power for whatever reason 00:40 probably can't be trusted. 00:42 I mean, it's not as if they're looking to improve 00:44 your lot in life by rising through the ranks, 00:47 and it's a rare breed indeed who actually seeks power 00:50 solely for the benefit of everybody else. 00:54 What we tend to find 00:55 is that people who unwittingly become leaders by accident 00:59 or because of trying circumstances, 01:01 people who never really wanted the job in the first place, 01:04 well, they often make better commanders and leaders 01:07 than people who spend most of their lives 01:09 trying to get there. 01:11 One of the more famous examples 01:12 of this kind of accidental noble leadership 01:15 comes from an ancient Roman statesman 01:17 by the name of Cincinnatus, 01:19 the man for whom the American city of Cincinnati 01:23 is loosely named. 01:24 The city was actually named 01:26 for a group of continental soldiers 01:28 who created an organization in 1783 01:32 known as the Society of the Cincinnati, 01:34 which is plural for Cincinnatus. 01:37 The purpose of the society 01:39 was to celebrate the founding of the American Republic 01:42 and preserve the memory 01:43 of the people who fought to make it happen. 01:46 And the name of the society was quite deliberate. 01:49 They named it after the Roman military leader and statesman 01:52 Lucius Cincinnatus, 01:54 who was born roughly 500 years before Christ, 01:58 back when Rome was still a kingdom 02:00 and not a republic or an empire. 02:03 Cincinnatus was already an older man 02:06 when a tribe known as the Aequi 02:07 began to cause a lot of trouble for Roman troops. 02:11 And in a panic, the Roman Senate elected Cincinnatus 02:14 in his absence to be their dictator 02:17 for the space of six months. 02:19 After the vote, they went and told him what they'd done, 02:22 hoping of course that he would agree to the assignment, 02:25 and they found him out plowing his field. 02:28 Here's how the Roman historian Livy tells the story, 02:31 and this is one of the more inspiring stories 02:34 that come from ancient history. 02:35 Here's what Livy said. 02:37 "Now I would solicit the particular attention 02:40 of those numerous people 02:41 who imagine that money is everything in this world, 02:44 and that rank and ability are inseparable from wealth: 02:48 let them observe that Cincinnatus, 02:50 the one man in whom Rome reposed all her hope of survival, 02:54 was at that moment working a little three-acre farm 02:57 west of the Tiber, just opposite the spot 03:00 where the shipyards are today." 03:02 So this is a really important guy, 03:03 but at this point in his life, 03:05 he's running what you and I might call a hobby farm. 03:08 We continue. 03:10 "A mission from the city found him at work on his land, 03:13 digging a ditch, maybe, or plowing. 03:15 Greetings were exchanged and he was asked, 03:17 with a prayer for God's blessing on himself and his country, 03:21 to put on his toga and hear the Senate's instructions. 03:25 This naturally surprised him, 03:26 and, asking if all were well, 03:27 he told his wife Racilia to run to their cottage 03:30 and fetch his toga. 03:32 The toga was brought, 03:33 and wiping the grimy sweat from his hands and face 03:36 he put it on; 03:38 at once, the envoys from the city saluted him, 03:41 with congratulations, as Dictator, 03:43 invited him to enter Rome, 03:45 and informed him of the terrible danger of Minucius's army." 03:49 It's the story of an everyday guy 03:51 who answers the call of duty, 03:53 and after he serves his people and the danger has passed, 03:56 which happened in just a matter of days, 03:58 he doesn't do what most people would do. 04:01 He doesn't cling to power. 04:03 Instead, he resigns the post and goes back to farming. 04:08 That's the reason the Society of Cincinnati 04:10 named themselves after this guy. 04:12 As far as they were concerned, 04:14 a lot of these soldiers were leading ordinary lives 04:16 until the call of Duty required them to fight the British. 04:20 They didn't do it in order to seek power or fame. 04:23 They did it for the wellbeing of everybody. 04:25 And when it was over, 04:27 most of them went back to everyday life. 04:30 It's really an admirable quality 04:32 that was somewhat common among the Revolutionaries. 04:35 And of course the most famous man 04:36 to be compared to Cincinnatus 04:38 was their leader, George Washington. 04:41 As you know, there were people who pushed him 04:43 to become a permanent ruler, kind of an American king, 04:47 but he refused and he wanted to go back to private life. 04:50 It was such an unusual attitude 04:52 that it turned a lot of heads. 04:54 The famous American painter John Trumbull said, 04:57 "'Tis a conduct so novel, so inconceivable to people, 05:00 who, far from giving up powers they possess, 05:03 are willing to convulse the empire to acquire more." 05:08 Back in the 1780s, 05:09 a lot of people started to draw comparisons 05:11 between George Washington and Cincinnatus. 05:14 Just like the ancient statesman, 05:16 Washington had been called out of retirement 05:18 from his farm at Mount Vernon, 05:20 and when the job was finished, 05:22 he simply resigned and went back home. 05:25 In an ode to Napoleon Bonaparte, 05:27 the famous poet Lord Byron called George Washington 05:30 "the Cincinnatus of the west," 05:32 and it was a comparison that a lot of people made. 05:36 Today, we still find a statue of Washington 05:38 in the Virginia State Capitol 05:40 where he's dressed like a civilian 05:42 and standing beside a plow, 05:44 which is a deliberate comparison 05:46 of Washington and Cincinnatus. 05:49 And I guess the point I'm making is this: 05:52 the wise use of power is such a rarity 05:55 that it actually stuns us when it happens. 05:58 It stands in stark contrast to expectation, 06:00 where power seekers use people 06:03 to advance their own interests. 06:05 This is a problem that dates all the way back 06:07 to the beginning of recorded history, 06:09 as becomes obvious when you read things 06:11 like "The Epic of Gilgamesh" or the Book of Genesis. 06:16 "The Epic of Gilgamesh" tells the story of an arrogant ruler 06:19 from the ancient city of Uruk, 06:21 which is where the name for the nation of Iraq comes from. 06:25 Gilgamesh was a brutal dictator 06:27 who worked his people like slaves 06:29 in order to advance his own power. 06:32 And since the 1970s, we've had some really bright scholars 06:37 suggest that Gilgamesh was probably the biblical Nimrod, 06:41 who also founded a number of notorious cities, 06:44 not the least of which were places like Nineveh and Babylon, 06:49 headquarters for the enemies of God. 06:51 Like Gilgamesh, Nimrod was a power-hungry dictator, 06:55 and he holds the biblical distinction 06:57 of being one of the worst men in world history. 07:00 He's really the forerunner for all the notorious autocrats 07:04 who made everybody's life completely miserable. 07:07 Not to get too cliche, 07:08 but as Lord Acton famously said, 07:11 "Power tends to corrupt 07:12 and absolute power corrupts absolutely." 07:17 Political power, it seems, is one of those things 07:19 that never stops making more and more demands on its victims 07:23 because you can never feed your hunger for power enough 07:26 to finally make it quiet. 07:29 "There are three things that are never satisfied, 07:31 the book of Proverbs says, 07:32 "four never say, 'Enough!' 07:34 The grave, the barren womb, 07:36 the earth that is not satisfied with water, 07:39 and the fire never says, 'enough!'" 07:41 Now, not to tinker with the words of the Bible, 07:44 but I think we could safely add power 07:45 to that list of things that is never quite satisfied. 07:50 I'm reminded of Beethoven's famous third symphony, 07:53 which is usually called "The Eroica Symphony" 07:55 because it's dedicated to all heroes. 07:58 What some people don't know 08:00 is that it was originally written as a tribute to Napoleon, 08:03 because as far as Beethoven was concerned, 08:06 Napoleon was a liberator who was setting Europe free 08:09 from the tyranny of monarchs. 08:11 In fact, the original title for that work was "Bonaparte." 08:15 But then something happened that changed Beethoven's mind. 08:19 Not long after he finished this magnificent work, 08:22 one of his students, a man by the name of Ferdinand Ries, 08:25 suddenly told Beethoven 08:26 that Napoleon had crowned himself the Emperor of France. 08:31 That is not what Beethoven anticipated, 08:33 so he completely lost it, 08:35 and according to some accounts started yelling, 08:39 "So he is no more than a common mortal! 08:41 No he, too, will tread underfoot all the rights of man 08:44 and indulge only his ambition; 08:46 now he will thank himself superior to all men 08:49 and become a tyrant!" 08:52 Beethoven angrily grabbed a pen 08:53 and scribbled out Napoleon's name on his work, 08:56 and now we simply know it as "The hero's Symphony," 08:59 or "The Eroica Symphony." 09:01 There's actually still a copy in existence 09:03 where you can see the name Bonaparte 09:05 scribbled out on the cover. 09:07 But you know, I think the only real surprise in this story 09:11 is the fact that Beethoven was surprised, 09:13 because let's be honest. 09:15 When in the history of human government 09:17 hasn't power been a problem? 09:20 I'll be right back after this. 09:26 - [Announcer] Life can throw a lot at us. 09:28 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 09:31 but that's where the Bible comes in. 09:34 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 09:37 Here at The Voice of Prophecy, 09:38 we've created the Discover Bible guides 09:41 to be your guide to the Bible. 09:42 They're designed to be simple, easy to use, 09:45 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 09:48 and they're absolutely free. 09:50 So jump online now or give us a call 09:52 and start your journey of discovery. 09:55 - Just before the break, I was talking about Beethoven, 09:58 one of my all-time favorites, 10:00 and it's not just his music that I love, 10:02 but it's also his attitude 10:03 when it came to the principles of liberty 10:05 that were coming into fashion 10:06 right around the time of the French Revolution. 10:09 Beethoven realized that the French Revolution 10:12 had gone too far, that it sadly became a reign of terror. 10:16 It actually was worse than the problem 10:18 it was attempting to address. 10:20 And what Beethoven hoped was that Napoleon 10:23 would become a much needed corrective 10:24 to bring back the cause of liberty to the equation. 10:28 But instead, Napoleon was just one more tyrant. 10:32 And so it goes over and over and over again. 10:36 In more recent history, the Communist Revolution of 1917 10:40 promised to make life better for the people 10:42 they said were suffering because of the czars. 10:46 But then the 20th century made it painfully obvious 10:48 that the communists simply traded one brand of tyranny 10:51 for something much worse. 10:53 For decades, people struggled to put food on the table, 10:56 and some were imprisoned in brutal gulags 10:58 for having the wrong political opinion. 11:01 And of course, high ranking members of the Communist Party, 11:04 they lived in luxury, 11:05 basking in the proceeds of their power. 11:08 Then look at the way that so many people grasped 11:10 at the supposed hope being offered 11:12 by the fascists of Germany and Italy, 11:14 thinking that these people could offer relief 11:17 from the humiliation and brutal economic conditions 11:20 that emerged after the close of the First World War. 11:24 Now let's look at a very ancient story 11:27 we find in the Old Testament Book of Judges, 11:30 where a man by the name of Abimelech 11:31 tries to establish a kingdom for himself, 11:34 and in order to get what he wants, 11:36 he slaughters all of his siblings 11:38 and presumably his half-siblings. 11:40 And he seems like he did it ritualistically, 11:43 like human sacrifice on an altar, 11:46 because the Bible says he killed 70 of these people 11:49 on one stone. 11:52 But unfortunately, at least for him, 11:54 he didn't get to a brother named Jotham, 11:57 who was his youngest relative. 11:59 Now, I find this really interesting 12:00 because it predates the official installation 12:03 of an Israelite king named Saul. 12:05 In that story, 12:07 you might remember the elders of Israel were desperate 12:10 to become like the Gentile nations around them, 12:12 and when they sensed that Samuel the prophet 12:14 was nearing the end of his career, 12:16 they pressed him to anoint a king. 12:19 You find the story in 1 Samuel 8, 12:22 where God gives these people 12:23 exactly what they were asking for, 12:25 but at the same time he expresses his deep dissatisfaction 12:29 and warns them that a human king 12:31 is only gonna make life harder. 12:33 According to the original plan, 12:36 what they were supposed to do 12:37 was live in a sort of, I guess, constitutional republic 12:40 where every individual was directly responsible to God, 12:43 where they all lived under a supreme written law, 12:46 which was the Torah or the first five books of the Bible. 12:50 Now, in the days of Abimelech, 12:52 the national demand for a king was still in the future. 12:55 So what we have in Judges 9 12:58 is a man who behaves like Gilgamesh or Nimrod, 13:01 way ahead of the time when the official kings of Israel 13:05 became a serious problem 13:06 that ultimately destroyed the nation. 13:09 Abimelech systematically eliminated all the competition, 13:12 but his youngest brother, Jotham, 13:15 managed to survive by going into hiding. 13:18 And Jotham suddenly reappears on Mount Gerizim, 13:22 which later became the center of worship for Samaritans, 13:25 a group of foreigners that were imported by the Assyrians. 13:29 At the peak of this mountain, Jotham makes a poetic speech, 13:33 and I think I'll just read the whole thing to you 13:35 because it says an awful lot 13:36 about the nature of human power. 13:38 It reads this way. 13:40 Now when they told Jotham, 13:41 he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim 13:44 and lifted his voice and cried out. 13:46 And he said to them, 13:47 "Listen to me, you men of Shechem, 13:49 that God may listen to you. 13:51 The trees once went forth to anoint a king over them. 13:54 And they said to the olive tree, 'Reign over us!' 13:57 But the olive tree said to them, 13:58 'Should I cease giving my oil, 14:00 with which they honor God and men, 14:02 and go to sway over trees?'" 14:04 So in other words, the olive tree has better things to do 14:07 than to become a political ruler. 14:09 It continues, 14:10 Then the tree said to the fig tree, 14:12 "You come and reign over us." 14:14 But the fig tree said to them, 14:15 "Should I cease my sweetness and my good fruit 14:18 and go to sway over trees?" 14:20 So we get the same thing again, 14:22 people with really meaningful and productive lives 14:25 seldom want political power. 14:27 It continues: Then the trees said to the vine, 14:30 "You come and reign over us!" 14:31 But the vine said to them, "Should I cease my new vine, 14:34 which cheers both God and men, and go to sway over trees?" 14:38 So now we've got three strikes 14:40 and we should expect a change in the plot, 14:42 and that's what we get. 14:44 Then all the trees said to the bramble, 14:46 "You come and reign over us!" 14:48 And the bramble said to the trees, 14:50 "If in truth you anoint me as king over you, 14:52 then come and take shelter in my shade; 14:55 but if not, let fire come out of the bramble 14:57 and devour the cedars of Lebanon." 15:00 You know, I sometimes wonder if this parable 15:03 wasn't the inspiration for that famous song 15:05 written by the Canadian band Rush, 15:08 where the maple trees 15:09 think they're being oppressed by the oaks, 15:11 so they seize power and keep everybody equal, and I quote, 15:14 "by hatchet, axe and saw." 15:18 It's another parable about the dangers of power. 15:20 And I have to wonder if these guys 15:22 didn't read the story of Jotham. 15:24 Neil Peart actually said the song was inspired by a cartoon, 15:28 but still I find myself wondering. 15:30 In Jotham's story, the brambles were dangerous 15:33 because brambles are a fire hazard, 15:35 and if you weren't careful, 15:36 they would burn everything to the ground 15:38 for the sake of hanging on to power. 15:41 You know, years ago, I lived in Simi Valley, 15:44 and because it's a desert, 15:46 we really looked forward to the few weeks in the spring 15:48 when the hills would finally turn green. 15:51 The grass and the tumbleweeds would grow very, very quickly. 15:54 But what that meant was that later in the year, 15:57 there was a lot of dry fuel that could spell disaster 16:00 if somebody carelessly tossed a cigarette butt 16:02 out their window. 16:04 And sure enough, it seemed like every single fall, 16:07 the valley was completely choked with smoke 16:09 because of the brutal fires. 16:12 And that's the imagery that Jotham was using. 16:14 A man seeking political power 16:16 in order to advance his own interests 16:19 was a dry and dangerous weed, 16:20 capable of destroying the entire nation. 16:24 The people had pledged themselves to a power-hungry man 16:27 who was willing to slaughter his own family 16:30 in the pursuit of his ambition. 16:32 And sure enough, wouldn't you know it, 16:34 three years later, they had to kill Abimelech 16:37 to get him off their backs. 16:39 And that's the story of human beings who seek power. 16:45 Now, to be perfectly fair to the politicians out there, 16:48 I do know of people who really did take office 16:51 to serve the public, kind of like a modern day Cincinnatus. 16:54 But to be honest, I can count those people on my fingers. 16:57 I mean, I think a lot of people intend 17:00 to be good public servants, 17:01 but the list of people who manage to survive 17:04 the corrupting influences they're exposed to, 17:07 it's not very long. 17:09 It's the whole story of human government, 17:11 and it's one of the biggest points the Bible makes. 17:13 Human beings abandoned the government of God, 17:17 which came with a high degree of joy and personal autonomy, 17:20 and we adopted manmade systems of government 17:22 that have let us down ever since. 17:25 Our history is full of failed political ideas, 17:29 and I think now we've come to a point 17:31 where people are beginning to despair of the possibility 17:34 that we can fix any of this. 17:35 I mean, the political turmoil of the last few years 17:38 has a lot of people thinking, 17:40 "Look, it doesn't really matter who we elect. 17:43 It just keeps getting worse." 17:45 And wouldn't you know it? 17:47 That's a really prevalent theme in the apocalyptic books 17:51 you find in the Bible, like Daniel or Revelation, 17:54 which tell us that human kingdoms are one of the problems 17:57 that plague us the most. 17:59 I'll be right back after this. 18:04 - [Announcer] here at The Voice of Prophecy, 18:06 we're committed to creating top quality programming 18:08 for the whole family, 18:10 like our audio adventure series, Discovery Mountain. 18:13 Discovery Mountain is a bible-based program 18:15 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 18:18 Your family will enjoy the faith building stories 18:21 from this small mountain summer camp and town. 18:23 With 24 seasonal episodes every year 18:26 and fresh content every week, 18:28 there's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 18:35 - If there was one lesson you'd think we would've learned 18:37 over the last several thousand years, 18:38 it's that asking powerful governments 18:40 to solve our problems for us, 18:43 well, it almost always ends in disaster. 18:46 Someone once suggested we might be better off 18:48 just opening a phone book 18:49 and drafting the first several hundred people 18:51 to serve as the government 18:53 and put a strict limit on their term, 18:55 because that would eliminate power seekers. 18:59 You know, after the Babylonian exile, 19:01 the children of Israel had a lot of opportunity 19:04 to experience the reality of manmade governments 19:06 because all the way from Nebuchadnezzar 19:09 to the birth of Christ, 19:10 they never again enjoyed national autonomy, 19:14 at least not the way it had been. 19:16 They learned the hard way for centuries 19:18 that when human beings run this world 19:20 and we cut God out of the picture, 19:22 it's almost always going to be a disaster. 19:26 And once you realize that human government 19:28 is the exact opposite of what God originally planned, 19:32 it can be tempting for a lot of people 19:33 to think that we are now somehow free 19:36 to ignore or defy the powers that happen to rule us. 19:40 I mean, if it wasn't God's idea, the thinking goes, 19:42 we can just ignore it. 19:45 But that's a concept that Paul completely demolishes 19:47 in his letter to the Romans. 19:49 I mean, listen to what he says 19:50 about our duty to government as Christians 19:53 found in Romans 13. 19:55 He writes, "Let every soul be subject 19:58 to the governing authorities. 19:59 For there is no authority except from God, 20:02 and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 20:05 Therefore, whoever resists the authority 20:07 resists the ordinance of God, 20:09 and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves." 20:13 So here's the hard reality of our current situation. 20:17 The way we live might not have been God's original plan, 20:20 but we were the ones who asked for something different 20:23 and God just gave us what we asked for. 20:26 And then he established some guardrails 20:28 around our new reality, clear rules of conduct, 20:31 and now he expects us to live in harmony 20:35 with the powers that govern us. 20:37 Resisting a legitimate government is unbiblical, 20:40 and the only time we're given permission to defy government 20:43 is when we are asked to violate God's moral commandments. 20:47 So for example, if I was somehow required to steal or kill 20:51 on behalf of my nation, I would have to refuse, 20:55 but that's it, that's the only latitude we have. 20:58 Outside of that, God expects us to obey the civil law. 21:03 It even tells us a few verses later 21:04 that from God's perspective, tax evasion is wrong. 21:08 He warned the nation of Israel 21:10 that taxes would come with human government, 21:12 but they went for it anyway, 21:13 so now we're all stuck with it. 21:16 And I guess I'm talking about this 21:17 because I hear a lot of so-called Christians 21:19 suggesting civil disobedience is completely justified 21:23 over any little inconvenience 21:25 that human government might bring. 21:28 That's not in harmony with the teachings of the Scriptures. 21:31 The truth is, as a lot of people are now despairing 21:35 that the government will ever become good, 21:38 well, the truth is that the Bible tells us 21:40 that's never going to happen. 21:42 Now, that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to make life better 21:44 or try to fix unjust laws because we should, 21:48 but part of living with the mess we've made 21:50 is, well, living with the mess we've made, 21:53 but doing our best to mitigate the human damage. 21:57 So yes, we've got to try to make people's lives better. 22:00 That much is crystal clear 22:02 in the famous passage of Matthew 25 22:04 where Jesus condemned so-called Christians 22:06 who did absolutely nothing to alleviate human suffering. 22:11 It's really one of the more sobering passages 22:13 found in the Bible, 22:14 and it comes from the lips of Jesus himself. 22:17 He says, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, 22:20 and all the holy angels with him, 22:22 then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 22:24 All the nations will be gathered before him." 22:27 You'll notice how the nations of the world 22:29 end up being completely accountable to Christ. 22:33 "And he will separate them one from another 22:36 as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 22:39 And he will set the sheep on his right hand, 22:42 but the goats on the left. 22:44 Then the King will say to those on his right hand, 22:46 'Come you blessed of my Father, 22:48 inherit the kingdom prepared for you 22:50 from the foundation of the world: 22:52 for I was hungry and you gave me food; 22:54 I was thirsty and you gave me drink; 22:57 I was a stranger and you took me in; 22:59 I was naked and you clothed me; 23:01 I was sick and you visited me; 23:03 I was in prison and you came to me.'" 23:05 So yeah, we have a duty to try harder, to do better, 23:10 and to love our neighbors the way that Christ has loved us. 23:13 But at the same time, we've got to understand 23:15 we are not going to fix our worst problems 23:18 by using our ingenuity. 23:20 Human beings are just far too corruptible 23:23 for that to ever happen. 23:25 I mean, I'd like to think if I was given unbridled power 23:28 that I would always use it well, 23:31 but I know myself better than that. 23:33 So do you. 23:35 Very few people can resist the siren call 23:37 of unchecked power, 23:39 and I've been disappointed in myself enough over the decades 23:41 to know that I would probably find it just as tempting 23:45 as anybody else. 23:47 So what's the ultimate solution 23:49 to this mess of human government we made? 23:51 I'll be right back after this. 23:59 - [Announcer] Are you searching 24:00 for answers to life's toughest questions, 24:02 like where is God when we suffer? 24:04 Can I find real happiness? 24:06 Or is there any hope for our chaotic world? 24:09 The Discover Bible guides will help you 24:11 find the answers you're looking for. 24:13 Visit us at biblestudies.com 24:15 or give us a call at 888-456-7933 24:21 for your free Discover Bible guides. 24:23 Study online on our secure website, 24:26 or have the free guides mailed right to your home. 24:29 There is never a cost or obligation. 24:32 The Discover Bible guides are our free gift to you. 24:35 Find answers in guides 24:36 like "Does my Life Really Matter to God?" 24:38 and "A Second Chance at Life." 24:41 You'll find answers to the things that matter most to you 24:43 in each of the 26 Discover Bible guides. 24:46 Visit biblestudies.com and begin your journey today 24:50 to discover answers to life's deepest questions. 24:58 - So let me ask you this: 24:59 is the human government just condemned 25:01 to live under one bad government after the other, 25:03 until we finally manage to just destroy ourselves? 25:06 Let me show you something Jesus said 25:08 just prior to that sheep and goats analogy 25:11 we looked at a moment ago. 25:12 He told his disciples he fully expected 25:15 the world to get worse before the end. 25:17 In fact, a lot worse. 25:19 In Matthew 24, he says, 25:21 "For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' 25:24 and will deceive many. 25:26 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. 25:28 See that you are not troubled; 25:30 for all these things must come to pass, 25:31 but the end is not yet. 25:34 For nation will rise against nation, 25:35 and kingdom against kingdom. 25:37 And there will be famines, pestilences, 25:39 and earthquakes in various places. 25:41 All these are the beginning of sorrows." 25:44 Now that word, sorrows, it's the Greek word odin, 25:48 and it literally means birth pains. 25:50 So in other words, 25:52 the mess we've made isn't going to get better. 25:54 In fact, according to Jesus, 25:55 the problems will get bigger and more frequent 25:58 as we slide into the end zone of history. 26:01 And when it happens, 26:02 we need to remember we are reaping exactly what we sowed. 26:07 The only solution, honestly, would be another Cincinnatus, 26:10 another man who willingly steps away 26:12 from his enjoyable private life to come and help us, 26:15 and he does it out of love. 26:18 That's the story of the Bible. 26:20 It's about a God who saw 26:22 that we couldn't fix the problem we made, 26:24 and so he set aside everything 26:26 to respond to the call of duty. 26:29 The Old Testament prophets called this man Messiah, 26:32 and they also called him the Son of Man. 26:35 And today, the Bible promises that eventually, 26:38 all of the world's brutally corrupt governments 26:41 are going to be permanently replaced 26:43 by one that this Son of Man establishes. 26:46 The Book of Revelation puts it like this. 26:49 Then the seventh angel sounded: 26:52 And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, 26:54 "The kingdoms of this world 26:56 have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, 26:59 and he shall reign forever and ever!" 27:00 And the 24 elders who sat before God on their thrones 27:04 fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: 27:07 "We give you thanks, O Lord God Almighty, 27:10 The One who is and who was, and who is to come, 27:13 because you have taken your great power and reigned" 27:17 In other words, you're not wrong 27:19 when you realize that every new government 27:22 is just as corrupt as the last, 27:24 and the problem is only getting worse by the day. 27:27 The only solution is to wipe it out and start over again 27:31 with something new, which is what God promises to do. 27:35 Listen, I know that some of you have been told 27:36 this is a book of fairy tales, 27:39 but maybe read it for yourself because you might be shocked 27:43 at just how accurately it describes the world 27:46 we currently live in, 27:48 and then it tells us what God plans to do about that. 27:51 I'm Shawn Boonstra. Thanks for joining me. 27:54 This has been "Authentic." 27:56 [twangy introspective music] |
Revised 2023-04-14