Ep. 174 - Megachurch Pastor Thinks Old Testament Doesn't Apply
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Summary
Tulsi Gabbard takes a stand against anti-Catholic bigotry in her own ranks, and a megachurch pastor says the Old Testament no longer applies to Christians. We ll talk about that utter stupidity and heresy today on the Matt Walsh Show.
Transcript
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Today on the Matt Walsh Show, surprisingly, a Democrat congresswoman has taken a stand
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against the religious bigotry in her own ranks. Also, a megachurch pastor says that the Old
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Testament no longer applies to Christians. We'll talk about that utter stupidity and heresy
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So I really like this headline from Yahoo that I just saw on Twitter. The headline is
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Influencer says she was on a tapas and cocaine diet to stay thin. Here's why that's not healthy.
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I'm not sure if the here's why that's not healthy bit at the end there is strictly speaking necessary.
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I don't know if anyone's going to read the first part of that headline and say to themselves,
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oh, wow, you know, that sounds like a great idea. I'll just subsist on little appetizer dishes and
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cocaine. And, you know, that sounds like a great diet plan. And then they read the second part and
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say, oh, never mind, says here it's not healthy. Shoot. But let me click and find out why it's not
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healthy, though. That's the thing. All right. A Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii named Tulsi
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Gabbard has really impressed me, actually. Doesn't happen often with Democrats. But she wrote an op-ed
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in The Hill defending religious liberty and calling out her fellow Democrats for their attacks on it.
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She doesn't use their names specifically, but she's talking about Senators Kamala Harris and
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Maisie Hirono because they've essentially been trying to impose a religious test on a Catholic
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judicial nominee named Brian Bosher. They're upset that Bosher is Catholic. And they're especially upset
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that he's a member of the Knights of Columbus. Now, Hirono, who you may remember as somehow managing
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to be the most insufferable Democrat during the Kavanaugh hearings, but she wants Bosher to leave
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the Knights of Columbus. She's very concerned he's got to leave the Knights of Columbus if he wants to
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be a judge. And he should also recuse himself from any case that deals with issues that the Knights of
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Columbus have taken a position on. Not any case that the Knights of Columbus are specifically involved in,
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which, of course, in that case, he should recuse him. But no, any case that deals with issues that
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the Knights... Well, here's the thing. The Knights of Columbus, they're a Catholic organization,
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so their positions are just going to be whatever the Catholic Church's positions are. And the Catholic
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Church has a position on many different subjects, especially the big, most controversial subjects like
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abortion and marriage and those sorts of things. So what she's really saying is... She might be saying
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Knights of Columbus. What she's really saying, though, is he should recuse himself from any case involving
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issues that the Catholic Church has taken a position on, which is another way of saying you can't be a judge
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if you're Catholic. Let me read a little bit from Gabbard's Hill piece, because this is really solid stuff.
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She says, while I oppose the nomination of Brian Bosher to the U.S. District Court at Nebraska,
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I stand strongly against those who are fomenting religious bigotry, citing as disqualifiers Bosher's
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Catholicism and his affiliation with the Knights of Columbus. If Bosher is unqualified because of his
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Catholicism and his affiliation with the Knights of Columbus, then President John F. Kennedy and the
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liberal lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy, would have been unqualified for the same reasons.
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Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution clearly states that there shall be no religious test for any
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seeking to serve in public offense. No American should be told that his or her public service
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is unwelcome because, quote, the dogma lives loudly within you, as Senator Dianne Feinstein said to Amy
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Coney Barrett during her confirmation hearings in 2017 to serve as U.S. Circuit Court judge in the
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Seventh Circuit. While I absolutely believe in the separation of church and state as a necessary to
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the health of our nation, no American should be asked to renounce his or her faith or membership
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in a faith-based service organization in order to hold public office. The party that works so hard
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to convince people that Catholics and Knights of Columbus like Al Smith and John F. Kennedy could
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be good Catholics and good public servants shows an alarming disregard of its own history
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in making such attacks. Very well put. And this is coming from a Democrat. Okay, it's very rare you
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get this from a Democrat, which is why other Democrats and liberals are not very pleased with
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Gabbard and have come out and made that clear. Coming to the defense of Hirono and Harris, Jill
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Filipovic, who's a leftist writer with apparently a big, pretty big following online, she had this to
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say on Twitter. She says, Tulsi Gabbard is accusing female senators of anti-Catholic bigotry for, rightly,
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questioning a judicial nominee's membership in an extreme right-wing, anti-choice, anti-LGBT,
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all-male organization. Gabbard is not a progressive. She's a fraud. So if you stand up,
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Jill's making it very clear. And there are a lot of leftists who agree with her.
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If you stand for religious liberty, then you're a fraud. You're not a real progressive. You're a
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fraud. And I might actually agree with her on that. That if you stand for religious liberty,
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you're not a real leftist or a real progressive by today's progressive standards, which is a good
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thing. The only difference is I see that as a very positive thing. Now, Jill says that the Knights of
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Columbus, and apparently Harris and Hirono feel the same way, the Knights of Columbus are an extreme
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right-wing group. If you aren't familiar, the Knights of Columbus is a group of men who get
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together and they pray and they do charity drives and they do things like that. Okay. I mean, it is the
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most unthreatening group of people that you could possibly imagine. This is one of the main groups,
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around Christmas time, where you see those boxes and people are collecting toys, doing toys. This
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is one of the main groups that does toy drives around Christmas time, collecting toys for poor
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kids. That's what the Knights of Columbus does. Yet they are now an extremist group. As if the Knights
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of Columbus are wearing literal suits of armor and charging into battle with swords and spears and that
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sort of thing. Clearly, this stuff about the Knights of Columbus, it is, again, this is just very thinly
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veiled anti-Catholic bigotry. That's really what that's about. The Knights of Columbus, when it comes
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down to it, these are just Catholic men who get together and have a fraternity. And as I said,
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they pray and they do charity work and that sort of thing. So if you've got a problem with them,
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what you really have a problem with is Catholicism. So how do we account for this? How do we account
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for this just kind of open anti-Christian bigotry on the left? Well, where now they're so straightforward
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about it, they're so blatant, it's like they're not even trying to disguise it? Well, there's a very
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obvious answer here, of course. The left hates Christianity because of the moral message of
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Christianity. And that moral message makes them feel bad. It cramps their style. It interferes with
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their relativistic approach to things. And that's the main reason why they hate it, which is pretty
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obvious. But I think there's something else as well. There's also a fundamental lack of understanding
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on the left when it comes to religion. And that is, when a leftist thinks of bigotry, they think of
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a person who hates someone else for that other person's identity. If you hate someone because of
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their identity, then you're a bigot. Except the problem is, people on the left, they don't recognize
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religious affiliation as an identity. They just don't see it that way. They can't understand
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how a person's religion is not only a part of their identity, but any religious person will tell you
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it's not only a part of their identity, it is the most central, crucial, important part of their
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identity. Now, you notice that we say this about religious bigotry and how they don't care about
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religious bigotry, yet they do talk about Islamophobia all the time. So they are worried
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about that kind of religious bigotry, but that's because they associate Islam with non-white people.
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And so when they're worried about Islamophobia, what they're really worried about in their mind is
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sort of an anti-Arab bias. So they see that as entirely ethnic and racial. That's why they care
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about that. If Muslims were mostly white, they wouldn't care about Islamophobia at all.
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And that's why, that's another one of the reasons why they don't care about anti-Christian bias is
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because they see Christianity as a white thing, which of course is ridiculous. Christianity was born in
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the Middle East. The majority of Christians in the world are actually not white. I mean,
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there are a whole lot of Christians in Africa. There are a whole lot of Christians in South and
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Central America. There are plenty of Christians in Asia. It is not a white invention and it's not a
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white thing. It is a universal thing. But it is also a choice. You know, you have to choose to accept
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this faith, to accept the gospel. You have to choose that. But that doesn't make it any less a part of
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your identity. If anything, it makes it more a part of your identity, or at least it makes it a more
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important part of your identity. Because it's not something that you're just born with. It's not
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just an accident of nature. It's, it's something that you pursue and find and organize your life
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around. And that's why, that's why it's not as, it's not as simple as saying, oh, well, you know,
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it's okay to, to hate someone for their, or to hate someone's religion because they choose that,
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they could easily choose a different religion. I mean, these are people on the left there. These
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are the ones who are, who are constantly talking about the value of choice, right? They're supposed
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to be pro-choice. They're supposed to be, they're supposed to see choice as this wonderful, beautiful
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thing. Well, okay. I agree. Religion is a choice. And that is what makes it such a crucial thing to,
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to a person's identity. Staying in the realm of religion, my friend, Paul Blanc at the Daily Wire
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has an interesting piece on the site right now about a megachurch pastor who has announced his
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congregation that the 10 commandments no longer apply to Christians. Okay. Here's what Paul writes.
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He says, popular megachurch pastor Andy Stanley of North Point Ministries says Christians need to
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stop erecting monuments to the 10 commandments because they apparently no longer apply to
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Christians, which is completely false. In a piece posted to Relevant Magazine on Monday,
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Pastor Stanley said that since the 10 commandments come from the old covenant,
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Christians should stop erecting monuments dedicated to them. Stanley says, if we're going to create a
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monument to stand as a testament to our faith, shouldn't it at least be a monument of something
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that actually applies to us? Participants in the new covenant, that's Christians, are not required to
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obey any of the commandments found in the first part of their Bibles. Participants in the new covenants
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are expected to obey the single command Jesus issued as part of his new covenant,
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as I have loved you, so you must love one another. He continued,
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But how many times have you seen Christians trying to post the text of the Sermon on the Mount at a
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public place, or the all-encompassing commandment Jesus gave us? Stanley goes on to say that this
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commandment from Christ is a replacement for everything in the existing list, including the Big Ten.
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Just as his new covenant replaced the old covenant, Jesus' new commandment replaced all the old
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commandments, Stanley contended. Stanley also promoted the fact that too many congregations
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placed too much emphasis on the old covenant. Jesus was foreshadowed in the old covenant. He did
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not come to extend it. Dear Christian reader, why, why, why would we even be tempted to reach back
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beyond the cross to borrow from a covenant that was temporary and inferior to the covenant established
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for us at Calvary? Okay. First of all, I'd be perfectly fine with putting the text of the Sermon on the
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Mount anywhere. I think that'd be great. Now, a monument with the entire text of the Sermon on the
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Mount might be, that'd be kind of a big monument, because it's a pretty lengthy sermon, but I'm
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perfectly fine with that. So that's the only part of what you just read that I agree with, that, yeah,
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let's put the Sermon on the Mount. Let's make monuments of the Sermon on the Mount. The rest of
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it, though, is just, is just, it is bad exegesis. It is bad hermeneutics. It is bad theology. It is bad
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everything. It's heresy. It's stupidity. It's the kind of thing that you could maybe excuse a six-year-old
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for saying before his Sunday school teacher corrects him. And this guy pastors a church,
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not just any church, but a big, a mega church with thousands of, of adherents. And he writes
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best-selling books. And yet he has not the most basic theological understanding of his own religion.
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Because, you know, basically anyone could be a mega church pastor. You just, you just,
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just walk in and you say, here I am. I'm going to tell you about Jesus.
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And people go and they sit and they listen to this guy pontificate.
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And they imagine that they're doing something religiously,
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This is just this guy's opinion. He's just giving you his opinion. And it's a really bad,
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stupid, wrong opinion on top of that. He has no business being a pastor.
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Where to even begin with this? Jesus is not a replacement. And the commandments he gives us
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are not replacements. A replacement is something you put in place because the old thing is broken.
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It's like God changed his mind and said, ah, you know, never mind with all that. Let's do this instead.
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No, Jesus came to fulfill the old covenant. Fulfill it. Not abolish it. Not replace it.
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He says that himself. He clarifies this exact point. It's right there in the book.
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I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. There's a difference.
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You shall love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
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This is the great and first commandment, and a second is like it.
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Don't kill. Don't steal. Honor your parents. Don't covet. Don't take the Lord's name.
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Apparently, Pastor Andy Staley thinks that, Stanley thinks that, okay, well, I guess, so what?
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We can still, we don't have to honor our parents anymore?
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Jesus doesn't replace those. He doesn't do away with them.
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In fact, again, he specifically clarifies this point in that verse I just read.
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He says, on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.
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Now, why would he be talking about that the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments
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that he just gave if the law and the prophets are now irrelevant?
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What he's saying is that the moral laws of the Old Testament, including the Ten Commandments,
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And these commandments are, this is a commandment of love.
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And the law and the prophets depend upon, are rooted in, are founded upon love.
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By the way, this, see, here's the difference between what I'm saying now and what Pastor Stanley is saying.
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I'm not giving, like, my interpretation or my opinion about it.
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I'm just telling you what, what, I'm just telling you what the book says.
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And I'm saying, if we have to choose between siding with what Jesus says in the Gospels
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or siding with Andy Stanley, you know, I'm going with Jesus, personally.
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I mean, again, this is Sunday school, when you're seven years old type of stuff.
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There are different kinds of laws in the Old Testament, and you do have to distinguish between them.
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So you have moral laws decreed by God, and then you have ceremonial laws, like the stuff about mixed fabrics
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Those are not immutable, eternal, fundamentally moral laws.
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And this is also something that Paul spends a lot of time—now I'm talking about St. Paul,
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not Paul Bois from Daily Water—this is something that St. Paul spends a lot of time in his epistles explaining.
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And it's amazing to me—I don't know how I could still be amazed by it—but it's amazing to me
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that people could still be confused about this stuff when you could just go pick up the book and read it.
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Not only are people confused, but pastors are confused.
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And it's not that—the epistles aren't that long.
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Also, if you read church history, okay, if you read the history of early Christianity,
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if you read about the kind of things that the church fathers were dealing with in the first, second, third centuries,
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you'll find that heretics like Stanley, they're not even doing us the favor of inventing new heresies, okay?
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So they don't even have the creativity to come up with new ones,
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and at least that would make it a little bit interesting to have this conversation.
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He was a false teacher, a leader of a heretical Christian sect in the early second century.
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And he taught what Stanley is basically saying here.
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He also taught that the Old Testament God was a tyrant and a despot
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and a completely different God from the God of the New Testament.
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Now, Stanley doesn't go that far, that's true, but the crux is the same.
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Okay, so this is basically Marcionism repackaged, reheated, and made a little bit more palatable.
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Because, as I said, the guy Marcion, 1900 years ago, he was just, he had open contempt for the Old Testament
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and for that God, and, you know, he basically spat upon it.
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Stanley isn't going to go that far, but their basic point is exactly the same,
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This, you know, Stanley's church should be empty now.
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I mean, after writing this article, his church should be completely empty.
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If you go to his church, you should be running for the hills at this point.
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If you keep going, just realize that you're not going to a church, okay?
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You're not going for anything that could be considered a church service.
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You're going to just sit down and hear some dude's opinion,
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an opinion which is disconnected, divorced from Christian theology and the text of Scripture.
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So, this dude is just inventing his new thing, that's all.
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So, he's coming up with his new kind of religion, and if you go to his church,
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then you're a member of that religion that he's inventing.
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And you have every right to be a member of Stanleyism.
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If that's, if it appeals to you, in America, First Amendment,
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But I just feel like you should know, it's not the Christian religion.
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Because all you have to do is read the text, read the Scripture,
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read a little bit about the history of your own religion,
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and you're going to find that these things have been dealt with.
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Real quick, California is looking at a ban on paper receipts, apparently.
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They handled the straws, and now they're going over to the receipts.
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that's this huge, five-mile-long scroll, right?
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eh, I mean, did we really have to kill a tree for this?
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that the market is already in the process of solving.