1 00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:05,160 Speaker 1: The following presentation Isabel Marve Stidia's. 2 00:00:04,719 --> 00:00:10,439 Speaker 2: Production Welcome back truth Seekers from around the world. It's 3 00:00:10,519 --> 00:00:14,119 time for an impromptu edition of the fact Hunter podcast 4 00:00:14,759 --> 00:00:18,960 on this Wednesday, May twenty seventh, twenty twenty six. In 5 00:00:19,079 --> 00:00:22,800 last night's episode, I had included my phone number and 6 00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:25,960 I said, hey, you know, if you need anything, hit 7 00:00:26,039 --> 00:00:30,079 me up. And between late last night and this morning, 8 00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:34,560 we've gotten some messages. And there's a lot of people 9 00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:38,039 that are dealing with family members and even themselves who 10 00:00:39,679 --> 00:00:42,799 have walked away from faith, whether it be a church incident, 11 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:46,520 bad pastoral leadership, or they had something personal happen in 12 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:51,560 their life, and they're they're questioning themselves and their faith. 13 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:55,240 And I was building some raised beds this morning and 14 00:00:55,719 --> 00:00:59,079 moving the chickens around, and I did have the earbuds 15 00:00:59,119 --> 00:01:02,479 in this morning, and this YouTube video, you know, I 16 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:04,680 just listened to the audio came up and it was 17 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:09,519 almost as if the Lord had put it in for 18 00:01:09,560 --> 00:01:13,200 this particular reason. And again, this isn't my content. I'm 19 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:14,519 going to share the link. So if you want to 20 00:01:14,519 --> 00:01:17,719 watch it on YouTube, like subscribe and send a message 21 00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:20,840 say hey, the fact owner sent me here. But I'm 22 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:23,200 telling you after listening to this, I really felt compelled 23 00:01:23,239 --> 00:01:26,599 to pass it along to you. While you know, on 24 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:33,680 this podcast over the last six years we have questioned politics, media, history, institutions, 25 00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:38,319 all the propaganda. But you know, eventually, as we go 26 00:01:38,359 --> 00:01:41,359 down all the rabbit holes, it leads us into that 27 00:01:41,439 --> 00:01:46,959 deeper question, why does suffering exist? Why does God allow pain? Loss, 28 00:01:47,079 --> 00:01:50,040 evil and heartbreak? And I thought this gentleman did a 29 00:01:50,079 --> 00:01:53,959 really good job taking that question head on in a 30 00:01:54,120 --> 00:01:59,359 very serious and very honest way. It was just a 31 00:01:59,359 --> 00:02:01,920 real discussion. And it's only you know, eleven or twelve 32 00:02:01,959 --> 00:02:06,959 minutes about personal suffering, faith and the broken condition of 33 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,400 this world, but through a biblical lens, and whether you're 34 00:02:10,439 --> 00:02:13,560 a believer or you're struggling with doubts or just searching 35 00:02:13,599 --> 00:02:18,759 for answers, I truly believe that this message is worth hearing. 36 00:02:19,879 --> 00:02:23,879 Find Jesus, fight culture, and spread the good news. Without 37 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:27,520 any further ado, here's the clip, God bless you all. 38 00:02:27,639 --> 00:02:27,800 Speaker 1: Right. 39 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:31,439 Speaker 3: Look, there is a question that scares Christians, I think 40 00:02:31,479 --> 00:02:36,120 more than almost any other one does not because there 41 00:02:36,159 --> 00:02:42,639 isn't an answer, but because the question itself hurts, and 42 00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:47,520 it's deeply, deeply personal for all of us and if 43 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:51,719 we're being honest, most of us we don't really ask 44 00:02:51,759 --> 00:02:54,439 it until something breaks, until. 45 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:58,520 Speaker 1: It actually breaks. It's easy to talk about the goodness 46 00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:03,120 of God. He is so good when you're life is working, when. 47 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:07,360 Speaker 3: Your family's healthy, the bills are paid, and the future 48 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:08,800 seems like everything's going great. 49 00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:13,080 Speaker 1: It's a lot harder to talk about. 50 00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:19,680 Speaker 3: It sitting in a hospital room or after that phone call, 51 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:25,400 or standing at a funeral rendering why those prayers didn't 52 00:03:25,439 --> 00:03:30,960 seem to matter at all. And eventually almost everybody hits 53 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:35,599 a moment where they think, or maybe even actually say 54 00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:38,599 out loud, if. 55 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:41,680 Speaker 1: God is good? What is all this about? What is 56 00:03:41,719 --> 00:03:46,520 all this like? Really? What is it? What is the world? 57 00:03:48,159 --> 00:03:52,840 Speaker 3: Because sometimes it feels unbelievably beautiful, and sometimes it feels 58 00:03:52,879 --> 00:03:59,319 completely insane and chaotic. You watch people destroy themselves, innocent 59 00:03:59,319 --> 00:04:04,439 people suffer for no reason that we can see, or 60 00:04:04,479 --> 00:04:07,919 you see somebody beg God for help and they still 61 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:13,080 lose everything. And I think what makes the question so 62 00:04:13,240 --> 00:04:16,480 heavy is that deep down everybody knows. 63 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:19,920 Speaker 1: This is how things are supposed to be. 64 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:27,680 Speaker 3: That's the part I think atheism doesn't explain very well, honestly, 65 00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:37,040 because when something horrible happens, Nobody reacts like evil is normal. 66 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:42,639 Nobody watches a little kids suffer and thinks, well, that's 67 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:46,040 just molecules bouncing around, survival of the fittest. 68 00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:47,279 Speaker 1: Nobody thinks that. 69 00:04:49,199 --> 00:04:55,759 Speaker 3: Something in you immediately says that is wrong, not just inconvenient, 70 00:04:55,800 --> 00:05:01,160 and it's not just sad, it's wrong. And Christianity it 71 00:05:01,199 --> 00:05:03,680 says that there is a reason that you feel that, 72 00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:12,560 because this world is actually broken. The Bible never describes 73 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:17,680 the world the way modern culture does. Modern culture, you see, 74 00:05:17,879 --> 00:05:23,519 says people are basically good and then society structures mess 75 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:28,120 them up. But the Bible says something way more uncomfortable 76 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:33,560 than that. It says something inside of humanity itself has bent. 77 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:39,279 Something's broken, and ver honest, you don't even need religion 78 00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:46,920 to see that. Seeing in about five minutes online in 79 00:05:46,959 --> 00:05:51,279 the comment section probably this video. People lie for no reason, 80 00:05:51,759 --> 00:05:54,279 tear down others for no reason, betray each other for 81 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:59,199 some dumb, trivial thing, destroy their whole families over pride. 82 00:06:02,079 --> 00:06:05,920 Speaker 1: Half the things that are bringing people's. 83 00:06:05,519 --> 00:06:13,199 Speaker 3: Lives are things that they willingly, we willingly walked into, and. 84 00:06:13,199 --> 00:06:13,800 Speaker 1: We all know it. 85 00:06:16,480 --> 00:06:20,079 Speaker 3: That's why every person on earth feels guilty at different times. 86 00:06:21,879 --> 00:06:25,399 Even people who claim that morality is completely subjective, they 87 00:06:25,439 --> 00:06:29,519 still spend half their life angry at other people. 88 00:06:31,240 --> 00:06:33,240 Speaker 1: Because they don't hold up morals that they do. 89 00:06:35,759 --> 00:06:38,839 Speaker 3: Because deep down we know there is such a thing 90 00:06:38,879 --> 00:06:42,759 as good, which means there is also such a thing 91 00:06:42,759 --> 00:06:48,040 as evil. And I think this is where people misunderstand 92 00:06:48,399 --> 00:06:57,199 following Jesus and Christianity completely. Christianity is not claiming that 93 00:06:57,360 --> 00:07:03,759 this world is currently heaven. It's claiming this world is 94 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:08,120 in rebellion against God. That's why death feels unnatural to 95 00:07:08,199 --> 00:07:13,240 us and why wouldn't we grieve it? There's something that happens, 96 00:07:15,319 --> 00:07:17,680 and it's why when you see that injustice, it bothers 97 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:21,519 you so much, because somewhere deep out inside of you 98 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:24,879 and inside of me, it's this constant awareness. 99 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:27,720 Speaker 1: That things are not the way that they should be. 100 00:07:30,839 --> 00:07:32,439 And that's the part where people usually push back. 101 00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:34,480 Speaker 3: And I understand it, they'll say, and Okay, but if 102 00:07:34,839 --> 00:07:39,560 God is loving, why allow any of it? I get that, 103 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:45,360 I really do, because there are things in life that 104 00:07:45,439 --> 00:07:50,160 I genuinely do not have an easy answer for you. 105 00:07:53,279 --> 00:07:55,519 I don't know why some people seem to suffer endlessly 106 00:07:56,439 --> 00:08:01,079 while others don't at all know why we lost those 107 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:04,959 beautiful babies on this side of heaven, My wife and 108 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:12,240 I I don't know. I don't know why some prayers 109 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:16,079 get answered the exact way that we hope for in others. 110 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:21,399 Don't anybody who acts like they fully understand that they're 111 00:08:21,399 --> 00:08:25,639 full of it? Anyone understands that it will tell you 112 00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:31,040 that they understand suffering. There's a line, or they haven't 113 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:37,320 suffered that much. But I also think that people accidentally 114 00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:41,559 ask for something they don't actually want because people say, 115 00:08:41,559 --> 00:08:44,360 why doesn't God just remove all the evil? 116 00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:47,480 Speaker 1: Okay, I'll go with you. 117 00:08:47,559 --> 00:08:50,759 Speaker 3: Now there's a whole conversation to be had about perfect 118 00:08:50,879 --> 00:08:53,879 justice versus perfect love, but we'll set that aside for 119 00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:54,559 a second. 120 00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:59,000 Speaker 1: I'll go with it. Why doesn't God just remove evil? 121 00:09:00,600 --> 00:09:05,000 He could? But where exactly do you want him to 122 00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:05,720 start with that? 123 00:09:07,639 --> 00:09:10,440 Speaker 3: Because evil is not just dictators and murderers and the things, 124 00:09:10,559 --> 00:09:12,679 the caricatures that we paint in our minds. 125 00:09:13,919 --> 00:09:18,720 Speaker 1: It's in us too. It's in that bitterness that you feed, 126 00:09:20,159 --> 00:09:22,720 those lies that we justify, and the people that we've hurt. 127 00:09:26,799 --> 00:09:31,360 Speaker 3: My selfish habits that pop in daily but really benefit us. 128 00:09:34,879 --> 00:09:37,519 Most of us want a God who judges evil generally 129 00:09:37,759 --> 00:09:44,399 but overlooks, you know, our specifics. Christiane says, that's not 130 00:09:44,399 --> 00:09:49,120 how holiness works. But this is also why the Cross 131 00:09:49,159 --> 00:09:53,720 matters so much, because the Christian answer to suffering is 132 00:09:53,759 --> 00:09:57,879 not that God stay distant from it. It's that He 133 00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:02,879 entered it himself. That's the part that man. Whenever I 134 00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:10,720 read that a couple decades ago, it changed me. Christianity 135 00:10:10,720 --> 00:10:13,360 has not teaching a God watched human history from afar, 136 00:10:15,879 --> 00:10:19,120 watching our suffering while demanding that we just blindly follow him. 137 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:25,480 It teaches that he stepped directly into that suffering. Jesus 138 00:10:25,519 --> 00:10:30,360 did not step into the world to avoid pain. He 139 00:10:30,399 --> 00:10:35,360 stepped into it knowing exactly what it would cost him. 140 00:10:35,399 --> 00:10:37,519 And Honestly, the older I get, the less I struggle 141 00:10:37,559 --> 00:10:40,360 with the idea that suffering exists if I'm honest with you, 142 00:10:42,679 --> 00:10:45,279 and the more I struggle with the idea that suffering 143 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:51,519 exists without God, because if there is no God, then 144 00:10:51,600 --> 00:10:57,519 suffering means nothing, evil means nothing, Love means nothing. Your 145 00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:00,960 grief over death is just some sort of chemical reaction 146 00:11:01,399 --> 00:11:04,960 that you have, your longing for justice. That's insidet He 147 00:11:05,039 --> 00:11:09,080 was just meaningless, nothing to it. That feeling in your 148 00:11:09,159 --> 00:11:11,720 chest that says the world should be better than this. 149 00:11:12,600 --> 00:11:19,240 That's just biology tricking you, some sort of survival mechanism. 150 00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:23,600 Speaker 1: Maybe some people can believe that I've just seen too much. 151 00:11:23,639 --> 00:11:24,039 I can't. 152 00:11:26,559 --> 00:11:28,440 Speaker 3: I think every human being knows deep down that this 153 00:11:28,480 --> 00:11:34,200 world is fractured, because we all carry that memory. Maybe 154 00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:37,080 it's instinct of how things were meant to be or 155 00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:45,440 should be. And Christianity says that's exactly what's happening. The 156 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:48,440 story of the Bible is not bad things never happen. 157 00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:56,000 It's something went terribly wrong here, and God is going. 158 00:11:55,960 --> 00:12:00,879 Speaker 1: To restore what is loss. That's the entire story. That's 159 00:12:00,919 --> 00:12:02,639 the good news, brothers and sisters. 160 00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:07,399 Speaker 3: And maybe that's why I don't find Christianity less believable 161 00:12:08,200 --> 00:12:09,399 after seeing suffering. 162 00:12:11,639 --> 00:12:15,519 Speaker 1: Honestly, I find it more believable. 163 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:21,639 Speaker 3: Because no worldview explains the human condition more accurately than 164 00:12:21,679 --> 00:12:29,879 that Bible. Human beings are glorious and completely horrifying at 165 00:12:29,879 --> 00:12:35,320 the same time. We are capable of unbelievable love and 166 00:12:35,559 --> 00:12:43,279 unbelievable evil, sometimes even in the same afternoon. The Bible 167 00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:47,000 saw that and pointed to it years ago, thousands of 168 00:12:47,080 --> 00:12:51,799 years ago, and maybe faith isn't trying to pretend that 169 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:57,399 we have all the answers. Maybe faith is looking directly 170 00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:02,039 at the darkness in this world and still believing darkness 171 00:13:02,200 --> 00:13:07,840 is not the final thing. It's true, and honestly, I 172 00:13:07,840 --> 00:13:11,799 think there are a lot of questions people carry around quietly. 173 00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:14,879 Speaker 1: Silently, maybe a shamed ask, made afraid to ask. 174 00:13:17,960 --> 00:13:20,759 Speaker 3: So that's what this series is going to be, questioning 175 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:24,759 my faith, not because I've lost it at all, because 176 00:13:24,799 --> 00:13:27,320 I think real faith is willing to look at hard 177 00:13:27,480 --> 00:13:34,799 questions directly in the eye, find Jesus, fight culture, spread 178 00:13:34,799 --> 00:13:42,200 the good news.