Participants:
Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000132S
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00:00 - Today we're gonna look
00:01 at how a well-loved theologian 00:03 just might have inadvertently changed the way 00:06 that you and I think, 00:07 and not necessarily for the better. 00:10 [gentle light music] 00:31 When I was a kid, 00:32 they still had those black and white safety films 00:34 that showed you what to do in the event of an atomic bomb. 00:38 Now, I'm pretty sure 00:39 that my tiny little town in Northern British Columbia 00:42 wasn't actually a nuclear target, 00:45 but there was always the possibility, I guess, 00:47 that Russian missiles would fly over our heads 00:49 on the way to the US. 00:51 Still, it wasn't terribly likely. 00:54 So, of course, we were told 00:55 that in case of an impending nuclear attack, 00:57 we should get under our school desks 00:59 because well, of course, a desk would be sturdy enough 01:02 to absolutely guarantee your safety. 01:05 I'm guessing the idea was to keep the building 01:08 from crushing you when it collapsed. 01:10 It might keep the rubble from causing a head injury. 01:13 Now, I remember the year 01:15 that our teacher read us this incredible story 01:18 of a Russian defector who jumped from a ship 01:21 just off the coast of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, 01:24 not too far from where I lived. 01:25 And against all odds, he swam to freedom in Canada. 01:29 And of course, if you're my vintage 01:31 and you grew up in North America 01:32 before the wall came down in '89, 01:35 you probably remember the Red Scare 01:37 and how worried people were, 01:39 not without reason, 01:41 that the Soviets would succeed at conquering the planet. 01:45 And I guess I'm bringing this up 01:46 because I've noticed a trend in recent years 01:49 where some people appear to think 01:50 that the threat of global communism was, well, exaggerated. 01:55 Some Gen Zs have told me, 01:56 "It couldn't have been all that bad. 01:57 I think you guys were overreacting." 02:00 And to be fair, they aren't really old enough 02:03 to remember the more serious moments 02:05 like the Cuban Missile Crisis 02:06 or some of the other scary episodes of the 20th century 02:10 when the Doomsday clock almost made it to midnight. 02:15 But I think the one thing I'm hearing now 02:17 that concerns me most is this new fascination 02:20 with communism and Marxist ideology. 02:23 I mean, to be fair, everybody recognizes 02:25 that there is something profoundly wrong with this planet 02:28 and with us as human beings. 02:30 And so some people do understandably see the claims 02:33 of Karl Marx as a potential solution 02:36 for the social problems that really plague us. 02:39 In fact, I've even heard some people suggest, 02:42 not a lot, but some, 02:43 that Jesus probably would've been a Marxist 02:46 because he cared about the poor and the suffering. 02:49 I mean, if you remember, 02:50 there was even one candidate in a recent political campaign 02:54 that everybody said had a gospel. 02:56 They suggested he was some kind of Messiah figure 02:58 because they believed that his Marxist philosophy 03:02 actually harmonized with the life and teachings of Christ. 03:06 Now, I know some of you are worried 03:07 I'm about to take a political position. 03:09 But I promise you, I'm not. 03:11 What I really want to do 03:13 is spend a little time exploring where Western thinking 03:15 started to diverge from its Christian roots 03:18 and maybe highlight just how far a lot of Christians 03:22 have fallen from the biblical way we used to think. 03:26 And I guess I started with the Soviet Union today 03:28 because that's still fresh enough 03:30 in a lot of our memories to stand as a vivid example 03:33 of where humanistic thinking takes you, 03:37 especially if you forget to compare it 03:39 with the biblical way of thinking. 03:41 And I'm not really asking anybody to agree with me. 03:44 I just wanna give you some historical bullet points 03:46 to help you see how and why the philosophy in the Bible 03:50 might differ from the way that most modern people think. 03:54 By the time I'm finished, 03:55 you might not have changed your mind, 03:57 but at least you'll know the difference. 03:59 So maybe today, let me start with a really big name 04:02 that most of you are going to recognize, 04:05 and that's Thomas Aquinas. 04:07 Hands down, he was one of the most influential philosophers 04:10 and theologians of all time. 04:13 In fact, if you love books the way I do, 04:16 there's a chance that you might have a copy 04:18 of his best known work sitting in your house. 04:21 And that's a massive, 04:22 and I mean massive multi-volume work 04:25 known as "Summa Theologica" 04:27 which is Latin for a summary of theology. 04:31 In its original format, 04:32 it runs a little more than 7,300 pages, pretty impressive. 04:37 And even though I don't agree 04:38 with a lot of its conclusions, 04:40 at the same time, I can't deny 04:43 that Aquinas has been pretty helpful 04:44 to the church as a whole. 04:46 There's some pretty interesting stuff in here. 04:48 I mean, there's a reason 04:50 he's one of the most influential Christian thinkers 04:52 of all time. 04:53 But again, that doesn't mean I agree, 04:56 especially when it comes to one big tragic flaw 05:00 right at the top of the book. 05:02 And it's a good thing you find it at the beginning 05:04 because not a lot of people are gonna have the patience 05:06 to suffer their way through 7,000 pages of dry theology. 05:11 So let me just read it to you, 05:13 and you're gonna find this in part one, question one. 05:16 Now remember, this was written about 800 years ago, 05:19 and he's actually defending the need 05:21 for everybody to read the Bible 05:23 in spite of all the discoveries of brilliant philosophers, 05:26 and that's a good thing. 05:29 But in the process, Aquinas accidentally sets the table 05:32 for some unfortunate thinking 05:34 that became dominant over the next eight centuries. 05:37 Now, to his credit, 05:38 he starts by quoting 2 Timothy 3:16, 05:42 which is Paul's statement on the importance of scripture. 05:45 So here's what Paul says, 05:47 "All scripture is breathed out by God," 05:50 and that's the literal meaning of the word inspired, 05:53 "and profitable for teaching, for reproof, 05:56 for correction, and for training in righteousness." 06:00 So, of course, Dr. Aquinas agrees with that. 06:03 And he's reminding us that no matter how smart we get, 06:06 no matter how much the philosophers 06:08 wrangle with the really big questions of life, 06:11 you and I still need to read the scriptures 06:14 to get God's opinion. 06:15 So, of course, I agree with that, 06:18 but now listen to what he writes after quoting that verse 06:21 because this is really ground zero 06:23 for the thinking that eventually leads 06:25 to things like the Bolshevik Revolution. 06:28 Here's what Aquinas said. 06:30 "Now Scripture, inspired of God, 06:32 is no part of philosophical science, 06:35 which has been built up by human reason. 06:37 Therefore it is useful 06:39 that besides philosophical science, 06:41 there should be other knowledge, 06:43 that is inspired of God." 06:46 So would I agree with that? 06:48 Well, yes and no. 06:49 Again, he's trying to demonstrate 06:51 that you need more than human ingenuity to understand truth. 06:55 But at the same time, he just suggested 06:58 that there are two kinds of knowledge 07:00 that live in two separate worlds. 07:02 You've got human knowledge over here, 07:04 and then you've got divine knowledge over here. 07:09 So would that be true? 07:11 Well, kind of. 07:12 Go and talk to a group of theologians 07:14 and they'll tell you that God reveals Himself 07:16 in more than one way. 07:18 On the one hand, 07:20 you've got something called general revelation, 07:22 which is stuff you can learn about God 07:24 by studying the universe. 07:26 It's really the study of nature. 07:28 But then on the other hand, 07:29 you've got something known as special revelation, 07:32 which is information that God shares 07:34 by speaking directly as in a vision or a dream 07:37 or the words of a prophet. 07:40 But, of course, special revelation doesn't really happen 07:42 for the vast majority. 07:44 And I'm usually very suspicious of people who say 07:47 that God has been audibly talking to them in private. 07:51 I guess I've just met too many whackadoodles along the way. 07:55 Far more often, God spoke to His people 07:57 through the words of an inspired prophet. 08:00 And, of course, that would include the entire Bible. 08:04 Now, the reason theologians talk about two different ways 08:07 to learn about God is really pretty simple. 08:10 It's because you find both of these methods 08:12 described in the Bible itself. 08:15 But right now, I'm receiving a revelation 08:17 from the clock on the studio wall 08:19 that tells me I'm running out of time 08:21 and we really need to take a break, 08:23 but don't go away because I really, really think 08:27 you're gonna want to hear this. 08:31 - [Announcer 1] Here at The "Voice of Prophecy", 08:33 we're committed to creating top quality programming 08:36 for the whole family. 08:37 Like our audio adventure series, Discovery Mountain. 08:40 Discovery Mountain is a Bible-based program 08:43 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 08:45 Your family will enjoy the faith-building stories 08:48 from this small mountain summer camp and down. 08:51 With 24 seasonal episodes every year 08:53 and fresh content every week, 08:55 there's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 09:01 - Okay, how in the world did an idea from the writings 09:04 of Thomas Aquinas help to foster a world 09:07 where Joseph Stalin could set up a Gulag? 09:11 I should probably tell you 09:12 that all I have time to do today 09:13 is set the table for you to look at this subject yourself, 09:16 but I'll try to make this well worth your time. 09:19 And if that doesn't prove to be true, 09:21 well, I'll give you a complete refund 09:23 on what I charge to listen to me today. 09:26 But honestly, I think if you just stick with this, 09:28 I'll be able to show you some things 09:30 that might help you make sense 09:32 of the world we now live in. 09:34 So right before the break, 09:36 I was talking about general revelation, 09:38 how God speaks to us through nature, 09:41 and special revelation 09:43 when He communicates by means of a prophet. 09:46 And I said that the Bible itself 09:48 confirms both of these methods. 09:50 So first, let me show you 09:52 what it says about general revelation 09:53 or the way that God speaks to us in nature. 09:56 You'll find this in Romans 1 09:59 where Paul writes this: 10:01 "For what can be known about God is plain to them," 10:04 that is the entire human race, 10:06 "because God has shown it to them," how? 10:09 "For His invisible attributes, 10:11 namely His eternal power and divine nature, 10:14 have been clearly perceived, 10:16 ever since the creation of the world, 10:18 in the things that have been made." 10:21 So there you have it. 10:23 Paul is telling us there's plenty of evidence 10:25 to demonstrate the existence of a creator, 10:29 and you'll find that evidence by studying the things 10:32 that God has made. 10:33 In fact, in the very next sentence, 10:36 Paul says that there's so much evidence 10:39 that none of us really has an excuse not to believe. 10:43 If we're blind to the existence of God, the Bible says, 10:46 that's largely because we're being willfully blind. 10:50 The universe is so carefully balanced, 10:52 so finely tuned to support life, 10:54 that it looks very much 10:56 like somebody deliberately designed this place. 10:59 In fact, back in 1983, 11:01 the astronomer Fred Hoyle said, 11:03 "The list of anthropic properties, 11:06 apparent accidents of a non-biological nature 11:09 without which carbon-based 11:10 and hence human life could not exist, 11:13 is large and impressive." 11:16 In other words, it's just not likely 11:18 that you and I are here by accident. 11:22 Now, personally, I think it's more 11:24 than just a list of scientific variables 11:26 that points to the existence of a creator because, well, 11:29 I guess this is gonna sound hopelessly romantic, 11:32 but there's just something that happens 11:34 when you're confronted by the sheer magnitude 11:37 and overwhelming beauty of this universe. 11:39 It actually speaks to your heart 11:42 the way you read about in the Book of Psalms: 11:44 "When I look at your heavens," the psalmist says, 11:47 "the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, 11:49 which you have set in place, 11:51 what is man that you are mindful of Him, 11:54 and the Son of Man that you care for Him?" 11:57 Now, I know. 11:58 Some of you're gonna say, "That's not proof!" 12:00 And it's not, at least not mathematical proof. 12:04 And I'm really just looking at the different ways 12:06 that God communicates. 12:08 It's really evidence but not proof. 12:11 And when God speaks to us through nature, 12:13 a theologian would call that general revelation. 12:17 But then, the Bible also talks about special revelation 12:20 where God chooses to just communicate with us directly. 12:23 Here's the way that Peter described that 12:25 almost 2000 years ago. 12:27 He says, "For no prophecy 12:29 was ever produced by the will of man, 12:32 but men spoke from God as they were carried 12:35 along by the Holy Spirit." 12:37 So there you have it, 12:39 Thomas Aquinas was right. 12:41 There are two kinds of knowledge 12:42 that you have to take into consideration 12:45 when you're looking for the truth. 12:47 On the one hand, there's human reason 12:49 which Aquinas called philosophical science. 12:52 But then on the other hand, 12:53 you have the knowledge that God reveals to us 12:55 through the pages of scripture. 12:58 So why in the world would I say Aquinas set the table 13:01 for some really bad thinking? 13:05 Well, it's mostly because of the way 13:07 that he neatly divided and separated 13:10 those two kinds of knowledge 13:11 as if they operate completely independently of each other. 13:15 By doing that, 13:16 he kind of introduced the concept of humanism 13:19 into Christian theology, just a little bit. 13:22 And sometimes bigger problems can grow 13:25 from that just a little bit. 13:27 It's the camel's nose under the edge of your tent. 13:31 Again, Aquinas was actually defending 13:33 the need for the Bible and that's good. 13:35 But in doing that, he left some people with the impression 13:39 that human reason can operate completely independently 13:43 in every sphere of knowledge without any help from God. 13:48 And honestly, you just can't get to God 13:51 with your unaided human reason. 13:54 And maybe the problem stems from the way 13:56 that Aquinas borrowed powerful logical arguments 13:59 for the existence of God from, well, Aristotle, 14:03 the Greek philosopher. 14:05 Now, in the earliest days of Christianity, 14:08 we understood that Greek philosophy 14:10 and the biblical worldview 14:12 had some really problematic differences. 14:15 When we tried to synthesize both Greek and biblical thinking 14:19 back in the second and third centuries, 14:21 it actually produced some gnostic cults 14:24 who had a real problem 14:25 believing in the incarnation of Christ. 14:28 Because to the Greek mind, 14:30 no perfect spiritual being 14:32 would ever become a physical person, why? 14:35 Well, because physicality was considered to be evil. 14:39 And it was this trend 14:41 towards synthesizing Greek thought and scripture 14:44 that caused an early church father by the name of Tertullian 14:47 to write a very famous line. 14:49 He said, "What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? 14:53 What concord is there between the Academy and the Church?" 14:58 The Academy, of course, would be the school of Athens 15:01 where the Greek philosophers taught. 15:03 Now, of course, that doesn't mean that these philosophers 15:06 were absolutely wrong about absolutely everything 15:09 because they weren't. 15:11 Christians need to be careful with this idea 15:13 that because someone is wrong about something, 15:15 they must be wrong about absolutely everything. 15:18 That's just not true. 15:20 Thomas Aquinas found Aristotle's arguments 15:23 for the existence of God very compelling, 15:27 so he borrowed them, wholesale. 15:29 You see, Aristotle argued 15:31 that because the universe is in motion, 15:33 somebody must have started that 15:35 and that would be God, 15:36 the very first mover. 15:38 Then he said that because every effect has a cause, 15:41 you can work your way back through the chain of causes 15:44 to the very first cause, and again, that would be God. 15:48 Now, I won't bore you with the rest of the argument 15:50 because it's pretty detailed and it has four parts. 15:53 But I will say this: 15:55 it's pretty interesting and there is some merit to it. 16:00 What Aquinas did was take 16:01 Aristotle's four powerful arguments 16:04 for the existence of God, 16:05 and he added a fifth, 16:07 the argument from design. 16:09 Not only did he say that everything appears 16:11 to be carefully constructed on purpose, 16:13 he also said that everything in the universe 16:16 appears to have a goal. 16:18 Everything appears to be going somewhere. 16:20 Here's what he actually wrote: 16:22 "We see that things which lack intelligence, 16:25 such as natural bodies, act for an end, 16:28 and this is evident from their acting always, 16:31 or nearly always, in the same way, 16:33 so as to obtain the best result. 16:36 Hence, it is plain that not fortuitously, 16:39 but designedly, do they achieve their end." 16:42 Now, a philosopher might call that 16:44 the teleological argument. 16:46 Aquinas was saying that the universe appears 16:48 to be carefully designed for a reason. 16:52 I mean, it all seems to work together 16:54 just a little too well to be just an accident. 16:57 It all appears to have an objective, 17:00 and that objective, Aquinas said, would be God Himself. 17:04 It's an argument that you still hear to this day 17:07 in some of those heated creation/evolution debates. 17:10 And honestly, Aquinas's Five Points 17:13 could be a really good place to start 17:15 when you're discussing your faith with someone 17:17 who doesn't believe in a creator. 17:19 But they also accidentally, those ideas, 17:22 became the foundation for a new way of thinking. 17:25 I'll be right back after this. 17:31 - [Announcer 2] Life can throw a lot at us. 17:34 Sometimes, we don't have all the answers, 17:37 but that's where the Bible comes in. 17:39 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 17:42 Here at the "Voice of Prophecy", 17:44 we've created the Discover Bible Guides 17:46 to be your guide to the Bible. 17:48 They're designed to simple, easy to use, 17:50 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 17:53 and they're absolutely free. 17:55 So jump online now or give us a call 17:58 and start your journey of discovery. 18:01 - So far, for the most part, 18:02 I've been talking about Aquinas's very smart ideas. 18:07 But as I stated at the top of the show, 18:09 there is a problem lurking in the background. 18:13 Remember, Aquinas separated the two kinds of knowledge, 18:16 the work of the philosophers on the one hand 18:19 and divine revelation on the other. 18:22 And he did it in such a way that it suggested 18:25 that these two kinds of knowledge 18:27 operate independently of each other. 18:29 He actually implied that they don't intersect. 18:33 When he borrowed Aristotle's logical arguments, 18:36 he was reasoning his way to God's existence 18:39 with only human ingenuity, 18:41 and he inadvertently gave the impression 18:44 that you and I can discover 18:45 the deepest truths of the universe 18:48 without any help from God. 18:50 All you really need, he gave the impression, 18:53 is the power of reason. 18:55 Or to be more precise, 18:56 all you really need is your unaided reason, 18:59 without any input, from God, 19:02 but that's not the way that the Bible says it works. 19:06 Yes, the Bible talks about the two ways 19:09 that God communicates: 19:10 through nature and the written word. 19:13 But it never ever suggests that your capacity for reason 19:17 can operate completely independent from God. 19:21 I mean, just look at the opening verse of the Bible 19:24 where it says "In the beginning, God..." 19:29 It never bothers to explain where He comes from. 19:32 It never logically tries to prove His existence. 19:35 It just starts with a declaration that God is there. 19:39 And honestly, that would've driven a Greek philosopher crazy 19:43 because they had an origin story 19:45 for pretty much every one of their deities. 19:48 How dare you start a story without explaining 19:52 where the number one character comes from? 19:56 But then the Bible goes a whole lot deeper, 19:58 and here's where Christians might wanna think 20:00 about the change that took place after Aquinas suggested 20:04 that rationality might be the only tool you really need. 20:08 Just listen to what happened the day that Jesus went back 20:10 to his own hometown to preach. 20:13 The Bible says: 20:15 "And coming to His hometown, 20:16 He taught them in their synagogue, 20:18 so that they were astonished, and said, 20:21 'Where did this man get His wisdom 20:23 and these mighty works?'" 20:26 The audience had never heard anything like it. 20:29 The religious leaders of Jerusalem 20:31 were highly trained scholars, 20:33 but they didn't have the kind of wisdom 20:36 they were hearing coming from this humble carpenter. 20:39 The same thing happened later on with Jesus' disciples 20:43 after His ascension. 20:44 It says in the Book of Acts 4, 20:47 "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, 20:50 and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, 20:55 they were astonished. 20:57 And they recognized that they had been with Jesus." 21:00 So what was the disciples' secret? 21:03 How did the preaching of Jesus 21:05 managed to displace the classical wisdom of the Greeks 21:08 and take the entire world by storm? 21:11 The secret is found in a remarkable prediction 21:14 made by Isaiah the prophet about 700 years 21:18 before the birth of Christ. 21:19 You'll find this in Isaiah 11, 21:24 "And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, 21:27 the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, 21:29 the Spirit of counsel and might, 21:31 the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord." 21:36 You know, Jesus really lived an authentic human life. 21:40 He was born as a baby, 21:41 went through childhood, 21:43 and suffered the same kinds of things 21:45 that you and I have to deal with. 21:48 He might have been fully God, 21:49 but He was also fully human at the same time. 21:52 And the Bible tells us 21:53 that He had the spirit of wisdom and understanding 21:57 that comes from the fear of the Lord. 21:59 In other words, Jesus, the Man, 22:02 didn't just rely on reason 22:04 when He told those incredible stories 22:06 that you find in the gospels. 22:08 He depended on His heavenly Father 22:10 to illuminate His understanding, 22:12 and wouldn't you know it? 22:14 That's what the Bible says we should be doing. 22:16 I mean here, listen to this. 22:18 This is from Psalm 111. 22:20 It says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; 22:24 all those who practice it have a good understanding." 22:29 We don't reason our way to God, 22:30 and then worship Him. 22:32 It's actually the other way around. 22:34 God makes the first move 22:36 and He illuminates our mind 22:37 so that our reason can function properly. 22:40 Here's another example, 22:41 this time from Psalm 36, 22:44 the Bible says, "For with you is the fountain of life; 22:49 in your light do we see light." 22:52 What it's telling us 22:53 is that we can't use our gift for reason properly 22:56 without God's guidance. 22:59 We might fool ourselves into thinking we're wise, 23:02 but just take a look at the results that came 23:04 from all that 19th century existential philosophy. 23:08 The only thing that accomplished 23:10 was to put a giant question mark 23:12 over just about everything we believe. 23:14 And now we're faced with a generation 23:16 that doesn't think the universe has any meaning whatsoever. 23:20 You and I don't have the capacity 23:23 to recognize genuine intellectual light 23:27 unless we live in the light that God provides. 23:30 And it all started with a tiny suggestion 23:32 that maybe we could reason our way to the truth 23:35 without God's help. 23:37 I'll be right back after this. 23:43 - [Announcer 3] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues, 23:47 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 23:52 If you've ever read Daniel or Revelation 23:54 and come away scratching your head, 23:56 you are not alone. 23:57 Our free, focus-on-prophecy guides 24:00 are designed to help you unlock the mysteries of the Bible 24:02 and deepen your understanding of God's plan 24:05 for you and our world. 24:06 Study online or request them by mail 24:09 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 24:12 - All right, I am completely running out of time 24:15 and we still need to explain 24:17 how we get to the Soviet Gulags. 24:19 In the centuries after Thomas Aquinas, 24:22 some people took the idea of complete faith in human reason 24:26 to its logical extreme. 24:28 Now, I'm pretty sure Aquinas would be surprised 24:31 by the chain of events that brought us to nihilism 24:34 and postmodern angst in the 21st century. 24:37 But he did inadvertently plant some of the ideas 24:40 that got us here. 24:42 Years after the good doctor wrote his famous book, 24:45 the humanists adopted the idea 24:47 that human beings are the ultimate measure of everything, 24:51 that all we ever really needed was human reason. 24:54 Almost 400 years before Christ, 24:56 Protagoras said, "Man is the measure of all things." 25:00 What he meant by that, 25:02 or at least what people think he meant, 25:04 is that real objective truth doesn't actually exist. 25:07 You and I are just fabricating what we believe to be true. 25:12 It was an early form of relativism, 25:14 and wouldn't you know it? 25:16 Once we chose to believe that we could find truth 25:18 by using unaided reason without any help from God, 25:23 well, that's what got us here, 25:25 a moment where we, again, no longer believe 25:27 in objective truth. 25:29 All we have is logic, 25:31 and that brought us to some moral dead ends 25:34 in the 20th century. 25:36 If we're really on our own and there is no God, 25:39 then all we have at our disposal is reason. 25:42 And it was reason that said that some people 25:44 are in the way of progress 25:46 and needed to be sent to the Gulags. 25:49 And now look where we are. 25:50 A lot of people just don't have any hope anymore. 25:54 The 19th century philosophers, 25:55 they hit a dead end. 25:57 They just couldn't come up with meaningful answers. 25:59 They could not define the meaning of life. 26:02 And the Soviets, well, they tried, 26:05 but it turns out human reason isn't enough 26:07 to fix our worst problems. 26:09 We ended up murdering millions using faulty reason. 26:13 If you wanna find the right path, 26:16 you've got to have the lights on. 26:18 "Your word," the psalmist tells us, 26:20 "is a lamp to my feet 26:22 and a light to my path." 26:24 It just makes an awful lot of sense. 26:27 If you wanna know how fast your car is going, 26:29 you need to check yourself 26:31 against a reference point on the outside, 26:33 something solid and immovable, 26:35 like, say a lamppost. 26:37 And if you wanna know that your mind is working correctly, 26:40 if you wanna know for sure that you can trust 26:42 the evidence of your senses, 26:44 if you want to be absolutely sure 26:46 that you're not just fooling yourself, 26:48 well, you need the same thing, 26:50 something external, something immovable, 26:53 something that never changes. 26:56 Now, don't get me wrong. 26:57 I value reason and rationality. 27:00 And honestly, right now, I kind of wish we had more of it 27:03 because there's no question 27:04 that reason has brought human civilization a long way. 27:08 But it's starting to feel 27:10 like we've hit this philosophical dead end, 27:11 and it's starting to look like our civilization 27:14 might actually be in the process of winding down, 27:17 just like it did for the Greeks and the Romans. 27:20 Today, it seems like it's everyone for him or herself, 27:22 and we convinced ourselves that everybody gets to invent 27:26 their own moral code. 27:28 But look where that's going. 27:29 "There is a way that seems right to a man," 27:31 the Bible warns us, 27:33 "but its end is the way to death." 27:36 Look, I know we can't fix everybody, 27:38 but what would happen 27:39 if you and I decided to study this world 27:42 with the lights on, 27:43 in the light of God's truth? 27:45 I'm not talking about a mindless faith. 27:46 The Bible is anything but mindless. 27:48 It has led to some of the greatest discoveries 27:51 in the history of the world. 27:53 But look what happened when we abandoned it. 27:56 Thanks for joining me. 27:57 I'm Shawn Boonstra 27:59 and this has been another episode of "Authentic." 28:02 [gentle light music] |
Revised 2025-06-10