Lisa Fields: Hello. Welcome to the Jude three Project podcast. I’m your host, Lisa Fields. I’m the founder of the Jude three Project. What’s up, Jackson State? It is good to be here with you all. This is my, like, third time in Mississippi. So I am excited to be here, excited to have this discussion with you. The Jude three Project is a Christian apologetics organization. And does anybody in here know what apologetics means? Oh, yeah. By hand? Okay. Y’all ain’t good company because for a long time my grandma thought I said, I’m sorry for Jesus for a living. So, apologetics comes from the Greek word apologia, which means to give a defense. It is really the intellectual way that we engage the faith, and answer the questions that people have around the hope that we have as followers of Christ. So have you ever been in a conversation with someone that was in another faith and you were like, man, I don’t know how to have those conversations or you felt intimidated when people asked you questions? Our organization helps you be able to answer those questions, with confidence and even wrestle with your own questions because it’s not sometimes that people are asking you questions, but you’re asking questions as you’re reading the Bible. And I know that to be true because that’s a part of my journey. I got into this as a college student sitting in class and and my professor challenging me on my faith, and I didn’t really know the answer. And so it led me into apologetics. And by God’s grace, I get to do that to help other students, answer the questions that they’re wrestling with in college. And so I’m thankful to be here. I’m thankful that we get to ask answer the questions that you have tonight, on Does Christianity Make Sense? And so I’m excited. I don’t wanna prolong the night, but we have some great things that you can follow on social to get plugged in. We’re on all social media platforms at g3projectdot, at g3project. You can visit our website, g3project.org. We have films. We have content. We have curriculum, courses, all the things. But another thing we wanna offer tonight is we come bearing gifts. So, a part of being here tonight is you get an opportunity to win a $500 book scholarship.
Panelist: Amen.
Lisa Fields: Free money is always good, right? Yes. Yes. So all you have to do is to enter is to complete the survey. So you wanna, scan the QR code. And so two people at random that filled out the survey will be selected at the end of this event, to win the $500 book scholarship. Now you have to be here to to receive it. So if I call your name at the end and you gone, you you opt out. So, you wanna skip that. But without further ado, we’re gonna get into the conversation tonight on does Christianity make sense. And we have a dynamic panel, myself, Lisa Fields, Doctor. Quiniquea Day, who’s an Old Testament scholar, and, soon to be Doctor. Damon Richardson, who’s an apologist and scholar in his own right. And so we will be answering some questions that you have, some preselected questions, and then we’ll do q and a. So I’m excited for the conversation, and thank you for coming.
Panelist: Alright. Before we get into asking questions, I would first like to introduce myself. Greetings. I am Destiny Rain, a senior business entrepreneurship major from I’m Konequaia Dei. I teach at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston. I’m an old testament professor. Teach at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston. I’m an Old Testament professor. I also teach Hebrew language, and I’m Black speaking.
Lisa Fields: I’m Lisa Fields. I’m a Christian apologist and the founder and CEO of the Jew Group Project.
Panelist: Amen. Amen. Wonderful. Damon Richardson. I’m a Christian apologist as well, founder of UrbanLogia, and a, adjunct professor at Foster College in Dallas. Thank you all for that. And our first question and any panelist can chime in. It’s answered for everybody. Young people are questioning whether the bible can even be trusted Given how many translations exist and how it has been misused historically, how do we build genuine confidence in scriptures with this generation? That’s a really good question. And I think, you know, to start off with, I think we’ve gotta acknowledge, that, well, the Bible is translated into many languages, and it is true, that it has often been misused and, leveraged against people, in ways that are harmful. So those things are true. And if a person is coming into this conversation and you are skeptical, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. That means that you’re paying attention. And, and so so let’s talk about translations for a minute. So the first thing is is that tran biblical translations, there are literally thousands of them in various languages. Of course, English is not the only language. But the Bible was not originally written in English. It was translated into English as one of the many languages that that exist. So the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, and the New Testament was originally written in Greek. Those are what you would call the originals or the autographs. And, and so what happened is is that as copies were made, they begin to spread throughout Christian community. And so roughly, there’s about 5,800 manuscripts of the New Testament alone. And so this is profound. This is incredible because of all of the documents of antiquity that is ancient literature that’s contemporary or even older than the New Testament, the New Testament has literally more manuscripts than any ancient document of its kind. How many of you have ever read Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in in high school? Right? So that one was written the the earliest copy of that was written about six hundred years after that was actually written. Whereas in the New Testament, these manuscript copies were literally written within the same generation of when the originals were recorded. And so the New Testament is literally the best attested to document of, any ancient literature. Right? So, but the process for making these copies is pretty rigorous. So it’s not something that is random or haphazard. It’s very meticulous kind of process of preserving and making sure. And the reason that it needs to be communicated in various languages is because that’s what culture is about. Culture is about being able to understand things in ways that resonate with the way that you see the world. And so that’s why we’re gonna constantly need new, revisions in English of of the bible because, for instance, the KJV that was written in 1611, if you have a copy of the KJV, you have a 1769. The 1611, you wouldn’t even be able to read because the English is so middle and old that you wouldn’t even recognize it. And so language is constantly growing and updating. Let me just say this quickly to address the harm, and and that is is that it is true. The Bible has been used to harm people, for instance, enslaved Africans, women, so forth and so on. But that really speaks more to, human power than it actually speaks to, the bible itself. Right? And so for instance, the slave bible that was attempted to be used, to control, enslaved Africans took 80% of the Old Testament out and about 50% of the New Testament. Think about that for a minute. They recognize that that much of the Bible actually speaks to things like liberation, justice, you know, identity, truth, and all. That’s how much of the Bible they needed to remove in order to get people to believe that the Bible doesn’t really address your situation in life. And so you can act you can definitely trust the bible. And I want to invite anybody who has any skepticism to open your mind up to honest engagement with it. And what you’ll find is that the bible actually has a lot to say about purpose, about identity, about your value, and about many of the things that you actually care about. The bible directly speaks to even your fears, your concerns, your worries, depression. The bible has something to say about all of those things. So, just about the translation piece and the King James Bible being so old. The King James Bible is never updated. So, and they don’t make the correction, so King Jehoiachin’s age in the King James Bible is 18 in Chronicles, but it’s eight in Kings. So, that is a discrepancy and it remains. Now your ESV, your NIV, they make the correction. And so you can that’s just because copying, you know, people make mistakes, and that’s why you need other translation. Absolutely. Thank you all. Our next question is directed towards miss Fields. Students on college campuses are carrying real grief from loss, disappointment, unanswered prayers, and even death. What does the Christian faith offer to someone in that place? Yeah. Great question.
Lisa Fields: All of us are familiar with grief. All of us are familiar with pain. Mhmm. And the Bible gives us language for our pain. Have you ever been in so much angst, you didn’t even know what to say? Have you been so in pain, you didn’t have the words, you just felt the feeling? And then somebody else said something and you’re like, you gave me language. That’s what I was feeling. That’s the pain that I really couldn’t identify. When you look through the scriptures, when you look at the Psalms in particular, you get language for what you’re feeling. One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 73. And Asaph says, when I looked at the prosperity of the wicked, my foot almost slipped. You ever been doing good and you saw everybody else doing wrong, getting it? You’re like, man, they like good. Mhmm. I didn’t start stop doing what was wrong, and my life seems to be falling apart, and all my friends doing what they want to, and they life going well. Like, that creates an anxiety in our souls, and we’re not the first person to feel that. The psalmist felt that too. And he gave language to it, so when you’re reading it, you’re like, that’s what I’m feeling. That’s why I’m discouraged, because I’m looking at people who are prospering in their wickedness and I’m suffering. And so the Bible is able to show us that what we’re experiencing and what we’re feeling is common and is human, and it’s not limited to us, and that we have a savior that also experienced that. There is no other religion that offers a suffering savior. Because we have free will, suffering can’t be eradicated. Right? Because people have the option to do good or bad things, and those good or bad things impact other people. Right? And so because God gives us free will, suffering will always be, but he’s he came and he suffered. And so he doesn’t eradicate suffering, but he gives us his presence in suffering, and he’s able to identify with our suffering. Like, you know people, you’re like, man, I I kinda want the people around me that know what I’m going through. Mhmm. You ever had people around you that’s like, you trying to explain it and they don’t really get it? Mhmm. And it’s frustrating when people around you don’t get what you’re saying, so you’re like, I gotta go talk to somebody else. You know when you’re going through certain things, you pick certain friends to call because you know certain friends can identify with you. Because their ability to identify with you brings comfort to you. Right? The same way we have a God who say, I know what you’re feeling. When you’re feeling it, you could come to me and I can identify with you and I can help you through it. It’s not that you just want people to identify, but you want somebody to ride with you. You want people to be in the trenches with you and Jesus is the person to be able to identify what you’re saying, but also will be in the trenches while you’re going through it and giving you the power to get through it. And that’s what the scripture offers in our suffering. A savior that can identify us with us, a savior that will never leave us, and a savior that will empower us and comfort us as we go through those things.
Panelist: Thank you, miss Fields. Our next question is directed towards doctor Day. Scripture speaks clearly about sexuality, but this generation experiences that clarity mostly as condemnation. What is God’s design for sex and how do we express that design without condemnation? Yeah, that’s I mean, that’s a great question. I think what happens is we don’t talk enough about what the bible says about sex. We don’t talk about the songs of Solomon. Now that whole, that’s a whole book about intimacy. They both are talking to each other, talking about how they want to be with one another in order to have sex. As a matter of fact, most of the speaking comes from the woman and not the man. And so she’s expressing her desires and all of this, and so this is a very intimate book and we hardly hear any sort of conversation about it in the church, or even in small groups, and that’s a way to teach people that it’s okay to really desire someone. It’s okay to really have it in your heart that you want to be with someone. Now the way God designs it is that every interaction you have with someone, that’s an actual covenant making moment. So if you have sex with someone, that’s a covenant that you have entered into. Now in the world, it’s not a covenant, it’s like, you know, I’m dating this one, I’m dating that one, and we good, and now we not good, I’m gonna try somebody else. With God, those are all covenant moments, and you’re breaking a covenant every time that you go to another person. And so God does have these, there are parameters, there are barriers, but they are created in order to protect us from finding ourselves in all sorts of relationships. So what do we, how can we sort of figure out how to sort of look at all this with sexuality? Well one thing, we just need to talk about it more. We need to have safe places where you can talk to someone about how you actually feel. In the church, we’ve done a poor job, we just put people down, like, don’t talk about that, you’re gonna go to hell, you know, you fornicated, and then you know, we’re gonna sit you down for like six months. There needs to be more teaching on this, so that people can recognize that their bodies, how God has created them, is good and that you are intended to be in relationship with someone who cares for you in a good way. But if we don’t have these conversations, people are just out there doing whatever and they don’t look to the church as guiding them. One of the things,
Lisa Fields: about our conversations around sex, is that we first have to understand our value. Mhmm. Anything valuable that you have, you protect it. Right? Think about the most valuable item you own. Think about something you work to get. Right? It could be a ring. Mhmm. It could be a game system. What is it? Xbox? Is it Xbox or PlayStation n? I can’t. Somebody help me out. I haven’t played it. PlayStation. Because Yeah. What’s what’s that game they play? You you don’t you don’t just throw that around. You protect it. That’s right. And many of us protect items more than we could protect our bodies. We freely give away our bodies, but we protect things we purchase. But you are valuable. The image of god is on you. Think about that. That god loves you that much. He could’ve put his image on anybody, but he chose to put it on humanity. And you are valuable. And and I think that’s important for us to know, particularly around our our sex lives, that we should not give ourselves away because we are valuable. And many some in this room may have been devalued as a at a young age. So you might have your the option to have sex was stripped from you because somebody abused you. And that that makes you feel a way about yourself. It makes you feel a way about your value to think you’re worthless. But God’s like, No, you’re valuable. That I would come and die for you. Now, I tell people all the time, the only people I would die for is my parents, my brothers on a good day, and my niece and nephew. Right? Outside of that, I’m not dying for nobody. I love you, I’ll tell you about Jesus, but if it’s between you and I, you gonna have to go. One of us gonna have to die so the other can live. And so, but God is like, No, I would sacrifice myself for you. That’s how valuable you are. He sees you as valuable. I I went to seminary in Lynchburg, Virginia. Now, Lynch at the beginning of a city is already scary for black people. Right? So, it just Every day I woke up scared in my mind thinking about that city. Not literally scared, but just the whole city name. And I would go to DC on the weekends because my uncle was a general at the Pentagon. And so, him and my aunt, because I was a broke seminary student, would pay for my gas for me to go from Lynchburg to DC. It was three hours. And one particular time, you I went, I was on the way and it was a route that I take every week. And it’s it’s like a narrow way. Virginia is in, Central Virginia is mountains. So it was a mountain on one side. It was just a two lane road. It was a cliff, and mountains. So there was no room for error. A squirrel darted in front of me. Mm-mm. And I was like, you know. That guy died. One of us gotta die, so the other can live. Because if I swerve either way, I’m a be gone. And that squirrel died that day, I heard it. That squirrel had to go. Because you’re more valuable. Because I’m more valuable than the life of the squirrel. That’s right. But God, in his godness, died for the lesser creature of humanity. Right. Right. Because he saw you as valuable. To people who might not call you after, you are worth much more than that.
Panelist: Can I just add a little more? And I think some of the things that we see on TV or in the movies, or just hear, they they create an image in our mind of some area that we need to get to, and we have to really guard our minds, because those things are not leading us closer to God, they’re just asking, they’re creating a fantasy in our mind that is not what God has for you, and so you feel less than, you feel like, well I gotta do that, I gotta try that, oh my goodness, wow, I’m missing this and that, and you’re really not missing anything. You just need to trust God with your body, with your whole soul, your whole spirit, and he will actually protect you and keep you until that moment where you can meet that person, where you can have that type of intimate relationship that is promised to people who are married. Those were some beautiful answers. Thank you all for those. Our next question is directed towards miss Fields. Many students have watched the church feel them or people they love through silence, hypocrisy, or outright harm. What do we say to those in the room who have walked away because of what they experienced in the church? Yeah.
Lisa Fields: We could see on our timelines on any given week another scandal. You’re right. Because of social media, people doing TikToks, exposing people that people admire, people that are supposed to be leaders that disappoint us, that are that live a different life than they claim, when they’re preaching. My latest book that comes out in June is called When Heroes Fall, and it’s really based on my personal hero that fell. And when I was writing it, I had to think about his words to me. When after he died, he there was a big fallout that he was sexually assaulting women, and there was this whole big thing. And I remember his words to me. He said, Lisa, make sure you’re a public and private life match. Now think about that. Right. Right. He told me, Lisa, make sure you’re a public and private life match. But he is then. And so, I had to grapple with that hypocrisy, but it was still good advice. It’s still the right advice, even though he couldn’t live up to it. And so, the challenge is, how do I still hold on to the truth a person has given me even if their life couldn’t live up to it? Right? How do I do that? How do I live in that tension? I have to remember that sometimes I don’t live up to the things I tell people. Have you ever told somebody to do something? And you’re like, You know what? Dang. I ain’t doing that myself. My favorite secular rapper is Jay Z. And he was doing an interview with Kevin Hart, and he has a song called Lost One. Anybody know Lost One? And he says that he, he starts questioning everything because his nephew died in the car he bought. And he started to believe it’s his fault. And he said, you can’t run from the pain, run towards it. Well, his best friend Tata, he says in an interview with Kevin Hart, that his best friend heard that song and was like, you know what? I need to face my pain and go see my mom’s grave. And he said, when his best friend told him that he felt so bad, because even though he put it in the song, he hadn’t actually faced his nephew’s death. And he talked about the gap between what he was communicating in song that was helping his best friend overcome trauma that he had not actually practiced. And we live in that tension. That sometimes we’re communicating truths that we have yet to be able to filter through our own lives. And so I had to come to the conclusion, man, I don’t think my mentor hero was trying to deceive me. I think he was trying to help me. He might not have could have done it himself, but he knew what was right to do. Mhmm. That’s right. And so sometimes you have to live in that reality that I don’t throw away the truth that they gave me just because they couldn’t live the truth that they proclaimed. Right. Right. Right? So that’s one thing. Mhmm. That’s good. Second thing is Jesus can identify with navigating hypocrisy. Right? Jesus can identify with navigating church hurt. The people that advocated for him to be on the cross were leaders in the modern In that day we would call the church. Right. Right? So church hurt really put him to death. He can’t identify with it. Right. And so he knows the frustration. But I love the fact that Jesus is so full of grace, truth, and mercy that he still is seeking the redemption of the people that hurt him that were leaders of the church. That’s right. Jesus just didn’t die for the sinners that were non religious. He died for the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Right. He died for their redemption too. And so it is knowing that God can identify. He doesn’t he doesn’t condone the hurt, but he can identify, and he sees it. Right. There is nothing that’s done to you by leaders that he doesn’t see, and he will avenge. Mhmm. That’s the thing I love about God. He is our avenger. He will make all things right. Mhmm. He is the ultimate justice warrior. Last thing I’ll say, if you’ve been done wrong and you’ve experienced abuse in the church, you need to tell a leader. Mhmm. If you experience abuse, that is, sexual in nature, you need to go to the police. Right. That’s right. Amen. Like, you know? Right. Right. You need to bypass the church and go to the police. Right. And report them to the proper authorities. Right? Right. And so do your due diligence in pursuing justice. You don’t brush stuff under the rug. But remember, you gotta speak up, you gotta say something, be bold and courageous. And when you’re navigating hypocrisy, know that Jesus can identify with what you have experienced.
Panelist: Alright. Thank you for your answer. Our final question of the night is directed towards mister Richardson. Apologies. Young people genuinely believe that following Christ means missing out on an experiences, pleasure, and freedom. Where does that come from? Is that true? And if not, what does genuine flourishing actually looks like for young black adults today? I I I think it comes from a couple of places. So, if, for instance, you’ve been presented with a version of Christianity that essentially sounds like this, can’t go here, can’t go there, can’t eat this, can’t eat that, can’t wear this, can’t wear that, can’t be this, can’t be that, then it’s possible to think of Christianity as essentially something that’s going to shrink your life instead of cause you to flourish. It’s not something that sounds like you wanna sign up for. And some people are presented with that version of Christianity. And that version of freedom, right, is that it’s about delimiting. And then there’s another version of freedom that kind of comes from the culture. And that’s the version that says that, you can just do whatever you wanna do, go wherever you wanna go, be whatever you wanna be, whoever you wanna be, do it with, whatever. And that freedom is essentially, the ability to just do whatever you want without restriction or without consequence. And I would say that that is also a poor understanding of what freedom actually is. And it’s a very dangerous view of freedom. So let’s talk about what freedom is. And so one of the first things that we’ve got to understand is that if you choose something that actually leads to something that controls you, creates addictions or unhealthy relationships or things like that, then that’s not freedom. That’s bondage. So if your choices lead to bondage, no matter how appealing it might look, because I know what social media, it’s got a great way of showing us. Because people are people I’m people. Right? So people are phony. They’ll take pictures. And they’ll, you know, I’m having a great time in Dominican Republic, Doctor, or whatever. People are not always, they paint this picture that things look a certain way, when in reality, that’s not the way it is. Right? So you can’t you can’t choose freedom on the basis of what actually appeals to you because that can cause you to make some decisions, that can really change the trajectory and the course of your life for many, many, many, many years. And, and so flourishing is is is really about, healthy kinds of relationships, that don’t lead to, trying to perform in order to please people or live up to their expectations. Flourishing is about having a relationship with Jesus Christ so that you actually become the person that he designed you to be. That’s what flourishing actually looks like. Just a little while ago, Lisa mentioned that, we’re all image bearers. We’ve been made in the image and likeness of God. What that means, is that we are all God’s representatives. Right? We’ve been made like him. We are co regents in the earth. Right? So we have certain qualities that God has not vested into anything else in creation. Right? So God is all knowing. And so we have the highest form of intelligence of all other creatures. Right? That’s why we are so creative. Right? And and, the very fact that we’re created to be spiritual. I’ve got two dogs. We got a little Yorkie, and then we got a Jack Russell mixed with a Chihuahua. They’re brothers. Even though they’re not related. Right? They’re brothers. And, now and I love them, but they literally they had nothing comes into their mind about God. Right? Nothing comes into their mind. They don’t think about worship. They they only think about what serves them, eating, sleeping, whatever. Nothing about God. Right? But we have been created with a purpose that reflects who God is. Right? So we have a knowing about God’s existence and the fact that God wants something from us. He has created us with a purpose. Nothing else in creation thinks about God. Nothing else in creation knows God. And so part of the fact that we’ve been made in his image means that we’ve been made to reflect aspects of who God is. That’s why we’re also moral. Right? Is is because God is holy. So so if a cat kills a mouse, that’s not murder. Right? But if another human unjustly takes the life of another human, that is murder because that human was made in the image and likeness of God. Right? So flourishing is about getting to know, your creator, getting to know his purpose and his plan for your life because he actually does have a plan for your life that’s even bigger than just being happy or being successful according to the world standard. It’s living up to the potential and the purpose that God has particularly planned for every one of us. And that starts first with getting to know who he is. I just wanted to add that that’s that part where we we’re sort of living in that tension, right, where you’re trying to figure out how to not be like the world and and live in the world. Right? So how to sort of flourish and all that. When I first got saved, for the first two years, I mean, I was just so holy. I didn’t watch TV. I didn’t listen to the radio. I was in church every when the church was open, I was there, and I was mad when it was closed. I was just like, you know, because I it’s Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. But after a couple of years, I was like, wait a minute. You know, where’s the rest of life? And I had missed, like, part of the nineties. I missed, like, some of the music and everything. I turned the radio on. I was like, oh. So it’s like, I think, you know, just trying to find that balance because the church doesn’t always give you the sort of the outline of how to have a good, enjoyable life. You know, my great aunt, years ago, she would say, you know, Anne, that’s my middle name, she said, Anne, you should just go on a cruise. I said, by myself? She said, yeah, by yourself. But she was she used to do that, so I think it’s just finding that way of having that balance in your life so you don’t feel like you have to, you know, go hang out with this one and that one just to have some fun, or just to have some balance in your life, because we all need balance, we can’t be in church twenty four seven. Right. Alright. And now we are getting into our q and a section. Students, we do ask if you just limit the comments to questions only. We are sure that the panelists will be happy to talk to you all after the events. So if you have any questions, you can raise your hands or stand up. Oh, you could come up to the microphone. I apologize.
Lisa Fields: Yeah. You are being filmed if you come to the camera. The lady now.
Panelist: I know you all touched on sex and we’re to value ourselves and virginity is a gift that we should share with the person that we enter the company of marriage with. What you say to the people that have lost their virginity already, that decided I’m gonna just keep doing this since I already lost it. And is there a way to renew the spirit of virginity? You know, I would tell them, you know, once you once you repent and you come back to the come back to the lord, that’s a clean clean slate. Don’t go back. So you’re of course, you’re not a virgin anymore, but now you’re gonna you’re gonna walk in a way where you’re gonna live your life like from that moment on devoted to God and waiting on God to show you the right person that you could have that intimate relationship with. So just because they lost their virginity, how many how many people come to church now that they like, you know, I’m sure a lot of young people come to church and they they have lost their virginity, you know, and I just think that we have to let them know that all they have to do is repent and they can start afresh if they want to, so.
Lisa Fields: I would also add, I think we see sexual sin in a we put it, like, over here, and all the other sins are over here. Like, if you do a sexual and more act, that is the worst that you could do. Right? But we don’t think about when we when we make other sins, if we lie, or if we are full of pride, we we we know repentance and we reset easily. Right? And so, I think we need to bring sexual immorality down in our minds in a sense of like not making it the supreme sin. Right? Sin is sin. Now there’s different impacts of sin. Sin impacts you in different ways. Like, you know what I’m saying? Like, it it ain’t it’s it’s all the same, but it ain’t all the same in this consequence. Right? And so but I think when we see our value based on whether or not we are a virgin or not, we are not seeing ourselves who god has designed us to be. Your value is not in your virginity. Your value is being made in the image of God. And I think we have to start there Mhmm. So we won’t we won’t devalue or dehumanize ourselves if we make a mistake in that area. Right. Right? And so I think that’s a way in which and it also makes space for those who virginity was not an option because somebody robbed that from them and took that from them through molestation or sexual violence. Okay. Yeah. And so they are no less than because they’ve been violated against. Right? And so it’s kind of like rethinking how we think about sex, so we don’t make it the ultimate. We still have a high we still have a standard of holiness, but if you fall short, there is grace. So yeah. Thank you. You’re welcome.
Panelist: Good evening, panelist. My name is Julius Ford. I’m a business administration major from Memphis, Tennessee. Alright. My question for you guys today is grace given or worked for? Uh-huh. Say say it again. Is grace is it given to us, or is it worked for? Do we have to do extra to be get receive grace, or is it just already given to us? Yeah. I would say that if, grace is worked for, then it’s definitely not grace. So the the very meaning of grace is unmerited or unearned favor. Right? So it’s when somebody does something for you, that is not tied to anything that you’ve done, anything that you’ve earned, anything that you’ve merited. It’s something that is done simply because of that person’s kindness, unrelated to anything that you may have done. So grace otherwise, grace would be like a quid pro quo. Right? I do something for you, you do something for me. Right? And and even Paul made this argument, not only in his letter to the Romans, but also to the Galatians, that that if you need to work for it, then it ceases to to actually be grace. And so when it comes down to the gospel, God has given us his love. He’s demonstrated his love toward us. Lisa quoted the scripture a little earlier that while we were yet in sin, he died. That is an act of love, of his great, his gratuity, his love towards us. We didn’t deserve it. In fact, Paul makes the argument that we were his enemies. Right? He says, hardly will a person die for their friends, but he died for those who were rebellious and those who were his enemies. So we were far from deserving. And so this is why he says in Ephesians, chapter two verses eight and nine, for it is by grace through faith that we are saved, that not of ourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. If you if you memorize that, what you’ll find is, he said two things over and over and over. Salvation is a work of God. It is not earned by man. It is a work of God. It is not earned by man. And so he wanted to really reemphasize and overly emphasize the fact that salvation is an act of God’s love and grace. It has nothing to do with anything that that we deserve. In fact, if God would give us what we deserve, then we would all be rightly condemned. Right? And that’s what we really do deserve. And so I think it was Charles Spurgeon that put it this way that I’ve contributed nothing to my salvation except the sin that made it possible. So for that. That made it necessary. Sorry about that. Here we go. Hey, everybody. I’m Faith Shavers. I’m a senior entrepreneurship major. So the question that I have is, if God is an all loving God, why is there a hell? Hell is justice. Hell is for the God already knows those who will not repent. He already knows those people who will not turn to him, and it’s a hard thing for us to imagine that there is a hell, but God God cannot give us He cannot say that, okay, you’re gonna live this this, live in this world and everything is gonna be great, and then something bad happens and not punish those who refuse to turn to him. So we’re talking about people who absolutely, after opportunity and opportunity, they will be separated from God. So think of hell as separation from God. It’s just, I see it as justice. Okay. And I have another question.
Lisa Fields: Oh, for her. Okay. I wanna add something to that Okay. Because I think it’s important. You know, one of the things I think about is us as black people, I think about all of our ancestors who died without justice. Oh, god. Have mercy. Think about all of our ancestors that were lynched, and the person that lynched them died and didn’t get prosecuted.
Panelist: Right. Right. That’s so true. That
Lisa Fields: enslavers that went without getting punishment. When I look at the justice of God and the reality of hell, it actually brings me hope that God doesn’t forget the blood of our ancestors who die without justice.
Panelist: Oh, that’s good.
Lisa Fields: That they will have a judgment. Send to it. Right? Oftentimes we think, man, we think of hell only about us. Mhmm. Like I ain’t trying to go to hell. You’re right. You know what I’m saying? Like God, why would you send me to hell? But we miss all the wickedness that seem to go unpunished throughout history. And if the hell doesn’t exist, then how can God be just? If our enslavers of our ancestors are not held to account, how can God be just? Mhmm. If the thousands of people that were lynched while picnics happen Jesus. And there’s no justice, how and there’s no hell, how can God be just? Absolutely. And so I think sometimes we have to reframe it to see God’s justice. That’s it. To see he sees those who went without punishment. There you go.
Panelist: Okay. So my next question will be, well, if I never knew of Jesus or God, will I be automatically condemned to hell? So this is a great question because God says in his word that he everyone will have opportunity to know him, and so we would see I would explain that is that God with himself would have made himself known to that person, just as he makes himself known to Moses. There’s no mediator that stands between there and says, okay, Moses hears God. It’s God himself who shows up and Moses receives God. So I would explain that and that God himself would have to make himself known and there would have to be some level of rejection. So that’s how how I would explain it. Right. I I’d love to add to that is is that there are, there are modern examples of that happening. For instance, there’s no other explanation, for what she’s for what she’s saying that could possibly satisfy what’s happening, for instance, in the Muslim world where the gospel is not preached. Like, thousands of Muslim practicing Muslims living under Sharia constantly talk about having visions of Jesus and literally turning to faith in Christ away from Allah as a result of personal visions and experiences that they’ve had with Christ. And then also testify to later those kind of visions ceasing after they have come to faith in Christ. So in other words, the miraculous intervention of God was pointing them to his son, and that was the purpose for it. And these are in places where the gospel is not preached, and that would not be something that a Muslim would actually make up. They would never come to that kind of faith in Christ. What they believe about Jesus is that he was just a mere prophet. But based on visions and experiences that they’re having, they’re coming to trust Jesus according to what the Bible reveals about who the person and work of Christ is. And so that is a great example of how that even happens in our modern world. Okay. Last one. So when you was referencing Muslims, so with the with Christian denominations, why are there so many if God said his word is one and truthful? Are you there? Yeah. Well, I’m I’ll I’ll tackle that again. And and, so denominations well, when we when we kinda think about society so we do live in a fallen world. And so in reality, everything in society is denominated. Like, that’s an unavoidable kind of thing. Like, there’s not one school. There’s thousands of schools. Right? There’s not one form of currency or denomination of currency. There are a lot of different right? So so, same thing with groups, same things with government, parties, so forth and so on. That is an aspect or reflection of our fallenness, our inability to be unified around a a singular purpose or idea. People feel different ways. They’ve got different things. They’ve they’ve got different ambitions, so forth and so on. And so that’s generally a reflection of our fallenness. When it comes down to Christian denominations, for the most part, however, is is that they are unified around what you would call the essentials of the faith. The nature of God, the person and work of Christ, salvation, the the essential matters of the faith, the death, burial, resurrection of Christ. Now when it comes down to how churches are governed, like church polity, when it comes down to, secondary issues, matters of how do we actually do communion, what do we even believe about communion, certain beliefs about baptism, You’ll find division because traditions develop around those kinds of practices that make people essentially say, well, I wanna fellowship with people who agree with me on these secondary issues or tertiary issues. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t agree with other Christians in different denominations or even nondenominational churches about the main essential matters of Christianity because that’s the most important area that we need to be united is obviously in our faith and in our practice of our faith is where we need to be united. And that was Jesus’ vision in his prayer, his high priestly prayer. In John 10, he prayed to the father and said, I pray that they may be one even as we are one. And, ultimately, that is going to happen in Jesus’ second return. He is going to bring about that unity in his body so that we are one in every way and denominations will cease. I would just add that part of the reasons why we have different denominations is how they really look at the bible, how they interpret certain passages, but they’re not deal breakers. I mean, the deal breaker is Jesus Christ is lord. So and the way people are, they see things differently. You read the bible, you might come with a different translation of the Hebrew, and that’s really how they get these different denominations and different interpretations of the scriptures. That’s it. So Thank you. Hello. My name is Jacqueline Jeffers. I’m a social work major. Hey. And while I was out there, I remember we was talking about before I came in here. I mean, after I came in here, we’re talking about different bible translations. I was speaking to someone out there and I was asking them, after you finish your chicken company, you alright? He was like, no. I was like, you believe in God? He was like, yeah, but have you read the Ethiopian bible? I was like, oh, I heard this before. So I went on chat to help me ask this question without sounding like a conspiracy theorist. So do you think cultural or political influences have limited how certain biblical texts like the Ethiopian traditions in the bible are taught or understood today? If that makes sense. Hold on. Like these found in Ethiopian traditions are taught or understood today. I know there’s like the book of Enoch that was in the Ethiopian bible. That’s really not talked about in the bible we read today. Yeah. So do you think anything being taken out is to, like you said, the slave bible mentality, don’t know our power or what we just I don’t know. If you get the question I’m trying to ask. Yeah. You’re trying to Yeah. I’d love to say something about that. So, one thing is is that there’s there’s not just, first Enoch. There’s actually second and third Enoch. So, to speak about first Enoch, first Enoch is actually referenced, several times in the New Testament. So Peter references it, and Jude references it. First Enoch is what you would call a, a second temple period literary production. Second and third Enoch was, like, written, like, in the, the second, third, and fourth century AD. This is after the church. So nobody would have ever included that. But I do find this interesting is is that, before the New Testament canon and when we say canon, we’re talking about all of the the books or the letters in the New Testament that we recognize as inspired by God. Before the New Testament production, there was just the Old Testament. I find it interesting that Jewish canons never included any of the second temple period apocryphal books like first Enoch or the Maccabees, Ezra’s. The Jews didn’t. So when we’re talking about Ethiopians, Ethiopian Christians from the fourth century, if they’re choosing to put that in their canon, it’s just interesting that five, six hundred years earlier when this literary production was made, Jewish believers did not put that in the old testament. They found it valuable reading, but they didn’t think that it was inspired by God. So Christians five and six hundred years later should not be, in in my thinking, should not be exceeding that idea. If they didn’t think that six hundred years earlier and this is a Jewish production, by the way. It’s not an Ethiopian production. First Enoch was written by second temple period Jews. So if Jews didn’t see it as inspired by God, why would Ethiopians or anybody else five, six, seven hundred years later see it, and on what basis would they think? So is it an important, text or something historically significant? Yes. But does it meet the criteria for inspired literature? The answer for that would be no. But it was valuable enough for Peter and even Jude to reference because it does include some things that are quote worthy. And Paul himself often quoted Greek philosophers, but he didn’t see these Greek poets and these Greek philosophers. He didn’t see their works as inspired, but he just found something that they said useful, and so he referenced it. So just because the references for first Enoch are in the New Testament doesn’t grant it inspiration. It just there are things in it that are useful for the arguments that were being made. So that’s that’s how I would answer that. Thank you. Thank you. You’re welcome. Excellent. Excellent question. Yes. Hey. I’m Justin Jones, music technology major from Chicago, Illinois.
Lisa Fields: I have two questions.
Panelist: Yeah. Yeah. I have two two questions. First, what are y’all’s thoughts on people losing their conviction and repenting only because they know it is right, not because they wanna do it? So they’re repenting just because? Because they know it’s right, but they don’t have, like, I guess, the desire to actually do it though.
Lisa Fields: So, you know, there are certain things that I’ve had to grow in my desire. Like, you don’t always wanna do the right thing. Mhmm. Like and sometimes I’m not doing it because I I know the word says not to do it. I don’t have a personal feeling about not doing it. Right? So, like, forgiveness. I don’t know if it’s ever a time Right. Where I wanna forgive somebody that hurt me. Like, that’s not just something I just wanna do. You know what I’m saying? Yeah. But I know in the word, I’m supposed to do it. Right. So I gotta treat this person like they didn’t offend me because I’m erasing the debt. Right? I don’t know if I’ll ever get to a point in my maturation. I hope where my reaction is forgiving. Like, the crazy thing about God in the Old Testament, he delights in mercy. That’s what they say about God, that he delights in mercy. That means he get he delights in forgiving us. I hope to grow in my maturity as a Christian to be excited about forgiving someone, but I’m not there yet. So I just do it because I’m called to do it. And so I think you grow in your in your desire through your maturation
Panelist: to wanna do what god calls you to do. That’s right. I’ll add this real quick. I think if Jesus was answering that question, I recall once he said in a parable, he said there were two sons, and the father told both sons to do something. One son said he would do it and didn’t do it, and the other son said he wouldn’t he wouldn’t do it and ended up doing it. He said, which son did the right thing? There you go. Okay. My next question is completely unrelated. Do y’all think science can back up the existence of God, or should it be, like, solely faith based? I definitely think science backs up the existence of God. I think what happens is when we we have to remember how the Bible is written and why it’s written in its way it’s written, and we can’t just sort of say, okay, day one is twenty four hours, it’s not. It can be an extended period of time. We see that the Hebrew word yom can mean one day, it can mean years, it can mean so many more things, so I think when they try to sort of fit it in with one day, that’s where the problem is. And there’s some things we can’t even explain in Genesis one. So Genesis one tells us that light existed, but then day four, we get, like, that’s when the sun comes, so like how, what is the light that’s showing us before the sun gets there? So there’s so many things that show up in Genesis one that maybe don’t align with how we see science, but I think science can back up the scriptures and that it reminds us that God is the creator. There’s some things that absolutely cannot be explained and there’s some things that can’t be explained through science, so I think they can actually both work. I don’t think we should. The dinosaurs existed, okay? When we go to New York and you go to the museum, as I brought my children in, I said, they were real, for us to say that they didn’t exist, come on. It’s like, yeah, they existed, so we can make them work. I I’ve I’d say this quickly, when we say science, we we we have to qualify even what we mean. For, like, for some people, what they mean by science is some empirical kind of, thing that they can demonstrate, like, right now, like, something that they can show in the lab. Some people think of science in that way. I’ll say it this way. So, science has, recognizes various laws, like the laws of physics and things like that. One thing that science recognizes is that there is a cause for everything. That’s why they busy themselves trying to explain how the universe came to exist, and they come up with theories like the big bang, this, that, or the other. Watch this, though. Right? So if everything has a cause, let’s just say everything was caused by, gas. And then you’re like, okay. Yeah. So gas caused everything. But but but we can’t stop there because if everything has a cause, and then what caused the gas? Oh, yeah. It was this little brown germ. Okay. Okay. Okay. This brown germ then is behind everything, but we can’t stop there. What caused the brown germ? Well, there was a red germ that caused it. And and and what and what happens? Infinity. Right? But that but it can’t be. There has to be a first caused uncaused that there is nothing that caused that cause. But what would that be? That would be God. And that is what the bible reveals about God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the bible reveals that God is eternal even from, the the beginning to the end that he is eternal, that he is before all time. Right? That he is the reason that time even exists. And in the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth. You have time, space, and matter all come into existence by god. And so literally, science then would have to recognize that only god could be the first cause uncaused. Can I just add one thing? When we have creation, god creates creation, so he gives us the tree. Right? And we know that when we look at the rings of the tree, we can say a certain, that’s how we date the tree. But God gives us the tree already, and it has this evidence that has been around for a long time, but it has not been around for a long time. And he gives us Adam and Eve, they are already ready, they are past puberty, they are ready, so he, how God creates, we can’t explain, science has to come after God. It can’t come before God because God makes things whole immediately and that wholeness says that it’s been existing for a while and it hasn’t. Thank you. Mhmm. Excellent question. This is an engaged crowd. That’s really good. Okay. I’m Mackenzie Ward, a sophomore psychology major from Dallas, Texas. Alright. Yes. And my question is, do you think it’s okay from different Christian denominations to be together, or is that being unequally yoked? Does that make sense? Yes. It does.
Lisa Fields: So I god’s desire for us is to be one. Mhmm. Right? He wants us to be together. His desire is for us to be together. Now there are some things that if we are denying different, essentials, will prevent us from being together. Right? So, one essential in denomination would be around the trinity. Right. So, one God, three persons. And one says, one God, different modes. So those are those those are our big That’s right. That’s a big a big essential that would cause serious division. Right. So you have to decide when you’re are you talking about, like, marrying or you’re just talking about relationship or friendship? Like relationships. Oh. Relationships? Okay. And, like, marriage, like, both kinda. Okay. Okay. So friendships, I think there’s a little bit more leeway. Right? To have friendships around different denominational relationships that are, nonessential things, and essential things. You can have relationships across those across those, denominational lines. When you’re talking about marriage, right, you might wanna think about, you know, how you want to think as a unit about God and how you wanna raise your children to think about God. So I I would say those those things. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. You’re welcome.
Panelist: Hello. My name is Ayanna Campbell. I’m a physics major. So I like what y’all had to say about science being connected to God. My question is, I hope this makes sense. I’m trying to figure out how to put it all together. But is there a way to make the waiting season easier? When I say waiting season, I mean waiting on someone to pursue you to be, like, in a marriage or, like, a godly relationship because, you know, you can go through her during a waiting season and just all these things. I’m just just wondering. Yeah.
Lisa Fields: So, I think one of the things I’ve tried to do I’m now 39. I had to think about it. Am I 38 or 39? 39 years old, and I’m still single. And one of the things one of the things that I’ve seen happen for single women in particular is this fixation on a spouse. Right? I have had the gift of not being fixated, and it has served me well. My friends that have suffered the most in their singleness are fixated on a spouse. It is good to figure out other things that you like to do. Right? What what God has achieved. Marriage is not a promise. It’s a desire, but we are not all promised that we will all get married. Right? So we can submit that desire to God, but it’s not promised that all of us will be married. Right? So we have to live in that reality. Thing you wanna do is find other relationships, because what has from my friends that are dealing with divorce now, they’ve made their spouse their all. Right? They didn’t have other relationships. They didn’t develop in friendships. And so, even in your friendships, you wanna devote time to asking God to show me me, show me things in me, show me how to handle conflict, show me how to talk to people, show me how to be consistent in people’s lives, so you could develop the tools to be a good partner. Mhmm. Right? Right. So focus on your friendships, focus on your talents, focus on school, and then if God bless you with a mate, you know, you have done the work to be a good partner, but don’t fixate on that. Right. True. Fixate on God and the promises and plans he has for you. Do the work you have to do in front of you and fulfill and do those things and submit that desire to God. And I believe that he will, you know, in some cases, he will come through with a spouse, but don’t fixate on it. If you fixate on it, it will consume you, and you will be perpetually disappointed. And it’s like, you ever get in the car, I use this example all the time. Me and my my father’s a pastor, and so during the summers, we used to take a trip, a family trip that was a revival, but he used to make it a vacation. So he had to go preach in Panama City, Florida, and we were all piled in the car, and the first part would be the revival. The end of the of the week would be our vacation. And on the ride, I would be so it was like a four or five hour ride. I’d be like, are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? The whole time. My mom slept the whole time. And she would wake up and was like, oh, we here? That was fast. We had the same ride, but two different experiences. Right. She rested on the ride, and I was constantly anxious and focused on the ride ending. And
Panelist: That’s good. You gotta
Lisa Fields: let rest during this ride of singleness, and let God dictate when you arrive.
Panelist: That’s this now. Thank you. Yeah. That’s so good. Hey, y’all. My name is Shalia. So my question how, like, a lot of people in Catholicism believe that, like, the Catholic church is, like, the one true church because they’re, like, I think it’s called, like, the apostolic, like, succession that they have. And then, one of their beliefs is that both scripture and the church both, like, hold authority about, like, the same authority. So my question is kinda like, is scripture truly the ultimate authority or do you also need the authority of the church? The scripture is the ultimate authority. The Catholic church has that wrong. I I’m not the type of person that’s, you know, I don’t put down the Catholic church, I think there’s a lot of good there, but in this area, they they’re they’re allowing for humanity to have too much authority over people’s lives and, what has to take authority is the scripture and they actually because humanity is actually taking authority, a lot of people are being kept out, you know, if you’re going through divorce in the Catholic church, you can no longer take communion, and so now that breaks your fellowship with God, that is not something that’s in the scripture, that is a man made piece that’s put there and that actually causes a further separation of the person from God, so, I I don’t think that the Catholic church has that piece correct.
Lisa Fields: And and and when we think about the reformation and Martin Luther, the reason he pushed for sola scriptura is because people were using their authority, to sell indulgences, to do all these other things. He was like, no, we gotta go back to scripture alone. Right? Because they were using their words to manipulate scripture And so, yeah.
Panelist: Thank you all. Good evening. I’m Janae Shelby, a junior health care administration major. And my question is, how do you know the life you’re leading aligns with God’s will and that you’re not diverging from the purpose he has for you in being lukewarm?
Lisa Fields: So I think, you know, when I was when I was younger, I used to put so much pressure on myself. Like, I gotta do this. I got I gotta do this right. Or, I mean, it was so intense. I was like, it was two ways to get to my house. I was praying, God, which way do you want me to take? Do you want me to take Lim Turner or Dunne Ave? Like, you know what I’m saying? It was just that deep. You know how when you young, you just like, well, y’all are young. But you know, you you like, I gotta get this right. You know what I’m saying? This might set me back three years. I was over complicating it. Something helped me in acts. Paul was trying to go a place. Mhmm. And he was like, I tried to get there, but the spirit prevented me. That’s right. Right? He was like, I was doing all I could to get there, but the spirit prevented me. And it reminds me how God redirects us. He had good intentions. He was going to preach the gospel. Like, he wasn’t doing something bad, but God but I don’t want you to do that now. Right. And so he redirected him to another place by blocking the doors. And sometimes when you have good doors and you’re like, god, should I go down this? Sometimes the option is to try Mhmm. And pray, god, block every door that’s not the door I’m supposed to be on. That’s right. Now, some things are obvious. You know now, like, don’t do this. This is sin. But then there are choices that are not sin, and you’re like, this is a good choice, but is this God’s choice for me? It’s like, I’ll try. Okay? Now we might It it didn’t go well like Paul. He was like, I tried to go do this good thing to preach gospel. The door was shut. I go to this other place. And so God reroutes us like GPS. Amen. Yeah. Amen.
Panelist: Thank you. You’re welcome. Jerome, oversee Mission Outreach at the local church nearby. Matt, really appreciate your ministry. Been blessed by it. So so happy y’all here. I have a I have a question that might open up a can of worms. But, may I have a a dear friend of mine may not be friends anymore, but I’ve seen a a just a a rise in this theology around the church, supporting multiple wives. I’m I’m just curious on your thoughts around polygyny in particular, narrative hermeneutics and, Deuteronomy 17, about, you know, God God allowing Israel to have a king. But in that text, it seem to seem to say you shouldn’t have multiple wives, but they’ll also you shouldn’t have multiple horses, most a lot of silver. So I’m just curious of your thoughts around polygyny, nerd narrative hermene hermeneutics, and Deuteronomy 17. I’ll I’ll answer quickly. So, just to clarify terms, polygamy as a term means having more than one spouse. Polygamy means having more, than one, wife. And, and so, what I would appeal to is what what we would call the law first mentions. Right? And so the law first mentions takes precedent because it it sets forth in principle what god’s desire for marriage was. And so in creation, one of the things that god says is when he creates Eve and presents Eve to Adam, Eve recognizes her. This is now bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. And, for this reason, the text says, shall, a man leave his father, a man, leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, singular. And so in both instances, the man is is is mentioned in the singular Mhmm. And the wife is mentioned in the singular. And it then says, and the two shall become one flesh. And so as a as a principle of first mention, this is the first mention and the first picture of God’s plan for what marriage would look like. What we are seeing later, for instance, in Deuteronomy and other passages, For instance, you’ll see David and you’ll see others. Those are it’s it’s it’s the difference between what we would call description and prescription. These things are being described, but what are they really describing? They’re really describing the way that people fell away from god’s original plan and purpose regardless of how he tolerated it. So in Deuteronomy 17, this is not god’s plan. This is legislation to ensure that people were not being abused in spite of the fact that they were practicing, polygyny in the first place. Right? And so that’s not god’s approval for it. That’s god saying, because it’s being practiced, here’s some legislation to ensure that there is equity and that there is fairness and that there is not harm or abuse as a result of of the practice. But that’s not God giving his endorsement to it. That’s God making sure that sinful people didn’t take something already sinful and do even worse things with it. Yep. That’s good. Can I add a couple of things? Sure. So that that passage in Deuteronomy chapter 17 describes the role of the king. Right. So that God gives Moses that insight. Mhmm. And that is to prohibit them from having multiple wives. Why? Because multiple multiple wives mean multiple covenants with other nations. So God does not want them to have multiple horses, he doesn’t want them Israel couldn’t even have his own army unless God called for them to have their own army. So with that, it’s putting in place to say, this is what you should not do. You should not have multiple wives. You should not have multiple horses. These are things that, these are a warning for the people and of course, we see when we get the book of Kings that they break the rules and King Solomon has like, you know, too many wives. Put it that way. Right. That’s good. That’s all. Thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And this will be our final Q and A of the night. Our panelists will be outside to answer any more questions, but we do have to vacate it. Right. Real quick. I’ve got three questions. One is my own. Two are from some students. And so here we go. My question is, what is the criteria going back to the question about Enoch and the Apocrypha. What’s the criteria for a book to be included in scripture in the canon? What does even at work inspiration mean? That’s my question. Then we got another question. As a Christian, what do we call to separate from as Christians? Like, what’s the division between light and dark? How do I know if God is calling me, to separate from a particular thing? And then the last question is, when God’s word says that he’s going to protect Jerusalem, protect Israel, who is the real Israel? Are we talking about physical Israel right now or another Israel? Okay. Okay. Well, there you go. Okay. I’ll do the Israel one. Israel. Alright. You do the first one, and I’ll do the second one. Right. Alright. So the first one as it relates to inspiration. Real quick. So the Bible says that all, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Theo nustas, is the word means God breathe. Right? Now the Bible doesn’t tell us the process of that. It’s essentially telling us that the the word of God literally comes from God, that it is it is spirit. It is life. It comes from him. He is the source of it is the idea. Now how, books became, became canonized. So the word canon, is, just think of cane. Right? If you think of a cane, it’s a measuring stick. So when, shepherds would lead sheep across water, they would use the cane to measure the depth of the water to know that it was soft, or safe, that it was shallow enough for crossing. And so the word canon began to be used, as a way to understand how the early church community understood the measure of what was accepted as inspired. And so there were, several criteria. So this is not something that they made up as in people sat down and said, okay. There are five things that we need to look for, like five earmarks and this, that, and the other. It’s something that essentially organically developed. And so one is what you would call community recognition of the text. So the more these, letters circulated and they were known to have been written by apostles, the more authority they already had because it was already accepted. Like, for instance, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, there’s no mention of their names in either one of those writings, but it is virtually unchallenged in all of church history that Matthew, Mark, Luke, John wrote those four gospels. That is because the earliest recipients of it recognized that it did come from them. And therefore, it not only had authenticity, but it had authority because of their relationship with Jesus. So community recognition was was one. The other also was the, theological and the doctrinal content and nature? Did it actually affirm the apostolic teachings or the things that Jesus’s apostles taught the church? If there was any deviation from those kinds of things, then they were just essentially they were, Athanasius ranked it and said they’re inspired text, there are helpful text, and then there are false text that he calls pseudepigrapha. And so sometimes they would say, like, for instance, a a a book like the there’s a number of other ones. They would say, okay. That was that was helpful, but it doesn’t seem to fall in. And then also the timing of it. If it was written after the second century, it was not known to be written in the period of the apostles. They might think it was health helpful like, first Clement. Right. And, you know, some of these texts were very, very helpful. Sure. But again, they were no shepherd of hermits, so forth and so on. Even, Ignatius’s seven letters, helpful text, but not known to be written by any of the apostles written after the period of the apostolic era. And and so helpful again, but not inspired. So these are some of the earmarks and some of the ways that they kinda develop. And they didn’t always agree. Like, Hebrews, didn’t almost make it into the canon. Right. Revelation for a long time was not considered by the early church to be canonical. And so they didn’t always agree, but but the majority of Christian communities and there were some Christian communities, I’ll say this quickly, that didn’t know of some of the inspired text. But then we would also look at but there were majority communities that did know. For instance, in Asia Minor that would have known the first Peter, second Peter, third Peter, whereas Galatia, they may not have ever heard of it. And so if it was received by the majority of Christian communities, even when they were not relatively known by some, that was another way of attesting that, yeah, this was this is certified. Right? So those are some of the ways.
Lisa Fields: And the question can you repeat the question about knowing the difference?
Panelist: Yes. So I think the question is trying to get at how do I know when God is calling me to separate from maybe a particular group, a heart posture, something that is dark, something that’s evil that maybe some might say is good.
Lisa Fields: What’s how do I know that division between good and and evil or dark and light? So I think, one, there are clear things in scripture that we ought to stay away from. Mhmm. So we wanna get familiar enough with the text to know what the scripture tells us to stay away from. Mhmm. So that’s one thing. There are certain things that you just need to flee. Flee sexual immorality. Right. Like, you just gotta run. Yes. Definitely. Right? Keep the space. That’s the only way to do it. Mhmm. Then there are some things that I think have a subtle power over us that take us over over time. And we have to think, is this pushing me into hiddenness? Is this pushing me into secrecy? Something that I don’t wanna be seen doing. It’s not completely wrong if you call me on the carpet, but something about this makes me wanna hide it. Mhmm. Right? That’s the enemy’s subtle draw. Think about what Adam and Eve in the garden. Now, I always think of I always tell people to think about the the first sin was people eating fruit. Right? Like, it wasn’t sexual immorality. They weren’t shooting each other up. You know what I’m saying? They ate fruit. Like, you know what I’m saying? We in this whole predicament because somebody ate some fruit. Like, think about that. That’s wild to think about. Yes. But that eating the fruit, why, doesn’t seem bad. It pushed them into hiddenness. Sometimes it’s like this stuff doesn’t seem bad, but why do you wanna hide it? Why do you want nobody to know it? Why why when the text come up, you gotta turn your phone over real fast? You know? Why would why do you want it in your DM, it can’t be in your comment section? When it’s not, it doesn’t look it’s not really I can’t really call it sin, but it’s pushing me into secrecy and the hiddenness Yeah. Then I wanna check, is this something I need to get away from? Because it’s gonna push me into something that is blatant sin. Right. So deceptive. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It’s the deception of the enemy. Yeah. Glory. That’s so good. The Israel question was Right.
Panelist: When we read in the bible, and we read about Israel, God protecting Israel’s special promises for Israel Right. Is that talking about the Israel that’s right now? Yeah. Israel that’s at war? Or are we talking about another Israel? What how does that Yeah. So the Bible tells us to pray for the the peace of Jerusalem. Mhmm. And so we should we should pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Who’s in Jerusalem? There’s Jews in Jerusalem, Christians, Muslims, we should pray for the peace of Jerusalem. But is the promise that he’s gonna protect Israel, is that for Israel that’s there now? The promise to protect Israel is of the new Israel, because God will protect us, but the Israel can’t just continue to be disobedient. And Israel is in disobedience, Jews are in disobedience because of their rejection of Christ. Now the Jews that are there, there are some who are really, you know, at one with Christians, they really want to have a good community and there are some Jews there who tell you that Christ is like nothing, who are really just absolutely rude. And so, I think what we wanna do is to remember to pray for the physical place of Jerusalem today, that’s there, because God commands us to pray for the peace, but God envisions a new Jerusalem, and that new Jerusalem includes every one of us who says yes to the Lord. So that’s how I put it. I mean, I could go on, but I will. Alright. Thank you.
Lisa Fields: So we appreciate you coming out and as promised, did y’all take the survey? Yes. All right. I’m a give y’all a second as the panelists sit now. If you didn’t take the survey, take it. You got two minutes.