Participants:
Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000113S
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00:00 - What exactly is religion?
00:02 Most of us think we know what it is, 00:04 but try to define it in a way that completely captures 00:07 the meaning of this rather strange human phenomenon. 00:10 And I think you'll find it's not as easy as you hope. 00:13 That's our subject on "Authentic". 00:16 [soft pleasant music] 00:37 What exactly does it mean when you call somebody religious? 00:41 Religion is a word that a lot of people use, 00:43 and unfortunately, they often do it with a disparaging tone. 00:48 Even though if you press them on what it actually means, 00:50 they'll often flounder, 00:52 because defining it's not a simple task. 00:54 Precise definitions of religion can be evasive. 00:58 I mean, just try to define it right now in your head 01:00 without the help of a dictionary or any other source book. 01:03 And I think you'll see what I'm talking about. 01:06 If you're visual, like I am, you're probably sifting 01:09 through a huge variety of mental images, 01:11 like people sitting in church on Christmas Eve, 01:14 a crazy street preacher waving a Bible 01:16 and shouting down pedestrians, 01:18 or maybe those crowds of people 01:19 throwing bright colored powder on each other 01:21 during the Hindu Festival of Holy. 01:25 But of course, mental images and memories 01:27 are not exactly a working definition. 01:29 So let's suppose for a moment 01:32 that an alien civilization makes contact with our planet, 01:36 and you've been put on a representative team 01:38 for planet Earth, 01:40 and your job is to help explain 01:42 how the human race functions. 01:44 How would you go about explaining the religious impulse 01:48 that the vast majority of people seem to have? 01:51 And if you were specifically asked to define religion, 01:54 how would you do it? 01:56 Fortunately, a lot of really smart people 01:58 have already taken a stab at this, 02:00 which is what you would expect when religion 02:02 is such a powerful part of the history of humanity. 02:05 And that means that you and I don't actually have 02:07 to start from scratch. 02:09 The American philosopher William James 02:11 said that religion is quote, 02:13 "The feelings, acts and experiences of individuals 02:15 "in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves 02:18 "to stand in relation 02:20 "to whatever they may consider the divine." 02:23 Now, as an immigrant to America, 02:25 that's a definition that kind of makes me smile, 02:27 because it has distinctly American qualities to it, 02:31 not the least of which is the focus on individuality. 02:35 And honestly, I'm a huge fan of American individualism, 02:38 because it has given us a remarkable degree of liberty, 02:41 especially religious liberty. 02:44 And this is a freedom that was practically unknown 02:47 prior to the birth of this nation. 02:49 I mean, it did exist, 02:51 and we have a few remarkable examples from time to time 02:54 like say the Dutch Republic of the 1700s. 02:58 But you know, over the course of human history 03:00 in its entirety, this kind of freedom we have right now, 03:04 it's been really hard to find. 03:05 Today, I live in a place where I'm pretty much free 03:08 to believe whatever I want 03:09 without any interference from the state. 03:11 As long as the exercise of my beliefs 03:14 does not infringe on the freedom of my neighbors 03:16 to do the same. 03:18 I'm not only free to believe what I want, 03:21 I'm also free to say what I want, 03:23 at least for the time being. 03:25 Now in practice, 03:27 American religious liberty has been anything but perfect. 03:30 In fact, go to the history, 03:32 we've made some pretty big mistakes. 03:34 But I will say this, 03:35 as an outsider coming into this country, 03:38 I really appreciate the freedoms I now enjoy. 03:42 But let's get back to William James for just a moment. 03:45 His definition of religion is rooted 03:47 in individual experience, 03:49 and he's writing from the perspective of solitude. 03:52 Now, as a practicing Christian, I have to admit 03:55 that there's something to the idea of individual faith. 03:59 As you flip through the pages of the Bible, 04:00 you discovered that most of the great luminaries 04:03 had an individual experience with God 04:06 before they shared the revelations with the masses. 04:08 So for example, you've got Abraham striking out 04:11 with just his own family 04:14 to find a new home in the promised land. 04:16 You've got Moses who encounters God at a burning bush 04:19 out in the wilderness where he's alone. 04:22 And from that point forward, 04:23 he experiences God on a one-to-one basis as he serves 04:27 as the leader of the nation. 04:28 Moses climbs to the top of Sinai, alone. 04:32 He begs God to reveal his glory on the mountain, alone. 04:36 And at the very beginning of the story, 04:38 back in the Garden of Eden, 04:39 we have one man and then one couple who experienced 04:42 the presence of God all by themselves. 04:46 The Bible gives us an awful lot 04:48 of individual religious experiences. 04:51 But I think that you and I both know 04:53 that personal individual experience is not 04:56 an adequate definition for religion. 04:58 Especially in light of the fact that 05:01 so many of the world's religions actually emphasize 05:03 the transcendence of the ego, the vanishing of self, 05:08 and most of those, stress the importance of community. 05:12 So I'm gonna give William James an a forever effort, 05:15 because well, he was a really smart guy, 05:17 and of course this is not the only thing 05:19 he ever said about religion. 05:21 But as far as a working definition goes, 05:24 well, that one fails and we gotta keep looking. 05:26 The Victorian poet, Matthew Arnold, defined religion 05:29 as quote, "Ethics heightened and kindled lit up by feeling." 05:34 Okay, that's a useful definition 05:35 because it adds an element 05:37 that we didn't get from William James, 05:39 and that's this idea that religion has a body 05:41 of ethical teachings. 05:43 I mean, we could give Mr. James credit 05:45 for saying religion includes the idea 05:47 of how you relate to the divine. 05:49 So there is an implication 05:51 that religion should affect your behavior, 05:53 but he didn't explicitly say it. 05:55 Matthew Arnold, though, who happened to be an agnostic, 05:59 adds the idea that religion does shape the way we interact 06:02 with the world and each other. 06:04 It provides a moral code. 06:06 And we also get the idea that ethical principles, 06:08 whatever they are, 06:10 can produce some really powerful emotions. 06:12 He's recognizing that religious people 06:15 are often very passionate about their beliefs. 06:19 But again, I think that falls short, 06:22 because the two definitions we now have 06:24 would never really give an outsider an accurate 06:27 or authentic picture of humanity. 06:29 I mean, people also get passionate about gambling, 06:32 and there are gamblers who are ethical 06:34 because they wouldn't consider cheating. 06:36 And some people have a religious addiction to gambling. 06:40 But they're hardly the same thing, are they? 06:42 And again, the idea that religion 06:44 is a solitary experience doesn't account 06:46 for the billions of people who find themselves 06:49 more or less united with others on religious beliefs. 06:52 And so they form communities and cooperate with each other. 06:56 And of course, we can always go back to the dictionary, 06:59 but with a subject this complicated, 07:01 that's gonna be too simplistic. 07:03 And honestly, really, 07:05 when I hear a public speaker start a presentation 07:08 by reciting a dictionary definition, 07:10 they've already lost me. 07:12 I mean, if somebody starts by saying, 07:13 Webster defines such and such as, well, 07:17 I'm probably tempted to think you didn't do your homework. 07:20 But for the sake of exercise, 07:22 let's read the dictionary definition anyway. 07:24 Dictionary.com defines religion like this, 07:28 a set of beliefs concerning the cause, 07:30 nature, and purpose of the universe. 07:32 So there's a little cosmology in there, 07:35 especially when considered as the creation 07:37 of a superhuman agency or agencies. 07:40 So you get the concept of a God, 07:42 usually involving devotional and ritual observances, 07:45 and often containing a moral code governing 07:48 the conduct of human affairs. 07:50 Alright, I'll admit it that that wasn't too bad. 07:53 It includes cosmology, theology, and ethics. 07:56 But again, if you were to read that to a bunch of outsiders 08:00 who came to visit this planet, 08:02 I really doubt they're gonna understand, 08:04 unless they happen to be deeply religious themselves. 08:08 In an old textbook I read many, 08:10 many moons ago when I was an undergrad, 08:13 professor John Hick emphasized the idea 08:15 that religion is far too complex for a simple understanding. 08:19 He said that we might have to accept the fact that in order 08:22 to define the word religion, we might have to resort 08:25 to a family of definitions. 08:27 Here's what he wrote. 08:29 Perhaps a more realistic view is that the word religion 08:32 does not have a single correct meaning, 08:34 but that the many different phenomena subsumed 08:36 under it are related in the way 08:38 that the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein has characterized 08:42 as a family resemblance. 08:45 Now, from there, he allows Mr. Wittgenstein to give us 08:47 an analogy that really makes sense. 08:50 But you're gonna have to wait until after the break 08:52 to see what that is. 08:53 [soft pleasant music] 08:57 - [Narrator] Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 08:58 we're committed to creating top quality programming 09:00 for the whole family, 09:02 like our audio adventure series, Discovery Mountain. 09:05 Discovery Mountain is a bible-based program 09:08 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 09:10 Your family will enjoy the faith building stories 09:13 from this small mountain summer camp pent down. 09:16 With 24 seasonal episodes every year 09:18 and fresh content every week, 09:20 there's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 09:24 [soft music] 09:27 - When Ludwig Wittgenstein tried to define 09:29 the word religion, 09:30 he compared what he was doing to trying to define 09:32 the word game. 09:34 Of course, you think that explaining what a game is 09:36 would be really easy, 09:38 because we've all played games 09:39 and we instinctively know what they are. 09:42 But then again, most of us are also religious 09:44 and we instinctively know what religion means. 09:47 But we still find it hard to explain it fully. 09:51 Some people might just try to explain 09:52 that a game is something you do for fun, 09:55 but that's not a full definition. 09:56 Because there are people who play games as professionals, 09:59 like hockey players or even gamblers, 10:01 and so they're doing it for money, not necessarily for fun. 10:05 In fact, they have to do it on the days they don't want to. 10:09 Other people might say a game is a competitive event 10:12 where people try to better their opponents. 10:14 But again, that doesn't really explain it 10:16 because a lot of people consider Sudoku puzzles to be games, 10:19 and that's something you do alone. 10:22 Others might say that a game requires a degree of skill, 10:25 but again, there are games like slot machines 10:27 that are pretty much 100% random chance. 10:31 What you really need to do is collect 10:33 all the characteristics of games, 10:35 and think about them together, 10:36 and then you might begin to understand what a game is. 10:41 Now, the same thing holds true 10:42 if you want to explain religion. 10:44 You're gonna have to experience it and take the time 10:47 to experience it rather broadly 10:48 if you want to understand what it is. 10:51 And when you do that, 10:52 you might be in for a few interesting surprises. 10:55 For example, there are secular religions, 10:58 religions that do not acknowledge the existence 11:00 of a supreme being. 11:01 And personally, I'd be tempted 11:03 to put Soviet communism in that column. 11:06 And I know that's not gonna sit right 11:07 with some people because a lot of folks understand communism 11:10 to be a matter of economics and politics, 11:12 and certainly not religion. 11:15 Over the last 120 years or so, 11:17 communist regimes have, for the most part, 11:19 they know officially atheist. 11:21 But then if you examine them closely, 11:24 you're gonna find a number of ideas 11:25 that have a decidedly religious flavor. 11:28 There are underlying assumptions to the philosophy 11:31 of Karl Marx beliefs that you have to accept by faith, 11:34 like the idea that history 11:36 is somehow automatically progressing, 11:38 getting better, moving towards something higher. 11:42 Marx taught and he proved to be wrong, 11:44 but Marx taught that history 11:46 was necessarily moving everybody toward a communist state, 11:50 where the means of production could be owned by everybody. 11:54 But let me ask you a really important question. 11:57 Why in the world would history be moving towards 12:00 something better all on its own? 12:02 If there is no God, no higher power, 12:04 than what makes anybody think that a mindless universe 12:07 would generate moral progress? 12:09 And let's not forget, 12:10 more than a hundred million people died at the hands 12:13 of communist regimes over the 20th century, 12:16 which strongly suggests that the idea 12:18 of moral progress was nothing but an illusion. 12:21 It was a matter of faith, 12:23 and it was completely wrongheaded on top of that. 12:27 Now going back to Professor John Hick, 12:28 he explains quite nicely how Marxism 12:31 actually qualifies as a religious belief. 12:33 He writes, "Marxism has its eschatological ideal 12:37 "of the ultimate classless society. 12:39 "Its doctrine of predestination 12:41 "through historical necessity. 12:43 "Its scriptures, prophets, saints, and martyrs. 12:46 "Thus, we can see it as sharing some of the features 12:49 "of the family of religions while lacking other 12:51 "and probably more central ones." 12:54 Here's what we know. 12:56 Most of us, regardless of our religious preferences, 12:58 still behave in religious ways. 13:00 Nobody's purely objective. 13:02 Nobody operates strictly by rational analysis 13:05 of observable facts. 13:07 Every single worldview has an element of faith. 13:10 They all produce people who are passionately committed 13:13 to a body of opinions and sometimes with religious fervor. 13:17 So maybe we need to acknowledge 13:19 that religious belief is a key part of who we are, 13:22 no matter how we practice it. 13:24 Maybe when the Bible says that all of us 13:27 have eternity in our hearts, 13:29 maybe that's a good definition of who we really are. 13:32 Maybe there's a reason we seek transcendence. 13:35 And we all seem to have this feeling that something's wrong 13:38 with our present mode of existence. 13:42 Almost all of the world's religion seem to feature this idea 13:45 that we're supposed to be better than we are right now. 13:48 There's something wrong they teach, it needs to be fixed. 13:51 The ancient Greeks blamed the material universe 13:53 for your problems. 13:55 You and I are imperfect because we're physical, 13:57 and their solution was transcendence. 13:59 The ultimate triumph comes when you die, 14:01 when your ghost finally disconnects from your body, 14:03 so you can return to a disembodied state. 14:07 In the Hindu religion, you find a similar concept, 14:10 the notion of samsara, where where people pass 14:12 through a number of bodily incarnations 14:15 being born over and over and over, 14:17 until they move to toward a higher state 14:19 where they can rejoin the great oneness of the universe. 14:23 The average human being they teach has been greatly deceived 14:26 about the nature of reality, 14:28 but we can find salvation by finally learning 14:30 that we are one and the same as Brahman, 14:34 the great oneness. 14:36 In Christianity, of course, we have the idea 14:38 that human beings have fallen from a state of grace. 14:41 We've been alienated from our creator by sin, 14:43 and we need to be restored, 14:45 brought back to what we used to be. 14:48 The apostle Paul describes it this, 14:51 and you'll find this in Colossians chapter one. 14:55 For it pleased the Father, 14:56 that in him all the fullness should dwell, 14:58 and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by Him, 15:02 whether things on earth or things in heaven, 15:04 having made peace through the blood of his cross. 15:07 And you who once were alienated 15:09 and enemies in your mind by wicked works. 15:12 Yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh 15:15 through death, to present you wholly and blameless, 15:18 and above reproach in His sight. 15:22 The vast majority of human beings realize 15:25 something has gone wrong in this universe. 15:29 We're not happy with the idea that pain and suffering 15:32 are supposed to be a natural part of our existence. 15:34 And wouldn't you know it, all across the planet 15:37 we seem to be deeply religious. 15:39 Something about our existence on this pale blue dot 15:41 is really unsatisfying, 15:43 and we seem to think there must be a solution. 15:45 There must be a better way to live. 15:48 From where I sit, 15:49 religion is the exercise 15:51 of human beings pursuing that solution. 15:54 It's a matter of figuring out 15:56 what we're actually supposed to be, 15:57 and then aspiring to become that. 16:00 In other words, religion is the practice 16:02 of finding authenticity, whatever that proves to be. 16:06 This is why I insist that Marxism can be classified 16:09 as a religious belief, 16:11 because it's a secular attempt to solve the same problem. 16:14 We know something's wrong with human existence, 16:18 and that was just one more attempt to explain it and fix it. 16:21 Now, I don't know if you had to read "Lord of the Flies" 16:25 when you were in school. 16:26 But you probably did, 16:27 because once upon a time that was required reading. 16:30 Of course, given the current popularity 16:32 that censorship seems to be enjoying, 16:34 I wouldn't be surprised if it was no longer 16:36 a part of school curricula, 16:38 but I'm guessing that most of you probably read it. 16:41 I had to read it in the third grade, if you can imagine. 16:44 And I've come to believe after reading it, 16:46 that really wasn't written for eight year olds. 16:48 But if you've read it, you might remember. 16:50 It's the story of a group of boys 16:52 who end up stranded on a deserted island. 16:55 And the reason this book got a lot of traction was 16:57 because it's a rather detailed study of basic human nature. 17:02 It's pure fiction of course. 17:04 But there was something about the story 17:05 that rang a lot of people's bells. 17:07 It bothered us because Mr. Golding seemed to capture 17:10 some rather uncomfortable facts about human nature. 17:14 In the story, a bunch of prepubescent boys attempt 17:17 to build a civilization of their own because they have to. 17:21 So they decide on a form of government. 17:23 And eventually wouldn't you know it, 17:24 they also create a religion. 17:27 They convince themselves there's a dangerous beast 17:29 living somewhere on the island, 17:30 and they even start finding evidence 17:32 that this creature is real. 17:34 So one of the boys becomes a leader 17:36 when he promises he can deal with the threat. 17:39 And for the rest of the story, 17:40 they build their little civilization around that idea 17:44 with disastrous consequences. 17:46 And after I take a little break, 17:48 we'll enjoy a little bit of reading theater 17:50 and see if Mr. Golding was onto something. 17:53 [soft pleasant music] 17:56 - [Narrator] Life can throw a lot at us. 17:59 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 18:02 but that's where the Bible comes in. 18:04 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 18:07 Here at The Voice of Prophecy, 18:09 we've created the Discover Bible guides 18:11 to be your guide to the Bible. 18:13 They're designed to be simple, easy to use, 18:15 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 18:18 and they're absolutely free. 18:20 So jump online now or give us a call 18:23 and start your journey of discovery. 18:26 - Okay, we're back from the break, 18:27 and now it's time to break out a book 18:29 that I first read back in the third grade. 18:31 And I seem to remember somebody also showed us the movie 18:33 before we were 10 years old. 18:36 Now, to be clear, I'm not condoning sharing 18:38 this with children, 18:39 because there are ideas in the story that require, 18:42 well, a little bit of life experience to really understand. 18:45 And I just happened to be one of those kids 18:46 who read absolutely everything I could get my hands on. 18:49 In fact, I sometimes had heated arguments 18:52 with the town librarian, 18:53 because I had an orange library card, 18:56 which restricted me to the children's section. 18:58 But I was forever trying to sign out books 19:00 from the green section, which was for adults. 19:02 But that's all beside the point, 19:04 because I wanna explore one of the central ideas 19:07 in Mr. Golding's "Lord of the Flies". 19:09 It's the story of some British boys 19:11 who find themselves stranded on an island. 19:13 And after a while they develop their own mythology 19:16 and their own system of governance 19:18 and eventually their own religion. 19:20 And it's really a bit of a disturbing story 19:22 because everything goes terribly wrong. 19:24 In fact, one of the main characters ends up dead. 19:28 There are very deep religious undertones to this tale, 19:31 and I'll give you an example. 19:33 The boys are trying to determine what exactly 19:35 the scary beast living in the forest must be like. 19:37 So now we hear from Ralph, one of the boys 19:40 who emerges as a leader. 19:43 See if this sounds religious. 19:45 He stopped again. 19:47 The careful plan of this assembly had broken down. 19:49 What do you want me to say then? 19:51 I was wrong to call this assembly so late. 19:53 We'll have to vote on them on ghosts, I mean, 19:56 and then go to the shelters because we're all tired. 19:58 No, Jack, is it, wait a minute. 20:01 I'll say here and now that I don't believe in ghosts 20:04 or I don't think I do. 20:06 But I don't like the thought of them, 20:07 not now that is in the dark, 20:10 but we were gonna decide what's what. 20:13 Golden is using a microcosm of humanity, 20:15 a group of young boys to show us 20:17 what he thinks human beings are like. 20:20 It's a powerful illustration 20:22 of our inherent need to find order. 20:24 Our need to explain and then deal with chaos. 20:27 And of course, our repeated failure 20:29 to find any absolute security. 20:31 These boys are absolutely convinced 20:33 something on the island is wrong. 20:35 There's a beast in the forest that needs to be dispatched, 20:38 and so they expend a lot of energy trying to figure out 20:41 how they're gonna accomplish that. 20:43 But of course, the idea that you can just take a vote 20:45 to figure out what's true 20:47 or what you should do about it. 20:49 It's not entirely comforting, 20:51 because civilization has been doing that 20:53 for thousands of years now. 20:54 And that process has led to some pretty tragic results. 20:58 Over the course of the last 2000 years, 21:00 a lot of church councils have made some rather bad decisions 21:04 about what truth is by putting the matter to a vote. 21:07 And making truth subservient 21:09 to popular opinion has created a long legacy 21:12 of embarrassment from the pogroms 21:14 launched against the Jews in Spain, 21:16 to the hunting of Waldensians and Albigenses 21:19 during the Middle Ages. 21:21 We have managed to convince ourselves 21:23 that many minds make for better decisions, 21:25 because sometimes that's true. 21:28 And the Bible actually supports that. 21:30 Without counsel, it says, plans go awry, 21:33 but in the multitude of counselors, they are established. 21:37 So in other words, there is safety to be found 21:39 when you consider everybody's perspective. 21:42 But still, you're not guaranteed to find truth 21:46 by collecting opinions. 21:48 I guess what I really appreciate about Mr. Golding 21:51 is the way he illustrates the fact 21:53 that even our best thinking, 21:54 our best efforts seem to be flawed, 21:57 and the human race seems to have this talent 21:59 for making bad things worse all the time. 22:02 Even now, at the height of technological achievement 22:05 and scientific enlightenment, 22:07 sometimes all of our accomplishments only serve 22:09 to magnify our flaws instead of mitigate them. 22:14 So that's where the Bible's perspective 22:16 becomes quite helpful. 22:18 Most of the world's religions have the human race 22:20 trying to find their way back 22:21 to whatever it is that we lost, 22:23 by paying attention to karma 22:25 or by accumulating a bunch of good deeds, 22:28 or by turning inward in an effort to shed the illusion 22:31 of life and achieve some kind of higher understanding. 22:35 Most of our efforts are rooted in the idea 22:37 that we need to better ourselves. 22:39 But we have consistently, consistently failed to do that. 22:44 Like you find in a Greek tragedy, we often contribute 22:46 to our own downfall in the process of trying to avoid it. 22:50 So from that perspective, 22:52 almost every history book I've read, 22:54 becomes a catalog of religious beliefs. 22:57 They show me a long record of bad results. 23:00 Unintended consequences were our very best 23:03 efforts to improve this world never seemed to fix it. 23:06 But in the Bible, we have a unique perspective 23:09 that makes a lot of sense, 23:11 like you find in this passage in the book of Isaiah. 23:14 Where it says, but we are all like an unclean thing, 23:18 and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. 23:22 We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities 23:24 like the wind have taken us away. 23:27 The Christian faith gives an honest assessment 23:30 of the problem. 23:31 It admits that something is wrong 23:33 and that you are powerless to fix it. 23:36 There is no working your way back to paradise, 23:38 because the essential flaw in the human race 23:40 is anything but superficial. 23:42 It's not like we have a broken leg, 23:44 and we can patch it with a splint made from sticks, 23:47 and then hobble our way back to civilization. 23:49 It's far more serious than that. 23:52 It's more like your limbs have been amputated. 23:56 So what we have in the pages 23:58 of the Bible is a different kind of religion, 24:01 a faith where the supreme being recognizes 24:03 our tragic shortcomings, 24:04 and then he makes a move in our direction 24:07 because he knows it doesn't work the other way. 24:10 I'll be right back after this. 24:13 [soft pleasant music] 24:17 - [Narrator] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues. 24:21 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 24:26 If you've ever read "Daniel a Revelation" 24:28 and come away scratching your head, you are not alone. 24:31 Our free focus on prophecy guides are designed 24:34 to help you unlock the mysteries of the Bible 24:36 and deepen your understanding of God's plan 24:38 for you and our world. 24:40 Study online or request them by mail 24:43 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 24:46 - In the book of Jeremiah, 24:48 there's a famous description of human nature, 24:50 and it reads like this. 24:52 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? 24:56 Then may you also do good 24:57 who are accustomed to do evil. 25:00 In other words, our essential flaw 25:01 is not just a matter of making some mistakes, 25:03 like an accountant accidentally 25:05 putting a number in the wrong column. 25:07 Our problem is far more baked in. 25:10 It's an actual flaw in our makeup. 25:12 My fallen nature is every bit as much a part of me 25:16 as the color of my skin or the size of my feet. 25:18 It's something I was born into. 25:21 What it means is that my best attempts 25:23 to correct my flaws are going to be defective, 25:26 because we're talking about a systemic problem. 25:29 From the biblical perspective, 25:30 sin is not just a matter of doing some bad things, 25:33 it's what we are when we're alienated from God. 25:37 And so what we find in the Bible is God himself 25:40 becoming one of us, a real flesh and blood human being. 25:44 And as an actual human being, 25:46 He lived the only perfect human life on record, 25:49 which means that He is the only perfect example 25:53 of what it means to be made in the image of God. 25:56 And then at the peak of that experience, we crucified Him, 26:02 which only proved how broken we are. 26:03 I mean, we were able to murder 26:06 the very person who created us. 26:10 There's a statement in the book of Romans, 26:11 it's one of my absolute favorites. 26:13 But God demonstrates his own love toward us, 26:17 and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 26:22 Of all the religious documents I've ever read, 26:24 the Bible stands alone. 26:26 It's the only one that openly admits 26:29 that our personal religious experiments 26:31 are never going to work. 26:33 And the only solution, the only possible solution, 26:37 is a loving God who takes over on our behalf. 26:41 Now, if you find yourself who this God is, 26:44 if you really don't know where to start 26:46 in studying this book, to find out for yourself 26:49 for once to see what it says, let me help you. 26:52 Go to biblestudies.com. 26:55 That's a website run by the good people 26:57 who sponsor "Authentic, The Voice of Prophecy". 27:00 And there you'll find a number of Bible courses 27:03 that are absolutely free to you. 27:06 You can go through the Bible theme by theme. 27:08 I know a lot of people start reading this book 27:10 and they give up somewhere around Leviticus and Numbers. 27:13 We can help you another way. 27:15 We can help you read at theme by themes 27:17 so that you understand all the major themes 27:19 in the Bible for yourself. 27:22 And if you have questions, you can ask. 27:24 There's no obligation. 27:26 It's absolutely free to you. 27:27 Head on over to biblestudies.com. 27:30 I can't wait to meet you there. 27:32 Thanks for joining me again this week. 27:34 I'm Shawn Boonstra, 27:36 and you've been watching another episode of "Authentic". |
Revised 2024-10-16