Participants:
Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000128S
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00:01 - If you ever went to college here in the West,
00:02 I'm sure you've heard at least one of your professors say 00:05 that private property should be completely abolished, 00:08 that getting rid of it would be an important key 00:10 to solving human suffering. 00:12 But given the words of the Eighth Commandment, 00:15 I wonder if that's the way God thinks about it. 00:18 [slow-paced country music] 00:39 In recent years, there's been a lot of buzz, 00:41 especially on social media and conspiracy websites, 00:44 about an article published by the World Economic Forum. 00:48 It was written by a Danish politician named Ida Auken. 00:51 And while most people have never actually read her article, 00:55 most of us have heard about its most famous line, 00:58 the one where she pitches her utopian vision of the future 01:02 and says, "You'll own nothing and you'll be happy." 01:06 Actually, that's not quite what she said. 01:08 The famous quote was created from the title 01:11 of an essay she wrote back in 2016 called "Welcome to 2030. 01:15 I own nothing, have no privacy, 01:18 and life has never been better," 01:20 a title that is sure to raise more than a few eyebrows. 01:23 But by the time it arrived on the official website 01:26 of the World Economic Forum, the title had been changed 01:28 to "Here's how life could change 01:30 in my city by the year 2030." 01:33 So let me read you a little bit from that article 01:37 to look at what the fuss is all about, 01:39 and then we'll ask ourselves 01:40 why this made so many people so very angry. 01:44 So here we go. 01:45 She writes, "Welcome to the year 2030. 01:48 Welcome to my city, or should I say, our city. 01:51 I don't own anything. I don't own a car. 01:54 I don't own a house. 01:55 I don't own any appliances or any clothes. 01:58 It might seem odd to you, 01:59 but it makes perfect sense for us in this city. 02:02 Everything you considered a product 02:04 has now become a service. 02:05 We have access to transportation, accommodation, food, 02:09 and all the things we need in our daily lives. 02:12 One by one, all these things became free, 02:15 so it ended up not making sense for us to own much." 02:19 Now, I have to think that some people would think 02:22 that sounds kinda like paradise. 02:24 I mean, who wouldn't want to stop worrying? 02:28 Just try to imagine a world where your needs are always met 02:30 and you can spend your one and only lifetime 02:32 doing really fulfilling things, 02:35 the stuff that actually makes you happy. 02:37 Of course, utopia doesn't exist and it never has 02:41 outside the gates of Eden. 02:43 And human history is frequently punctuated 02:45 with the ruins of utopian experiments gone horribly wrong, 02:49 which is why most people reject this idea. 02:53 We've seen this kind of talk before 02:55 and it always seems to end in violence and heartache. 02:59 But just for the sake of argument, 03:00 let's pretend that this is actually possible. 03:03 She continues. 03:04 "First communication became digitized and free to everyone. 03:08 Then when clean energy became free, 03:10 things started to move quickly. 03:12 Transportation dropped dramatically in price." 03:16 And then we come to this part 03:17 just a couple of paragraphs later. 03:19 Listen to this. 03:20 "In our city, we don't pay any rent 03:22 because someone else is using our free space 03:25 whenever we do not need it. 03:26 My living room is used for business meetings 03:29 when I'm not there." 03:30 Now, I've got to say, 03:32 that part doesn't really sound like utopia, 03:35 at least not to me. 03:36 I mean, think about this. 03:38 What if there's a scheduling conflict 03:39 or that meeting runs long? 03:41 Where are you supposed to go? Stand outside your own home? 03:44 The author assumes that people aren't naturally selfish, 03:48 that they're going to share things perfectly, 03:50 and you and I know better than that. 03:53 She also says that products will become services, 03:56 so people will always manufacture very high quality things. 03:59 Why? 04:01 Well, because planned obsolescence in her utopia 04:04 doesn't make sense anymore, 04:06 not if you get rid of the profit motive. 04:08 Just make stuff that will last forever 04:10 and the whole community will share it. 04:13 If you wanna cook something, just put in your order 04:16 and the specialized cooking equipment 04:18 comes right to your door free of charge 04:20 and you can just use it. 04:22 But, of course, what she doesn't explain 04:25 is what happens when scarcity kicks in, 04:28 when all of us want the same piece of equipment 04:31 at the same time. 04:32 For example, what if almost everybody wants a deep fryer 04:36 to cook their Thanksgiving turkey? 04:38 She's pretending scarcity doesn't exist. 04:42 And let's be honest, are human beings 04:44 really going to become less selfish, less competitive? 04:48 I mean, it's not as if we haven't tried 04:49 this kind of thing before. 04:51 We had more than 70 years of centralized economic control 04:55 in the Soviet Union, 04:56 you know, from each according to his ability 04:59 and to each according to his need. 05:01 It's Karl Marx 101. 05:04 Back in those days, 05:05 the economy was carefully planned every five years, 05:08 and people were assigned their role in society 05:10 based on the whims of high ranking party members, 05:14 who, of course, always put the people's interests 05:16 ahead of their own, right? 05:19 Soviet communism was the world's 05:21 biggest social engineering experiment, 05:23 and it failed to fix our biggest human problem, 05:26 which from the Bible's perspective is our fallen nature. 05:31 The Soviets intended to demonstrate 05:33 that if we all just shared the means of production, 05:35 if we owned everything in common, 05:37 well, then we would finally achieve real equity, 05:42 which is not the same as equality. 05:45 Equality makes us all equal before the law, 05:47 but equity tries to force equal economic outcomes 05:51 for everybody, giving everybody exactly the same stuff. 05:55 And we have never achieved that, and I don't think we will. 05:59 I mean, Jesus himself pointed out 06:01 that you always have the poor with you 06:04 in Matthew chapter 26. 06:06 What happened in the Soviet Union 06:08 was essentially the opposite 06:10 of what the government promised. 06:12 Party elites enjoyed a very comfortable life, 06:15 but the rank and file citizens 06:17 somehow ended up even more poor than they were before. 06:22 If you're my age or older, 06:24 you remember the pictures of bread lines 06:25 and empty store shelves. 06:28 And, of course, Marxism also produced a very serious problem 06:32 when it came to the value of individual human beings. 06:35 To put it bluntly, there was no room 06:38 for individuals in that system. 06:40 There was only the collective or the state. 06:43 The individual was nothing more than a means to an end, 06:46 a cog in the state machinery. 06:48 And if your personal belief stood in the way 06:50 of the will of the state, well, in that case, 06:53 you were off to the Gulags. 06:55 And the author of this article was honest enough 06:58 to point this out as she described her utopian daydream. 07:02 Here, just listen to this part. 07:04 She says, "Once in a while I get annoyed about the fact 07:07 that I have no real privacy. 07:09 Nowhere I can go and not be registered. 07:12 I know that, somewhere, everything I do, 07:14 think and dream of is recorded. 07:16 I just hope that nobody will use it against me." 07:20 If you're going to engineer the lives of millions 07:23 or billions of people, you're going to have to monitor 07:25 just about everybody for antisocial behavior. 07:28 You have to get rid of the kinds of people 07:30 who might jeopardize this dream 07:32 of perfect worldwide cooperation. 07:35 If you're going to make it work or look like it's working, 07:39 you're gonna have to police every single corner 07:41 of every single life. 07:43 And to really make sure it's working, 07:46 you're gonna have to incentivize tattling on your neighbors, 07:50 just like we saw in the former Soviet Union. 07:52 I mean, you really can't have 07:54 all those pesky religious people prioritizing the scriptures 07:58 over the word of the state. 08:00 So again, off to the Gulags with those people. 08:03 To this day, there are Eastern Bloc Christian churches 08:07 that move very slowly 08:09 before they let newcomers join the congregation, 08:11 because, well, back in the day, they could never be sure 08:15 if those new people were actually spies, KGB. 08:20 Which brings me to the Eighth Commandment, 08:22 the one that deals with stealing. 08:24 And, of course, you might be wondering 08:26 why I'm connecting that to a controversial article 08:29 from the World Economic Forum. 08:31 It's because a lot of people 08:33 took that article very seriously 08:35 and it was trending on social media for a really long time. 08:39 And most people recognize that Ms. Auken's daydreams 08:43 are actually dangerous 08:44 because they run contrary to human nature. 08:48 The last time somebody tried something like this 08:50 on a large scale, the price tag 08:52 was about 100 million people murdered 08:55 on the altar of global communism. 08:58 And in light of the Ten Commandments, 09:00 I wanna drill down just a little bit deeper 09:02 and ask if the real problem in this world 09:04 is the existence of private property. 09:07 I'll be right back after this. 09:12 - [Announcer 1] Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 09:14 we're committed to creating top quality programming 09:16 for the whole family, 09:18 like our audio adventure series "Discovery Mountain." 09:21 "Discovery Mountain" is a bible-based program 09:23 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 09:26 Your family will enjoy the faith building stories 09:28 from this small mountain summer camp and town 09:31 with 24 seasonal episodes every year 09:34 and fresh content every week. 09:36 There's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 09:42 - Back in the early days of the Enlightenment, 09:44 there was an influential thinker who had a big problem 09:48 with the whole concept of private property. 09:50 Now, you might not think of this guy 09:52 as being one of the most influential thinkers of all time 09:55 because he doesn't always make headlines, 09:57 but I assure you, this guy's influence runs deeper 10:01 than some people think. 10:02 In fact, even Karl Marx, the granddaddy of communism, 10:06 was heavily influenced by this guy's writings. 10:10 And we can lay a lot of the blame 10:11 for the murderous French Revolution at his feet as well. 10:14 His name was Jean-Jacques Rousseau. 10:17 And when it comes to the matter of ethics, 10:20 well, let's just say he didn't have any. 10:23 Not only did he refuse to marry his longtime girlfriend, 10:26 but he also cheated on her, and then he justified it. 10:29 And then when he got her pregnant, 10:31 he dropped the child off at an orphanage 10:33 because, well, he was just too busy 10:35 and far too important to raise a baby. 10:38 And if that wasn't bad enough, 10:40 he actually did that five times. 10:41 He dropped off five babies at the orphanage 10:44 and made them wards of the state. 10:47 And this was supposed to be 10:48 one of the most important philosophers of all time. 10:52 To Rousseau's way of thinking, 10:54 children actually belong to the state 10:56 more than they belong to their parents. 10:58 So, of course, he was a big fan of Plato 11:01 who said something similar about the role of children 11:04 in his famous book "Republic." 11:06 Here's what he said in Book 5 of "The Republic." 11:10 "The wives of our guardians are to be common, 11:12 and their children are to be common, 11:14 and no parent is to know his own child, 11:17 nor any child his parent." 11:19 So in other words, Plato taught the children 11:22 actually belong to the community, 11:24 and the whole reason you have children 11:26 is to provide workers for the state. 11:29 Sound familiar? 11:30 Of course, Plato was theorizing and he waffles a little bit 11:34 on how practical this idea really was, but still, to Plato, 11:39 the state was the primary entity in this world, 11:42 and you and I are born to serve that state. 11:46 So later on in the 18th century, 11:49 we get Jean-Jacques Rousseau who recognizes 11:52 that the world is broken and painful, like we all do, 11:55 and he suggested something similar to Plato. 11:58 In this popular book, "Emile," he uses Plato as a foundation 12:02 for a new model of public education. 12:05 Here's what he wrote. 12:07 "Do you wanna get an idea of public education? 12:10 Read Plato's 'Republic.' 12:12 It is the most beautiful educational treatise ever written." 12:16 Again, he's saying that the purpose of children 12:18 is to support the state 12:20 and they don't actually belong to you. 12:22 In fact, he said, "Your children belong to everybody." 12:25 So then Rousseau gets really excited 12:28 about this ancient story that came from the city of Sparta 12:31 where a messenger went to the home of a mother and said, 12:34 "Hey, unfortunately, your five sons 12:36 were just killed in battle," and she rebuked them. 12:39 "That's not what I want to know," she said. 12:41 So the messenger added, "Well, we did win the victory." 12:45 The point is, she was more concerned 12:47 about the success of the state than the lives of her sons. 12:51 And this is how Rousseau ends that story. 12:54 He says, "The mother runs to the temple 12:57 and gives thanks to the gods. 12:58 This is the female citizen." 13:01 Rousseau's excited because here's a woman 13:04 who is thankful that her boys died serving the state. 13:07 Why? 13:08 Well, because again, Rousseau believed 13:10 that your children actually belong to the state. 13:13 And sadly, I still hear a lot of people 13:15 try to bring that perspective 13:17 to the subject of public education. 13:19 I mean, I hear it all the time. 13:21 "Your children belong to everybody." 13:24 And that's really one of the most horrific aspects 13:27 of Rousseau's philosophy, 13:28 the idea that people should be subservient 13:30 to the will of the state 13:32 instead of the state being subservient to its citizens. 13:35 He actually taught that the will of the state 13:37 is its own entity. 13:39 Somehow the collective will of the people 13:42 generates a single identifiable will of the government 13:46 as if the government is a person. 13:49 And Rousseau taught that the will of the state 13:51 is more important than you. 13:54 Now, from that perspective, 13:56 he really attacked the idea of personal private property. 13:59 Rousseau ended up being a key source for Karl Marx 14:02 who taught that the state 14:04 should own all the means of production 14:06 and everybody should hold the means of production in common. 14:10 "Private property," he said, 14:11 "should be completely abolished." 14:13 Now, you'd think that after the 20th century 14:16 we'd be done with that kind of thinking because in hindsight 14:19 we can see that that led 14:21 to an absolute humanitarian disaster. 14:25 And yet for some strange reason, 14:27 those ideas are still in circulation. 14:29 In fact, we continue to teach them in our colleges. 14:32 The real problem with humanity we're told 14:34 is private property. 14:35 And it was Jean-Jacques Rousseau 14:37 who gave us that idea in the first place. 14:40 "Ban private property," he said, 14:41 "and you'll solve the problems of injustice and inequality." 14:45 Here's what he wrote. 14:47 "The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, 14:50 took it into his head to say this is mine 14:53 and found people simple enough to believe him, 14:55 was the true founder of civil society. 14:58 What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors 15:02 would the human race have been spared, 15:04 had someone pulled up the stakes 15:06 or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men, 15:08 'Do not listen to this imposter. 15:11 You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth 15:14 belong to all and the earth to no one.'" 15:17 Now, of course, on the surface, that almost sounds biblical. 15:21 I mean, doesn't God actually own everything anyway? 15:24 Well, the answer to that is yes. 15:26 "If I were hungry," God says, "I would not tell you, 15:29 for the world and its fullness are mine." 15:32 So on one level, Rousseau's not entirely wrong, 15:36 but honestly, the last time that all human beings 15:38 had equal access to absolutely everything 15:42 was in the Garden of Eden, you know, before sin. 15:46 After the fall, God told Adam that you and I 15:49 now have to earn our living by the sweat of our brow. 15:53 We were supposed to be the stewards of creation, 15:56 but instead we gave the keys to God's number one enemy 15:59 and now we have to live by the serpent's rules. 16:02 Now, the Bible doesn't promote the idea 16:04 that it's now everybody only looking out for themselves. 16:08 God does still expect us to watch out 16:10 for the welfare of our neighbors. 16:12 In fact, if you read Matthew chapter 25, 16:15 you'll notice that Jesus is very hard on people 16:18 who don't help the needy. 16:20 He calls them goats and they just don't go to heaven. 16:23 And back in the Old Testament, God told his people 16:25 to leave some of the harvest on the edge of the field 16:28 so the poor could come and glean it. 16:31 You might remember that from the story of Ruth 16:33 who gleaned the field of Boaz. 16:35 So yes, God expects us to look out for each other. 16:39 But at the same time, 16:40 does the Bible identify the real problem 16:43 as private property? 16:45 Absolutely not. 16:47 In fact, the Bible recognizes the value of boundaries. 16:51 Boundaries became an all important necessity in a world 16:53 that's populated by sinners. 16:55 The Eighth Commandment forbids you 16:57 to take somebody else's property. 16:59 And what is private property? 17:01 Well, the moment you take something from nature 17:04 and add your own labor to it, 17:05 it kind of becomes a part of you. 17:07 You take a form of ownership. 17:09 So, for example, if you go out into the field 17:12 and collect five buckets of wild blackberries, 17:15 do I have the right to take half of those buckets 17:17 without your permission? 17:19 I mean, God actually grew those berries, right? 17:22 And he actually owns everything, 17:23 so don't those berries belong to all of us? 17:26 Well, yes and no. 17:27 Because you and I both know that something happens 17:30 when you add your work to those wild berries. 17:33 I no longer have the right to take them 17:35 because that wouldn't just be stealing your berries, 17:38 that would also be stealing your labor. 17:40 And that's what's at the heart of the Eighth Commandment, 17:42 which says point blank, "You shall not steal." 17:46 If the world was perfect and sinless, 17:48 I wouldn't even dream of taking your berries. 17:50 I'd just go and get my own. 17:52 But in a fallen world, 17:53 in a place where human beings are selfish, 17:56 well, we're gonna need some hard and fast guidelines 17:58 if we don't wanna fall into anarchy. 18:01 And speaking of guidelines, 18:02 the clock in the studio here tells me 18:04 that I'm on the verge of violating one of those. 18:06 And so as soon as we take a really quick break, 18:09 I'll be right back. 18:14 - [Announcer 2] Life can throw a lot at us. 18:16 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 18:20 but that's where the Bible comes in. 18:22 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 18:25 Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 18:27 we've created the Discover Bible guides 18:29 to be your guide to the Bible. 18:30 They're designed to be simple, easy-to-use, 18:33 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 18:36 and they're absolutely free. 18:38 So jump online now or give us a call 18:40 and start your journey of discovery. 18:43 - I know for some people 18:44 the abolition of private property sounds kind of nice, 18:48 but honestly, that's only because it's an idea 18:50 that completely overlooks the real problem 18:53 that you and I have. 18:55 According to the Bible, we are broken, we're sinful. 19:00 Instead of living for the glory of God, 19:01 we now live for self. 19:03 And it's that selfish tendency, that sinful impulse 19:06 that causes all the trouble. 19:08 You can engineer civilization all you want, 19:11 but at the end of the day, 19:12 if you don't solve the sin problem, 19:14 that engineering's never gonna work. 19:17 That's the reason the Soviet experiment ultimately imploded. 19:20 It was a system run by sinners. 19:23 Take away somebody's incentive to work 19:25 and force them into a life they don't want, 19:27 and you get workers who stop caring. 19:29 In fact, some of them started consuming 19:32 copious amounts of vodka 19:33 instead of actually doing their jobs. 19:35 And somehow, the people at the top of the social hierarchy 19:39 still lived like kings 19:41 while the rest of the people lived in abject poverty. 19:44 Going back to that article from the World Economic Forum, 19:47 the basic problem with owning nothing 19:50 is that it's never gonna make you happy, 19:52 not when you're wired to live for self. 19:55 The big mistake that Rousseau made 19:57 was assuming that people are essentially good, 20:00 that if we could just fix the institutions 20:02 that people have to live under, 20:03 that would fix all the problems. 20:06 It's a philosophy that insists 20:07 that people aren't the problem, the system is the problem. 20:12 Back in 1762, the Academy of Dijon in France 20:16 sponsored an essay contest 20:18 that raised a really important question. 20:21 "Has the restoration of the sciences and the arts 20:24 contributed to corrupt or to purify morals?" 20:28 In other words, has the age of reason 20:31 made us better or worse? 20:34 When Rousseau heard about this contest, 20:35 he went for a really long walk in the country 20:38 just to think about it. 20:40 And he says that he had this big epiphany 20:42 when he took a break and sat down under a tree. 20:45 I'll read it to you 20:46 because this was an important turning point 20:49 in Western civilization. 20:51 "Ah, if ever I could have written a quarter of what I saw 20:54 and felt under that tree, 20:55 with what clarity I should have brought out all 20:57 the contradictions of our social system! 21:00 With what simplicity I should have demonstrated 21:03 that man is by nature good, 21:05 and that only our institutions have made him bad!" 21:09 You see, Rousseau taught 21:10 that if we really wanna fix our worst problems, 21:12 all we have to do is fix our institutions. 21:15 Let the state take over everything 21:17 and use human reason to fix the state. 21:20 Have everybody get educated by the state 21:23 and be sure that private property doesn't exist. 21:26 But I can assure you, from the biblical perspective, 21:29 owning nothing in this world 21:30 and letting the state become a replacement for God, 21:33 well, that's never gonna make you happy. 21:36 Now, don't get me wrong. 21:37 I'm not saying that a free market economy 21:39 is the ultimate answer either because it isn't. 21:42 Personally, I think it's the best solution 21:44 we've come up with so far, 21:45 but I also fully recognize there are some problems. 21:49 And of course the Bible also widely condemns vices 21:52 like greed and usury and oppression and slavery. 21:56 The scriptures don't mince words when they deal with people 21:58 who take unfair advantage of others. 22:01 But again, right now on this side of eternity, 22:04 this is the best we've got. 22:05 I mean, it has lifted more people out of poverty 22:08 than anything else we've ever tried. 22:10 And I think the reason it works that way 22:12 is because it's just honest about our human nature. 22:16 It's a system that openly admits 22:18 that you and I are self-centered, 22:20 and it allows us to pursue our selfish interests 22:23 in a way that theoretically prevents you 22:25 from violating somebody else's right to do the same thing. 22:29 It's not perfect, not by a long shot, 22:32 and it really has led to some pretty awful behavior. 22:35 But at the end of the day, 22:37 it's a way of controlling the damage we cause in this world 22:40 before God finally blows the whistle 22:42 on all forms of human government and sets up his own. 22:45 And while we wait for that to happen, 22:47 God says, "You shall not steal," 22:52 not even if you think you have a better idea, 22:54 not even if you think that somehow if you were in control, 22:57 you could build utopia. 22:59 You shall not steal. 23:01 It's God's way of recognizing individual worth. 23:04 You are not just a meaningless cog 23:06 in the machine of the state. 23:08 What you choose to do with your life actually matters. 23:11 And it's your right to make those decisions. 23:14 God notices your efforts and he tells the rest of the planet 23:17 that what you produce of your own volition, 23:20 that belongs to you. 23:22 Now, at the end of the day, everybody still belongs to God. 23:25 But it's important to recognize 23:27 that you and I have not been given the job 23:30 of reappropriating somebody else's efforts 23:32 or somebody else's possessions. 23:35 Read the Bible carefully. 23:36 There are very harsh penalties for stealing 23:39 or even for moving land markers. 23:41 Honestly, it's impossible to read the Bible 23:44 and say that opposes private property, 23:46 because, well, if he did, 23:48 the Eighth Commandment wouldn't mean anything. 23:52 Even if you think that somebody else is crooked 23:55 or that somebody else might be getting rich dishonestly, 23:58 God still says, "You shall not steal." 24:01 Never forget what Jesus said when his own people asked him 24:04 about the oppressive taxes the Romans were charging. 24:07 "Is it lawful to pay taxes, Lord?" 24:10 And Jesus took a coin and answered them like this. 24:13 "'Whose likeness and inscription is this? 24:15 They said, 'Caesar's.' 24:17 Then he said to them, 'Therefore, render to Caesar 24:19 the things that are Caesar's, and to God, 24:21 the things that are God's.'" 24:23 Now, to be perfectly honest, 24:25 I personally kind of wince when I read that 24:27 because I think a lot of taxation, not all of it, 24:31 but a lot of it is actually a form of stealing. 24:34 That's my personal opinion. 24:36 But I also know that God still expects me to pay my taxes. 24:39 I mean, just go and read Romans 13 24:41 and see what you find there. 24:43 I'll be right back after this. 24:49 - [Announcer 3] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues, 24:53 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 24:58 If you've ever read Daniel, a revelation, 25:00 and come away scratching your head, you are not alone. 25:03 Our free Focus on Prophecy guides 25:05 are designed to help you unlock the mysteries of the Bible 25:08 and deepen your understanding 25:10 of God's plan for you and our world. 25:12 Study online or request them by mail 25:15 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 25:18 - Not once in human history 25:20 has a utopian experiment ever worked. 25:23 And the idea that you and I can somehow fix the human heart 25:25 by abolishing property, look, that's been tried 25:30 and it is always failed. 25:31 And that's because the real problem isn't the system. 25:34 The real problem is us. 25:35 And I guess that would be my biggest critique 25:38 of both Rousseau and Karl Marx. 25:40 I mean, who do you think built all those institutions 25:43 they were complaining about? 25:45 Sinful human beings. 25:47 Which is why those institutions proved to be corrupt. 25:50 Now, that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to do better, 25:52 but it does mean that abolishing the system 25:55 isn't the answer because whatever you build next 25:58 is also going to be constructed by sinners. 26:01 No matter what people do, God says, "You shall not steal." 26:06 And if you find things are just a little unfair 26:08 in this life, if you wish 26:10 there could be just a little more justice in this world, 26:12 well, hang on, because God says, "That's coming." 26:16 Let me show you what God is planning. 26:17 And this comes from the description 26:19 of God's ideal kingdom found in Isaiah 65. 26:24 "They shall build houses and inhabit them," the Bible says. 26:27 "They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 26:30 They shall not build and another inhabit, 26:32 they shall not plant and another eat, 26:34 for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, 26:37 and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands." 26:42 It's the ultimate end to stealing. 26:43 And honestly, I'm ready for it. 26:45 I mean, I've had my house robbed. I've had my car robbed. 26:48 And more than once I've seen other people take credit 26:50 for something I did. 26:52 I've even been in a church 26:53 where thieves walked in in the middle of the service 26:56 to steal the collection at gunpoint. 26:59 And I'm guessing you've been robbed too, 27:01 and God's not failed to notice. 27:03 In Proverbs 11, he talks about dishonest merchants 27:06 and says, "A false balance is an abomination." 27:10 And he promises he's gonna put an end to it, 27:12 not with more hopeless social tinkering 27:14 that ends up stealing from everybody, 27:16 but by changing our hearts 27:17 and launching the kingdom of Christ. 27:19 It's at that point when you and I 27:20 will long enjoy the work of our hands. 27:23 And let's be honest, God actually knows 27:25 what it feels like to be robbed 27:27 because you and I stole the entire planet from him, 27:30 and then we started taking credit for things 27:32 that actually belong to God, 27:34 and somehow he's still willing to forgive us. 27:37 So maybe it's been a little while 27:39 since you've read this book. 27:41 Those Enlightenment philosophers, 27:43 people have been reading them for hundreds of years 27:46 and it's only made everything worse. 27:48 So now I dare you to read a book with an amazing moral code 27:51 that has stood the test of time. 27:53 That's irrefutable. 27:55 And long after all those 27:56 atrocious social experiments have collapsed, 27:59 this book will still be standing. 28:01 Thanks for joining me today. I'm Shawn Boonstra. 28:04 This has been another episode of "Authentic." 28:08 [slow-paced country music] |
Revised 2025-05-13