Participants: Dwayne Lemon, Lance Wilbur
Series Code: TKS
Program Code: TKS000026A
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00:30 Hello. My name is Lance. And I'm Dwayne.
00:33 And welcome to another episode of True Knowledge of Self 00:36 where we get to know ourselves from a biblical perspective. 00:40 It was in our last episode 00:41 that we were really looking at the Word of God 00:43 and we were understanding God's plan of salvation, 00:47 and we were understanding that 00:49 in the context of true knowledge of self, 00:51 an individual understanding their need even for salvation 00:54 in the first place. 00:56 And then how does that fit? 00:57 And how does it compare 00:59 to what is often taught through hip-hop culture 01:01 which is a concept called Knowledge of Self. 01:04 And as we were digging deeper in the Word of God, 01:05 we were understanding many beautiful things from His Word. 01:08 We were able to look at the context 01:10 of the Great Controversy 01:12 and what started in heaven and landed here on earth, 01:14 and how we are caught in the midst of it, 01:16 and how God has a plan to deliver us 01:18 through His righteousness, both imputed and imparted. 01:23 And we have to be ones that can accept this blessed gift 01:26 that God has given to us. 01:27 It was from that that we began to look at 01:29 some of the things of how we grew up. 01:32 Lance as an example, you shared a little bit about 01:34 how you were growing up 01:36 and how hip-hop culture influenced you. 01:38 I can also remember the areas in my life 01:39 where I was growing up and I was thinking about 01:42 how hip-hop culture influenced my life. 01:44 You know, I simply love to have fun. 01:47 I didn't like education, I didn't like 01:49 pretty much doing anything that 01:51 caused too much taxing of my mind. 01:52 A little bit different from you 01:54 'cause you were in a quest for knowledge, 01:55 I was on a quest for fun. 01:57 And hip-hop was definitely my channel. 01:59 It was an opportunity to express myself 02:01 with talents or skills that I had and, you know, 02:04 I can just kind of do things that I wanted to do. 02:07 And from that whenever I exercise, 02:11 you know, my talents, in this case it was dancing. 02:13 When I got the applause, when I got the praise, 02:16 when I got basically what I will consider, 02:18 you know, a form of worship. 02:20 People adoring me and putting me 02:21 up to a high level, 02:23 obviously I love that and, you know, 02:24 it fed deep inside and it made me want to dig 02:27 even deeper into some of the things 02:29 that I was seeing as a "benefit" 02:31 of hip-hop culture. 02:33 So it's from that, you know, 02:34 I found myself exalting myself in this way. 02:37 You know, I started comparing myself to others, 02:39 started getting caught up in a lot of battles, 02:41 you know, a lot of the things 02:43 that are very much connected to today 02:45 what is known as hip-hop culture. 02:46 And as a result of that, 02:48 I was very much caught up into self-exaltation. 02:50 It was only through a knowledge of Jesus Christ 02:54 which eventually, He got my attention, 02:56 unfortunately it was through the death of my nephew. 02:58 But you know, nevertheless as my nephew died, 03:02 I started thinking a little bit more about life 03:04 and that was the opportunity for God to reach me 03:06 and that was nothing 03:07 but a fulfillment of scripture anyhow. 03:09 You know, the Bible tells us that, 03:10 "It's better to go to the house of mourning 03:12 rather than to the house of feasting for 03:14 that is the end of all men and the living will lay it 03:16 to his heart," Ecclesiastes 7:2. 03:19 So it was from that death experience of my nephew 03:23 that it became an awakening experience for me 03:25 to say, "Wow. 03:26 I do have a lot of power and influence, 03:29 I'm making money, I'm on television, 03:31 I'm traveling, 03:32 I'm doing a lot in the industry of hip-hop 03:35 but at the same time I can't stop death. 03:38 Death has an appointment with every human being. 03:40 And when it comes, there's going to be accountability 03:43 after the death which we know as the judgment. 03:45 So because of that, this is something that, 03:47 you know, made me start thinking, 03:49 "I got to get my life right. 03:50 There has to be more than what I'm just doing right now." 03:53 And that was, kind of the awakening experience 03:55 where I realized, "Well, I really need the Lord." 03:57 I just didn't see it at the time but of course, 04:00 God brought me out of the darkness, 04:02 entered me into His marvelous life, 04:03 and this is how I've now, thank the Lord, 04:06 become a new creature in Christ. 04:08 And I'm grateful for that. 04:09 And there are a lot of people, 04:10 there are a lot of our viewers out there that, 04:12 you know, they're wanting to know, 04:14 listen, there's categories, 04:17 there're some viewers that may be thinking, 04:19 "You know what? 04:20 I love hip-hop, I am hip-hop," you know, and I need to... 04:23 "If it's wrong, I need to know why it's wrong." 04:26 Then there are others who may say, "Well, 04:27 I know it's not the best for me but at the same time, 04:31 how do I get out? 04:32 What's the other alternatives?" 04:33 And there's a lot of different concepts, 04:35 a lot of things going on in people's minds, 04:37 and that's part of the reasons why these programs exist 04:39 is to impart a true knowledge of self 04:41 that if we receive that truth it will do 04:44 what John 8:32 says. 04:45 It's going to make people free. 04:47 So with that being stated, 04:49 really and truly at the end of the day, 04:52 what is hip-hop? 04:53 Because, you know, when you say hip-hop, 04:56 somebody is thinking about a guy 04:57 with his hat turned sideways, wearing baggy pants, 05:00 and big boots, and walking with a funny looking limp, 05:03 and talking a certain way and some people say, 05:05 "Oh, that's hip-hop, right there." 05:06 But we know that it's broader than that. 05:08 So that we can help even our viewers, 05:12 how can we understand exactly what is hip-hop. 05:16 All right. 05:17 Well, I mean, it's kind of going to be 05:18 a long-winded answer 05:20 'cause we got to flush some things out, 05:21 we got to look at some history to kind of, try to understand. 05:24 Number one, hip-hop is a culture. 05:26 When we were coming up, you know, 05:29 all people really understood about hip-hop was rap music. 05:32 Right. 05:33 And they thought rap was some kind of fad, 05:35 you know, like disco. 05:37 Not a lot of people listening to disco music right now. 05:39 It's not used to sell in market things right now, 05:42 like it was when it was, you know, popular. 05:45 And so when rap music came along, which is, you know, 05:49 how people identified it instead of as a culture, 05:51 they considered it as just another fad. 05:54 And they thought it would just come and go away. 05:57 We know that it never went away, in fact, 05:59 it has grown and grown and mushroomed now 06:02 where there's really no area of society 06:05 that you're going to not see hip-hop 06:07 discussed in some way, 06:08 whether it's a selling of a product. 06:10 You know, the president of the United States talking about 06:12 who's his favorite rappers, you know, social media, 06:16 all those kind of stuff, it's out there right now. 06:18 It's pretty much the most popular form of music 06:22 on the planet 06:23 and has been for many, many years. 06:26 In fact, I remember a time that I actually saw a video clip 06:30 and I have never seen anything like this in my life. 06:32 It was during the time of the Late John Paul II 06:35 and when he was alive that 06:37 there were actually break-dances 06:39 that was dancing 06:40 probably no more than 10, 15 feet away from him. 06:44 And I'm thinking to myself, "Who would have ever known 06:47 that the thing I used to do, 06:49 when I used to cut a box open 06:50 and pour some talcum powder on it 06:52 and just start spinning on my head and my back, 06:54 who would have ever thought that this way of dancing 06:57 would find its way in front of popes, 06:59 you know, in the world." 07:00 And Pope John Paul II was blessing them 07:03 and, you know, all these things. 07:04 I mean, this just shows hip-hop is not a fad, 07:07 it's not something that's just kind of like this thing 07:10 that's here today gone tomorrow. 07:11 It has penetrated every area and every phase of life. 07:16 That's right. 07:17 And so, you know, we talked about it 07:19 and we keep calling it a culture and it is. 07:21 And I can't elusively define culture, 07:23 but I'm just gonna go ahead and read a definition 07:25 for the word 'culture'. 07:27 So, culture literally from any generic dictionary 07:30 says that, "It is the arts, beliefs, customs, institutions, 07:36 and other products of human work 07:38 and thought considered as a unit, 07:41 especially with regard to a particular time 07:44 or social group." 07:45 So this is what we were talking about. 07:47 We are talking about hip-hop as a bonofide culture. 07:49 Right. 07:50 We can argue whether it's a counter culture 07:53 or what have you, but the bottom line is, 07:54 it is a culture. 07:55 And you know, when we consider hip-hop those of us 08:00 who are deeply entrenched in it 08:01 and went beyond simply the rap music 08:04 because there's many, many forms of music 08:07 that are considered hip-hop. 08:08 And so it's not bound to any musical genre, 08:11 it's kind of an amalgamation of all genres. 08:14 And all the different elements, in the dress, in the talk 08:17 and all this stuff is all, kind of molded in, 08:21 and melted into hip-hop culture. 08:24 So when you consider these things 08:27 and authorities in hip-hop, in other words, 08:29 there is thought leaders just like in any other culture, 08:31 there are thought leaders in this area, 08:33 thought leaders in that area. 08:34 Pundits, you know, experts, historians, 08:37 now we actually have hip-hop historians. 08:40 Now we actually have, you know, 08:42 authorities in the realm of hip-hop. 08:44 There is college, major colleges, universities 08:46 that offer courses now in hip-hop education. 08:49 There is people that tour, you know, former or not, 08:52 I don't know if it they are called former 08:54 but artists, you know, that were part of the fad 08:56 back then are now on a lecture circuit 08:58 going to Harvard and Yale and giving these lectures 09:02 in major colleges and universities. 09:04 And so, when we are talking about some of this stuff 09:07 and some of the technical aspects of the culture, 09:09 we are not just pulling stuff out of encyclopedia. 09:12 This is the stuff that we lived but it's also things 09:16 that the chief authorities, 09:17 if you will, and that thought leaders 09:20 and we are not talking about the most popular people 09:21 out in the world, 09:23 so some of these names people might not even know 09:24 who I'm talking about. 09:26 So we are not talking about the people that are on, 09:27 you know, the billboard list or the hot 100 right now. 09:30 We are talking about people that lead the ideology 09:33 and the culture of hip-hop. 09:34 So one name that comes to mind is obviously Afrika Bambaataa. 09:38 And Afrika Bambaata is, 09:40 you know, arguably the catalyst to, 09:43 you know, the hip-hop culture developing. 09:46 He was a former gang leader in New York City 09:50 and he, slowly, you know, developed this thing called 09:55 'the Zulu nation', 09:56 'the almighty Zulu nation' which was a kind of a movement 10:02 to try to curb some of the gang violence 10:05 that was taking place in the Bronx, 10:06 in the New York at that time. 10:08 And so he would create parties to bring all of the, you know, 10:12 this gangs and all the people 10:13 from different neighborhoods together 10:15 and they would use a form of music 10:17 and all these new techniques and elements for the... 10:21 that were coming from that same community 10:24 and it morphed into, you know, hip-hop culture, 10:26 they created these things. 10:28 So we think of Afrika Bambaataa, 10:29 he is considered the Godfather of hip-hop, if you will. 10:33 And, you know, some years ago, they did a tribute. 10:37 You know, on television they have these, you know, 10:42 they're calling it hip-hop honors. 10:44 It's like ceremonies where they commemorate the careers 10:48 and the legacies of various hip-hop figures in the past. 10:53 And so they had this one that was focusing on 10:54 Afrika Bambaataa and you know, 10:57 there is video clips online that show another individual 11:00 who's considered a thought leader 11:02 and an authority in hip-hop culture 11:04 by the name of KRS-One and most of us, you know, 11:06 you know who KRS-One is, most of us. 11:08 If you don't know then it's not important 11:10 but nevertheless he comes out 11:12 and kind of gives the introduction to the honoree 11:15 Afrika Bambaataa. 11:17 And he articulates some things that we refer to as, 11:20 or refer to as the elements or the cornerstones of hip-hop. 11:24 And so he highlights what he refers to 11:27 in that segment as the cornerstones of hip-hop 11:30 and they are as follows: 11:32 Knowledge, wisdom, and understanding 11:36 but also peace, love, unity, and safely having fun. 11:41 So these are considered the cornerstones 11:44 of the culture. 11:45 We're going to talk about that obviously. 11:47 We're going to spend some time talking about that 11:48 peace, love, unity, safely having fun, knowledge, 11:52 you know, wisdom over standing. 11:53 And then there is something called the elements, 11:55 you know, again this is all, you know, wordplay and tellers. 12:00 Yeah, cornerstones, elements where these are the things 12:03 that comprise that make up hip-hop culture 12:05 and that is MCing or what we would refer to 12:07 as rapping, right? 12:08 MCing, B-boying which is like the dancing side, 12:11 the break-dancing and all that, DJing, right? 12:15 We think of the scratching of the turntables 12:17 and all these things. 12:19 Graffiti writing which is, you know, we know the, 12:23 you know, now it's a mainstream art almost in some areas. 12:26 But the stuff that used to be on the walls, 12:28 and the murals, on the subways there in the '70s in New York. 12:32 And then they have this street knowledge, 12:35 this street language, 12:38 and the street entrepreneurialism 12:41 that has been added in the fashion as well. 12:44 So these elements of hip-hop, these pillars, 12:46 these cornerstones, all these things. 12:48 Now, I want to spend some time talking about the history 12:52 'cause we kind of got to understand 12:54 where this stuff came from. 12:55 We know from scripture, when we looked at Genesis 3 12:59 and the deceptions of the Satan 13:01 used through the serpent in trying to convince Eve, 13:04 I guess successfully convincing Eve, 13:06 that by going against God, she could better herself. 13:09 She could improve, she could advance 13:11 in her intellect, in her cultural development 13:14 would be raised by going against God. 13:17 So we know it's ancient. 13:19 However, there were certain... 13:22 certain environment that kind of bred, 13:24 the Petri dish if you will, that bred hip-hop culture. 13:27 So we got to kind of go back, we can spend a lot of time 13:30 going back even further than I'm gonna go. 13:33 But if you think of the Bronx, New York, 13:36 this is kind of the birthplace of hip-hop, 13:38 the South Bronx in particular. 13:40 And if you think of the South Bronx 13:42 really in the 1960s, 13:44 there was a large construction project, 13:47 'The Cross Bronx Expressway'. 13:49 When they built that expressway, 13:51 they bulled those and removed entire communities. 13:54 I mean, entire communities were literally wiped off the map 13:58 to make way for this expressway. 14:00 So there was a lot of displacement 14:01 and the removal of a lot of those middleclass 14:04 and upper middleclass families, kind of, left poorer people, 14:07 kind of strapped there a little bit. 14:10 If you think of all the other things 14:11 that were happened culturally, the Civil Rights Movement, 14:13 the build up, you know, the assassinations of John F. 14:17 Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, 14:19 all of this stuff happening, you know, in society. 14:22 A lot of shifting and changing, the cross cultural revolution, 14:25 the counter cultural revolution with the 1960s, you know, 14:29 the Hippie Movement, all that stuff. 14:30 All of that's happening 14:32 and literally when the '70s come 14:34 and the big Sulphur War, Vietnam War, 14:37 you start having veterans coming back, 14:39 heroine is introduced heavily into communities and, you know, 14:43 poverty is really becoming a serious, 14:47 you know, issue especially in the inner cities. 14:50 Especially now, in a community where landlords and, you know, 14:55 the various criminal organized crime element 14:59 that was in the city were looking at the Bronx 15:02 and saying, "You know what? 15:03 We got to try to recoup some money here." 15:06 The property value is dramatically going down, 15:10 the upper class, you know, what they call white flight, 15:14 you know, we all know what that is, 15:15 well, may be a little later we'll talk about 15:17 re-gentrification where those, you know, 15:19 the upper middleclass, the upper class 15:21 are moving back into these urban areas 15:24 and the poor people are being forced to get out 15:26 because of the increase of the property value. 15:28 Nevertheless, you had what we call white flight, 15:30 you know, referred to sociology as white flight. 15:33 And the landlords are like, 15:36 "Well, we can't sell these buildings. 15:37 We can't get rent." 15:39 Section 8, you know, comes into play. 15:41 So now you just have a situation 15:43 where it's entrenched poverty, people that own the properties 15:47 are trying to get rid of them 15:49 and the solution is burn them down. 15:52 So you run into a situation, I'm going to quote it, 15:55 think of this, "In the 1970s," 15:57 you know, consider the war years. 15:59 "In the 1970s, 16:01 to 12, 000 fires per month 16:05 in the South Bronx." 16:07 In the Bronx, in the Boroughs... 16:08 That's incredible. 16:09 ..10,000 to 12,000 fires per month in that '70s decade. 16:13 And so I actually pulled up a quotation from an article 16:16 that was written in the New York Post 16:18 a few years back called "Why the Bronx burned?" 16:22 And notice what it says, 16:23 "In total over 40% of the South Bronx was burned 16:27 or abandoned between 1970 and 1980 16:31 with 44 census tracks," you know, that's like, 16:35 you know, areas through which they 16:36 how they measure the population. 16:38 "44 census tracks losing more than 50% 16:41 and 7 more than 97% of their buildings to arson, 16:45 abandonment or both." 16:48 I mean, that's absolutely mind-blowing. 16:50 That is incredible. 16:51 You know, here is what I'm thinking. 16:54 If a community is going through this level of poverty, 17:00 destruction, persecution even etcetera, 17:03 it poises the mind to say, 17:05 "We need to be delivered from this," 17:07 you know, it's like, when you are knocked down 17:08 to your lowest place, 17:10 that's when you are mentally prepared 17:12 we need deliverance from this circumstance 17:14 because things are getting really bad 17:15 and it's not getting any batter. 17:17 So I can really see how, 17:20 with this level of trough going on 17:22 in people's lives in this area, certainly the people are ready. 17:26 They're poised, they are ready to see something happen 17:30 that's gonna get them to a "higher place". 17:32 Yeah. 17:33 So, I mean, and to add to that, if you look at the statistics, 17:37 there's articles written about this like the one 17:38 I just quoted from, all major crimes, 17:42 you know, murder, rape, theft, 17:44 robbery, you know, arson all that. 17:46 The south Bronx at that time was the capital 17:48 for all those crimes in the United States. 17:50 So it was literally, I don't know, I mean, 17:53 it could be equative, some people, some are, 17:56 you know, journalist likened the appearance, 17:58 just the appearance of the South Bronx 18:00 in that era to post Berlin, you know, 18:04 post World War II completely bombed out 18:07 and destroyed by the allied powers. 18:08 That's what it looked like. 18:09 And it was as terrifying as it looks. 18:12 So people are looking for a solution. 18:14 People are looking for a solution 18:16 and what happens is, as we talked about, 18:20 you know, some of these gang leaders in a effort to, 18:25 you know, quell the violence and stop all of the killing 18:28 and all of the crime and just an area where people 18:31 who could not leave were kind of forced 18:33 to remain had to change, something had to change. 18:36 So they started this thing and then they started it, 18:38 you know, this peaceful movement, 18:40 if you will, where, again, as I mentioned, 18:42 they started hosting these parties, 18:44 bringing in some of these new musical elements, 18:46 these new cultural developments 18:49 that took place with the graffiti writing. 18:50 I mean, there was a time you can't tell now in New York, 18:53 but there was a time in which literally every single train, 18:57 you know, every car of every train 18:59 was completely covered in graffiti, 19:01 inside and out and you couldn't go anywhere. 19:04 And so the mainstream, you know, Manhattan started, 19:07 kind of, getting hold of it and started popularizing it, 19:10 bringing those dancers from the Bronx 19:12 down to the clubs in Manhattan. 19:14 Bringing those artists down to the, you know, 19:16 clubs in Manhattan. 19:17 Bringing those graffiti artists down to some of the galleries 19:19 in Manhattan 19:21 and really doing stories and almost like, 19:23 cultural exposes like someone going to the Amazon, 19:26 that's how kind of people who are journalists and stuff 19:28 and historians were coming in 19:30 and documenting what's going on there. 19:32 So it apparently looks like something good, right? 19:35 Yeah. And I'm... I was just gonna say that. 19:37 If you are saying these elements of hip-hop 19:41 that we talked about, the breaking, 19:43 the MCing and etcetera, 19:44 if all these were birth out of people 19:47 going through oppression and individuals 19:49 are trying to help individuals to keep the heads up, 19:53 if you will. 19:54 Don't give up, don't give in 19:55 and bring about unity and peace. 19:57 Naturally, somebody is going to say, "What is wrong with that? 20:00 Why then would hip-hop culture be bad? 20:04 Why would it be something for individuals 20:06 to be cautioned against and warned against, why?" 20:09 I mean, we'd been kind of talking about it but I mean, 20:11 the simple answer to me is those elements like 20:13 we talked about, you know, peace, unity, love, you know, 20:17 safely having fun, you know, and the MCing, the B-boying, 20:21 the DJing, all that stuff. 20:23 Those... those simple... 20:25 the human effort, you know, the human-based principle, 20:29 the human effort and human forms of expression, 20:32 however creative, and intelligent, and ingenious 20:35 they are cannot purify the human soul. 20:38 They cannot solve the problem of sin that we've talked about. 20:40 They cannot make you righteous. 20:43 You know, this is a good point because at the end of the day 20:47 and even though you talk about what happened in the 1970s 20:51 these are things that's happening 20:52 even now in the 2000s. 20:55 We are seeing a situation where 20:58 people are constantly trying to solve problems, real problems. 21:02 Perhaps with very, very good, genuine intense, 21:05 but they do not have the wherewithal 21:07 to truly solve the problem. 21:09 As an example, what is the problem? 21:11 You know, I believe that that's an issue. 21:13 I don't believe we have so much of race problem, 21:16 or we have a gender problem in our world, 21:19 or we have an issue of gun control etcetera, 21:22 we have one problem and one problem only. 21:24 And if this problem can be solved, 21:26 every other problem is solved. 21:27 It's called the sin problem. Yep. 21:28 Once, you see, if you deal with gun control, 21:32 you can take a gun away from a person, 21:33 they'll just replace it with a knife 21:35 or bow and arrow or some other instrument. 21:37 You can't legislate evil. Yes. 21:39 Therefore, God wants to really deal 21:42 with the root of the problem. 21:43 And that's why this context of hip-hop, you know, 21:46 trying to solve the problem, the truth of the matter is, 21:49 if you're trying to do it exempt from God, 21:51 you actually are not solving the problem. 21:53 And now, to even take it deeper, 21:55 you actually are part of the problem. 21:56 Yes. All right. 21:58 So, go ahead then and you know. 21:59 And so that was like then and like I said, 22:01 that was to consider just, "Oh, you know, 22:03 kids being kids and kind of something 22:05 that's never going to really happen." 22:06 Well, it went mainstream obviously and, you know, 22:09 now it makes people, you know, the first hip-hop billionaire, 22:13 you know, Dr. Dre, you know, recently with that deal 22:16 he made with Apple. 22:19 And we have these hip-hop figures now in the six, 22:25 you know, and eight figure 22:27 and ten figure categories of wealth 22:31 and now they are not just, you know, 22:34 kids in a poor neighborhood. 22:38 Now they've kind of transcended all of these things. 22:41 So it's not the way it used to be, so now it's advanced. 22:44 So what does it do? 22:45 What is the culture do when it transitions from, 22:47 kind of something that the world dismisses 22:49 to something that now has a seat 22:51 at the world's table? 22:53 Well, it has to, kind of adapt itself 22:55 and it has to say something a little deeper about itself 22:57 because it still hasn't solved the same problems 22:59 that are apparently was raised up to do. 23:02 So I got a quotation here from, again, 23:05 that individual name KRS-One 23:06 who is one of the primary thought leaders. 23:08 He's referred to as the teacher, 23:09 right, in hip-hop. 23:11 He actually wrote a book, if you call it a book, 23:16 a treaty if you will call the gospel of hip-hop. 23:19 And here is what he says about it 23:21 because lots of people wrote about it, lots of critics 23:23 and people don't know really know what to do about it. 23:25 But notice what it says here 23:26 and this is quoted from a article, 23:28 kind of critiquing, commenting on a book, 23:30 interviewing KRS-One about the release of the book 23:33 from a particular website. 23:36 It says, "I'm..." 23:37 this is a quoting KRS-One directly 23:39 in the interview, right. 23:41 It says, "I'm suggesting that in 100 years 23:44 this book will be a new religion on the earth. 23:47 I think I have the authority to approach God directly. 23:50 I don't have to go through 23:51 any religion or train of thought. 23:54 I can approach God directly myself 23:56 and so I wrote a book called 'The Gospel of Hip-hop' 23:59 to free from all this nonsense garbage right now. 24:04 I respect the Christianity, the Islam, the Judaism 24:08 but their time is up. 24:10 In 100 years everything that I'm saying to you 24:13 will be common knowledge and people will be like, 24:16 'why did he have to explain this? 24:18 Wasn't it obvious?'" 24:20 This is absolute. 24:22 Quite honestly, I'm just gonna speak frankly, 24:23 that's blasphemy. 24:25 And one of the reasons why is because 24:27 when you read the Bible and you read Isaiah 6. 24:31 It says, "Even angels 24:34 that have the privilege of being in the presence of God," 24:36 it says, "They even veil their faces 24:39 when they stand before Him in His glory 24:40 and they cry out Holy, Holy, Holy." 24:42 And yet we have basically another individual who, 24:47 in very common terms is another sinner 24:48 like everybody else, saying, 24:50 "I can just go directly to Him." 24:52 Again, we are not simply stating 24:54 that these individuals are evil but they are incorrect. 24:58 And these things that have been taught 24:59 are being perpetuated in the minds 25:01 of young people of every culture 25:03 and what have you throughout our world. 25:05 These are the things that need to be put in check 25:07 especially if these are "Pillars" 25:10 very foundations of this movement of hip-hop culture. 25:13 That's right. 25:14 And it's not, you know, this is not something 25:17 that's kind of behind-the-scenes. 25:19 This is something that is out in front. 25:21 I wouldn't say it's popular 25:23 because people are listening to, 25:24 you know, people look at, 25:26 and when they think about hip-hop, 25:27 they just think about music. 25:28 So they just look at whoever popular artist 25:30 and that ebbs and flows, you know, over a time, 25:33 who's popular and who's not. 25:34 And most people listen to the popular people. 25:37 But you don't really hear the popular people out there 25:39 vocalizing any principles of religion, 25:42 and writing books that are destined 25:45 to replace the Bible and all this. 25:46 So it's still there and the real individuals 25:49 that are members of that culture 25:51 are interested in this. 25:53 So what we're gonna have to do 25:54 when we're talking about culture 25:56 and we have to reiterate culture is needed. 26:00 Culture is something that God created. 26:02 Culture is something that God wants. 26:03 But culture is something that is dictated by God. 26:06 It's a living reality, it's a way of life. 26:08 It's a lifestyle that God dictates. 26:11 He represents Himself 26:13 and then He dictates to others how to live. 26:14 So we're gonna look at culture 26:16 and kind of the underpinning of biblical culture is in a verse 26:21 that I want to mention 26:22 will have to, you know, pick it up in our next episode 26:24 but 2 Peter 1. 26:27 We're going to look at 2 Peter 1, 26:29 there is something referred to as Peter's ladder. 26:31 And we're going to walk through that thing 26:32 and see what is biblical Christian culture 26:35 really look like. 26:37 And does that fulfill the human need for culture, 26:41 and advancement, and creativity, and all these. 26:45 Does it fulfill that need? 26:46 Because I do not think and I came to know this, 26:49 you know, in my own life but we do not need human beings 26:54 to create this sense of fulfillment. 26:58 God created us, He knows exactly what we need, 27:00 and in fact, the thing that we're missing is the thing 27:02 that He can provide and only He can provide. 27:05 So He acknowledges what we need. 27:07 He acknowledges what we have to have 27:09 and how we have to live. 27:11 The problem is where are we gonna get it from. 27:13 Are we going to trust something that is of origin from God 27:18 or we're gonna trust something that's originated in man? 27:21 And that's ultimately 27:22 what we're gonna have to come to rely. 27:25 And this is the reason why Jesus warns about vain worship 27:28 because people were teaching for doctrines 27:30 the commandments of men. 27:31 Yeah. Mind-blowing. 27:33 Well, folks, we have a lot to study, 27:36 we have so much more to give, and we have a lot more 27:39 that the Lord is gonna speak to our hearts. 27:41 God is making His foundations known 27:43 so that when these foundations 27:45 and the efforts there of 27:46 are trying to be taken away from us, 27:48 we will know how to stay 27:49 on the firm platform of God's truth. 27:52 We thank you for joining us today. 27:53 We look forward to you coming back 27:55 and always remember to bring a friend. 27:56 And please remember those wonderful words 27:58 of Proverbs 2:6, that tells us, 28:01 "It is the Lord that gives us wisdom 28:04 and out of His mouth comes knowledge 28:07 and understanding." 28:09 God bless you. See you soon. |
Revised 2017-02-24