Participants: John Bradshaw
Series Code: IIW
Program Code: IIW001427A
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00:02 [music]
00:21 [didgeridoo and guitar music] 00:30 This is It Is Written. I'm John Bradshaw. 00:33 Thanks for joining me. They call it the 00:36 "Lucky Country": Australia. 00:39 It's just slightly smaller than the contiguous 00:42 United States--that's the United States minus Alaska 00:46 and Hawaii--but it has only seven and a half 00:48 percent of the population: 24 million people. 00:52 And that's for pretty good reason. 00:55 Much of the country is virtually uninhabitable. 00:58 The vast majority of Australians, 85 percent, 01:01 in fact, live within 30 miles of the coast. 01:05 And there's a lot of coast. Miles and miles and miles and 01:11 miles of magnificent and very often untouched coastline. 01:17 Now, you've got to be a little careful here. 01:20 Australia is home to sharks, and plenty of them; crocodiles, and 01:25 plenty of them; and snakes, and plenty of them. 01:31 Depending on how you measure, the Inland Taipan is the 01:35 deadliest snake in the world. They've got that here. 01:39 Dubois Sea Snake, second deadliest. 01:43 Yep, they've got that, too. Eastern Brown Snake, 01:47 third deadliest in the world. 01:50 Yeah, that one lives here also. And they'll all kill you. 01:56 Now, for the most part, if you get some antivenom, 01:58 you're going to be okay. But if you don't, well, that's 02:03 a horse of a different color. 02:07 Out there in the water, especially further north in 02:09 Australia, the real menace is jellyfish, Box Jellyfish. 02:15 When they're in season, you'd better stay out of their way. 02:20 They're only small, but they pack a powerful punch, and 02:23 they can kill you, too. 02:26 Morning Morning 02:30 [haunting guitar music] 02:37 Did I tell you they call this the Lucky Country? 02:40 Australia is a new country, relatively speaking. 02:43 And thankfully today, for the most part, 02:45 the locals are friendly. 02:47 You won't find here the kind of history that you get in Europe. 02:50 There are no medieval castles, no ancient cathedrals. 02:54 You won't find Roman ruins. European settlers came here late 02:58 in the 18th century, and within about 80 years 160,000 convicts 03:03 had arrived here from Great Britain. 03:06 However, there is plenty of history here in Australia, and 03:10 some of it's uncomfortable. The indigenous people here are 03:15 the Australian Aboriginals. When white settlers arrived, 03:18 they found somewhere in the region of half a million 03:20 Aboriginals here. So, before white settlement, 03:23 there was plenty of room for the Aboriginals. 03:26 They were great stewards of the land. 03:29 In fact, the saying went, "You don't own the land; 03:32 the land owns you." But Australia has this 03:36 very awkward history, as do many countries-- 03:40 the United States, New Zealand, India, Canada, 03:43 South Africa, Zimbabwe, and on and on--colonization. 03:50 Colonization is fraught with difficulty. 03:53 The European settlers weren't invited here, but they came 03:56 as colonizers do. Unsurprisingly, they didn't 04:00 negotiate good terms with the people they colonized. 04:04 Colonizers were often motivated by greed or opportunity, or 04:08 both, and by loyalty to their country. 04:12 To conquer was their right. It was their duty. 04:17 And what then? 04:19 [ominous music] 04:24 The Europeans who arrived here discovered an 04:25 indigenous people, who embraced a very different 04:28 culture and lived by an altogether different 04:31 set of values. And so, a clash was inevitable. 04:36 The whites treated the Aboriginals, generally speaking, 04:39 with very little respect and without a whole lot of regard 04:43 for their welfare. All too often, they were herded 04:45 onto reservations, stripped of their language, and dispossessed 04:49 of their culture. And then there's the matter 04:52 of what has become known as "The Stolen Generations." 04:56 Writing in his book "Australia, a Biography 04:58 of a Nation," author and university professor 05:01 Philip Knightly said this: "This cannot be 05:05 overemphasized. The Australian government 05:07 literally kidnapped these children from their parents 05:10 as a matter of policy. White welfare officers, 05:13 often supported by police, would descend on 05:16 Aboriginal camps, round up all the children, 05:19 separate the ones with light-colored skin, 05:22 bundle them into trucks, and take them away. 05:26 If the parents protested, they were held at bay by police." 05:33 Now, keep in mind, the land on which the Aboriginals roamed 05:37 was, and is, mineral rich. Were the newcomers going to 05:41 share the mineral wealth with the people who'd been here 05:44 for thousands of years? No, they were not. 05:48 If this was the Lucky Country, then Aboriginals were the 05:51 unlucky ones. As recently as the 1930s, 05:56 complaints from white parents were enough to have Aboriginal 06:01 children forcibly removed from schools, put on trucks, 06:06 and transported to camps or reserves hundreds of 06:09 miles away. Less than a hundred years ago. 06:15 Mate! 06:24 [sounds of crashing waves] We've come to Red Rock, 06:27 just north of the city of Coff's Harbor on the coast 06:30 of New South Wales. This place, Red Rock, 06:33 is referred to by some as "Blood Rock," 06:36 and there's a good reason why. 06:39 In the 1880s, a group of white European settlers pursued the 06:43 local Gumbaynggirr Aboriginals right around this place. 06:48 The women hid in rushes by the riverbank; the men swam 06:52 for their lives. The men were shot. 06:56 It is said the river ran red with their innocent blood. 07:02 An unprovoked attack. How many died isn't really 07:05 known. Was anybody brought to justice? 07:08 No. Absolutely not. 07:12 You will find hardly any mention anywhere of the Red Rock 07:16 Massacre. It was one of many that took 07:19 place here over the years. It was business as usual. 07:24 So what then happens when it's God doing the killing? 07:29 And this is a question that many people have struggled with for 07:32 years and years and years. We read in the Bible about God 07:35 wiping out entire people groups, whole cities. 07:38 In fact, come to the time of the Flood, and God killed everybody 07:42 on planet Earth with the exception of only eight 07:47 people. People killing people; 07:50 that's terrible. God commanded the eradication of 07:53 men and women and the aged and children? 07:58 How do we reconcile that? Let's take a look further 08:02 in just a moment. [music] 08:09 What is God like? The answer offered in John 3:16 08:13 and throughout the Bible is that God is love. 08:16 We also know that God is just. But then, there's the concept of 08:20 sinners being burned on and on at the hand of an angry God. 08:25 How are we supposed to reconcile that? 08:28 Let me send you our free booklet, 08:30 "Hellfire: Would God Really Do That?" 08:33 Just call (800) 253-3000 and ask for your copy of 08:37 "Hellfire: Would God Really Do That?" 08:40 Or write to It Is Written, PO Box 6, Chattanooga, 08:44 Tennessee, 37401. We'll mail a free copy to your 08:47 address in North America. Again, our toll-free number is 08:51 (800) 253-3000. 08:56 [music] Thanks for joining me today 09:06 on It Is Written. I'm John Bradshaw, 09:08 on the north coast of New South Wales, 09:11 in Australia. This is the home of long, 09:14 golden beaches, warm weather, and attractions like the 09:19 Big Banana, which boasts a really big banana, and 09:25 the Big Bunch of Bananas. It's also the site of some 09:28 tragic history. Colonization saw European 09:31 settlers dispossess the Aboriginal people and 09:35 commit atrocities like the Red Rock Massacre. 09:38 Just a small massacre, really, in the grand scheme of things. 09:42 And perhaps that's what gets through to me about it. 09:45 Imagine, a massacre happening. Real people losing their lives, 09:50 real families being devastated, and communities being forever 09:54 altered. And not really anyone ever 09:57 having heard about it. Years ago, here at Red Rock, 10:02 many Gumbaynggirr Aboriginals were massacred by white 10:05 settlers. Even today, many Gumbaynggirr 10:08 won't come anywhere near this place. 10:10 It was a terrible atrocity; but is there a great obelisk 10:14 or a monument erected in honor of the fallen? 10:18 No. Are there commemorations held on 10:20 a certain date every year about this terrible thing? 10:23 No. As a matter of fact, 10:24 read the history books and you won't find much 10:26 written about the Red Rock or the "Blood Rock" Massacre, 10:29 because it's just one of many atrocities perpetrated against 10:33 the indigenous people of this country. 10:35 And, as a matter of fact-- and I say this with respect 10:38 to the dead and their families and their people-- 10:42 if you compare it to other massacres around the world, 10:46 what took place here just about pales into insignificance. 10:49 We think of Adolph Hitler, and the gassing of the Jews, 10:53 and the Holocaust during World War II. 10:56 But then think of Joseph Stalin, who killed many more millions 10:59 of people than did Hitler. We could think of Pol Pot and 11:02 the Killing Fields of Cambodia. Idi Amin and Uganda, 11:06 the genocide in Rwanda, or even terrible events 11:09 like the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, and all kinds 11:12 of killings perpetrated in the name of religion. 11:16 Those were colossal, and we think about those and we say, 11:21 "How in the world?" But that's what people do. 11:23 When people lose their way and want what they want, 11:26 they're prepared to kill people. 11:28 And sometimes, they're prepared to kill a lot of people. 11:32 But now, let's think for a moment about the God of the 11:35 Bible, who killed not a city or a nation, but at the time of 11:39 the global flood in Noah's day, an entire planet filled with 11:43 people, with the exception of eight souls. 11:47 And people say, "How could God do that? 11:50 "How could God kill defenseless women and children and elderly 11:55 people? How?" 11:56 One television host referred to God as a tyrant, and said that 12:01 God was nothing more than a psychopathic mass murderer. 12:04 [music] But that's a fair question. 12:08 Why would God do that? Here at Blood Rock maybe dozens 12:13 were killed; but God has killed thousands and thousands 12:18 of thousands of people, wiped off the face of 12:21 the Earth. How is that fair? 12:25 Well, the Bible says that God is love. 12:28 So can a God of love do that? And when you get to the end 12:32 of the story, the Bible has God wiping out a planet full 12:36 of people in the lake of fire. Why did God order the killing of 12:42 so many people in the Bible? Why was God able to destroy the 12:47 Earth with a global flood in Noah's day? 12:50 And how do we get our minds around God destroying the world, 12:54 virtually everyone in it, in Earth's last days, 12:58 in the lake of fire? Not understanding this has 13:01 caused a lot of people to lose their faith in the Bible, 13:04 or to fail to accept the Bible as any kind of meaningful part 13:08 of their life. So let's look into this a 13:10 little more deeply. We'll go to First Samuel, 13:12 chapter 15. The prophet Samuel is talking 13:15 to King Saul. We'll start in verse 3. 13:18 He says, "Now go and smite Amalek, 13:22 and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not. 13:26 But slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and 13:31 sheep, camel and ass." Verses 8 and 9 say, 13:36 "And he [that's Saul] took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, 13:42 alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge 13:45 of the sword. But Saul and the people spared 13:49 Agag and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the 13:54 fattlings, and the lands, and all that was good, and would not 13:59 utterly destroy them. But everything that was vile and 14:03 refuse, that they utterly destroyed." 14:07 And Samuel was not amused. Verse 18: "The Lord sent you on 14:12 a journey and said,'Go and utterly destroy the sinners, 14:17 the Amalekites, and fight against them until they 14:20 be consumed.' Wherefore then didst thou not 14:24 obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil 14:27 and didst evil in the sight of the Lord." 14:31 He then compared Saul's stubbornness to witchcraft, 14:35 and told him, in verse 23, "Because thou hast rejected 14:39 the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee 14:43 from being king." Now, if you want to make an 14:47 honest attempt to understand this, you have to consider 14:49 the big picture. And I think I need to say this: 14:52 Even as you consider the big picture, this is still serious 14:55 stuff. We're still talking about the 14:57 loss of life here, and the loss of life on a massive scale. 15:02 God created a perfect Earth. It was Adam and Eve who 15:07 willingly chose to sin and plunged the earth into sin, 15:12 and everything that sin brought along. 15:14 But it was God who said, here's what I will do. 15:18 I will bear the brunt of your freefall into catastrophe, 15:22 and I'll allow Jesus to come and die for your sins, 15:27 so there would be a way back for you from sin to life. 15:32 Now, if you're keeping score, that's God 1, humanity 0. 15:38 And so then God called to the human family. 15:41 The Bible says, when you read in Genesis 6 and verse 5, 15:44 that by the time the flood came, every thought of the human heart 15:49 was -- and I'm quoting now -- "only evil continually." 15:54 So is this God's fault? No, it is not. 15:57 Human beings chose to sin. God called to the human family, 16:00 come to Me, there's a way out. Come to Me, there's life. 16:04 But we didn't, did we? At least, our forebears didn't 16:07 come to God to receive life at that time. 16:10 And before very long, there were a lot of profoundly wicked 16:15 people populating planet Earth. I'll be right back. 16:21 [soft piano music] [sound of waves crashing] 16:36 "Every Word" is a one-minute, Bible-based daily devotional, 16:40 presented by Pastor John Bradshaw and designed especially 16:43 for busy people like you. Look for "Every Word" 16:46 on selected networks, or watch it online 16:48 every day on our website, ItIsWritten.com. 16:53 [music] 16:58 They called him the most hated man in America. 17:01 He was the CEO of a drug company that raised the price of a drug 17:04 from $13 to $700 a dose, close enough to a 17:08 5,000-percent increase. He said that there was no way 17:12 they'd reduce the price. And then, a day later, he 17:14 changed his mind and said the price would come down, 17:16 and more happened after that. 17:19 Of course, the company said they were raising the price for 17:21 the noblest of reasons: money for research. 17:24 The drug had been underpriced. And people said it was 17:26 just greed. Proverbs 15:27 says, 17:29 "He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house." 17:34 There's a fine line between having enough and doing well, 17:37 and then there's a line between doing well and greed. 17:41 Greed isn't good for society; it isn't good for individuals. 17:44 Sometimes winners can be losers. I'm John Bradshaw for 17:49 It Is Written. Let's live today by every word. 17:53 [sound of loud waves] [music] 18:15 This is It Is Written. Thanks for joining me. 18:17 How do we reconcile the idea of a God of love, 18:22 with the God who destroyed the Earth with a flood, 18:25 wiped out entire people groups, and is one day soon going to 18:30 destroy the Earth again in a lake of fire? 18:34 Let's understand this about God: God calls people to repent. 18:40 He saved from Sodom and Gomorrah everyone He could save. 18:43 The rest were given over to sin, and there was no coming back 18:47 for them. God sent Jonah to Nineveh, 18:51 an amazingly sinful place, because He knew there were 18:54 people there who would respond. 18:57 God preserved the life of King Manasseh, 18:59 unfathomably wicked, and Manasseh repented and 19:03 was saved. And think about Nebuchadnezzar 19:06 in Babylon: cruel, a killer, an idol worshiper. 19:12 But God reached out to him and saved him. 19:18 God never destroyed anybody who would have repented. 19:22 In fact, it was out of mercy to that person, and out of mercy 19:27 to the world, that God destroyed the wicked. 19:30 If God had not destroyed the wicked, the Earth would have 19:34 been entirely overrun with sin. In removing the wicked at the 19:39 time of the flood, what God was doing was given you and me 19:43 the opportunity to be saved. You see, now God could bring 19:49 Jesus into the world. Without destroying the wicked, 19:53 there more than likely would have been no Mary to find, 19:56 to give birth to the Son of God. There wouldn't have been a 19:59 Joseph anywhere, who could have raised God's Son here 20:03 on the Earth. So God destroyed the unrepentant 20:08 before the world was completely devoured by sin and sinfulness. 20:19 Now, back to the Amalekites. God told King Saul that Israel 20:22 must wipe out the Amalekites. And why did He do that? 20:26 Because if they didn't, the Amalekites would have wiped 20:30 out Israel. This was a protective measure. 20:34 The Amalekites, by the way, were not the Girl Scouts. 20:37 These people were champions of sin. 20:41 They were full of wickedness. So, if Israel didn't wipe out 20:46 the Amalekites, the Amalekites would have eradicated Israel. 20:50 This was survival. Now, fast forward to the story 20:54 you read in the book of Esther. You read about a man named 20:57 Haman. Haman convinced the king to sign 21:01 a law ordering the extermination of the Jews. 21:05 Every Jew in the kingdom was facing eradication. 21:10 Death. Because of who? 21:12 Because of Haman. And who was Haman? 21:15 The Bible says Haman was the son of Hammedatha, the Jews' enemy. 21:21 He was the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite. 21:25 Now, if God's people had wiped out their enemies, 21:29 there wouldn't have been a Haman. 21:32 If God's people had wiped out their enemies, Israel would 21:36 have avoided this crisis of their existence. 21:40 You see, there were good reasons for doing what God wanted done. 21:47 [music] Now, don't get me wrong. 21:56 I'm not rubbing my hands together with glee, 21:58 cheering on the God who wipes out cities and 22:02 kills old ladies and little children. 22:05 I'm not trying to defend God for wiping out nations and people 22:09 groups and so forth. I don't mean that, but looking 22:12 at this dispassionately, and looking at this analytically, 22:18 what we find is that God is not cruel and that God is not 22:23 a tyrant. In order to protect His people, 22:27 He saw to it that other people were stopped, in order to 22:31 preserve a place where Messiah could come. 22:35 He saw to it that there was an environment in which that 22:37 could happen. In order to make sure that 22:40 Jesus could come at all -- imagine if all Israel had 22:43 been wiped out -- God did what He had to do. 22:47 Why? Simply because He was jealous 22:48 for His people? No! 22:50 Maybe some of that, but more so because He was jealous for you. 22:54 God wanted to save you. And if thousands of years ago 22:59 His people were overrun and sin engulfed and swallowed up the 23:04 world, that would never happen. Was it serious? 23:07 Oh, it was serious. Stopping lives, ending lives, 23:11 wiping out civilizations, flooding the earth-- 23:13 that was serious. But if God had not, wickedness 23:16 would have run such a course, we just wouldn't be able to 23:19 imagine it. These were really wicked people. 23:22 God talked about these people who were idol worshipers; 23:25 they were flagrantly immoral. They were sacrificing their own 23:29 children and doing other things that we don't even need to talk 23:33 about. And God stopped that before sin 23:36 just ran away even further than it did. 23:39 You've heard the question asked, would it have been better to 23:42 stop Hitler before he developed into the tyrant and mass 23:47 murderer that he developed into? Or, would it be better to just 23:50 let history run its course? Most people wouldn't think too 23:54 long before saying, if we could have stopped Hitler, that would 23:56 have been the right thing to do. And God stopped a lot of evil 23:59 and a lot of wickedness before it just got way out of hand. 24:03 Unfair? No. 24:05 Tyrannical? No. 24:06 Serious? Sure. 24:08 Just absolutely, justice was served. 24:11 But there's no way we can charge God with acting reprehensibly. 24:15 There's no way we can say that God was out of control. 24:18 There's no way we can say he was a, a tyrant. 24:20 Everything God does, He does out of love-- 24:23 even ending the lives of the unrepentant wicked. 24:29 God is love, and everything we read about in the Bible, 24:32 as serious as it seems, is a manifestation of God's 24:35 love for the human family and God's love for you. 24:39 Come on, now, let's not lose sight of what's really 24:41 important in this. And that is, God offers the gift 24:44 of salvation to the world. Today, God's asking you if you 24:47 would accept this gift of salvation. 24:49 If you've not done so, you can do so now. 24:51 If you've not been sure how to relate to this God of heaven, 24:55 you can understand now that God is a good God. 24:57 Everything He's done is good, gracious, loving, merciful. 25:02 And you want to be the child of a merciful God who will shine on 25:05 you, and smile on you, and shower His grace upon you. 25:10 Can you respond to that God today? 25:12 The God who has done everything He could to give you the 25:15 opportunity to be present in this moment and hear 25:20 His voice. Would you respond to that God 25:23 today and open up your heart to Him, and invite Jesus to 25:26 be the Lord of your life? Let's pray together. 25:29 Our Father in heaven, we look at the Bible and we have to come 25:33 away saying God is love. There are some passages that 25:36 challenge us. You knew they would, and You 25:40 allowed them to be written, believing that if we have 25:44 an encounter with You, if we will look for the 25:47 true God, we will see a picture of a God who 25:51 loved the world. Friend, would you respond to 25:55 Jesus and invite Him into your heart? 25:56 Even now, just pray, Lord, come into my life. 25:58 Would you do that? Jesus, come into my life. 26:02 God of heaven, be my God. Heavenly Father, I offer 26:05 you my heart. Lord, we do that together, 26:08 we do so gladly, and we pray confidently today 26:12 in Jesus' name. Amen. 26:18 [music] 26:30 What is God like? The answer offered in John 3:16 26:34 and throughout the Bible is that God is love. 26:37 We also know that God is just. But then, there's the concept of 26:41 sinners being burned on and on at the hand of an angry God. 26:46 How are we supposed to reconcile that? 26:49 And most everybody's wondered about being in heaven while 26:52 their loved ones burned on and on in hell. 26:54 This topic is so very important. Let me send you our free 26:58 booklet, "Hellfire: Would God Really Do That?" 27:01 Just call (800) 253-3000 and ask for your copy of "Hellfire: 27:07 Would God Really Do That?" If the line's busy, please do 27:11 try again, or write to It Is Written, PO Box 6, 27:15 Chattanooga, TN 37401. We'll mail a free copy to your 27:19 address in North America. It Is Written is a faith-based 27:23 ministry, and your support makes it possible for us to 27:26 share God's good news with the world. 27:28 Your tax-deductible gift can be sent to the address on your 27:31 screen, or through our website at ItIsWritten.com. 27:35 Thank you for your continued prayerful support. 27:38 Again, our toll-free number is (800) 253-3000, and our web 27:43 address is ItIsWritten.com. 27:48 [music] Thanks for joining me today. 27:50 I look forward to seeing you again next time. 27:52 Until then remember, it is written: man shall not 27:56 live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds 28:00 from the mouth of God. 28:03 [music] |
Revised 2016-12-06