276: Machine Gun Nick joins Pastor Plek on the podcast today for a lively discussion exploring the intricate dance between choosing to follow Christ and recognizing that it is, perhaps, God who orchestrates our steps toward faith. With a deep dive into Ephesians 2:8, they unpack the gifts of faith and grace, contemplating their undeniable role in our spiritual journeys and the compelling notion of irresistible grace.
Got questions? Text us at 737-231-0605!
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Support the show: https://wbcc.churchcenter.com/giving
276: Machine Gun Nick joins Pastor Plek on the podcast today for a lively discussion exploring the intricate dance between choosing to follow Christ and recognizing that it is, perhaps, God who orchestrates our steps toward faith. With a deep dive into Ephesians 2:8, they unpack the gifts of faith and grace, contemplating their undeniable role in our spiritual journeys and the compelling notion of irresistible grace.
Got questions? Text us at 737-231-0605!
Like, share, and subscribe! We love seeing and responding to your reviews and comments.
Support the show: https://wbcc.churchcenter.com/giving
And welcome back to past flex podcast. I'm your host, pastor Plech, and joining me in studio day is another than machine gun Nick. Welcome back, machine gun Nick. Hello, how are?
Speaker 2:you all doing.
Speaker 1:We're right now going to go through a plethora of questions that have been sent in that we have been neglecting, so we first of all apologize for that. I know you've got lots of questions out there and we're going to try and hit as many as we can in the time allotted. All right, machine gun, nick go.
Speaker 2:All right. First question in acts Luke says that Paul worked to persuade people to Jesus. How does that work under a reformed? So toller G.
Speaker 1:Sorry, that word is so to technology. That's good. What does so? To have you ever heard?
Speaker 2:that word before. I have never heard that word before.
Speaker 1:So to technology is the study of salvation, and so what that means is how one is saved. And so when I talk, have you heard the term reformed?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So usually when people are talking about reformed because Calvinists usually like to take all the reformedness like they're like the full on, like we own the Reformation, but there are Lutherans who are a big part of the Reformation. There's a bunch of split offs that from the Catholic Church that can take part in owning the Reformation. But I understand what they mean. They're talking from a basic Calvinist viewpoint of reform theology, which is you play no part in your salvation.
Speaker 2:Wait, wait a minute. What I had to show up.
Speaker 1:You had to show up.
Speaker 2:And I had to like say, yeah, I want to do the prayer Right, and yes. And then I volunteered to go and be baptized. What do you mean? I had no right.
Speaker 1:So what appeared to you as your own will.
Speaker 1:So a great way to look at this is like kind of imagine an archway and you're walking through it and as you're looking at it, as you're walking through, it says I choose. And as you walk through it you look back and over over, you know, as you're like, you're smiling, you see your face and it says chose it. It feels completely to you, from your perspective, that you chose everything. But God orchestrated all the events in your life knowing exactly how you would respond, but then he did. The one important thing that you can't do is save yourself. Here's what I mean by that. In fact, actually, I was leading someone to faith yesterday yes, no Sunday and I was walking through the gospel and they were like, not sure about salvation and how it worked, and they were like I don't know if I believe any of this. I said you can't believe it apart from the spirit of God causing you to believe, because faith is a gift. So Ephesians 2 8,. If you're a red, Ephesians 2 8.
Speaker 1:Maybe, let me. Let me pull it up for you, because I think this is where it's super good. All right, so to Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 8. For, by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, for it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. What does that mean?
Speaker 2:I mean that means God led me to that position, to take the prayer, even though I'm pretty sure I did a lot of things that weren't, you know, to his liking before then, but it all led up to that moment.
Speaker 1:But I guess what I'm saying is not your own doing.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So you didn't do it.
Speaker 2:No, he did it.
Speaker 1:And I think that's so. That's what makes so. This is why, for many people who believe in the doctrine of irresistible grace, it's very and also perseverance of the saints. If I didn't force you to believe, if I didn't make you believe, then I can't unmake you believe, because it's all God who did it all anyway. So but we've all seen people who are apostate, meaning I believe in Jesus. I believed in Jesus back in the day, but now that I see the truth, I don't believe anymore. We've all met those people.
Speaker 1:And what I usually say to them is that you never believed in the first place, and that's that can be very invalidating, but I just think it's true, because Jesus has not lost one, whom the father has given him, so all right back to the question.
Speaker 1:All right back to the question. It was. Luke says he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade both Jews and Greeks. So why is Paul trying to persuade? In fact, he also says in 2 Corinthians 5, I urge you like. This is where he's, he's urging them to believe, he's urging them to repent and he's calling them to believe in the God. That haven't seen right. So there's, I do feel like there's an urging and a belief network here, that is, there is a human responsibility aspect. So what is it? How can you, how does it, how does that work, to reform theology? I'll kind of give you my answer on that.
Speaker 2:Is. That is that where you you allow him to enter your heart, you open your art to him. So part of it.
Speaker 1:So this is the part where that's good that you're, you're, so your pushback is it? Like you, you don't want to have God take over.
Speaker 2:It's hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tell me why.
Speaker 2:Because you know you're, you're like how I think as a infant, in say my, my religion, I'm like how right, how are you going to take over? Like I've had to go through all these things and now I'm just gonna you take the wheel, it's and that's, that's, that's. I think that's where people get scared, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it is a little bit like that, but it's even more than that. It's more than you're you're. You're like a drug addict and you're just needing him to take away the pipe. It's or you're, or you know, you're carry under wood and you just your whole life's falling apart and you him to take the wheel. It's more like you're a dead person and you're laying on the floor dead and that's it. You are going to stay dead until somebody jolts you alive. It's not like you're like, I really need to be a better person. Aha, three steps to a better me. Jesus, oh, wow, thank you. Jesus, it is. You're laying on the floor dead and you didn't know it, and all of a sudden, Jesus comes by and does mouth to mouth resuscitation, and now you're alive. That was the state of your soul before Christ came along. Does that make sense? Yes, so that's why we call it so part of our his hands like the paddles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, boom, yeah, that's kind of like it.
Speaker 1:So in in the in reform theology, there's something called tulip, which is total depravity. Like we are, we're not as bad as we can be, but everything about us is affected by sin and we are evil.
Speaker 2:Right A slave to sin, so you've to sin.
Speaker 1:Yes, unconditional election is that like, not based on anything you have done. You don't. There's no preconditions that you have to do to be saved, so you don't have to get your life together first. That I love. This is why I love a.
Speaker 1:Roman's 5a. God demonstrates love for us in this that, while we're still sinners, christ died for us. Christ does not wait for our lives to get better before he saves us. He saves us while we're still sinners. Okay then L, which is one I'm kind of a 5050 on is limited atonement, which means Jesus only died on the cross for those who would believe. He didn't die for those who would not believe, which I don't actually believe. That I think he died for everyone. However, his blood was effective for all, but sufficient for some, meaning, those who didn't receive him. His blood was not. It was effective for them, but not sufficient because they didn't receive it. Twitter, like what? But how do they get blamed for that?
Speaker 1:And then that's we go to Romans 9. Who are you, oh man? Say to God, watch me like this. Okay, then in there's I, which is irresistible grace that once you see how great the grace is, once your eyes lay hold of how beautiful Jesus is and what he did for us there's no going back you can't help but believe. And then the last one is perseverance of the saints, which means once saved, always saved, essentially so for me.
Speaker 1:I'm a big fan of T? U IMP, so I'm more of a two whip as opposed to two lip and I'm I give you have, I give you 5050, and I can definitely see where people love limited atonement, because it shows that God loves people. But that also I don't know. I think the God's great love for us is that he died for all and he doesn't want any to perish but all to come to eternal life, and so he died for all. Now I don't know how it all works in the great scheme of things, and I want to pretend to know how that works.
Speaker 1:But the big question then why would Paul, who understood reform theology, which I think he did? He understood that salvation was by grace, through faith, and you didn't even own it, it was not your own doing so, nobody could boast, you couldn't say well, I really believe it was a little bit more faith filled. Remember, jesus said you had to have a faith the size of a mustard seed, because your faith and it wasn't dependent on how much you had, but dependent on the object of your faith, which is Jesus. Okay, so why does he even bother persuading? Because Paul does not know who will be saved, and so he's going to go try and get Jews. He's going to go try and get Greeks. He doesn't know who's worth it and who's not. If he comes up across a person who says I'm not going to believe this.
Speaker 2:So, and we're going off. The Greeks at this time are pagans.
Speaker 1:They're all pagans yeah it's not like.
Speaker 1:Greek Orthodox. This is like pre-church. And Paul goes to persuade them. He says listen, you got to believe this. I'm urging you, I'm, I'm begging you that you would believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and rose from the dead. And they're like, hmm, let me think about that. So, and some people believed, some people didn't believe Jesus. In fact, paul said I become all things to all people so that I might win some. Meaning he didn't know who would come to faith and he was going to change whatever he needed to change Still not sin, but he'd do whatever he could to win some people to faith in Christ Kind of wild right. So why would he do that if he knew it was all up to God anyway?
Speaker 2:Because I think that's what we were called to do.
Speaker 1:Right, because God gave us a mission. But Jesus could have said hey, go and make disciples of all nations, baptize the name of Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and teach them to deserve all I've commanded. He could have taken that and gone like all right, everyone's going to be like me, we're all going to go to Jewish school and then we're all going to learn about Jesus. No, but he wanted it to to make to find the cultural lead in fast enough.
Speaker 1:So he was like I'm going to find whatever I can, as it's culturally appropriate, to show you who Jesus is and to have you believe, Because we don't control who comes into the kingdom of God. All we control is what God has got going on with us. So there you go.
Speaker 2:Excellent. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to wrap your head around the fact that you know you made all these moves, but those moves were predetermined before you got there. That's what we're saying, right? Yeah, god had it in his knowledge that you were going to do this. Yeah, just, and the time and date you're going to do it. He knew it all and I just was like, hey, this is a great idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and that also is kind of why we also think we have chronological snobbery that's one of my favorite CS Lewis quotes that we think like we are the smartest, best people and so therefore we're like we kind of look down on everybody else on the planet and so when we come to faith in Christ and we've discovered Christianity, we have a hard time understanding that this has been going on for a long time. It's part of the great plan all that. Anyway, okay, I think we got that. Did that answer the question for you, like, why do we share the gospel yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, what's the next one?
Speaker 2:The next question. Let me bring them up. All right, pastor Plec and invited Pastor Plec invited guests on the podcast with the advice would you give to someone? What advice, I'm sorry? What advice would you give to someone who has recently came to Christian church for the first time? Their parents are opposed to them coming to church because they are Catholic, although they aren't practicing practicing Catholics, meaning they don't attend mass, nor is their faith practice or talked about in the home. This person lives at home with them, so there is tension building and is curious about what to do.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:I understand there is some missing context to this, but any advice would be appreciated. Did we answer this All right? All right.
Speaker 1:What do you think so?
Speaker 2:having been raised a Catholic and knowing the kind of outcome that you know grandmother might have said had she been with us when I became a Christian, I understand difficulties there, however, and I'm not going to bash on Catholics, I think, you know. I think some Catholics are going to go to heaven I do. I also believe, though, that it's not for everybody. There are aspects in the Catholic faith that really didn't work for me. I mean, I was told I was going to go to hell if I died in combat a certain way, so it didn't really work for me that well and kind of took me away from the church. And there's other aspects where, you know, I don't like the sermon to be a reading and another reading and a little ritual and hey, take some communion and go home. That's just me.
Speaker 2:I like some context where we kind of add it to the modern world, and if you start reading the Bible, you realize that these problems they had 2000 years ago are the same problems we have today. But how do we personalize those to today, and how do we kind of you, know what's going on in the times and present it in that way, which I think the Wells Branch Community Church does very well, which is why I come here, or at least watch on my phone, every Sunday. Also, I think a lot of times other faiths miss the context that you have to have that personal relationship with God. If you do not have that personal relationship with God, it's not. I don't think the bond is really real.
Speaker 1:Okay, so so I get. I like your perspective, coming from a person that is a recovering Catholic. I guess, but I think that the way, the thing that you want to, you want to put first things first. The question is if there, I think sometimes when people don't attend Mass, they don't practice the faith. So you don't need to bash the Catholic Church. And I don't know if they are bashing the Catholic Church.
Speaker 2:I don't think anybody is. I think that the Catholic, but I guess their parents are opposed to them coming to church because, because, because of their Catholic background.
Speaker 1:But you got to realize it is an emotional and this is true of this isn't just Catholic, this is true of all faith. If you come from a different faith background and you come to church. It's kind of like saying there's people at Wells Branch Community Church who probably come, maybe twice a year maybe, and they come for Christmas, easter and that's it. And and they think in their head they're coming every week and something just comes up and they're not able to make it. And they had a vacation, they had a work trip, they had this really great opportunity that they had to take the Circuit of the Americas was going, you know, whatever the latest thing is, they don't come. And so then to say, hey, would you come to my different church?
Speaker 1:There's guilt one for not going to the first church in the first place, and now it's like going to a different spouse and then the parents that are might be Catholic are saying we did not do a good job raising. It's like everything about it brings up all the failure and betrayal and that's why it has such emotional baggage. And so I think one of the ways to just play is like I'm not going to a different church Anytime. You want to go to the Catholic church, I'm down, let's go. I probably go that route. But then at some point and I don't know how old this person is, that's living at home with their parents you move out. But at some point you move from out, from underneath your parents' faith, and then you can be direct and loving. The most beautiful thing you can do for your parents is move out, unless, like you're now taking care of them and then now it's like you guys have come to church with me.
Speaker 2:That's kind of the way I took it and I don't really know how it really is, but I took it as possibly the parents have moved in with them.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, if it's that way, then I totally get it. That's super hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then I would say, like listen, if you know, anytime you want to go to the Catholic Church, I'll take you. Let's go, let's load up.
Speaker 2:Let's go.
Speaker 1:But why not come to an experience, what I'm experiencing at my church, in the life change of where I'm meeting Jesus and say like hey, are we using the same Bible or not? And they probably go. Yeah, let's take your Bible, let's read it through, let's go and do this. And that's the part where, if you've never like, if we think of our relationship with God as only and solely where we go to church on a Sunday, then you have such a meager faith and I don't want to man, I'm not, I don't want to speak pejoratively about people that go to church once a week because that's not my intent.
Speaker 1:But if you, if your sort of viewpoint is, I did my religious duty, I moved on and I'm loyal, and loyalty is nowhere in the Bible as a fruit of the spirit. But but it is a part of friendship and I think there are real friends at old churches and maybe that that, like honoring the Catholic church around that person, would probably be a huge win, Like saying what was your favorite part about mass.
Speaker 1:Hey, teach me about the different pieces of the mass. And then say, hey, I would love to show you like the way people have kind of revised that in the way, because probably they would say, like, do you want to read the King James version of the Bible or do you want to read today's version? What happens with Catholics is sometimes they say we can't read the Bible ourselves. But that's not true. Vatican II so that everybody should read the Bible.
Speaker 1:And then Vatican II also was very outspoken and very ecumenical in the way that it viewed the church Catholic.
Speaker 1:And the church Catholic not the simply the Roman Catholic church, but the church Catholic, the universal church of Christ, where the entire, every person that is saved, is. And you'd say like, this is a different expression of the church Catholic and I think you should enjoy it because I think it's something really special. I would go to the Pope and say, look, the Pope from Vatican II said that we should not think all these people are going to hell. In fact, we should sort of like encourage them. So would you encourage me, as the Pope told you to do, in my going to this particular church? I think that's where you go simply to where the Catholic church has come a long way and we've talked we've sort of talked about how the Catholic church may have gone too far in some ways in their progressive stances. But it's no longer the Council of Trent, where they built a fortified wall around the Catholic church said we're going to speak Latin. Everyone else is wrong and going to hell.
Speaker 1:It's a different Catholic church. And if you've got parents, aging parents even, they were under Vatican II, and so I would say like I would show them, there's an ecumenical. Ecumenical just means like all people who believe in Jesus are going to go to heaven, and so we're all on the same team, and so there's an ecumenical viewpoint that Catholics should be having now from the Pope's viewpoint. So that's where I go with that. I know that that's not super insightful or super overly helpful, but I think it does give a direction. All right.
Speaker 2:Next question All right, next question we got is what was the expectation? Living a godly life before the law was given? Romans 513, 14 mentions death reigned from Adam to Moses. What does this mean?
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, all right. So reading back for Romans 5, verse 12,. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, adam, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sin, for sin indeed, was in the world before the law was given. Which law? 10 commandments, that in the 613 laws through exes, the Leviticus, numbers, deuteronomy. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass, for if many died through one man's trespass, how much more the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, jesus Christ, abounded for many. All right, what is this talking about? And what standard were people supposed to live by before the law? And we're talking about before Moses? Okay, here's, here's. This is sort of I don't want to say it's not. It makes sense. So remember, what was the one law that was given to mankind?
Speaker 2:when.
Speaker 1:Adam and Eve were born, do you remember? Don't eat from the tree of knowledge, yes, okay, so don't eat from that tree, good. So that was a law given, so that's not the law that we're talking about, but then they broke it.
Speaker 2:So they broke it because Eve thought it was a good idea.
Speaker 1:The next law was nobody should hurt Cain. He was given a mark Don't hurt the guy with a mark. Okay, that was another law, and he murdered people and he was a murderer. So that's the big mark of grace, okay. Then when the next one was don't murder. So don't murder isn't just in the Ten Commandments. It was like God sees all these people doing all these awful things and wickedness of the heart, and people were murdering each other. And so his first law after Noah survives the flood. Let me see if I can find it. I think it might be in Genesis 9. Yeah, genesis 9.
Speaker 1:Okay, every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And I get, as I gave the green plants, I give you everything, but you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Okay, and for your life blood, I will require a reckoning. From every beast I will require it. And from man and from his fellow man, I will require reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man by man, shall his blood be shed For God. May man his own image. Okay, so that becomes a law. So the age? So first you have the age of innocence, all right. So this is where you're looking at like dispensational view of life. Okay, so first is the age of innocence, and that's when Adam and Eve are living and they don't know anything. They don't know right from wrong. They don't know anything. Then you've got the age of conscience. Okay, age of conscience is the essentially, like you know, the right thing to do, but you don't do it.
Speaker 2:We messed up, we kicked out of. Eden, and now we know what's right, but you do it because when you know what good and evil is, because they were given the knowledge of good and evil.
Speaker 1:So now they have it and they go against their conscience, okay. And then over time that gets to pray more and more and more and more, and so you can't discern right from wrong for the most part, although you know there's certain things you still even now with so like that's wrong and you don't have to be told use now. So I think, and so there were innocence, conscience, human government, like God sets up human governments and then he gives a promise of to Abraham and then he gives the law to Moses.
Speaker 2:then grace through Jesus and eventually he's going to set up the millennial kingdom to be governing all people.
Speaker 1:Anyway, how? How were people governed before?
Speaker 1:then, they had government that was put, instituted by God. They instituted all governments and that was sort of give civil obedience through law. But how will you be godly? That's a great question. And so those who sought God were the ones that God opened himself or revealed himself to. Abraham was not seeking the Lord. God sought Abraham, and that's why the story becomes so powerful and why he's the one of the promise. Hopefully that makes sense. But the righteous should have always lived by faith in hope in God, and so that's what those did. But remember, ever since the fall, god had chose every person that was saved anyway, so a person couldn't respond to God until God first initiated with them. Hopefully that made some sense. Alright, what else you got?
Speaker 2:The next question what do we do with the differences in the gospel accounts? There seem to be discrepancies. I don't know how to explain this. When people say the Bible contradicts itself, Is this what they mean?
Speaker 1:Okay, I don't know. That's not what they mean.
Speaker 2:No, because they mean, like in the Old Testament, I for an eye tooth, for a tooth. In the New Testament, you know, if he strikes you, give him the other cheek right. No, no.
Speaker 1:But that's good, it's good. So I think both those are probably what you think people are saying. What people actually say is there's what we would call apparent contradictions in the Bible, like hey, they got the number wrong. Like how could that be true? Or like he named the wrong prophet.
Speaker 2:How's that?
Speaker 1:possible. That's the kind of stuff that we're talking about. But then he does give, for example, the crucifixion. Resurrection accounts have many varying details in each gospel when it comes to characters and dialogue between them. So I don't look at any of that as problematic. I look at it as different bloggers covering the same game, or how about? So you, what game was just on? Oh gosh, the Cowboys getting steamrolled for us, what just happened? It was brutal and the Packers went up 27-0 and they destroyed the Cowboys.
Speaker 1:Okay, now there's going to be people from different sides writing about the game and they're going to leave out and omit different details that were somewhere more significant, somewhere less significant. And here's what's wild If you, if they didn't collaborate, then their stories might not look like they lined up. So here's the thing the stories of Matthew, mark, luke and John are so similar that you know that they had to have been written about the same guy and that something happened, but they're so different that they couldn't have colluded. So that should give you evidence for it, because you know that you're going to have different details that someone shares, but you're going to have within the Gospels you have four different, unique accounts that if they might look that they contradict it, but they don't.
Speaker 1:If you kind of carefully I'm out but I'm first reading might go, but those aren't, aren't connecting. And so I want you to see that you can have true hope in the Gospel, because they're just different emphasized parts of the Bible and what's what's can be tough is sometimes they're not always chronological. Each of the four Gospels aren't really written in a chronological format. Luke might be the one that's closest to that, but the others weren't trying to be chronological, they kind of went theme-based and so that becomes challenging. And so if you're not intending to be, if the Bible wasn't written to be read in a certain way, you can't accuse it of not being true, for not being followed to the letter of a standard that it wasn't trying to meet. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:Well, also, aren't the Gospels written in different, like personas, like one is Jesus as a man, one is Jesus as I don't know where?
Speaker 1:we go as God Right.
Speaker 2:As God. Yeah, then there's another.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sort of. I mean, if there's some, that's right to a more Jewish audience. Some's trying to convey that no, jesus is God. Some say, oh no, jesus is actually a man as well. Like trying to convey both things. You know, confronting different heresies, but for the most part it's just delivering the story of what the writers felt they should emphasize. Matthew, who is a first-hand eyewitness, really believed that what he saw really, really, really mattered, and so he emphasized those different parts and the ladies at the tomb. You see different ladies at different tombs, but that doesn't mean they all weren't there. It just means that Matthew chose to emphasize some, while Luke emphasized others. We do this all the time in storytelling A part tells the whole.
Speaker 1:Like you know, if you mention a person, there's okay. So, for example, whenever I tell a story about machine gun Nick, you might think it was just only machine gun Nick, but there's a posse of people that come with machine gun Nick, there's Tibbets and there is Chris and there's.
Speaker 1:Elijah yeah, there's all these different guys, that kind of roll in with you and so you kind of go, I could just name you, or I could say name everybody, and so you kind of you substitute the part for the whole. It's called the, a literary device called synitiki, which I'm sure everyone was writing that one down at home. But what it means is that to tell a story you don't necessarily need to have all the exact details, because you're not. That's not the intention. You're just trying to get a convey the cross or some women there. And they saw Jesus, they reported the disciples and then they went and saw for themselves that there's no Jesus there.
Speaker 2:Also. I mean I in modern times I would reference kind of like the crime scene, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you're talking to a crowd because of having a broad daylight. You're talking to a crowd. Now, how many people are going to have the same? You know experience out of that one right you know traumatic, or that one event, okay, or whatever, that event is right, doesn't that be traumatic? But you're not. Everyone's going to notice or see or hear something different, and that's what makes it so hard, Right, but on this one, on this very topic, we have it so close that we can see that Jesus is really the Son of God, right.
Speaker 1:Have you, have you experienced people anywhere like struggling with this question?
Speaker 2:Me. You see it a lot. So, yes, yes, and I've talked about my one friend on Facebook who's who's constantly. The Bible contradicts itself, you know, witchcraft, this. And then the other day he was talking about he's a he's a fellow soldier and we got in an argument about I didn't mean to be an argument. He said the Persians were throwing cats at the Egyptians in some battle and I was like and now they hide behind women and children. And then he's like, oh, I don't want to hear your religious stuff. I'm like I'm not even talking religion right now, buddy, you know. I'm just saying like, hey, they do this. Like if you value something, like you know innocence, they kind of hide behind it. But, yes, so that's getting away from the topic. I see this a lot, especially with him. You talked to people and they're just like I just can't like the contradictions and and I'm like you know, but it's the truth, why can't we follow the truth, right? And Then I guess I lose them. I'm like uh.
Speaker 1:So I always say this to people Theology is faith seeking, understanding the problem. When you do theology outside of faith, it's. You should call it something else because it's not the study of God, it's. It's. It's more of like I Don't know, you're just studying, you're doing a religion study and I'm not saying it's. If you're not a Christian we we've talked about this you can't be one, unless God makes you one. So that's hard.
Speaker 1:But whenever you're looking at, if someone doesn't believe in Jesus and they're, they're having questions. They might be antagonists to the gospel, it might be attacking it or they could be just generally don't know, but usually they have a bias. The reason why they don't want to believe God's word, it's because the rebellion in their heart and so therefore, everything of God is not what they want. They want the parts of God that they can pick and choose from. The rest of it that they don't agree with, they want to. You know, put it away.
Speaker 1:Now. There are people who are genuinely asking questions. They get to a point and it's like a crisis of faith. But remember, you didn't come to faith because of the Bible was written perfectly. You came to faith because an event in history Jesus changed your heart and all of a sudden, now you, because of that, you take about faith. The words of that were true, that changed your life, are God's word. Now I can tell you that I believe in the infallibility, the. There are no errors in the Bible and if I ever come across one, I have to go ask this was so great about the Bible? I tell you the answer James 1, 5. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask of God, who gives generously without finding fault, and when he asks he must believe and not doubt. So in other words, when you, when you don't know something, ask God like, seek it in prayer and he will tell
Speaker 1:you and when he gives you the answer, believe it, don't walk around going I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I think that's the hardest part for people is that they talk, can talk themselves out of their faith. Because the number one Thing that Satan does when it comes to attacking our faith and listen, it is the old, it literally the oldest trick in the book. How did Satan get Eve to not believe? Ready, here's what. Here's what he did. He did Did God really say you should not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
Speaker 1:But the truth is God didn't say that. He said, or he said he said, or he gets her to question if God actually said anything. And so Eve starts getting her messed up in her head. Well, he said we shouldn't eat from it and we shouldn't even touch it. Oh, you're not gonna die. So she does touch it and she doesn't die. She's like, see, and then she takes a bite and then, bam, well, she doesn't realize what God told her was for his glory and her good. And God gave free will to human beings at that point and that's where they lost it. So I think the biggest trick that that Satan wants to use against us is to go back and use the same trick that he's always he doesn't use. He doesn't have new material and it's been working for a long time, so it's working for.
Speaker 2:But did Adam really lead correctly in that? No, he should have been like saying yeah, oh the first man is over here like oh yeah, okay, I mean, this is where most men go passive and like the.
Speaker 1:Really the first sin of man was passivity and the first sin of woman was control. Hey, adam, I'm gonna eat this, you have some? Anyway, that's another issue for another time of. We probably talk through why marriages are feelings, because men usually aren't leading well and women are trying to take control and and we can walk through that all day long. If you got questions about that, I love to answer them and we'll talk it through. And maybe she got Nick and tell machine on. Nick, do you have a problem with passivity? I don't think of you as a passive guy, but at some point did you just throw in the town, go like, okay, we'll do whatever you want.
Speaker 2:Sometimes so like I mean, but I will stop the talking.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, yeah, I just want this, like can we stop the conflict? Like right now, and just like, so it's like whatever, all right, fine, you know, um, so yeah. So there's sometimes when I was just like meh, but after, like I mean, the house is almost destroyed and you know the kids are upstairs hiding, you know, so yeah, but eventually I'm just like, I'm done, like yeah, I've said that the logical part of this, it's not going over. Well, unlogical and disrespect of things have been thrown at me and I'm now going to retreat because that's nothing. Now there is another work, like another side of that, where she would say there's nothing I can do when you, when you, when you like, decide something, you're just, you won't, you're immovable. So it was. You know it wasn't all the time, but there was a lot of time when it was just like is this even worth the next 20 minutes of yelling over this? Right, so?
Speaker 1:passivity. You go and like I, I'm gonna make a decision, I want to hear anything about it and anything you say to me is gonna be wrong and I'm not gonna. Then all of a sudden, she just Keeps pounding and you're like whatever you want and what happens? That creates a not saying that everyone needs to be like. Don't ever yield at some point though your leadership. When it's not loving, or when you draw lines are too strict or too tight, then that creates in your marriage a lot of war. And I think that's where I think that creates in parenting a lot of war, creates in relationships a lot of war, and so that's where I'm like we go on and on hours about that subject.
Speaker 1:But the basic thing is don't be passive. Lead well and love well, and you have to initiate the love. And that's where his husband and now I'm on a complete different subject, but as husbands we need to initiate love so that our wives are on their heels as far as responding to our unbelievable amounts of love and they don't know what to do. They're not trying to think of controlling something, because why would they ever want to try to take control? Because it's going so well. And I get it, I get it. I get it. You're like, but you don't know my wife.
Speaker 1:Well, apparently nobody knows anybody's wives, because I hear that all the time, and an age where we sort of given up on the nuclear family and said, unless it's impossible, let's just don't get married. That's gonna solve it. That's not the answer. God is something far better. We'll talk more about that in a future podcast, but I do think it comes back to don't doubt God's word. It breaks us at the very core and it rips us apart and what God wants from us is to fall hard after him. Hey, listen. Thanks so much for watching if you got questions. Comments concerns Text in at 737 231 0605. We'd love to hear from you. Uh, man, any final word machine on that.
Speaker 2:You know you all have a very great week.
Speaker 1:I think have an awesome week abortion oh.