Reasons for Storms

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone. It is Wednesday, March twenty six, twenty twenty five. It is currently twelve six pm Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Well, I guess for this episode, I can only say, well, if you can't beat them, join them, right. I mean, that's kind of an old cliche. If I can't beat them, I just as well go ahead and join them, because what else can I do?

0:44 And so for this episode, I'm going to join all of those pastors and all of those churches and all of those devotional books and commentaries and everyone else who uses this storm storm of life, right, this kind of storm of life concept that Christians constantly talk about anytime they open their Bible and they see a storm. They talk about the storms in your life, the storms in my life, the storms and the life of this church, and how God is with us in the storm and he walks upon the water and he calms the storm, and that kind of illustration, that kind of allegory. It is used over and over and over again. Now already in this series, I have completely rejected that entire concept.

1:33 We trace the history of it where it kind of started. It's clear that that's imposed on the text of scripture. It's not coming from scripture, because none of those storms in the Bible are talking about the storms in your life or the storms of my life in some metaphorical way. You know. They're talking about actual storms, and those narratives have very specific purposes. For some reason, we overlook the purpose of those stories and we turn it into some story about the storms in your life or my life. However, even though I've already rejected it, even though I've spoken against it, I'm going to go along with it simply to try to get us to a very important philosophical discussion that will probably be extremely uncomfortable for many, and many will probably reject some of my thoughts and some of my words. But either way, that is where we're going.

2:30 So let's try to explain how we ended up here. Remember, just briefly, I'll go through it briefly. Three four o'clock in the morning, listening to Christian radio, They're like, hey, you can go to this website and get a free seven week study guide, and I'm like, whow that sounds good. So I go and look for the study guide and it's entitled how to Weather the Storms and Your Life. And I'm like, oh boy, here we go, and so we down I told everyone to download the study guide. I downloaded the study guide. And this kind of brought us to this Acts twenty seven discussion that we have been having right Acts twenty seven. And not only did we start working on ACS twenty seven, reviewed some sermons on X twenty seven. And if you don't know the story of ACX twenty seven, it was a story of a storm that the apostle Paul finds himself in. And of course every sermon, everything you can read with in Christianity, Acts twenty seven becomes a story about the storms and your life, and supposedly it's teaching us how to weather it.

3:33 So we took that all apart. I've been frustrated with it. But everywhere I turn around there's more Acts twenty seven discussion right here, sort of the Lord in the midst of the storm, and guess what they have right here as the key verse. I'll read it. But not long after there arose against it. A tempetuous win called urokadon Acts twenty seven thirteen your rock ladan, if I can say it correctly, Acts twenty seven fourteen. And so immediately I'm like, oh boy, here's another article on well the storm and Acts twenty seven. But guess what they what they do? I'm not going to read everything here because we will cover this. But if I read everything here, they kind of give the introduction they go back to then they tell me to jump to page fourteen and the sort of the Lord newspaper. So I go to fourteen.

4:27 They kind of retell the story and Acts twenty seven about Paul being in this storm, and then look what they do. Finally it comes right here. Are you ready? Here's the paragraph. I do not know how many of you have been in any storms at sea, but I have. It was a bad one. We were in a large troop carrier when those waves became so violent they were breaking over the bow of the ship. The storm was so bad that two thirds of the crew, even the men regularly assigned to the ship, were seasick. What should one do? And thus then it starts using Ax twenty seven to tell us what you and I should do. Guess what in the storms of our life. We have to get rid of excess baggage. We have to get alone with God. We have to realize He is with us.

5:15 Then we are to go to jump to page nineteen. Go to page nineteen. Then we are to believe his promises, and we're to thank him for all things, and we are to make sure of a safe landing. All right, life. See now, this is then getting close to the end. Life See is stormy and rough today, however there is grace. Tomorrow there could be judgment. So guess what. It's an article about taking ACTS twenty seven about a literal storm and making it, turning it into a prescriptive list of things you and I are to do or not do in the storms and our life, which has nothing to do with X twenty seven. That's lately I'm imposed on the text. Every Christian should reject that kind of preaching.

6:05 Every Christian should reject those kinds of sermons. But not only do people not reject them, they love them because I guess they like making the Bible all about themselves. So that's just one example. Throwing it on the ground drives me crazy. But then we stumbled upon the other one. The other example from the Gospel Coalition. Remember their article Biblical Theology helps explains Paul's sea journey and Acts twenty seven. Now this one comes across far more academic, far more philological, but it still takes the same approach. It turns Acts twenty seven into some kind of allegory, some kind of metaphor.

6:48 So they go through this and they're like, hey, here's some of the things we need to remember Paul the conqueror. So the story somehow becomes symbolic or the sea becomes symbolic. I'll just read directly from the article. The first thing to understand is that the sea is symbolic and the Biblical narrative it was known to be a place for It was known to be a place for Greeks or other nations. Jews were more land bound, and the sea represented that which was other. All right, So then Paul becomes the conqueror I guess of the other. It becomes symbolic of I guess Paul conquering through his missionary journeys just becomes ridiculous. Not only that, Paul now becomes the new Jonah. All right. So then somehow this gets connected to Jonah, then Paul the Prophet. It basically uses the same kind of metaphorical, allegorical, symbolic approach to Acts twenty seven instead of just seeing it as a historical narrative that's descriptive in which some philological lessons about God can be understood. But no, no, no, no, nobody wants to handle it that way. So there's the sort of the Lord, there's the Gospel Coalition. We've reviewed multiple sermons like what do I do? Like I'm almost to the point of just wanting to just do I keep covering these things.

8:16 What do I do? So at some point we'll get to a more a positive teaching on Acts twenty seven. We will do a full observational outline on the chapter and then kind of an exegetical study and try to handle it in a correct way to give more more than just to criticize what everyone else is doing. To give a positive But I keep getting distracted by all of these other things. So I guess what I'm going to do in this episode. We're going to play along. You know what, Acts twenty seven the Bible, it talks about the storms of our lives, even though it doesn't. But okay, let's play along now, So let's go to the study guide that started all of this, how to Weather the Storms of Life. I'm looking at day one, Day one in this seven week study guid So far, all all we've done is worked on the introduction. Just note, if we go through all seven weeks of this, we're gonna be doing this series until until I'm dead. But that's okay. So here we go. Now we're gonna play along, ladies and gentlemen, We're gonna play along here. I'm not going to be criticizing the use of this illustration and this symbolic idea and this whole metaphor about the storms of life. I'm not going to criticize it. I'm just going to play along with it. So are you ready?

9:36 Here we go, Day one. Reasons for storms. First, ponder it is what the study guide tells me to do when we are in the middle of life, of one of life's storms, just immediately, it just it just assumes the metaphor. It just like everyone's just accept this. When we are in the middle of one of life storms, we often ask God, why is it happening? Scripture tells us four reasons we can find ourselves in a storm. Okay, so we're gonna be given four reasons why you and I find ourself in the midst of storms, not real storms, metaphorical storms, all right, allegorical storms, storms that are symbolic of trials and difficulties in our lives. Four reasons Are you ready for? These four reasons? Number one, we live in a fallen world. Unfortunately, even if we are believers, we will face life's challenges until we get to Heaven.

10:47 Good things and bad things happen to us all Matthew five forty five. He makes his son rise on the evil and on the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust. So we live in a fallen world. Will we may talk about these in a little bit more depth. I just want you to at least hear them. I mean, if you have the study guid I told everyone to download it, then you can be looking at this for yourself. But I want you to really contemplate these four reasons why you have difficulties in your life. Number one, we live in a fallen world. We just it's just a natural consequence of living in a fall fallen world. So there's going to be pain, suffering, death, tragedy, disaster. Okay, all right, I mean I still got lots of philosophical questions, but okay.

11:37 Number two, we create storms through our own foolishness and disobedience. Jonah found himself in one of these storms when he tried to flee from the presence of the Lord. He ended up being swallowed by a fish because of his disobedience. So the first reason you can be in the middle of a storm in your life is just because, well, you live in a fallen world, so things happen. Number two, Well, it could be because you're your own foolishness and your own disobedience. So the storms could be your fault. It could be natural consequences of living in a fallen world, or it could be your fault. Number three. God uses storms to help us mature. Sometimes God allows us to go through storms for our own development, to make us more like Him and Matthew fourteen, Jesus commanded his disciples to get into a ship and sell to the other side of the sea, right into a storm. He did this to teach them a lesson about trusting the Lord. Sometime, sometimes God sends us through storms to disciple and teach.

12:44 So sometimes it's just natural consequences. Sometimes it's the result of your own disobedience and foolishness. And sometimes God is doing this to mature you. The reason you're suffering, the reason there's paining, the reason there's difficulty. Well God, see, isn't it a wonderful thing? Because God is doing it to mature you? And please know what they did. They used Matthew fourteen to support that point. But let me make it very clear. Matthew fourteen has nothing to do about the storms in your life or the storms of my life. Matthew fourteen is about a literal storm. That the whole purpose of that story. I don't think I had anything to do with about how about the storms in your life? For my life? I think it had more to do about something about Christ. But I digress, and we will get into these in further detail. And then number four we get dragged into storms by other people.

13:37 Paul experienced this kind of storm in Acts twenty seven. Paul did not choose to be a prisoner on the ship. In fact, he was experienced. He was an experienced sailor, made many journeys at sea, and even endured a shipwreck when the ship he was on headed into the storm. He knew everyone aboard was in trouble. He tried to warm people, but they would not listen. All of us face storms that are not of our own making. Sometimes children have problems because of their parents, and vice versa. Sometimes we face challenges because of poor decisions that others make. That was the case for Paul So according to this article. According to this study guide, there can be four reasons you have storms in your life, all right. Number one, you live in a fallen world. It's just the natural consequence. However, sometimes you could be in the midst of the storm because of your own foolishness and your own disobedience. Number three, sometimes God sends you into the storm so that he can mature you. And number four, you're in the storm because someone else dragged you into it. Right, Four reasons for storms in your life. Now. You may love those four points. You may be writing those down right now.

14:50 You may want to put them on your refrigerator, and you may think they're wonderful. But are they wonderful? Well? First, even if you think they're wonderful, do they actually come from the Bible? Are they being imposed on the Bible, and then we're acting like it's being pulled from the Bible. I mean, that's an issue. Then the article goes on to quote Acts twenty seven nine through eleven. Now, when much time has been spent and sailing was now dangerous because the fast was already over, Paul advised them, saying, men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also our lives. Nevertheless, this centurion was more persuaded by the held helmsman, if I can speak correctly, and the owner of the ship, than by the thing spoken by Paul. See, this situation was completely out of Paul's control. The owner of the ship, likely a businessman, was more probably was probably motivated more by profit. Paul, a man of God, knew that it was for everyone's good that the ship waited to sail. Paul found self in a storm that was the result of the poor decisions of others. Rather, we face the storms of life, whether we face the normal storms of life, storms from our sins, or storms from our development for our development, or storms that we have been dragged into, we will all face storms in our lives. The question is for you? How will you

16:23 navigate the storms? So it just doubles down on that right, So then it says, put it in writing, what kind of storms have you faced in your own life? What kind of storms have you faced in your own life? See, all of a sudden, this all becomes about you, even though it's quoting from Max twenty seven, which has nothing to do with you, And how becomes about you? What kind of storms have you faced in your life? Are you going through a storm right now? Do you see a storm on the horizon. Is the storm you're currently facing something you helped create or something out of your control? How do a storm that is out of your control feel different from a storm you helped create? And then that's the end of that particular day. So four reasons, all right, class? What are the four reasons given in the study guide? Four reasons for why we may face storms in our life? Number one, it's the natural consequences of living in a fallen world. Number two could be because my own foolishness and my own disobedience. Number three God may have sent me into storm to mature me, to develop me. Or number four, I was dragged into this storm by someone else. Now what do you think?

17:42 Do you like that? Do you love that? What do you think? So well, I started working on this, and well, let's analyze this. Let's offer some analysis and critique. I also asked artificial intelligence to give me it's thoughts on these four points. And well, are you ready to see what artificial intelligence had to say? And I'll share some of my thoughts. That'll all be mixed together. Let's just see. Now, I want you to write those four things down and let me make it very clear. Like as I'm saying those I'm like, man, this guy, I could preach this. I could turn this into a sermon, and people sitting in church with love it. Right, It's very practical, it's relatable.

18:27 Everyone goes through difficulties in their life, right, everyone does. So you give them four possible reasons, so then everyone can sit there going, well, I'm going through this difficult Well I got dragged into this one. This is not even my fault, or oh this is my fault, or or maybe this is just the natural consequences I've living in a fallen world, or maybe God put me in this storm so I could I could be matured. I mean, people will love having an explanation for why they're going through difficulties in their life. They will love that. So from a preaching stamp point that study guide, I guarantee you pastors who see it will turn that into a sermon and probably two point three seconds. But none of those points were derived from the text. They don't come from Acts twenty seven, don't come from Matthew fourteen, They don't come from anywhere. You may think those are good life lessons, but you can find those same life lessons.

19:22 That's probably in any good self help book. Are they what the text says? So? AI says this the teaching outline four Reasons for Storms, trials or Trials and Life, citing Acts twenty seven, Jonah, and Matthew fourteen to support its claims. While some of the points contain maybe valid Biblical principles, there are thiological, logical, and harmoneutical errors that distort the meaning of the passages. Now, please not even though some of the principles may sound good, Even if you could argue some of the principles are taught so somewhere else in scripture, the issue is there is problems in the text that they cite. Because the text they cite are not saying what they're claiming that's being said.

20:09 This is a classic example of where you're reading something into the text, but because it sounds good, it sounds spiritual, it sounds devotional, it sounds relevant, everyone in the puel will eat it up. But yet they'll criticize someone else who reads something into scripture. Look, you're either against everything read into scripture or you've got to support it all. You can't just pick and choose. So AI starts with the phiological errors. This is what AI says over emphasis on categorizing storms as a universal system. The teaching implies that all storms fit neatly into one of four categories general suffering in a fallen world, storms caused by personal sin, storm sent by God for growth, or storms caused by others decisions. Now, this is what AI says, that there's a problem while these are biblical. While these are biblical realities, Scripture does not systematize suffering this way. Not all suffering fits neatly into these categories. The Bible presents a complex views of trials. Job suffering doesn't fit any of those perfectly. Now, some people say God does this to help Job grow well again, so he killed his entire all of his kids just so that job could grow. I mean that that's kind of twisted. Hey, hey, I'm going to kill your children so that you can grow spiritually. That doesn't seem to be what the text even implies. This all happens so God could prove a point to Satan. So

21:45 it does. Maybe it doesn't fit perfectly. The danger is that people may forcefit their struggles into these categories rather than seeking wisdom and discernment about their circumstances. And that is what can happen. Hey, here's the four reasons. You can be in the middle of a storm in your life. So you've got to try to take your circumstance and fit it in there, and you've got to just assume that you're fitting it in the right category. So that's kind of a thilological Eric number two. It misrepresents God's role in suffering. The teaching suggests that every storm has a clear divine purpose, particularly in the maturing category, which is point number three. The problem. Not every trial is meant to teach us a lesson. Ooh, I want you to write that down. Not every trial is meant to teach us a lesson. Do you agree with that or disagree with that? Is every trial designed to teach you a lesson? I think this is a common teaching in most churches. Everything you're going through, every trial, every pain, all the suffering, it's meant to teach you a lesson.

22:58 And I think most Christians think that that's true, and so they'll try to find They'll try to say, oh, I learned this so so so it was great. I learned something because my mother died when I was young. Well, man, I'm so glad I learned something. I mean, she's dead, but I'm glad. I'll my father dies of cancer. I'm so glad he died. I got to does every does every lesson? Does every trial teach a lesson? Is it meant to teach a lesson? Now, learning lessons from it doesn't mean that's what the trial was meant to do. It just means that you can. We can learn lessons from pretty much anything, right if you want, if you try hard enough. We could get into a discussion here. Now, while God uses suffering for growth, some suffering simply as a result of living in a fallen world, Now that seems to go now to be fair, that seems to go back to. Maybe it's just the consequence of living in a fallen world. So if it's a consequence of living in a fallen world, then you can't say that every trial's meant to teach a lesson because some suffering has no real purpose. It's just you live in a fallen world, so you get to suffer. So then maybe number one. Maybe number one does at least eliminate the idea that every trial is meant to teach a lesson.

24:23 So if you're not careful, though, you can lead people to seek hidden lessons and suffering that may not exist. Sometimes I think a lot of people are looking for some lesson. They gotta state some lesson. But look, if trials can happen simply as a result of living in the fallen world, that means there is no lesson in it other than I guess you live in a fallen world. So then maybe there is a lesson. I don't know, But is it again, is it meant to teach a lesson or can just lessons be taken from it? That's a difference. Right, Hey, I'm going through this because God wants to teach me a lesson. Well, in some cases that wouldn't be the case, because it's just the result of living in a fallen world. How about logical errors a misapplication of Acts twenty seven. The teaching claims that Acts twenty seven shows Paul being dragged into a storm because of others' poor decisions. Well, here's the problem. While it is true that Paul was caught in the storm due to the centurion's choice, the main point of Acts twenty seven is not about storms others create for us.

25:31 Acts twenty seven is about God's sovereign plan to bring Paul to Rome. Right. In fact, let me look here, which is just once again, this is what happens when you start turning things into metaphors, and you start doing this and you're preaching and teaching, you end up creating many cases full blown contradiction. So I'm going to go to Acts Chapter twenty three, Acts twenty three eleven, and the night following the Lord stood by him and said, be of good cheer, Paul, For as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome. So Act twenty seven is not about it is about God's sovereign plan to bring Paul to Rome, Acts twenty three eleven. It's not a general lesson on life's difficulties. It's not that he got pulled into this, because remember their whole point and their study and the study guide was sometimes you get pulled into storms. Has nothing to do with you. Now your fault. Paul is put into the storm because of God's sovereign decision to bring him to Rome. This is how he's going to getting there. The storm wasn't about Paul's personal suffering. It was a part of God's plan to advance the gospel.

26:54 So there's a logical fallacy in all of this false equivalence. Equitting Paul's shipwreck to general life struggles misses the entire point of the passage. So when say that sounded good, Sometimes you get pulled into storms and it's not your fault. You get pulled in by other people. Well, look Paul, Paul in Acts twenty seven, he got pulled into this. He didn't want to be a prison. Well wait a minute, wait a minute. Acts twenty three says hey, I'm going to bring you to Rome. This is how Paul is getting there. This is a part of the divine plan. This is the part of the sovereign plan. Now, what we could do is say that God's sovereign plan sometimes takes us through a path and a journey that may not make any sense from a human perspective, because from a human perspective you get like, hey, God, you could just get Paul to Rome and the easiest way possible.

27:45 But no, he doesn't getting there in the easiest way possible. He has n't become a prisoner, go through a massive storm and a shipwreck. Why. Well, the text doesn't necessarily say why other than this show that God is in control. So some of the logical errors we have a misapplication of ACX twenty seven. We have an incorrect use of Matthew fourteen Jesus calming the storm. The teaching states and again quoting sometimes God allows us to go through storms for our own development, to make us more like him. And Matthew fourteen, Jesus commanded his disciples to get into a ship and sell to the other side of the sea, right into a storm. He did this to teach them a lesson about trusting the Lord. Well, here's the problem.

28:34 Nowhere in Matthew fourteen does it explicitly state that Jesus sent them into a storm for their growth. The storm was a real physical event, and while the disciples did grow in faith, this does not mean every storm in life is orchestrated for development. This statement assumes divine intent without textual support, the logical fallacy assuming intent without textual evidence. So there's those are the logical errors in here. There's contradictions in here. It's misapplications of the text. But it all sounds so good if you would have written that, if I would have just started with giving you those four points. In fact, I almost wanted to do it. I almost wanted to turn on the microphone just say sometimes in life we go I don't use the word storms.

29:16 Sometimes in life we go through great difficulties. Sometimes there's pain, there's tragedy, there's death, there's suffering, And this can happen Number one. Sometimes it's just the natural consequences of living in a fallen world. Sometimes this can happen because God wants to grow us or to teach us. Sometimes this happens because of our own foolishness and our own sin. And sometimes this happens because other people pull us in to a situation where there's pain, suffering and death and just leave it at that and kind of say this is the morning devotional, and it'd be interesting how many people would have been like, oh, that's awesome. Now, in some ways, if I would have done it that way without quoting Acts twenty seven or in Matthew fourteen, you may even argue those could be somewhat helpful points, because now I'm not misapplying the text or reading them into the text. See, once you start using scripture to try to prove these points that the scriptures don't actually teach, then it becomes a hermeneutical problem. And see what most of you will say, Well, it doesn't really matter how the pastor arrived at these points. The points are good.

30:21 Well not the points aren't good when you're using texts that, in many cases you're contradicting the very text itself. AI goes on to point out some hermoneutical errors, allegorizing Acts twenty seven without justification. The hermoneutical error reading Acts twenty seven is an allegory about life trials rather than a historical event event demonstrating God's sovereignty. There is no indication that Luke intended Acts twenty seven to be a symbolic lesson on navigating personal struggles. This is a historical narrative. It is not wisdom literature. It is not a parable Why does this matter when when you allegorize historical events, you can you can lead people to wrong application, making Paul's unique journey prescriptive when it's actually descriptive. See even Ai knows this. The real message of Acts twenty seven is God's control over history, not general principles about life storms.

31:18 Even Ai understands. Pastors, stop doing this. That's not the way you handle Acts twenty seven. It's prescript it's descriptive. It's not prescriptive. It's not about life's problems. It's not about life's difficulties. Stop allegorizing the text forcing a meaning onto Jonah's storm. The teaching uses Jonah as an example of storms caused by disobedience, which is correct, but it simplifies the account. Jonah's storm was not just about disobedience leading to consequences. It was about God's mercy towards Nineveh and his sovereignty over repentance. The broader message of Jonah is God's grace, not just a lesson of disobedience leading to storms. This is an example of reducing a biblical event to a moral lesson than seeing its full philological significance, and everyone turns it into kind of a moral lesson. Hey, you do what God says, or you're gonna end up in a storm. This is not only that it's a historical event, it's unique. So it's still forcing meaning into the text. And then thematic problems self focused application instead of God focused interpretation. I want you to hear that again.

32:34 One of the problems with this entire reasons for the storms, it's self focused application instead of God focused interpretation. The final section asks this in the study guide, what kind of storms have you faced in your own life? Are you going through a storm right now? While reflection can be helpful, this makes the passage about the reader rather than about God's work and history. It zioms every trial has a direct lesson for personal growth, which is not always the case. Acts twenty seven is not about us, it's about God fulfilling his promise to Paul. It's making the biblical passage self centered rather than God centered. Then Ai makes an entire chart of all the problems here.

33:20 But AI points out, so let's just go through these again. Ai points out philological errors. It overemphasizes on categorizing storms as a universal system, and it misrepresents God's role and suffering. Those were the philological errors. The logical errors was a misapplication of Acts twenty seven and an incorrect use of Matthew fourteen. Hermaeneutical errors was allegorizing Acts twenty seven and forcing meaning onto Jonahs storms. The thematic problems was self focused application a set of God focused interpretation. AI tore it apart literally in about five to ten seconds. I just gave Ai the study guide and said, hey, give me a critique of lesson, and I mean the tort completely apart. Now why can AI do that? Because Ai is not interested in creating sermons. But see, study guides are always interested in creating these little devotional lessons, so we don't worry about the actual meaning of the text.

34:19 We gotta have lessons, we gotta have moralism. People gotta write sermons. So oh, this morning, open your Bibles to Acts twenty seven. We're gonna talk about a great storm. And I know many of you are going through difficulties this morning. You're going through difficulties in this life. And if you're not trust me. The storm clouds are building, they're gonna start rumbling, and there's gonna be lightning, and there's gonna be thunder, and there's gonna be wind, and it's going to crash into your life and you're gonna be tossed this way in that way. But I'm here this morning to give you some very important idea of why that storm may be happening. It could be happening because we live in a fallen world and sometimes it just occurs. Sometimes it could be happening because of your own foolishness, your own disobedience. It could be happening because God is trying to teach you something. It could be Yeah, I mean, we can go through all of the ideas.

35:17 That's not the way this is supposed to work. Oh, I'll go ahead and mentioned the last one. It could be happening because someone pulled you into the storm. Now, preaching it that way, you could be dramatic, you could add some cross references. You could really build it up and guess what, people will leave the church thinking it's so amazing. The only problem is it's not doesn't come from Max twenty seven, doesn't come from Matthew fourteen doesn't come from the Book of Jonah. All of these concepts are being read into the text that should bother you.

35:59 So AI as this this teaching, Mitch, and it breaks this down even further. I'm going to skip a half of everything that AI says here, but AI gives me a final thought. This teaching mixes biblical truth with modern self help interpretations. That was my word, but AI uses the exact same word, resulting in distorted application. Acts twenty seven is not about handling live storms. It's about God's plan for Paul to reach Rome. Any application should be secondary to the text actual meaning. All right. So at that point I was like, okay, good, we took that apart. Great, I can give everyone my criticism of it. But then I was like, this raises some more. This raises some serious philosophical questions. So that's what we're going to address.

36:53 And this is going to make me very unpopular, but come on, now, look the one thing we have to be honest with, and at least the study guide was honest with this as well. Look, our lives are no No matter how great your life is, some people's life they only have maybe a few major storms that enter their lives again, using that metaphor. For others, their life just seems to be one never ending storm after another after another, death, suffering, abuse, just just loneliness, isolation, abandonment, whatever the It's just like, does it ever end? So what we already know that there's no not not everyone's going to face the same thing, but everyone's at least going to have some storms. Now, how do we understand that philosophically? How do we understand that philologically? So I asked, I kind of challenged AI here, and this is what I wrote. Some would argue that all try sorry hitting the microphone. Some would argue that all trials have a divine purpose. That idea has always been somewhat problematic to me. Now, see, the one thing I love about AI is I can talk about my struggles. I can talk about I can be real. If I talk to other Christians, they almost immediately get defensive and and they just want to argue.

38:22 It's like, just never mind, it's no point in talking to them. But I can talk to artificial intelligence because it doesn't have a team, it doesn't it doesn't get defensive. So I said, you're apps or I'm sorry. AI is getting ready to respond to me. So let me go back to what I said, Because I wrote like a paragraph here. Some would argue that all trials trials have a divine purpose. That idea has always been somewhat problematic. A child molested for years, a woman raped, a child being abused through most of their childhood, people tortured in war, children, so suffering childhood, you know, terminal illnesses. I could provide so many more examples. AI says, you're absolutely right to challenge the idea that all trials have a divine purpose in a way that suggests intentional, divine or an orchestration of every instance of suffering. While God is sovereign overall things, that does not mean that he directly intends, wills, or purposes every act of evil or suffering as a specific lesson or a plan for growth. This perspective raises serious theological, moral, and pastoral concerns when applied to extreme suffering such as abuse, rape, war crime, or childhood diseases. So Aii is like, Okay, you have a right to challenge this. You have a right to question this, and of course I have a

39:52 right to question it. Of course I have a right to challenge it. So I'm challenging this idea that, hey, it has a divine purpose. Now, this is where it's gonna get complicated. It's gonna get a little convoluted philologically, right, because remember we've got within theology, we've got this idea, does God ordain direct and his providence everything that occurs? Does God in his providence? Does he decree everything that comes to pass? Whatever it may be? Does he decree every single thing? Now typically more of the reform world. You're going to give a hearty amen to this. In fact, let me pull up, Let me pull up here. I'm gonna pull up the London Baptist Confession sixteen eighty nine.

40:50 All right, if I go to God's decree. This is paragraph one of the sixteen eighty nine Baptist Confession of Faith, Chapter three, paragraph one Chapters of God's Decree. You can find it online. Just do a quick Google search. You can find it. God hath decreed in himself from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably, all things whatsoever comes to pass, every single thing that comes to pass. God has decreed in himself from all eternity everything that comes to pass, every single thing, God has decreed it. Now some people say, well that means he decreed sin. Well, typically this is where the London Baptist tries to get around this. Yet so as thereby is God neither the author of sin, nor hath fellowship with any therein, Nor is violence offered to the will of the creature. Nor yet is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.

41:55 So say God is not the So they want to say, God is not the author of sin, but yet he create everything that comes to past, But he's not the author of sin, because he'll say, hey utilizes a secondary cause. So you could say, well, obviously God ultimately decreed that sin would enter into the world, but he's not the author of it. He simply creates Satan, who not sinful, but knowing Satan is going to rebel, Satan rebels, then he can. Then Satan is the one that then tempts, and so Adam and Eve and Satan, they're ultimately the one who brings sin into the world. God is not the author of bringing sin into the world. I know. But it's such a it's such a little game. We play, Because who created Satan? God? Did God know Satan's going to rebel? Yes? When Satan rebelled? Could he have destroyed Satan? Yes?

42:41 But does he destroy Satan? No? He lets him come to earth where he created Adam and Eve. Did he know Adam and Eve was going to sin? Yes? Did he do anything to stop it? No? Did he do anything to prevent it? No? Once Adam and Eve sin, could he have destroyed them and stop it? Yes? Do do that? No? He lets them have children. All children then are born with a sinful now nature therefore, and it's been that way ever since, so sin is in every single person born. He said, well, God's not the one who did it. He set the whole thing up, knowing exactly how it was going to work, and did nothing to prevent it or intervene or to stop it. So and that's it. You have to say, well, God at least decreed that sin would be a part of all of things. He just not the author of it.

43:26 It's like we're trying to make this distinction, but from a practical standpoint, and everything leads back to God. But if you believe God decrees everything that comes to past, then guess what I have to accept God decreed that I would be born in the family I was born in and everything I suffered, And I don't want to sit here and tell you the horrible stories. God decreed it to that person who's now twenty twenty five, and you were molested for fifteen years, maybe even by someone in a church, God to create it. If you're a woman who was raped, God decreate. See. Now this gets really uncomfortable if you're now, if you're a parent sitting in a hospital and your child has been there for six months because they've been suffering and suffering and suffering with a terminal disease. You know, and everyone else knows, the child is not going to live to see fifteen. Well, God decreed it. That becomes a major theological thing, difficult to reprimand hernd We can try to make it sound good, but it becomes really problematic. So AI said, hey, it's perfectly right to challenge this. It's perfectly right to challenge us.

44:40 So here's what AI tries to do. All right, First, AI is going to challenge the concept of every trial has a specific divine purpose. Now, so let's try to draw a distinction here. God decreing everything comes to pass? Well, does he? If he dec first, some people will even reject that. People will reject that. But even if you reject it, you're going to find yourself with multiple problems because if God didn't decree everything to happen, well, are you telling me he didn't know it was going to happen? Are you telling me he didn't have the power to stop what was going to happen? And then this just becomes a maze. And if God he said, well, God doesn't intervene because he doesn't want to violate anyone's free will, well, then what's the point of praying? Since God can't intervene because he can only do that, it just all becomes It will all start falling apart. But even if we accept that God decreed everything, did he decree everything to happen?

45:33 And then have a divine purpose in it? Ai says, there's a biblical problem. There's biblical problems with every trial has a specific divine purpose. Many Christians oversimplify suffering by forcing a purpose into every trial, often ignoring deeper biblical complexities. Right number one, Ai says scripture seems to acknowledge senseless evil. The Bible presents many forms of suffering that are clearly evil without suggesting a divine lesson behind them. The Rape of Tamar and Second Samuel thirteen Tamar was violated by our half brother Am nine, and the Bible never suggests that God orchestrated this to teach her something. The response, Tamar lived at the rest of her life in desolation Second Samuel thirteen twenty, showing that some suffering simply destroys and brings no redemptive lesson. Now we may have to really work on that story. The rape of Tamar. AI's like, hey, there's no redemptive lesson in this thing? Now? Is that true?

46:43 Do we accept that? If that is true, that challenges a lot of what Christians and pastors say. Another example the massacre of the children by Herod in Matthew two sixteen through eighteen. Matthew connects the atrocity to Rachel weeping for her children in Jeremiah thirty one. A picture of grief without an immediate divine explanation. There is no indication that each murdered child was part of a divine lesson. It was evil, and that's all we are told. So Ai offers two examples the rape of Tagamar. There's no redemptive lesson, there's no divine lesson even hinted at. And the slaughter of the children in Matthew too, there's nothing there saying, oh, here was a divine lesson. It's like, no, this was evil. These were evil acts. We could also go to the Book of Judges and what happens. Well, what do we need into the graphic details of what happens at the end of the Book of Judges. So maybe we compile a list of examples there and then work through those. Maybe at some point we will. Ai goes on to say God does not delight in evil Ezekiel eighteen twenty three. Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should turn from his ways and live Jeremiah one point thirteen. Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.

48:12 If God cannot be tempted with evil, it follows that he does not directly plan acts of pure evil as a part of his divine will. Now the only problem is this becomes a very complicated, right if God's not planning it, if God did not decree it, because there's nothing there's the world is filled with acts of pure evil, horrible things. Well, if God did not decree it, if God did not plan it, he at the very least knew about it, and at the very least doesn't do anything to stop it. Well, then it still goes back to God, and he created the world knowing it was all going to happen. So you still don't really get God off the hook. Even if you say he didn't decree it. He it still becomes maddening. Now AI is going to pick up the idea of free will, and here I'm going to have all kinds of problems. Now I didn't do any challenging here because I just wanted to see how AI would handle this. AI goes on to say, some suffering as a result of human free will, not divine orchestration. Moral evil, rape, murder, abuse, war crimes is the result of sinful human choices, not God's divine plan.

49:27 But again, you see that's very that sounds good, and many people will sit in the pew and say amen. See moral evil, rape, murder, abuse, war crimes the result of sinful human choices, not a part of God's divine plan. But wait a minute, Before he created the world, he knew that murder, abuse, war crimes, rape would occur. Not only generally, he knew specifically every single case. Now, don't tell me God can't intervene because he intervened when Abraham or Abram said, Hey, Sarah, that's that's my sister, and they took her. He intervened in two times to keep anything from happening to her. So there is God clearly intervening, so he can intervene. He stopped what the man wanted to do. He intervened, so that then he violated the free will of the man who wanted to have Sarah.

50:29 So he intervened. So if he can intervene, once intervened twice, intervened, three, four, five, six, seven. However many times are you saying he intervened in the past but he no longer intervenes today. But he knew what was going to happen and yet created everything. He obviously can't if he can intervene. Even if he even if you say he intervened in the past, well he could have intervened in the past to stop everything from happening. He could have He could have removed anyone being born with a sinful nature. God permits sin because he allows human free will, but permitting is not the same as planning.

51:16 Joseph's brother sold him into slavery. While God ultimately used it for good, that does not mean God cause their sin. They were still guilty. Joseph says, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, meaning God overruled human evil, not that he authored it, but if he can overrule human evil, then he can overrule. And again, free will doesn't explain anything because who gave people free will? God knowing exactly what was going to happen. So no matter what you do, you end up right back at the foot of God going, or the feet of God going. What's the issue here? So none of this really solves any problems. So there was a saying biblical problems with every trial has a specific divine purpose. Number one scripture acknowledge is senseless evil. Number two, God does not delight in evil, and number three some suffering as a result of human free will. But AI does not do a really good job explaining free will. I could get into an argument with Ai about this, but at this point I did not want to do that. I just wanted to see how AI would handle this. The number two philological and pastoral dangers of saying every trial has a specific divine purpose. This idea becomes especially dangerous when applied and sensitive and sensitivity to victims of severe suffering. It can lead to victim blaming. If all suffering has a purpose, then people will assume victims should accept or learn from their pain. Saying God allowed this to teach you something

52:48 to a rape victim or a child who was abused is horrifically cruel. Yeah, hey, God allowed this to teach you something. Yeah, thank you. I'm glad I was tied up and burn with a curling iron and be with a ball bat. Thank you. I'm so glad God couldn't teach me some other way. I mean, come on, like, that's cruel. But Christians will say things just like that. Hey, I know your mom just died and you're you're still young, but hey, God, God has a plan in this. God has a purpose in this. Oh, thank you so very much. Thank you. She's dead. Now you go home to your mom. You go home to your husband, You go home to your wife. Hey, I know you're in this situation and you're alone and you don't have this and you don't have Hey, but God wants to teach you something. You get out of my face. Some churches have used this mindset to silence abuse victims, making them feel that their suffering was ordained for their good and that's really messed up.

53:55 So it can lead to victim blaming or at least putting like you just kind of basically say, hey, you know, you just need to accept what's happened, what has happened to you or is happening to you. It undermines true justice. If every trial is God's plan, then do we tell victims of genocide that they're suffering was willed by God? Why punish criminals if all evil is just part of God's plan. The Bible teaches justice, not just passive acceptance of suffering. It could lead to a cruel view of God. If God plans every instance of child abuse, rape, or torture for some greater good, then he becomes indistinguishable from the author of evil. This contradicts his character. God is holy, just and grieves over sin, Jesus wept over death and suffering, not because he lacked sovereignty, but because he truly grieved over the effects of sin. Now I still struggle with even this because that sounds so good. God doesn't like it.

54:59 He hates the the suffering. He's the one who created the entire situation. It's so ridiculous. Hey, God suffers with you, he cries with you. He doesn't like what you're going through. Uh wait, he created the world knowing exactly what was going to happen, and did nothing along the line to stop it or to prevent it. And here I am, and he did nothing to stop the suffering that I'm going through, past, present or future. AI does say some suffering remains a mystery. I don't know if that really helps, but some suffering remain I think all suffering remains a mystery to some level. Right, So none of that really helps me at all. AI wanted to argue against the idea, Well, there's not a divine purpose in all suffering. The study guy just wanted me to know. You know, hey, there's there's some suffering. Is just the result of living in a fallen world. Why do I live in a fallen world because the fall took place. Well, who knew the fall was going to take place? God who knew how

56:31 the fall was going to play take place. God who created the very one who would bring the temptation into the garden. God who was the one who let that one not only fall but go into the garden. Who knew that the guard that were going to disobey in the garden. God who knew that when they disobeyed, that their sin would be passed on to everyone else. God. I mean, like, I mean, there's no way to get everything goes back to God. He's the first cause of everything. Even if you want to bring into the philosophical content concept of secondary causes. But those secondary causes were created by God knowing exactly what they were going to do. And even if you say he didn't know what they were going to do, even if you want to go with some crazy concept of open theism, guess what, once it happened, he could have still intervened. So you can't get God off the hook. So is there divine purpose in what we go through? Well, I guess in one way, you can say, well, God knew everything was going to happen. Hey, he's sovereign over everything. You got to say that there's some purpose in it. I'm not saying that's gonna you go give that to someone who's suffering. But then you know the implications of this, right, And this is the weird part. See, some people will be very strong on God's sovereignty when it comes. Hey, God ordains everything comes to past. I don't understand it. I know it's horrible, but your pain and your suffering. God ordained it. He

58:02 decreed it. It's a part of his providence. I don't get it. I don't understand that. All sounds so good, right, Yeah, that you're trying to be sympathetic, but you're just having to acknowledge that God is sovereign. But if God is sovereign overall pain and suffering, are you gonna then somehow get God off the hook? Then, if he's sovereign over everything, is he not sovereign over the sin that we commit? Does he not decree that that takes place? Because he's not doing anything to intervene? And again we've got biblical examples of like sometimes God would step into sometimes he doesn't.

58:45 I mean, sometimes where's God nowhere to be found? And those particular narratives, and in other places he intervenes in a very dramatic way. Well, the philological implications here. If God decrees everything that comes the past, and he has a purpose in everything that comes to pass, well, then what happens when someone sends now what many people say, we'll see God doesn't decree that. Okay, Well God doesn't decree it. He still knew it was going to happen and didn't intervene to stop it. Well, then God doesn't intervene and stop things, especially like our sand, because he cares about free will. Or if he cares so much about free will that it will not intervene or stop something, then what's the point of praying because God can't intervene? Well, God can intervene here. Now it becomes just just very subjective game that Christians play, and a lot of times when you hear Christians talk, it is just a meaningless amount of words with no true substance because nobody can really deal with these issues. Here's what I know, What are the reasons for the storms in life? Well, I know this, I may never I don't know, I forever going to truly know the reason I don't know if we ever will, maybe an eternity, we will, I don't know.

1:00:01 That's the assumption is that we will. But whether we will or won't won't, that really doesn't matter right now. Here's what I know. Right now, life is filled with pain, suffering, death, disease, and horrible things that happen to people. That's just the reality. You may not be going through it now, but it's coming. People around you are going to die. You're gonna things are gonna happen to you. There's gonna be good times, there's gonna be bad times. There's gonna be betrayal, there's gonna be hurt, there's gonna be loneliness, there's gonna be isolation. Sadly, for some of you, it's gonna be far worse than it is for others. Others you're gonna look at their lives and everything seems great, and you're gonna be left alone.

1:00:46 Nobody's gonna be there for you, Nobody cares, nobody gives a flip, Nobody get and they may say they do, but ultimately a lot of it, you have to walk alone. Why you have to go through it and others don't, I don't know. That's just the way life works. He said, well, where can I find comfort? I guess you can find comfort in saying God has a purpose in it. I guess be careful in saying that to someone else. Hey, I know you were molested for fifteen years, but God has a purpose in it. All I know is suffering is real, and suffering as a part of life, and it's not fairly distributed. And who gets it and who does it? That's a reality. God's existence is not diminished, proven or disproven by the amount of suffering or lack of suffering that we encounter in this world. That suffering calls us to want to question God. But God is irregardless of what happens. Now, why can there be a God and these things happen? Is the question that's been asked for two thousand years. The Christians tried there. They always try to come up. Someone will try to sound very academic and very philological and offering their answers, and that may you soothe the conscience of some people, make

1:02:17 them feel better. But the reality is, in most cases it's not even a decent answer, because at the very least you have a God who knew what was going to happen, and not just all the way back at the beginning knew what was going to happen, but all through everything happening. No, he knew, and he knows what's getting ready to happen, and he chose not to intervene to stop it from happening, and he's not intervening now to stop it from happening. That's, at the very least, you have a God who at least knows, who chooses not to intervene. That's at the very least. At the very most, you have a God who ordains it, decreed it, it's a part of his providence. And that's even more problematic.

1:03:07 And we've discussed these very things when we talk about prayer. Why are there storms? I mean, if you really just remove all of the talk you have to, you're gonna end up right back looking into the face of God metaphorically speaking, right, You're going to be looking right at God because he's the one who created everything. And even if you say the storms are somehow for our good, even if you try, you've gotta be very careful even with saying that, right, because all the storm in the world, I don't care how much you I don't care how much you're beaten. I don't care how much you're abused, molested.

1:04:06 I don't care how many horrible diseases you suffer for, and painful surgeries and painful rehab you have to go through. I don't care how many horrible things happen to you. I don't care if everyone abandons you. I don't care if you end up alone. None of that changes your sinful nature, and your problems arise from your sinful nature. None of that changes your sinful nature. Your sinful nature is the thing that really if you're really going to change, if there's really going to be any growth, you need to get rid of your sinful nature. There you have it once again. AX twenty seven is used Matthew fourteen is used in a way that has nothing to do with that. Did you do you like those four things given in the study guide? Why do things happen? Why do storms happen? Because general suffering, General suffering happens in a fallen world. It's just the natural consequences. Storms are caused by your own failure and your own disobedience. Storm is somehow sent by God to help you grow. Even though Matthew fourteen has nothing to do with that, and well, storms sometimes are there because you were drug into them by other people. And then he tried to use AC twenty seven to prove that. Next twenty seven actually argues against that. Paul was not there because someone drug him in there. He was there because God put him there to get him to Rome. Why did he use that way?

1:05:35 Does the text really sell? It just proves God is sovereign, which I mean it gives you could derive some lesson from that. All right, I'll stop right there. Thanks for listening. I told you it wasn't going to be fun. I told you it was going to be I don't know if I said those words. I told you it was going to be difficult, and not everyone was going to like what I have to say, and that Christians would get defensive. There are Christians right now, very defensive. Probably are already trying to type something up to try to prove me wrong. You're gonna go look in your you know, apologetics one oh one handbook and try to give me the same tired points the Christians have been trying to say for two thousand years to make themselves feel better. If you need to make yourself feel better. Make yourself feel better. It doesn't change the reality of what I've just spoken of. You either deal with reality or just make yourself feel better just to defend, to defend your team, if I can speak correctly. But I don't care about defending anyone's team, and I don't care about who gets offended or doesn't get offended. We have to look into the reality of what is in front of us, what happens in life, and not paint it up in some nice little religious religious words to make us all feel better sitting in the pew, because in practicality it rarely works.

1:06:51 All right, thanks for listening. I think I don't know what else I can say about any of it, because it's all painful, it's all difficult. It's all difficult, and trust me, I've wrestled with this my entire Christian life. If I just go through all the horrible things that happened to me and my own life, give me a break. So all right, we'll stop there. There's much more I would like to say, but I've probably already caused enough problems. All right, everyone, have a great day, Put those four reasons on your refrigerator, and have a family discussion about it. There'll probably be some in the family going, that's really good, Amen, thank you for putting that there, and they'll probably be that one person like me, it raises the hand, going uh, got a problem here, and you'll be like, sh be quiet.

1:07:40 We don't allow that kind of person in our home. You go listen to the Theology Central podcast. We like nice, simple, easy answers. That makes us all feel good as we live in our nice little family with her, nice little house with her, and everything's perfect and wonderful, and it's great until the house burns down, your spouse is murdered, and then you lose all your money and you have no place to live. Then all of a sudden, you're like, I don't know if those four little points on the refrigerator works anymore because I don't even have a refrigerator anymore. All right there, thanks for listening. Have a great day.