Real Christianity #71： Biblical Salvation and the Authority of Scripture
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Summary
In this episode of the Real Christianity series, Pastor Ken interviews Dale Wright about his new book, "Real Christianity: How to Be Bold For Christ in a Culture of Darkness." In this episode, we discuss biblical salvation and the authority of scripture.
Transcript
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Welcome to Real Christianity. Today we are talking about biblical salvation and the authority of
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scripture. So welcome guys. Some of you guys might be hoping that this episode is going to be on the
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difference of salvation theories held by Calvinists and Arminians, but that's not the case for today's
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episode. We will touch on those topics later on in this series, but for today we're going to just
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be discussing just the basics of biblical salvation. And for the next four episodes I'm
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going to be interviewing dale about his new book real christianity how to be bold for christ in a
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culture of darkness um we're going to be going over about um about over each chapter two per
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episode for about 20 to 30 minutes minutes per episode yeah um so dale i know you've poured your
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heart and soul into this book you spent a lot of hours typing you spent a lot of hours praying
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um personally as my opinion i think that this is your greatest work out of all the books that
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you've written so far this is book number four number four yeah um and it's definitely i mean
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the titles were christianity it's definitely your most christian book yeah um but i'm excited to hear
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the uh thoughts and opinions once this book gets into other people's hands yeah me too i i'm i'm
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really excited about it guys if you're watching this on video you get a chance to even see the
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book i'm hoping that it's not blown out because we have lights all over it but um you can see
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it's a very small book. It's a short read. Richie liked to write short reads. I do like to write
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short books. I'm a fan of short books. And so I'd say, you know, a couple of things, this book's
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really aimed at the unspoken space, um, on, you know, I think a lot of Christians aren't talking
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about, and they've, a lot of people have found themselves in this kind of lukewarm place of this
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barrenness of lethargic Christianity. Uh, I would even say Bible-less Christianity where they're
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kind of walking through their faith journey based off of sermons, not based off of scripture.
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The thing that happens a lot is that they just base everything they know about God based
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off of what they heard, not based off of what they've actually read.
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And, you know, so basically the book was designed to confront that space between cultural and
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real Christianity and let people look at the scriptures according to the Bible and examine
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their lives against it. Like, wow, am I actually a Christian according to scripture? Or have I
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adopted some version of Christianity that actually has nothing to do with the Bible and it's been
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twisted and renovated and innovated and molded and manipulated into something else? And I think
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that's the main point of the book. As I said, you know, again, I'm going to hold it up for you guys
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if you're watching the video. It's very short. It's about a little over 15,000 words. That's
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about the length of a long magazine article, you know, at like The Atlantic. It'd take you about
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an hour and 20, hour and 30 minutes to read it. And it's a hardcover, so it's a hard case,
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which I kind of like. It's not jacketed hardcover. It's just a hard case. It's got this really cool,
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it's hard to see maybe but kind of metallic uh spot uv ink texture on the front of it and um
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the inside is just uh it's pretty simple in terms of the layout i have you know it's nice white
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pages again pretty i mean if you guys have any of your other dale's other books it's similar style
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similar layout yeah and it's got questions at the end of each chapter that i think make it engaging
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I also created an accompanying study guide that you can pick up with it.
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I think we get way deeper in the study guide on looking at more scriptures.
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And you can buy both of these books at relearnchurch.org forward slash rc.
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And that's actually the way that Beth supports our ministry,
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though it is and will be available on Amazon and Kindle,
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you guys can go to relearnchurch.org forward slash RC.
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Now, you cover a few different topics in that chapter, but I want to take out just one.
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You teach people that Christianity is more than merely believing in Jesus.
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Isn't that idea contrary to saved by faith alone?
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And, you know, the whole conversation of salvation is important.
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And so, you know, first we have to realize that faith is different than belief.
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and you know we sometimes want to lump those into the same conversation jesus's brother uh the
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apostle james uh i think it's james 219 is even the demons believe and tremble well if the demons
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believe why aren't they saved if if belief and faith are the exact same thing so obviously that
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that's a pretty good illustration but demons don't have a saving faith in christ but they do believe
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in Christ um I'd say there's a good analogy or or um parallel to this is that the Jehovah's
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Witness you know believe in Christ too they don't have necessarily a biblical and saving faith in
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Christ there's a different Jesus the enemy is really good at creating counterfeit Jesuses to
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to put your faith in and so uh belief alone isn't what makes you Christian um it's you know faith
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in Christ, according to scripture, that does make you a Christian. So, you know, we want to look at
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what does the scripture say in regards to salvation. So, I pulled out one of the easiest verses on the
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topic. It's Romans 10.9. It's in the book, and again, this is just one topic in this chapter,
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but it says, Romans 10.9, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart
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that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
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And so this is a pretty important verse to Christian theology.
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I'd say it's one of the main verses used for evangelism
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but I think I'm going to break it down a little more clarity here.
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It doesn't just mean that you're just yelling out in a crowd,
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you don't confess something that you're not in agreement with.
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So step one in the salvation journey for anybody
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is confessing that you're in agreement with what God holds to be true.
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And you're in agreement that you need a Savior.
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You're in agreement that Jesus is the only Savior.
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That's what confessing that Jesus is Lord is really about.
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And that Jesus is the only way to be reconciled with God.
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I am the way, the truth, and the life, and nobody comes to the Father except through me.
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when Jesus says that, that confession of that agreement with that idea is important.
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That's the beginning part of this salvation theology here.
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Because they're not in agreement with what God holds to be true.
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And I'd also say that this is not a private confession, but this is a public confession.
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and it's interesting you know um you know that philippians talks about this idea you know whether
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you confess it privately or publicly or you don't confess it you deny it at some point in history
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you will confess this and philippians 2 1 or 10 through 11 says that at the name of jesus every
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knee shall should bow of those in heaven and on those on earth and those under the earth
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and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
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So whether you're going to confess it now or confess it later
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that you recognize that he is Lord and that he is the way.
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And so it's not talking about just saying it out loud.
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It's a true confession, a recognition of who he is.
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And so lastly, again, you're not just confessing anything.
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You're confessing that Jesus is Lord, and that's important.
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You don't make any decisions outside of his counsel, his input, his boundaries.
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First Corinthians 6, 19 through 20, I think is what it is, talks about this idea that, you know, you are not your own.
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You're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God with your body and your spirit, which are God's.
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And so, you know, you're bought at a price and you're not your own.
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So this recognition of lordship is it's confession.
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I'm in agreement with it's a recognition of who who Jesus is, that he's Lord.
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So step two really is this after confession and believing,
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but also believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead.
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It's fascinating that we just kind of brush over the fact
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that God included the resurrection in this confession.
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And so one thing I want to point out is the heart.
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Confess with your, you know, believe with all your heart, right?
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in your heart that god raised from the dead this is a type of belief that's sincere it's not false
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it's not fake um it's not just words it's not just words it is it's from the heart yes exactly
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and so it's sincerity and we have to recognize again how important the resurrection is to the
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gospel and if you read first corinthians chapter 15 you can see that paul even says man if the
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if jesus didn't resurrect like none of this matters and he gives a really good case of why
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none of that matters that's also why the resurrection is under attack all the time
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and so the resurrection is God's validation of Jesus's atoning work on the cross he when Jesus
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is resurrected it's God saying that I accept your sacrifice Jesus that's really what's being said
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there that the atoning work of Jesus is sufficient and the the approval of that is the resurrection
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of Jesus. And that's because it was just, you know, he died an unjust death because he was
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actually perfect. And so there's lots to talk about there. This is why he's the propitiation
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of our sins. That's a biblical word. That word means to appease the wrath of God through blood
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sacrifice. That's what that word propitiation means. So you got a couple steps here that are
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important um you're in agreement with him number one number two you're publicly identifying with
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him number three you're making him lord and number four uh you're believing in your heart that god
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validated you know his atoning work on the cross through the resurrection so that's that's a good
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simple breakdown i think of what real salvation looks like um in terms of coming to to christ
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This doesn't talk even about being born again necessarily or regeneration or transformation or any of this stuff that comes after this process.
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Okay, so let's talk about one topic from chapter two, which is titled, If Some Are False, Then None Are True.
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Basically, you build a case that argues that either all the scripture is true or none of it is.
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can you explain why Christians need to settle in their hearts that the Bible is completely true
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and completely authoritative over their lives yeah so it's a good question you know I'll ask
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you how did you come to be saved the gospel was presented to me and where did that person that
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pastor get the gospel from the word of God from the Bible right so this is this is what makes this
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question so important um you see if the bible isn't completely true then why should the gospel
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be true like who says that just that piece of the scriptures are true and the rest of it isn't like
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who gets to become the arbiter of what's true and what's not um and that's a problem to kind of
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cherry pick the verses in scripture uh that we like while abandoning the ideas that we don't like
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is absurd. And I think that happens a lot today in the church. And this is why people take the
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gospel, which they actually hear mostly from the letters of Paul. We think that we take the gospel
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mostly from the gospels. But if you actually listen to evangelists and people presenting
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the gospel, they're using language that comes from Paul most of the time. And so the thing is,
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is that Paul wrote a lot of stuff, and he wrote lots of clarification on the gospel and truths
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about the gospel. He also wrote a lot of truths about Christian life and Christian morality and
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Christian sanctification. And so it was Paul who wrote Ephesians 2, 8 through 9, which I know,
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babe, you have memorized, is, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of
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yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Every true Christian
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on the planet is going to agree that that verse is a universal truth in the church. I don't think
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that anybody's going to disagree with that idea. People love that verse, but if you just flip
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one page over and you land in chapter five of that same letter, it says this verse that
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not a lot of people, or I should say a lot of people reject. Wives, submit to your own husbands
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as to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church and
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he is the savior of the body therefore just as the church is subject to Christ so let the wives be to
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their own husbands and everything and so you know it's interesting how we'll take that
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Ephesians 2 passage totally universal authoritative and then we just jump over and we go oh that's
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actually not for me I'm actually not going to buy into that we do that in 1st Corinthians too you
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You know, we love the love chapter of 1 Corinthians 13.
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1 Corinthians 14 talks about some really controversial stuff.
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1 Corinthians 6 talks about sexual immorality.
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And so there's lots of things that we just like to cherry pick what we like and leave the rest.
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You know, is this passage on marriage all of a sudden, you know, just to the local audience now?
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That's a lot of people say, oh, it's just talking to the Corinthians.
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You know, it's like, well, why was the verse a couple verses back talking to everybody?
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There was no change in the text that said that it was talking to the local people.
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You know, or maybe this passage is now metaphorical, right?
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Now, I know, you know, that's kind of what it meant.
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It becomes ambiguous of what it actually means is no longer authoritative.
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um but again you know we don't want to embrace the scriptures that we like and then reject the
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scriptures that we dislike that's a problem we have to remember that we're saved by the word
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faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god uh he's you know we sanctify we're sanctified
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by the word um you know god teaches us by the word he encourages us by the word uh he comforts
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us by the word the word of god is so foundational in our relationship with with god that any doubt
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in it will actually make your entire christian experience crumble um and this is why i say and
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i argue in the book that either all of it's true or none of it's true because if if only some of
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it's true who gets to become the arbiter of what's true and what's not a person another man another
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woman just your emotions your experience some guy that went to harvard for divinity school
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you know what like who is it oh i understand the hebrew and the greek so it's like you know what
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hey you're you're you're then placing your faith in that person determining what is right and what
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is wrong so you you really have a theory that becomes self-destructing um and you you end up
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putting your faith from god into man if if if not all of it's true now we do need to look at it all
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through context we do need to look at it all properly interpreting interpreting it I would
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say according to tradition tradition is really powerful I always tell people when I have a
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commentary of you know on a certain passage of scripture and I read a commentary from the 1500s
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the 1600s the 1700s the 1800s and the 1900s and every single one of these men interpreted this
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verse generally the same and they've never met each other they're on different continents
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um i just go wow that's the holy spirit unifying the church bringing unity through all these people
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who have come to the same conclusion on this very you know important text and so when that happens
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then all of a sudden in 2019 or 2020 or whatever um we change the interpretation of the text
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i go oh wait wait a second because there's like hundreds thousands of theologians that have never
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come to that conclusion what's going on and so um again i want to talk about just the reliability of
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the scriptures and that's what i spend this chapter on is is you know we did this in our
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marriage right when we first moved up to oregon what was the what was the first step for us
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uh in terms of is the bible true yeah i think i would say just you know we said that we're
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christians we kind of were i would i don't know just very very baby christians yeah um and i think
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we just had to recognize or say out loud or kind of own the fact that like do we believe what the
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bible says or not is it authoritative in our lives or not um and we both agreed yes it was probably a
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hard yes for us to say at the time because our flesh didn't like it but we did believe that
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and we and you know the next step was okay well then we need to live according to what the word
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of god says yeah you can really use it as an instruction manual like you can you can totally
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do that um again this is why theology matters and understanding the word matters so you can
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interpret it correctly. But the reason we believe the Bible is true is because the Old Testament
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and the New Testament declared that it's true. Jesus declared that it was true.
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You know what? He referenced, out of all the things he referenced, he referenced
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most of the Old Testament books, but he referenced Genesis the most. He references
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the hard stuff like Noah and the ark, Jonah and the fish,
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creation story, Adam and Eve. Like, are you going to believe in Jesus and not
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believe in the authority of Scripture? Jesus believed in the authority of Scripture. It's crazy.
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both claim that it is impossible for God to lie.
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for instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be complete, that man, that word man
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is man and woman, are thoroughly equipped for every good work. So again, I talked about this
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in the chapter, breaking this down with an argument that you guys need to really get down to.
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Is the word of God authoritative? When I read something, do I actually do it? And that's an
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important process uh to go through and so i also argue in the book um you know uh people think that
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oh look the word of god's been changed over the years like this is what the mormon religion the
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islamic religion and the uh jehovah's witness religion thinks that there's a corrupted bible
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and that it's changed and that we needed to write a new bible right uh that's not true either um
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And if you go, I actually, I'm going to leave a link in the show notes for this episode because I watched a fantastic video that was actually, I had to, it was required viewing for one of my seminary classes on hermeneutics.
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It's titled New Testament Reliability by Daniel, or Dr. Daniel Wallace.
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So if you want to look that up on YouTube, New Testament Reliability by Dr. Daniel Wallace.
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It offers a fantastic mountain of evidence on the reliability of the text.
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If you go to relearnchurch.org forward slash listen on this episode, it'll be there.
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So hopefully, again, you know, we're just diving just quick little snippets on the book.
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Again, the book title is Real Christianity, How to Be Bold for Christ in a Culture of Darkness.
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And our hope is that you could pick up a copy and support our ministry.
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you just go to relearnchurch.org forward slash rc a couple things we want to mention the last
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thing i know i just talked about my book but we're also working with a couple publishers for
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what we're calling real christianity resources and these are higher thinking resources yeah so
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i want to show you guys a few books um one of them this is a fun little one this is from
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banner of truth it's called duties of christian fellowship and it's a manual for church members
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it reminds you of the duties of your relationship to your pastor and your relationship to everybody
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else in your church congregation it was written i think in 1650 and it's a short little book
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it just helps you get more mature and biblically thinking about christianity this is veronica's
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favorite book right here love it she's she's kidding here you guys can't see this this thing's
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a brick it's probably the size of my fist yeah which isn't saying much i mean i have small hands
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but still it's giant but this is actually like my favorite i'm gonna get this this photo on the
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front here um i'm gonna get this printed and put in my office because i love it just these old men
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it's called the church of christ it's by james bannerman and this is on church uh polity or
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church governance and so again these books might sound like oh my gosh like why why would i want
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to read that there's a lot of really great information about church governance elders and
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deacons and what does that look like in the church and these are high thinking resources and i just
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want to share them with you that they exist and banner of truth offers some really great theological
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resources this one right here jonathan edwards a new biography um i'm i haven't started this one
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yet but veronica you love jonathan edwards i do and veronica is actually reading his wife's
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biography right now yep uh what's it called again marriage to a difficult man marriage to a difficult
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man uh they had a really great marriage um but it was she's reading that because i think veronica
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realizes that marriage to dale is not super easy um we're we're fast it's a breeze what are you
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talking about and um then the last one this is another brick um it's called some pastors and
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Teachers by Sinclair Ferguson. And again, these are, the subtitle is Reflecting a Biblical Vision
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of What Every Minister is Called to Be. And so if you feel like you're in ministry or called into
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ministry, these are, again, higher thinking theological resources that you should check out.
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And you can go to banneroftruth.org and you can pick up these copies there. They're offering us a
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30% off discount if you're like listening to this kind of in real time. It'll expire eventually,
00:24:49.620
and you do Real Christianity as your coupon code
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It's just something that we're trying to present
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for a more dense and rich theological experience
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not just the kind of fly-by-night Christian books
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Next week, we're going to be tackling the next two chapters of the book.