Transcript: Episode 0069
This transcript:
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WEBVTT 00:00:37.292 --> 00:00:39.472Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast. 00:00:39.772 --> 00:00:40.772 I am Corey J. 00:00:40.792 --> 00:00:41.172 Mahler. 00:00:41.792 --> 00:00:43.012 And I'm still, whoa. 00:00:45.392 --> 00:00:49.932 On today's Stone Choir, we're going to be discussing the state of the church again. 00:00:50.352 --> 00:00:55.892 We've done a few episodes in the last five months or so, where we talked kind of about the church in general. 00:00:56.232 --> 00:01:02.972 We did a recent episode, we talked about apostasy as kind of the tail end of some of the heresies that slipped into the church. 00:01:03.652 --> 00:01:13.852 This is gonna be another episode where we're talking about the answers that Christians have to a series of questions that have been asked by two different polling organizations. 00:01:14.672 --> 00:01:19.892 The first set of data that we're going to be using is the Pew Longitudinal Survey from 2014. 00:01:20.472 --> 00:01:26.712 And the second is going to be a survey conducted most recently in 2022 by Ligonier Ministries. 00:01:27.652 --> 00:01:30.612 Both the surveys were in the United States. 00:01:30.972 --> 00:01:33.692 They talked to people both who were Christians and non-Christians. 00:01:34.372 --> 00:01:38.392 We are principally going to be focusing on the data from inside the Church. 00:01:39.192 --> 00:01:46.472 And the reason that we're doing this episode today is that there have been numerous times in the past, where we will talk about things like teachings of demons. 00:01:46.912 --> 00:01:49.512 We'll say that there are certain things that are very clearly heresies. 00:01:50.552 --> 00:01:55.672 We will sometimes say very specifically that if you believe this sort of thing, you can't be saved. 00:01:56.312 --> 00:01:58.392 And those are all scriptural approaches. 00:01:59.112 --> 00:02:20.812 But as we said in the Judge Not episode, or the episode on judgment, we dealt with the fact that while we, as Christians living today, are not only called but equipped to act as jurists in the matter of, is a statement that a man makes true or false, that is not the same as judging the final disposition of that man's soul. 00:02:21.472 --> 00:02:32.772 So, for example, in the episodes on Bonhoeffer and MLK, we stated with absolute certainty those men are in hell right now because there was nothing remotely Christian about their confessions. 00:02:33.352 --> 00:02:36.312 Their confessions were explicitly anti-Christian. 00:02:38.072 --> 00:02:40.932 Most of the things that we deal with, we're dealing with inside the church. 00:02:40.952 --> 00:02:44.452 Those men were completely outside the faith entirely demonstrably. 00:02:45.032 --> 00:03:11.692 When we do episodes on things like baptism and communion and some of the other things like election, where there are disagreements among various Christian denominations, we obviously make the case from Scripture that we believe to be true about what those things are and that God says one thing, Scripture says one thing, and then the churches have disagreed in some cases only recently, in some cases for a very long time, about which of those statements is true, which of those is in accord with Scripture. 00:03:12.632 --> 00:03:26.412 And obviously, we care a great deal about that, but at the same time, we don't say, if you get baptism wrong, according to us, in our book based on what Scripture says, we don't believe that means that someone who gets baptism wrong is going to go to hell. 00:03:26.872 --> 00:03:29.672 Do we believe that they are saying something that's contrary to Scripture? 00:03:29.692 --> 00:03:29.932 Yes. 00:03:30.212 --> 00:03:31.312 Do we believe that's a sin? 00:03:31.632 --> 00:03:32.292 Absolutely. 00:03:32.892 --> 00:03:39.632 God forgives the sins of Christians, even the ones where we're stupid and we get things wrong because we ignore, we've never been taught properly. 00:03:39.652 --> 00:03:49.932 There are all sorts of reasons why someone who's been baptized, who's a Christian, who's confessing the Christian faith, is still going to misunderstand things, get things wrong. 00:03:49.952 --> 00:03:58.132 And it's important to separate errors, things where just no one's ever been taught the specific thing that scripture says. 00:03:58.432 --> 00:03:59.992 That's a case in a lot of our churches. 00:04:00.572 --> 00:04:10.032 As we just recently did the episodes on inheritance and on tithing and a few other things, not huge issues, but a number of guys have said, thank you for doing that. 00:04:10.152 --> 00:04:11.192 Jealousy is another one. 00:04:11.912 --> 00:04:18.672 Guys who had never heard things put in those ways, in a number of cases, have started doing things differently in their own lives. 00:04:18.852 --> 00:04:21.972 Like, oh, I never heard anyone explain that teaching that way. 00:04:22.252 --> 00:04:23.032 That makes sense. 00:04:23.512 --> 00:04:25.192 I'm going to treat my neighbor better now. 00:04:25.472 --> 00:04:29.632 I'm going to do something that I wouldn't have done before because I didn't even think about it. 00:04:29.932 --> 00:04:33.412 And now that you explain that and you explain scripture, I want to do something good. 00:04:33.912 --> 00:04:35.572 And no one thinks they're saving themselves. 00:04:35.772 --> 00:04:37.872 It's just, hey, it's in the Bible. 00:04:37.892 --> 00:04:39.772 Somebody reminded me that it's in the Bible. 00:04:40.092 --> 00:04:41.192 I believe what's in the Bible. 00:04:41.472 --> 00:04:42.532 I should go do what it says. 00:04:43.172 --> 00:04:43.712 That's it. 00:04:44.232 --> 00:04:47.552 And so no one's saving himself by doing stuff. 00:04:48.032 --> 00:04:50.432 We are saved because God gives us the gift of faith. 00:04:50.892 --> 00:04:56.672 And so as we work through these specific questions today, this is a grab bag of all sorts of things. 00:04:56.692 --> 00:05:00.732 And some of them are very clearly separating men from either being Christian or not Christian. 00:05:01.072 --> 00:05:13.372 Even within the survey data where we're specifically focusing on what self-identified Christians say, many of their answers are very, very, very clearly not Christian, not by a million miles. 00:05:14.092 --> 00:05:27.172 I want to reaffirm that when we point to these things, the most that we can say, in the case of someone who's alive and we don't know what else is going on, we can say that such a person has no promise of salvation. 00:05:27.552 --> 00:05:28.972 That doesn't mean that they're damned. 00:05:28.992 --> 00:05:29.872 We can't judge that. 00:05:29.892 --> 00:05:30.492 I don't know. 00:05:30.952 --> 00:05:35.192 Because there are things that you can get wrong and God will forgive it. 00:05:35.212 --> 00:05:40.432 And we don't have a list of, here's all the stuff you can get wrong and God is still going to say you're a Christian. 00:05:41.492 --> 00:05:58.292 One of the things that we hope to get across is we're just discussing all these errors that exist inside numerous churches is that rather than us continuously pursuing the definition of the minimum viable Christianity, how about we focus on getting as much as we can from scripture? 00:05:58.552 --> 00:05:59.252 That's our goal. 00:05:59.292 --> 00:06:00.532 That's the goal of Stone Choir. 00:06:00.812 --> 00:06:05.332 If God says all these things about all these different subjects, we should believe them all. 00:06:06.372 --> 00:06:14.192 As a Christian, even if you've never read the whole Bible, which frankly most people haven't, you can still as a Christian say, I believe everything in the Bible. 00:06:14.672 --> 00:06:27.632 Because like any other book that has ever been compiled, if you confess that God is God and you confess that scripture is God's word, then it naturally flows that your confession is that I believe every word of scripture. 00:06:27.932 --> 00:06:33.812 Even if you haven't read it, because you know as a Christian with faith, it's not your intellectual assent. 00:06:33.832 --> 00:06:38.492 It's not that I've reviewed all of these things and I've marked it up and I didn't find any errors. 00:06:38.512 --> 00:06:40.092 So then I can say, yeah, I agree with that. 00:06:40.632 --> 00:06:46.392 If you confess that God is God and that this is his word, you're naturally going to confess, I believe everything in there. 00:06:46.892 --> 00:06:51.252 And that is the framework that Christians have for approaching everything else. 00:06:51.752 --> 00:06:55.132 And then we have some of these disputes and discussions and some things are really hard. 00:06:55.532 --> 00:06:57.132 Some questions are tricky and they're tough. 00:06:57.812 --> 00:07:00.192 And some things, you know, a lot of people just get wrong. 00:07:00.452 --> 00:07:05.292 This happens in every other discipline in the universe, in the entire history of humanity. 00:07:05.672 --> 00:07:07.032 Guys get a lot of things wrong. 00:07:07.472 --> 00:07:10.592 Somebody gets it right and hopefully eventually the right answer catches on. 00:07:11.132 --> 00:07:14.272 But it doesn't always look at things like nutrition. 00:07:14.292 --> 00:07:23.392 There's constantly a battle in the nutrition space where people keep discovering new things and forgetting old things and coming up with all these new scams and fads. 00:07:23.412 --> 00:07:33.112 And it's almost impossible for most people to distinguish what should I be eating from what's killing me slowly or what's giving me cancer, some terrible thing. 00:07:33.952 --> 00:07:39.332 If we can't even get that stuff right, it shouldn't be a surprise that we have trouble with Christian doctrine. 00:07:40.112 --> 00:07:43.112 And we see this beginning in the pages of scripture itself. 00:07:43.192 --> 00:07:59.072 In the New Testament, Paul and Jesus and Peter and Stephen and Timothy, they're all dealing with errors among believers where God says one thing in scripture, the teacher who's the faithful teacher is saying what's in scripture. 00:07:59.672 --> 00:08:02.992 And then when you look at what the people are responding with, they're getting things wrong. 00:08:03.112 --> 00:08:04.472 It's always going to happen. 00:08:04.492 --> 00:08:08.632 We're humans, we're fallible, we're sinful, we're going to make mistakes. 00:08:09.132 --> 00:08:18.532 And so, today's episode, as we go through these individual line items, some of them are very clearly, you cannot be Christian if you believe this, and we'll highlight those. 00:08:18.932 --> 00:08:21.772 And a lot of the others are, well, there's clearly a right answer here. 00:08:22.412 --> 00:08:34.612 And I hope to God that the people who get the answer wrong, that they're forgiven for that, and that God still accepts that they have a Christian faith, that He's given them again, because it's not us trying to get a high score. 00:08:34.632 --> 00:08:44.252 A quote that I've used a number of times from a Lutheran pastor, sound doctrine is not about getting a high score or about winning arguments on the internet or anywhere else. 00:08:44.712 --> 00:08:47.072 It's about having more of the gifts that God has given us. 00:08:47.632 --> 00:08:54.272 And so when we have concerns about sound doctrine, it's not flexing of one denomination over another. 00:08:54.292 --> 00:08:56.312 That's not remotely the point. 00:08:56.792 --> 00:09:01.152 The point is if God has revealed these things, we should want as much of that as possible. 00:09:01.792 --> 00:09:10.472 We shouldn't be concerned with, can I get these least possible amount of Christianity out of the Bible and still get to heaven and the worst possible station in heaven? 00:09:10.492 --> 00:09:14.412 Because you're rewarded for what good you do and how faithful you are. 00:09:14.892 --> 00:09:19.252 You don't get there that way, but scripture is clear that there are rewards in heaven. 00:09:19.732 --> 00:09:32.572 And so, you know, if you want to be jealous of greater glory, I don't even sure if that's a good way to look at it, but if you do the right things, God will reward it. 00:09:32.972 --> 00:09:37.472 Now, is your purpose of doing the right things and believing the right things to get more rewards? 00:09:38.272 --> 00:09:39.232 I don't think it should be. 00:09:39.472 --> 00:09:40.832 I think it should be focused on God. 00:09:41.852 --> 00:09:42.472 He's God. 00:09:43.032 --> 00:09:44.372 He's the creator of the universe. 00:09:44.392 --> 00:09:45.952 Let's just listen and believe him. 00:09:46.472 --> 00:10:02.292 And I think one of the things that's missing when we're talking about discussions of doctrine and what's in scripture is that we're very casual when we're sitting here reading the Bible and reading through verses and passages with the idea of saying, well, I don't really believe that. 00:10:03.952 --> 00:10:08.732 Consider the fact that you're effectively doing that directly to Jesus' face. 00:10:09.392 --> 00:10:20.992 Because when he was physically present on earth, walking in a human body, his body, an eternal body now, he was talking face to face to men and he was telling him things. 00:10:21.672 --> 00:10:27.292 And the response that many of us have today is effectively the response of the rich young man. 00:10:27.692 --> 00:10:33.112 He came up and he was keeping the entire law, so he thought, and Jesus played along with that. 00:10:33.312 --> 00:10:45.252 It was obviously false, because as he said in the Sermon on the Mount, no one can keep the law perfectly, because if whatever is in your heart is what makes you guilty of the sin, whether or not you commit the sin, you've committed the sin in your heart. 00:10:45.732 --> 00:10:49.352 So there's no such thing as man keeping the law perfectly, but Jesus didn't argue with that. 00:10:49.712 --> 00:10:53.752 Jesus didn't argue with the rich man and say, well, actually, that's not possible. 00:10:54.332 --> 00:11:03.532 He said, in effect, okay, sell your belongings and come with me, because he knew that in that man's heart, his wealth was his idol. 00:11:03.992 --> 00:11:09.992 And then whatever else he was getting right, he was unwilling to listen to God, to listen to Jesus. 00:11:10.372 --> 00:11:14.592 And so that man wandered off, you know, probably in disgust or disillusionment or disappointment. 00:11:14.912 --> 00:11:15.572 He wandered off. 00:11:15.952 --> 00:11:18.892 He turned about face from Jesus and he walked away. 00:11:19.712 --> 00:11:23.752 That's effectively what we are doing when we read scripture and say, well, I don't believe this. 00:11:24.752 --> 00:11:26.112 That's really what you're doing to God. 00:11:26.472 --> 00:11:31.212 God is speaking to you in the words of scripture and you're turning around saying, yeah, not into that. 00:11:32.612 --> 00:11:34.132 This is where our concern is. 00:11:34.152 --> 00:11:37.052 And we're talking about whether or not someone has a promise of salvation. 00:11:37.792 --> 00:11:43.692 Because the man who cries out, Lord, Lord, you know how that passage ends. 00:11:44.652 --> 00:11:47.432 Jesus said to some of them, I never knew you. 00:11:47.912 --> 00:11:56.772 Even though they were casting out demons or performing miracles in his name, even though they had the right words, their confession was false because they did not believe in the true God. 00:11:57.492 --> 00:12:04.672 And rather than again, worrying about what is the least amount of what God says that I can believe and still be saved, we should be greedy. 00:12:05.292 --> 00:12:10.932 We should be zealous for the word of God and say, I want as much of this as I can stuff in my face. 00:12:11.492 --> 00:12:13.192 Lord, just give it all to me. 00:12:13.412 --> 00:12:14.072 I want more. 00:12:14.612 --> 00:12:15.652 That should be our approach. 00:12:15.972 --> 00:12:21.072 And with that approach, even if you get things wrong, you're still going to be in so much better shape. 00:12:21.712 --> 00:12:27.712 And again, like we don't know among these various church bodies who's going to heaven, who's going to hell. 00:12:28.012 --> 00:12:29.272 In some cases, it's clear. 00:12:29.852 --> 00:12:34.692 The people who flat out deny that Jesus is God, definitionally those people are not Christian. 00:12:35.852 --> 00:12:41.472 But then you look at some of the other answers given to very similar questions and they contradict themselves. 00:12:42.052 --> 00:12:46.932 And that's the reason that God alone can judge a man's heart and judge those situations. 00:12:47.112 --> 00:12:47.632 We can't. 00:12:47.892 --> 00:12:48.652 And so we're not. 00:12:48.992 --> 00:12:54.212 We're not here to say that X, Y, and Z denominations are all going to hell because it's not true. 00:12:54.652 --> 00:12:58.232 There's always going to be Christians wherever the word of God is preached among them. 00:12:58.932 --> 00:13:08.312 We've said before, one of the miraculous things about the constitution of Stone Choir's audience is that many of you are from very different backgrounds than Lutheranism. 00:13:08.712 --> 00:13:12.212 And yet you're agreeing with a lot of the same things that we're saying that are in the Bible. 00:13:13.172 --> 00:13:18.712 And while generally we take a Lutheran approach overtly to these things, it's all rooted in scripture. 00:13:19.152 --> 00:13:24.052 It's not rooted in some particular version of Christianity. 00:13:24.272 --> 00:13:25.512 It's just, what does God say? 00:13:26.152 --> 00:13:26.892 Let's believe it. 00:13:27.292 --> 00:13:27.652 That's it. 00:13:27.732 --> 00:13:28.972 It's a two-step process. 00:13:28.992 --> 00:13:29.652 Did God say it? 00:13:29.672 --> 00:13:30.472 Okay, I believe it. 00:13:30.932 --> 00:13:34.932 Anyone who agrees with that is usually going to land on the same page. 00:13:35.592 --> 00:13:44.592 And so as we work through these things, just keep in mind that we're not damning anyone, but we are going to dam some of the answers and they'll be pretty clear to you just how bad they are. 00:13:45.832 --> 00:13:54.172 And that's the other purpose of this episode, is that when people say that they're Christians, when they self-identify, it's almost meaningless. 00:13:54.612 --> 00:13:56.612 I hate to say that, but we've said before it's true. 00:13:57.172 --> 00:14:00.652 This data is going to demonstrate why we hold that contention. 00:14:01.172 --> 00:14:02.052 We're not being mean. 00:14:02.492 --> 00:14:03.972 We're not trying to name call people. 00:14:04.492 --> 00:14:10.432 It's literally these things are contrary to the Christian faith, and they're on the lips of people who say they're Christians. 00:14:10.932 --> 00:14:12.332 Only God can sort that out. 00:14:12.692 --> 00:14:19.112 But we as believers and we as neighbors of these people who think they're believers should care very deeply about that. 00:14:19.492 --> 00:14:26.992 Because if someone says, I'm a Christian, the best thing I think we can do in a lot of cases is to agree and amplify. 00:14:27.152 --> 00:14:28.452 Say, okay, you're a Christian, great. 00:14:28.732 --> 00:14:30.212 Let's talk about what the Bible says. 00:14:30.912 --> 00:14:33.932 And if they don't want to do that, you know what kind of Christian they are. 00:14:34.132 --> 00:14:35.652 They're not a Christian at all. 00:14:35.912 --> 00:14:38.972 If they have no appetite for God's word, okay, so it goes. 00:14:40.012 --> 00:14:52.792 But even where someone is in error, where they get some of these things wrong, in a lot of cases, if they say, I believe God, I believe in Jesus, I believe in the Bible, they've never read it, they've never heard it explained correctly. 00:14:53.172 --> 00:14:59.252 And when that happens to them face to face with someone talking to them, in a lot of cases, they'll be like, okay, that's what I believe. 00:15:00.332 --> 00:15:02.652 That is the essence of evangelism. 00:15:02.672 --> 00:15:04.912 And it needs to happen inside our churches too. 00:15:05.252 --> 00:15:07.392 It needs to happen among our churches. 00:15:07.792 --> 00:15:10.732 Because some church bodies are in far worse shape than others. 00:15:11.412 --> 00:15:15.572 And as we wrap up this episode, that's really going to be where we pivot to. 00:15:15.992 --> 00:15:21.712 That when we're talking about, oh, I want to spread the word of God and I want as many people as possible to believe in God. 00:15:21.932 --> 00:15:22.212 Yes. 00:15:22.372 --> 00:15:22.712 Amen. 00:15:22.752 --> 00:15:23.372 Absolutely. 00:15:23.892 --> 00:15:24.712 Where do we find them? 00:15:25.192 --> 00:15:27.412 You don't find them 6,000 miles away. 00:15:27.652 --> 00:15:29.432 You don't even find them a thousand miles away. 00:15:29.632 --> 00:15:36.912 You're going to find them in your own town and some of the churches where people are showing up and they're not believing what's in the word of God. 00:15:37.472 --> 00:15:39.192 Those people, some of them are lost. 00:15:39.512 --> 00:15:41.472 Some of them say they're Christians and they're damned. 00:15:41.892 --> 00:15:48.152 And we all know if you believe the Bible, that's perfectly in accord with what God says happens. 00:15:48.692 --> 00:15:52.592 It's true that there are some people who say they are sons of God who are not. 00:15:53.172 --> 00:15:54.632 The same thing happened with the Jews. 00:15:55.012 --> 00:15:56.772 They said, you know, we're sons of Abraham. 00:15:56.792 --> 00:15:58.352 And God said, that's not what that even means. 00:15:58.772 --> 00:16:08.352 Like it was the faith of Abraham that was credited to him as righteousness, not his lineage, not even God's promise, but the promise was a promise of faith. 00:16:08.852 --> 00:16:09.992 And he kept that faith. 00:16:10.452 --> 00:16:13.992 And that is his righteousness, not his correct answers. 00:16:15.812 --> 00:16:19.992 So we're principally going to focus on two main groups and then a third group. 00:16:20.332 --> 00:16:25.592 The first will be evangelicals, mainline denominations, and then the Roman Catholic Church. 00:16:27.352 --> 00:16:31.452 I think we all know pretty much what evangelical means in the American context. 00:16:31.472 --> 00:16:35.872 If you don't know, basically it just means Bible believing, more conservative. 00:16:36.292 --> 00:16:40.252 And then mainline is pretty much the churches that have rainbow flags. 00:16:40.852 --> 00:16:48.432 So in most cases, most of the mainline denominations, A, are dumpster fires, and in a lot of cases are overtly not Christian. 00:16:48.752 --> 00:16:53.552 Nevertheless, there are some Christians among them because people just stay with their denomination for inertia. 00:16:53.992 --> 00:16:55.072 It's a problem. 00:16:55.312 --> 00:16:58.532 It's one we need to work through, but it happens. 00:16:59.112 --> 00:17:14.512 And so the fact that a place like Elka for Lutherans or Pakuza for Presbyterians is a complete heretical dumpster fire doesn't mean that there's zero Christians among them, but it means that almost all their answers are absolutely horrific. 00:17:14.932 --> 00:17:20.172 And so the contrast between those mainline denominations and the evangelicals will be the principal one. 00:17:20.532 --> 00:17:44.852 And then in some of these answers, we're also going to refer to the Roman Catholic answers simply to demonstrate, not to pick on Roman Catholics in particular, but to illustrate when you look outside of the very rad, trad, very conservative cultural, at least, diocese and parishes in Roman Catholicism, what you find is that Rome in this country is a mainline denomination. 00:17:45.232 --> 00:17:57.532 In almost every case where Rome's answers differ from the mainline, from Alca and Pacusa and the Methodists and the other rainbow flag churches, where Rome doesn't agree with them, they're even worse. 00:17:57.792 --> 00:17:58.472 They're not better. 00:17:58.592 --> 00:18:03.832 They're not nearly as good in terms of what's provably the correct answer as evangelicals. 00:18:03.972 --> 00:18:12.892 So we'll highlight that in some places, but for the most part, when you hear mainline, really we'll probably just highlight when Rome is differing from them, because it's going to be the same. 00:18:13.472 --> 00:18:21.692 And again, we're not just picking on those guys, it's just that that's one of the major separate groups that's outside of these other two big bodies of Protestantism. 00:18:23.192 --> 00:18:30.512 These answers are going to tell you what's going on in those churches, regardless of what they have on their websites, regardless of what you read on Twitter or anywhere else. 00:18:31.292 --> 00:18:35.492 This is the fruit downstream from the preaching in all of these places. 00:18:37.412 --> 00:18:45.712 To further couch this episode, I want to point out three Latin words that I suspect you probably already know by now. 00:18:46.132 --> 00:18:50.312 And those are notitia, ascensus and fiducia, notice, assent and trust. 00:18:50.972 --> 00:18:55.032 We are essentially speaking about the first two in this episode. 00:18:56.112 --> 00:19:05.292 And the reason I want to emphasize that is because everyone always wants to focus on a couple of core issues in the Christian faith. 00:19:06.072 --> 00:19:07.612 Do you believe in the crucifixion? 00:19:07.752 --> 00:19:10.292 Do you believe in justification? 00:19:12.112 --> 00:19:14.972 That's not the fullness of the Christian faith. 00:19:15.252 --> 00:19:19.772 You cannot narrow down the Christian faith to just one or two things. 00:19:20.792 --> 00:19:21.572 Look at the creeds. 00:19:21.592 --> 00:19:24.372 The creeds state far more than one or two things. 00:19:24.812 --> 00:19:37.312 And so what we are dealing with primarily in this episode would be those first two issues, which is the notice essentially means what is the content of the Christian faith? 00:19:37.332 --> 00:19:38.152 What are the tenets? 00:19:38.172 --> 00:19:41.992 What are the beliefs that constitute the actual Christian faith? 00:19:42.032 --> 00:19:46.472 And then there is the ascent to that, the conviction that those things are true. 00:19:48.052 --> 00:20:03.992 And so in focusing on those, we can compare across denominations to some degree, but more generally, as Woe was saying, we can focus on the state of the churches, primarily in the US, although this is also true for many other parts of the world. 00:20:04.012 --> 00:20:05.772 It's even worse in most of the rest of the world. 00:20:06.932 --> 00:20:12.692 But this shows the reality on the ground of what people who claim to be Christian believe. 00:20:13.112 --> 00:20:28.492 And in some cases, those who claim to be the more conservative, supposedly traditional Bible-believing Christians, and you will see that does not always correlate with right belief, even on issues that are abundantly clear in Scripture. 00:20:29.272 --> 00:20:48.532 And so as Woe was saying, and as we'll emphasize later in the episode, looking at these data, looking at this information, should help to guide us in determining what we need to do as Christians, where we should be expending our efforts, to whom we should be reaching out and sharing the Christian faith. 00:20:48.552 --> 00:20:54.892 Because in some cases, the man who needs evangelized may be the one who is claiming to be Christian. 00:20:55.872 --> 00:21:00.372 But if you scratch a little deeper than the surface, you'll realize he's not a Christian at all. 00:21:01.172 --> 00:21:02.692 Because he doesn't have any of these. 00:21:03.292 --> 00:21:06.592 He doesn't even know what the content of the Christian faith is. 00:21:07.112 --> 00:21:11.232 He just says that he's Christian and maybe even attends a church. 00:21:11.372 --> 00:21:13.892 We can debate whether or not it's an actual church. 00:21:14.752 --> 00:21:25.252 But just because someone says, I am a Christian, and even if he also attends church, that does not necessarily mean that he is actually a Christian. 00:21:26.852 --> 00:21:37.572 The distinction there, and this is one of those issues that is often raised by atheists and others, particularly on social media, they try to say it's the no true Scotsman fallacy. 00:21:38.572 --> 00:21:44.592 The problem with that is, if you are Scottish, you're Scottish biologically, you're Scottish by blood. 00:21:44.772 --> 00:21:47.112 That's not a matter of believing certain things. 00:21:47.732 --> 00:21:49.632 You are or you are not. 00:21:50.312 --> 00:21:52.672 The same is true if you pick a species. 00:21:52.692 --> 00:21:54.792 You either are a dog or you are not a dog. 00:21:55.592 --> 00:21:56.892 It's not a matter of belief. 00:21:56.972 --> 00:21:58.432 It's a matter of essence. 00:21:58.452 --> 00:21:59.952 It's a matter of being that thing. 00:22:01.192 --> 00:22:10.832 When it comes to something like Christianity, it is a matter of believing the tenets of Christianity, the tenets of the ideology. 00:22:11.612 --> 00:22:20.192 And so, for instance, you can't say that you are a libertarian if you believe none of the things, although in the case of libertarians, none of them agree. 00:22:20.512 --> 00:22:27.692 But you can't say that you're a libertarian if you disagree with absolutely every tenet of what that ideology advances. 00:22:29.372 --> 00:22:30.972 The same is true for Christianity. 00:22:31.072 --> 00:22:33.012 There is a content to the faith. 00:22:33.492 --> 00:22:37.692 And in order to be a Christian, there is some minimum somewhere. 00:22:38.312 --> 00:22:47.572