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00:00:00.000 | I am James Hong and welcome to the Surpassing Value Podcast.
00:00:15.620 | The fuel and desire for this podcast was born out of a compulsion to flesh out what's
00:00:19.740 | been going on in the midst of an ocean of megaphones that may not actually withstand
00:00:24.600 | the test of scrutiny.
00:00:26.620 | As a signpost theologian, I will do my best to filter out the impurities and point people
00:00:32.320 | in the right direction.
00:00:39.320 | For this episode, I wanted to talk about the concepts of faith and reason coupled with
00:00:45.600 | grace and logic.
00:00:47.800 | Faith and reason coupled with grace and logic.
00:00:52.340 | It could be said that arguably prior to the Enlightenment period, faith and reason were
00:00:58.740 | not viewed as antagonistic elements in conflict with each other as it is assumed today.
00:01:05.720 | However, this type of thinking has left an indelible mark through the centuries and has
00:01:10.780 | pierced its way through society and even the church.
00:01:15.440 | It is for that reason much of our society and culture believes faith and reason to be
00:01:21.220 | opposing foes with reason of course being the superior boxer.
00:01:27.020 | Faith is confined to subjectivity, privacy, weakness, and impotence.
00:01:34.620 | Many Christians also seem to misunderstand the compatibility of faith and reason.
00:01:39.140 | Not only do they misunderstand the compatibility of faith and reason, but they seem to believe
00:01:44.060 | just like the rest of society that they are indeed somehow antagonistic to each other.
00:01:50.720 | As if Christianity requires you to leave your mind at the door.
00:01:54.460 | As if Christianity requires you to not ask any questions.
00:01:58.180 | As if Christianity would not withstand the test of scrutiny.
00:02:04.140 | This seemingly unspoken understanding leads to a chilling effect on asking questions that
00:02:11.100 | may make you seem less pious.
00:02:14.260 | And so because one doesn't want to be perceived as less pious, genuine questions that could
00:02:19.260 | easily be answered go unasked.
00:02:22.780 | Some of these questions may include the following.
00:02:25.180 | Is there any evidence outside the New Testament for the claims made by the New Testament?
00:02:30.380 | Was Jesus a historical figure?
00:02:33.220 | Why are there so many religions in the world if there is only one way to God as Christianity
00:02:38.020 | claims?
00:02:39.460 | Isn't the nature of faith blind?
00:02:41.820 | Doesn't having faith require that I put my trust in something without regard to what
00:02:46.500 | it is?
00:02:47.940 | All these questions I just posed can be dealt with very easily, yet instead of seeing the
00:02:54.740 | claims of Christ and the implications of what God has said as the crown jewel of all thought
00:03:03.460 | and life, Christians may see God's word as antiquated, archaic, or maybe even irrelevant.
00:03:15.620 | How starkly different is that tone compared to what is told of us in 1 Corinthians 1.20?
00:03:24.460 | 1 Corinthians 1.20 states, "Where is the wise person?
00:03:28.620 | Where is the scribe?
00:03:30.380 | Where is the debater of this age?
00:03:32.940 | Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world?"
00:03:37.260 | Where is the wise person?
00:03:38.660 | Where is the scribe?
00:03:40.300 | Where is the debater of this age?
00:03:42.380 | Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world?
00:03:47.980 | When we read that passage, do we see how God has made the world's wisdom foolish or deep
00:03:57.540 | inside?
00:03:58.540 | Do we read this passage and think to ourselves that He hasn't?
00:04:04.820 | Of course, this isn't true for everybody, however, it may be markedly true depending
00:04:09.900 | on a particular area you happen to be situated in and whether or not it's a mix of how you
00:04:16.660 | were raised, the larger cultural subcontext that you're in, and even ignorance of what
00:04:23.900 | the scriptures themselves proclaim on this issue.
00:04:28.980 | The scriptures themselves never state faith to be antagonistic to reason.
00:04:34.940 | In fact, you see God employ reason many times in the Old Testament and you see Christ Himself
00:04:41.400 | employ reason many times in the New Testament.
00:04:45.300 | It is for these reasons and that for the purposes of this conversation I would define faith
00:04:51.700 | very simply in the following way.
00:04:55.940 | On the basis of what I do know about God, I will trust God with the things I don't
00:05:02.580 | know.
00:05:04.540 | On the basis of what I do know about God, I will trust God with the things I don't
00:05:11.220 | know.
00:05:12.220 | I know God to be good, to be sovereign, to be in full control, to be kind, and to be
00:05:18.380 | just.
00:05:20.060 | I don't know why this evil thing happened.
00:05:22.500 | I don't know why I'm going through the difficult circumstances I'm going through.
00:05:27.300 | I don't know why my family is built in such a way when this other person's family is not
00:05:32.300 | built in the same way my family is.
00:05:35.340 | But I will trust Him.
00:05:37.060 | I will trust Him because I know He is good.
00:05:40.420 | I know He is kind.
00:05:42.000 | And even when I do not know the exact reason I am undergoing a difficult circumstance,
00:05:50.140 | I know that I am in good hands.
00:05:52.940 | Hebrews 11:1 states it like this, "Now faith is a certainty of things hoped for, a proof
00:05:59.960 | of things not seen, for by it the people of old gained approval."
00:06:06.820 | I want to go over some passages with you that reinforce this idea, both from the New Testament
00:06:15.940 | and the Old Testament.
00:06:18.700 | The first passage I want to start with is in John 10 verses 22 to 39.
00:06:24.460 | John 10 verses 22 to 39 says this.
00:06:28.020 | "At that time the Feast of Dedication took place in Jerusalem.
00:06:31.700 | It was winter, and Jesus was walking the temple area in the portico of Solomon.
00:06:37.540 | The Jews then surrounded Him and began saying to Him, 'How long will You keep us in suspense?
00:06:42.280 | If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.'
00:06:44.900 | Jesus answered them, 'I told you, and you do not believe.
00:06:47.500 | The works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me.
00:06:51.980 | But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.
00:06:54.500 | My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give them eternal
00:06:58.860 | life.
00:06:59.860 | And they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
00:07:03.840 | My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them
00:07:08.660 | out of the Father's hand.
00:07:10.260 | I and the Father are one.'
00:07:12.680 | The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.
00:07:14.740 | Jesus replied to them, 'I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them
00:07:18.980 | are you stoning Me?'
00:07:20.460 | The Jews answered Him, 'We are not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy.
00:07:24.800 | And because you, being a man, make yourself out to be God.'
00:07:28.500 | Jesus answered them, 'Has it not been written in your law, "I said, "You are gods""?
00:07:32.840 | If He called them gods to whom the Word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be nullified,
00:07:37.700 | are you saying of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, "You are blaspheming
00:07:42.540 | Me because I said, "I am the Son of God"?
00:07:45.260 | If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me.
00:07:48.140 | But if I do them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know
00:07:53.500 | and understand that the Father is in Me, and I am the Father."
00:07:58.180 | Therefore they were seeking again to arrest Him, and He eluded their grasp."
00:08:03.100 | Here, as the greater than Solomon is walking in Solomon's portico, He is asked to make
00:08:09.860 | a frank admission.
00:08:11.860 | Jesus responds by stating that what He has done has already answered their question.
00:08:17.220 | The future Messiah, you see, would accomplish a certain set of very particular, extraordinary,
00:08:23.580 | and supernatural set of works.
00:08:25.860 | Isaiah 35, 4-6 and Isaiah 61, 1-3 were portions of the Old Testament that were understood
00:08:33.260 | to be the future works of the Messiah and the works that would validate who the Messiah
00:08:38.460 | would be.
00:08:39.460 | Isaiah 35, 4-6 states, "Say to those with anxious heart, 'Take courage, fear not; behold,
00:08:46.780 | your God will come with vengeance; the retribution of God will come, but He will save you.'
00:08:51.660 | Then the eyes of those who are blind will be opened, and the ears of those who are deaf
00:08:55.580 | will be unstopped.
00:08:57.340 | Then those who limp will leap like deer, and the tongue of those who cannot speak will
00:09:01.580 | shout for joy.
00:09:03.100 | For waters will burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert."
00:09:06.860 | Isaiah 61, 1-3 states, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord anointed
00:09:12.500 | me to bring good news to the humble; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to
00:09:17.140 | proclaim release to the captives and freedom to the prisoners, to proclaim the favorable
00:09:22.460 | year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant
00:09:28.620 | those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead
00:09:34.260 | of mourning, the cloak of praise instead of a disheartened spirit.
00:09:39.140 | So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."
00:09:47.140 | Having accomplished this in their midst already, and having announced at the beginning of His
00:09:51.700 | ministry that Isaiah 61 had indeed been fulfilled, remember Luke 4, Jesus states plainly that
00:09:59.200 | He already told them, and that the reason they did not believe was because they were
00:10:04.340 | not of His sheep.
00:10:07.680 | He goes on to unequivocally state that He is also God, "I and the Father are one."
00:10:15.460 | Jesus' statement about His own deity not being lost on them, they pick up stones to
00:10:20.660 | murder Him.
00:10:21.940 | Jesus then asks them for which work was He being stoned for.
00:10:27.400 | Now don't miss out on the reasoning here.
00:10:29.340 | Jesus doesn't say, "Why are you stoning me for claiming to be God?"
00:10:35.700 | If He did, He would be ceding the very ground He is about to use.
00:10:39.980 | Instead, Jesus asks for which work are they stoning Him for.
00:10:45.180 | Their reply is that they were not stoning Him for a good work, but because He claimed
00:10:50.660 | to be God.
00:10:52.580 | Jesus replies, "But wait a minute.
00:10:55.300 | Is that an offense worth stoning for, outside of any other evidence?"
00:11:01.560 | Jesus then quotes Psalm 82.6, which reads, "I said, 'You are gods, and all of you
00:11:08.200 | are sons of the Most High.'"
00:11:10.980 | Jesus' argument is roughly the following.
00:11:13.960 | If God Himself uses that term outside of referring to Himself, and the ones stoning Jesus need
00:11:22.040 | not be convinced of the authority of the Scripture otherwise, then how could that be an offense
00:11:28.180 | worthy of capital punishment outside of any other contextual evidence?
00:11:35.360 | How could the mere mention of referring to oneself as God be blasphemy in light of Psalm
00:11:42.740 | 82.6?
00:11:43.740 | And indeed, had any other person said that outside of Christ, it would have been blasphemy,
00:11:50.740 | but the reference alone is not blasphemy since that would necessarily entail that the Messiah
00:11:58.020 | wouldn't be given allowance to refer to Himself as God.
00:12:04.380 | But the mere reference alone, according to the Old Testament, is not blasphemy, since
00:12:09.740 | there is one who could say that without it being blasphemy, and that person was standing
00:12:16.300 | right before them.
00:12:19.060 | Jesus goes on to reason with them even further.
00:12:21.400 | He states that if He is not doing the works of the Father, or in other words, if He is
00:12:26.220 | not fulfilling Isaiah 35 and Isaiah 61, then yes, do not believe Him.
00:12:32.660 | But if He is indeed fulfilling Isaiah 35 and Isaiah 61, and He clearly was, even if they
00:12:38.580 | do not believe the substance of what He is saying, are they not compelled to question
00:12:45.340 | their own disbelief?
00:12:49.300 | This is only one example of the intersection of grace and logic.
00:12:57.780 | Jesus does not have to plead with them or reason with them, yet He graciously does.
00:13:06.300 | He does in hopes that the pleading and the reasoning will bring them to their senses.
00:13:13.220 | Even if you do not like the substance, even if you were expecting something completely
00:13:19.400 | different when it came to the Messiah, doesn't the very fact that I am fulfilling Isaiah
00:13:24.540 | 35 and Isaiah 61, which were both understood to be messianic passages, doesn't that compel
00:13:31.460 | you to perhaps maybe re-evaluate your perceptions about the Messiah, and therefore Christ Himself?
00:13:41.500 | To say the same thing yet another way, instead of starting with your own subjective presuppositions
00:13:46.700 | as morally true, start with what the Word of God says to be true, since you're already
00:13:52.180 | stating that is your starting point, and if that is your starting point, and Christ is
00:13:57.860 | fulfilling the substance of it, then doesn't it stand to reason that your preconceived
00:14:03.580 | notions about who the Messiah is and who I am is actually incorrect, instead of the other
00:14:10.340 | way around?
00:14:13.300 | If you at least believed what you were seeing with your own eyes, with your own two eyes,
00:14:23.540 | then you would see that God is right in front of you.
00:14:31.060 | You would see that God is right in front of you.
00:14:36.620 | What about the Old Testament?
00:14:38.180 | Does God employ reason in the Old Testament?
00:14:42.380 | Consider Isaiah 118, "Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord.
00:14:51.500 | Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
00:14:55.340 | Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
00:14:59.340 | Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord."
00:15:03.660 | God is asking us to employ our faculty of reason, based on who He is, His power, His
00:15:10.180 | redemption, His goodness, and His willingness to clean those who come to Him.
00:15:15.660 | Does He not also have the power to forgive?
00:15:20.180 | Does He not have the kindness to love?
00:15:25.860 | Consider also the story of Job.
00:15:28.980 | You know his story, right?
00:15:29.980 | Job was the most faith-filled man that ever existed at one point on the earth, who also
00:15:36.060 | happened to be very wealthy.
00:15:38.700 | This speaks to his character since it was Jesus Himself who stated that in Matthew 19:23,
00:15:44.980 | the following, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of
00:15:50.460 | heaven."
00:15:51.460 | Yet God, in Job 1A states, this is Job 1A, "The Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered
00:15:57.580 | My servant Job, for there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man
00:16:02.860 | fearing God and turning away from evil.'
00:16:06.140 | God Himself confirms that there is no one like Job in all the earth."
00:16:11.180 | Again, Job at the time in his life was considered the most blameless and upright man.
00:16:21.420 | Satan then falsely states that Job was faithful to God because of his circumstances.
00:16:26.140 | So God allows Satan to take away his wealth, his children, his health, and even any hint
00:16:31.980 | of love from Job's own wife.
00:16:35.220 | To add insult to injury, Job's three friends come and heap accusation upon accusation on
00:16:40.540 | Job, exhorting him to fess up to the supposed secret sin that brought upon him all the calamities
00:16:46.820 | in his life.
00:16:47.820 | Job rightfully cannot fess up to anything because, as we know behind the scenes, the
00:16:52.500 | impetus for Job's calamities were not brought upon Job because of something he did, rather
00:16:58.180 | it was the cosmic conversation that Satan was having with God unbeknownst to Job or
00:17:05.080 | anyone else on the earth.
00:17:07.580 | After an epic drawn out back and forth that included Job not portraying God as he should
00:17:12.620 | of, God answers Job out of the storm.
00:17:16.700 | Listen to what God says to Job in Job chapter 38, 1-11, "Then the Lord answered Job from
00:17:24.580 | the whirlwind and said, 'Who is this who darkens the divine plan by words without knowledge?
00:17:30.740 | Now tighten the belt on your waist like a man, and I shall ask you, and you inform me.
00:17:35.780 | Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
00:17:38.500 | Tell me if you have understanding.
00:17:40.320 | Who set its measurements, since you know, or who stretched the measuring line over it?
00:17:44.680 | When what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone?
00:17:48.160 | When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
00:17:52.680 | Or who enclosed the sea with doors?
00:17:54.900 | When it went out from the womb, bursting forth?
00:17:57.760 | When I made a cloud its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling bands?
00:18:02.020 | And I placed boundaries on it, and set a bolt and doors.
00:18:05.140 | And I said, 'As far as this point you shall come, but no farther; and here your proud
00:18:10.100 | waves shall stop.'"
00:18:11.380 | Do you see what God is doing here?
00:18:17.680 | He's introducing to Job the teleological argument, or to say the same thing yet another way,
00:18:25.500 | the argument from design, the argument from design.
00:18:30.760 | To explain it a little bit more crudely, God is saying, in essence, "Job, you seem pretty
00:18:38.720 | self-righteous in your understanding of who you are, and how the world works, and who
00:18:43.880 | I am.
00:18:44.880 | So much so, that it seems like that you have a knowledge beyond yourself that I'm sure
00:18:50.500 | you didn't have.
00:18:52.480 | But since you're saying you have this knowledge that I was pretty sure you didn't have, let
00:18:56.120 | me ask you, where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
00:19:01.120 | I could have sworn you weren't there, but since you're acting and talking as if you
00:19:05.520 | know the intricacies of the world and how it works, please tell me, since you have these
00:19:10.440 | lofty opinions of innocence, justice, and guilt, riddle me this.
00:19:17.480 | Who set its measurements, since you know, or who stretched the measuring line over it?
00:19:22.680 | On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone?
00:19:26.080 | Oh wait, I'm sorry, you're saying you don't know.
00:19:31.680 | So let me get this straight, Job.
00:19:34.520 | You don't have this vast knowledge, yet you still believe I called all things into existence.
00:19:43.640 | You don't know, nor do you understand all the complexities, all the elaborations of
00:19:49.400 | how the universe came into existence, yet you do believe I brought the universe and
00:19:55.520 | all that it is into existence, that I brought the universe and all of existence to be.
00:20:05.340 | So you do not believe that understanding everything about the universe exhaustively is a necessary
00:20:14.000 | prerequisite for belief that I, God, created it.
00:20:20.120 | Job, if that is indeed the case, on the basis of what you do know, on the basis of what
00:20:30.520 | you do know, can you trust me with the things you don't know?
00:20:38.680 | You don't know how the universe came into being.
00:20:42.120 | You don't understand it.
00:20:44.120 | You know I did it, and even though you don't understand it completely, you still believe
00:20:50.700 | that I created it.
00:20:53.380 | So just like you believe that, and even though you don't understand exactly why you're going
00:20:59.680 | through the things that you are, can you trust me, and not indict me, can you trust me with
00:21:08.200 | the things that you don't know?
00:21:12.760 | Listen to how Job responds to God after God speaks to Job out of the whirlwind.
00:21:18.880 | This is Job in Job 42, 1-6, Job 42, 1-6, he says this, "Then Job answered the Lord and
00:21:26.640 | said, 'I know that you can do all things, and that no plan is impossible for you.
00:21:33.080 | Who is this who conceals advice without knowledge?
00:21:36.040 | Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me
00:21:40.640 | which I did not know.
00:21:42.660 | Please listen, and I will speak.
00:21:44.200 | I will ask you, and you instruct me.
00:21:46.920 | I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.
00:21:51.680 | Therefore I retract, and I repent, sitting on dust and ashes.'"
00:21:58.280 | For Job, at the end, it was the appearance of God, the relationship that he had with
00:22:05.280 | him, that finally put everything at ease, that put all the disjointed pieces of his
00:22:11.200 | life together, that brought together all the pieces of his life that had no meaning, that
00:22:20.360 | were fragmented, but then were infused by God with purpose, design, and meaning.
00:22:31.240 | One angle amongst many angles, as it relates to our discussion, is very simply the following.
00:22:37.600 | Based on what I do know about God, it is very easy to trust God with the things I don't,
00:22:47.040 | the intersection of faith and reason.
00:22:51.640 | The intersection of faith and reason.
00:22:54.880 | Based on what I do know about God, that He is good, that He is holy, that He is kind,
00:22:59.440 | that He is loving, that He is intentional, that He is purposeful, that He holds all things
00:23:04.040 | within the palm of His hand, I will trust Him even when I can't see that design for
00:23:10.760 | myself.
00:23:15.140 | Even when I can't see that design for myself.
00:23:18.680 | I want to give you another example from Matthew, Matthew chapter 22, 23 to 33.
00:23:28.660 | Matthew chapter 22, 23 to 33, it says this.
00:23:32.560 | "On that day, some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and questioned
00:23:37.960 | Him, saying, 'Teacher,' Moses said, 'if a man dies having no children, his brother
00:23:42.800 | as next of kin shall marry his wife and raise up children for his brother.
00:23:46.260 | Now there were seven brothers among us, and the first married and died, and having no
00:23:49.520 | children, he left his wife to his brother.
00:23:52.080 | It was the same also with the second brother, and the third, and down to the seventh.
00:23:56.080 | Last of all, the women died.
00:23:59.200 | In the resurrection therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be?
00:24:03.200 | For they all had her in marriage.
00:24:05.560 | But Jesus answered and said to them, 'You are mistaken, since you do not understand
00:24:10.000 | the Scriptures nor the power of God.
00:24:13.000 | For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels
00:24:18.000 | in heaven.
00:24:19.040 | But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by
00:24:23.040 | God?
00:24:24.040 | I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
00:24:27.240 | He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.'
00:24:30.600 | When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching."
00:24:40.320 | This is, again, an example of the compatibility of faith and reason.
00:24:49.240 | The Sadducees, thinking they could entrap Jesus with their knowledge of Moses, came
00:24:53.720 | up to him and gave him a theological mind trap, or so they thought.
00:24:58.640 | What's interesting is that the Sadducees did not believe in an afterlife because they only
00:25:03.320 | held to the books of Moses, aka the first five books of the Old Testament.
00:25:09.480 | Yet since they only held to that, they considered themselves experts in the first five books
00:25:15.600 | of the Old Testament.
00:25:17.100 | So Jesus' answer to the Sadducees is that they do not understand the Scriptures nor
00:25:22.720 | the power of God.
00:25:24.360 | They do not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God.
00:25:29.160 | God is indeed able to raise the dead, and there is indeed an afterlife, and we are not
00:25:33.960 | given in marriage like here on earth, but are more like the angels.
00:25:38.360 | To prove to them that they do not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God, Jesus
00:25:44.840 | doesn't quote from outside the first five books.
00:25:49.600 | And he could have.
00:25:50.600 | Remember, I just told you that the Sadducees only accepted the first five books of the
00:25:55.920 | Old Testament as authoritative.
00:25:58.920 | Anything quoted to them outside of the first five books, they would have unfairly just
00:26:03.960 | shunned away as not from God.
00:26:07.120 | And although had Christ done that, he still would have been in the right, we again see
00:26:11.660 | the intersection of grace and logic, since he does not need to answer their question
00:26:19.080 | in this manner, yet he does.
00:26:22.660 | Jesus states that God is, as it says in Exodus 3.6, which is within the first five books
00:26:31.320 | of the Old Testament.
00:26:32.320 | Remember, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
00:26:36.480 | Jesus states that God, as it is in Exodus 3.6, he also, he said also, "I am the God
00:26:42.920 | of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."
00:26:47.360 | Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
00:26:52.080 | I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
00:26:57.720 | Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
00:27:02.160 | Jesus very purposefully and very intentionally used Exodus, since they understood it to be
00:27:07.440 | authoritative and employs reason, since God made that statement to Moses.
00:27:14.560 | And by the time this statement's being made to Moses, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have long
00:27:19.000 | been in the ground.
00:27:20.900 | If God is saying that to Moses, this is very explicitly stating that Abraham, Isaac, and
00:27:28.560 | Jacob are still alive.
00:27:32.560 | Their flesh might be in the ground, but make no mistake about it, they are still, in a
00:27:37.200 | very real sense, still alive.
00:27:42.440 | Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
00:27:45.520 | God himself testifies in the first five books of the Old Testament that there is an afterlife,
00:27:52.200 | contrary to what the Sadducees believed God taught in the first five books.
00:27:56.980 | But as Jesus stated, they did not understand the scriptures, and by extension of that,
00:28:03.080 | the power of God.
00:28:05.920 | That is why, when the crowds heard this, they were astonished.
00:28:14.680 | The true knowledge of God, cutting through the deep darkness that had tried so hard to
00:28:24.960 | conceal the truth of God's word.
00:28:32.040 | Faith and reason, grace and logic.
00:28:38.000 | Not only is reason compatible with faith, faith and reason are actually intertwined
00:28:44.320 | and work in conjunction with one another.
00:28:48.080 | Let us not elevate reason to a God-like status, to the point of idolatry.
00:28:53.200 | At the same time, let us understand reason for what it really is, a God-given gift that
00:28:58.600 | separates us from the beast.
00:29:01.440 | Mark says us image bearers, and use this precious faculty to the potential that God has gifted
00:29:08.240 | to each one.
00:29:09.920 | In the next episode, I'm going to address the reliability of the New Testament documents.
00:29:16.160 | Let us reason together to see the empirical evidence that God has so graciously left for
00:29:23.840 | us.
00:29:25.520 | Matthew 22, 34-37 states, "But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
00:29:32.220 | they gathered together.
00:29:33.780 | And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him, 'Teacher, which is the greatest
00:29:38.420 | commandment in the law?'
00:29:40.280 | And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your
00:29:45.960 | soul, and with all your mind.'"
00:30:04.200 | (Matthew 22)
00:30:25.640 | (End)
00:30:35.080 | (upbeat music)