Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Good morning. Good morning, good morning. Good morning. My name's Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the Village Church. This is week three of our series called When Skeptics Challenge the Bible. Uh, the first week, uh, I had the joy to preach on the question, does God condone slavery? Uh, last week I had a friend in and he preached on, does God commit genocide? Next week we're gonna be dealing with the question is God anti-women? Um, I hope not because he made them, but we're gonna dig into that and see kind of some of the accusations, um, against the Bible, Christianity, Jesus from the culture. But today, this morning, we're gonna respond to the question, is the Bible anti-science and really good news on the front end? You can believe in Jesus, in the Bible and true science all at the same time. Are we okay with you should give a shot for that is actually really, that is really good news.
Speaker 1 00:01:01 You do not have to throw out the Bible in order to believe in science. You don't have to throw out science in order to believe in, in the Bible. In fact, Christians love science. We love scientific facts because God himself created, originated all facts, all reality. Everything that you discovered that is true in real first came from the mind and the heart of God before any scientist ever figured it out. Pastor Craig, when we were doing our preaching prep, uh, he said this, he said, God has a PhD in every scientific discipline. I just, I I heard that and I was like, wow. Now does he have an actual PhD? No, but, but you, you take every single scientific discipline. If it is real and true and reflective of reality, it began and originated in the mind of God. Uh, science and faith, praise God are not competitive, but they are cooperative. Over 1600 years ago, there was a church father pastor, his name is Saint Augustine, and, and, and he was wrestling through the tension between science and faith. He came to this conclusion when there is a disagreement, when they are at odds with each other, either, number one, it is a misunderstanding of the data, or two, it is a misinterpretation of scripture. Can we agree that scientists have a history of misinterpreting the data?
Speaker 1 00:02:31 Can we also agree that Christians have a history of misinterpreting the scriptures? Yes. So when it comes to science and faith, oftentimes Christians, they feel like they're on the defensive. Like, we have something to prove. And here's my, my hope for this whole series, this whole semester as we've been dealing with where did the Bible come from, how to read it. Now, some of these biggest challenges from skeptics, uh, our desire is to increase your confidence in the Bible. Our our desire is also to increase your confidence in your ability to read and understand the Bible. And I think most importantly of all, our desire is to increase your confidence in God who gave us the Bible. Uh, as you sit in different circumstances in your life, in all of this propaganda comes at you that seeks to dismantle and undo the trustworthiness of the word of God.
Speaker 1 00:03:24 Uh, I want your confidence in God to grow higher and higher so that you have the muscles, you have the ability to defend your mind and your heart against lies. And then even maybe some of the tools to figure out what is true and what is real. So first, let's, let's just take a moment. I wanna empathize with those who ask the question is the, is the Bible anti-science? So throughout history, some Christian leaders have used the Bible to just, to justify provably false claims. Let me give you an example. In the 16th and 17th century, the Roman Catholic Church required as a point of doctrine, adherence to the earth centric model. Meaning the Earth is the center of our solar system, a village church. Is that true? No. Galileo challenges this and he is put on house arrest for the rest of his life for defending the view that no, the sun doesn't revolve around the earth in our solar system, but the converse, the earth revolves around the sun, put on house arrest for the rest of his life.
Speaker 1 00:04:35 Then we have the Christian masses who, let's be honest, are we not eager to gobble up every single thing that we can find that justifies Christianity, whether proven or not? This is just part of like part of reality here. Now, if I just stop there, you'd be like, okay, pastor Michael, that's, that's not fair because um, what we know is that this isn't a Bible issue. That's not a Christian issue. It's actually a human issue. So let me illustrate this same two points for the scientific community. Scientific leaders have used science to claim as fact that which ended up being fiction. Hear me out. Do you remember when we were told keeping our kids on zoom and outta school was the best option? After all, it's science in conveniently. We are now being told by the exact same people that this was a poor idea.
Speaker 1 00:05:28 And the harm to children now far outweighs the spread of covid. It's science. And the secular masses, like the Christian masses, gobble up unproven ideas that appeared to justify their narrative. Let me be clear, it's not a Bible issue, it's not a Christian issue, it's not a science issue. It's a human issue. We all do it and, and we love to throw stones at the other other side and say they're the problem. Yet we historically and personally have probably done the exact same things. We are all desperate for answers for understanding to a degree we want to be right, we want to be protected, we want to be safe. No one feel lo gen philosopher, scientist, politician is above overplaying our cards being over confident in things, yet proven, humiliating and depressing opposing sides, or coming to conclusions impatiently without letting all of the data come in.
Speaker 1 00:06:37 Okay? So scientists in Christians, really, at the end of the day, we all want and are obsessed with the same thing. And that thing is reality. We want to know that which is true, that which is real. What can I trust? What can I know for sure? And it is, I want you to hear this, it is the Christian drive to know and understand reality that we have been at the forefront of every single scientific discipline of the last 2000 years up until about the last hundred years. It is why almost all major universities in the globe, up until about a hundred years ago, were started by Christians, Harvard and Yale, Puritans, Princeton, originally Presbyterian, all of them Bible believing institutions, Oxford, Cambridge, university of Paris. We could go on and on and on started by Christians out of an obsession to know what is real and what is true without Christianity Christianity's obsession with reality.
Speaker 1 00:07:42 We would still be right Now in the scientific dark ages, Christians have done this. The, the Bible is not anti-science. Christians are not anti-science. We are pro-science. We are pro, pro reality. We are pro fact, we are pro thinking, we are pro hypothesis, we are pro all the things that come with trying to figure out what is real and true and what works. It does not work in this world. That is a fundamental Christian thing that we do. That drive for science is inherently residue of a Judeo-Christian ethic in this world. So for someone to determine reality, there are two big ingredients that are gonna be required. Number one, we're gonna call this data specifically reliable data. And, and number two, it's gonna be true narrative. Let's, let's talk about data first. Data is primarily the domain of science, repeatable observations and controlled environments to study the physical universe.
Speaker 1 00:08:43 Theories evolve, but scientific facts, truth remains the same. And, and what we see happening right now is that theories are being, I dunno, misconstrued for fact. In fact, fact is being misconstrued for theory. It's a really confusing time to live in. And, and so as a, as a Christian and I, and I want you to just, we need to grasp this, and I have never once encountered a verifiable data point that rocks or threatens my faith. I I, I have never ever read a scientific paper or a research paper that has proved something beyond a shadow of a doubt where I've gone, I don't know if I can be a Christian anymore. In fact, every single time I encounter scientific data, I go, God is so incredible. Look at his genius. He is way smarter than anything I could have imagined. Pastor Craig was right.
Speaker 1 00:09:31 He, it's like he has a PhD in every single scientific discipline. I am so glad that I follow the Lord Jesus Christ, the creator of every single scientific discipline. But when science leaves the domain of data and facts and, and begins to move in the shoulds and the oughts, it leaves the domain of science and now enters into the domain of faith. And this is where it gets really dangerous. But this is why reality, the second part of the equation is very important. We need a true, we need true narrative. And this is primarily the domain of faith in worldview science will never tell you why you were made, where you came from, how you got here, what happens when you die, what does eternity look like and what is all of this ultimately all about? It will never tell you any of that. No matter what data point you find, if you put it into the wrong narrative, you're gonna live in a faux reality.
Speaker 1 00:10:24 And we wanna make sure, not that we just have the right data points, we also wanna make sure we're putting these data points in the right narratives that make sense actually of why things are happening the way they are in this universe. So right now I wanna maybe give some vocabulary to something that we're experiencing right now. This is sort of a unique time in, in human history, particularly as we talk about science. I think probably if I gave this message five years ago, it might have been a very different message. In fact, if I gave the message five years ago, I probably would've spent a whole lot more time looking at objective data in the sciences that prove without a shadow of a doubt that there is a genius creator behind everything. That's probably what I would've done. But I think we actually need to take a different route this morning because we live in different times.
Speaker 1 00:11:09 We're now living in the, the tension between really two different types of science. And one we're gonna call real science. This is where you take real truthful, tested, proven data and you take this data and you put it into truthful narratives. You put it into scenarios that are actually right and true and accurate reflect reality. But there, there's the emergence right now of we're gonna call cultural science. This is when you take data and you hope it's true, but cultural science seems to be less concerned with the veracity of data as much as it is with the their own subjective narratives. And and subjective means that it changes from person to person. It means it's not rooted and grounded in something eternal and factual. And so you, you find this, that when, when these two things come together, you have data with an subjective narrative.
Speaker 1 00:11:56 Some really weird things start to happen. And recently there's been a new term coined. Uh, I I'm interested to see how the definition of the term evolves, but kind of as it sits right now, the term is called sinism. And, and let me lemme try to explain sinism for you. Sinism uses the clout of experts to propagate narratives that often explicitly contradict the data. Let me say this again. Sciences uses the clout of experts to propagate ideas and narratives that often explicitly contradict the data. I'm gonna illustrate this and I just wanna encourage you to hear all this out. Sinism declares as a fact, my body, my choice, it's science. I think true science right should respond. So what do we do with the facial data point that there are objectively two bodies with separate and distinct human dna? Hmm, that data point matters, doesn't it?
Speaker 1 00:13:00 How about this? Sinism declares this fact. A fetus is not a human being. It's science. True science should object and say, but by every objective metric, a human fetuses is a human being. Stage of development, has no bearing on what something is. Objectively doesn't that matter? Sci responds name calling. You know your ideas aren't good when challenge you result in name calling. By the way, <affirmative> sci declares as a scientific fact, sex and gender have no connection. It's science. True science should object at this point and say something like, but sex and gender have been objectively connected for millennia across every culture on the planet. The distinction is new to human history. Might it be dangerous to disconnect gender from sex? Maybe Sinism responds with name calling.
Speaker 1 00:14:08 Sinism says The theory of evolution is an undeniable scientific fact. <affirmative> and true science should rightly ask then why is it called a theory and why haven't we ever witnessed one species becoming a new genetic species? And isn't that genetically impossible? And why does order and how does order come out of disorder? Isn't that against the law of entropy? And why do my questions threaten you if you're actually seeking truth and theism responds with you guessed name calling. If you're a true scientist, by the way, if you've got a PhD or doctor or master's after your name, you should be the first to stand up and say amen. You should be the first to stand up and say this doesn't represent the true seeking of knowledge. This actually has an agenda, a narrative that is trumping the data. That's an issue. Every scientist in the world should be opposed to this.
Speaker 1 00:15:13 But SM has an unbelievable amount of power that forces scientists to sci silence and that is disturbing everything we're watching in our world. It is a breakdown of reality. You might have data but at an absurd narrative and you might have an absurd narrative that just ignores the data. Once you throw either of these out or you lose one, you lose all senses of reality. And what are we obsessed with? I wanna know what is real. I don't wanna live in a delusion. I don't wanna live in something fake. I don't wanna, I don't wanna just comply withs because they have social power over me. I want to know truth and reality, period. That's my desire. And this is why I think scientists and Christians should be best friends because we all want to know that which is true and that which is real. So now introduction done.
Speaker 1 00:16:08 I wanna share with you three encouragements if you're a Christian in this room for navigating some of the tension in this world between sciences, science, and faith. And I wanna encourage you in this and I want you to walk outta here not necessarily agreeing with everything I say. I want you to walk outta here with clear eyes as to what is happening outside of these four walls and empowered to ask questions and to go deeper. Now I'll give you some of my personal thoughts as we go through this. But again, my ultimate concern is not whether you agree with me, it is whether or not you have confidence in God and his word and you keep searching his word and you love science and keep digging into that which is factual, A true observable, measurable and repeatable. And you begin to see the glory of God, not just in the word of God, but creation.
Speaker 1 00:16:53 We agreed. So again, do you have to like everything I say and everything I think I don't care. I mean I do, but I don't. I want you, I want you to have the utmost confidence in God. That's what I want. Principle number one, in your pursuit of reality. Remember, wherever you start is where you'll end up. Hebrews 11, six, without faith, it's impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God. This is really funny. Must believe that he exists. Why would you write something so unbelievably obvious? Because he hears what the author of Hebrews knows. If you go looking for something that you don't believe exists, you are not gonna find it. Let me say it this way, this is the atheist conundrum. Why can't they find God? You will never find God if you don't first and believe in him wherever you start, it's where you end up.
Speaker 1 00:17:51 If you start with a narrative that says this, the physical realm is all there is, there's nothing spiritual and there's no eternal life. When you're dead, you're done. If that's your narrative, you will never find evidence of the spiritual realm. Because where you start is where you finish. If you start with a narrative that allows divine intervention, if you believe there is a spiritual and a physical, and all the evidence points to a very intelligent, sentient creator that has put all of this together with an unbelievable, amazing design, if you start with that, you now have the ability to understand spiritual things. The Bible doesn't actually get thrown out. It's not understood as a science book cause it's not a science book. You actually able to read it in its context. Let it say what it's intending to say by the authors who intend to say it. And you allow that to inform reality and your narrative. It's a really wonderful thing. Let me, let me illustrate this. We can imagine there are three, three microscopes, each one with a different color filter. The the first filter is labeled atheism. It is a blue filter. And when the atheist looks through the microscope, he sees a green banana. And the atheist concludes as scientific fact. The banana is not yet ripe. It will 100% be hard and not sweet. It's science. That's my impersonation of a scientist, <laugh> science.
Speaker 1 00:19:23 The second filter is labeled bism. Why not? Cuz we can, it is a red filter. And when the woke person looks through it, they see an orange banana and the woke person concludes, there must be a new kind of banana. And it's orange, it's science. The third filter is labeled reality. And it has a clear filter. When you look through it, wouldn't you believe it? You see a yellow banana ripe your narrative, how you view the world, your worldview, it's a filter that more times than not determines your reality. Now the sally, the atheist, they're gonna miss the opportunity to eat the apple or to eat the banana. Sorry, we ate the apple
Speaker 1 00:20:13 Because their filter has predetermined their conclusion and it has led them to miss out on that delicious banana. The woo person will have convinced themselves, they've discovered a brand new kind of banana that has never existed before. And they'll eat it and they will say bananas on the inside and the outside are orange guys, that's funny. You gotta gimme that whether you agree or not, that's, let me illustrate this in a different way. In the last two decades, there has been an incredible discovery in paleontology. There's a woman, her name's, uh, Mary Schweitzer. She is, um, not a Christian, she's a paleontologist. And about 20 years ago, here's what she found in a 68 million year old T-Rex, she found soft tissue. Let's let that sink in. Connected tissue, nerves, collagen, protein, blood vessels, even blood clots. She was in such shock. She retested this 17 times before she published, she publishes and doesn't come to any conclusions other than a 68 million year old t-Rex has soft tissue and it shouldn't, this is scientifically impossible.
Speaker 1 00:21:38 Somebody responds, they write a paper and says, this happened because iron was in the blood and iron acted like a preservative. She writes a paper back refuting this entire paradigm saying that's not possible. She writes another paper saying, we found more and there are connective tissues in these bones. She's come down to two possible conclusions of why this is one conclusion she has already written off. The first conclusion is that the scientific means of measuring the age of things is not just off, but so off to the tune of roughly 68 million years. But she says that's not possible. We know that our dating systems are right. So then her other option is this, and this is how she spent much more time doing her research, trying to figure out what is it that allows soft tissue to still be around after 68 million, 90 million, a hundred million years. And her conclusion is this. We just haven't found the answer yet.
Speaker 1 00:22:54 AUMs razor, maybe your dating methods are profoundly and severely broken, but I'm telling you, there is not one atheist secular scientist who will acknowledge that possibility because hear me, to undo that possibility is to undo the entire fabric and narrative they've built their entire life on. So you, so then over 80 of these have been discovered and they're not done. Do, do you know why they haven't been found earlier? Because when you get a dinosaur bone, what's the last thing you want to do? Break it. So they preserve it. Well, this T-rex bone that they originally found was so big, they had to cut it in half to put it onto a helicopter to bring it to a laboratory. And in the process of cutting in half, they didn't even realize it till they got it back to the laboratory. And they said, interesting. There's something going on here.
Speaker 1 00:23:54 Now what they're finding all over the world in different supposed uh, uh, uh, historic times over a hundred million years to 60 million years that they are finding dinosaurs with soft tissue in them all over the place. And every time they start opening these up, they're like, huh, here's another one. Here's another one. And there's now a whole kind of burgeoning field of scientists who are actually beginning to try to figure out what is going on with this soft tissue. Why do I tell you this? Sometimes new facts emerge that force people to face broken narratives, but our narratives are unbelievably powerful. And, and if we're not careful, we can be no better than sciences and allow our narratives to predetermine or even ignore basic facts.
Speaker 1 00:24:51 I think far too often we believe scientists are neutral. Scientists are first human beings. And I don't know a lot of neutral and objective people. And, and so this idea that theologians are neutral, we're not neutral pastors, we're not neutral parents. Are you neutral? No way scientists, no politicians, no people aren't neutral by nature. We are narrative by nature. And our narratives drive our reality. And, and we as Christians, we need to be very careful to make sure that our narrative is true. And it does not cause us to ignore facts, but that we actually look into the data and the facts carefully there. There's a scary Texas scripture that kind of speaks to this whole principle. It's from Second Thessalonians chapter two, verse 10 11. It says, they refused to love the truth. Isn't that interesting? They refused it. They're looking at it. The facts are in front of them.
Speaker 1 00:25:46 They refuse to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore, I want you to hear this when there was a refusal, when somebody sees objective data and evidence, this is a scary thing, but this is the scriptures teach us on a few occasions. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false. I have seen this in pastors, theologians, scientists, politicians, parents and friends, and sometimes even in myself, this is a human problem, <laugh> problem. And and I say this to just warn you, just because the masses live under a strong delusion does not mean the delusion is reality. And I know what you're thinking, but can they clone these dinosaurs and make Jurassic Park right? Literally? I i so far everybody says no. The DNA has dissolved to the point where they can't put it together. I, there's like a little conspiracy theory in me that's like, I think they're doing it right now. Anyways, I have no proof whatsoever. Terrible data, poor narrative. Don't believe it. <laugh>,
Speaker 1 00:27:11 Okay, pastor Michaels, what about creation, evolution, archeology and more. Um, the first part of this, feel free. I I mean it's scripture, so we're gonna talk about that and then I'll share with you a couple personal things. But I think the personal things are worth actually putting out there. And you'll see why principle number two, if there in your pursuit of reality, if there is a God, all things are actually possible. Hebrews 11, one says this, faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen. And I, I appreciate the author of Hebrews is acknowledging, we, we weren't there at the beginning. I I've never actually seen the spiritual realm. So I I'm taking these by faith. So are by the way, secular evolutionists. We're taking it by faith. We weren't there. We're looking at data, trying to make the make sense of this verse two, for by it the people of old received their commendation.
Speaker 1 00:28:00 What is it? By faith and combination? Is there applause? In other words, that God looks at people with faith and trust in him and he applauds this and says, that's what I wanna see. I'm looking for people who trust me even though they weren't there at the beginning of the world. I just wanna know, do you trust me? There there is probably few things more valuable relationally between God and us than our faith in him. So the author of Hebrews is then he's gonna say something really bold that he can't prove. Verse three says this, by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God. Do, do you know what? This is explicitly jumping to Genesis one, by the way, by faith, we understand the universe was created by the word of God and that which is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
Speaker 1 00:28:55 So let let's talk about creation evolution for a moment. The first part of what I'm gonna say should not be controversial to anybody. Here's the first part. The authors of scripture believed the Bible. When the Bible says that the world was made in six actual days, that's what the authors believed. Moses believed this, the author of Job believed this. The author of Psalms believed this. The writer of the gospels believed this. Paul believe this, the writer of Hebrews believe this first century. Jews believe this. Most importantly, and I think this is actually should, I think it should play into like the Christian's view of creation. Jesus himself believed this. The creator of the universe believed this. Now, I have staked my entire eternity on aligning my doctrine and my thoughts with Jesus no matter how stupid it makes me look. I think there's value to that.
Speaker 1 00:29:54 I think, I think the Christian has to look at science objectively, but also has to look at Jesus and say, I he actually had an opinion on this. And, and, and it was actually the first century Jewish opinion. In fact, these ideas of evolution didn't even go into people's brains. Now, I, I have at least, at least this was like a nice list, six issues with secular evolution. I'll just go through 'em about a thousand. But number one, zero transitional species have ever actually been found. I dunno if you know this, uh, you know those apes that turn into a man? Do you know those are cartoons not based on actual reality, by the way, do you know that they find a skull fragment about the size of my palm and they frame it out into an entire caricature and then they propagate it in elementary school and they expect us to believe that they found actual like full skeletons.
Speaker 1 00:30:52 They haven't. That's part of the delusion. There there is zero evidence that any species can become a different species. Zero. No evidence whatsoever. Secular evolution violates the laws of entropy. Entropy basically means like everything tends towards chaos and disorders. Second law, thermodynamics. If you put a stake out into the yard, does it like get better or does it mold and rot and become nothing eventually, right? Everything dissolves. And so secular evolution actually violates the laws of entropy billions and billions of times over. It's impossible. That's why it's a theory here. Here's another one. Life has never once been proven to emerge out of non-life. Like there's never been a time when there was something not sent in and all of a sudden it was like, oh, here I am. There was never a time when something not alive made something that was alive. That's not how the world works.
Speaker 1 00:31:47 And so when we look at life everywhere, we are left with one irrefutable conclusion. Life begets life and some sort of big cosmic life. Bega a whole bunch of diversity of life. Number five, the scientific community punishes those who diverge. Stifling free thought and discussion drives me nuts. If it is just a theory that is brand new to human history, it is being disproven on a regular basis and violates the second law. Thermodynamics something in me tells me you should be a little bit more humble in your confident as assertion that secular evolution is 100% science. Irreducible complexity, by the way, makes psycho evolution impossible. This is really the notion you take an eyeball, for example, that it's so complex that it can only work if it all is created at one time. It can't evolve in pieces. And there are so many aspects of the human condition, the eyeball being one of the best, easiest examples of irreducible complexity.
Speaker 1 00:32:43 Let's, let's get a little more fun. Um, I have a whole bunch of issues with theistic evolution. I'll repeat the first three. Zero transitional species, zero evidence of species have ever become a different species. Scientific community punishes those who diverge. There is no biblical evidence for this interpretation. It doesn't even cross the mind of the biblical authors. There's no historic Jewish evidence for this. And here's the part that for my buddies whom I love, and we're all going to heaven, some of you go to church here and that's great. Um, this is where we kind of just like have I think our most amount of, of like fun dialogue. God already told us how he made the world and that he did it with the appearance of age. He already told us. It's like been said and somebody, and I've been asked this question so many times, why would God trick us by doing that? He hasn't tricked you. He literally told you Adam and Eve were not created as little, little tiny like cells that he grew in some wo they were created as adults. If you cut down a tree in the garden of Eden, I bet it had rings. The question about the belly button, I don't know. I'm inclined to think, I'm inclined to think they did again. Uh, sketchy data, weird narrative, but go with it. All right?
Speaker 1 00:33:59 Everything plants, animals, insects. The entire system was created with age. What's interesting is there's somehow, there's a story in this creation. There's a story that God wove into it and people are trying to make sense of the story that God wove into his creation. What about archeology? Doesn't it disprove the Bible? 100% of the locations in the book of Acts, which has a ton of locations, have all been verified. 92% of all locations in the Old Testament have been found. One of the reasons the non-religious community no longer goes to archeology to disprove the Bible is because over and over and over and over again, year in and year out to discovery after discovery, after discovery is validating the historical reliability of the Old Testament texts. It is actually so infuriating to people that they don't even use it as an argument against Christianity anymore.
Speaker 1 00:34:53 People could ask about what about the flood? Again, you don't have to agree with me. I just think it's really good for you to hear sometimes a different opinion than what you hear in the pop culture machine 24 7. Did you know that almost every single ancient culture on the planet, no matter where you find them, have a flood narrative? How is it that there was a flood narrative in China and Europe that didn't cover both of them? How is it everywhere you go, it's the same story even though they speak different languages. It's like no matter where people were on the planet, they all had to navigate this or the stories was real so that when they went out into the world, this was such a part of their historic understanding of the world that they just told it in their own ways. Generation after generation, place after place, continent after continent. Everywhere you go, go. I, I think that's a curious thing to me. If I was just looking at the sociological evidence, I would probably step back and say, if I didn't have the Bible, I would say roughly 5,000 years ago ish, there was some kind of global flood catastrophe that almost every nation on the earth speaks of there. There had to have been a Catholic event somewhere that pushed that.
Speaker 1 00:36:01 Is it okay if you disagree with me on some of my interpretations? For sure. Is it okay if you disagree with the village church on some interpretations for sure. But this is the fun of being a Christian. We get to talk about this. We get to ask hard questions. We get to say to each other, but what about, and we don't go, how dare you challenge me. You fill in the blank. That's when we begin to take the spirit of the age and incarnate it, internalize it. We can actually do that in the name of Jesus, but that's not who we are. I'm not afraid of questions cuz I'm not right about everything. I'm not afraid of dialogue because I actually want to grow and be smarter. This is part of our Christian heritage. We should enjoy this part of the dialogue. Principle number three, if the Bible's true, I want you to remember that Satan is committed to your deception.
Speaker 1 00:36:50 Colossians chapter two, verse eight, c2, that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, not according to Christ. Let's work backwards with this text. What are the elemental spirits of the world? Demons. Okay, and what do these demonic spirits create and propagate human tradition? What is human tradition? It's the way we do things here without God. It's the way we, it's science, it's fact. It's my narrative. It's the way we do things. And human traditions change from culture to culture, don't they? I I become aware that I'm engaging in the doctrine and ideas and the philosophy of demons. When I am not free to challenge anything. I am aware that there's a protective mechanism around these things so that when I push a little too hard, they react with name calling.
Speaker 1 00:38:06 I'm aware that I'm, I'm broaching the territory of demonic philosophy when freedom of dialogue, when the presentation of logic and facts is no longer welcome. When rational dialogue is silenced, when people are canceled because they ask the wrong questions. I, I become aware that I'm engaging in this demonic territory when a person's conscience is being forced to be violated under threat. What, what specifically are these human traditions? They're called philosophy. That's what he calls them. These are the ideas making their way around in popular academia. By the way, this happened 2000 years ago as well. They had their own versions of academia and the big ideas made their rounds. This is the human philosophy. And what is the purpose of this human philosophy? It is to take your mind captive to empty deception. Do you see how this works? This is the demonic playbook that they've been playing for 2000, 3000, 4,000 years.
Speaker 1 00:39:06 You get the really smart people to come up with really novel ideas. Without God, it becomes mandated that you can form. If you dissent, you are pushed away. And when you buy into these things, usually outta forest or because the principle, well, everybody can't be wrong, can they? It captures your mind and here's what it says. Your mind becomes imprisoned to these ideas. That there's something about these, all these false realities, this human tradition, this empty deceit, that when they get your brain, they take you captive. The Bible teaches that the demonic realm is heavily invested in creating, disseminating, and demanding conformity to empty ideas, not rooted in reality. And as a believer in Jesus, you have to know this. If you're gonna pursue reality, you cannot miss this principle. Second Corinthians 10, four says it this way, the weapons of our warfare are not the flesh, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds.
Speaker 1 00:40:03 What is a stronghold? Verse five. We destroy arguments. That's what the strongholds are, that are keeping people captive arguments, lofty opinions, which it is the text way of saying, oh, there's my opinion. You're wrong, you're stupid conform or be kicked out. That's the lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. And then he says this, you take every thought captive to obey Jesus Christ. I'm gonna close with two. So what's number one? Christian, never ever be afraid of data, facts or discoveries. I would like you to be profoundly discerning about conclusions, narratives, and demands done in the name of science, but never be afraid of the data. If it is real and it is true, then God created, designed it and put it into the fabric of creation for us to uncover and discover and give him glory. The same God who made creation reveals himself in his word.
Speaker 1 00:41:06 And because the two have the same author, we should have no fear. We should have no fear of the two undoing each other or being in competition. They should be in cooperation with each other. Number two, when in doubt, slow down and ask for help. If, if you engage secular academia long enough, if you go to college, Christian or otherwise, if you watch TV or movies and some of you're like, I don't do any of those, well this one will get you. If you get lost scrolling through social media, you will eventually encounter something that demands you to abandon your faith now or else you're dumb. It will demand of you. And, and even Christians, we don't do this. We invite people to trust in Christ. I will never demand somebody to become a Christian. There's something nefarious about people who demand compliance. It's very strange.
Speaker 1 00:42:11 And, and the moment you're in this position, there's something inside of us, this desperation to be accepted, to be loved, to be approved, to not be harmed, to not be cast, cast out that there's a temptation to comply just out of self-preservation. Slow down, slow down. Get help. Ask a pastor, ask a Christian scientist, start reading books. The data, it actually might be right, but it might be crammed into a narrative that you're not even able to see yet. The data might actually be proven in really, really bad methodologies. There might actually be a whole lot of controversy around the methodologies used to determine that data. Slow down if God is real. We should never be afraid of the science. And eventually we should never be afraid to actually bring anything we have to the word of God. The two should be able to coexist together because if there is a God, the God of science and the God of scripture should be in agreement if we've interpreted the data right and trans or, and interpreted the scriptures correctly.
Speaker 1 00:43:17 And I, I, I think for every one of us there, there's just this easy next step. Ask God to help you. I I've shared pieces of my story is I went to Michigan State, but I wanna share with you probably one of the most important parts of it is that I navigated really, really smart professors who had a terrible narrative. Uh, I asked God to help me and I was astounded at the people within 24 hours that God brought into my life to actually show me helpful data and to expose some of the narratives that were driving the data of my professors struck by, I had never even heard this stuff in my entire life before. I was amazed that when I went to God, I said, Lord, I'm not sure what to do with all of this. I'm seeing, I'm seeing this really smart guy with multiple PhDs who hates you and hates your word.
Speaker 1 00:44:06 Tell me everything I believe is a lie and built on like a really sandy foundation. And I was just struck at God's kindness and his goodness to bring truth to me. That was helpful, that was verifiable. That helped me understand why my PhD professors had the opinions they did without demonizing them cuz they're real people, trying to figure stuff out as well. Helped me understand that like nobody's neutral, even scientists aren't neutral. And I was like, wow, these are incredibly helpful things. The Lord was so, so good to me and I could not encourage you more. Run to the Lord Jesus Christ with all of your questions. Ask him to help you. Ask him to bring people into your life. Ask him to bring resources that are actually accessible for your brain to understand it. God is so good. And, and some of you, you might be here and you're like, I've never trusted in Christ ever.
Speaker 1 00:44:53 I want to encourage you. Ask him if you are real. And if you are true, you don't have to have all of your questions answered in order to believe in Jesus Christ. I've got a gajillion questions that are still not answered, and I believe in Jesus Christ. I do not understand how everything in the Bible or history or creation where this world of relationships work. But I believe in Jesus Christ. And, and, and maybe you're here today and you're like, listen, I don't have all my questions answered, but I know that I believe that Jesus Christ is God. I know. I believe that he died for my sins and was raised from the debt and I want to be saved. I believe that I'm a sinner and I need forgiveness today. If you are there, you do not need to have all your questions answered to believe in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 00:45:34 And if he really is true, what you're just gonna find year after year, after year after year, that God will be proven true and men will be proven liars over and over again. And so I could not encourage you more personally, make the decision to trust in Christ and ask him to help you. And maybe you're, maybe you're not even there yet. Maybe you're like, I'm still trying to figure it out. Ask him if you are real, would you with unbelievable clarity, reveal yourself to me? I believe anybody who really wants, wants to know truth, wants to know God, he will reveal himself. The question is, do you really, really want to know? Will you really trust in him if he shows you the truthfulness of Jesus, if you will, I believe sooner or later at the right moment, he will reveal himself to you. Let's take a moment. I wanna pray for you and then, then we're gonna celebrate communion and worship together. Father, love you. And so many interesting things to talk about in this world.
Speaker 1 00:46:38 It feels at times like a mass delusion is sweeping over our planet. And yet your word tells us this. It's the spirit of Babylon filled with delusion and tyranny and oppression, consolidated power. It's very strange. It's almost surreal at times. And yet here we are, Lord. We want to live in whatever context we are in and, and we don't want to be a part of the delusion. We want to live in reality and, and God, I, I pray that for each and every one of us, Lord, that you would help us. You would help us see what in science, what is true. But Lord, you would also use your word to frame our narrative. Help us live in reality. And at the end of the day, would you grow our confidence in you and in your word? Would you make us impervious to false accusations about your word? Would you grow our confidence in you beyond anything we even could expect? We love you and we just consider our joy and honor to celebrate you, your genius, your creative power, and ultimately your love that we see in Jesus. We thank you, we pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
