You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand. Freedom is a wonderful thing.
Freedom can be abused just like anything, and for the believer, it
must be controlled. So it just because you can do something doesn't mean you
should do something. And that's the age old dilemma with everybody, really with
any system of freedom. This happens in the United States as well, but
it will happen on a day to day basis with you as a believer.
You'll be around all kinds of people, whether they are non believers or that
maybe they're young believers just new trying to learn, get their footing, and
people will be watching you, watching you in what you do, how you
interact, the things you say, and you desire is to have that freedom
and explore that freedom. Thank God for that freedom, but also not to
misuse it or to put it in a light that causes confusion and a stumbling
block for those around you. You will let people down, and there will
be times where you'll do things that are completely okay under the blood on the
cross, but will somehow make someone else stumble. And for instance, is
there's nothing wrong with drinking wine. However, if you're in the presence of
an alcoholic it's not the best thing to do. As a matter of fact,
you can very much be a stumbling block depending on where the person is
in their recovery, and that by knowing that you should be compassionate towards that
and forego the drinking on your own. And that's just a simple analogy or
a simple example rather of how it can come up in your life. In
New Testament times it had a lot to do not only with drinking, but
with food and the concept of food, paganized food or food that was sacrificed
to idols. Sometimes you know, sometimes you didn't. That's quite why most
people pray today. When you're praying over a meal, oftentimes you're not sure
where it came from, and so you're giving God the glory for the food
just in case it was sacrificed by someone else for some other reason, and
sort of cleansing it while giving praise to God. Well, those things happened
two thousand years ago as well. The battle when going to eat something,
is it going to make someone stumble? Plus, there were things that the
Christian believers would eat or consume that their Jewish brothers and sisters would not,
and these things can sometimes cause confusion, and one Corinthians eight thirteen it says,
therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin,
I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to
fall. And essentially it was better to just cut that food out of your
life than it was to make someone stumble. Best case scenario, you kind
of cover all edges. And now I'm not saying you have to be that
dramatic about it, but really it's about having that instant come into play.
Protect yourself and others by knowing if someone has a weakness or a concern or
a sin, that you don't want to lead them down, especially young believers.
You know, being with a young believer and an old believer should be
inspiring and often is, but sometimes can be a little confusing. The older
believer has kind of whittled through a lot of the garbage, maybe things that
people have placed in the way, or certain traditions that are really more about
tradition than they are about anything else, and all of this and that can
be confusing sometimes. Even one Timothy four twelve says, don't let anyone look
down on you because you were young, But you're accountable too, goes on
to say, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct,
in love, in faith, and impurity, regardless of your age in
Christ. And what I'm calling you to here is to be aware of your
and the things you do and the things you say, and the things you
know, and how you interact and all these things because the others see them.
And it's not just the world, it's those that claim to be Christians
as well that are going through their own struggles. Now some may care,
some may not care. There are some believers that just don't focus on those
things, and there's some that people refer to as legalistic and get very very
specific about every little thing. But the truth be told. Scripture says that
you're to make no one stumble. And it's not about judging everyone or going
back and judging each other. It's about understanding that what you can do affects
others. And as much as you're trying to you know, sometimes you may
do something and if a non believer sees you, say, ah, well
they're not a believer. They don't really get the whole thing anyways. And
it's under the blood of the Cross. And I'm fine, and they don't
get it. But it's not just about that. It affects Christians alike Romans
fourteen thirteen. Therefore, let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead,
make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the
way of a brother or sister. So think about the things that you do,
sometimes maybe in spite or out of frustration, that you may do that
would cause stumbling from another believer, the way you act, the things you
do. I know, I have this conversation with my producer Neil all the
time, a little too free spirited wrestles with being an individual in his faith
versus being an actual stumbling block. And that's going to be a concern of
yours as well that you're going to You don't want to be a cookie cut
You don't want to just do everything that everybody else does or anything that you
have to hold on to your individuality most certainly, but do it in a
way that it isn't causing others to fall or to sin, to stumble,
because in doing that, you you remove God from the equation. Now you're
making it about the sin, or you're making it about the mistakes in people's
lives and you're kind of giving them an excuse to do them more, and
people struggle as it is. You know, a research came out recently,
and this is one of those things that they've been going back and forth on
them been studying for a long time, is how people react to visual stimulation
or other types of stimulation that remind them of something. For instance, made
note that if an athlete is watching a sports game, they have different responses
than your average Jane or Joe, and they're a little more intense. However,
everyone watching kind of puts themselves in a game. You ever wonder why,
wow, how could so many people sit around watching a football game or
a basketball game and they tend to say things like oh we won or things
like that when they weren't playing at all. Well, the body, even
though it's not playing, sees the action and almost puts itself in the action.
That's why adrenaline can raise well watching a game. I'm sure if they
had a bet or had money on the game, that kind of helps the
cause as well. But physiologically, there's other stuff going on and new studies
coming out that when a smoker or an X smoker sees somebody smoke on camera
they're watching a film, they feel the urge and the desire smoke as well.
Now, as a believer, when you're doing certain things, you may
be doing something that motivates someone else in a way that could be destructive in
their life, causing them to stumble. And this puts extra weight on you
understanding who you are, what you do, and how you are around others.
Being an example or living as an example is always going to be difficult,
And as believers, there's this extra balance because you're to be living in
a way that compels the world to ask about the hope that lies within you.
As it says in onse P. Three fifteen, you're called to that
living in a way and dealing with problems and circumstances in such a way that
others will notice. But also you're called to defend younger Christians and younger believers
and others in your own flock by the things you do in liberty. So
this wonderful thing, liberty that gives you that freedom to do all kinds of
things, also gives you the most intense responsibility. There's a lot of bondage
in freedom, and I know that sounds strange, but quite frankly, in
that comes the responsibility of what to do and what not to do. Even
though you're allowed, it really focuses not on what you can do, but
focuses on what you should do. One Corinthians ten twenty three says, I
have the right to do anything you say, but not everything is beneficial.
I have the right to do anything, but not everything is constructive. And
this is where discernment comes in and where you play the part of learning what's
going to be beneficial, not just what you can do, but what you
ought to do, what you should do. And there are going to be
things that would be legal technically under the blood of Christ, and that you
have freedom, but honing that freedom and maximizing it and doing good things is
really the path that God calls you justever you want for whatever reason. Yes,
when you have the blood of God on your side, it allows you
a lot of freedoms, much more than even much of the church gives.
There are churches that seem to spend their time looking to take away your freedoms.
However, that's that's not what I call you to. Call you to
have the freedoms but simultaneously have the discernment and the ability to weed them from
your life if they cause division or if they cause people to stumble, And
it really should motivate open discussion between believers. Healthy healthy discussion amongst believers is
kind of a family in house discussion, because there are going to be those
that say, well, this makes me stumble, so you should stop doing
it. It says that if you ate meat and it made someone stubble,
that you would stop, so you should stop. And that's not the case
either. It can't be just used as leverage to get people to do what
you want them to do because you think it's right or wrong. It has
to be about harmony and learning that what you do does affect others. And
just because it's legal and under the blood and there's freedom doesn't mean it's good
or healthier constructive. Hi, Kathy, welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Hi. I love your show. Oh thank you. I will preface my
question with this. A physician friend of mine recommended the book The Language of
God by Francis Collins right, And he said to me, I'm a scientist
and a believer, and this book is a must read, and so I
recommend it to my book club, and we are all, like twenty five
of us are just really into this book. And really it's so it's not
anything new, as you know, but it's so interesting to hear Francis Collins
as a scientist and as a Christian and explain the biological part or the scientific
part of the Bible, the DNA project and all this in such a way
that for the first time, I feel like I really do understand sort of
where God was coming from. And I asked a friend of my about this
book if she had read it, and she's a very fundamental Christian and she
believes that the Earth and at the universe is six thousand years old, and
she, oh, gee, I don't know. I'll have to run that
by somebody at my church. Anyway, I just want your opinion on what
do you think about this? Well, my producer, Neil is the one
that puts his thumbs up or thumbs down on books. I don't endorse books
on the program myself, but I will tell you this. We will look
at a couple of things. One Collins is the head of the Human Genome
Project. He's a former atheist and an incredibly brilliant mind. He is a
Christian and he is a huge fan of C. S. Lewis as well,
who gets quite quoted rather quite a bit in the book. So there
is debate that goes on because of this particular the case he makes for a
kind of God directed evolution, and there are Christians that will land in different
areas. There's kind of a breakoff of different beliefs. Now you've got intelligent
design, you've got basic creationism, you've got the atheistic type of evolution,
and then you've got what people call theistic evolution, and now you've got this
kind of God directed evolution, which is a little different as well. So
I would say as a whole, I think it's wonderful that you're reading it.
The concept of the universe or the concept of people being six thousand years
old is truly based on a misreading of scripture. So it's using scripture in
a way that it wasn't meant to be used. They're taking the chronology of
man and saying that this is a true chronology and this is every single generation.
So all you got to do is that up the averages of generations and
you'll come up with a rough estimation, and then you tie in Jewish calendar
to that you think, okay, well, this is roughly about what it
is, and it's really not a fair look or an honest look at how
old man is or how old the Earth is, or any of those things.
But there is discussion that goes on. We talk about reason reasons dot
org. The folks that reasons to believe that are old Universe creationists. They're
those that believe that the Earth is much older than six thousand years, much
older. And some people look at them and say, oh, they're not
Christian because of this. It's silliness that goes on. I think it's incredibly
healthy, Kathy, that you're doing this, and I'm happy to hear that
it's inspiring you and that the type of discussion in the book is one that
piques your interest. In any work by man, anything that's written by man,
one needs to have the sense of an old cow and eat the hay
and leave the sticks. There's going to be some great stuff in it and
maybe some not so great, or maybe some areas of gray area that aren't
so well defined. Also, it's fine to understand science by the way of
God, and sometimes it's okay to understand God by way of science, because
after all, you can learn a lot about an artist by looking at their
art. But what you don't want to do, ever, is overshadow scripture
because of a book or even because of perceived science. And I say that
because science by definition is observational, and those observations do change. So having
said all of that, there's nothing about this author, there's nothing about the
topic or anything like that that I think is damaging or detrimental. On its
face, I think it's wonderful that you guys would get together and start reading
this and you know, pass it along to others, and if it really
speaks to you, it speaks to you. The biggest problem with the concept
of theistic evolution of any kind is if there's any crossing of the flesh,
meaning that in Genesis it talks about God creating and everything was created onto their
own kind. Some people may say that this is defining a phylum, like
a group that branches off, but it's a phylum. The problem that Christianity
has is not with the concept of evolution, and a lot of people don't
understand that. They think that all Christians hate evolution, but really, if
they're an educated Christian, you'll understand that the Bible really opposes the special theory
of evolution, that great change is possible within fixed kinds. That's not what
took place scripturally. But it's fine with the general theory of evolution, or
it's not okay with the general theory of evolution, which is a meba to
human beings that there's nowhere there's no argument in scripture that you'll find that,
but as far as the special of evolution, that there's great change or there's
an adaptation or things like that. Of course, also, in addition to
reading this book, I'm reading the autobiography of Charles Darwin because I sort of
thought it'd fit in with what I needed to learn. He's an interesting cat.
No, he is so interesting, and he's not a bad guy.
No. No. That's another thing that gets kind of sticky is when people
demonize thinkers. Now, there are some, there are some mean people throughout
history who've written some ugly things about the Church and about God, and that
had their own issues, but most often the scientific community really, if you
look at it, philosophy birthed science, and through that came a greater understanding
of religion, not a lesser understanding. Now, I know that there's a
branch of sciences that you know, go towards trying to disprove God, which
is silly because you can't prove a negative. And in this particular case of
Darwin, you've you find somebody who is fascinated by by life. Now,
it's a faulty premise that Darwin uses, and that's why most scientists, if
not all, currently don't adhere to Darwin True Darwinism. You know, that
type of evolution doesn't really exist anymore. And Darwin himself said, hey,
you're gonna find you're you're gonna be digging, and there's going to be transitional
fossils everywhere, and you know, here you are. Well, I thought,
the really interesting thing about Charles Darwin is that the statement that he made
towards the end of his life is that he wanted to be seen as a
theist. Well, these are things that that are in debate to those those
yes, those statements often are you know, or they're taken out of context.
A lot of people try and do that with with Einstein as well.
And you can't help but look at the complexity of life and and say,
hey, listen, you don't come across a watch and and say, oh,
this just happened to you know, pop up this way because it was
sitting in the sun for a certain amount of time. It's just when you
see complexity and the argument that some might use for evolution saying look at all
the similarities in all these animals, you could also say they you know,
that's like saying, look at all the similarities in a family that came from
the same mother and father that by the designer in that sense or the creator,
they're going to have the similarities in creation. But I think it's a
worthy, worthy discussion, and I will poke it Neil to read the book
and to put a critique up on the website. But I think it's healthy
and I don't see anything. There are some books that I would say run,
don't walk from. This is not one of them. What do you
think of C. Lewis? I love C. S. Lewis, and
we referenced C. S. Lewis quite a bit. And this was a
This was a man who battled through a lot of frustrations as well, and
through you know, after his death, a lot of those writings that were
never meant to be books by the way a lot of those writings and diaries
and journals and things that he had written or are now passed along to the
reader, and with very interesting notes about his battle. And the reason why
I like C. S. Lewis and we talk about C. S.
Lewis on the air and recommend a lot of his works through Neil is that
he has an intense honesty and there's a lot of falsification in the church,
a lot of smile through it type stuff Jesus Loves You and the batting of
the eyebrows and that business. And it's not just about that kind of candy
eyed thought process. There's a lot more to it, and there's a lot
of pain in the process of learning about God and learning about yourself and growing
into a healthy human being. And I think C. S. Lewis is
incredibly honest about that. And so it's not that C. S. Lewis
hasn't been misquoted in books or used by people that that I certainly wouldn't think
are healthy Christians. I do say, though, that it's usually a pretty
good sign when somebody quotes C. S. Lewis that at least they're somebody
who is honest with not only their own faith, belief and understanding, but
also a healthy understanding of the reality of God not being you know, the
ultimate candygiver. Oh, I'm going to believe in God and everything's going to
be great, and life's gonna be dandying. We're gonna skipping onto church hand
in hand and all of those things. So I'm very proud of you,
Kathy. I think that's that sounds like a wonderful book for you to be
cracking into. And and the fact that you're so excited about something and it's
engaging you like that, I think is a very wonderful thing. A lot
of these types of books come out and go by the wayside. I would
recommend to you, Kathy, checking out Reasons dot org and the folks at
Reasons to Believe with doctor Hugh Ross and the like. You have chemists and
astrophysicists and the like that write and talk about these things all the time,
and I think that they do it in a very healthy way as well,
and most likely if you went to their website today, that they have a
critique or a thought or two about this book The Language of God as well.
But I think it's wonderful that the scientific community is starting to break out
again because if you go back, you see that the early scientists were people
of faith in one form or another, were people of faith, and so
that that is kind of bridging the gap a little bit. And now it's
becoming a little more okay for scientists to say, no, I absolutely do
not see it as as contradictory to be a scientist and to be a person
of faith. Brian, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Jesus Good Brian,
what's going on? Yeah, I just had a question. I was
wondering why a lot of painting and pictures show angels having things. Okay,
I was wondering if the UFO phenomena had has anything to do with these angelic
beings. Oh, it's interesting and there's a lot of theory on both.
I don't know that we'll get to all of it, but let's go to
the scripture first. That's the best place to start that. You know,
you see the cherubic the little child with the loincloth and the little wings and
their chubby faced you know how you see those paintings and stuff, Well,
that's that type of description is nowhere in scripture. And what is in scripture
is a hierarchy, almost like a military of created beings, specifically created beings
by God that are messengers, which is what angel means. You will see
times in scripture like for instance, in Isaiah, if you go to Isaiah
six, verse two and six, you'll see that it talks about a seraphim,
and the seraphim in this case said that each one had six wings,
two that covered the faith too, that cover the feet, and to that
he flew with, and and so a lot of description, you know,
and paintings come from that. If you really saw the intensity of an angel.
Keep in mind, the angel does not have a physical body form,
only has a body form at particular times and necessities to be seen by humans.
Yes, do you think maybe when they when they all they get,
you know, receive a body. No, it's not a it's not a
necessity. Now, it doesn't mean that they can't possess because angels demons and
fallen are fallen angels that yes, they could possess a body, but they
don't receive a body. A lot of that kind of twisted theology comes from
Hollywood and the Harps and the and that people die and then they go to
heaven become angels. That's not the way it works in scripture. Also,
there's talking in the Book of Daniel about flight and like, so when you
read these things, it's kind of assumed that they have wings because people think,
well, how does someone fly? So part of it is anthropomorphic.
It's applying very human or human understanding to something. Go back to Daniel.
We're talking about Daniel, like when they described the get chariot of fire in
the sky, like like, wouldn't chariot be like, you know, if
we were if we were to see something now, we would call it an
aeroplane. But I guess back then they you know, obviously they refer to
it as chariot. Well there's yeah, there's instances in Isaiah as well as
well about the wheel in the sky and things like that. The important thing
is to understand its context, to see what it's not saying. Because you
can go into gift shops and all kinds of little shops, and angels were
kind of an end thing for a while there. People were collecting little figurines
and books on angels. But a lot of the New Age movement, a
lot of you know, garbage actually has seeped into the concept of angels because,
and to make it short, people do everything they can not worship God,
and they try and find anything else to worship or to believe in or
to participate with that isn't actually being accountable to God. And angels kind of
fall into that category. Yet angels have always said when someone went to worship
them, don't worship me. Do not worship me. I am not here
to be worshiped. But there's a book that Neil put up under his recommended
reading that's called Angels Elect an Evil by se Fred Dickison, and he thinks
it's a fantastic book on angels. And if you really want to know about
angels, there's a good place to start because it's completely based on Biblical references
about the hierarchy, about the stations of angels, the names, the appearance
of angels in movies. It's funny you see angels appear as women most of
the time. Almost every single physical appearance of an angel is in masculine form,
with the exception of one that some scholars question whether it's an angel or
not, and there's discrepancies. But these types of things actually have been modified
by Hollywood. Brian Hollywood has found sexier, more interesting ways, in their
own opinion, to portray angels, and so therefore you start seeing these different
types of angelic beans. But angels in scripture have been described with wings,
not the single pair, and that kind of appearance that you're used to,
but usually in more dramatic form. And some of the demons in the like
are pretty intense, and the appearance of an angel is pretty intense, more
intense than a very flowery painting that will go in your mother's bathroom. Might
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