A Cultural Revolution?

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. So what comes to your mind when you hear the word revolution? What comes to your mind when you hear the word revolution? Now, for me, there's only one answer, the only thing that comes to my mind when I hear the word revolution. Now, I got to be very careful here because I don't want to break any copyright laws. But I mean, come on, this is what forget what comes to your mind? But if your answer is not what I'm about to play for you, then let me just say your answer is wrong. The only thing that should come to your mind when you hear the word revolution is That's the only thing that should come to your mind. That's the Beatles, Okay, revolution, right, every I could read all the lyrics to you, but I will not bother That's what should come to your mind. Hopefully I'm not going to get in trouble for some copyright violation, right, but that is revolution by the Beatles. That's the only thing that should come to your mind. However, we're going to talk about it. Well, I don't know, are we kind of talking about the revolution the Beatles? We're talking about what revolution where they're referring to do you know what is the song about? Okay, no, no, we won't get it. We won't get into lyric analysis right there

1:33 there at all. We won't. But that's what comes to my mind. But I'm going to do everything in my power for the next I don't know, ever, how long we are on the air to talk about, well, I guess a cultural revolution that may be occurring has occurred. I don't know, but we're going to talk about all of that right after I say good morning everyone. It is Thursday, February the twentieth, twenty twenty five. It is currently ten five am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central Studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, when we talk about a cultural revolution, and that's kind of what the Beatles we're talking about right where they talking about a cultural revolution, and don't they kind of say, well, if you're talking about this, I'm with you, but if you're talking about this, I'm not with you. They kind of were trying to determine where, you know, what part and how they would play in any form of a revolution. Again, you can go listen to the song. It's the Beatles. Let me come on. Who doesn't know that song? All right? But a cultural revolution is a significant and often radical transformation of a society's cultural, social, and ideological structures. So when we talk about a cultural revolution, we're talking about a significant and often radical transformation of a society's cultural, social, and ideological structures. It typically involves a deliberate effort to

3:05 reshape traditions, values, and institutions, often driven by political, audiological, or social movements. Right now, I really want you to write down. I always tell you guys to do this. I don't think anyone ever takes me serious. I always tell you to write it down, put it on the refrigerator. I always tell people to do these things. No one ever listens to me. I know, I know none of you listen to me. You just roll your eyes and say, oh, he's so ridiculous. But I mean it. Sometimes write these things down, put them in a location, because then you can spark the conversation for the entire day cultural revolution.

3:45 Now I want you to write down cultural revolution. You can put it on the refrigerator, put it somewhere, and then put like one, two, three, four, five, name five cultural revolutions that play it as significant role in history. Cultural revolution number one? What would you name cultural revolution? Number two? What would you name cultural revolution? Number three? What would be the top five cultural revolutions? And again, A cultural revolution is a significant radical transformation of society's cultural, social, and ideological structures. It typically involves a deliberate effort to re shape traditions, values, and institutions, often driven by political, ideological, or social movements. The key characteristics of a cultural revolution is number one, shift in ideology, a fundamental change in beliefs, values, or norms, often challenging traditional or existing systems. Now, whenever you have a cultural revolution happening, whenever you have this major shift in ideology, I think we have to at least acknowledge this. There's going to be some people are going to be very un happy about it. They're gonna be bothered. They're not going to like it. They're gonna be like, I want to go back to the good old days. I don't like this anymore. And they will push back because they don't like it. They will resist it.

5:15 People don't like when things change. Some people like things to stay the same way they were back when they were in high school, or they want to go back to the nineteen fifties, or go back to the nineteen forties, or to the nineteen sixties. Some what they fell was the glorious you know era and whatever they think it was. Now many cases, the remembrance of that era may have been good for maybe them, but not for other people. But there's always this pushback. This morning, I was watching a video where there was a group of men and they were all complaining and griping and upset and it's a tragedy and we got to get back to it and we've got to save it. And what were they so upset about. DVDs have gone away. The stores don't sell physical DVDs and Blu Rays anymore. Everybody's gone to this crazy streaming stuff. And I want to go back to the days where I can buy an actual DVD and a Blu Ray. And then someone who was showing on his shelf all of his Blu Rays and it was like, look at all of my physical media. Look look.

6:25 And it wasn't even really arguing about like over quality, and they didn't even deal with all like them they I mean, they did talk about the cost, but not only the cost of physical media. You gotta store all of it, right, you gotta have room for it, Okay, and just right. But it was just funny because they were just like, you know, we need to go back to the good old days now. They I'm not saying I'm not saying that they didn't make any valid points, but they didn't like that. There's been a revolution, a change. I don't know if we will call digital media a cultural revolution, but it did change all of society. It did change everything, all the streaming services. Now again, there's always going to be complaints. But just what I'm just using that more to show is that that were whining and complaining, and I am saying that in a negative way because it just sounded like, you know, an old person like, get off my yard. This country is going to the you know, it's falling apart because of these kids.

7:23 You know. It sounds like that, you know, and sometimes it just it drives me crazy. But it's a shift in ideology, it's a change, and whenever that happens, some people are not going to be happy. Mass mobilization is another key characteristic of a cultural revolution. It involves large segments of society and promoting or enforcing new cultural ideals. So all of a sudden, everyone kind of gets on. When I say everyone, a majority gets on board, and then they start pushing for this and trying to go this direction. Now, sometimes within a cultural revolution, you have a suppression of opposition, you have resistance to the revolution is often met with censorship, persecution, or re education. Now I'm not a fan of that in any way. Shape or for a cultural revolution is great, but if you change and then you're like, but now we're gonna persecute anyone who opposes speaks against us, and we're going to silence them, That's that's not a good thing.

8:26 You know, Hey, We're going to go to America for religious freedom, and now we're going to take away the religious freedom of anyone who disagrees with us. Okay, I mean sometimes whoever takes control within a cultural revolution has a tendency to then oppress, censor, and silence those who then oppose the revolution. And well, we can get a whole discussion about that. It has an impact on institutions, education, arts, religion, and governance are often restructured to align with new cultural goals. I know, Christians, I don't like to admit this. Wherever culture goes, the Church typically follows in some way, shape or form. It may be ten years behind, it may be twenty years behind, but it always follows to some level.

9:17 Long term effects of a cultural revolution. These revolutions can lead to lasting societal changes, whether positive or negative, and and well, and then I can go into some examples of some cultural revolutions. I have a couple of uh, what three here that I have down, but I don't want to I was going to read them, but then I'm like, no, I just told you to write down on paper cultural revolution and then put one, two, three, four, five in name five. I'm not going to give you three of the five to start with right here. I'm not going to do that. I almost gave it away, I say, I almost messed up. I'm not going to give you the answer five important cultural revolutions. Now, the more you know about past cult revolutions, the better prepared you are to see one happening in the present or maybe be seeing where one is going in the future. Now, why am I talking about cultural revolutions, Because, as I mentioned yesterday, I was listening to a live webcast on the sermon's two point zero app and the name of the message was Understanding Cultural Revolution. I'm like, Oh, what a coold title. The second cool thing about that episode was they mentioned and talked briefly, well, I don't know how long they talked about it. They started talking about Dietrich Bonhoeffer's thesis on stupidity, and so I was like, oh wow, a Wednesday night church service broadcasting live on

10:49 the sermon's two point oh app entitled Understanding Cultural Revolution mentions Dietrich Bonhoeffer's thesis on Stupidity. You, I mean, You've got my attention. So instead of continuing to watch the webcast, I couldn't I couldn't wait. I couldn't wait. I had to had to sneak out of the sanctuary, had to go to an empty classroom and like, okay, guys, let's go live in five four, three two one, And then I did an over an hour long discussion and analyzing and critiquing and agreeing or disagreeing with Dietrich Bonhoeffer's thesis on stupidity. You can go listen to that. I think it was an interesting discussion. Some people may like it, some people may not. I think it's worth your time.

11:32 But I wanted to get back to the message, and you know, and by the time I got done and I came back, well, of course, you know, they'd all gone home for the day. So I was like waiting, kept refreshing, upload, upload, and I was nervous, right because, I mean, I can give you examples time and time again on the sermon's two point. Oh app I don't get what's going on with broadcasters. They will do a live webcast and sometimes they will not upload that live webcast after it's done for a week, two weeks. I think I saw one time, three weeks. I think I saw one time a month. What are you. Doing if you're live webcasting, why would you not upload it? I don't get it. I don't get it. But this church, to their credit, they had that thing uploaded early this morning, so they may have even uploaded it last night and I didn't see it. So I was like, Okay, get it.

12:23 I'm let's talk about it. So I don't know exactly where they're gonna go. They wanted me to understand cultural revolution. I just kind of gave you a definition and the basic characteristics and the key characteristics of a cultural revolution, all right, I talked about some of the ways people what can happen in a cultural revolution? All right, got it? Great? What are they going to do with it? I have no idea. Now they're gonna mention Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his thesis on stupidity, if they go into that to any if they go into it with any depth, Now you are equipped. I am equipped to be able to go Wait a minute, that's not exactly what Dietrich Bonhoffer was saying. We should be able to offer some criticism because we spend over an hour studying it. So I don't know where this is going to go. I'm interested, and you know, we're probably not going to be able to review all of this in this particular episode. It's a forty two minute message. You know that. Now, let me state this right from the start, all right, because people always misinterpret what I do. First, when I do a review, I haven't listened to all Most of the time, I haven't listened to anything in a review first this case, I've listened to a little bit of this because I was watching live, but I still haven't heard everything. So that means I'm not coming in with oh this is bad, So I'm going to just play this so I can critique it. No, I go in to listen to it because I'm going to listen to it, and I just listen to it live with you, and I invite you into the process. And no matter how much I criticize this,

13:53 I don't know if I will. But if I completely disagree with everything they say, but I'm still grateful for it. I'm still glad it's there because why it led to over an hour long discussion about Dietrich Bonhoeffer's thesis on stupidity, which probably many of you had never even heard of. So that's a good thing, right, Even if I disagree with their understanding of a cultural revolution, even if they predict where we are or where we're going, and if I disagree completely with it, it's still positive because you're hearing their perspective, you're hearing my perspective, so you benefit as the listener. Right. Some people think I just criticize to criticize it. No, I'm just listening to a sermon, reacting in real time, and if it leads to criticism, it leads to criticism. It's not me saying anything bad about them, it's me saying I disagree. Now here's my perspective, and then the listener gets to hear both. All right, So again I think a lot of people so misunderstand that.

14:55 But are you ready, Let's see if we can understand cultural revolution. And oh, you're going to probably need your Bible open to the Book of Judges. Here we go. The Eel's all right, So if you have your Bibles, let's go to Judges chapter twenty one. Tonight, Judges twenty one. We'll go ahead and dismiss the teenagers at this time, and they have their class. And while you're turning there, on March second, as I've mentioned, on Sunday, we have a church funerals director and their pastors coming in to kind of give you an alternative to. A funeral home. So being your place for that, we're there're gonna be a Q and a on that I met with them in fantastic ministry to really for the Body of Christ.

15:43 I'm telling you. But well, I'll let them explain what they do and how they could be a blessing to the church. But that's on the second's Sunday, the second in the evening, so just a note on that. Also, I'm heading to California in a couple of weeks to go and interview some interns. And so if you would just pray for safety there and back with all the planes coming out that all, you know, just pray that we get there safely and no problem there. I'm actually not concerned about it. And so, but if you would just pray it for safety there and back. Now a couple of things, Uh, this is the end of their announcements. There've already been going on for like I don't know, five or ten minutes. They're going to have a chili I think they're having a chili cookoff.

16:25 Fellowship activities, this, that, this, and why do you have to dismiss the teenagers to go to their class. They're teenagers, for crying out loud, right, there are young adults. By the time they're being a teenager, they should be able to sit and listen to a full law on well even before they become a teenager. But as a teenager, it's time for them to dig in, you know, because many times they get sent off to little youth group where there's not in many cases not even a trained pastor teaching them, or it's a so called youth pastor and it's all about usually, don't drink, don't listen to rock and roll. It's a lot of times I just don't get it. They're old enough to sit there and dig into doctrine, theology and church history. They are old enough.

17:09 I don't I'm not a fan of dismissing them to their little youth groups, where in many cases, after they've been in youth groups for I mean, I mean, look, we know this to be true. Churches everywhere have youth groups all over the place, right and almost inevitably, right when the kids get ready to go to college. Then they there's almost like okay, there's this parachurch ministry, or there's this resource, or there's this research resource. Because we've got to prepare them so they don't go off to secular university and have their faith destroyed. Well, what have you been doing for four years where they're in the youth group, Stop the pizza parties and the fun and teach them for crying out loud. It's all of a sudden now, oh no, it's almost graduation time. We got to prepare them. What have you been doing for four years?

17:53 Five years, ten years? Okay? All right, so drives me I'm not saying this church. I'm just saying the church culture when it comes to teenage, I'm so opposed to the way they typically do youth ministry. All right, So but he's going through there, and I find that interesting. Hey, pray for my safety. I'm not worried about it, but pray for my safety. I guess, well, we could get in all the kind of theological questions there. Well we won't go there. So all right, see see what happens in reviews. But yeah, when it comes to youth ministry, I just ugh, man, youth groups. What in the world. I mean, I've just seen so much Like my first encounter with youth I mean I became a Christian basically as a teenager and stepped into the youth group, and I was like, get me out of this, Like what is this nonsense? Like I was, I remember going, I'm not going to the youth group. I don't know what this is. This is some ridiculousness. This is just it's like a game. So I started going to every like I would go to the I'd go to the women's Bible study, or I'd go to the men. I would go to the seniors, youth Sunday school class. I would go every everywhere else other than the youth group because it was like it was just ridiculous. It was like moralism, shallow, ridiculousness, fun games. I don't know, you have to give the youth group some like cool name. Like all of it was just like you guys. I hate to say it coming from it from like a non Christian perspective. As a team, I'm like, this is the lamest thing I've ever seen in my life. And I know that's a

19:23 very dated term, but this is ridiculous. This is just this is just it was just foolishness. Come to church to play, you know, capture the flag and lock ins and pizza parties. I'm like, I don't know, how about you teach me something. I can go home and do my own fun. I don't need the church giving me some lame fun. But I think it was the church kids who loved that stuff, right, They've been growing up in church. They liked the idea of having fun and doing these kinds of things. I think they And so it's a really radically different perspective from the church kid perspective. It's like it's something different. It breaks it up, it's fun. It gives me a chants to have some fun from a kid coming out from outside of the church, I'm like, first, your fun is lame. And second, if I just coming here for fun, I'll just stay at home. I can go do something. I can get a group of kids together and we can go have far more fun than this ridiculous stuff the church is offering me. So it's such a different it's such a different perspective. I think church kids love it, probably my assessment. And non church kids, well, maybe they love it.

20:32 I don't know. Maybe I was just that went out. But we get past all of that. We need a cultural revolution and youth ministry. But I digress. I can wisdom when we're there that God would help us to find the right men, a couple of men to come in and help us this summer. All right, Judges, Chapter twenty one. If you haven't, let's all stand. We'll read one verse tonight and we'll get into not really a heavy Bible lesson tonight. I hope you can just sort of give me a little grace on that. I'm going to kind of move into sort of a background of where our nation is tonight, and maybe next week we'll start getting digging further into really the problem. We're understanding the cultural revolution. That's the title of tonight's lesson, Understanding the cultural revolution that our nation is finding itself in.

21:20 I thank the Lord for what's happening from the top down. And I think that's a blessing. You ought to thank the Lord for that. Now, see see, I'm already in trouble here. Okay, it's great. What is happening from the top down? Are you referring to the Trump administration? And I should be happy what the Trump administration is doing. I should be thanking God for that. Now. I have right here in front of me, and I'm not going to get into this because I'll tick off all the Trump supporters, but I have right here in front of me thirteen live that Trump has to already told. And this is just meant working that down to thirteen thirteen huge lies that Trump has stated in the first month back in office, and just some absolutely ridiculous just flat out lies, misrepresentation, wrong, just absolute craziness. Right, and then you know he's basically blaming Ukraine for Russia invading them, basically taking Russia side. What in the world is that calling for the Palestinians just to be moved off. Hey, you're just gone, just go and you don't come back.

22:39 America's gonna own it. Some of these things are just insane, and it's like, I'm supposed to be like, whoo, I'm so happy with what's happening from the top down. Now. Is he referring to something else? I don't know you can interpret that. But if he's talking about the Trump administration, okay, oh man live, oh man live. I mean, and this is not even about being liberal, being conservative you can be I know this is shocking. But if I go back through my life and you want to talk about a cultural revolution, if I go back in my life, right, my first stumbling upon kind of a conservative mindset, right was it Buckley? William Buckley I think was his name.

23:29 He wrote, He wrote numerous books. I think it's Buckley, very conservative writer. Back then, I had stumbled upon a book I was I was a teenager. I was at the mall all the time, and I was in the bookstore, and I would always just look through and just pick some kind of random book and it gave like a conservative outlook, laying out kind of conservative political perspectives. Right. And then I stumbled upon Rush Limbaugh when I was you know, I think I was still a teenager, and I didn't at first, I didn't understand what was going on. So I was starting to learn about conservative political ideology, right, I was starting to try to understand it. Whether I agreed or disagree, I understood it. My point is this, from that point on, learning and learning and listening and listening and learning and listening and reading about things from a conservative perspective, I started understanding kind of a conservative ideology, Ladies and gentlemen, This whole, the whole Maga Trump movement is not the conservativism of back in the day. It's something different. And so I can't stand that if you're if you throw criticism against Trump, you're not conservative. Or maybe I'm not a lunatic. Maybe that's the thing. Yeah, not just offended a lot of people. Okay, that's something different.

24:46 It's something other, it's it's it's just something completely different. And again, let's make it very clear. Conservativism and the MAGA movement. Let's make it very clear. Conservativism and the MAGA movement is not Christianity. It never has been, nor will it ever be. Christianity is not a part of any political ideology. It's separate from it's other than all right, Christianity is not pro America. It's not pro Republican, it's not pro Democrat. Christianity is pro christ. It's about the Word of God. It's a spiritual perspective, not a political ideology.

25:28 And we should not allow a political ideology to hijack Christianity and corrupt it. If you want to talk about a cultural revolution, that's where I would be. I don't know what we're thinking the Trump administration for, but okay, okay, I mean, and then he is, you know, spiritual main leader of the his like, you know, initiative to I guess, try to bring Christianity back. It's PAULA White, absolute complete heretic. I mean, come on now, all right, we don't we can just spend out on all of that. So but yeah, I was just looking at today of some of these lies that he told and looking at the facts, going that's just not true. That's not true. That's not true, that's not true. But I guess it doesn't matter. I guess it's just and people are gonna say, but what about it's not about pointing to bad behavior to justify bad behavior. The bad behavior is bad on any side.

26:20 So I don't know what he's referring to there, but he seems happy with what's happening from the top down. But if what's happening from the top down is that the cultural revolution or is there a different cultural revolution? Is the Maga movement of cultural revolution? Or is there something outside? I don't know which way he's going to go, and how does Christianity fit into all of this. I got questions, and I had heard at least this point last night, and I was already asking these questions last night. And I don't know how long God will let us have that. But we have had a massive shift from what we started as a nation. But I want to address that tonight and see where and where this is going, and hopefully as a church, we don't have to be a part of that. We can actually at least identify the problem and then do what we can to evangelize and share Christ.

27:13 So it's weird. It's like there's two things. He's saying, we're way far from where the country started, right, But then there's this positive thing happening from the top down. So it seems like is he trying to basically say the Trump administration is the thing fighting the cultural revolution that he's not in favor of. So oh, I mean, I don't know where this is going. I've got lots of questions. And when you always go back to the early stages of our country, I don't know, guys. I mean, there was some really messed up things that's happened in that I know, you're never supposed to talk about the ugly part of American history. There was some really messed up stuff that happened, right, I don't know, people being I don't killed and forced off their land as we took it and placed into reservations. I don't. I don't.

28:03 I don't know. Are those that is that where we're supposed to be like yay, I don't know. Yeah, there there's a lot of a lot of things, you know, slavery, I don't know, taking away people, not giving them the same rights as we have because they were a different color. I mean, there's a lot of issues, right, there's a lot a lot of issues. I don't know. Religious extremism that I don't know, kills people for falsely accusing them of being a witch. I don't. I don't. Maybe that's a problem. I know I always mentioned Salem, but I mean there's lots of issues. Now people say, well, no country is perfect, and I agree, I agree, I agree.

28:46 But when we say, well, we're far removed from that, here's what I will say. This is how I view it from a thiological perspective. I don't care if you go back to the beginning of the United States of America. I don't care if you go to the eighteen hundreds, if you go to the nineteen hundreds, if you go wherever you go. You know what you're always going to see. Because there's one constant in society sin. Because human beings are sinful, we do not keep the law of God, or incapable of keeping the law of God. So the history of humanity, even outside of the United States, is filled with wrong and sin and horrible atrocities committed in many cases committed in the name of God. Now and sometimes within society, the sin is more covered up in a veil of righteousness. Hey, it's covered in some kind of you know, the near of religiosity. But the reality is it's always there. It's always there. So whatever. The cultural revolution is the one thing that's always going to be present. It's always going to be sin in some way, shape or form. It just may take on a different shape, it may take on a different form, but it's always going to be there. So I'll just go ahead and get my kind of thesis out of the way. Right, there is the one thing about culture. Call it a revolution, don't call it a revolution. The revolution will be televised,

30:18 it will not be televised. Whatever you want to say about the revolution. Sin will always be a part of it, no matter what. It'll be a part of the side that's for the revolution, it'll be part of the side opposing the revolution. But there is always sin that is inevitable, because we are sinners. All right, Let's go to this verse, verse number twenty five. You know the verse I think. Hopefully you do. In those days there was no king. In Judges, Chapter twenty one, Verse twenty five. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

31:03 Let's pray for this lesson tonight. Father. We love you. We are very thankful tonight that we have a church to come to, the freedom to be able to meet the comfort that you've. Given us to actually meet in a heated building tonight. It is a blessing. Lord. I remember being in Russia and scraping ice off the hard wooden planks as the people were coming in out in the middle of nowhere. And Lord, tonight, we are a blessed people to have a comfortable place to meet. And I pray you help and guide Lord us tonight to truth, give us ears to hear, and help us to understand where we are tonight as a nation, as churches tonight, that we would be very careful not to be a part of the coldness and the indifference to the things of God that's happening not only in the public sphere, but even churches across our nation. So I pray God for blessings and insight tonight. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.

31:58 Thank you. May be seated now. If you were at the Bible study last night, guys, I'm not going to go over all of that tonight, but I brought up a thesis written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. How many know who Dietrich Bonhoeffer is. Okay, he is a theologian, a pastor and part of the resistance in Nazi Germany. I doesn't mention that he's a Lutheran there, but okay, all right, all right, just kind of I think you have to kind of throw that in, right, okay, But because if you're gonna deal with someone's if they're a theologian, and you're gonna talk about them or say what they believe, let's at least make sure we understand the philological framework from which they are operating. But okay, all right, let's see what he says about Remember, we studied it, we studied this thesis. Let's see what he says about it.

32:50 Well. He was arrested in nineteen forty three, and while he was in prison, by the way, the man was just fantastic in terms of trying to wake the church up in German what was happening and what was coming and was not listened to, and the church became, in his opinion his view, lukewarm. They just did not listen to any reason. Anyway. While he was in prison, he wrote a thesis and basically it's the theory of stupidity. And yeah, if you want to look it up, you can actually read this. And he referenced stupid people in an intellectual He broke that thing down in an intellectual sense and really showed that evil men, which of course was in ruling Germany at that time, were only there.

33:38 Because of the stupidity of the people following. And he made a very good case on that and how stupidity is something that can happen to any culture, and how many times a whole massive shift in cultural think can change when a different leader gets in office, or a religious leader. And so he made a very interesting point that the only way that a person can avoid stupidity is the word of God. Okay, now see that the only way to avoid stupidity is. The word of God? All right, Right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna. I'm gonna verify this again, all right because I because I I we talked about this yesterday, and I'm like, well, where where did this come from?

34:22 Right? So did Bonhefer. I'm gonna, I'm gonna. I'm gonna because I did a little work on this yesterday and I didn't find anything. I'm gonna look here again. Did Bonhefer say the only. Way to avoid stupidity is the word of God? All right? I'm gonna see here if what we get all right. So okay, now, when I checked yesterday in a number of sources, I got basically the same thing. All right, So here here's what we get.

35:03 Bonhoeffer does not explicitly state that the only way to avoid stupidity is the word of God, but his writings imply that true wisdom and therefore freedom from stupidity, comes from being grounded in divine truth rather than human ideologies. Okay, so maybe maybe there is a little element of truth there that that stated differently than what I founded found yesterday, but both sources say he does not explicitly state that it's more nuanced than that. Okay, it says here. Well. While Bonheffer does not make the statement directly, his theological framework suggests that true wisdom the antidote to stupidity, comes from seeking God's truth rather than conforming to worldly thinking.

35:47 His broader theological teachings emphasize the fear of the Lord, the need of divine revelation, and the importance of personal responsibility. All right, Bonhaffer's likely view. In his Christian perspective, Bonhaeffer would likely argue so that now that now AI here is making some assumptions that Without the word of God, people remain vulnerable to deception. Human wisdom alone is insufficient. True liberation comes from aligning with God's truth. However, he does not reduce his argument to simple the Word of God is the only way. Instead, he describes stupidity as a societal and spiritual condition that requires liberation, a concept that aligns with biblical truth, but is not stated in exact terms, so it's a little bit more nuanced. Now, maybe he's just simplifying it, that's okay, But I would stress something here, right, if the word of God is the antidote to stupidity, and if we define stupidity as you know, you're kind of like you're just you don't understand your own mistakes, you don't understand your own error, you're ignorant, you're you're not you know, you don't realize something, or you're you know, basically, you're too stupid to real life something. I think we have to take a step back and ask ourselves, then why has it been true within church history? The Christians who know the Word of God, who memorize it, who study fall for ridiculous things like

37:18 I don't know, have you seen some of the nonsense and the charismatic movement. Those people have the Word of God, they read it, they study it, they memorize it, they quote it, and the next thing you know, you got people falling down on the floor, barking like dogs, supposedly speaking of some unknown tongue, making prophecies that literally do not happen, claiming people are being healed that aren't being healed. Lie, lie, lies, lies, lies. They have the Word of God. How many times have Christians who have the Word of God know the Word of God buy into conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory, shares misinformation, make false accusations count countless times?

38:02 How can Christians who know the word of God I don't know falsely accuse people of witchcraft and murder them? So is the word of God the antidote? And if the word of God supposedly keeps us from stupidity, then how come all of us who have the Word of God I don't know? In two thousand years of church history, we still can't agree on baptism. We can't agree on the Lord's Supper. We can't agree on grace. We can agree on faith, we can't agree on repentance. We can't literally agree on anything, but the word of God is the antidote to stupidity, you see. Least I'm going to at least challenge the hypotheses to a little bit. Right, I'm going to challenge it a little bit. Now he may go into greater detail, so there is some truth to what he's saying. I think it's a little bit more nuanced. It a little bit more nuanced, And that's okay, because sometimes when you're preaching and you're not getting ready to expound on it, you have to summarize it to some level. So I just wanted to I just wanted to challenge it, you know. And maybe not exactly that way, but okay, overall, I'll say, all right, you can say you can go with it. We'll go with the idea that that the curatest stupidity is the word of God.

39:12 Let's just say that's the hypothesis. I will then argue. Now, I'm not going to make an argue whether Bonhaffer said it or not. I didn't say it. What I'm going to do is I'm going to put forth the idea this, if the word of God is the antidote to stupidity, then please explain all the things that have happened in two thousand years in church history, and that we can't agree on anything, and some of the most ridiculous things that have been promoted and believed by the very Christians who have the Word of God. That's very fantastic theory. And I thought maybe I just throw that out to you, but I took a whole forty five minutes and actually taught through that thesis. And you can compare the word stupid or stupidity to the word full fool's folly, and then contrasts that with wise, prudent wisdom, and God really breaks it down. People down into those two groups. You're either one or the other, and the simple sort of in the middle. But they believe every word and are punished.

40:14 They don't foresee the evil, they don't hide themselves from it. They're just kind of continuing on and or punished. And so I went through a list of things that happened to stupid people, and how many ever said something stupid. I would like to find his forty five minute teaching on this that would be interesting to hear. I don't know if he breaks down the thesis or if he just takes the thesis and then kind of looks at it like the way he said, comparing and contrasting it with the biblical terms full foolish, folly, simple, that would be interesting. I would love that could be great teaching. So I have to look and see if we can find his teaching on it, because if we can, that would be that would be really fascinating. Whether I may agree or disagree, but it would be fascinating.

40:56 All right, all right, how many of ever did something stupid? All right? All of us have or how many of them? This is probably less people, but be honest with God, how many have ever believed something stupid? Okay? Okay? So that doesn't mean we're stupid. That does mean that we all have the tendency to be stupid, uh, to to have a dullness of mind. And that's really what it is. And so. Why am I saying that because there has been an an evidence. Of a cultural shift in our nation. Now, before he gets to this evidence of this cultural shift in our nation, I would ask this, how does our depravity, which, depending on your theological background, you believe your depravity impacts every aspect of your being? Your mind your desire. Oh, I know for some people that don't like this, your will. It impacts every area of your life.

42:01 If our depraved nature impacts our mind, then how does that connect within being stupid, doing stupid things, saying stupid things, believing stupid things. And as long as the depravity is there, which it does not go away, you're not freed from it. Then guess what then throughout your Christian life. So is the source of our stupidity our depravity, or is the source of our stupidity intellectual? Now even Bonaffer said it's societal, it's not intellectual. So I remember bond Hoffert. We went, we looked at some of the things he had to say about that. So what do you think, does one's depravity make us stupid to some definition of that word?

43:02 I don't. Well, let's see what is this cultural shift? What is this cultural revolution? He's about to point out. A revolution, so to speak. And it's nothing new to the Bible. The scriptures actually do and I mentioned several of these on Sunday, that every man did that which was right in his own eyes. In the Book of Judges, it was a time where they decided what right was and they walked in what they thought right. Was, and so they did right. But they did right. According to what they thought right was. So there was no standard, there's no king, and so everyone's kind of doing their own thing. In fact, and Saw eighty one, you find the same phrase, almost the same phrase, about their own hearts. God, he says, So I gave them up to their own hearts. I mentioned on Sunday, be not wise in your own eyes. And I can go on and on about the tendency of every one of us.

43:58 If left to ourselves, what does enjoy ourselves? We are so prone to just we have so much toxicity in us that we are. Prone to really mess up. I think it was Robertson that wrote the song prone to wander Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love. We have toxicity inside of us, we have sin, we have depravity inside of us. All right, So what's the cultural revolution? He said, it's nothing new. Well, then the issue is the fall. The issue is to pravity. Right now, Is he going to say that somehow we get the Bible and we're freed from this, Because again, I can go back to specific times in American history where those with the Bible pastors and churches, defended and supported slavery, defended and supported segregation, defended and supported to not denial of civil rights to those of a different race. I mean, we can't deny that right. We can't deny that.

45:07 And if you know any anything about that story, he did walk away from God, come thou Fount as a song. And then years later in a stage coach, a woman sitting across from him in a stage coach was actually singing this song, Come thou Fount, and she looked up over the song book and seeing him on the other side of the stage coach, said isn't this. The most beautiful hem ever written? And he said to her, well, I'm the miserable man that wrote that him and I would give a thousand worlds if I had them to have the happiness that I had when I wrote that song. But he got away from. The Lord, and I think the story does finish good. He did get back some of the ground that he lost.

45:48 But it's an evident problem that all of us can face. If left to ourselves, we would mess our lives up. In fact, you'll find in Roman chapter Won the condition of Man. He gave them up, gave them up, gave them over. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge. And so when you see that all of us have the. Tendency to just blow it, all of us have the tendency. I don't like we have the tendency. No, the point is, we all blow it, we all mess up. That's why Jesus, God had to send his son to die for us, and that's why we are saved by an imputed righteousness. It's not that we have the tendency. We sin. We fail.

46:29 We don't have the tendency to do it. We live in a perpetual state of failure. We live in a perpetual state of sin. It's not like I have the tendency to mess up. I'm gonna mess up in some way, shape or form. I already have. I am, I probably am right now, I will five minutes from now. I don't love God the way I'm I mean, I could go through, you know, in all the scriptures and I'm going to quote so I don't like. It's not that we have the tendency too. We do. Look, we can't we can't diagnose cultural revolution if we can't even diagnose our own condition. We can't diagnose the condition of the culture. If we can't see our own problem, if I can't look in the mirror and go, I'm I don't have a tendency to do wrong. I'm in a perpetual state of wrong according to God's law. If I can't see that, and I'm just like, well, I have a tendency, have a tendency inside of me. No, you have depravity raging through your entire being. Okay, that's what you have.

47:35 To fall away, get out of the will of God. And so when you see this, this is nothing new that's happening in our nation tonight. This is nothing. This is sort of repeated cycle in history. But our nation did not start like it is tonight. It didn't. And as Americans, we're living in the midst of a cultural sort of a moral shift, massive moral shift just in the last ten years, and fact, biblical and natural law principles of truth have been questioned. They have been replaced with the shifting sands of philosophy. And so many Christians, of course, are experiencing spiritual failure themselves and morally and ethically, they're in a philosophical downfall. Our nation is so and I think Americans, far too many of them tonight have exchanged long held biblical absolutes and have exchanged them for secular humanism. And you don't know you're being affected, but all of us are being affected by it.

48:40 Our churches can be affected by it. So when you look. At this, this study tonight, it's good for us just to be reminded of the continual downward spiral of a nation. I pray for a revival. I hope we have revival. I would love to see all the churches that are Bible believing, Bible Gospel centered churches, Christ centered churches to be filled to capacity with people waiting to get in line, get in because when hear the preaching. I would love to see that. Again. I just have this. I struggle with this so much, this idea. I look back back where we had biblical standards and now we've replaced them with you know, humanism.

49:25 But go back in history, go back in history. European settlers engaged in mass killings, land seizures, and forced displacement of Native American tribes. I can, I can name some of the massacres that took place. African people were kidnapped, sold into slavery and subject to brutal conditions. Slavery became a central economic force and colonies, particularly in the South. You had the Salem witch Trials, which led to executions and imprisonment of individuals falsely accused of witchcraft. Right, you have to continua and expansion of slavery, and slave people were denied basic human rights, subjected to forced labor, family separations, and brutal punishment. You had the force relocation of thousands of Native Americans, leading the massive death tolls due to exposure, starvation, and disease. US expansion led to the annexation of large territories from Mexico, often justified by the doctrine of so called manifest destiny. You had thousands of Black Americans were lynched between the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. You had the Tulsa Race massacre in nineteen twenty one, the Rosewood Massacre in nineteen twenty three. You had systemic legal discrimination against Black Americans and voting, education, housing, and employment. The US government and states forcibly sterilized people deemed unfit, minorities, disabled individuals. Well into the twentieth century. You had Chinese Exclusion Act in eighteen eighty two, first major law restricting

50:55 immigration based on race. You had twentieth century moral atrocities. You had the interment of Japanese Americans. Over one hundred and twenty thousand Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in interment camps during World War TI. World War Two, you had the Tussegee, a syphilis experiment. US government deliberately withheld treatment from African American men or black men with syphilists to study the disease, leading to unnecessary suffering and death. You had massacres and police brutality against civil rights movements. Government agencies targeted civil rights activists, including the assassination of black leaders. You had re housing discrimination, systemic racial racial discrimination and mortgages leading lending and home ownership.

51:49 We could go into all kinds of other things. You had US involvement and regime changes, coups and wars leading to civilian casualties Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Yeah, I mean, I could go on and on and on with all the things that happened through American history. Now, I know some people say, well, but the difference was the difference was, though the difference was Again, let me make it very clear, it's just true of every society. I'm not picking on America. I could go to any country, any civilization, and you know what you see atrocities, moral atrocities. Horrible things happen even with those who hold up a Bible and say we are Christians, we have the Word of God, and you commit atrocity after atrocity of ter atrocity because we are sinners. So I do agree that these things happen in cycles. Maybe it gets worse and then things will get better. People will learn some lessons from it, but it's going to continue. The issue is not because we have a tendency because we are totally depraved. It's not because we have toxicity. It's because we have sin inside of us. So some people can like, you're pointing out all the bad things America does. You're horrible, you hate America.

53:07 You can go to any country, you name the country, it's going to be filled with moral atrocities. Why because human beings live in those countries, and what are human beings? They are sinners, so they are always doing this. Now, some people may use atheism or humanism as justification others literally will use God and religion as justification. People sin, people commit atrocities, and they will use anything to justify what they are doing. What makes to me the ones that bother me the most are those who use scripture and use God as justification for either their political agenda or their military advancement, and try to justify it, wrapping themselves in a robe of self righteousness, claiming that what we're doing we're doing for God, while they in many cases commit horrible acts, like I don't know, killing people for being a witch. That that's what bothers me, all right, So let's see where else he goes with this.

54:15 I would love to see people just hungering and thirsting after righteousness. I would love to see that, and that has happened in our nation a couple of times in its history, but here recently there's been a change. And it's a noticeable change. Also, remember some of the so called times where people were hungering and thirsting after righteousness. And I believe we never truly hunger and thirst after righteousness. We always hunger and thirst after our own self advancement and our own self pleasure. And that's why that scripture is a law that condemns us. Okay, but all right, we can get into a whole law gospel distinction. But let's just make sure. I think was it the second grade Awakening? I think that's Finny's the second grade Awakening. Just look at all the literature at the results of the second grade Awakening.

55:02 They called it the burned over District. That it was a It actually made everyone worse off spiritually. It did not make people better. How many different times have there been a so called revival, something great is happening, and then it's history that looks back going, well, actually that thing was a total mess. That thing was actually not a good thing. So, you know, whenever you want to talk about how things have happened in the past, we have a tendency to look through rose colored you know, rose colored lenses through the past. We look back to the past in a more fun way than it typically really is. And that's but because again, no matter where you go, you can look back and go, oh, I wish I lived back then. And if you live back then, you know what, you would see the same sinful people, with the same sinful mindset and the same sinful actions.

55:58 Their just sin would just be revealed and demonstrated in a different way based off the time and the cultural norms. And so number one in this study, there's an intellectual and educational shift. Now we'll start right there. There's an there's an intellectual and educational shift. And here's what it happened. You should you know this, America was founded on biblical principles, right, and and some believe that. America was found as a Christian nation. I don't use that phrase because we were not a nation that was Christian so to speak. But we were founded on biblical principles.

56:39 And if the founding fathers did not want to state church, is what that push What that statement was, they didn't want to state church, so they didn't want a Christian nation, but they they founded what we have tonight on biblical principles. Oh boy, so here we go. So so his hypothesis is things have changed in our education. Things have changed. We'll see what the change he's going to refer to. But he's making a dogmatic assertion that America was founded on biblical principles. All right, So again, if founded on biblical principles, look at the atrocities we were engaged in the cave. So but again that just means you can found something on a biblical principle and we will never live up to the biblical principle. Let's just always make that very clear. You can form a society on biblical principles and no one in society will live up to those principles because we cannot keep the law of God.

57:36 We will always fall short. That we just have to establish that right out. And I'm not even talking about the non Christians. I'm talking about the Christians. But the question of whether America was founded on biblical principles is complex and depends on how one defines biblical principles, right, okay, and how one interprets the beliefs and actions of the Founding fathers. All right, the Founding father's religious beliefs. Many of the Founding Fathers identified as Christian, but their beliefs varied wildly. Evangelical or Orthodox Christians. Patrick Henry Samuel Adams believed in biblical authority, but you had deist Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine rejected divine revelation and miracles but saw God as a moral lawgiver. You had Unitarians, John Adams, which rejected the Trinity but upheld moral teachings of Jesus.

58:30 So right there, which biblical principles? Those are three completely radically different. Like if they reject the Trinity and if they reject divine revelation, and then they're not even Christian, their understanding of the Bible would not even be Christian. So did they help found the biblical principles? Many Founders referenced God, but they often did so in a general or philosophical way, not a biblic way. Oh no, oh, they mentioned God. Which God? If you reject the Trinity, then that's not the same God as Okay, now, just it just drives me crazy, all right. The Declaration, uh, the Declaration of Independence refers to God in broad terms laws of nature and of Nature's God deistic language, All men are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, divine providence of guiding force. These references acknowledge a high higher morality authority, a moral authority, but they do not explicitly affirm biblical theology. I don't affirm necessarily sin, salvation, Jesus, nothing like that. So they may have they may be theistic foundation maybe a theistic foundation, biblical principles, that's that's another.

59:52 And just remember that whole thing that all men are created equal, endowed by their creators, were certain unalienable rights. Well, unless you happen to be of a different skin color, and then we dehumanize you so that we can buy and sell you like a piece of property, or unless we accuse you of being a witch and we kill you, okay, because you know, or if you don't adopt our certain religious ploce, I mean, we can go to the things that happen in America. Or if we decide that we want your land because God has given us divine matter, a divine destiny to have it, you know, manifest destiny, and oh, so many things, so many things. All right.

1:00:34 The US Constitution secular, biblical. The US Constitution does not mention God, Jesus, or the Bible article some of the articles here. No religious tests shall ever be required for public office. The First Amendment establishes religious freedom. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof the Constitution deliberately avoids establishing a theocracy or biblical rule promoting religious pluralism instead. All right, so we have again was it founded on biblical principles? Again, while America was not explicitly founded as a Christian nation, Biblical principles did influence aspects of its laws and moral framework.

1:01:23 Many laws reflect biblical morality prohibitions on murder and theft. But again, okay, maybe they took it from it. But were there any prohibitions against murder and theft before the Bible? As are prohibitions against these things and other religions. I mean. But at the same time, you could say, well, maybe they were influenced by the Bible. That's okay. So I guess if any culture has a law against murder or theft, then that's a biblical principle. I guess you could make it. See how that you can play a little game that way. Human dignity and rights, the idea of equality before God echoes genusis made in God's image. Okay, you may be able to make an argument there. But again, did we live up to that principle? No, we did not. Limited government some see Romans thirteen. Government is God's servant for justice as a foundation for civil authority. However, many Biblical laws Sabbath laws, dietary laws, Old Testament theocracy was not incorporated.

1:02:29 The early US government tolerated slavery, which contradicts Biblical teachings on justice and human dignity. Right, if we go to some specific things, well, I could go on here, so we can definitely say America is not a theocracy. The US was not established as a Christian state, nor is it governed by Biblical law. Biblical morality shaped some cultural and ethical ideals, but was not legally codified as the foundation, and the founders prioritized freedom of relige and rather than enforcing Biblical Christianity. So see, I know Christians love to say it, we an't were found on biblical principles, but it's not. Again, it's a little nuanced there. Let's see, we'll go just a little bit further here.

1:03:18 It is absolutely evident. You can cross reference that with every quote. Most of most of these Founding fathers, some were not safe, but most of them feared God. You'll find it all over the Founding documents, all over their quotes, everything that they wrote, they had references to God. They had references to what they called the Supreme Being or our benevolent friend, George Washington. It is a inaugural address. He mentioned many times God and so, but there's overwhelming evidence that our founding fathers were God fearing men. You cannot go too far in our in our church, in our in our constitution. And wait, so there. Again, which God ideas you had Unitarians, That doesn't make it biblical, that makes it theistic. If you want to say the theism was a the dominant philosophy of the time, I gota no problem acknowledging that obviously theism was. Okay, so what do you what are you saying? Are you are you calling for us to return to some theocratic idea? Well, then if you go to a freeocretic idea, which theism, which God is going to then be the one that are just going to be general. I don't know, all right, and he's he's making all these dogmatic assertions that we but all right, you see, okay. John Adams at the tri the treaty Treaty of Tripoli, I think is what it is. John Adams, seventeen ninety seven. The government of

1:04:50 the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion. Now I have to verify that quote but I think there's a there's some that would possibly then challenge what is being stated here. Right, I think Thomas Jefferson I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people, which declared that their legislator should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, are prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state. All right, George Washington warned against religious secrets and government, but emphasize moral virtue sectarianism. Okay, if I can read the word right, George Washington warned against religious sectarianism and government, but emphasized moral virtue. So for every quote you can say, there's probably another quote.

1:05:39 People love to go take these quotes and we again, we have to verify every single quote. We got to go find context. But everybody wants to make this argument. And I don't really know what's the end game of your argument. What's the end game that the government needs to promote biblical principles that the state needs to here's novel idea. Why not the church that does that, and not worry what what the government does, Because we are to operate separate from distinct from and it's our job to preach biblical morality, call preach about sin and salvation. And Christianity is not a moralistic system. It's a system that says the morality which God demands is the morality which we cannot achieve. So Christ died for us, so his morality can be imputed to us. That's a completely different Christianity than probably the Christianity that is promoted by many Christians not find.

1:06:36 References to God. I have a book in my office and it's. A good book on basically a summary of Thomas Paine's work that he had put together. And I agree with. Thomas pain on some of the things that he referenced against Great Britain. He wrote a three part series a book that started in seventeen ninety four, seventeen ninety five and eighteen oh seven. It was three parts to this Age of Reason, and again I had I have not read all of it. I'm not going to do that, but what I. Have read, there's some parts of it that I said. Thomas Paine was able to observe some things that were true, and he saw religious apostasy. He saw what could happen with with religious leaders and with a could doude in manipulation, and he called Christians tonight us Christian mythology, and we're no different than than any other Eastern religion because in those days, after all, there was a lot of sun gods or children gods from mother gods. And he said, this is nothing different than anything that was already existing.

1:07:47 And you can convince nine people. To write about this, this so called virgin born Savior, and then that he resurrected. And so when you read his writings, I could see why he would come to the conclusion. One thing that Thomas Pain left out. Is that Bible prophecy was overwhelmingly given evidence as to who Christ was. Okay, I'm confused in what he's doing here, trying going back to the early founding fathers, and he was at least acknowledging Thomas Pain. Just to make sure you understand, Thomas Pain was a deist. He believed in a some type of a creator God, but he rejected organized religion, rejected the divine revelation, and he completely rejected the authority of the Bible. He rejected the divinity of Jesus Christ.

1:08:41 He viewed the Bible as a man made and full of contradictions. He believed in God as a rational designer, but thought religion was corrupt and oppressive. He criticized his Bible, calling it a collection of myths and fabrications. He rejected miracles, He denied the Trinity. He completely opposed institutional religion and arguing it manipulates people for power. So so I do. And now he's gonna say, well, Thomas, he's gonna then provide an apologetic to Thomas Pain. Your whole point was that the early people that I don't know where you're going with this. We need to wrap this up here quickly. Well, I'm going to learn him at least try to finish this point, because I don't know exactly where he's trying to go with this.

1:09:24 He was not just a man that performed some great miracles and was supposedly born of a vergent though he was, he fulfilled biblical prophecies. And so Thomas Pain, even though I think he knew some of the scriptures, did not study enough. And unfortunately on his deathbed he couldn't die with what he wrote his last words, He's to stay with me God, I cannot bear to be left alone. Oh Lord, help me. Oh God, what have I done to suffer so much? What have I become? What will I become? Hereafter? Here's what he said, quote I would give worlds if I had them that the Age of Reason had never been published.

1:10:05 So he could not die with what he wrote and what he lived with. Is that making sense to you? And so when I saw that, that sort of started the think cultural shift seventeen ninety four, eighteen o seven, that era started shifting, at least in the academia world, the thinking religious thinking of that time. Okay, we got to go to some of this because there's a lot here. Okay, there's a lot here. There's no First of all, there is no credible evidence to suggest Pain ever renounced his Deism or became a Christian before his death in eighteen oh nine. Some later Christian accounts claim he had a deathbed conversion, but these are widely disputed. All Right, The claim that Thomas Pain had a deathbed conversion to Christianity is highly disputed and lacks credible historical evidence. Many Christian sources have suggested that Pain recanted his Deist beliefs and express recount before dying, but eyewitnesses eyewitness accounts contradict the claim. Some Christian sources from the nineteenth century claim that Pain on his deathbed cried out for God's mercy or expressed regret for the Age of Reason, supposedly saying, Oh Lord help me, I would give worlds if I had them, that the Age of Reason had never been published. If ever, the devil had an agent, I have been that one. However, these quotes are unverified and likely fabricated. Man alive, but hey, hey,

1:11:35 the word of God will keep us away from stupidity. The word of God. But I'm gonna then teach and say things that may not even be accurate. Oh cry out loud, I'm knocking everything off my desk. Okay, so let me go through this again. These are unverified, likely fabricated by religious opponents who wanted to discredit his influence. Wait are you gonna tell me? Religious opponents possibly made up a story poor false witness and lied. No, tell me it's not true, because we are Christians and we do everything perfect in our country was found on biblical principles. The most reliable sources, including people who were with Pain in his final days, confirmed that he remained a deist until his death doctor Manley, his physician, reported that Pain died without any confession or Christian conversion. William Cobert Kobot, a contemporary journalist, investigated the claims of Pain's con conversion and found no reliable evidence. A close friend who cared for him in his last days wrote that he did for he died firm in his deism. A key quote from Pain's last moments when a clergyman came to visit him, Pain reportedly said, let me have none of your popeish stuff, get away with you, good morning. This indicates that he rejected religious intervention even at the end. So the people there say, no, there's no truth in this. But Christians come along and we rewrite the story. Oh he was

1:13:07 so convinced, and then all of it. Oh my goodness, gracious man. Okay, So why did the conversion story spread? Well, Pains the Age of Reason was a major threat to Christianity, so some Christian writers likely fabricated the conversion story to discredit him. Ooh, what a Christian thing to do. Deathbed conversions were often used as propaganda tools in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Oh are you telling me? Christianity uses propaganda? Never we never used propaganda. Many similar false stories were spread about other skeptics, Votaire and David Hume. A final verdict, there is no reliable evidence that Thomas Paine recanted his Deist views or converted to Christianity before his death. Every credible eyewitness account suggests died a firm Deist, rejecting Christianity, Christianity, Christian doctrine to the there re end. So how in the world are we going to diagnose cultural revolution when we can't get historical facts accurately and don't tell me the Word of God fixes our stupidity, because when we are preaching the Word of God and a sermon, we then share fraudulent information. Second part of it, man live,

1:14:38 go to church to hear lies. That's what Christianity is. I've heard that story so many times. I've heard that preach fifty thousand times in my life. Thomas Paying, Thomas Pain, who was this big skeptic. I don't even know what that has to do with anything, because supposedly the point was everything early on was Christian Christian. Well, you had Thomas Pain, who was a deist, you had others that were Unitarians. I don't even know how that doesn't even seem to I guess the point was, well, he he converted at the end, so then all of his deism and all of his other stuff doesn't count. I don't even know what that I don't even know how it fits into the overall message at this point, but it just makes me angry. Can you imagine someone making up stories about your last moments as you lay down? Thomas Paine was a human being. You don't go tell lies about people's final moments when they're dying. That is disgusting, That is dehumanizing. It is vile. That's why when I get ready to die, I'm gonna make sure no Christians are present. Can't stand when that stuff happens. Let people

1:16:09 die in peace for crying out loud. Don't use them to propagandaize and try to make some point the person died. Leave them alone. Now, if they want to write something and then they hand it to you and say please spread this far and wide, then okay. But if they're just saying something and maybe in confidence around a few people, I don't know, maybe we leave it alone. All right. So that went well. We never got to the cultural revolution. We never got to the cultural revolution because we had we had to stop and do this detour. Now someone's gonna come and argue, but I've got this book, and this book says that it's it's true. Well the point is, if you've got evidence saying it's not true and evidence saying it's true, then can we at least let the very minimum go. Maybe we shouldn't repeat it since there's conflicting information and guess what, you weren't there. I weren't there, So we can't then say he said something when there's conflicting evidence that he didn't say it. So how about we just don't say it? Because I thought as Christians were supposed to put away lying, speak the truth and not pair of false wetness. But I guess that no longer matters anymore. Man, Oh drives me crazy. All right, Well, I'm losing my ever living mind. So I'm going to go to the liquor store because I probably it'll be better off than listening to a sermon.

1:17:39 Man, And I. Have look, I've sat through these little Christian conferences on America and this happened, and this happened, and this happened, and so we're going to prove that it's Christian. And then you start and he started doing a little digging out a well, this is not necessarily accurate, and this is not necessarily accurate, and this is not necessarily true. And that quote's a little taken out of context. This is not really accurate, and you're kind of misunderstood this. And then it's like, oh, man, go to church to be lied to. And look, it's one thing to say something about a concept, but when you're speaking about human beings and you're doing something for propaganda purposes where you misrepresent their final words, that is the epitome of bearing false witness. And even if you prove that he said it, what does that prove? I don't know. All right, we didn't get to the cultural revolution you want? You do want to know the cultural revolution that I have witnessed in my Christian life is there. He's the epitome of the cultural revolution. We're over and over and this goes all the way back. Though this is not I shouldn't even say it's a cultural revolution. You know what, this proves that, whether we are Christians or whether we're not, you know what we have the tendency to do is we misrepresent, We lie we deceive, we use propaganda, we share false information, we bear false witness. I do it,

1:19:11 you do it. We all do it because we're all sinners. The cultural revolution is just the different shapes that our sin typically takes us, either whether it takes a religious covering or we strip away the religious covering. But whether it's religious or not religious, whether it's Christian or whether it's humanistic, it's all going to be once again demonstration of our own frailty and our own depravity, because we are all depraved, and we're all liars. We come forth from the womb speaking lies. I give false information, You give false information. You get things wrong. I get things wrong. We all do so, so I'm not gonna even worry about what they got wrong. God, forgive all of us for lying. Forgive us all for misinformation, Forgive us all for bearing false witness, because we are all guilty of it to some level. May God have mercy on us.

1:20:06 Thank you for listening,