Audio Archive

Transcript

You should have received a sheet of paper that's got print on both sides, it's talking about what truth is and characteristics of God's truth. I wrote that, oh, a number of years ago and I found that over the years it's largely remained true. That is, the information on it I would still largely agree with because sometimes when you write matters down you change your mind. But point number seven on the side entitled Some Fundamental Aspects of God's Truth, point seven reads, contends, God invites investigation of his book, dot dot dot. And on the flip side of it, under what truth is, under the section consequences, point T, where it says beckons, invites investigation and adherence since it fears no shortcomings or failures. Now the one side is truth in its pure abstract theoretical form, the other God's truth is what we're going to be dealing with today. So those are some background characteristics of God's truth and we'll be dealing with some of them during the week, primarily today however, and that's for you to look at and see if you think that that largely rings true. Just definition-wise, so we are on common ground here, I'm using truth in the sense that it's a short form for God's truth and refers to the information and teaching found in the Bible. Invites means asks, attracts, and is used in the sense of calls for or encourages. The term investigation comes from investigate, which means to inquire into, to examine thoroughly. Together these three words are saying that the truth of God as revealed in the Bible encourages mankind to examine it thoroughly. Why? Why investigate God's truth? Essentially because he invites it, he's given us the Bible that says come and examine me, explore me. God invites us to look into his son, follow his son, invites us to come to himself and to discover what God is really like. So each of these three, the Bible, Jesus, God himself, these all invite men and women to investigate, to taste, seek, find out that the Lord is good and has good news to offer. And the things I want to address this morning, talking about this truth, we'll talk about each of these in turn. So let's talk about the aspect of the word or the Bible. The Bible fears no investigation because it's divine. God wrote it. It's the Word of God and it will always be shown to be fundamentally correct and right and true. Now many of you will know that over the years the Bible has been criticized for a number of things. They wonder whether it's accurate or not and there's lots of examples. For example, they take Luke's gospel and they said there's a fellow by the name of Licinius there that is called a tetrarch and everybody knows he was a king and it shows the Bible's wrong. And after a while they dig up some evidence to find out that there was such a guy who was a tetrarch and Luke was right after all. Little details like that which you get into that finds out that the critics prove to be wrong when enough information is available. There's similar charges against the Bible for discrepancies. For example, that the names on the cross, the title on the cross, they look like they contradict each other until you read the verse that said that the sign that it had written was in three different languages and so as you interpret those three languages you get a resolution of these apparent discrepancies. Other challenges too that are from the higher critics and are from people who really don't want to believe and every time these challenges have been met and defeated or confronted or given some type of to justify them. Let me just list a couple of things. Verbal inspiration, you know, how did that happen? What are the mechanics of it? Well the point is that God breathed scripture. What about the transcription and translation of it? Can we trust it? There's lots of mistakes. Well you investigate it and you find out with meticulous care scripture was conveyed through the ages as the scribes copied it. How is it possible that men can foretell the future? Challenges of the datings of the books and by the time you investigate it the answer is because God inspired men to foretell the future. That's how it's right. About what would happen and about what would never happen still remains true. We live in a world that largely believes in evolution and chance but when you investigate the evidence you will find it is certainly a world of design by a creator God. Some think that the Bible is scandalous, inappropriate stories. I mean how could it write such things? The thing is it's writing about human nature and that's what human beings can do be. It points out some inconsequential terms. I mean why should Paul write about the parchments and his cloaks? Why should that be considered inspiration? Well it's a stamp of veracity. And then there's those passages in the Bible that are absolutely a mystery, incomprehensible. Who could ever understand that? And usually the problem turns out to be me. You know I can't understand it. It doesn't mean that it's wrong. It's just because I can't understand it. So every honest investigation vindicates scripture. And a point to make in all this is that the Bible doesn't ask us to defend it. It defends itself. It says come on and read me. I challenge you to do that because it claims to be nothing less than the word of God. And if that's true that's an astounding thing. And if it's false it's mighty mighty presumptuous. You can't have a middle ground in this. It gives us 66 books with all these case studies. It says check them out for consistency, accuracy. Does it make sense? Does it ring true? That type of thing. And in every case that a person has honestly gone about looking for the right information I believe they've been satisfied. No one has ever made a case against the authority and integrity of the Bible. The writing's unique unlike any other writing of man. Examples to attempt the religious style and in prose of scripture fall as immediately short of what the scriptures say. So I said before the words ring true man is not flattered in this book. He's shown to be the miserable and yet exalted creature that he is. And when a student of scripture picks it up and starts reading this is more than than print on paper. It starts becoming a lie. It becomes a power. This works when a person wants to believe in it. And it isn't that you become brainwashed. It isn't that you read it so many times that you become so familiar that you're duped into believing it. You become aware of the problems and solution much more than any critic. And it becomes a great conviction from your association with it. And finally the text itself tells us that the the reason for the book is to bring about the obedience of faith. It commands obedience from the reader. Romans chapter 16 verse 26 says that. Another place in the Old Testament and Testament just to read them entirely from Deuteronomy 30 verse 19 quote I've said before you life and death blessing and curse therefore choose life that you and your descendants may live in Acts 17 30. God commands all men everywhere to repent because he's fixed a day in which you will judge the world in righteousness. And so the reader of these words is faced with this direct challenge. One day God is going to do this to you the reader. How do you respond to that challenge? Faced with the issues of life and death and of judgment to come. Text itself declares God's word to be true. Thy word is truth. John 17 17. The ordinances of the is truth. Psalm 119 verse 160. I am the way the truth and the light. So it's not just scripture but a person who declares that he's truth. Now which is more important the book or the person? Which is more important? He's a hard choice. Just tell me which is more important the book or the person? The person. Someone said the book. Well I will argue that it's the person because the book itself testifies that the person is more important. Turn to 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 15. It's a familiar text. Just taking it without reading the context. I'm taking verse 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. So salvation comes through faith in the person Jesus. So Jesus the truth is to be sought above and beyond having an understanding the inspired scripture. Now it goes on to say what all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for these things. That's very important but I submit that the person is more important than the book. Now this verse in John and the way the truth and the light if you take these as three distinct aspects it shows that more than just truth is involved. There's a way and there's a life and it's truth is not the end it's a means to an end and it shows that there's a path there's a direction that needs to be channeled and directed. So if three distinct concepts are involved then truth is but one of the three and must not be the only or ultimate pursuit. However if you take these three and and see them as an integrated thought along the lines of the truthful way to life we find that Jesus is saying that he is the genuine path to salvation. So in this sense truth isn't presented in the intangible abstract form like we do in our western Greek thought but as a tangible living being as in Hebrew thought. In Jesus truth is is alive it's dynamic it's vibrant he's capable of filling and enveloping and satisfying a person and in this sense I submit that Jesus is obviously far superior to the written word and I think is the reason why God sent Jesus the word made flesh. I mean the Bible is a wonderful thing we've already seen that but now he sends his son. What John's gospel says about it uh chapter 1 verse 14 the word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth and verse 17 for the law was given through Moses and think about that that's that's an astounding statement that the 10 commandments at the very days that God declared and all the law this is the word of God given to nation just and holy and good and now it goes beyond that saying grace and truth came through Jesus Christ and that seems to be presented as something even greater words of God wonderful and powerful the son of God more wonderful and powerful yet. Okay so in seeking God's truth we need to go beyond the book itself and find the person of Jesus if we limit ourselves to the written word we're we're robbing ourselves and missing the very point of why scripture was given. We turn over a few pages in John's gospel chapter five just a few verses here to read about the discourse that Jesus had with the Pharisees he says verse 39 boring John five you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is they that bear witness to me yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life sometimes this passage is misread and is cited as search the scriptures because in them you have eternal life but it doesn't read that way does it he's saying you Pharisees you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life but Jesus says it's it's me that gives life not the text not the printed word it's the person and he says that if you fail to believe in me eventually you end up not believing what is written and in fact you don't even believe in the word as if you go on says if you don't believe in his writings how will you believe my words verse 46 and 47 so let us not fail to see this point to correct bible understanding is but a step towards coming to a knowledge of the truth it's an important step but recognize that the truth is isn't a set of propositions it's the person of the lord Jesus Christ now this confirmation of this found in a letter of paul it's in ephesians chapter four and again without talking immediately about the context which i will in a moment the verse in mine is verse 21 in ephesians four he's talking about the essence of what they had been taught verse 20 you did not so learn price assuming that you've heard about him and we're taught of him as the truth is in jesus now the context of this now it's talking about both doctrine and behavior verses four to six is talking about the one more the one faith one one baptism and so on that's all doctrinal things as we generally speak about it speaking the truth and love verse 15 let everyone speak the truth to his neighbor verse 25 and most interesting it's in a context of spiritual growth verse 13 to 16 talks about growing up into mature manhood don't be children anymore verse 15 rather speaking the truth and love we are to grow up into every way into him who the head into christ so again it's the person that is important here truth centered in the person of jesus not a point of academics but of relationships truth is integrated that is it's a composite of accurate teaching and correct living it isn't a list of doctrinal statements and since a living person is involved the characteristic of integration is to be expected that is we don't have a human being slaughtered into different things we are a whole person and it can't be owned or possessed is to be declared and obeyed and although it is possible to have a list of correct statements about jesus in one's possession and i think we have that in statement of faith and although it's possible to preach accurately about christ now we have an example of a pause in acts 18 verse 25 the purpose of the correct accurate divine writing is to bring about obedience to a person jesus christ who by definition cannot be owned or possessed and just to actually read now this passage i cited before in roman 16 verse 26 talking about the preaching of jesus christ verse 25 but is now disclosed and through the prophetic writings is made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal god to bring about the obedience of faith so truth is not static but dynamic contact with truth spawns activity it generates change no contact with christ demands growth growth which includes faith and knowledge if we went back to ephesians 4 again verse 13 and 16 they talk about knowledge and that's important that's an important element of it joint effort with others verse 16 from whom the whole body joined in it together by every joint with which it is supplied when each part is working properly makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love so can't be sought or developed in isolation it's the relationship then first with jesus and with each other relationship with jesus the truth is what enables a person to put off the old nature and former manner of life and to be renewed in the spirit of his or her mind and to put on the new nature created after the likeness of god and true righteousness and holiness which is from this chapter verses 22 to 24 it's an ongoing transformation not a one-time act i submit that if we summarize paul's usage of this term truth it forces us to recognize it that it it's not limited to an intellectual appreciation and and the reason i i harbor that so much is is my impression that we we tend to think of truth that way it's a head thing rather than a life thing it's it requires a commitment to follow to to to do something and again this contrasts our westernized thinking where you can think one thing have a philosophy it doesn't matter how you live as long as you keep your mind here you can do anything with your body that's a greek philosophy now the biblical viewpoint on this is that how you impact how you behave so jesus is not an abstract idea to merely contemplate he is the christ of god who preached the kingdom repentance baptism and trust in the gospel to accept his preaching was to accept truth not theological ideas but jesus himself as the messenger of god and as the means of salvation roman's 116 the gospel is the power of god for salvation to everyone who has faith faith in the message yes by all means but in the words in the sentences no it's in the person that they were talking about the subject of the message and the source of the message god now i've been a bit unfair to you in that i have kept this distinction between truth in the word and truth in a person and it's probably not quite fair for me to make you make a choice between whether the book or whether the person is more important and i've done this partly for convenience of communication but largely to remind ourselves that our confidence shouldn't be in this head knowledge of the bible but in faith in the master i lead up to that because in john's gospel chapter eight this is another familiar text you might want to look to that scripture couples this idea of truth in the word and truth in jesus it's uh verses 31 to 36 is the whole context and he says verse 30 well if you continue in my word you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free it's not about the word there but later on he says verse 36 but if the son makes you free you'll be free indeed so it's one thing to believe that god's word is truth it's another thing to perceive that it is jesus not bible text that frees us from sin now the pharisees accepted the first they believed that the scriptures were divinely inspired but they were blinded to the second now we shouldn't fall into the same mistake now sometimes it's been known i think in our community that we're more intent on developing bible students than disciples of jesus you know it's jesus again i can't emphasize this too much he's the focus of god's book and we must realize that he is the truth of god so the word is true jesus is true well the truth because god is true he's he's the source god is true and there's four old testament scripture that that describe god as being true deuteronomy 32 four says a god of faithfulness and without iniquity just and right to see authorized version as truth instead of faithfulness isaiah 65 16 so that he who blesses himself the land shall bless himself by the god of truth this is a different hebrew word amen is where we get our term from it psalm 35 5 31 fire rather into thy hand i commit my spirit thou hast redeemed me o lord faithful god that is god of truth steadfastness finally zechariah eight eight behold i will save my people from the east country and from the west country and i will bring them to dwell in the midst of jerusalem and they shall be my people and i will be their god in faithfulness that is truth and in righteousness and so truth in the old testament conveys the sense of certainty based on the eternal constancy and eternity and faithfulness of god who can't change now this is important i think this right up ahead on aspects of truth that's largely my westernized education a list propositions logic things like that bible doesn't present truth that way it's faithfulness reliability in a god who's certain and always there that doesn't need mean that my my education was wasted time or that we can't think that way just to recognize the notions are quite different it's certainly based on a faithful god versus accuracy based on logic now in addition to those old testament citations there's at least two in the new testament that i can think of that supports this second timothy 2 verse 13 talks about god remaining faithful for he cannot deny himself it's inherent in god to be trustworthy and herew 617 he interposed with an oath that through two unchangeable things in which it is impossible that god should prove false so it's an inherent history truth is an inherent characteristic of god and then we come to another place in john's gospel this is in john four another passage you'll be familiar with it's in chapter four verse 23 to 24 there is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth for such the father seeks to worship him god is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit truth it has to follow because that's what god is like god is spirit we find out from another place and so if he's inherently reliable and true he would expect those who worship him to be the same notice though the coupling here with spirit you know there's truth and there's spirit what kind of spirit let me suggest this connection if you turn or you could just listen to this chapter three verse three i'm just not going to give you a whole lot of time to get here but for we are the true circumcision who worship god in spirit and glory in christ jesus and put no confidence in the flesh the gospel john one the flipping three one another one in and you get the idea that the physical is eliminated and replaced with the frame of mind that gives credit to god in john four then the true worshipers were not jews as opposed to samaritans nor only men as opposed to women but anyone who approached god with the right heart any man or woman who was humble and contrite in spirit and trembled at god's word it's out of isaiah 66 that's who god would lower now just pause here think about the implications of this teaching anyone that was a problem that uh peter had i remember with corneas he had to i'll just pull from axe chapter 10 verse 35 he said truly i perceive that god shows no partiality but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him now see how from a possibly limited set of doctrines teaching it says anyone who believes in this global form now jesus is something akin to that in his teaching in the gospels in matthew chapter 10 my father in heaven is my brother my sister and mother suddenly you're in a big global plane whoever does the will what does that mean what does that constitute he doesn't tell us but it does show us the far-reaching aspects of work setting of john's horror gospel where he's talking to the samaritan woman comes after chapter 3 where he had his encounter with nick edemus and i i think the reader can help but see the the obvious contrast between the two nick edemus was the teacher in israel who came to talk to jesus and he couldn't understand what he was all of that bible and all that understanding he was missing the significance of it wasn't he and he continued to struggle with it how can a man be born again you know what is this you're talking about now took him a while but he finally ends up becoming a disciple a contrast that with the samaritan woman she had virtually no bible background and perhaps miscited some scriptures and talking about jesus well i want to get into a religious controversy but much much sooner did she seize what jesus was talking about and she became a believer almost immediately and see the contrast here that the point isn't so much comprehension of the text as it is a response of faith to what jesus himself is saying now back there to the picture of god god being foundation truth inevitably jesus must point to god jesus is great truth but god is greater still jesus is quick to point that out god sent jesus as savior but god remains the primary savior if you read paul's letter to titus you see the number of places where god is savior as well as jesus being savior jesus is a great high priest but he's priest of god most high so god is higher still and we know from first corinthians 15 that in the kingdom when all is settled jesus hands it over to his father who's obviously greater so there's a clear distinction between jesus and god but even in the days of his flesh in jesus day he who saved me has seen the father the father and one there is this equation between the two in that sense jesus manifested god he was the word made flesh and we're going to start seeing some of these equivalencies even the days of his flesh is like that afterwards in hebra's chapter one it says when he made purifications for sin he sat down right hand of majesty and high what was his character then reflects the glory of god and bears the very stamp of his nature that's what he became what i'm pointing out then it's in one aspect of looking at this when you see jesus you see the father the father and our one it's somewhat artificial on my part to say in terms of truth there's a difference between them in can you find that god is it's possible time versus in songs and i can quote them seen there where it says god created the world and the word of god created the world so it's understandable that god and his word are inseparable he's the one who's talking he's just uh if you talk about one you're talking about the other the same for the spirit these two are obviously interchangeable that says scripture says god says the spirit says who who can escape from god says or who can escape from god's spirit they're interchangeable as well so you start getting this equation all the way to jesus and the word of god now this isn't leading to any trinitarian aspect i just want to throw it out if you think i can always introduce something here what it tells you is how often scripture hits these things and now they're all together they're intertwined not separate from this talk about god you're talking about the word you're talking about jesus you're talking about the god and that's an important characteristic of truth probably a good time to uh ask my two helpers to do something oh come on like that a part two of the handle what you're going to see here is uh is a diagram that looks like a triangle with truth in the middle god at the top jesus and word at the bottoms of the isosceles triangle um the reason for showing you this is that all three are one truth god the foundation jesus the manifestation scripture being the means of revelation and together they provide an absolutely wonderful offer to us god himself says come now let us reason together that's as i want 18 come and see says jesus to uh to andrew john 139 oh taste and see that the lord is good psalm 348 there is no other book like the bible there is no other person that even begins to compare with jesus and certainly there is no other god so these three together invite investigation they're not afraid to have any one of these routes investigated because all of them will eventually lead to truth and to each other and they will satisfy the pursuer now i kind of structure this because i think that it it might be helpful to visualize things i see great values in having things and threes and triumphs and if you just look at this in certain ways here we have something that is uh tangible this is a little objective maybe you have a book here you can do something with it but it's also subjective and then it starts impacting your life now jesus is also objective in the sense that he was a real historical person continues to exist although none of us have seen him yet behavior there is to establish a personal relationship with jesus and god god is invisible we can't see him yet he manifests himself and he says to me we're so bad so what is happening here really is not only the relationship these have with each other but to the degree that you and i plug into this you need to establish some kind of a relationship with them so i'm going to draw a little bit here on the blackboard so maybe you can see it better is it god and jesus and the word that's one way of looking at it probably a better way of looking at it is if you're trying to view something if you start saying with the word here and this island and it starts providing insight into jesus who's there who obviously provides insight into god who's there so if you look at it from the front the word who's focus is on jesus and god is obviously behind it all now these are just little pictures there's no any big theology in this but it's just ways of looking how you can see the the concentrated focus that these things have and how they are with each other interrelated and if you look at these things from different points of view saying all right i want to go through a whole list of attacks on the bible how can you prove that true why don't you go and and try look out check out the prophecies and do various things like that one of the uh one of the big investigations that has been made and books have been written about more since who moved the stone let's just look at the text the evidence to see is it likely is it conceivable is it possible is it probable is it a certainty that jesus christ rose from the dead just as a fact of history and if it's true then the ramifications if it's not true we are men most be pitied said paul doesn't so that's an important investigation someone did that talking about the nation of israel we're trying to see a lot of that in morris's class or some of you might be listening there are witnesses they're called forth as god's witnesses and they're called together to argue a case that's the investigation and that's what god challenges israel to do you see that a lot in the prophecy of isaiah and israel continues to be a testimony to them there is the the personal challenge in malachi chapter three when they're wondering about how come god's mistreating them god says all right put me to the test put your trust in me and see if i don't fill your bars with things so he's not afraid of the challenge and if you start putting these various investigations together we find that these truths prove themselves out when they're given the opportunity to work and yet they require faith in order them to really prove the process they won't fail god cannot fail scripture cannot be broken jesus christ the same yesterday to the world these are solid they won't let us down we have our ultimate assurance on that that's truth that's reliability that's what we put our trust in there's a oneness in all of these aren't there get baptized in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit commended to the grace of jesus love of god fellowship with the holy spirit if any man loves me he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home in him the counselor of the holy spirit whom the father will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring you to remembrance all the things that i've said you continue to get these types of interrelations finally i think i got some final stuff here something that all christodalians appreciate i believe and that is previous century there was a man who discovered he didn't know a whole lot about the bible and was worried about that because he almost died and he decided he would never pursue anything else really until he got to the issues of life and death his name is john thomas he began to look into his bible and he talked with people and he did some investigation and he discovered some remarkable things he wrote a book called helpless israel the hope of israel but one of the key themes that was promises of god the promise to the woman seed of the woman in genesis and there's a promise that's made to Abraham the promise is made to data and we know would have referred to these are jesus christ fulfilled in jesus confirmed in jesus and what are they doing sin is conquered by this it will land promised as an everlasting possession inheriting the earth and there's a throne throne of david jerusalem and so you get the ultimate promise kingdom he has to return it's another promise to be fulfilled this is a linear picture just a type of diagram like that and again what it does it it shows this old custom stuff new custom stuff that's just the word and then you get another promise who is being fulfilled by in jesus and who's the one that started it all who's who's going to make it all happen eventually in the kingdom of god it's the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge and glory of god and so this book helpless israel introduces us to all those aspects of truth just we would expect it fits it rings true and it's one of the things we've inherited we christadelphians have a solid rock foundation of truth because it's built on rock god jesus the word is credit to this man as used by god but our foundation is on something much firmer and much sounder than that we can always come back and look at this this foundation they're they're not afraid of investigation we can look fearlessly at look at it anyway they invite us to it and that's been our strength as a community each brother and sister has the privilege and opportunity to to study the scripture for him or herself to think for him or herself and to come up with an application to your own life and that's what we'll talk about in the next classes of this week um i wanted to give every class a chance to make some comments because i'm not intended to be lecturing naturally for every class um they're inseparable that's right you can't you need both and for convenience we talk about them separately put the reading together and we should recognize them the word cannot be fulfilled without right that's right the word cannot fulfill that other than your tongue that's a great question and i think there will be more answers in the days to come on so i don't need to put you off but i think the injustice to your question if you didn't pick it up on the table and then how do i see this in relation to biology oftentimes use the term truth in reference to our community community there's vital justification for that there's a number of reasons in the uh however i think there are far more is a far larger number of just that make us look in different areas thank you

Transcript

Well, good morning again. The investigation of truth is going to look at integration of doctrine this morning. If you remember from yesterday, those of you who may not have been here or for those whose brains are now just engaging in the second day, we talked about the Bible, the Word of God, Jesus Christ, and God himself being truth, solid truth, reliable truth, rock truth, something we can depend upon. And because of their divine characteristics, they invite investigation. In our heritage as Christadelphians, coming to scriptures and our willingness to look at what the book says and to see what God offers through Jesus Christ, this too is solid because it's built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ and the teaching of scripture. And so when we invite our friends to come and sit down and talk about these things with open Bible, we're not afraid of such investigation because we have high confidence, not in ourselves, but in what the truth of the matter is. Today's class is going to be in these three groupings. We're going to be exploring particular texts, looking at truth from its multiple aspects or levels, and we're going to relook at our own traditional basis of things in terms of common ground, the implications, and answering the concerns that will arise out of that investigation. Also for some reminders of where we left off yesterday, we were talking about different structures, different pictures. We had the triangular one, we had maybe the telescoping one, we had a sort of one room with three aspects coming out of it, kind of bullet form. There's all kinds of things. The truth might also be regarded as three stakes drilled in the ground to hook onto the Word and God and Jesus. It depends what serves best in your mind to help convey this idea of solidity, stability, steadfastness, unchangeableness, but whatever you want to say. Yesterday we just started talking about one of the great themes discovered by Dr. John Thomas. The seed promises on the basis of Albus Israel, and I've written these on the board, and these were kind of, this was kind of a linear type of structure. The seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the seed of David, they're fulfilled in Jesus. And what were the promises about? Well, there was a victor that was promised in Genesis. Also in Genesis, there was a land promised, seed for David, a throne promised. And we know, and there's a text that's worth reading, it's Romans chapter 15 verse 8. It reads, for I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, as it is written, and that he cites in Old Testament. So there you have brought together the truthfulness, the promises, something the Gentiles are walking into. And when you look at this, we know that Christ upon Eden promised to return, that's in Acts chapter 1, because he spent 40 days and 40 days, I presume, this is the 40 days, where they were speaking about the things concerning the kingdom, and it wasn't time for the kingdom to be restored to Israel. So the promise returned as imperative, the kingdom. Now we rightly look at this and say to ourselves, because this is plain teaching, a clear teaching, ample Bible evidence for that, what are some of the implications of this? Well one thing is pretty certain, this kingdom is a literal, political, future kingdom that's to be established on earth. Lots of verses for that, Daniel 2.44 being one of them. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God cannot be the church, and is part another church. So the truth excludes something else from being true. And you go on in this, it's thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth. It's a heavenly kingdom, that's its origin, but it's to come to earth. And if it comes to earth, and since we have something like this, land, earth, the same term, then here's where the reward is going to be. And therefore, heaven is not the reward or the leader. Hope cannot be true, and that's a valid conclusion. Abraham's dead. So is David. What the scriptures talk about them in terms that they will see the promise fulfilled. The only way that can happen is that they must be made alive again. Therefore, they must be raised from the dead. So not only you have built into this the resurrection, and in fact, that's the very thing that Jesus argues about God being the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's the God of the living, not the God of the dead, and therefore, he's the resurrection. It shows that the hope of a man is that he will rise again, and that there is not something inherent in him that keeps on living. For example, the teaching of immortality is old. That is not part of this. If this is true, there is no room for the teaching of an immortal soul upon which, if a person dies, he gets his reward in a way that doesn't fit into this. And so, we rightly exclude that kind of teaching. And it's proper, I think, to present it that way. Here's the good news, but the good news excludes some of these false teachings. But, truth invites investigation. So, let's take a few steps beyond this. Here's where I'm planning to have a fair amount of participation. So, when I ask what ordinarily would be rhetorical questions, and you'd like to sit down and go on, I'm going to expect you to say yea or nay. Well, it's coming in a moment, but I'm just warning. This is going to be your time. Is it true that the kingdom of God is only presented as a literal political future kingdom? No. Okay. If that's not the only usage, what is your evidence that would say it means something more than that? Give me some examples. Why do you say, I agree with you, but some for-instances. Translated into the kingdom of God. That's one of Paul's letters, right? Colossians. Yeah, Colossians. They were translated into the kingdom, so that's it. Kingdom of Israel in the past. Kingdom of Israel, yeah, but that would demonstrate, okay, it's in the past, so it's not necessarily a future kingdom, it's in the past, but there's a literal political one. Kingdom of God in the future. Kingdom of God in the future. Okay, and that's in Luke's gospel, chapter 16 or 17. Did Jesus say that I am the kingdom of God? He might have, but I don't remember where, but I said he said something that's comparable to that. Well, Mark's gospel, Jesus comes and says the kingdom of God is at hand. Okay. And then it becomes, what did he mean by that? And I think he's talking about himself, okay? So kingdom at hand, but you won't be able to decipher the scribbling, but that's all right. You can see Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom. Yeah, but that's referred to the future, I believe. Or, and then northern. Kingdom of God, righteousness, joy, peace, and that's in Romans, I think. Matthew 23, Jesus says that the Pharisees shut the kingdom against men. There's no way that they could do that in the eternal sense. Matthew 23, verse 13, Pharisees trying to shut the kingdom of God. And if you want some of these verses, I can give them to you afterwards. But this is sufficient, I think, to point out that there are other usages of the kingdom that could not refer to a literal future political one. It must mean something else. And as Ron has indicated, at least one aspect is presence of Jesus himself. He's representing the authority, or the kingdom, or the sovereignty of God. And that's what begins to take place in the life of a believer, that God begins to have a sovereignty over a man's life, or a woman's life. So if you fit on just the basic principle, which is right, and this is true, this will happen, that doesn't discount these other things from being true as well. So that's just a little bit of an expansion of a first principle. Now, let me do a little bit of a shift here for you. I'm sorry if some of you can't see to the podium, but I tried to write this up pretty high. These references down here, the points have been made. Suppose we look at what's called the seed promises, or what I call the seed promises. A lot of times, and I was certainly nourished on this, the promises to Abraham are the key Bible promises. Well, there's at least two others. But that's okay, because it's all part of one thing, and that's kind of what it means anyhow. In fact, when you look across these, these are all key promises. Return promise, that's important as well. So these four key promises. But my question now is, and now it's your opportunity, are these the only major significant promises made by God in Scripture? Okay, for example, what are some other key promises that God has made? The flood made to Noah, and the animals, and to all the earth. We'll never do that. That's a promise that affects us directly. That's in Genesis. Okay, the promise of us being a new creature. I don't think we have explicit terms to put it that way, but I would agree with the idea. I'm looking for something that would really be the term of the promise, but that's still correct. In forgiveness of sins, all right. A couple of hands up over there, we just have to call out. Good point, and I'm going to talk about that next, so we'll put it over here. Blood of everlasting power. Let's put that on the shelf, we'll come back in a second. Resurrection. He who believes in me, don't he die? Never leave me nor forsake me. I think that starts first with God's promise to Joshua, if I can remember, and there's other places that talk about it that's picked up in Hebrews. Okay, there's one more that was contending with that promise. Okay, but that's good enough. These are good. In fact, I hadn't thought about some of these. I thought about this one, and I thought about this one. It was the third one I thought about. There's actually a combination of these two. It's where Jesus in John 14 says that I and my father will come and abide in you, which is a good thing. I looked at my notes again because I wanted to expand into that for a second. It's in John 14. Do you remember where he says, we will come again and make our mold with you and we will have our nap with you? Here's the dwelling of God coming to be with a man or a woman who believes in him. And that's not surprising because Isaiah 66.2 said that that's the type of person that God went well with, those who believe in him and his word. And it's not surprising because that's how the Ecclesia is built. It's a spiritual morning place for the spirit of God. Ephesians 2.22, I think, says that. What we're getting into here is a couple things. First of all, there are other very significant and important promises in scripture. And they lead to things like the promise of the resurrection and the promise of forgiveness and the promise of dwelling in us now. This is a promise that's fulfilled now in our life. If you would reference in the points in John's letter, his first letter, where he talks about we are children of God now. We have eternal life now. Of course, we understand that in the sense that this is a reality that's conditional upon faithfulness to the end. But once you put it in its proper context, it's already been that way. This isn't a radical departure from baseline promises, which are very important. But you get into another level of facts, and you start getting immediately into an application to grow lives. Now we come to the blood of the everlasting covenant. Where is that blood of the everlasting covenant, remember? It's in Hebrews, right? 13, something like that. Okay, here's my question. Where does the Bible first mention everlasting covenant? Yes, Tom. Genesis 17, in association with Abraham. I submit this earlier in place, but that's a good guess. That's where I would have guessed too. Yeah? That's true. That's associated here. I'm being very picky this morning, though. I'm looking for the words everlasting covenant to be part of the verse itself. The rainbow one, who was that? That was the Noah, right? So it's in Genesis chapter 9. Okay. So the everlasting covenant begins not with Abraham, as I used to think for years, but at least the first Bible message of it is with Noah. And in fact, when you take out your concordance and do a bit of investigation, let me tell you some other places where you find everlasting covenant. The one with Noah is Genesis 9, 16. There's one made with Aaron for Israel, Leviticus 24, verse 8, perpetual priesthood for Phineas, Numbers 25, verse 13, a covenant to all who come to the Lord, Isaiah 55, 3, on the same lines as he did with David, and a similar everlasting covenant to spiritual Israel, Isaiah 61, 8, and is confirmed by Jeremiah 32, 40 and Ezekiel 16. Okay. There's a bunch of everlasting covenants, though I think you would agree that after you investigate them, some of them tend to be more important than the others. But key question, why is it called the everlasting covenant? It's a simple answer. Why do you think it would be called the everlasting covenant? Because God made it, and it can't be broken. Right, because God's an everlasting God. And that's the primary meaning of the everlasting covenant. It can't fail because God has made it. So, you look at these promises, see promises, very important. But now, if we were to look at these just themselves, and this is perhaps an unfair question, but I'm going to ask it anyhow, which of those three promises is the most important? The one with Abraham? Okay, any other quotes? Why is this more important? Right, if your sins aren't forgiven, if you don't live on forever to enjoy it, it doesn't matter if there's the land. So, this is more important, I think, than these. Now, I'm cautioning you, I don't want to make one more important. He's not contending with each other. But from our own minds, we need to see, it needs to start with this. If sin isn't conquered, if Christ doesn't defeat that, then the rest won't happen. And it doesn't affect two comings of Jesus. He dealt with that one first. That's been established. He's coming to fulfill the other two. Now, Todd Treadway, this one's yours. You know I'm going to ask, don't you? Sure you do. Talk about the promise to Abraham here, the land promise, okay? In the promises made to Abraham, what is probably the key point in all of the promise? That God would be their God and today's people. Yeah. Todd and I were at the Bloomington Study Day and he was writing the answer he came down there and I put him on the spot and said that there was probably a better answer, so he, I hope, doesn't mind me doing it again. But you get in with me, Todd. The point is, here is generally, for years, the promise made to Abraham was the land, everlasting possession, and that's correct. But if you look at all the things that God says to Abraham and if you look at what in other places in scripture God promises, you'll find that the more fundamental idea of what God says to Abraham is that I will be your God and your people will be my people. If you get out your concordance and try to find all the places where that idea is, you'll be amazed and you'll be well rewarded by your research because what happens is that you stop thinking about a territory, a specific reward, and evolve into the right thinking that here in this promise is a relationship, an eternal relationship, an everlasting relationship promised to us to let God be our God. We will be his people. And by the way, that's not saying the same thing two different ways. That shows God's willingness to be identified with us and it shows the necessity for us to be our God. It's two parts. Lots of fun and exploration reward there. And what I'm trying to show you is that you can start from basic teaching that was excluded from it and you build on more expansion. The kingdom of God is more than just something in the future, something now. In fact, there's a promise now, big promises now, more than even when you look at these, it's more than what is the basics. It's something to get into and investigate and that investigation leads to some just marvelous things. So what I would like someone to tell you right now is I have a second hand. My two distributors. This basically summarizes a number of the things we've been talking about, but I didn't want to give it to you too early. And it'll give me a chance to talk about some of the implications of these things. So while they're handing them out, I'll just read some things here. Basic idea of the kingdom, more than one aspect. Principles are more than facts. They lead to areas which require appropriate changes in thinking and behavior and quickly lead to immediate personal applications. We talked about the sea promises leading to bigger and greater teaching. Scripture itself urges us to get into the exploration of such teaching. Hebrews six, verse one, therefore let us leave the elementary doctrines for first principles of and go on to maturity. We're encouraged to grow. And in fact, all of these tie together. For convenience, we've been talking about different aspects, but it's really integrated doctrine. They're all together. And we shouldn't be surprised then if it's not simplistic. It's simple to understand, but not simplistic. Because it deals with life. It deals with the whole of life. And we know that life is not simplistic. And the complexity is not there to challenge, to discourage us, but to challenge us. It's been already cited, Proverbs 25 two, it is the glory of God to conceal things. The glory of kings is to search things out. And that same applies to ourselves. As written by the apostle Paul, he writes in first Corinthians two, verse 10, quote, but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. Quote from Isaiah 64, for what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man can see what God has prepared for those who love him. End of quote. And then Paul continues, God has revealed to us through the spirit. Now this first Corinthians two context is talking about believers being greater than earthly kings. And the secret or mystery is revealed so that we can understand it. The means of revelation is by the spirit, which was a first century revelation, and by comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. And it's verse 13 in that setting talks about, and that's something we can do. This is comparing scripture with scripture. Again, the context which shows that applies equally to all brethren, all of whom are insignificant, but whose call is from God so that no man can boast. That's Colossians one, 26 to 31. So the context again is important. What that leads up to is we know as a community there should be no special status of leaders, no hierarchy in a Christ-headed ecclesia. That's what the theory is. Sometimes in our community practice it's not that way, but at least that's the way the scripture presents it. And because of these things, that we can understand mysteries, that all are on the same level when it comes to investigation, there's not one of us in this room, neither brother nor sister nor interested friend, who should hesitate to go back to basic tenets of teaching and look at them again. Because you won't break them, you won't find out that they're wrong, you can only find more good quote stuff in them, things that are helpful for ourselves. Now I want you to all pay close attention to what's going to happen. I've seated two people in the audience to come up and perform a task for me. So if they would do it, I want you to just watch what happens. Now, we've all seen the same thing, right? Let's investigate the truth of this matter. What happened? Someone over here in this class, tell me, tell me what happened. Any volunteer? 40 words or less. Paul Zimmer, I pick on you because you're my brother-in-law and I can do it with you. What happened? A woman stood up on the left side of the porch. A man stood up on the right side and walked to the front. He handed her a book and told her to exit to the left side. Okay, go on, tell her. A woman handed to you first with her left hand and he handed to you second with her right hand. Huh? And I bet if I kept on asking every one of you, you'll be saying something pretty close to that. Or you might think that I'm asking you devious questions and you start interpreting it, right? And you would be right. Because this little object lesson that I want to explore now for a few minutes will tell us very plainly that there's many viewpoints and all are equally valid. Some of them would be fuller and clearer than others due to the attention, like someone was nodding off to sleep when this was happening because they had a chance. We can, we can deal with that. Now, should we try to investigate this further? I mean, did they spontaneously get up? Or by my request? Well, I told you that I'd asked them, so you know. Well, what was the book that they gave me? Were they returning it to me or were they giving it to me? If they were returning it, why did they borrow it? If they were giving it, why? Did I want it returned and when did I want it returned? Who published the book? Why? Does it make a difference? The thing is, what you observe is you need to ask to get more information, don't you? It can go down to many levels, into many areas. For example, let's deal with the concept of grasping a book. Is that important? What about all the muscular details of grasping? One was in the right hand, one in the left hand. Is there some significance there? One was a man and one was a woman. He was that important. It didn't matter where they placed the book. You can really get down to an area where you have to be careful because you get off the initial point and into areas of insignificance. In fact, that's a very good question to ask to begin. Is this just a trivial event or is it something that requires interpretation? Well, let's assume for a moment that requires some interpretation. Is it significant that there was a man and a woman involved? You know, one went on from all the way around and one just went back the same path. Is that significant? One used the left hand and one the right hand. Is that? You think you got it, okay. So, without further information, it's only valid to say that what Paul basically said. Without anything further, it's just guesswork, isn't it? And there's a danger of going too far. For example, maybe there's some conspiracy between the three of us. Maybe we've talked earlier about this. Maybe there's some deep dark secret. And even if you asked us if there's a conspiracy, of course we wouldn't. Now, come on, delivery of two handbooks, of two handbooks in public at a Bible school. I mean, is that really grounds for a conspiracy? You can see how something that's so improbable or impossible leads to absurdity. But it does show what the human mind can do if you want to start looking for bad things. Okay. It shows that we can go through the motions of wanting to find truth without really wanting to find the right answers for it. So, quick recap here. Everyone in the group can have a valid viewpoint to a greater or lesser degree. And discussion among the observers and further inquiry of the walkers is bound to get closer to the full story or truth of the event. And assuming it was worth further investigation, the resulting conclusion depends on what line of reasoning or questioning was taken. Relevant questions and valid reasoning will keep the investigator on a meaningful and logical path. But even with the best intentions and effort, the conclusion or interpretation will be limited to the information available. And in fact, may be biased by several factors such as our background, our experience, our training, our age, our sex. So we need to recognize that the pursuit of truth is limited to the available resources and possession of truth is marred and clouded by human nature. Full comprehensive truth has many aspects, many angles, many pursuits are possible. It's complex, it's integrated, it's contextual. That is, you need to know what the context is. And therefore, no single human being has a market on truth. That is, no person or group will ever have the total complete picture at best. Some groups of people have a better approximation of things than others. There's still a version or approximation of the truth, and it can undoubtedly be improved. And so although full, complete truth of God exists, we humans live with something less than that. I call it, my notes here, working truth. That is, the information or knowledge sufficient for living and for discussion and for arriving at a correct or better information. We humans settle on understanding and say, close enough for me, and this makes sense. Otherwise, we would be forever asking questions and trying to come to knowledge of the truth, which is impossible anyhow. So now with that, we come up to number three. Let's talk about some of the common ground that we have. And in case there's any misunderstanding of what I'm trying to communicate here, I'm not suggesting that there's any inadequacy or fault in God's truth. I'm not suggesting that all truth is relative, or that we Christadelphians should never claim that we have the truth, although that's an improper notion. I had mentioned yesterday, just let me briefly read from John's second letter, first four verses. The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father, and from Jesus Christ the Father Son, in truth and love. I rejoice greatly to find some of your children following the truth, just as we've been commanded by the Father. So it's okay the way we use it as a community. What I'm trying to point out is that there is a bigger picture that needs to be looked at, and I'm trying to point out that we have limitations in the matter. For common ground and further investigation then, we got our Bible, 66 books, all the case examples given to us to be examined, understood, obeyed. And every disciple has the duty and privilege to search the scriptures for him or herself. There is not one brother or sister who's infallible on this matter. So we have no hierarchy. Everyone, I believe, is capable of learning and determining what correct Bible teaching is. And once understood, the disciple is obliged to live his or her life in accordance with that teaching. Now we have a standard approach to this. Doctrine is both belief and behavior. And groups of disciples which have agreed to associate on a common understanding of key Bible teaching, Virgo first principles, still go back to scripture itself for verification and for evaluation. An example of that is we have a statement of faith we use for convenience, but when an issue comes up, we don't say, see, it says so in the statement of faith, we should say, see, it says there in the Bible. Now, there are some implications to this. And here's where you're going to participate again. First question, if there is a conflict in teaching between the words of a human author and a book of the Bible, which must be taken as authoritative. Right. So when we come to things in the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and he talks about the immortality of the soul, we say that's not right because that's in direct contradiction with the Bible. Now, let me read you these words and you tell me if they are correct. Foundation. That the book currently known as the Bible, consisting of the scriptures of Moses, the prophets and the apostles is the only source of knowledge concerning God and his purposes at present extent or available in the earth. What's right or wrong? Actually, what's wrong with that statement? It's incomplete. That's right. And it's incomplete because it flatly contradicts scripture says because Psalm 19 verses one to four make it very plain that the heavens declared the glory of God and our source of knowledge and information. And this statement would exclude that. Moreover, it thinks that only apostolic writings are scripture. Was Luke an apostle? I don't think we have any explicit text that says so. Does that scripture? You know where I read this from? Sure. It's from our statement of faith. Now, this is much less serious than say something in the Book of Mormon and not that I'm particularly knocking that as it is. Our own foundation basis contradicts scripture and leaves out two books of the Bible. But we know what it means, what it's intended. And so that's okay. This is a good approximation of the truth and we can go forward on that. But in case anyone wants to make a good case for the statement of faith, we're off to two strikes against us on our foundation. Why? And please, you know, I'm not knocking that. I just, if you want to be really technical about it, here's where it comes down to. But that's not the issue, is it? Now, I have a whole series of yes, no questions and you can answer yes or no because if you want to. But I need to really get through these. The question is, if there is a conflict in viewpoints between two brethren or sisters, we should accept as being correct the one who is older, is older in terms of years baptized, who wrote it first? Spoke or wrote it first? Spoke or wrote it last? Spoke or wrote it better? Is a brother versus a sister? Is an elder in the Ecclesia versus a new convert? Reason the better? I'll work it closer. Provided the more evidence? Provided the more Bible evidence? Provided the better relevant Bible evidence? And it's really only the last one that you can say yes to. The point is, it's Bible-based valid evidence that makes it right. None of the others. Can both be correct? Can both be incorrect? Yes. Can both be partly correct and partly incorrect? So, there's valid alternatives in some cases, right? Is correctness the only criteria to consider? Is there a bigger picture to consider sometimes? Is the matter that critical to fully resolve? The point is, there may be a more important writing thing. Now, here's my third question. If there has been a traditional interpretation of a particular passage or series of passages around in the Christadelphian community for, say, 50 years, and a brother or sister publishes a different viewpoint we should regard the different viewpoint with suspicion because it's new, with suspicion because it's different, as a possible valid alternative given a solid Bible case, as a possible better alternative given a solid Bible case, as a possible necessary replacement of a wrong viewpoint. See, you have to investigate it before you make the decision. It's getting kind of scary down here because there's got to be some concerns going through people's mind. Does this mean, and I was going to ask you for what your concerns are, but you'll probably tell me afterwards. I thought of at least five, and I'll try and do them here in the time allotted. I thought there was only one truth that doesn't change, and that truth's already defined, so how can there possibly be another viewpoint? Well, the assumption behind that is we in fact have the full complete comprehensive truth. I've already argued that that can't be the case. We might have a good approximation of it, which I think is true, but the question then becomes, but which group of Christodalphians should you be listening to in this? Because we've got several choices, don't we? And even there's other like-minded groups that don't carry our label. What about them? It also assumes that truth to be understood, it's propositional truth. There's a list, and I think we've shown that that's not correct. Truth is more than propositions and is not a matter of possession that someone has. So a second concern might be, is it conceivable that we've been wrong for the last 50 years? The assumption here is there's something terrible with being wrong. Well, really? We've been wrong about a lot of things over a lot of years. What's big news about being wrong? Wrong about critical things? Well, what's defined as critical? Well, first principles. Doesn't the Bible really provide a list? Well, does it? Can you find a list of first principles in the Bible? We've been trying to do that for years. Well, suppose there even is a list that could be agreed upon by Christodalphians. Talk about modern-day miracles. But now, one of these is determined to be wrong. All right? Being wrong in one point, does that make everything else wrong? Does being wrong in one point make everything else suspect? Well, wrong thinking produces wrong behavior. You've got to agree with me there. Yes. And it's important to contend for rightness. But my experience is that right thinking also allows wrong behavior in me. This is the perversity of human nature. There's no particular shame in being wrong. Well, what about… Third question. If entertaining the new viewpoint isn't this disloyal to the truth, and the assumption behind that would be that the traditional viewpoint is equivalent to truth. And of course, this shouldn't be axiomatic because tradition of the Pharisees, for example, was wrong. But we could say about ourselves, but ours is a Christodalphian heritage. It was Bible-based, but so was the Pharisees. But the Christodalphian position, we would argue, is clearly provable. Look at all the text we can do. But maybe there's a better way, the new wine. But you're being disloyal to our pioneers. But it might be a misplaced loyalty. Our loyalty isn't to them, it's to Christ. And it might be a time to move on. John the Baptist was a forerunner, and then it was time for his disciples to move on. But still the concern, aren't you introducing a seed of destruction to the Ecclesia? Well, it's a seed of growth. I mean, the inception of the New Testament church, even of our own community, was that something was found to be wrong. It started again. So the point is that a new viewpoint isn't inherently a bad thing. You need to evaluate it. I'll skip one other concern here. The last one, if every point of doctrine is up for grabs, will we be repeatedly shaking our very foundations? And that's obviously destructive and disruptive. And I agree, if everything is up for grabs, then this isn't a good pursuit. But that's not the case. We've got a foundation. Not everything is up for grabs. It's the new viewpoint and how it fits or doesn't fit. We will have seen in the beginnings of this yesterday, and certainly from our own understanding, that when Jesus presents himself as truth, he definitely did disrupt the status quo, the Pharisees and Sadducees, and did destroy their position in the community. And Jesus was the cause of contention in families, since the issue came down to truth versus whatever else. And the point is, encounter with truth does create such upsets. But if our foundation is sure, as it is in Jesus, the Bible, and the rock God, then we have nothing to fear. I think my time is up.

Transcript

Before I formally begin, I'd like to share with you some things that have been shared with me, first being Todd Treadway. After me being somewhat unkind to him yesterday, he was very kind to me and came out and made a good suggestion about whether or not we should fear our foundations, even being investigated. And he said, well Norman, look at your Bible, and we looked at Haggai as the reference and then in Hebrews chapter 12 where it's cited, and verse 27 is an interpretation on the quotation from Haggai where the very earth is shaken by the Lord God, and it says this phrase once more indicates the removal of what is shaken as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. And I believe his point was, there's no fear of looking or investigating or our foundations being shaken because they're built on the rock of God. So even if some would say, well let's even go and look at the foundation again, there's no fear of it being overturned. Now the second has to do with this two-page handout that's got the elements of logic. It's out of a textbook that I had when I was in college, and as you can see from the Greek on here that it was probably taught in 2, but all these fancy names, for example this Patidio Principi, my English pronunciation is far from good I'm sure, begging the question, we would call it reasoning in a circle, and there's a good example of that on page 2, very evident. Now some of the other things on the front sheet that said non sequitur, that's a fancy way of saying it doesn't follow, it isn't necessarily true, and they got a whole bunch of Latin names down there. One of them is in English the argument from authority, that is because I have a function, a title, a status, what I say must be true, and that's a fallacy. It doesn't matter who says it, it is the evidence for what is said. I gave you this to just show you some of the things that do exist in terms of fallacies, and you would be surprised at how much of this fallacious thinking is in print today, and is in conversation today, and our own community is affected by it. Now the third thing was without giving credit to who suggested I do this, but credit to the artwork, which was Heidi Opens, you can see this very clear simplistic diagram before you, because it really only has circles and squares and triangles, and if you know that pattern, that key to get into it, it's just a matter of breaking this down, it's just a matter of layering these things, but you can pull them off, maybe the different colors associated, and what appears to be incomprehensible or complex, given a certain amount of patience and the right keys, you can go in and unravel it, or it makes sense, and certainly that's true in scripture. You can start at one point and you start pulling it out, you can understand that point, oh it's connected to this one, so you pull it out, I can understand that one, and you pull it out a little bit more, and pretty soon you start seeing the pattern, but you're understanding all these things, all the parts of the big puzzle, the little puzzles that Paul was telling us yesterday. So those are just some preliminary things that I thought I'd share with you, because we didn't have time. Now this is the general topic today, truth confronts, and for some of you who I know haven't been here because you took some literature, let me just ever so briefly review how we got to this class three. The first class discussed a very important characteristic of God's truth, namely it invites investigation. The Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ, and God himself encourage examination. Ask, seek, knock. It will be given, you will find, it will be opened. God's truth is based on the solid evidence of the Bible, is laid on the rock foundation of Christ, and is built on the certainty of the one and only faithful God. These three are reliable, unchanging, and sure to believe this and to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent is eternal life. The second class, which is yesterday, began to investigate the Bible teaching concerning the promises of God. We had them written up there, and the inquiry led to wider understanding and better appreciation of well -established first principles, and this pursuit of ours followed a standard Christendelfian practice of fearlessly looking at a number of relevant questions in light of scripture. Truth has no fear of investigation, and has many wonderful secrets to reveal to those who ask, seek, and knock. And if you recall, our class ended by considering some of the possible concerns and objections to re-examining our traditional understanding of Bible truth. Now, I believe that the Christendelfian community has a good, working understanding of Bible truth, and I believe that we try to practice it. And this is cause for great rejoicing and thanksgiving. We cited a passage in second John yesterday. Just let me read one from third John today, too, that is relevant. The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be well and health. I know that is well with your soul, for I greatly rejoice when some of the brethren arrived and testified to the truth of your life, as indeed you do follow the truth. No greater joy can I have than this, to hear that my children follow the truth. And so we use that term in that way, and it is cause for great rejoicing when we have a baptism, when we see that someone's overcome a great problem in their life, when we see cooperative things bear fruit. This is cause for great rejoicing, and our respective communities have great strength in these areas. So it is not at all my intention, if it has at all come across that way, to say, look at all that's wrong with our community and look at all that's wrong with our understanding. That's not my intention. And it certainly wouldn't be something that one would want to do from the platform in any case. But truth invites investigation. And sometimes we're confronted with hard sayings, as our exhorter on Sunday morning and speakers in various times and classes have said, wow, if it means this, what manner of people ought we to be in terms of holiness and so on. So please accept that that is my motive in tackling some of these issues. Truth confronts. It's another important characteristic of God's truth. By its very nature, truth is antagonistic against non-truth. What is non-truth? Well, I suggest it's all that is in the world, the works of the flesh. For those who are outside, and the definitions of that, of course, from the 1st John 2.16, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, general statements, Galatians 5, 19 to 21, works of the teeth, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. Those outside, the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, murderers, fornicators, dogs, that is, sorcerers, idolaters in all lives, that is, those who love and practice falsehood. You know where that last reference was from? In the book of Revelation. And that's where it talks about those being outside. In fact, the first phrase that I remember that defines those who are, quote, outside, comes in Mark chapter 4 verse 11. You might want to look at this because it's something that Jesus says. It's about those who hadn't sought to follow him. And it's in verse 11, Mark 4. He said to them, Now that, to me, comes across as a pretty face -slapping statement. You mean there's someone outside, someone who's not in the way of salvation, that you can tell someone that they're on the way to perdition? And this is a verse that would indicate that. And it's out there in volition. It isn't that you allocate them to that fate. So this is important because to be a non-inquirer of truth means you won't perceive the secrets of the kingdom and so be saved. So non-truth, I suggest, is the practice of contrary people defined by Jesus in another place as he that is not with me is against me. He says that in Matthew 12.30 and Luke 11.23. Now this whole list that I gave you about what non-truth is may have surprised you in the sense that we ordinarily look at truth in an abstract way as here's truth and here's error and falsehood. Well even scripture says here's truth as opposed to those who practice falsehood. So it's not just an idea worn against the other. Obviously truth is in opposition to much much more than abstracts. I would say that truth is not a matter of accuracy per se but of lifestyle and consistency with the of the gospel. If you were to read Colossians chapter 1, 5 to 6 and verse 10, Ephesians 4 verse 1 and 1st Thessalonians 2.12, I just cited them for the tape, all of these say to live a life worthy of your calling according to the gospel of truth or words to that effect. It is important to be consistent with what we believe. Now these other things like those who are outside and making things so black and right that's wrong behavior kind of is this is uncomfortable and this idea of contention leads to controversy and that also at best is unpleasant and often is greatly upsetting. But we've already found in the second class and Paul's class that Christ presents himself deliberately as a controversialist. He deliberately confronted people with the fact of himself and forced them to consider the situation and their relationship with him. And every disciple is faced with the same challenge and we in turn being disciples are obliged to give the same challenge to those around us, to preach the challenge of Christ to the world. The obligation very plainly said, contend earnestly, says the authorized version, for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Now that interestingly enough is in a context of contending for it in the ecclesial world as opposed to those who weren't in the ecclesia. Now what this contention means and how it should be conducted I'll talk about today but probably more about it tomorrow. For right now I would like you to pick up the handout that I've initially given you. It should read on the front side of it, Truth Invites Investigation Answers of Jesus. What this is is a copy out of the Bible of chapter 7 to 11 of John's gospel and I've written some comments in the text and what I want to do just briefly is kind of walk through some of these chapters and will direct your attention to the notes at the bottom. What I'm wanting you to see is this largely is one event, one encounter with Jesus up until at least the end of chapter 9 and then in chapter 10 there is another add-on to that from verse 20 to on but up until that it's all largely one event and I think it's very instructive to see how Jesus meets opposition and how he contends for truth, how he doesn't back off but also how he is gentle in doing it. Now I won't go through every little note that I have here because it will take too much time but I'm giving it to you as kind of a mapping, a good guideline that we can follow. First of all his brothers in verse 4 and chapter 7 they said look no man works in secret if he seeks to be known openly and so you have a false accusation from his brothers and he gently says you go on ahead if you want and he comes up later on. Verse 15 Jews marvel at these things saying how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied and this is a false assumption that they have. They don't go and ask them directly they just decide that they're going to find out the truth of the matter by talking amongst themselves and this is one of a number of places and I've got to know there 7 12 verse 32 35 to 36 and 40 to 41 they keep on saying how is it that this can be right how is this true and they never went and asked them you'd think if they really wanted to know they go and ask them but they never did how strange no how typical now some of them did ask when you get to chapter 8 verse 13 they they come up says look you're bearing witness to yourself your testimony is not true and verse 19 trouble reading even my fine print there they said to them where is your father and so on verse 25 who are you they said they finally came and asked them but it's playing from the context that they really didn't want to know these are defiant questions these are are attacks rather than queries that they have now Jesus just picking it up from from even this last place verse 23 in chapter 8 just where they keep on asking them and who are you before that he says you are from below I am from above you are of this world I am not of this world I told you you would die in your sins for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am be they said to them who are you Jesus said to them even what I've told you from the beginning I have much to say about you and much to judge but he who sent me is true and declare to the world what I have heard from them and I declare to the world what I've heard from them and so on here truth confronts non-truth the ignorance his brothers early on the evil and deceit and the prejudice and even the arrogance of these Pharisees truth interestingly enough the notes here 7 18 38 and 8 14 show how truth comes out truth is in the word of God truth is God himself and this is the passage of course where Jesus says if you if you continue in my word you will know the truth and the truth will make you free and the sun will make you three three that's the equations of truth Jesus also argues that his reasons from scripture if you look for example in chapter 8 verse 17 you can see the little arrows there when he cites scriptures and there's two places earlier on on 7 24 and 8 17 but it says in your law it is written the testimony of two men is true so he appeals to objective evidence and to their sense of reasoning if they in fact wanted to find these matters out now if you flip over the sheet in fact if you you do it the right way so like this like this it's upright for yourself what I usually do I usually turn it this way and then have to turn upside down and it's very confusing so you look at it that way this is the story of the man born blind and the healing and this this is a wonderful just wonderful story about how the ordinary man with his simple understanding and very simple logic confutes the learned authorities he devastates them because he says something like this who healed you was Jesus how can it possibly be you know and they're on top of Jesus and he says well how could he have done it unless god was with him well we know that this man is a sinner and he doesn't follow our traditions and he doesn't obey the law and he said well this is a marvel never since the beginning of time in effect has this ever happened and a man born blind has been healed and this has happened to me and now you say there's something wrong with the guy I mean that makes no sense and they said and you would teach us get out you scum and they kicked him out of the synagogue right and you know the story well and there's it's just wonderful that the fallacies that are in here and and the the argument from authority that they say well we know such and such is true says the Pharisees and they didn't know they didn't have a leg to stand on and they intimidated the parents they tried to intimidate this man but he stood firm because he believed in Jesus who he hadn't seen yet physically with his eyes when he came back and there's that nice nice and you have seen him when he asked who I should believe in and by the time the chapter ends it's very clear which people are right in the matter and it's evidently in the man because the faith that he has has borne fruit and the refusal the blatant refusal of the Pharisees to look fairly at the father means that their guilt remains so a blind man has his eyes opened and the men who claimed that their eyes were wide open were dreadfully blind simple logic by a simple person reflects faith prompts belief and is rewarded it was for the glory of God says chapter 9 as it begins and this was bearing fruit for God and I think that's one measure of truth then Jesus says it in Matthew 12 33 and it's also in 10 you will know people by their fruits that is how they believe and what the outcome of their teaching is especially in the lives of those who follow it truth cannot be a companion of the works of the flesh like party spirit enmity party spirit by the way you know isn't having a great party it isn't that that's probably more carousing it's being partial only associating with a particular group the circumcision party in acts was like that enmity anger dissension envy all those are characteristics the works of the flesh are found in this section in John in the lives and in the statements and the thinking of the Pharisees if you were to look for example in chapter 10 verse 33 listen to this throughout to stone Jesus and they answer him we stone you for no good work but for blasphemy because you being a man make yourself god and she's the sense of them is it not written in your law i said you are gods if you call them gods to whom the word of god came and scripture cannot be broken do you see of him whom the father consecrated and sent into the world you are blaspheming because i said i am the son of god if i'm not doing the works of my father then do not believe me this is the witness this is the fruit here's his behavior but if i do them even though you do not believe in me believe the works that you may know and understand that the father is in me and i am in the father so even though he's confronted them even though he's telling them there's still their sins even jesus wonderfully marvelously because he wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth as his father does he makes this appeal even even if you can't stomach me even if you can't stand what i'm representing as a person at least look at the obvious miracles and let them convince you the rightness and worth of a teaching will be demonstrated sooner or later in the life and associations of the proponent as i said in this case jesus and the man are obviously on the side of truth so anyone who decides to take a stand for truth is bound to encounter a certain amount of agitation and simply because truth disrupts the status quo and it's interesting that the brethren who claim to represent truth and that includes myself up here contend that the whole truth should be considered and that all the bible evidence should be weighed and let us remember the bible warns against false teachers and those who cause dissensions among you and so on and it's very easy to say that all those people who are talking a viewpoint different from me because i'm talking about truth are obviously the ones the bible talked about as being the false teachers i mean that logically follows doesn't it no it does not that is a fallacy but but this is evident this is a very easy trap to fall into and it's especially easy to fall into when we come up against that problem that i introduced yesterday and that is what happens when you have two brethren or two groups of teachers who claim to have the truth who claim to have good solid bible evidence and they got two positions and they both cannot be true this is not a case where they could be partly right partly wrong there might be a higher principle that they both should acknowledge to but what do you do when you have this this head-on conflict how do you figure out which is correct i've already suggested from this handout that one way is to look at the fruit that's born that is you need to have a little bit of time or you can evaluate the spirit of the preacher or the contender because it should be gentle and patient and apt to teach and if there's correction involved it should be with gentleness and so on but there's another way isn't there another way to figure out who's right in the matter then you know it well it's like this you pick up the book for yourself and you open it up and you look up the evidence and you say this one makes more sense than the other one it's as simple as that you gotta check it out for yourself there is no magical answers in evaluating what's right and what's wrong and you really shouldn't have someone else try to tell you you need to determine it for yourself figure out who's got the better bible case now here is your time for participation here's your time to deal with a real live topic um because it's it's a practice in our community called domestic missionary work or domestic evangelism uh with the connotation that is pain that is someone goes and stays with the euclidia and they pay his expenses it now there has been some rather come up strongly against this and they cite 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 verses around verse 10 it says if anyone doesn't work don't let them eat and they interpret this to be directly against this activity okay okay uh just just to show you how strongly they feel on this it reads we wish to notify the brotherhood of a very dangerous practice in which a few creatures are now indeed the endeavor is now domestic evangelism this is how it works the brother will volunteer to be a full-time outreach evangelist the creature to which he belongs will pay for his room, board, and transportation this system is clearly a form of organizational pain ministry and he cites 2nd Thessalonians 7 to 10 to show that this should not be practiced so this form of pain ministry is not only unscriptural but it is detrimental to the spiritual welfare of the creature as well so first of all it's wrong on the bible grounds secondly it's wrong because it affects others any creature that it makes them lazier and the last point it makes pain ministry is one of all marks of the heart system and her daughters that is other churches do it now on this side i'm going to ask you to help me develop a few minutes if you think there is justification for this so now i'm going to help you a little bit with this exercise because this is a strong warning you know you heard the word i i debated whether i agreed or not but i thought i would never speak for self if this is true we better stop this so you know the context of what's going on in here what's paul saying in this passage you can look it up i'm not expecting you to know from everywhere if anyone knows what's what what he says if anyone doesn't work don't let him eat exactly exactly and if you could hear that just i'll try to summarize you're talking about the the ne'er-do-wells guys who are sitting around on a chair all day and doing nothing they weren't working they were sponging off the ekklesia sharing that we're having things in common and so on as a person who literally wasn't doing any work making no contribution and i think that's the obvious context so the first question is it is that a reasonable relevant verse to cite to argue against this i mean is it even a relevant expectation i would submit no there is one other aspect to it though and i think that but that he said look that we set an example for you that we did not need anyone's presence anymore we kept working okay good and we should ask that to do it all example of all and he cites that as well and that's that's fair now what was the example of all it was that he he worked so that he knew he got burdened anymore did he do that all the time which is some of the time didn't he did paul ever get assistance from a teacher did anyone ever pay for his food expenses and so on if you get it so this isn't a universal principle at all in fact if you look it up you will find that paul says yes i have set an example with it that you should labor day and night but and if you look i believe it's in corinthians that he's arguing about this um he says and it's in first corinthians chapter 9 verse 9 which is cited by this there is a a bible precedent that it's a preacher's right to expect material support paul however said that he did not do it for a specific reason it was his boast that he could be different so that he could undermine the claim of false apostles but a point to consider in all this it talks about those who labor in the lord and we don't have time to look it up but in well i this is important enough we do first timothy chapter 5 verse 17 and 18 let's look at three verses here it says let the elders who grew well be considered worthy of double honor especially those who labor in preaching and teaching or the scripture says you should not muzzle an of this trading of grain and the labor deserves his wages so those who labor in preaching and teaching that is working in the lord that is so it's not talking about people who don't work these people are working and it's for the lord which is even a higher thing it's like sitting at the feet of jesus when they're trying to help someone else it says they deserve their wages and in first timothy chapter 5 primarily right there it was in first thessalonians 5 i meant verse 12 this too is in the context of verse 14 we exhort you brethren admonish the idol which he does in the second letter but verse 12 says in first thessalonians 5 but we beseech you brethren to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the lord and admonish you and then the first printings chapter 6 verse 16 only that's not going to be it it's going to be chapter 8 verse 16 uh for if i preach the gospel it gives me no ground for boasting for necessities laid upon me oh to me if i do not preach the the gospel but he goes on to say oh i'm i'm in chapter 9 i have misled you i i apologize for this first printings chapter 9 it's verse 14 in the same way the lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel seems to me that that's pretty clear this is by paul so when you start looking up all the places where paul talks about it would seem that this is a legitimate practice now i think that this is well taken if it's going to make everybody else lazy then this is not a good thing i believe the experience has been in every case this activity is actually fuel others to get involved so other churches do it does that make it wrong they need their violence too this is a classic fallacy classic fallacy and it should be recognized however if other people do it and if that is to be wrong then we shouldn't do it that's the reason to reject it so you've obviously seen which side i put it on but you want to look at at the testimony and i thank you jane for adding that out of them here that's true i didn't want to try and shortchange this it's pretty easy to set up a straw man and destroy it but uh here is a publicized in print strong warning against an activity which i think from some of the classes we've had today that says we need to preach and this is a way of preaching it uh strikes me as being something to uh confront and say i don't think that is correct often as you thought of calling it philippians 4 verses 10 and onwards which links us to the petalonian situation uh i hadn't but i will cite them again phlippians chapter 4 verses 10 to 17 it is a is a linkage uh yeah i there are some other places too where he says plainly that he received um if you looked at my notes i have uh phlippians 4 15 to 18 and uh i just hadn't cited that but that's good he's only too glad to have his needs supplied by others thank you for that's right for even in this one you sent me help having to work with themselves good point i had missed that that really makes a a torpedo doesn't it it's in phlippians chapter 4 verse 16 where paul says even in tesla nica you sent help once and again so if his practice was in tesla nica to to not receive any help but only labor with your hands this verse says but that isn't what he was practicing therefore you must understand his admonition to the thessalonians as those who are being lazy not working at all and not in reference to those who are laboring to preach the word go ahead john i'm gonna ruin my time frame anyhow the thing is when we put scripture like that we should also be careful of what we're accusing because paul is accusing people of being lazy uh near some of your illusion i was near a busy body not doing any work that's who's attacking and what we're doing is calling what you would say is a domestic missionary a lazy busy body not doing any work yeah so many several times yeah i think it's a false accusation and needs to be recognized for what it is all right let me uh hasten here i need a couple numbers part two so you have this in your hands because i'd like you to look at that uh what i hope that you saw here is that though we we who are ordinary people i think uh can in fact investigate these matters for ourselves sometimes we're intimidated by by things in prints or by learned brethren i know my wife tells me that i intimidate people and i don't intend to do that and and we need to look hard at this business because we are just ordinary people scripture tells us that just because it's in print or because a widely respected brother has said it or because an elder in your ecclesia has pronounced a verdict that doesn't make it right now let me qualify that however there's no reason to find fault with everything that's in print just because you want to scrutinize it and respect is due to some people because of past service and performance and it's likely that they are in fact correct in the matter now we just read the passages from first timothy 5 that would indicate that and the younger are urged to submit to the elders but as elders who rule well if they're not ruling well that becomes a different issue so i'm not advocating a criticism syndrome fine fault with everything but rather as far as the rightness of a position is concerned no one's more learned in this than anybody else it's a fallacy um now in order to help you in that area and i hope it is about this second hand out uh it's got two sides look at the side that has 12 points on a truth invites investigation now i was hoping to be able to read through all of these points and try to have a comment on them but i can't in terms of time so let me just hit some of the high points number one is by far the most important i believe you need to pray to god for wisdom to accept his word as well as to understand it there's one thing to understand it but you want it to be accepted in your life so it will begin to bear fruit you need to read it carefully for yourself point three allow the text to explain itself point four and use simple clear passages as an aid to unraveling the meaning of less clear or more complex passages that's our illustration there check out the cross references we just did that with the philippines 401 figure out what scripture meant to the initial readers what it meant then and see if it can apply to ourselves we need to be consistent with other known information we can consult with other writings books talk amongst ourselves and we realize that even the study now the discover here is a means to an end it's not an end in itself it's meant to lead you to a life worthy of the lord and to bear fruit for his glory and those are relevant passages down there now we have some what i consider investigation type books available in our community and i've cited them down there from exploring the bible by brother whittaker a biblical approach revelation study a couple brother norris's understanding the bible i have a mistake here i have attributed him the name about every name as a book it's wrong it's what is his name apocalypse for every man is is an interesting one too in the sense that one of his contentions and he can certainly confirm this if you want is everybody has got a good opportunity to understand it for themselves it isn't a book limited to just a few learned people and brother ellen hayward's book is particularly helpful god's truth good support of evidence therefore god is his latest one creation and evolution the facts and the i'll talk a bit more about that later but he in writing that burst all kinds of wrong notions that norman fidel had a very disruptive book he set me straight on a number of matters that's not a pleasant experience let me tell you flip flip over the sheet some extracts from a little booklet of a person that i know well just let me read one of the paragraphs that's cited here because it's about john thomas and his rediscovery of bible truth he was a man who was not afraid to pursue truth regardless of personal cost each john thomas was a pioneer was not inspired but he approached his bible with a teachable mind he was not divani appointed but he often experienced the hand of providence in his life he was not a genius or a superman but thomas utilized what talents and stamina he possessed and pursuing and working for what he felt was god's truth no one can have a higher or more noble quest no one can have a more demanding or satisfying toil the person who so searches and so works for god will have his reward both in this life and in the life to come the work and spirit of this man is greatly to be prized however i think that some brethren in our have missed the point when they assert that we are no longer community of truth seekers my brother thomas but of truth keepers that is he found it all and we have yet to maintain it now there is a bible point it's in first pardon second timothy 114 that we are to guard the truth has been entrusted to us but i don't think that means defending it in its purity i believe it means in our own lives we are to make it work rightly in the sense that we no longer have to investigate bible teaching for ourselves or that we should not question the validity of pioneer works this viewpoint is quite wrong and is quite wrong for two reasons it has a misplaced sense of loyalty to those men certainly john thomas he did not at all approach his investigation that way and the last thing i believe he would have imagined is a group of people who took what he had and decided to squat on it and do nothing more i can't imagine him doing that that's like trying to protect their investment by burying it in the ground and we know that that doesn't work what we need to do here oh the second reason that it has it i think it flies in the face of plain bible evidence you know truth invites investigation it demands growth in the disciple it confronts the status quo and it doesn't mean again that what we we formally believed or inherited is wrong it just means that there may be better interpretations or explanations because we have more information available brother thomas did exactly the right thing he pursued his investigation and used all the available evidence but he was wrong in some matters especially the return of christ how do i know that because christ hasn't come back yet that's all i know he was wrong and submit it he was wrong but am i am i brethren make mistakes i make mistakes you may make mistakes we'd be perfect people if we didn't make mistakes it would just incomplete because we've got more information today than he had so we must go on we must realize we're shortchanging ourselves if we don't incorporate new and helpful information in our understanding of scriptures in both our personal life and in our outlook you know women's place in society changed a lot the arabs are all in the middle east just to cite two things and it's not an abdication of past teaching this isn't like removing the ancient landmarks it's a continual upbuilding on a foundation and that foundation is christ the writings of men and if we come across material that doesn't enhance the building then we throw it away if we come across material that does build upon it let's keep it and incorporate it our job is more than maintenance our job is development realize there's a balance in scripture you can find one verse this is judge not unless you be judged and judge among yourselves don't answer a fool answer a fool you can find balances in scripture he that is not with me is against me he who is not against me is for me you know you need to reconcile those those are apparent inconsistencies but they're not there are some viewpoints that are not mutually exclusive to strengthen the things that remain is not mutually exclusive from go out and witness and let your light shine both are necessary both complement each other and finally we must realize our obligation to be personally preparing for the coming king if we're growing spiritually it's inevitable that our will mature and that means that our understanding will be constantly changing and that means that our appreciation of god's truth will be constantly changing and our preaching efforts will be adapted accordingly to not be changing is a sign of stagnation deterioration and ultimately death we cannot depend upon the oil or someone else we must individually grow an understanding grace in order to be prepared

Transcript

Fortison pointed out to me just an excellent verse. It's in 2nd Corinthians 13, verse 8, when we're talking about contention and controversy. Paul writes, and I won't deal with the context here, for we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. It's akin to his writing to the Philippians, chapter 1, 15 to 18, where he says, I'm in jail and some are preaching Christ to make me afflicted, and they do it out of contention, but whether it's out of contention or whether it's out of good motives, I rejoice because at least Christ is being preached. Concerning the issue of paid ministry, one of the reasons I raised it is because it was publicized. It's been in print, and it's a direct charge on our community, and I think it's a responsibility for brethren to investigate such serious charges. In fact, I've talked to some of the people involved in it, and I have in fact corresponded with them, so I just wanted to alert you that it wasn't setting something up just to attack. One of the references I was making in it, it said 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, 16. It's actually 1 Corinthians 16, 16. You'll understand the embarrassment if you find out what's in chapter 6, 16. Basically what it says, it was, should we support such workers or laborers? And the verse reads, I urge you to be subject to such men and to every fellow worker and laborer, and it's in the context of giving the contribution to the saints in Jerusalem, so it's a monetary matter, but also for Timothy. When he comes, put him at ease among you, for he's doing the work of the Lord as I am, and I think putting him at ease isn't necessarily make him feel comfortable in your conversation, as it is, you want to put him up, you want to take care of him. And finally, for the list of suggestions that I gave yesterday, at least for things to go about in discovering your Bible, please take that as a guideline, not as a directive. It's a list of suggestions to consider. These aren't the step-by-step things to go through. In fact, I know some of you will have discovered, if you're planning to get the tapes, there is a lot of information on the notes, and you really need to have a copy of that, and if anyone orders these tapes and doesn't have the notes, they can order them from WCF. I think they're kind of important. Obviously, I haven't taken the time to read through the points, that's just supplemental information. You won't necessarily have the totality of things on the tape. So yesterday, we determined that truth confronts, that is, it challenges each person who comes into contact with it. We know that the Bible obviously challenges the reader, obey the word of the Lord, and Jesus certainly challenges his disciples. You know, if any man would come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me. And God definitely challenges people. In Malachi, put me to the test, see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you. Yet in the challenge is the appeal to investigate, and thus truth invites investigation. In yesterday's class, I also began to discuss how you can determine the validity of a viewpoint by measuring it against your own Bible understanding, something that you can and should do. Today, we'll build on that and discuss specifically what I mean by validity and how to develop a valid argument using relevant Bible evidence. Let me give you some definitions. Argument, a reason offered in proof for or against a thing, from argue, to prove by reasoning, to discuss, to persuade by debate. Valid, sound or well-grounded, capable of being justified. Evidence, that which makes clear to the vision, obvious, ground for belief, testimony, proof, information in a case, attestation, corroboration. Relevant, bearing upon the case and hand pertinent. Now, sometimes when you hear this word argument, oh no, they're a fight. I mean, this is that fista, verbal fisticuffs here. Well, me issue a preliminary caution here. When we argue, we shouldn't presume that because we argue are a, say, Christadelphian, that we're right because we happen to have that label or position. We found out from yesterday some of the fallacies. Because you have a certain label or status, that isn't what makes you right. It's whether you can adduce the best or the better Bible evidence. So you must be willing to demonstrate the correctness by developing and presenting valid Bible evidence and be willing to defend your case by relevant references and or examples. Now, in argumentation, there's a plea I would make as well. It's a plea for gentleness. Now, Paul is an excellent example of this, I think. Through the Acts, we find that he was arguing, pleading, debating for the sober truth. The references there are Acts 17.3, verse 17, 18.4, 19.26, 24.25, 26.25. He explains, proves, confronts, and yet he wasn't hostile or abusive in any of these things. When they had the big showdown in Acts in Ephesus, he was exonerated. He never brought any thing upon any bad sayings against the Diana, the false goddess, and the and the people itself. And that's in Acts 19.37 and 23.29. So in spite of the hostility that Paul encountered, he would write this. And he writes it to Timothy. Second Timothy, you might want to look this up, but I'll read it, verses 23 to 25. And I know it's been referred to already in this Bible school. Have nothing to do with stupid, senseless controversies. You know that they breed quarrels, and the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kindly to everyone. An apt teacher, forbearing, that is being patient, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth. Now, this is important. Sometimes this is read as, ah, we're talking about opponents who need to repent and come to knowledge of the truth. Therefore, this must apply to our conversations with people outside the Christadelphian community. Well, that's not true. The context of this is how Timothy is dealing with the problems in the Ecclesia. So it certainly refers to our presentation of our beliefs to people outside. In fact, this is somewhat ironic. You may have perceived this, but for example, we might have an individual come to our Ecclesia and visit, and we're kindly, and we follow over them, and we welcome them, and so on like that. But if there's someone from another Ecclesia, or whore, or there's another fellowship that comes and sits there, you wouldn't give them the time to go away. Pretend they're not even there. Pole. Hostile. And that's not right, is it? This says we shouldn't be that way. Certainly, if they're wrong in whatever state they are, we are to, because we're under an obligation here, behave this way towards them. So finally, in talking about argumentation, an exhortation for humility. You and I, when I say you, I'm talking about myself here, should be willing to acknowledge that the wholeness has not been mastered, which is a very fancy way of saying, you don't know everything. And that a better understanding of a subject is always possible. Now, I've got another handout. I've waited until now. I'm going to give it to you, because it's an exciting handout. If I can give it to my colleagues. What you want to do is look at the side that says, ways of reaching a valid conclusion. And although it might be really difficult for you, don't turn it over and look at the other side. This is an exercise in self-control. What this page is, are some things. Again, this is not a comprehensive total list, and you shouldn't go away feeling, ah, now I've got it down, I know just follow these steps, and I never have to think about it again. Not so. These are suggestions. Basically, it's in two parts on this page. The from A to J. These are examples of what I mean by evidence and argumentation. And then the second part is I've tried to illustrate what I mean by the foregoing. And at the bottom, I talk about some approaches that I'll talk about in a moment. Let's just go through that from the top. Now, explicit text, which includes the terms or ideas under consideration. And the example I'm going to be using through all this is using the serpent. And what I mean is when you look up the verse in the argument, it should use the term serpent in the verse. That's explicit. It's got the term in it. B, definitions given in the text itself or from the same author in a similar context, and all those points are true. An example for this, that the serpent being a literal but subtle creature, it says so in Genesis 3. Symbolically, the deceiver of the whole world, and that's explicitly given in Revelation chapter 12. Now, in dealing with this term devil, it's used as a label described as the accuser of our brethren. That's in Revelation 12. We have other places where definitions are used. Judas is a devil, women slanders, right? Now, point C, original language meaning as verified by Bible usage. And I've listed there the Hebrew terms for serpent and also the Greek one. Interesting, when it comes to devil, it's only a New Testament term. It's not in the Old Testament, but they are distinct terms with distinct meanings, although obviously they have a connection. Point D, multiple lines of confirmation from context, that is the immediate verses around passage, and cross references. Here's where your marginal cross references and your notes that you take from Bible schools and Bible classes, these are wonderful things to have. And for examples, here it's the serpent is a deceiver and accuser, it says so in Revelation 12, a liar and a murderer from the beginning, John 8, a lawless one from the beginning, verse John 3, associated with human nature, and you'll see that in the equivalence of the numbers in John passage. I'll talk about that in a moment. Symbol of human nature, the seed of sin, and you get that by the equivalence of Hebrews 2 and Romans 6 and 8. So you sort of jump around and you try to put things together to see if they fit. Now there's this thing called inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning, points E and F, and it's basically how you approach something, whether it's from a set of logic rules or whether there's a number of cases that you do inference from, and the example is here under E and F. The serpent is a creature used to illustrate the innate hostility of human nature toward God. The devil is a term used to personify human nature in its various manifestations. I give the references there. And so I think that the serpent is a basis for the devil. You certainly, and for sin, you get this in the Numbers 21 passage, John 3, Hebrews 2, and Romans 8. So there are passages that you've encountered before. You can see that obviously a number of these references overlap. And inductively, pardon me, deductively, the temptation of Jesus, it's from within. You know, he's tempted by the devil, it doesn't say. And yet we know from James 1, Mark 7, that all temptation comes from within, from your own human lusts and so on. So it's first natural, then the spiritual, that principle in 1 Corinthians 15. Reasoning from a demonstrably parallel situation, Jesus reasons against the Pharisees that they are in fact murderers, like their father, the devil, in John 8. And Paul is concerned that the Judaizers are the serpent beguilers in 2 Corinthians 11. Point H, reasoning from a type or example. Jesus does this explicitly. He quotes Moses raising up the serpent in the wilderness as an example of him being raised up on the cross. And the picture that this conjures up in my mind is you have a dead serpent on a pole. And Jesus equates himself with a dead serpent on a pole. Now the equivalency between those two has far-reaching consequences, which I don't propose to go into. Point I, harmonizing with previously known or agreed upon texts and doctrines. An example here, Adam was the one that brought sin into the world, not the serpent and not the devil. It's a well-established teaching, I think, Romans 5, 12 says explicitly. And J, it doesn't conflict with established first principles. And this is a good one, the illustration here is we know that God takes full responsibility for all the evil that's in the world. Not sin, but all the evil that's in the world. And I cited Isaiah 45, 7, which in the authorizes clear, and Amos 3, 6, which talks about, is there not evil in the city? And there's a number of passages like that. God says, I bring evil upon mankind. He does this in the context of dualistic deities that the Persians had, a God of good, a God of evil, a God of light, a God of darkness. And God said, uh-uh, there's only one God, and I do them both. Therefore, and this is in the argumentation against a devil, which is kind of a pseudo-god, it isn't any devil running around that causes evil in the world. God says he does. So, points A through J are some ways that you could identify valid evidence and string them together in an argument. And there are some basic general approaches, and I know virtually all of them I got here, except possibly the last one, have been discussed here at the Bible School over the years. This deductive versus inductive reasoning I know has been talked about. Who will forget Brother Todd Treadway's explicit versus implicit classes? Techniques, asking the right questions. This is something that Brother Whittaker presents in his exploring the Bible. Using the right model, this is a good example by David Levin. Let me illustrate, because not all of you would be familiar with that. He said, you've got right doctrines and right behavior, and they're kind of on a teeter-totter with a falcon in the middle. Now, which is more important, right teaching or right behavior? How do you balance a grave with a falcon? The trick with this is it's the wrong model. That is, the Bible doesn't present truth that way as behavior and beliefs. Now, it's true that belief and behavior are together, but they're not put in a balanced situation. Truth is presented as a tree. All the fruits of the tree are out here. It's rooted and grounded in love. That's a model or the picture that the Bible presents. Although it's convenient for us to have little models or pictures to help us understand, we need to make sure that we are not introducing an inappropriate model or a skeleton or structure or a paradigm, whatever term you want to use, when we come to look at scripture. Now, what I've done is I'm now going to introduce a term that some of you will have already known from my Ezekiel study, but it's a term I call goodness fit. That is, how well does the conclusion you're proposing or argument you're proposing fit with other known information? Does it fit the pattern? Is it the same as others? Does it ring true? And there's some corollaries to this. One measure of it is, if this is true, does it lead to confusion or inconsistency or even to an absurdity? And that's one logical thing. You can take someone's argument and syllogistically go through the logic rules and end up with an absurdity or a known falseness. You can say, the conclusion is false, therefore you go back and you knock out the initial premise and defeat a person's argument. Is the explanation unnecessarily complicated? If it is, and I find this in myself, if I start blathering on here and multiplying words, it shows that I've got a confused mind, which is true, and it shows that I don't really understand it that well. And when you find something that comes across complicatedly all the time, like it might be me and it might be you, but if all the time is that, it sort of says, this probably isn't quite right. It's got to be an easier way. Now, I see that notwithstanding, remember we had yesterday, truth is complex. It's got many angles, many approaches. There's only one truth and that is unchanging because God is one and he's unchanging. But the way we as human beings approach it or understand it, there's a multitude of ways there. So you can still find simple things and layer them on and with a complex situation. And finally, is the interpretation dependent on information outside the Bible itself? That's what I mean by extra biblical information. It is an extra Bible information. It's information outside the Bible. So I tell you all that I can do my little comparison here. Now, those of you who weren't here to get in the introduction talk, I will try in four minutes or less to describe when I'm trying to stay here. This was some of the conclusions that I determined after reading the Columbus article, looking for the true landfall, which is totally inconsequential, but it's not a bad model for this. They just blew the other guy out of the water by saying, that's obviously wrong. You don't even have to consider that. They brought in an expert who was a biographer of Columbus and he said, there's one and only place, it's Watley. He's a scholar. He published the stuff. He sailed through his Bahama tribe once and he looked at the Ferris wheel calendar. That was good. That was good. He wrote it up and he assumed that the going across the Atlantic ocean, that there was negligible effect by wind and current. And he just happened to be an animal. And there are two other guys in the same status as him. So the case was shot. Until ordinary people came along and said, that isn't right for these reasons. And by the time it was all over, their proposal said, we'll take Columbus's log and translate it for ourselves to make sure we got all the right base information. They found independently two sources of the exact measure of the lead in terms of nautical miles. They decided you have to account for the current and the lead were different. I mean, that's real life. You can't say it's inconsequential. It is. So they took all their figures and they adjusted them. They reconciled by all the compass sightings of latitude and longitude. They used computer simulation to frame up these numbers and also they had these masses humiliating where the atoms were or probable courses were. And they sailed their proposal several times and they stopped, got off, went in the island, took the sightings from the beaches and dug out places in the sand to see whether this is right. They cross checked all of this from the certain prospects that it was common ground with everyone. They came up with this being the answer. Plus, what they're going to do is confirm by building a whole new map, starting off from Canary Islands and sailing, and seeing what they adopt. They might hold this up on their island. They don't know either. But they're willing to have it checked out. And what I was trying to do from this is just because it's imprinted by scholars doesn't make it right. Now, this is not shabby work. Don't get me wrong. And they did the right thing. This was the best information they had available. And they fed a lot of the points to it. Not even out of the check. They sailed through the track. That's all right. But it turns out that there is a better way of looking at the situation. We got computers down here. We didn't have any computers back then. We didn't have simulation graphics. But we got better tools. So why not use them? The truth invites investigation. So here was something good. He didn't have that before. Morrison didn't. Now they've got some real measures. They've got a critical piece of information that was missing before. One of the reasons why he didn't want to make an adjustment. That's a lot of hard work to go through every one of those daily sightings and work aside. It's a lot of work to do. He said negligible, but it isn't. So we got the tools to do that. Hard evidence. They went through several times to do it. Check it out. And what this in my mind is a demonstration of goodness fit. This fits a lot better than this. With a caveat that maybe when they do it from the original, all the parameters are the same. They might even find a better side. Now there's a difference in that case. So they're still willing to investigate the matter. Well, now is where I'm going to get some participation from yourselves. This is why I wanted you not to turn over the sheet. So if you've turned it over and are peeking at it, turn it back over so you won't know this. I'm going to apply this goodness fit model to understanding some of the things in the book of revelation. So you ready? First question. And this is one of our guidelines. What did the book mean to the original recipients? That's my general question. And actually you don't have to answer a couple of these things here. These are going to be more rhetorical for the first part. Verse 11 in chapter one says that the whole book, it isn't just seven letters that were sent to the seven ecclesiastes, write in a book and send it to the seven churches. It was events that would soon take place. Verse one in chapter one. And that in fact the whole book had to be understood and applied by the seven ecclesiastes is confirmed by revelation chapter 22 verse 16. Testimony for the churches. All right. The evidence there, the whole book is relevant to the initial hears. Since that's true, if the traditional continual historical approach is correct, then the original recipient of the book, his understanding of revelation would be the futurist interpretation, right? That's syllogistic logic and you can't get out of it. But so what? I mean, what have I proven there? All I've done is taken maybe a little point and said, right, the guys who first got it, if everything is really all future, as demanded by continuous historical, then they have a futurist outlook. Oh, that says, well, of course, there's nothing wrong with a label called futurist or praetorist or continuous historical. Because you have any one of those interpretations, doesn't make you right or wrong. We just use it for convenience. But sometimes, and it's been in print that they say, whoever is a futurist, it's bad. And they got all these connotations that they built on it. Well, brothers and sisters, the original recipients, if continuous historical is right, were all futures at the beginning. They had to be. That's what logic will lead you to anyhow. But much more relevant, what information? Here's where you can participate. If you were a believer in Ephesus in the first century, regardless of the date, that's because there's two in the 80s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 60s, because it's a time of persecution. What information would you have to understand this book when you got it? See, you've got the book, it comes in. What other information would you have in your individual book stall or in your own library to check this out? These are the early gospels, I think, which means you have a prophecy. What else would you have? You know this from your Bibles. You have people with a spirit. If you find the inspired people around that could help you check it out. Right? Apostolic input. So there might be some people that will help you understand it. I'm thinking of some tangible evidence. Go through the 66 books of the Bible, starting from the New Testament, and there is one thing there that would probably be really good. There are all two of the agents and he got to be staffed. And an event took place in Acts where your elders went to talk to Paul, right? Acts chapter 20, where Paul tells him things that are going to happen in the future. So if you've got the Old Testament prophets, and if you've got them on all of the prophecy, you've got apostolic input from Paul who's given a warning, and he's got that in a letter that he's written to you, and he's got the advice to your elders who are there, and you may have had Timothy on or off the spot, you've got a lot of things going for you. And suddenly you get this book. It's got specific information for you, and you're a pleasure, you're the first one, but the whole book. How do you fit that information? Things shortly to come to pass. Well, I think that their connection, say, with the monolic prophecy and how Jesus outlined that, he talked about a lot of things that appear in the book of Revelation, in a very abbreviated form. And one of the things he obviously talked about in the monolic prophecy was the impending overthrow of Jerusalem and all the ramifications of that. So one piece of information, and you'll see this in my notes, this might be a good point to consider if you were a first century believer to understand what this book meant, and may in fact help determine how we should date the writing of Revelation, whether it was an early AD 70 date, which would then allow for the fall of Jerusalem interpretation, or whether it was a later one. Which interpretation better fits the evidence? Now, the second area. We know that Revelation is a book of symbols. Apocalyptics is a term for use. If you were to pick one prophet or book in the Old Testament that provides the most clues or keys to understanding the book of Revelation, what would you choose? I'll listen to some suggestions. Daniel? And who is not another? Ezekiel? Oh my, do I like you. Daniel, lots and lots of Daniels and one lone Ezekiel voice, and you weren't even at Wilmington. Oh, do I like you. Well, it's so good because you're going to lead into my point here. Obviously, Daniel is a source. I mean, you got the beast, they come right out of Daniel, and you got the time periods, Michael the archangel, got these pictures of angels, the manifestations of the angels, whether it's from chapter one or chapter 10. And by the way, if you're not too familiar with the contents of the book of Revelation, that doesn't matter. You don't have to know that to understand what I'm saying here. But after that, there's not a whole lot that Daniel really says that is explicitly or even implicitly brought up in Revelation except that there's going to be a kingdom and so on. However, when you look at the book of Ezekiel, you start at chapter one, two, and three, and suddenly you get whole chapters, multitudes of references. In fact, my study on it, there is probably only five or six chapters out of 48 in Ezekiel that did not have a specific tie in with the book of Revelation. And one real good example is John is in Patmos in exile. Ezekiel is in exile, isn't he? We know what Ezekiel's message is. He's also outside the land. Now what's his subject matter? The impending fall of Jerusalem, the Gentile overthrow, the repentance, and the restoration of Israel. He's caught up in the spirit of the Lord's Day. You see all these visions of the caravan. He sees heavenly Jerusalem. Later on, he sees this temple. Just multitudes of things. John writes to Ecclesius, who are outside the land, and now this might begin to be the pattern what can be, what could be, his subject matter. It could be, if he's patterned off of Ezekiel, talking about the impending destruction of Jerusalem and the Gentile oppressor and the repentance and their eventual restoration. And I think there is a much better goodness fit between Ezekiel and Revelation than Daniel. Daniel isn't inconsequential, don't get me wrong, but Ezekiel is a much better fit, provides what I think a much better pattern, and we will see this in a moment or three. The conclusion of that point, however, is there's a pattern that is helpful. Just like the Mount Olivet prophecy has at least two applications, whether you take the whole prophecy and apply it twice, first to the initial years and then to the last days, or only go through part of it and say that applied to the first century and the last part, the last days. So, that's the pracy of the book of Revelation. It's Jesus' prophecy, the book of Revelation, and there's all kinds of correspondences between the two. We would expect, therefore, to have more than one application of the book of Revelation, and Ezekiel, therefore, is supportive of the all the prophecy, which makes that dual application a good fit. Now, here's something for you to answer. In the book of Revelation, who is the real enemy of the believer? What is the enemy defined as being in the book of Revelation? The beast, that's one candidate. Anybody else? The beast persecutes the saints. That's a good choice. Any other suggestions? Dragon. And I believe that's right. It's in chapter 12. In fact, the text says so explicitly. And the reason I felt that this was a fair question is we just went through all the references in the handout on the front side, right? What does it say? It's talking about the war in heaven, verse 9, and the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth. And he's described further in verse 10, the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down. He accuses him day and night. And how was this dragon, devil, serpent conquered? By the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they love not their lives even unto death. Now if you can get out of your mind whatever you think chapter 12 means, because it's highly symbolic, you don't have a great red dragon with these seven heads and horns and throwing down a third of the stars in heaven, it's obviously a symbol of something. But we got the text defining what it is. It says it's the ancient serpent, it's the Genesis servant. By the way, it's called the devil. Oh, it's also called Satan, as the accuser of our brethren, and this is a symbol for sin, isn't it? So the real enemy in the book of Revelation is sin. Where's sin dwell? Right here. That's the enemy, the real enemy in the book of Revelation. It's always been that way from Genesis, is that way in the book of Revelation. Why then do you think that someone would take Revelation chapter 12 and not emphasize that point? This is the first principle, isn't it? So they certainly could have understood it that way in the first century. We can certainly understand it that way. And alternative interpretations are not going to speak whether they're right or wrong. If they don't get this first principle emphasized and say here's the real enemy, not the beast, not some political power, not some perhaps arguable religious system, that's not the enemy of the saints. The enemy of the saints, the enemy of the believers is Joseph. And that's what's conquered in this book. So what I'm saying, of all the chapters, I think chapter 12 is one of the most symbolic ones, but it defines itself. I mean, the definition is really clear there, I think. And we don't have to go outside the Bible to figure out what this is talking about. It tells us itself. But you might be thinking, what about the harlot and the persecution of the saints? It's got the blood of the saints in her. That's what it says. The beast is also persecuted saints, by the way. And the harlot is never said to be in alliance with the beast, although it fornicates with it and the kings. And there's this, you know, in the book of Revelation, about the harlot. And I'm going to cite some verses here. Chapter 17, verse 5, actually it's verse 6, saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And verse 24 in chapter 18, in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who've been slain on earth. Where must every prophet be killed, according to Jesus? He said a prophet, it cannot be that a prophet die away from Jerusalem. Matthew 23, verse 37, confirmed in Luke 11, verse 50, and 1333. Now, this great city in the book of Revelation described in chapter 11, verse 18 says, actually verse 8, sorry, chapter 11, verse 8, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city. And this is where the two prophets were killed. Chapter 11, the two witnesses, the two prophets lie in the street of the great city, which is allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, allegorically called Sodom and the Old Testament, where city is called Sodom or Egypt. You might look at the reference in Isaiah chapter one of that. But in case we couldn't find those, it says, where their Lord was crucified. And what's the answer to that? Okay, that was pretty easy, and you're right. Now, regardless of any interpretation of the book, you've got these facts. I mean, these are facts, Bible facts, and you need to fit your interpretation around them. If you're just reading the book and you come to chapter 17, you come across a woman, verse three, sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of blasphemous names. It had seven heads and ten horns. And John, to see this, is carried away into the wilderness, where, if at all, you encounter a woman in the book of Revelation, previous days. It's in chapter 12. And you left a woman in chapter 12 fleeing into the wilderness. So you pick her up again in chapter 17 as being in the wilderness, and it's a woman. You would think then there's an obvious connection between the two, there are. So again, any interpretation must make that connection. How was the woman described in chapter 12? Well, you take the symbolism of chapter 12, hold with the sun, moon under her feet, 12 stars associated with her. Where in the Bible do you start getting that terminology? And you can see, again, there's at least an Israel connection. There might be more, but there's at least that. Now, one other thing. When the harlot is destroyed in chapter 17, it's destroyed by the beast and the horns. It says so in verse 16. They're devoured, desolated, burned with fire. However, in chapter 16, the great city is destroyed by the great earthquake, which splits it into three parts. God remembers great Babylon to make her drain the cup of the fury of his wrath. Now the question to ask, are these destructions the same or are they different? If they're different, then how do you account for the difference? Well, I'll leave you hanging on that one. Babylon is said to clearly represent Rome because of the seven hills characteristic. Rome is the only reasonable city that has that characteristic. And notwithstanding what some brother has suggested that Jerusalem might be sitted on hills and tries to scrounge seven, that doesn't satisfy nearly enough as Rome being probably the best candidate. Mind you, that interpretation of Rome being that characteristic, I think, happened many years after the book of Revelation was set. But look at what the book says. It says seven hills represent seven hills. They also represent seven kings or king-hills. It says five are past, one is, and one is future. It goes on to say, because the woman is seated on the hills, it's equivalent to many waters, which are interpreted in your text to mean peoples, multitudes, nations, and times. In other words, the text in talking about seven hills is not referring to topography at all. It is not talking about seven provisional hills. These are symbolic of something. And what are they symbolic of? The text says many waters, that is, peoples, multitudes, nations, and times as distinct from Israel. These are genotypes. Well, how does that fit with these seven kingdoms or kingdoms? Five pasts. It's not too difficult to find five kingdoms or empires are to Rome. Rome would be the one that is. If you start going backwards, what would they be? Eagle Persia, Greece Eagle Persia, Babylon, Syria, Egypt, all gentile oppressors. One future, one to come, one last application that we don't know. And a critical point that is often not perceived. Where is the harlot seated? It's on the beach, right? On the back of the beach, right? Wrong. It's on the hills. But the hills are the hills. The woman's on the hills. Where the horns are. And that's what destroyed her. It is not a picture of a harlot woman in control of the beast, but a harlot woman who's about to be destroyed by her brothers. And that's a very different picture. The text says so. This is not my interpretation. So, given those facts, what is a goodness fit? Well, let's look at Ezekiel. Ezekiel says something about harlots and the land being the mother of harlots in chapter 16. Ezekiel says a lot about a harlot Jerusalem being destroyed by her lovers. So there's at least two real clear connections with that. Jeremiah 25 talks about a cup, a cup of abominations, a cup of fury that starts first with Jerusalem and is handed around to all the gentile nations, and Babylon is the last one to drink it. Ah, so there's a distinction between Jerusalem and Babylon. And that's right. It certainly was historically, but it gives us a clue as to the two destructions of Jerusalem. Because if you've got a Jewish occupied Jerusalem that's destroyed by her lovers, as one in Ezekiel, then the beast takes over. The throne of the beast is set up. It's gentile occupied. It's Babylon, Babylon aspect, and is now not Jewish, but gentile. When Christ comes back, Man of Olives, split, it is the throne of the beast that's destroyed. It's the gentile aspect Jerusalem, and that's the chapter 16 destruction. There's other things that I could deduce to that, but basically, I think I'm one minute over time. Let me take one more minute here. Those are some facts to fit. I think there's a goodness fit for Jerusalem and the harlot here. But the point of it, the real enemy then, is not some system. It's not a political system, it's not a religious system. It's in ourselves. Jesus, Mano, the prophecy, Matthew 24, Luke 21. Matthew 24 three times says, watch out for false prophets. They can deceive, even the elect, and I'm not trying to minimize that. There are false religious political systems. There are apostate people. I'm not trying to say there's not. What I am trying to point out is the personal application to ourselves, and Jesus in his Luke 21 discourse put it this way. But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare, for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. In other words, watch the real enemy yourself. How do you watch it? Watch at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man. You can turn over your sheets now and see what I say.

Transcript

Many mistakes. This is James 2. It's in the context of all the tongue. Where credit is due, it was Sister Sherry Johnson, not Brother Sherry Johnson who gave me the information yesterday. Yesterday we talked about how to validly reason from Scripture and discuss various approaches, especially the one I called Goodness Fit, which in fact involved all the techniques of logic and asking the right questions and using the right model. Successful investigation is therefore really a matter of having the right key or finding the right key. And if you consider this idea in a very broad context, of all the books that are written in this world by men, the Bible, God's book, is the only one that presents the true way to life, both now and for the life to come. And of all the self-proclaimed messiahs and religious leaders over the ages, only Jesus is the one true means of salvation. Acts 4 verse 12 says that. And of all the man-made deities or gods in the history of mankind, only the one God exists, and happily for us, the one God has shown himself to be a God who cares for our welfare. He's shown that in the past, shows it today, and it will be that way in the future. We Christian dolphins believe these things. We have found or have been given these keys of understanding. These are the things concerning the name of Jesus Christ, the things concerning the Kingdom of God. And this is a priceless heritage, a priceless discovery, something to be greatly treasured. Jesus in his parables in Matthew 13 describes it this way. The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up, and in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he has and bought it. Now there's lots of ways, I think, of interpreting the lessons from this, but at least these were great treasures found and retained. So you found it. So you have it. Now what? What are the consequences of this discovery? Whether we've been shown God's truth by others or learned it largely on our own, we have to do something with this acquired understanding. Truth is to be treasured, but it wasn't meant to be re-hidden. Truth is given to men to be further explained, shared, revealed. If you switch to another parable of the talents, truth was given in order to grow and multiply, not to be taken and buried in the ground where it had no possibility for growth. I would say in modern-day parlance, use it or lose it. And we'll see, being given the truth or having the truth has its consequences. Now let's look at some recorded discoveries in Scripture, some happy ones. They found the Book of the Law in Josiah's time, great rejoicing, and it was the initial step to great reformation in that country. Or consider the discovery that Joseph wasn't really dead, and his brothers greatly rejoiced, and it led to the reclamation of them. And think about, and I would imagine we're going to hear spoken about it today, the discovery that Jesus wasn't dead. That the empty tomb meant that he was alive. And that those on the road to Emmaus, when they got to the village and discovered it, and those in the upper room, greatly rejoiced. This is the ultimate discovery. He's not dead, he is alive. He is risen just as the Scripture said. The two who specifically refer to this, Luke said they disbelieve for joy, and John's got a marvelous understatement. They were glad when they saw Jesus. Yes. Well these discoveries or realizations resulted in transformed lives. The men and women involved could no longer be the same people they were previously. This new event, new experience, new insight, this new conviction would now compel them to think and act in a new and better way. Therefore a fundamental consequence of discovery of truth is a changed life. Now I know that you are quite aware of a number of examples of this. Consider Naaman, the leper after he had been cleansed. The Syrian commander became a worshiper of God, a God-fear. Or the life of Zacchaeus, the tax collector after, just one meal with Jesus. He says if I defrauded anyone I'll go out and give them back four times what I took from them. A new person, set about restoring what he had done. Consider the lives of those men and women in the Acts of the Apostles when upon hearing the Gospel were dramatically or significantly changed. The Ethiopian unit, he was searching for something but Cornelius, the Philippian jailer, so on. There's just all those wonderful stories in the Acts. Consider your life. You know yourself best of all. What has the Gospel compelled you to do in terms of believing, living, how it's affected your work, your service, your charity that is taken in your pocket and giving money, lost time, your preaching. How has it affected that? How has it affected you, the person, your character, your hope? Let's consider the best circumstance where we're no longer seekers for truth but we've got it. We've got the right understanding. We've got the right behavior and we've got the right motive. Assume this is a good enough working approximation of truth. This is now practicing and keeping truth. This is guarding the truth that's been entrusted to us. What's the consequence of that? You will suffer. That's the consequence of having and knowing and living the truth. You will suffer because the Bible says so. Because you will be like Jesus. You're just an approximation of Jesus. A far cry from being perfect but an approximation. And what was the result of him being truth? He suffered. And it isn't really a matter of interpretation as it is just reading what Peter says in his first letter, chapter 2, verse 21. For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. Paul wrote something akin to this when he said to Timothy, it's in the second letter, chapter 3, verse 12, Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. And back in Peter, with the suffering, with the persecution, yet you have God's approval. Verse 20, for what credit is it if when you do wrong and are beaten for it you take it patiently, but if when you do right and suffer for it you take it patiently, you have God's approval. And that's all that counts. It's what God considers the activity and effort to be. So you will suffer for truth and you will suffer long for this truth. Otherwise how could you develop the fruit of long suffering if God didn't let you suffer long over this? You can't quit. You must continue. And this isn't a passive continuance, it's an active continuance. You can't pull back, you can't pull out, you can't extricate yourself from the situation unless there's an over persecution and then we're told to flee. These are some things that we could expect. Now just as a little exercise, I wrote some things on the blackboard here. I just generalized and said suppose a person does have the right understanding and he's acting rightly emotive. We're going to take these three categories and say if that's true, that is if that's equivalent to the truth, let's see what happens if we've been talking about this one. All the Y's here stand for yeses. But suppose the person had a right understanding and is acting right but he had the wrong morals. What is this type of a person? What does the Bible call that type of a person? Yeah, I think that is a person. He's a pretender. These are all either real or they look like they're real. In short, you have a person who's got the right understanding and the right morals but is acting right. What does the Bible call that person? They understand it, they've got their heart in it, they just don't do it. Pardon? Slothful? Possibly. Actually, I'll tell you what I was thinking. I was thinking that this is a good categorization of a saint. We know it's right and hopefully our hearts in it. We can't do it. This is the fact. This doesn't mean this is a fact. And so on. Now, I'm not saying that for every one of these you have to find a category. But these are models. You might figure out which one of these could be, say, the critic. It might be the next one, maybe. The person who knows is right. He's got the information. So his motives are wrong and in criticizing unfairly. And you can probably guess what all the notes are down here. This is called a dead in sins person, your guilty maids person. But these are possibilities. These are little models, little pictures. Do these all represent truth? No, this is just a suggestion, something for you to think, something that might be helpful. And if it doesn't quite fit, well, that's all right, as long as it makes you think. That's what exercises are for. Believe that it might be helpful in bringing you to understand things. Because you know that having your Bible, having Jesus and having God in your life has made many demands and will continue to make many demands upon you. But clearly, these demands are for your, my, our good always. Because the Bible tells us that. If we were to read from Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 24, it says almost exactly that. Verse 18 in Deuteronomy 6 says the same thing. Very interesting passage in Jeremiah 32, 39 says that. One I would like you to look at is in John's letter, chapter 5, beginning at verse 3. Context of being children of God. We know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the son of God? These for our good always, not burdensome. That's 1 John 5, verses 3 to 5. We overcome the world by our belief that Jesus is the son of God. And this is fundamental. This statement in all its simplicity or in parent simplicity should be seen as a bastion against the onslaught of the world. That's what it says. Here's our victory. We just believe that. It doesn't say all the other details. If we just believe this, it will protect us from the cares of the world. Things that we cause for ourselves and the cause and how we let other things affect us. These worries that so easily distract and frustrate us. Well, those are some happy discoveries. What about some unhappy ones? Take Adam and Eve. They discovered they were naked after they ate the forbidden fruit. Their eyes were opened, weren't they? But they were open to great disappointment. What a letdown from their expectations. They thought that they'd be like God. And this mortification illustrates another fundamental lesson, a first principle. It points out the falling of yielding to our own desires. Because what happens when you yield to your desires? It conceives. It brings forth sin. And when sin is full grown, it brings forth death. James 1.15 So we know what God feels about rebellion. What about Achan? He discovered his greed for material things could not be hidden. Imagine his thoughts as the selection began with the lots. They picked out the right tribe and then the right families. And all this time, he could come forward and say it was me. But he waits until it comes down to the actual family and himself. He's tried to hold out, but the inevitable end came down to himself. How heavy that gold must have felt on his mind now. How utterly useless those festal garments, which at best he had hidden in the ground. They weren't doing him any good anyhow. The hoarded gold brought him nothing. In the end, he's forced to admit his folly. Joshua made him fess up for the glory of God. And his shame, his shame was not only made public then, it's put in the Bible for every generation to read. What did he learn? That the wages of sin is death, just like before. We know how God feels about stealing. What does God feel about deceit? What was another discovery? Well, we have Ananias and Sapphira, don't we? They found out the same thing. Their fraud was found out. And even though they were given the opportunity to confess, they tried to brazen it out, didn't they? Both of them. They refused to admit their folly. And like Adam and Eve, their shame was uncovered and made public by Achan. They were guilty, no longer innocent, and shocked by the realization that their only reward was death. They collapsed Peter's feet. So whether it's immediate or inevitable, the outcome of wrong pursuits must result in suitable punishment. And those who think that their deeds are hidden sooner or later, learn that all is known to God and will be revealed. Luke 18, 1 Corinthians 4, 5, Romans 2, 5, and Ephesians 5, 13 are references that illustrate that. Jesus came as light to a darkened world. He came in the world to invite men and women to come to him so that their deeds would be exposed and repudiated, encouraged. They would confess their sins, John 3, 19 to 21. And men and women who come to Jesus on that basis are forgiven. And they're given power to become children of God, John 1, 12. They're given new life, born again, John 3, 3 to 5, and hope for eternal life which forever satisfies and fulfills. But if you flee from that light, choose to remain in darkness, you're condemned already, says scripture. You're left in darkness and sin. Death is a certain end. In our lives, we need to recognize that even these unhappy discoveries provide principles that must apply to our life. If we pursue mammon, for example, we discover that it's a terrible master, for we are enslaved by it. Romans 6, 16 says that we are enslaved by such things. And not only do we suffer the pangs of getting it, of this grabbing for the gold or whatever that means, in the end we'll find out that we've got nothing. Jesus says, consider Solomon in all of his glory, that he was not a great like one flower of the field. And if we doubt the folly, desiring to be rich, in all his various forms, whether it's dollars or status or possessions or accomplishments, just read with me from 1 Timothy chapter 6, 9 to 10. It's in a context where it says, you know, we didn't bring anything into the world, we can't take anything out, so you can't take your gold with you. We should be content with food and clothing. But verse 9, those who desire to be rich, those who desire to be rich, I mean, here's the pursuit of it, it isn't that you're rich, those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare. You're trapped, you're entangled, into many senseless and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. There has to be hundreds of case examples of that in the world around us, much less what we have here in Scripture. For the love of money is the root of all of this. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith. I'm talking about people who know better, people who know truth, people in the Ecclesia, that's who it's talking about, they've got it and they wander away from it and pierced their hearts with many pains. You know, I heard of a brother who decided he wanted to be a millionaire by the time he was 35. I think he might have got there, but he's living testimony of these two verses. If we pursue gratification, we discover that it is, first of all, very short-lived. Secondly, it doesn't really satisfy. Third, it seduces us to want more, but it's got empty promises. And it's unfeeling, uncaring, harsh, it's ruthless. It discards the disillusioned man or woman at the very end of it and care too sensed for it. Not a second thought caring for it. Let me give what I think is a pertinent example or two. The act of sex before marriage, the Bible calls it fornication, is at best a very short thrill which ends with the realities of lost purity, lost self-respect, lost joy when marriage comes. And at worst, just a multitude of demoralizing, despairing, crushing things descend upon both the parties as witness the widespread occurrences and stories of unwed mothers. Or the act of sex outside of marriage, the Bible calls it adultery, yields the same results. At best, adultery is a short-lived activity which ends up burning both parties and often results in destroying many other lives. It's been cited already, I think, this week. The scripture says, Can a man carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Or can anyone walk upon hot coals and his feet not be scorched? So is he who goes into his neighbor's wife. None who touches her will go unpunished. The world we live in, it's got books, magazines, movies about how great unrestrained sex is. You know, people talk about it. They make jokes about it. They brag about it. They plunge themselves into it. You know this as well as I do. I'm not telling you anything new. This isn't meant to be scandalous or anything. This is our world. But everyone that does that gets burned. Burn badly. Sometimes the burns are so great, they're scarred and marred for the rest of their life. People who believe and obey God's clear teaching in the matter of sex are rewarded and rewarded wonderfully. Those who have chosen to disregard this teaching, they suffer and they suffer terribly. They'll believe it. Broken lives, broken homes are the reward of immorality. It's not for nothing there's this scourge of venereal diseases, syphilis and AIDS. That's not just a quirk of nature. And similar conclusions can apply to self-indulgence in terms of alcohol or drugs, to the pursuit of power or prestige in their various forms. In general, it applies to any form of indulging self. And that might include escapism, trying to get out of it. Don't give me that job. I don't want it. That's self-indulgence. And sooner or later we believe that we've become a slave of that sin and we're actually in bondage. Only in Christ and obedience to God will release us from that bondage. We have the details for us. We've read a number of times. They're all laid out pretty clearly in Romans chapter 6. Pick it up from verse 12 and went down to 23 and I don't really want to read every verse in terms of time, but let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions. Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life. And your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will no longer have dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace. Do not know that if any of you yield yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one to whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that you who are once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. And having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But then what return did you get from those things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you've been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification. In its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So key in understanding the implications of this Bible passage is that these apply to us, to you, to me. Discovery of these things and confession of these things is what the Bible teaches about self. Sinful, terrible self. And that's fundamental to our changing our thinking and our behavior. You know, we Christadelphians benefit greatly from believing this because we try not to kid ourselves too much. And there's a lot of fringe benefits from just knowing where the source of the problem is. A lot of pain and suffering in the world because people still don't know what's wrong. But we do. Thanks be to God for such deliverance. Now these are some generalities. How about some specifics in the 20th century world, 1988 and going forward. What about some for instances? Well, let me tell you a little bit about myself first. I wasn't raised Christadelphian. I was convinced of their teaching and partly by logic, partly by example. There's some consequences to that. I lost a lot of friends. I had to clean up my language. I alienated myself. Some members of my family that I'm still trying to recover. I broke up with my girlfriend who I've been dating for about three years. That was not an easy thing to do. I contended with a Jehovah's witness for about eight months in my living room and we slung scripture back and forth at each other which wasn't the best way of doing it but that was an interesting consequence of doing these things. And I began to talk to other Christadelphians. Travel a little bit because those who instructed me were good fathers for me in the Christadelphian world. And they taught me two key lessons which I'll never forget because a lot of it's been expressed this week one way or the other. One was, having found this truth, Norman, don't be afraid to keep on looking because there's a lot more of it where you got it from in the Bible. And you have to tell other people about it. You can't keep it inside yourself. If you've got it inside you, you must be talking about it. And if you're not talking about it, you haven't got it inside you. Bible truth will continue to transform your life but you must be doing something about what you know. And they're absolutely right. And I can thank God for such teachers. When I traveled around I discovered that there was more than one group of Christadelphians. And I asked, why? How come? What's the difference? I found in some circles you shouldn't ask such questions. But my homotheist said, ask such questions, Norman. So I did and I kept on asking. And it was the beginning of a very profitable and a very sad investigation. Now I belong to both fellowships. I think I've been in probably more than half if not three-quarters of all the unamended and amended ecclesias in North America. And you know that I worked on Christadelphians for unity for a couple of years as well. And I reached some very disappointing conclusions. And one of them is that our community is very reluctant to obey Bible truth. Or at least what I think is Bible truth. I should qualify that. And by and large brothers and sisters did not want to relook at the division to see whether or not we might be wrong in making ourselves separate. Very few were willing to sit down with an open Bible and discuss matters face to face. And has been alluded to already this morning. There's been problems with intimidation and expediency and politicking that all too often preempted the obvious need to sit down and see if there's fundamental differences here. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to reopen this issue. I'm not here to blame anyone. I'm making an observation. In fact, I'm lamenting in making this observation. An apparent apathy in our community and a seeming loss of the spirit of willingness to investigate the truth. Why are we so reluctant to do that? I ask myself. I ask you. And I think it's because we're afraid. Afraid of what? Afraid of being wrong? Yes, I think we're afraid of being wrong. That's really just a matter of pride. So I was wrong. You can deal with that one pretty easily. If you want to become teachable, if we're willing to surrender ourselves. Afraid of other brethren? Yes. Yes, I think we're afraid of other brethren, what they might think. And this is a very real problem in my mind. There's no easy solution to that. There's a straightforward solution, but not an easy one. The answer is you must do what you think scripture teaches you to be right and serve God first. And you can do it. You can do it. Every one of us can do that. We're obliged to do. And you would be surprised what the courage of one individual will do to others. And how much support he or her will get. Not to mention that you will have God on your side. And God in one man or woman is a majority, right? Afraid of where the exploration might go? Yes, I think that's the biggest one. Where will this lead? Not us, but where will this lead me? So it's one thing to concede a point, quite another to change your whole line of thinking, and still quite another to change your behavior in the light of this thinking. But this is a self-defense mechanism, isn't it? That is, it's self-protecting itself. And we need to recognize this fear, this phobia, for what it is and chase it down. This is where we must be fearless in going after truth. It's God's truth, isn't it? And finding and grasping His truth is worth the dare to be brave. Now, I think it does depend upon our upbringing and background, our education, our disposition as to whether we're inclined to investigate. But I think investigation in truth should point every person in that direction. Now, yesterday you saw some of my questioning ideas in understanding the Book of Revelation. One of the things that got me interested in that, I remember my CYC days taking out my Bible and marking notes from the Apocalypse Epitomized in the margin, and I was thrilled. I mean, that was so right. And then in our weekly Bible class, we listened to a take from a brother in England who was talking about the Book of Revelation, and he had a very different viewpoint. Which of these two is right? How was I to know? I'm just a young person. I didn't know anything. So you start asking around, and you read it, and you start checking it out for yourself. There's no mystery about that, no magic. When I was in Toronto, a young man boarding, there was a sister, she was in her 60s, she came up and she thrust a booklet in my hand saying, Norman, don't you do anything. You can't even have your supper. Until you read this book, it was The Last Days, written by Brother Whitaker, the beginning of his efforts to say, should we rebook at Bible prophecy? There's an older sister saying, Norman, do this. It's unsettling. Another sister in New England, about a year after that, she says, I read that, Norman, and it destroyed everything I believed in. Is that true? Will reading a booklet destroy everything you believe in? Well, I don't know for sure. It may have been if everything you believe was wrong, but I doubt it. That's probably an exaggeration. But things affect people a different way. Now, what's the solution to that? Not to read the booklet? Burn the book? These are exaggerated statements, obviously, but no, if it's right, it'll be shown to be right. If it's wrong, then we just ignore it and go on. And that's things about all broad prophecy and interpretations, at least in my mind. I certainly have some different viewpoints, and I try to argue and reason for them. But one thing's certain, Christ Jesus is coming back. He's coming back soon. That's the one thing we want to know and get ready for. Those of you at the Bloomin' Study Day, one other thing that I came across was some notes when I was in all places, Columbia. I was visiting there, and then I wrote to England for some notes by Brother Oxtoby, because I'd read Brother Sully's book on Ezekiel's temple, and I was, wow, is this ever great? Look at the pictures, he's an architect, he's got all this information, and then I read this other viewpoint that seriously caught into question, that viewpoint. And now I'm of the opinion that those of you who got this picture of the temple on your wall, the wall sitting and so on, I think you should accept that with grave consequences. I'm sure that's a Bible position. It's just a matter of checking it out to see if it's right. I've alluded already to this book, Genesis Flood, I read by Morrison Whitcomb, this was a defense of creation against evolution, great. Flood theory explained everything. And then Brother Alan Hayward came up with a book that burst all my bubbles and said, Norman Fadal, you don't know what you're talking about. And I didn't, I was ignorant, I was wrong, dead wrong on a lot of matters. But now I know better. And the point is, realize that better information may come along and cause you to abandon your ideas. It's much better to admit we're wrong now, face up to it, rather than wait till we get a totally indefensible position and be toppled from crashing down. One of the key discoveries I made myself, and I've talked about this before, it was in Second Timothy chapter three, two points. One is verse 16, and one is verses one to five. The one in 16, you know, is, all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. It dawned upon me that this was not a proof text for Bible inspiration. This verse was saying, you, the reader, in this case, Norman Fadal, ought to be reading your Bible so that you will be trained, so that you will be improved. So I will be all these things. That's the purpose of it. And verses one to five in that chapter, and also in chapter four, I realized that this warning about what would happen in the latter days, and people not enduring sound teaching and being lovers of self, lovers of money and so on, was not primarily talking about those outside of our community, at least necessarily out there. You know, it's very easy to say, these are all the bad people. Well, we, the lesson here, we shouldn't fail to see the application to ourselves, that we are just as reasonable candidates for this as other churches. So those are some things, those are some specifics for me, and really what I'm asking you to do today is to think about your life. What has happened in your life the last five, ten, thirty years? What have you done about new information? How much have you investigated for yourself? Have you grown in your understanding? Are you bearing fruit for God? This is the last time you talk about the truth to a friend or a neighbor. These are some things you should talk to yourself. But we must face up to these things. We must face up to it because life is tough and must be faced. We must face the problems in our community. They won't disappear. We must face that person in our community or in our eplesia. I surmise that if we individually, with problem situations, spent thirty minutes, only thirty minutes, talking face to face, in a Bible context, with an individual, seventy-five percent of the problems in our community would disappear. Thirty minute face to face investment could make that many problems go away. Simple solution, right? Hard to do, but there it is. Face up to it. Face up to ourselves. Well, my closing two minutes here, according to my watch. About eight years ago, I asked myself a question. What does God want me to do with my life? Have you ever asked yourself that question? But what does God want me to do, to be? Is there an answer, a very clear answer in the Bible? And if I found that answer, would I be willing to do something about it? Like, if you found that answer, would you be willing to do something about it? Accept that truth that you discovered for yourself. Now, this isn't a matter of propositional truth. This isn't a matter of doctrine. We already got a good grasp on that. This is a very personal, highly specific thing for you to do, for me to do. The results of which should only impact my life, not someone else's life. I'm not investigating this for anybody else but myself. So I won't find the answer in reading a Bible commentary or a reference book. I can't even find this out by going and talking to someone else. This is something that I, as an individual, must seek in trying to worship God in spirit and truth. In fact, it's not a matter of my ecclesial association or fellowship or anything like that. It isn't a controversial matter. It's not a matter even for discussing. It's a matter in private, totally in private for me, finding out and living out. Because truth invites investigation. Truth confronts. Truth also rewards. So that's what I went through. I put it now to you. What will it be, brother, sister or friend? Are you willing to ask yourself the question, what does God want of me to be or to do? And then having asked yourself that question, are you willing to find out? Well, I developed a list of passages that, to me, were surprisingly specific and really clear. In fact, I've got them in a handout, which I'll let you take at the end if you want. I didn't give them to you now. And in title, what does God want of us? That's the one I came up with. Prepare your own list. Develop one for yourself. If you'd like, and I'd sure like it, why don't you send me a copy? I'd like to see what you discovered for yourself. And maybe it is no less. Maybe there is some one thing that happens in your life as a consequence of some things this week, not necessarily for my class. Share the morale. I'd like to hear from you if you could do that. It would be a help for me. But don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. The Bible's there for you. And Christ is there to assist you. God is there to reward you. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.