Transcript: Episode 0081
This transcript:
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WEBVTT 00:00:37.291 --> 00:00:39.471Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast. 00:00:39.771 --> 00:00:40.751 I am Corey J. 00:00:40.771 --> 00:00:41.171 Mahler. 00:00:41.811 --> 00:00:43.011 And I'm still woe. 00:00:45.391 --> 00:00:48.631 On today's Stone Choir, we're going to be talking about peace. 00:00:49.251 --> 00:01:02.291 Last week, we discussed violence at some length, talked about the implications within politics and within our lives and the context in which violence is sometimes necessary when it's forbidden. 00:01:02.311 --> 00:01:13.111 And basically addressing the fact that part of the new global religion says that all violence is always and everywhere per se evil, which is plainly false scripturally. 00:01:13.251 --> 00:01:15.771 So we made the case that that's not always true. 00:01:16.231 --> 00:01:24.171 And yet at the same time, we also made very clear that saying that something is moral is not inciting it. 00:01:24.191 --> 00:01:28.091 You know, when we talked about slavery, we're not saying you should go out and get slaves. 00:01:28.651 --> 00:01:33.071 It's never license that is the reason behind discussing some of these subjects. 00:01:33.671 --> 00:01:38.871 And so after discussing violence last week is something that is in some places and times permissible. 00:01:39.271 --> 00:01:41.591 We want to talk this week specifically about peace. 00:01:42.351 --> 00:01:50.171 If we get into the main subject, just a brief note that Corey has another big batch of the challenge coins ready to go shortly. 00:01:50.691 --> 00:01:54.051 And he's hoping that by the end of next week, he'll be able to get the rest of them out. 00:01:54.051 --> 00:01:57.051 So thank you to everyone for your patience and for your support. 00:01:57.311 --> 00:01:59.271 We'll let you know after they've all gone out. 00:01:59.291 --> 00:02:06.631 So for some reason, after we give the all shipped signal, if you still haven't gotten one, you can reach out to us and we can get it sorted out. 00:02:06.651 --> 00:02:08.551 But he's very good at record keeping. 00:02:08.571 --> 00:02:10.071 So that's probably unlikely. 00:02:10.091 --> 00:02:13.731 But we just want to acknowledge that when everything's out, you can let us know. 00:02:13.951 --> 00:02:16.211 And we of course ordered plenty. 00:02:16.231 --> 00:02:18.291 We'll have probably a couple of years supply. 00:02:18.311 --> 00:02:25.131 So if you're waiting for the backlog to get cleared, you're welcome to place an order and we'd be happy to ship one out to you. 00:02:25.151 --> 00:02:27.331 And thank you again to everyone for your support. 00:02:27.711 --> 00:02:29.211 It's cool seeing them online. 00:02:29.451 --> 00:02:31.491 That's exciting that people are excited about it. 00:02:31.511 --> 00:02:32.311 I mean, they're really cool. 00:02:32.591 --> 00:02:33.911 It's a fun thing to have. 00:02:35.831 --> 00:02:37.671 Today's we're talking about peace. 00:02:37.871 --> 00:02:44.211 I want to frame it first in terms of the contrast, you know, violence and peace. 00:02:44.231 --> 00:02:59.471 You know, I think when we we think about these things, we often think in terms of like yin and yang, we have equal opposing forces, or, you know, there's the meme where the guy's standing in front of the big board with two red buttons and which one does he push. 00:03:01.591 --> 00:03:19.571 The framing that I want to present for this topic, as with many of the others we've talked about in the past that are particularly controversial, is that violence and peace are related, they're correlated and they're opposites in some senses, but they're not equal and opposing forces. 00:03:20.451 --> 00:03:30.611 So to give you just a couple other imperfect examples to kind of give you a sense of what we're going to be talking about today, heat and cold are obviously contrasting. 00:03:31.091 --> 00:03:32.611 One is the opposite of the other. 00:03:33.131 --> 00:03:38.531 And yet at the same time, the definition of heat and the definition of cold are circular. 00:03:38.791 --> 00:03:44.291 So cold is the absence of heat, but you wouldn't really say that heat is the absence of cold. 00:03:44.931 --> 00:03:47.171 Heat itself is the motion of particles. 00:03:48.171 --> 00:03:51.771 And so whenever particles are moving, that's what we call heat. 00:03:52.231 --> 00:03:53.651 And of course, all matter moves. 00:03:53.671 --> 00:03:55.671 There's no such thing as a motionless particle. 00:03:55.931 --> 00:03:57.411 It's theoretically possible. 00:03:57.791 --> 00:03:59.351 That's what's called absolute zero. 00:03:59.691 --> 00:04:02.491 It's the theoretical coldest possible thing. 00:04:02.991 --> 00:04:07.951 And yet our understanding of physics completely breaks down because the idea of matter not moving at all. 00:04:08.971 --> 00:04:12.331 We can conceive of it as a hypothetical, but it doesn't exist in nature. 00:04:12.791 --> 00:04:17.211 And so it's technically possible, but at the same time, it's an impossibility. 00:04:17.771 --> 00:04:22.871 Everything has some heat, no matter how cold it is, because all matter is in motion. 00:04:23.531 --> 00:04:36.951 And at the other end of the extreme scale of heat, you have things like the inside of stars or other stellar objects where there's so much heat, there's so much energy, the boundaries between molecules are just completely dissolved. 00:04:37.131 --> 00:04:46.431 You just have a soup where everything is tightly packed due to gravity, and everything is moving so quickly that it, you know, again, it's almost inconceivable. 00:04:47.191 --> 00:04:55.471 In fact, the time that takes a photon to get from the interior of a star to the exterior can be years and years because it bounces around. 00:04:55.491 --> 00:04:56.551 It's a random walk. 00:04:57.151 --> 00:05:03.231 Really weird things happen when things get super hot and yet cold is just nothingness. 00:05:04.751 --> 00:05:06.711 Something similarly true with light. 00:05:07.651 --> 00:05:11.231 You can have a flashlight that projects light, you know, somewhere that you want to be. 00:05:11.251 --> 00:05:12.271 And it's a very valuable thing. 00:05:12.291 --> 00:05:13.131 It can keep you safe. 00:05:13.151 --> 00:05:14.991 It keeps you from feeling alarmed in the dark. 00:05:15.431 --> 00:05:16.651 You don't step over things. 00:05:16.671 --> 00:05:17.551 You don't hurt yourself. 00:05:18.451 --> 00:05:20.451 Yet there's no such thing as a dark ray. 00:05:20.751 --> 00:05:22.831 You can't shine darkness onto something. 00:05:22.851 --> 00:05:27.111 You cannot project dark because dark is simply the absence of light. 00:05:27.671 --> 00:05:31.111 The darker something is, the more absent light is. 00:05:31.651 --> 00:05:39.091 And complete blackness is simply no light whatsoever, zero photons, which is something that can be achieved in the physical world. 00:05:40.191 --> 00:05:45.371 So although light and dark are contrasting, one is definitionally the absence of the other. 00:05:45.711 --> 00:05:46.811 And that's what's really going on. 00:05:46.831 --> 00:05:48.671 It's not the equal and opposing forces. 00:05:49.051 --> 00:05:53.171 It's just that when you have one, the other is necessarily absent. 00:05:54.231 --> 00:05:55.311 Same is true of color. 00:05:55.651 --> 00:05:59.291 White is the reflection of every single color simultaneously. 00:05:59.851 --> 00:06:02.171 Black is, in a sense, not even a color. 00:06:02.391 --> 00:06:04.951 Black is the absence of any reflected light. 00:06:05.531 --> 00:06:09.171 If you have something that's completely black, there's nothing there. 00:06:09.191 --> 00:06:10.531 There's nothing being reflected. 00:06:11.051 --> 00:06:15.171 And when you have all the colors being reflected simultaneously, you have white light. 00:06:15.851 --> 00:06:21.511 And so black and white are, I think, the most common examples of complete polar opposites. 00:06:21.851 --> 00:06:25.051 And even then, one is fundamentally the absence of the other. 00:06:26.251 --> 00:06:31.191 And so as we're thinking about violence and about peace, they're not equal in opposing forces. 00:06:31.891 --> 00:06:43.691 Peace, I think, a reasonable definition would be the complete absence of violence or strife or, you know, really kind of anything actively negative, anything that's doing some harm to the environment around you. 00:06:44.471 --> 00:06:47.911 You know, the primordial example of peace would be the Garden of Eden itself. 00:06:48.431 --> 00:06:52.991 And to this day, gardens are actually some of the most peaceful places you can be. 00:06:53.011 --> 00:06:56.811 It's very common for people who get into gardening, in part because how peaceful it is. 00:06:57.371 --> 00:07:01.591 And so a garden and peace, they're very closely connected in our minds. 00:07:02.431 --> 00:07:10.131 And yet, unlike the Garden of Eden, where there was no violence, there was no enmity of any kind, it also had no weeds. 00:07:10.651 --> 00:07:13.611 And then after the fall, the weeds became part of the curse. 00:07:14.031 --> 00:07:23.091 And so even in the modern garden today, if you're a gardener, gardening necessarily one of the actions you have to engage in is weeding. 00:07:23.351 --> 00:07:29.051 You're basically doing a very small amount of violence in your garden to keep it idyllic, to keep it peaceful. 00:07:29.351 --> 00:07:35.951 That means uprooting weeds, killing these living plants so that the plants that are desirable are present. 00:07:37.871 --> 00:07:40.951 So, peace is when there is no violence. 00:07:41.291 --> 00:07:48.851 And so, back to the last week's episode and the general theme of these two episodes is that obviously peace is desirable. 00:07:48.931 --> 00:07:49.931 We all want peace. 00:07:50.011 --> 00:07:51.191 We want peaceful lives. 00:07:51.211 --> 00:07:53.311 We want peaceful communities, peaceful homes. 00:07:53.811 --> 00:07:56.391 It is the desirable ground state for everything. 00:07:56.631 --> 00:07:59.991 The absence of violence is one of the most desirable things possible. 00:08:00.631 --> 00:08:08.771 And yet at the same time, as we made the case last week, it may arise that the only way for you to have peace is for violence to take place. 00:08:09.131 --> 00:08:12.591 Whether or not you're a personal participant, someone may have to do violence. 00:08:13.011 --> 00:08:17.691 In fact, that's the reason that we have a country today in the United States and any country in the world. 00:08:18.051 --> 00:08:22.931 There was violence that established the borders, that established whatever government you have, good or bad. 00:08:23.311 --> 00:08:27.911 It was established through some process of violence, either active or the threat. 00:08:28.291 --> 00:08:31.951 Sometimes it's just enough for a strong man to show up and say, I'm in charge now. 00:08:32.391 --> 00:08:35.691 Historically, sometimes that's how things play out. 00:08:36.411 --> 00:08:42.371 And then you have peace, either through violence, the threat of violence, or the act of the violence itself. 00:08:43.231 --> 00:08:44.031 And then you have peace. 00:08:44.211 --> 00:08:57.791 And so as we're talking about peace today, we're gonna be talking about in scriptural terms, and we're gonna talk about the home, about your community, about geopolitical, national political level, and then about the church. 00:08:58.351 --> 00:09:01.571 Because in each of those contexts, we have different forms of peace. 00:09:02.031 --> 00:09:11.611 And then at the end, we're gonna talk a little bit, just kind of briefly about the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, which of course is the most desirable of all pieces. 00:09:12.151 --> 00:09:18.531 And it's one that as Christians, God imparts to us, he imparts through faith and through knowledge of scripture. 00:09:20.211 --> 00:09:27.311 And when we have that blessing of God's peace, it helps us to deal with all the other moments in life when things aren't peaceful. 00:09:27.591 --> 00:09:39.531 As part of the blessing that God speaks up in scripture, when you have God's peace, it's not that it doesn't matter how bad things are, it's that you can deal with it, because you know that at some level, this is not your home. 00:09:40.111 --> 00:09:54.131 And that's one of those phrases that gets used to, it's an emulsifier for civilization in the mouths of wicked false Christians, because they will look at the violence and the evil that's happening in the world and say, don't worry about it, not our problem, our home is in heaven. 00:09:54.651 --> 00:09:55.771 Not at all what we're saying. 00:09:56.171 --> 00:10:01.931 We're saying that in the worst event where we lose in some temporal fashion, that's okay. 00:10:02.051 --> 00:10:07.611 We can be at peace with losing here because our reward is in heaven, and that's up to God. 00:10:08.231 --> 00:10:12.591 And so there's a very clear distinction of things that are up to God and things that are up to us. 00:10:13.131 --> 00:10:16.771 But one of the things that's up to us is to make peace. 00:10:17.191 --> 00:10:26.951 And so as we talk today about the subject of peace and the absence of violence, just want to acknowledge at the outset, it's not that I want peace and therefore I will never be violent. 00:10:27.391 --> 00:10:33.871 It's that I want peace and therefore I acknowledge that sometimes violence is necessary to achieve peace, which is what God says. 00:10:34.211 --> 00:10:36.671 It's the only rational explanation. 00:10:36.971 --> 00:10:39.011 You don't need the Bible to explain that to you. 00:10:39.431 --> 00:10:48.651 If someone is losing his mind being violent, running around your neighborhood with a sword or a gun or something, it's very clear that there's only one thing that's going to stop that violence. 00:10:49.371 --> 00:11:02.931 The desire for peace, the prayer for peace that we should all have every day is always in the acknowledgement that sometimes the way we get to peace is by momentarily not having peace. 00:11:03.191 --> 00:11:04.431 And that's not contradictory. 00:11:04.611 --> 00:11:06.811 That's a crucial thing for me drawing this distinction here. 00:11:06.831 --> 00:11:09.951 It's not that I can either have violence or I can have peace. 00:11:10.471 --> 00:11:11.371 I desire peace. 00:11:11.531 --> 00:11:12.731 We should all desire peace. 00:11:13.171 --> 00:11:18.731 And we must acknowledge that there are certain times and places when the only way to get that is through violence. 00:11:19.431 --> 00:11:23.991 So as we go through all this today, just keep in mind that it's not one or the other. 00:11:24.011 --> 00:11:25.331 That's a false dichotomy. 00:11:25.911 --> 00:11:27.691 The desire for peace is absolute. 00:11:27.751 --> 00:11:30.231 It's abnormal to desire violence. 00:11:30.651 --> 00:11:32.911 We should desire peace and we should pursue peace. 00:11:33.311 --> 00:11:38.211 And to the best of our ability, and so far as it depends on us, we should try to achieve peace. 00:11:39.251 --> 00:11:43.851 And then the alternative when the other side gets a vote is that there may not be peace for a time. 00:11:44.191 --> 00:11:46.671 And that's not the first choice. 00:11:47.291 --> 00:11:55.811 But if that's what we have to deal with, then in order to get the peace that God desires for us, sometimes there's an intermediary step that is itself not peaceful. 00:11:56.511 --> 00:11:59.471 And these things are simply not contradictory. 00:11:59.491 --> 00:12:07.871 They're entirely coherent, because the ground state, the peaceful garden state of peace sometimes requires defense that is less peaceful. 00:12:08.671 --> 00:12:21.871 So as Woe highlighted, peace is essentially a negative in the neutral sense of that term word, which is to say it denotes a state of the absence of certain things. 00:12:22.451 --> 00:12:31.311 Woe mentioned violence, of course, but I want to give you two terms to think of when thinking of what is absent when you have peace, a state of peace. 00:12:32.171 --> 00:12:36.491 And that would be that peace is the absence of suffering and strife. 00:12:37.151 --> 00:12:38.991 And of course, suffering, we all know what that is. 00:12:39.011 --> 00:12:41.431 That's just pain or distress or hardship. 00:12:42.051 --> 00:12:50.751 But strife is usually angry or bitter disagreement over something or some things fundamental. 00:12:51.671 --> 00:12:54.751 And so peace is the absence of those things. 00:12:56.371 --> 00:13:00.351 Naturally, it means that we are not always going to have peace in this life. 00:13:00.371 --> 00:13:07.451 In fact, we are never going to have perfect peace in this life with regard to temporal or earthly things. 00:13:08.031 --> 00:13:12.331 There's a difference there with eschatological peace versus earthly peace. 00:13:12.351 --> 00:13:13.631 I'll get into that in a minute here. 00:13:14.591 --> 00:13:20.831 But with regard to this life, we will always have suffering and to some degree strife. 00:13:20.871 --> 00:13:37.911 Now, strife can vary depending on whether we're dealing with, as we'll mention, the home, society, politics, the church, and the times in which we live, because of course there's going to be more or less suffering and more or less strife. 00:13:38.831 --> 00:13:42.251 There will always be some degree of suffering. 00:13:43.691 --> 00:13:50.951 The reason for that of course is that we live in a fallen world, and so that will never be entirely absent from human life. 00:13:51.451 --> 00:13:57.031 And so we will always have some disruption with regard to peace. 00:13:57.671 --> 00:13:59.771 It doesn't mean you can't have peace. 00:13:59.791 --> 00:14:03.611 It just means the peace in this life will not be perfect. 00:14:04.231 --> 00:14:14.491 And so to distinguish these different kinds of peace, as it were, there is earthly peace and there is eschatological peace. 00:14:15.231 --> 00:14:17.251 Earthly peace is relative. 00:14:17.811 --> 00:14:20.111 Eschatological peace is absolute. 00:14:20.671 --> 00:14:34.791 And so to give an example, to make that more concrete, earthly peace would be what you are experiencing when you're out in your garden, assuming you don't have too many weeds and insects and other things causing you strife and suffering. 00:14:35.671 --> 00:14:36.691 That's earthly peace. 00:14:37.811 --> 00:14:46.311 Eschatological peace is what you are going to have with regard to the certainty of your salvation because of God's promises. 00:14:47.151 --> 00:14:48.491 That's an absolute peace. 00:14:48.511 --> 00:14:56.391 That is a different sort of peace from the relative peace that we have here in this life with regard to earthly things. 00:14:57.691 --> 00:15:02.351 And so there's also in this life temporal and eternal peace. 00:15:02.991 --> 00:15:04.871 Again, temporal peace is relative. 00:15:05.531 --> 00:15:07.591 Eternal peace is absolute. 00:15:09.851 --> 00:15:29.331 It's important to understand the difference between and among these kinds of peace because this is where we start to see some sophistry and other things arise with regard to those as we'll mention to tell us simply to not care about the things of this life. 00:15:29.351 --> 00:15:31.971 Well, we have the eschatological peace. 00:15:31.991 --> 00:15:36.071 We have the promises of God with regard to these things in the next life. 00:15:36.091 --> 00:15:37.751 So it doesn't matter what happens in this life. 00:15:38.071 --> 00:15:49.031 And that's just absolutely not true because scripture speaks in many places throughout scripture to the things of this life, to life on this earth. 00:15:49.051 --> 00:15:59.791 Yes, a fallen world that does have suffering and does have strife, but nonetheless we can work toward peace and we should do so. 00:16:01.291 --> 00:16:03.711 Scripture says, blessed are the peacemakers. 00:16:04.791 --> 00:16:08.611 That doesn't just mean with regard to the things of the next life. 00:16:08.631 --> 00:16:10.591 It means with regard to the things of this life. 00:16:11.271 --> 00:16:13.471 And so Christians should be peacemakers. 00:16:13.491 --> 00:16:16.651 We should seek peace, as Will mentioned already. 00:16:17.191 --> 00:16:22.951 That does mean that sometimes violence will be necessary as we went over in last week's episode. 00:16:24.091 --> 00:16:26.151 But it's not violence for the sake of violence. 00:16:26.951 --> 00:16:31.251 It is violence for the sake of maintaining or establishing peace. 00:16:32.411 --> 00:16:33.891 And that is not a contradiction. 00:16:34.991 --> 00:16:36.851 Certainly not a contradiction in terms. 00:16:38.651 --> 00:16:44.511 Because we all know that in order to maintain order, it has to be enforced. 00:16:45.151 --> 00:16:47.331 For instance, borders have to be protected. 00:16:47.691 --> 00:16:59.611 And that is the case, whether we are speaking of the border that is the front door to your home, or the border that is the border of your nation, of your country, of whatever territory your country controls. 00:17:01.151 --> 00:17:06.211 Those things must be maintained with at least the threat of violence. 00:17:07.611 --> 00:17:20.211 And in fact, if you do not have that threat of violence to back up that border, to defend that border, then what you're actually doing is harming the odds of maintaining peace. 00:17:21.191 --> 00:17:31.991 Because if the threat is there, you are less likely to encounter those who would violate that peace, because they are going to recognize there is a cost to doing that. 00:17:32.571 --> 00:17:36.351 And so pacifism actually invites greater harm. 00:17:36.631 --> 00:17:40.151 It invites greater disturbances of earthly peace. 00:17:41.631 --> 00:17:50.731 Contrary to what some of those who advocate for pacifism and related things would claim, they will try to claim that they are simply against violence. 00:17:50.751 --> 00:17:52.751 They are against strife and suffering. 00:17:52.771 --> 00:17:54.431 They are against all these negative things. 00:17:54.451 --> 00:17:55.251 They are for peace. 00:17:55.851 --> 00:17:56.891 They are not for peace. 00:17:57.171 --> 00:17:57.891 They are liars. 00:17:57.911 --> 00:17:58.591 They are hypocrites. 00:17:59.111 --> 00:18:03.031 Because in order to have peace, it must be maintained in this life. 00:18:03.791 --> 00:18:07.211 Again, this is the difference between this life and the next. 00:18:07.691 --> 00:18:10.431 In the next life, we don't have to work to maintain peace. 00:18:11.771 --> 00:18:15.651 God will have established perfect permanent peace. 00:18:16.251 --> 00:18:20.051 There's no work for us in the next life with regard to peace. 00:18:20.551 --> 00:18:24.151 There's still work in the next life, because of course man was made for work. 00:18:24.591 --> 00:18:25.531 It's not labor. 00:18:25.611 --> 00:18:29.131 That's the distinction there, but that's a discussion for another time. 00:18:30.231 --> 00:18:33.371 The peace in this life must be maintained. 00:18:33.531 --> 00:18:35.711 It is something toward which we work. 00:18:36.191 --> 00:18:40.551 It is something for which we labor, because it is something worth having. 00:18:41.091 --> 00:18:42.651 Because again, what is peace? 00:18:43.191 --> 00:18:46.511 It is the absence of these various negative things. 00:18:47.751 --> 00:18:53.151 And so when you work to eliminate suffering, you are working to establish peace. 00:18:53.911 --> 00:19:00.551 When you work to eliminate strife, you are working to establish peace, or to maintain peace as the case may be. 00:19:03.511 --> 00:19:10.551 This is something that a Christian should most certainly do, because again, Christians are supposed to be peacemakers. 00:19:11.071 --> 00:19:13.391 That does not mean pacifists. 00:19:13.411 --> 00:19:16.511 That does not mean you are supposed to be a doormat or a rug. 00:19:17.311 --> 00:19:22.891 It means that you are supposed to have peace as one of your goals for your work in this life. 00:19:23.731 --> 00:19:29.411 And again, you establish that by removing these things that are against peace. 00:19:30.611 --> 00:19:40.871 That doesn't mean that you simply yield, and we will get into that more later in this episode with regard particularly to the state and the church, but to some degree society as well. 00:19:41.991 --> 00:19:58.451 How you approach different issues of suffering or strife and trying to eliminate them in order to live in a peaceful world, in a peaceful environment, is going to vary depending on where and what. 00:19:59.611 --> 00:20:11.591 Which is to say that you are going to approach matters of peace with regard to the home differently from how you would approach matters of peace with regard to the church or the state. 00:20:12.391 --> 00:20:15.791 Politics is a different beast from the home. 00:20:16.471 --> 00:20:20.591 You do not run your home as you would run a political party. 00:20:20.891 --> 00:20:25.391 You do not engage with those in your home as you would engage politically. 00:20:26.131 --> 00:20:30.931 That would be a horrible thing to do, and you will most certainly not have peace in your home if you pursue that. 00:20:32.491 --> 00:20:39.671 And so again, this is a matter of wisdom, as we keep having to say in episode after episode, but that is unavoidable. 00:20:41.211 --> 00:20:43.611 These matters are going to call for wisdom. 00:20:43.631 --> 00:20:51.371 You have to know how to pursue peace, what is appropriate, given the time and the place. 00:20:52.531 --> 00:20:53.411 Is it your home? 00:20:53.471 --> 00:20:54.511 Is it society? 00:20:54.531 --> 00:20:55.731 Is it a political issue? 00:20:56.071 --> 00:20:57.311 Is it an issue in the church? 00:20:57.331 --> 00:20:58.811 Is it a matter of God's truth? 00:20:59.291 --> 00:21:05.551 Is it a minor matter that isn't a matter of a doctrine or some core part of the faith? 00:21:06.131 --> 00:21:14.971 You're going to have a different way of approaching things if you're fighting over the color of the pyramids versus justification. 00:21:16.371 --> 00:21:20.311 You don't fight to the death over green versus purple. 00:21:21.731 --> 00:21:34.351 You may very well have to fight to the death over justification, and that has happened in the history of the church, because God's truth is worth defending in a much different way from something that is adiaphorum. 00:21:35.371 --> 00:21:40.731 It ultimately doesn't matter what color the candles are, or the pyramids, or the carpet, or anything like that. 00:21:42.251 --> 00:21:44.031 That's a matter of good order in the church. 00:21:44.151 --> 00:21:48.891 It's important, but it is not something that rises to the same level. 00:21:48.911 --> 00:22:01.971 And so disturbing the peace, as it were, not in the criminal sense or in the civil sense, but in the sense that you may very well have as a duty a breach of the peace. 00:22:02.831 --> 00:22:05.711 You will be accused of that, of course, if you bring these things up. 00:22:06.631 --> 00:22:22.111 But if it is a matter of God's truth, or if it's in the political realm, and you're a man and have the duty to enact something or to say something, you may have to stand up and do something that will end a false peace. 00:22:22.731 --> 00:22:23.731 And that's a key here. 00:22:25.451 --> 00:22:39.851 If you are simply ignoring issues, if you are neglecting to address them, if you are just shoving them under the corner, shoving them under the rug, in order to maintain a certain peace, that peace is false. 00:22:41.091 --> 00:22:43.951 Because a peace that is built on a lie is no peace at all. 00:22:45.451 --> 00:22:48.331