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The Forging Table

THE FORGING TABLE | 2 Timothy 3 (Ep. 492)

August 27, 2023 59m 25s Full transcript available
THE FORGING TABLE | 2 Timothy 3 (Ep. 492)
0:00 / 59m 25s
In this episode of The Forging Table, we dive deep into 2 Timothy 3, discussing the importance of sound doctrine and the dangers of false teachings. We challenge men to stand firm in their faith and be prepared for the increasing cultural opposition to biblical truth.
Transcript
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1:18 This is Undaunted Life of Man's Podcast.
1:21 I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
1:23 Let's get into it.
1:24 Welcome back to the forging table.
1:26 The mission of Undaunted Life is equipping men to push back darkness with content that
1:29 forges spiritual, mental, and physical resilience.
1:32 At the forging table, you'll see a group of regular guys forging spiritual resilience
1:35 by digging into God's Word, and we're welcoming all of you to come along on that journey with
1:39 us.
1:40 That's Ryan.
1:41 That's Matt.
1:42 And if you didn't listen to last week's episode, you need to go back and do that.
1:45 I think we set the record for the longest forging table episode, but there was just so
1:48 much there.
1:49 We got into a lot of discussion, and so we didn't really fully finish our discussion
1:53 of 2 Timothy 2.
1:54 So we're going to start in verse 14 of 2 Timothy 2, but then we're just going to roll right
1:58 into 2 Timothy 3 today.
2:01 Because again, as we've pointed out, laughing at ourselves a little bit, this is a letter.
2:05 It's just one letter.
2:06 It's not like you shouldn't really think of it in chapters, like chapters and verses
2:10 were put in later to make it easier for us to reference this particular document, but
2:15 did want to go there.
2:16 So if somebody will, we're going to see who's feeling froggy.
2:20 We will read 2 Timothy 2, 14 through 19.
2:23 I'll do it.
2:24 Matt's God.
2:25 Let's go.
2:26 "Remind them of these things and charge them before God, not to quarrel about words,
2:32 which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.
2:35 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to
2:40 be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
2:44 But avoid irreverent babble, or it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and
2:50 their talk will spread like gangrene.
2:53 Among them are Himeneas and Phileus, who have swered from the truth, saying that the resurrection
3:01 has already happened.
3:03 They are upsetting the faith of some."
3:04 Did you say 19?
3:07 Yeah.
3:08 Sorry.
3:09 But God's firm foundation stands bearing this seal.
3:11 The Lord knows those who are His, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart
3:18 from inequity.
3:19 So the big discussion here in this hit me because shocked anyone that's listened to
3:24 the show for a long time, I can be a little quarrelsome and I can point things out, whether
3:30 it be on social media or even in an interview, that's like, "Oh, this seems a bit discretatious.
3:35 There's potential quarreling here, but I've always, I don't say always.
3:40 I've had quarrels before that were worthless, and then I've had quarrels that I thought,
3:43 like, no, this is, this is a really big deal.
3:45 Like we have to get to, get to, you know, pater here.
3:49 But Paul warns three times in 2 Timothy 2 against arguing with false teachers.
3:57 So we see it as Matt just read in verse 14 and verse 16.
4:00 But then when you go to verse 23, verse 23 says, "Having nothing to do with foolish
4:04 ignorant controversies, you know that they breed quarrels."
4:09 And I got to, I finished reading 2 Timothy 3, or 2 Timothy 2, and I was like, "Whoops!"
4:14 Dang it.
4:15 But wait, like, I was thinking to myself, like, this, this is a problem.
4:18 Like I will get into these quarrels and like, I always try to make sure I'm on the right
4:22 side of it just, you know, logically so I can win the argument.
4:25 But at the same time, I'm just always worried now where it's like, "Wait a minute.
4:30 Is this the right type of quarrel?"
4:31 And I guess where I landed is Paul is all, we see it all throughout Paul's letters.
4:38 Paul's willing to argue Paul traveled to rebuke Peter to his face, right?
4:45 Because Peter was, you know, doing things with the Judaizers and kind of, you know,
4:50 doing gospel plus type stuff.
4:52 But Paul didn't get into arguments about, like, small things.
4:56 He got into arguments about salvific things, about gospel-related things.
5:00 And if people were preaching a false gospel or a watered-down gospel or a non-gospel,
5:05 like Paul was, was throwing down, but man, I just got to say, I didn't know exactly where
5:10 to draw the line on this is something worth quarreling about.
5:14 You know, William Farrell is one of the church, you know, fathers that I like most aligned
5:18 with because he was the guy that would, was, would just get after people and then he sees
5:22 St. Nicholas, like the actual real life, St. Nicholas, like he, like in the middle of, like,
5:26 basically a church meeting, like fotted dude.
5:28 And yeah, and it's like, I, I align with that, like that, that, you know, really speaks to
5:33 my disposition as a man.
5:35 But it's like, at what point is, hey, this is a quarrel worth having and even throwing
5:39 down versus, yeah, this is stupid and sinful.
5:42 I think it's a quarrel worth having is when you know it's a brother and you know, it's
5:45 like somebody that you trust and respect and what they're saying is, is antithetical of
5:51 the gospel or antithetical, what the truth is of the Bible.
5:54 I actually thought about this a lot in regards to, you know, indaunted and some of the interviews
5:59 that you've had in the past.
6:02 That being with, uh, uh, Crispin Mayfield, like, it's like, where do we draw the line?
6:07 Like you, you've, with Christian, Crispin and both, I think Ryan George, you were like,
6:11 man, I didn't even like these books, but I'm, I'm going to give them the time I'm going
6:15 to interview them.
6:16 When do you, where do you draw the line and not give them a platform?
6:19 Um, and so it's like, I feel like if we want to get into quarrel, some stuff, let's quarrel
6:24 with somebody we actually respect and want to talk to.
6:26 But if it's like something like that, maybe it's best not to give them a platform for their
6:30 false gospels.
6:33 I can't just disagree with what you said outright, but part of me is like, you know, just like
6:38 in the last episode, that was technically a quarrel, but we were all, we were all coming
6:43 at it from an intellectually honest standpoint, fervently wanting to know the truth.
6:47 And we weren't just trying to win an argument.
6:49 And so like that, I guess would be an example of a, of a positive quarrel, but it's like,
6:54 I don't think about quarreling necessarily with people that already agree with me or
6:58 that we're on the same team, it's the people that I think are doing something that is antithetical
7:02 to scripture or heretical or something like that.
7:06 That's why I was willing to go out on limo as it will and to do an entire episode about
7:10 Andy Stanley and then Brandon as a heretic, not going to make you a bunch of friends.
7:15 And whenever you try to take down one of the largest pastors of one of the largest churches
7:19 on planet earth, but it's just like what he's doing is, is horrific.
7:24 And so it's like at what point is it worth raising your hand saying, no, this, let's
7:28 fight about it.
7:29 And that's what with Andy Stanley, Andy Stanley's different.
7:31 And the fact that Andy Stanley has a following and these, he's leading these people down
7:35 a wrong path.
7:36 Some of the guys that just mentioned, they don't have that big of a following.
7:38 So I give them more.
7:39 I think that's what, I think that's what he's getting at is like, Hey, there's going to
7:42 be quarrel some stuff.
7:43 I'm going to quarrel with Peter because of what Peter's doing with the, uh, Judaizers.
7:47 But am I going to quarrel with, you know, this other guy down the street?
7:50 No, I'm not going to quarrel with him.
7:52 Why?
7:53 I'm a platform.
7:54 I don't want him to be able to say what he wants to say and answer the questions, you
7:59 know, that I don't want him to answer.
8:00 I want him to answer, you know, so I think it's just like, who do we want to get the
8:03 platform to and who already has the platform in regards to quarrelsome?
8:07 What do you think about the difference between coral with and reason with?
8:14 I think it's easier to reason with a brother and somebody that you know, then the reason
8:19 with a stranger who's already set in their mind.
8:21 I mean, if I'm looking at it from Kyle's standpoint, I'm, I'm probably you've done your homework
8:27 on the people you're going to interview.
8:29 And so I think that's when it comes down to is like, all right, this is, I know it's
8:33 going to be a quarrelsome interview, but is this somebody I really want to give?
8:36 What's the, what's the movie about the cigarettes in tobacco and, uh, thank you for smoking.
8:41 And what does he say about the argument when he's hanging out with the sun?
8:43 I never saw the movie.
8:45 So he's sitting there talking with his son.
8:46 They're having ice cream and all that stuff.
8:47 And he's like, dad, why do you do this?
8:48 You argue and all that stuff.
8:49 But I'm not trying to win this argument.
8:52 It's not between me and him.
8:53 It's, it's, I'm trying to win them, right?
8:55 Like everybody else that's paying attention.
8:56 So in a podcast scenario, to me, it's, can you get somebody to the table to reason with
9:02 them and you're able to hopefully control yourself so that you can have a good discussion.
9:07 You can't be responsible for their actions, of course.
9:10 And then everybody else gets the benefit of the discussion.
9:12 I'm a little bit concerned when we talk about like de-platforming and whatever that word
9:16 meets today, there's some validity to that, but also it's being used in a lot of really
9:20 negative ways where people don't have a voice.
9:22 But almost lean towards try to get somebody on and have a good, reasonable discussion and
9:27 then let people draw their conclusions.
9:29 Last thing I'd say, hold on, John Lennox, a bunch of these guys, think about the ones
9:33 that you really respect and you just, you've watched their arguments with people.
9:38 When you watch the people that they're against lose themselves.
9:41 I mean, I've watched, you know, like William Lane Craig and James White, you know, like
9:49 those are two guys I respect and like to listen to go back and like to listen to them go back
9:54 and forth.
9:55 Like that stuff makes sense.
9:56 I'm talking about like who are we giving our platform to, you know, like if Kyle's going
10:01 on somebody else's platform where he can speak in the way that he speaks and then pulling
10:06 some listeners that way to come his way, that makes sense, but the other person coming on.
10:13 Why do we want to introduce that?
10:14 So the other person's followers that have a chance to come on and follow him to Kyle's
10:19 podcast because it pops up may get an opportunity to get a different perspective.
10:22 I hear you.
10:23 And that makes sense.
10:24 I can see you on that.
10:25 I just, it's just something that when I would looked at this, I was like, man, are we giving,
10:30 you know, sometimes are we giving a platform to people?
10:32 We don't want to give a platform.
10:33 You know those conversations we've had on the back end where I feel like now I'm like,
10:36 dude, don't even interview the guy.
10:38 Don't give them the platform.
10:40 I will say this.
10:41 At this point in my career doing podcasts, I've never canceled a podcast.
10:46 So this is kind of how it happens, publisher XYZ or publicist XYZ pitches me on having
10:52 someone on the show.
10:53 Hey, they've got this book coming out.
10:54 Hey, they got this documentary coming out or hey, whatever.
10:58 And so most of the time, almost all every time I will accept the interview, put it on
11:03 the calendar before I prep the episode.
11:06 There's enough.
11:07 It's like watching a trailer for a movie that you haven't seen yet.
11:10 It's like, I'm going to watch that movie.
11:12 Why?
11:13 Because the trailer was interesting enough.
11:14 And then you get to evaluate the movie after you've seen it.
11:17 And so for me, only a handful of times I can count on one hand.
11:20 I said, yes, the interview.
11:21 I was excited about it.
11:22 Read the book.
11:23 And I was like, Oh, no, like you mentioned two of them, I'll leave the other ones nameless.
11:28 But the conundrum you're left with is the exact conundrum you're bringing up, Ryan,
11:34 which is don't want to platform this person's ideas because what you don't want to do is
11:39 to pretend like somebody is walking into a friendly environment and then try to smash
11:46 them.
11:47 Oh, of course.
11:48 Okay.
11:49 And so I as a podcaster and someone that just wants to be an upstanding moral individual,
11:53 I don't ever want someone to feel like they've been attacked.
11:56 Now we might in our conversation get to a place where it's like, we vehemently disagree
11:59 with this, but it's like, how do you handle that?
12:01 Even disagreement?
12:02 You cry and scream and point fingers and call names.
12:05 Do you smile to their face only to flame them later on your personal blog or on your
12:09 Twitter page or something like that?
12:10 Yeah.
12:11 Again, I control me.
12:12 They control themselves.
12:14 But I guess where I've landed on it, Ryan is I try to see if we're on the same team.
12:22 And if I can determine that we're not really on the same team and by that, I mean team
12:25 Jesus or team pro life or team, you know, whatever, if I surmise that we're really not
12:32 playing on the same team, I'm going to turn the heat up a little bit more, but it's almost
12:36 like what Matt Walsh did with the, what is a woman?
12:40 He just asked questions and let them answer and it's like, he's letting these people have
12:47 their decisions.
12:48 Sure.
12:49 That's the funniest thing about the left hating that documentary is it's like, he asked you
12:52 what your opinions were on these subjects and he let you answer and he didn't edit your
12:57 answer to make you look like a fool.
12:59 You just are a fool saying foolish things.
13:02 And so for me, it's like, I've had some interviews where it's like, I could have gone down some
13:06 rabbit trails to try and really destroy this person.
13:09 I have the mental ability and the moxie to embarrass people and to catch them in a lie or
13:15 to do something like that.
13:17 But the only times where I've really kind of taken the gloves off while smiling would
13:21 be when I've done debates, like on the unbelievable podcast with Jess and Briarly.
13:25 But those people, it's like, I kind of look at that, like, I'm going to slowly drag you
13:29 into deep water and drown you, like, but I'm not going to do it by screaming my point.
13:34 Yeah.
13:35 Like, I shouldn't have to scream my point to make you look foolish if I'm in the right.
13:38 You should also have grace, you know, and Paul talks about that a lot and not only with
13:44 just believers and brothers, but with, you know, culture within itself or the world within
13:48 itself.
13:49 You know, these hard, hard-headed people that don't want to listen and don't understand,
13:54 it's just, I don't know, I just feel like when I read this, it's like, well, how am
13:58 I platforming?
13:59 You know, what are we platforming?
14:01 Like, who do I want to give?
14:03 And if you, if you're really committed to your position, and I think, you know, it's
14:07 kind of like they say the Bible can defend itself.
14:10 Of course.
14:11 Right.
14:12 You can present truth to maybe people that aren't aligned with it in the right way and
14:15 defend itself.
14:16 Yeah.
14:17 I would say that science has shown from a negotiation standpoint that if you're in an
14:21 argument, nobody's wanting, that's a cliche, but it's true.
14:25 You have to keep it at that point where you can have a discussion.
14:27 Yeah.
14:28 If there's no discussion to be had, then you just have to continue to lay down the truth.
14:30 The reason I bring those guys up to is just, you know, if we get into the next bit in chapter
14:35 three, it's just like, we see what our culture has turned into nowadays in regards to what
14:41 are we idolizing?
14:42 We're idolizing self, we're idolizing, you know, you know, this goddess for you type
14:46 of fame, which is sounds great in itself, but we're not idolizing God.
14:50 We're idolizing ourselves.
14:52 And those guys just really pushed self idolization even in their interviews.
14:55 And it's just like, man, you know, it's like, what kind of platform are we, you know, in
15:01 today's age?
15:02 You know, this isn't a discussion between, you know, William Lane Craig and, and, and
15:05 James White.
15:06 So go ahead, Matt.
15:07 Well, I was going to say it seems like, I mean, this is a pastoral epistle, right?
15:11 So he's writing to Timothy who he's written to before.
15:15 And this language kind of seems like it goes back and cross references some of the language
15:21 from his first letter to Timothy with how overseers are supposed to conduct themselves.
15:28 And you're supposed to conduct yourself in a way that even outsiders would respect you.
15:33 And so one of the ways that I read this is quarreling.
15:36 Obviously, as you pointed out, Zach was, it's not the same as reasoning.
15:40 It's a, it's a more, you know, uptick in the temperature of a conversation.
15:44 It's more combative.
15:46 And when he talks about which does no good, but only ruins the hearers, it's, I think
15:52 it's important to define the hearers are the hearers, your, your flock.
15:57 And if your flock is hearing you quarrel and be someone who wouldn't be respected outside
16:03 the church, the Greek word use theirs is where we get for ruin is where we get catastrophe.
16:09 And so it is catastrophic for those hearers to see that pastor who is supposed to be
16:16 even keel, stable, steady, I'm going to reason if they see that quarrelsome attitude, that
16:24 is to their detriment and to their catastrophic ruin.
16:29 And so I think this is also a call to say, Hey, you've got to conduct yourself in a way.
16:33 Again, like I said in my previous letter that even outsiders would pour respect upon you.
16:39 So it's also the direction of your heart.
16:41 So I've, I've had this, this debate with people before, because there are people prominent
16:45 pastors that say, if you do yoga, you are performing a satanic ritual, and there's no
16:50 two ways about it.
16:52 And that always struck me as, as strange because it's like there are certain poses in yoga
16:58 that are really good for stretching certain parts of your body.
17:02 And it's one thing to do a yoga routine and to try and tap into some sort of Eastern mystic
17:09 tradition or nature or something like that.
17:12 But someone could do the exact, someone like me could do the exact same yoga routine because
17:15 man, my hip flexors are pretty tight.
17:17 I'm going to do this routine real quick.
17:18 And so I think the direction of your heart is important specifically when you go into
17:22 a debate as well.
17:23 So let's say you have a debate, whether on a podcast or otherwise, just in your personal
17:27 life, and it devolves, like it devolves and becomes kind of bitter and Matt, the temperature
17:33 goes even higher and higher and higher, you control you.
17:36 So if they come up and then you try to go over the top of them and then they try to go over
17:40 the top of you and then not enough, now we're calling names, now we're taking personal
17:43 pot shots because y'all disagree on what's the greatest movie franchise of all time.
17:47 Like those are the things where it's like the, the direction of your heart should dictate
17:52 where the conversation goes.
17:53 But if it flies off the handle, like it can only be on you if you ate it in that.
17:59 So if I as someone that's pro abortion, like, Hey, why do you think it's okay to kill a living
18:05 human being that's in someone's womb?
18:06 If they fly off the handle and go crazy, someone will be like, well, yeah, you shouldn't have
18:09 asked them that question.
18:10 It's like, no, no, I'm responsible for how I asked the question.
18:13 They're responsible for how they responded to it.
18:14 Like I can't take responsibility for both sides of that coin or both sides of that equation.
18:19 And that's another thing.
18:20 If you look at second Timothy as one letter, all of these things correlate with one another,
18:25 because right when you get in, we'll just go and transfer into chapter three now, we see
18:30 some of these ways of how we're to comport ourselves in the first six verses of chapter
18:35 three.
18:36 So Zach, how about you read a second Timothy three and go ahead and read the first six
18:40 verses, but understand this that in the last days there will come times of difficulty for
18:47 people will be lovers of self lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their
18:52 parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasible, slanderous without self control, brutal, not
19:00 loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure, rather than
19:05 lovers of good, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power, avoid such people,
19:12 or among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burden with sins and
19:18 led astray by various passions, go ahead and read some always learning and never able to
19:24 arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
19:27 So there's a lot there. So he's talking about in verse one, the last days, you know, depending
19:31 upon your theology, with that even came up with our pastor this morning. In reference
19:36 to the last days, a lot of people believe, okay, Jesus came once and he's going to be
19:40 coming back again. And so the in between time is the last days. Okay, so that's basically
19:45 what they're talking about, but going into verse five, having the appearance, having
19:49 the appearance of godliness. Now we're going to get into this when we talk in verse four,
19:55 at the beginning, or sorry, chapter four, when we talk about, you know, and they want their
19:59 ears tickled and those types of things. So we'll give a little primer for that type
20:03 of conversation right now. There are a lot of people that have the appearance of godliness.
20:09 They're pastors, they're social media influencers, they're athletes, they're these types of
20:14 people that they have attached or we have attached the word Christian to them into their lives.
20:21 And whether they have the fruit or not or whatever, but they have the appearance of godliness.
20:26 But actually they are lovers of self lovers of money, proud air get abusive dot, dot,
20:31 dot everything that was described starting in verse two. And we're in such a dangerous
20:36 time because I read through the first five verses and I literally wrote down what time
20:39 is not like this, where people are not acting this way. Like, is there a special version
20:44 of that in 2023 that we're not, you know, we weren't privy to as a human being a thousand
20:49 years ago or so. But that was a good thing for me to kind of look at to where it's like,
20:54 man, it's just another good reminder to be like, watch out for people that appear to
20:59 be good for ministries that appear to be good. And I tell people all the time, treat undaunted
21:04 life as in that category as well. Because if we, if you started listening to us in year
21:10 two of our podcast and then we get led astray and year six, that doesn't mean our entire
21:13 backlog is not worth worth your time or can't teach you anything. But it's like, you should
21:18 always test ministries, pastors, elders, individuals to the scriptures and be like, are you aligning
21:24 with this? Because yes, I think 80 Stanley is now saying and teaching heretical things.
21:29 That doesn't mean I didn't learn anything from his book vision, visioneering that he
21:32 released like 12 years ago, where the guardrails is one of the most meaningful and impactful
21:38 teaching series. Great series. Like that's, that's a great series. I think, and I probably
21:43 sound like a broken record on this, but this to me just reeks of dive into the word. Yeah,
21:51 be in the scripture, know the scripture. Because if you don't, you, you can't tell if someone
21:58 is ungodly, full of full of conceit, you don't know if you're not like you said, you
22:03 got to test against the scriptures, you've got it, you've got to know the word of God to
22:07 be able to see that. I mean, I agree. I mean, we, we've been through personally, like a
22:16 church that we were, we were involved with for like six years and it started to change.
22:22 We weren't, we weren't built into the word and the Bible. And we noticed that the pastor
22:29 is bringing people in to speak. And then we start looking at these people and reading
22:33 what they've written. And all of a sudden you're like, well, this is, this seems antithetical
22:38 of the gospel. This is antithetical of what the Bible reaches. And it was, it was a hard
22:42 time that my wife and I had to go through. But was there good times in that time? Did
22:45 we learn a lot from that pastor? Yeah, we learned some things. It's just like Russell
22:49 Moore, somebody I, I still, you know, deeply have affection for, you know, though I felt
22:55 he's moved away. But I mean, I did a teaching on complimentarianism and the three fourths
23:00 of it was Russell Moore in 2006, not the Russell Moore from this table, not the Russell Moore
23:05 Russell Russell Moore. So I mean, it's just like Mark Driscoll. You can't throw Mark Driscoll
23:11 out with the bathwater. You know, like, yeah, you know, we kind of understand that these
23:15 pastors are human. They're not going to be perfect. But we do expect our pastors or our
23:21 people who are who are out there to have some sort of being a lover of God.
23:25 God, God expects that. Yeah. And she has a pretty hard line and a pretty high measuring
23:31 statement. And he does. And he knows like, you know, it's like they said, those who are
23:35 preaching will be judged more harshly. And he knows what hey, he knows like, we're, we're
23:40 guys that are sitting here in this group and we're, we're not trying to lead people astray,
23:43 we're, we're trying to get through this. You know, he knows that if we may say the wrong
23:47 thing, he's not judging us the way that he knows a pastor who knows the right thing,
23:52 the moving it, moving it into a direction that it shouldn't go in. You know, and that's
23:56 what I think, you know, we're seeing here in, in Timothy's time is because of the persecution
24:01 happening, Christians, people are moving the gospel to a different point.
24:06 When people are susceptible to shiny things, to things that seem positive. And we see that
24:12 in verse six, because that's kind of like, wait, do you just drop a bomb on women? Like
24:16 that seems super rude. For among them are those who creep into households and capture
24:19 weak women, burden with sins and led astray by various passions. I think it was in first
24:25 Timothy, I was trying to find it. But we've talked about this before about how women perhaps
24:31 could be more susceptible to bad teaching. And before you get mad at me for saying that,
24:36 at least the children's who happens to be a gangster and is a female as far as I know,
24:41 she still identifies as that she has talked about that publicly. And she said it on my
24:45 show. Do you have it, Matt?
24:46 It's first Timothy chapter two, verse 13 and 14. Would you mind reading that? It's for
24:50 Adam was formed first, then Eve and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and
24:56 became a transgressor. And then 15, yet she will be safe through childbearing. And if
25:01 they continue in faith, 11 holiness with self control. But that's an important thing here
25:08 that we're all gullible to a degree, but we have two admonitions and two separate letters
25:12 from Paul that, look, women might be especially susceptible to some of these things. And then
25:18 when you back up, you take what you just read, Matt, we take what we just read, and we're
25:22 looking at here in second Timothy three, and you think about some of these enormous ministries
25:28 that have grown. When you think about Christian bookstores, when you think about the consumers
25:33 of Christian media, it is a well known fact by people within Christendom, the overwhelming
25:39 majority of the sales at Christian bookstores are women, the overwhelming majority of books
25:43 that are bought by Christian authors through Christian publishing houses are women. Why
25:49 aren't there more men's books in the Christian sphere? Because even Christian publishers won't
25:54 put them out. Why? Because men don't read the women read the people that buy a while at
25:58 heart. It's the women buying it for their husband type of a situation. And so the same
26:03 thing is like that across the board. And then you see these effeminate pastors get these
26:08 huge followings, and they're getting followings by a lot of emotive women and more effeminate
26:14 emotive men. And all the while, the strong, virile, more traditionally masculine men are
26:21 being pushed to the outside, push the outside, push the outside. And then you see these enormous
26:26 pastors with these huge followings. And they've got a bunch of weak minded women that they
26:32 have almost romanced into their version of the gospel or their version of theology. I
26:38 know some of the sounds a little bit rough, but would you all agree with that assessment?
26:42 No, there's there's truth in that. I mean, look at Christian music contemporary Christian
26:46 music. If you ever listened to one of those stations, it's 90% of the people listening
26:51 are our housewives, all the people that call in our housewives. And that's a thing like
26:57 my wife would probably agree with you because I just talked about that time that we had
27:02 that hard time within the church. We had some deep discussions on where she was like, you
27:06 know, he's our pastor, we have to submit to him. And we have to listen. And I'm like,
27:10 Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm not submitting to this guy one, he's not even biblical. You
27:14 know, but I think that there's a there's a thing there where women hear what they want
27:19 to hear. And it's not just women men can do it too. But men are not paying attention.
27:26 It's just like, look at the garden. Let's look back at the garden. And Eve was tempted
27:30 by this was lied to by the serpent and followed through. And then Adam just went ahead and
27:34 did it too, you know, because he was just following his wife's lead. He wasn't taking
27:38 care of his household. And so when you're not taking care of your household, this is
27:41 what he's talking about here, you know, women are at home at this time. And these these
27:46 heretics that are coming up spreading a false gospel are coming to these women while they're
27:50 at home and their husbands are gone. So they can easily bring them in with whatever they're
27:56 wanting to teach. And I feel like that's the problem that we have nowadays, like you
27:59 brought up, you know, women bookstores. It's like women and books and all this self help
28:06 stuff. And it's all about love of self. And we're living in a day and age where we're
28:10 just like built on self esteem. And and how to build up a self esteem and have self esteem
28:17 where it's it's coming. It's just it's coming out of the everywhere. And it's like sometimes
28:23 maybe we need to look at where do we find our self esteem, but we find our self esteem
28:26 and what we're doing, or do we find our self esteem and what God's doing through us.
28:31 I don't know. It's hard for me. I'll read this note. It says the false religious leaders
28:35 take advantage of the problems people have and promise them quick and easy solutions.
28:40 They creep into and soon control people's lives. It's not long before these leaders grab
28:44 their followers loyalty, money and service. And their converts are worse off than than
28:49 they were before. They still have their problems, but they have been dumped on thinking that
28:53 all as well. So I definitely think that everybody is capable of behaving like this, whether
28:59 you're a man, a woman. And I also probably think there's some context back then with
29:04 women's positions, especially if they were single or whatever, starting to rely on these
29:09 people. But it's sticky, I guess in some way. And I think that's an example of just, you
29:15 know, the Bible says some pretty cutting things. And it says what it says, it's not up to us
29:19 to make them sound easier or more acceptable and pleasing to our audience as well. Matt,
29:27 if you would mind hitting versus 10 through 13, second Timothy three, you got it. You,
29:35 however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my
29:41 love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happen to me at Antioch, at
29:48 Iconium, and at Listra, which is how I was trying to read through those and say I'm right,
29:57 which persecutions I endured yet from them all, the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who
30:02 desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted while evil people and imposters
30:08 will go on from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived.
30:11 So a few things here, Listra, Listra, how are you saying it? That's where Paul was left
30:16 for dead. I believe he was stoned and left for dead. Okay. So we just read down there
30:21 like, oh, yeah, Antioch, Iconium and Listra. Things happened at all those places. He encapsulated
30:28 it in a phrase, but some pretty serious things happened there. So in verse 12, when he says,
30:35 all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. I don't know that
30:41 we believe that. I don't know in our modernity. I think this came up last week of the week
30:46 before where persecution, I think it was a couple of weeks ago, with persecution in
30:52 a modern day in America is, well, this person left a angry comment on my Facebook post where
30:57 I posted a scripture. I'm under persecution. And it's like, yeah, you're losing your life
31:03 in North Korea. They find you with a Bible. It's a little different. Chinese Communist
31:08 Party is treating people with not a whole lot of grace. If they catch you with the running
31:12 an underground church, that type of thing. And so a lot of people will read verse 12 and
31:18 say that we will be persecuted. And they will think to themselves, not me or someone else
31:23 is going to fight that fight for me. Whereas I read something like that and think, okay,
31:27 so let's go to our loins. Like, let's get ready for this fight. Because if it hasn't
31:32 happened yet, it is coming. Yeah. And if you're not feeling persecution, maybe it's because
31:38 no one thinks you're a Christian. They think you're too much like them. And so when these
31:41 churches, especially these mega churches that are ran by CEO pastors, these are churches
31:46 that are desperately trying to be like the culture that hates them. And so when a non-believer
31:51 walks in to this seeker sensitive church and it feels oddly like the last several concerts
31:56 they went to and the last few TED talks that they've watched, what is the differentiator
32:01 that brings them to Christ? And again, you know, God's going to do what he's going to
32:05 do. And you know, they're going to find him everywhere, right? In the right church, quote
32:10 unquote the wrong church, quote unquote. But it's it's an odd tactic, I will say, to where
32:15 they're doing their their level best to make sure that their churches as much like the
32:20 world as possible when it's the world that we're trying to differentiate from. It doesn't
32:25 make sense to me. Yeah, I think a modern day persecution outside of just, you know, China
32:33 and North Korea. Who's the guy that wrote, seeking Allah, finding Jesus? Beal correction.
32:41 Beal correction. He he has another book. I don't think it's that book. I think it's
32:43 a I think it's another one of his books. No God, but one. Maybe he tells a story of I
32:48 think it's an Iranian girl whose brother was like he worked for she was she was a Muslim
32:54 and her brother worked for the police. And his her brother was so devout that for him
33:02 to find out that she had become a Christian, he would carry out the execution himself.
33:07 That's how devout he was. That's persecution. I guess honor killing. Yeah. Or you hear
33:13 about these our church supports a tribal group. What? Go ahead. Don't ask. What? I
33:21 thought the Donu, the one that's in Mexico or the one? No, the Donu. That was a Donu
33:25 people. I said that over. These people are getting kicked out of their village for becoming
33:30 Christians. Yeah. And think about that. So I've I've lived under some pretty tyrannical
33:35 H O A's. You know, these people that like, Oh, your grass is half an inch above the acceptable
33:41 levels. We went ahead and cut it for you and sent you a bill. Like, you know, we've been
33:45 there, but to become a Christian and then lose your home. Like we don't even have a category
33:51 for that in America now. I'm with you on that. I agree. You don't sound like you. Well,
33:57 it's kind of like Jocco would say, like, you know, what you're having a great day compared
34:01 to whoever in World War two that had this problem on the beach. Normally I get it. Totally
34:04 understand that. But I'm still having to confront the reality I live in. And just like I wouldn't
34:09 go to the Donu people and try to expect them to live up to all the expectations that I'm
34:13 expected to live up to professionally and from a family standpoint, we have different pressure
34:18 points. So like, there's this great video. I sent it to some of you guys, but Alistair
34:23 Begg has a video about second Timothy, the summary in the last like 15 minutes are really
34:27 good. And he gets into a point where he says, you know, it's like walk around a corporate
34:30 environment, think about going up to, you know, a high level meeting with leaders of
34:35 a, of this organization. And they represent a global group of people with all sorts of
34:41 different beliefs. You know, how do you feel about afterlife or whatever? Are you spiritual?
34:45 Yeah, I'm spiritual. Well, that's great. You know, are you religious? Yeah, I'm religious.
34:49 You know, yeah, I think God saves us. If you walk in there and say, I believe that you,
34:54 the only way to get saved is through Jesus Christ period. And that's the only way you
35:00 are guaranteed to be in hot water in some way or another. And that's going to be very real
35:06 to you and your circumstances and could have really serious impacts. And I think in the
35:12 United States of America, which he also references, this was like 10 years ago when he said it,
35:15 he referenced the UK and where they were at. And he said, the US is going to be here in
35:18 10 years. It's basically where we're at now. Yeah. So I don't think we should be little
35:23 at the circumstances. And I think they're getting more and more serious as time goes.
35:26 And it's going to really separate the week from the chaff in many ways. I think I think
35:31 2020 and COVID kind of kind of did some of that. You can't go to church. Well, the faithful
35:37 went to church and those who weren't faithful, a lot of them still aren't going to church.
35:42 Canada Canada is a great example. I mean, Kyle's interviewed a few people that have gone through
35:47 some stuff there. Historically, the church has always been persecuted first monetarily
35:52 where you can't, you know, you can't be if you're in a guild, if you're in a, well, let's
35:56 say a carpenter guild and you're a Christian. Well, if you don't sacrifice to the gods that
36:03 we believe in in our guild, and we're going to make sure that you don't have work, that's
36:06 like the first round of persecution for Christians historically is it's always monetary, right?
36:11 So I think there's some of that because like even in a corporate setting, like if you go
36:14 in and you proclaim truth and you speak the gospel, like it may not be overt, but you're
36:21 probably going to have some consequences. Whether you, whether the reasons for the consequences,
36:26 are you trying to share the gospel or like seen or not? The anonymous HR hotline. Yeah,
36:33 I think I think just stepping out to your point, Zach, just stepping out in faith and proclaiming
36:38 the gospel and proclaiming the truth can set us on a path in the world for some persecution
36:47 and some, some of folly, I guess. Well, and also verse 13, while evil people and imposters
36:52 will go on from bad to worst, deceiving and being deceived. The MacArthur commentary talked
36:58 about how there are dangerous movements of false teachers and how those will become increasingly
37:03 more successful until Christ returns. And so I know that we sit around and we almost like
37:10 hope that any Stanley falls and that Stephen Furtick falls and that, you know, name your
37:16 favorite, heretical pastor that's teaching nonsense, but basically have biblical guarantee
37:22 that that's the exact opposite that's going to happen. Their churches are going to get
37:26 bigger. Their podcast downloads are going to explode. They're going to sell more books
37:30 and just think about it. Their entire publishing house is that we will not name here that the
37:35 level of not just writing, like just straight up authorship, but the level of biblical depth
37:43 of some of these Christian publishing houses in the books they're putting out, it's like,
37:46 this is nonsense. Like this, this isn't, this is a self help book with it. This is a Christian
37:52 coffee cup in 200 page book form, right?
37:55 It's not even a Christian coffee cup. It's like, it's sprinkled with Christian verses
38:00 and a worldly coffee cup. I mean, I feel like what we're seeing now, nowadays in the Christian
38:07 church is they look at God's moral law. They look at God's design as draconian. And what
38:12 they want to do and I've seen it said many times is if we remain like this will be irrelevant
38:18 to the youngest generation, it is not about truth. Now it's about, well, how do we reach
38:24 these young people? So we need to compromise. If we don't compromise, then we're going to
38:29 lose people. And it's like, you, you really think God's gospel needs your help, you know,
38:34 like, just go out there and teach it. That's what that's what Paul's saying here. Paul
38:38 is saying to Timothy, go out and teach the truth. He's steadfast in the truth. Earlier
38:42 in his letter, Paul talks about in a great house, and he talks about honorable vessels
38:48 and dishonorable vessels. Honorable vessels are the gold in the silver. You, you leave those
38:54 with the gold in the silver, right? The dishonorable vessels, I think a lot of scholars say that
38:59 those are like the trash, you take the trash out with those vessels or wood, they're junk,
39:03 they're, they're dirty. You don't leave, you don't put those in the same. Like, you don't,
39:09 you don't store those with the, with the valuable ones. And I think talking about these false
39:16 teachings, those are obviously the dishonorable vessels. But if you put gold in silver and
39:24 it starts hanging out with the dirty garbage bins, that gold in silver gets tarnished and
39:32 it starts to look like garbage. And I think that's why it's so important. That's why you'd
39:36 like is harping on it is because he wants, he is, he is encouraging and calling Timothy
39:42 to be an honorable vessel in the house of God. Don't be a dishonorable trash bin, because
39:48 if you hang out with those people, you're going to become one. And I think that's a great,
39:54 that's a great picture of what that can do to a church. It can, it can completely like
40:00 catastrophic ruin back to chapter two. It can be the ruin of a church.
40:06 Well, I'd say one more thing, just draw this back for a second. Like from a church perspective
40:10 and then what I mentioned with corporate, I'm definitely not saying don't be bold. Don't
40:15 share your faith and all that. What I think what I see is a little bit of I want to feel
40:20 comfortable to do that. And I think everybody has a right to, but I think it's easy to see
40:24 circumstances where that would be difficult. And I just think we have to figure out the
40:29 best way to navigate that without compromising yourself. And I recognize it's hard.
40:33 I was going to say one more thing about being like deceiving and being deceived. I think
40:38 our duty as faithful Christians is to pray for false teachers. The same way we would
40:45 pray for our own kids salvation because they are deceiving. They are also being deceived.
40:53 And while there's some culpability there, they are believing a deception as well. And
40:58 so praying for their salvation and praying that their eyes would be opened is something
41:03 that we can miss very easily. And we can have contempt for those people. And I'm guilty
41:08 of this for sure. And some of you have heard me talk about some of these guys and I'm like
41:13 I have contempt for so because it makes you angry. Like if someone, if someone is speaking
41:19 untruths about your heavenly Father who created the universe, like you want to speak out against
41:24 that. But I think we are also, we are called to pray for those people too.
41:28 It helps you too. I'm not going to be specific, but there's some people that we've had some
41:32 challenges with and it's a very diplomatic way. At night, like with my son, we go through
41:39 prayer list and I'll specifically include some, some people, whether it's people that
41:43 he's dealing with at school maybe or that, you know, he's aware of that I'm dealing with
41:46 just as an example of, Hey, let's pray for this. And what I've noticed is I do that also
41:51 is that I think it, it adjusts my perspective of the problem and of that person to an extent.
41:57 And also it's pray for them not about them. Yes. And I would love to be the one that came
42:04 up with that. But drum roll, please, Joby Martin taught me that in a personal conversation.
42:09 We were talking about a specific person that I was having some issues with. And they're
42:12 like, have you prayed for them or about them? He said in his South Carolina redneck draw
42:17 and I was just like, Dad, God, shut up. Are you gossiping to God? Yeah, are you praying
42:22 for some? Yeah, I really think you should God, I just want to pray for this person and their
42:26 horrible ability at being good and how they're not like me. Like, yes, it's like, what is
42:30 again, what's the posture of your prayer? Are you doing yoga with your ponytail hooked
42:34 up to the tree, trying to get power from the avatar matrix universe? Or are you just doing
42:38 it to snap a little bit? That's why you said yoga was good. No, no, no, I'm saying it's the
42:43 positioning of your heart. Like, again, ponytail hooked up to the tree bad, you know, doing
42:48 it because you want to be, you know, better at sports, not getting injured, you know,
42:51 good. But the whole thing is, is we shouldn't take even that commentary from a car through
42:56 that, Hey, these, these false teachers are going to become more successful over time.
42:59 We shouldn't take that pessimistically. I'm saying that to a pessimist myself to be
43:03 like, well, we're just going to throw our hands up and, you know, wait for the rapture
43:06 or wait until we're survived. It's like, no, no, no, it means we're going to have to sharpen
43:10 our swords more. We're going to have to be ready. We're not going to have to, we need
43:13 to make sure we don't get caught flat footed, especially when the culture seems to be degrading,
43:17 because there's current currently things happening in culture that were unthinkable years ago.
43:23 And I remember good buddies of mine. A few years ago, me talking about, Hey, buddy, the
43:26 next domino to fall is pedophilia. There's going to be a normalization of pedophilia,
43:30 because if you can choose your own gender as a child as a minor, why can you not choose
43:34 your own sexual partner? Also, if you can identify as something that doesn't align with
43:38 truth or reality, why can't you identify as a different age, be that older or younger?
43:43 45 year old man wants to have a sexual relationship with 12 year old girl, 45 year old just identifies
43:48 as a 12 year old boy, you know, Bob's your uncle, boom, there you go. You've got a sexual
43:53 relationship. And according to the logic of the left or the logic of our depraved culture,
43:57 that's an okay and acceptable thing. That doesn't mean that we just keep throwing our
44:01 hands up and continuing backing up. It's like, there are fights worth fighting and the battles
44:06 are just going to be a little bit more difficult. I think the picture of girding your loins
44:11 and being prepared, I think it's helpful to understand like what that means. Because
44:14 you were a robe. And if your robe is down, if a lion jumps out and she starts chasing,
44:21 you can't run, right? You're going to trip. And so girding your loins is a process of
44:27 hiking up your robe and tying it in a way that kind of looks like shorts. So you're
44:32 ready for whatever. And to your point, Kyle, like beat like being in a stance or a posture
44:39 that's ready to combat is what the call is. And if you're robes down, man, you're going
44:46 to trip and you're going to get eaten alive. And part of its preparedness, I tell people
44:49 all the time, if you're concealed carrier and you've never had the conversation with
44:53 yourself about whether or not you could end a life, then you probably don't need to be
44:58 carrying that firearm. Because if you're in that life or death situation, and now you're
45:02 trying to decide whether or not you're going to point that particular weapon at somebody
45:06 and pull the trigger and potentially in their life, it's too late. It is way, way, way too
45:10 late. That's a conversation you'd have with yourself beforehand. But as we wrap up our
45:14 discussion of second Timothy three, Ryan, can you read 16 and 17 last two verses?
45:19 All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction and
45:24 for training and righteousness that the man of God may be completely equipped for every
45:30 good word. So, excuse me, if you've ever heard that scripture is God breathed, this is this
45:36 is where we get that. So all scripture is breathed out by God. Now, go ahead, if you
45:40 go to a church, or you're looking at finding a church and you go to doctrines, you don't
45:45 see that in there, run. So let's talk a little bit about that. So for giving all the puns,
45:52 I'm going to be the devil's advocate here. Because we all know about circular reasoning.
45:57 So I think we mentioned what is a woman either earlier on this one or last week, where, you
46:03 know, people are like, you know, Matt, I'll say, what is a woman? A woman is someone who
46:06 identifies as a woman. And then he's like, well, what is that there? It's just a woman.
46:09 And it's like, you're using the definition in the word that you're trying to define,
46:14 you're using the word that you're trying to find in the definition for that word. Like
46:17 that's not how this works. When you hear people say things like, let the Bible read
46:22 the Bible. Or the Bible is true because the Bible says that it's true. The Bible is in
46:29 errant, not to be confused with inherent, but the Bible is in errant. Why? Because the
46:35 Bible says so. That is a stumbling block for a lot of people. Okay. Now you were the oldest
46:44 Zach before you became a Christian of all this. So you're even steeped in logic and reasoning
46:48 and Western thought and all these different things. But I even remember not growing up
46:53 in church, but kind of being part of this whole thing, since I was in high school, that
46:57 just not striking me as a good enough argument. As we talked about last week, doesn't matter
47:03 if the arguments better or if logic says that this is true and that's not true, it matters
47:07 what is true. But when people talk about that and you're trying to convince or argument
47:13 or provide or apologetic to a non Christian as to why we should believe the Bible in your
47:17 argument is because the Bible says so they could very easily say, well, I believe the
47:21 Quran because the Quran says so, or I believe this random writing by Elrond Hubbard about
47:29 Scientology because he says he says it's true. It's like, I think people really struggle
47:35 with that. And if we're being honest, I know most Christians would never admit this out
47:39 loud. They struggle with this too. It's in errant. Well, wait, wait a minute. Like it
47:43 doesn't even make sense that somebody could be swallowed by a whale and live inside them.
47:47 Like the whole world that God set up would make that not a possibility. So it's a violation
47:52 of all the rules of nature. And you know, if there's one historical fact that was written
47:58 down improperly in the Bible, then we can just throw out the entire Bible out of, you
48:03 know, this person said there was two angels at the tomb. And this person said there was
48:06 one angel at the tomb, like, how can we know and trust? Again, I'm playing devil's advocate
48:11 here. But again, guys, this is a problem for a lot of people. Let the Bible read the Bible.
48:16 It's hard. Let me go in real quick. I don't want to go to, but now you go ahead, man.
48:19 So first, first thing for me would just be, we've talked about this before, but when
48:23 it comes to anything that seems like a crazy miracle in the Bible that's difficult to get
48:28 your head around Jonah, fish, you know, whatever, I think we all have to go back to the fact
48:33 that we're all here. We all exist and we all exist from nothing. And that's been kind of
48:38 objectively shown scientifically that everything came from nothing. So by definition, everybody
48:44 believes in a miracle, at least one. And if one miracle is possible, then any other miracle
48:48 is possible. Thank you, Frank Turk for that. That was, that was big for me. But I think
48:53 it comes back to what I've heard you say, which is if Jesus actually rose from the grave and
48:59 he validated this, that's what it comes back to for me. So I would always point somebody
49:04 back to the argument for Christ rising from the grave and the evidence surrounding that.
49:09 And then he validated the rest of the Bible. I've talked to people recently who said, yeah,
49:11 I think that's true, but I don't believe anything Paul said. I know you guys have probably dealt
49:16 with that before, but this is the first time I'd been confronted with that. And I had to
49:19 think about it for a second, I go, well, you know, Christ, you know, basically validated
49:24 all of his apostles. And he says that he appeared to Paul, but then the apostles that were with
49:28 Christ in person also validated Paul. So by definition, if you believe that Christ rose
49:32 from the dead, then it's validated.
49:34 And I'd also ask him, does he like Luke, the book of Luke? Because it's basically Paul's
49:40 version of the gospel. So I agree with you 100%. I mean, I've had that, you know, I've
49:47 sat there and thought, do I really believe that a 33 year old Jewish carpenter died
49:53 on a cross after being scourged and rose three days later? Like, if I can believe that and
49:59 have my faith in that, everything else in the Bible is true to me. It's like, I can,
50:07 I can't even explain that, you know, but I can explain it. We saw a man what three years
50:13 ago that got swallowed by a whale or a fish and lived in there for like two days. So we
50:17 know that Jonah could definitely have happened. Wait, what? Yeah, there's a guy. Oh, look
50:22 up. Yeah, I remember seeing a video of kayakers being had a whale, like basically grab them
50:30 and then spit them out like a second later. Yeah, the very unironic title of the article
50:35 was modern day Jonah swallowed by a whale. Okay, I'm pretty sure that's been swallowed
50:40 by whale by Cape Cod, modern diver 2021. I'm kind of well. Yeah. So what kind of whale?
50:48 Is it a cool whale, at least? Why do we even get in the wait? Wait, you're saying that
50:54 it's wild a minute. He was in there for you said two days. I think it was two days. Quite
50:58 not quite three. This is this is important because if it was like two minutes, then that's
51:02 a little different. Maybe maybe it was too, man. So I'm pretty sure it was it was it was
51:07 it was that doesn't that doesn't ruin your point, but it just was shocking that somebody
51:12 lived in a whale. I think I was completely inside. It was completely black. That's what
51:16 he said. I think obviously the resurrection story and people having eyewitness accounts
51:24 of Jesus is very powerful. But I think there's other there's other ways to know that the
51:30 Bible is breathed out by God. Just looking at prophecies or telling of Christ and you
51:39 know, like even going back, Genesis three, like prophesying a savior and Christ being
51:48 present in the entire Old Testament, hundreds, thousands of years before his earthly birth.
51:57 So there's there's plenty of examples to that push back on that though. I mean, I'm sure
52:02 they would have to go outside the Bible to prove that they had copies of the Bible that
52:06 predated Christ. So you can say that it wasn't rewritten afterwards. And you the thing is
52:10 you'll find that to be true. Yeah. Yeah, which is incredible for sure. Yeah. I mean, yes,
52:18 you would have to do that. But yes, like you said, that's like Isaiah, you know, the fact
52:21 that they found that the Dead Sea Scrolls, I forget how many like a thousand years before
52:25 Christ, which which has Isaiah 53 and everything else contained in it was incredible. There
52:31 was I was in Sunday school a couple weeks ago and there was I want to say as an Old Testament
52:36 book that the earliest copy that we had until the Dead Sea Scrolls was written after the
52:44 Quran. And so Muslims had that Trump card for years. Our religion is older than yours.
52:52 You guys just made it up after we set it. And then the Dead Sea Scrolls, God's like, wait
52:57 a second. Here it is. Dead Sea Scrolls pop up. It's like, OK, boom. Now this is this predates
53:04 you, your guys's stuff by even longer. And so I heard a little clip the other day and
53:10 it just said, they were talking to a Muslim or whatever and they said, if the Quran were
53:14 true, why would Jesus be so popular? They just left it at that. They were asking a Muslim?
53:22 No. Just silence. I think the thing that again, a lot of people struggle with because like
53:28 I can I skeptical by nature. So I can kind of see where people come to these realizations
53:33 because again, there are a lot of arguments that Christian make Christians make that are
53:37 just intellectually not satisfying. But then I also feel like Christians maybe go a little
53:41 bit out over their skis when they make their arguments. And so we're definitely not opening
53:45 up young earth, first old earth right now. That's definitely not what's happening. That's
53:49 so awesome. Everybody. Everybody just relax. I don't even know where y'all land on that,
53:53 but I'm just assuming it's gonna land somewhere. But when someone says, which again, doesn't
53:58 matter six little days versus six like old days, like we're not going to know where we
54:05 are going is when Christians will say, well, dinosaurs like T. Rex's and Raptors and Triceratops
54:13 and all the dinosaurs I've learned about because my three year olds into them right now, those
54:17 weren't described in the Bible. So it's not possible that they ever roam the earth. They
54:21 were placed into the earth to test our faith. I just go, yeah, this is getting icky. That's
54:28 so that's crazy for sure. And so and again, you don't have to fit into the world's conception
54:35 of what a good argument is because the world's like, if it's not scientific, then I don't
54:39 want to hear it. It's like, well, scientifically prove that you love your son. Oh, you can't
54:43 put that in a Bunsen burner like, okay, or beaker or something like that. So I go, okay, well,
54:47 then that's not that's not true. You don't actually love your son. Like you can, we can
54:50 go around all day. But I do feel like I've heard Christians say like if it's not in the
54:55 Bible, it's not true. Like, well, George Washington was the first president of the United States.
55:00 That is true. And I didn't learn that from the Bible. And so again, I think we have to
55:05 be careful when people like the source of all truth and knowledge is in the Bible. It's
55:08 like, no, it's not the source of the most important truths are in the Bible. But you
55:15 can't figure out who the 25th president of the United States is by going to the Bible.
55:18 You can't figure out how to get to grandma's by looking at the Bible. And I think we have
55:22 to understand that if you're looking for why truth even matters, the Bible is super duper
55:26 relevant, but we have to be very careful with how we describe the Bible. You know, people
55:30 talk about as a roadmap for a perfect life and all that like it's not really that either.
55:35 Like the Bible is to give us an understanding of the true nature of God. And it's also
55:39 explained to us how we are to have salvation through the truth of the gospel. Like that's
55:45 how we can share that now. Whereas in the first century, they shared it because they
55:48 saw it because they experienced it. Like it's just a little bit different. So I feel like
55:52 I'm typically near heresy here, but I hopefully you guys understand what I'm saying.
55:56 I think you just go back to if you're dealing with that kind of a question, just go back
56:00 to those basic questions about Christ before you confront anything else. And then if you
56:05 get to Christ, I think this is true. Challenge somebody to look back using the Bible and
56:11 properly understood, see if it's ever been disproven. It may not be comprehensive in
56:16 all of its facts, but has what it's chosen to make, you know, plain, been disproven historically
56:23 at all. Yeah, absolutely. And again, there, there are a lot of apologists out there like
56:28 I highly what we've mentioned. William Lane Craig, John Lennox, Turk, James White, like
56:35 there's there's always really good ones. And again, I think especially like William Lane
56:40 Craig, he sometimes goes even too far to not try to not use the Bible to make his arguments.
56:47 But he's doing something that is somewhat unique in the Christian apologetic space where
56:51 he's like he's appealing to a unbelievably high minded person that thinks anything that's
56:55 even tangentially related to the to the word of God is nonsense. And so he's going through
57:01 a much longer, more circuitous route to the person's heart. And so again, people have
57:06 some things that they can quibble with in terms of how he's approached certain debates
57:10 and certain things that he's written about. But I think that his heart would certainly
57:13 be in the right place. But guys, there is certainly more that we could talk about here
57:17 in terms of second Timothy three, but we're gonna leave that there. But come back here
57:20 next week because we're gonna wrap up second Timothy by discussing second Timothy four.
57:25 So guys make sure that you read that and come back here next week for that discussion. But
57:28 before we let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost add on dog to life.
57:32 Our mission is equipping men to push back darkness with content that forges spiritual
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58:40 I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual,
58:46 mental and physical resilience. Keep seeking the lion of Judah.
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