Christian Indoctrination

Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Tuesday, June the twenty fifth, twenty twenty four. It is currently nine twenty nine a m. Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas well about fifteen twenty minutes ago, maybe thirty minutes ago. Well, I opened the door, you know, the very creaky, old looking door. I opened it. I walked down the creaky steps that are all dusty, walk down and I walked down into the Theology Central Archives, into the Theology Central vault. And I walked down and I started looking at all the shelves, blowing off the dust, moving the cobwebs, and I found I found my one gigabyte thumb drive from like I don't even know what year. And I opened up the thumb drive and guess what, ladies and gentlemen, I have found another message this time. I think it's twenty seventeen, maybe twenty sixteen, who knows the year. I don't know exactly the year I think this is. I think this is the Sunday school hour that came before what we broadcasted yesterday in Revelation twelve, right, so I think that was twenty seventeen, so it's the eighth day. I don't know of what month of twenty seventeen, so maybe not that far back. But that's what I found here on the thumb drive. So I grabbed the thumb drive, walked back up the creek. Creaky steps, they're creepy, but the creaky SNePS shut the door to the vault, and I've come running to the microphone so that we can have another episode of Theology Central Radio, where we go we reach back into the past to take an advantage of all of that content and bring it to the present, so hopefully we'll have some present benefit. We reach into the past to hopefully get a present benefit from what I was talking about in the past. Hopefully you find this to be beneficial and helpful. Maybe to me it's a little self serving. Maybe this is more about me than it is you. I hope that's not the case. But look, when I know that there are thousands, I mean, I have thousands upon thousands upon thousands of hours of content dating back to who knows what. If I just keep looking in all the different devices. Who knows how far back I can find messages? Probably who knows. I mean, if I dig long and hard enough, I could probably find messages going all the way back, maybe to the late nineteen nineties, I don't know. But they're all just sitting there collecting dust. I mean, even even if you look on the Sermon's two point oh app or the Church one app and you look Theology Central, look at all of that content. Now, let's be honest, most people are not going to go back and dig through that archive. So if I can reach back, pull it up, play it in the present, then it gets present attention and hopefully has present benefits. And that's true of all. That's one of the reasons we're doing the Sermon's two point oh app Sermon Challenge this year, right, trying to get people to find the most random sermons possibly on a sermon's two point oh app. And guess what, when you're choosing random sermons, some of them are older. That's good because then that broadcaster's old content is being presently heard in the present, and whether we agree or disagree with it, something good is coming from it. So that's what we're attempting to do so. Are you ready, We're going to go back to the sanctuary. You have Victory Baptist Church located in the middle of nowhere, Texas, literally in the middle of nowhere, Texas, and we're going to listen. I think this is the Sunday school hour. I think it's twenty seventeen. And while I'm going to approach a subject that probably once again is going to make me unpopular with the Christian audience, I know this one's going to make me a little unpopular with the Christian audience, but I think I think it's an interesting conversation. I still hold very still committed to this perspective. I still believe that this to be true. I could possibly modify. Well, whenever I go back and listen to anything that's old, I'm always like, well, I would change this now, or I probably wouldn't say this. Yeah, I mean there's always things that would change. I mean, hopefully every I mean we're supposed to always be growing and changing and questioning our previous beliefs and hopefully, you know, making them stronger or throwing out things that we realize in now are falls. We're always in that process. We're always in process of learning. If you ever stop being a student, well then you shouldn't be a teacher, right. A teacher has to be someone who continually is in the continual process of learning, and those learning need to always be in the process of learning. We all need to be humble and constantly to be teachable, learning so that we're always changing, correcting, modifying what we think and believe. Because the one thing I know about all of us is we're very fallible. We don't know all things, so we have to continue to learn and be challenged. So hopefully this will be challenging to you. Twenty seventeen Sunday School. This is what we were talking about. Here we go, all right, we will get started since it's already ten after if you have let's do this this morning for Sunday school like I did last week. We'll probably use the Sunday school hour for something different and revelation, trying to kind of make sure we have a balance since the revelation stuff takes so much of our time and it's so so much material, so we'll do something more of a devotional nature and let's see what we can get from that. If you want to turn to Acts Chapter two. You're gonna need that at some point. But Acts chapter two, Acts Chapter two, And there's a very famous section in this in this chapter that gets a lot of attention and a lot of sermons. Now, yesterday I recorded something on this, but then when I was done it decided not to send it out. And but the more I thought about it, then it began. Well, next thing I know, I started taking notes and it kind of developed into something far more than I originally thought, because that's what always happens. But and Acts chapter two, let me see where the actual verse starts, or the passage Acts chapter two, verse forty two, Acts Chapter two, Verse forty two. All right, now here we kind of have the birth of what we would refer to as the New Testament Church. Right, the day of Pentecost has occurred, Peter has preached, people have become saved, All kinds of important things take place. We have about three thousand mentioned in verse forty one who received the Word and was baptized. Right, But then verse forty two is the verse that gets all of the attention. And many sermons and books have been written, and they that they would be referring to the leadership and all the people who've been saved. The three thousand continued. What stead fastly in the Apostles, doctrine, and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. Now what gets all the attention is first the word steadfastly, and then secondly those four areas steadfastly and what areas in the Apostles, doctrine, in fellowship, breaking of bread, and in prayers. If you have looked at the Bible Study Guide, they break they do the exact same thing. They focus on steadfast and this is how they do do this. October the fifth steadfast and the Apostles doctrine, October the sixth, steadfast and fellowship, October the seventh, steadfast in the breaking of bread, October eighth steadfast in prayers. So that's what they want you to focus on. Well, you know, I have a tendency that I don't just go with what the what the directions say. I go against the directions. So I when I picked up the Bible Study Guide and I said, oh, steadfast, steadfast, steadfast and fast. Now that's an important topic because as Christians, we should remain steadfast and certain things despite what's happening in the world, despite what's happening in our life, despite good times bad times, we should remain steadfast. Churches should remain steadfast. Whether remaining steadfast in those areas brings growth to the church or if it brings subtraction to the church. You are to remain steadfast in certain things. The Bible's clear on that we are to preach in season and out of season. In other words, when it's popular or when it's not popular. There are certain things we should not change, and you could preach all day on that. It would be practical, it would be devotional, and it should be convicting. But that's not what my focus was because of what was written in the Bible study guide. Let me read to you the entry for October the fifth. For three and a half years, the apostles immersed themselves in the teachings of Jesus. After his resurrection, Christ instructed them to disciple others and to teach them all he had commanded. So far, no problem, right, everybody should be perfectly accepting of that. They reference Matthew twenty eight nineteen through twenty No problem there. Now note the following the term in doctrination. After're taking notes this morning, write down the word in doctrination, in doctrination. As soon as I saw that word boom, then you had my attention. You didn't have my attention so much with Steadfast and the Apostles doctrine, because you know, I've heard those sermons a million times. But they use the word in doctrination that that gets my attention. So immediately I wanted to know, what are they going to do with the term in doctrination. This is what they say. The term in doctrination sometimes carries a negative connotation. All right. Now, Immediately I become concerned because they say sometimes all right, in my mind always all right, well, we'll see where they're gonna go, Communist and doctrination, Muslim and doctrination, Jehovah's witnesses and doctrination, and other kinds of evil brainwashing as people's minds are saturated with error. Yet and doctrination by means of the truth of God is wonderful. The early Church practice apostolic and doctrination. Now, let's stop right there, all right. Immediately, I'm like, whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. I this immediately sets up one of my major issues with how well churches conduct themselves, with how a lot of times Christian parents homeschool their children. It bothers me how some Bible colleges teach. In fact, this immediately sets up a lot of my problems with what occurred after the Protestant Reformation. There's a lot. I mean, immediately, I could have started, I could have written a book just off the way they're using the word indoctrination, because the way they are using the term is very common within Christianity, which then sets me at odds with most Christianity. Let's do this. In fact, I just had my iPad next to me when I was reading this, so I just asked Siri, Hey, what's the definition for indoctrination? She told me this the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically. The process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically. Okay, now we've got something to discuss. That is an important definition. So let's do this. I want you to write down four words for me this morning. All right, first word, obviously you've written down, is indoctrination. Let me repeat that definition. The process of teaching a person or group to what to accept a set of beliefs. And what's the keyword, uncritically. That's the keyword, uncritically. Make sure you have that down that right there, bothers me. I don't care who does it. That's why I am against indoctrination across the board, right, So I'm anti indoctrination. Right, that's the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically. Next word, dogma, dogma. We have used that term the Book of Dogma, or what we're going to say is dogmatic. Right, what is the definition for dogma? Anybody want to throw one out? Okay? A principle or Siri put it this way, A principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true. A principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true. Now you can see we're in October. We're fast approaching the celebration of the five hundred, five hundred years after the Reformation, the celebration of the Reformation five hundred years of later, all right. And if you think about that word dogma has everything to do with the Reformation. Right. You had an authority. That authority was the Church. That church had laid down a set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true. One individual decided there weren't, and then he laid down a set of principles that he believed were incontrovertibly true. Right, So I want to now, I know if I was to say that around people who love the Reformation, they would get very upset with me, and they would be like, absolutely, he did not he simply put the Bible as the authority. No, he put his interpretation of the Bible's authority. I got into with my friends in Nebraska the other day. One of them, of course, they both work in with for some big company that does the Internet and all kinds of computer stuff, and they were one of them had been gone for most of the day and he came back and he said, he I been busy, been helping a cult, right, And I responded, I go, well, you do realize that you're a Protestant, so the early Church would label you a cult. They of course then that they don't like that idea, but it's true. I mean, like we all stand there and go, you're a cult, You're a cult, you're a cult, you're a cult. And we have a thousand years of church history that would say, and you're a cult. Okay. So like that means who a cult is, whomever you define as a cult. Unless we're using a technical definition of a cult, then that has nothing to do with what they teach. That has everything to do with the control and how they teach. That's a whole different subject. But in doctrination dogma, third word manipulation, manipulation. I hear a kid yelling okay, manipulation, all right, And they got a good definition for manipulation control or influence a person or situation cleverly, unfairly, or unscrupulously, scrupulessly, if I can say the word, so manipulation, control or influence of a person or situation cleverly, unfairly, or unscrupulosusly. So what's the idea that you're trying to influence or control through the use of what tricks? Through maybe utilizing emotions, utilizing half truths, utilizing an image, utilizing all kinds of things in order to kind of to control you or influence influence you. And you're not trying to do so with truth. You're trying to do so in a clever way. Another definition of manipulation altered data or present statistics as to mislead. Altered data or present statistics to as mislead. That happens all the time, all the time, because you can take a statistic that is true, right, but you can present the statistic in such a clever way that you are misleading someone. You are influencing them with not with not the because you're taking those true stats, but you're presenting them in a context that's leading someone to a flawed conclusion. That you may use a statistic that creates cause and effect. For example, a good and we talk about this a lot in the medical world. A good example is how many children eat cereal? Eighty seven percent of children eat cereal. How many children develop autism forty seven percent of children to develop autism, Well, it must be the cereal that's drawing a conclusion of cause and effect simply by presenting a statistical number. How many people breathe there, how many people get cancer? Well, guess what it must come from? Air? Right. That happens all the time, all the time. I don't know. I mean, man, that is so easy to so easy to do, especially as someone who was on a debate team. You can use statistics to convince people of anything, because no one ever bothers to go, wait a minute, Wait a minute, you've got numbers, but you still haven't you still haven't established cause and effect. Cause and effect is almost impossible to determine sometimes because what you have to do is you have to have a control, like you have to have a complete control, like okay, wait, these people had no connection with this. I mean like it's almost impossible to produce a way to disprove cause and effect or to prove cause and effect. The cause and effect becomes an inference based off your your presuppositions and your feelings. And man, I've seen that happen so many times. I could go all day on that. Who We had great conversations in the medical world over that the way people manipulate that, I mean, it's insane, all right, So dogma, indoctrination, manipulation, all right. Propaganda. Now, I didn't ask Siri the definition of propaganda, but what what's propaganda? Printed material? Could be movie, could be a song, but it's it's material in order to influence people to a specific eyed idea or a way of thinking, or to create a view. And it's typically material that does not what that's not completely factual. It's utilizing manipulation, it's utilizing some of these ideas. Now, all of those words fit together. All those words are are connected. I hope everyone undersees that that in doctrination, manipulation, dogma and propaganda or all. Right, there, so let's work on this. Of course, the Bible Study Guide wants us to think, Hey, and doctrination with the Word of God is wonderful. Apostolic indoctrination is wonderful. Church and doctrination is wonderful. And I will argue, no, it is not. So let's let's go through some areas wherein doctrination takes place. Let's let's start there, right, and again I could go a lot of different directions, but well, hopefully this will all be beneficial. Right. Where does indoctrination begin at home? Very good? And doctrination begins at home? There's no question because what not in every particular case, But there's a large portion of being a parent, especially when the children is young, that you have to kind of simply lay down what you want them to think and believe, and you're and you, and the emphasis sometimes is I'm parent your child. You think this way, you believe this, this is right, this is wrong. And the thing is is that's complete in doctrination because you're teaching them to accept something off whose word yours, because you are an authority, so you're telling them I'm the authority. Therefore you think this way. Most of them, and I understand that as they're younger, you have to tell them that's hot, don't touch, that's the street, don't go in. You can't have a critical discussion at that point. Tom, Obviously there has to be some indoctrination in certain situations. No one would just hopefully no one would disagree with that. That would be really bad. Okay, that would be a bad things. Everybody understand that. Like, there's certain things. But there comes a point should be early on that the parental style must change. It becomes less indoctrination and it should become more what teaching critical thinking. My job is not to simply make you think like me. My job is to make you think. Do you see the distinction. My job is not to make you think like me. My job is to make you think. And that's why it's weird. Like you'll find children who are raised with a certain they've they've been indoctrinated with a certain way of thinking. And even if they reject a large portion of their parents' morality, or a large portions of their parents' religion, or a large portion of their parents, you know their authority, they still walk away. And you hear them parrot the same ideas they hurt at home, and you're like, you, you're simply repeating to me what you heard at home. That's not thinking. That's not thinking. And and young people who ever have a conversations with me that sometimes they I can be very challenging to them. A good example Emma right now in school, she's having to deal with a lot of philosophy. So her and I were talking about a paper she was writing, and I challenged her that at some point Emma has to confront Emma that Emma thinks like not not just getting the right answer, but thinking for herself. Now, that's sometimes parents don't like me to say that, because sometimes when they start thinking for themselves, that can lead to what. Yeah, that Emma's on the phone. Gun, my mom's crazy. Okay, Well I can't help you there. I knew that. I mean, she thinks she's a pope. I mean, come on, we all know she's crazy. So but right, and sometimes I can make a parent nervous. Right, that can make a parent because they can like your positions are here and all of a sudden, they're way over here. The issue is we should not be afraid of that, that that as a parent, we should encourage that that if you're homeschooling, you get the ability to challenge them to think, you get them, you get the ability to teach them to think and doctrination. In fact, I would say the homeschooling should be the antithesis of indoctrination. However, it is indoctrination because oh what are we gonna do. Oh we're gonna we're getting our kids out of that evil public school. And now what we're gonna do is get a curriculum that indoctrinates them on our way of thinking. That's not that's no, you're replacing one system of indoctrination with another system of indoctrination. Indoctrination doesn't help do you know what happens when someone is fed in doctrination. They simply parent the indoctrination. It's not that they even maybe even have a firmly held belief. They're just like, oh, this is what I'm supposed to think. And then the minute they're challenged, they come and contact with the real world and they're like, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. A great example happened in my house in Nebraska. Stacey wanted to have all the teenagers over. I was like, that's probably a bad idea because church kids and me we don't get along very well. So all the kids came over. Well, the pastor's daughter walked in ready. I mean she was ready for a fight. Man, the minute she walked through the door, she was ready to have a throw down with me, because everyone in the church knew that. I pretty much disagree with every Christian on the face of the planet when it comes to music. I think Christians and music, I think Christianity causes a brain damage when it comes to music. I don't understand what happens, all right, so I'm always in disagreement with it. But I understood that if I was going to be in this church. There's about nine hundred music rules that the Nazis wanted me to follow, Okay, So I tried my best to follow them. I tried sometimes sometimes not so well, but I tried all right. Well, she, I guess, felt that that was the issue of issues, that of all the issues in the world, she was showing up to save my soul from eternal damnation because of my view on music. So she came in ready for a fight, and she started in and I told her, hey, little girl, you probably should back off, because if you continue, I'm going to systematically destroy you in front of everyone. She didn't back off, so I proceeded to use sarcasm, humiliation, everything I could, every technique I could use, not in a very nice way, until she was in tears. And of course everyone was laughing at her because her arguments were foolish, dumb, incoherent, illogical, but because what was she doing parroting the end doctrination that her parents had and her father, who was the pastor whom I am and I had had massively arguments in private, okay about this subject. She now was showing up. Well, I'd already I've already had all these arguments with your dad. Now, why are you showing in like you're in my house trying to show me up in front of people. This is gonna go bad for you. Well, then she started crying. So then she gets on the phone, she calls her dad for help. Right, and so the next thing, you know, the next day gets where I get called into the pastor's office. And so I walked in and before you even start, I'm like, no, no, no, you tell your kid come to my house show some respect, because that was that was uncalled for. And I'm not apologizing for anything. Your kid come back to my house and do that again. I'll do the exact same thing. And if one of my kids came into your house and do that, I would expect you to do that to them. Don't do that. But that she was simply parroting. She didn't she had not had any critical thinking on the subject, and so she was completely she could not deal with any arguments against it because all she'd been taught this is the way to think. She was never taught taken by the hand and go, Okay, here's this world called music, all right. Some people think about it this way. Some people think about it this way. Some people think about it this way. Let's approach each way of thinking and try to determine which one has merit and which one doesn't, and what basis are we going to judge it? Does that make sense? So it happens at the home, and what sadly, what takes place is we simply replace other indoctrination with our own indoctrinate. We become the authority and we indoctrinate and we want them step in line. Where's another place that occurs? School? Oh? Absolutely, what's what? Does the public school system want conformity? Oh? Yes, they do. They want you to come in, they want you to shut up, They want you to cut You have to color within the lines, right, like, oh, that's true. Well they don't have to think. Okay, that's that's a different problem. Okay that you got to color in the line. So here's what they do. They give you the information, right, Okay, you memorize that information, right, and then you what throw it up on the paper. That's it. They they they simply feed you and then you throw it back up. You eat it and then you throw it up. And now if you throw up all the parts in the right spot. Okay, not to be too graphic, but you get the idea, then you get an a and you're Valve Victorian. Now that is good. That you can memorize those facts and you can put them on paper. That is impressive. Okay. In no point would I ever say it's not that takes a lot of work to memorize it, to write it down, to reje to get all the information back out and the right way. Not everyone you can accomplish. Not everyone can be Valve Victoria. Right. That's that is a certain level of intelligence that a lot of people can't. However, what is it not that doesn't equate to thinking? That is related to a different aspect that I've said it so many times. I knew lots of val Victorians and Salutatorians who I would be like, what is wrong with your brain? Like you know the facts, but you don't know anything, Like you don't know what to do with them. Think the public school system is conformity. Conformity, conformity just just we're not going to discuss the reasons. And then, of course, and part of the problem that occurs is because of parents. If the teacher comes and tries to, oh, you know, Okay, I want the kids to read this book. Oh then the parents are like, no, can't read that book. It's got stuff in it that I don't want my kid to say that challenges my and they want to band. And that's how come the public school system has had books that are banned and you can't read and you can't put in the library. And I'm like, give me a break. Are we in Nazi Germany or America? Little Johnny could read a book that contains ideas that goes against mommy and daddy. What could we ever do? I don't know. Maybe a little Johnny could learn to think. That would be great. I think are kids for science? We didn't shove Christian curriculum. I gave them worldly curriculum. Why because if anyone knew evolution, who should do it best? Christian kid, they should know it best. They should be able to know evolution so good that they could walk into any university in America and pass any science curriculum because they know evolution better than anyone. Now, along with that, you can teach the Christian perspective. But in the educational world it's like don't think and any attempts to get people to think parents show up in arms wanting to shut it down because they want the school to what to paart their ideas and their levels of morality. If you want that, teach them at home. It's not the school's job to teach them what you think it should be to teach them to think. Does that make sense now? Sadly many of the public schools have their own agenda. But the thing is little Johnny should be able to handle that agenda. So that's indoctrination. Right. Where's another place in doctrination takes place. Don't be afraid to say it. Okay, good, it starts with the sea Church. That's where this whole thing starts. It's the Bible said he got almost supports indoctrination in the church. How does indoctrination occur in the church? Right? I tell you, I don't tell you. I don't take you on the journey to try to find it. I simply tell you what it is, and then you simply go. I don't present you options, I give you dogma. That's the way the church does like like for us, like even before, we studied eschatology over and over, and I would say, some say this is the millennial Kingdom. Some say this occurs in the church. Some say this is Israel, some say this is spiritual Israel. I was presenting options even before we study this, and that didn't always make everyone happy, because the Amil people or the reformed people who were when he would been here, would get mad at me because I wouldn't just so a it's that way. And sometimes the other side of the people will get mad because they wanted me to say. I'm like, well, I can't say it's either way dogmatically until we do what and then when we study it, how are we going to study it? Because I don't know if you've ever I mean, hopefully I'll catch on to the way I study something. If the if the conclusion is over here, I start us here, and then what do we do? We walk together? Right, we're looking at it. We're looking at it and well, and I may think the conclusion is there, but then we may do and you're like, wait, what just happened? Wait? Wait, wait, I thought that was where we're wait. I'm confused. And a lot of times I will say I will end it with eight questions that I provide you no answers to why I don't know we could study it because I'm trying to avoid what indoctrinating. I'm trying to provide you critical thinking. Now, here's the weird part within Christianity. Even though I'm against indoctrination, there is still an area within Christianity where we have to believe there are dogmas. Right. That's what confuses some people about me, are like, well, you're so against indoctrination, but you believe there are dogmas. I can believe there's dogmas. If again, the Protestant idea is, if this is the authority, then my job is not to simply indoctrinate you, but to be critically trying to figure out what it says here so that we can come to a dogma. But the dogma has to be based off a critical thinking about it. Does that make sense? And even if I'm dogmatic, I can still be critical of it. That really confuses people. I can believe the Bible is dogmatic, that there is a hell. I can still be critical of the concept and say it's not philosophically satisfied, it's not emotionally satisfying. I can I we don't like it. Now, my issue is this is what the book says. I can be critical of it, but I still have to accept that's what the book says. And some people think any criticism of it is like anathema or rejection of it, and some people really get mad at me about that. People get really mad, Like like when we went to Dallas Theological Seminary and I took the teenagers and we bart Erman versus Dr Wallace on touctual variants. And before I even got there, I told everyone bart Erman's gonna win the debate. He's gonna win the debate. And he's the agnostic who doesn't believe the Bible's inspired would have got and and someone in the church at the time, we've got very upset that I would tell the teenagers that. And then after the debate I said bart Ermin won, and they got mad at me. I'm like, bart Ierman's gonna win based off the debate because the Christian perspective is this, this is the inspired word of God, without error, without mistake. Oh yeah, there's more textual variants than there are words in the Bible. Okay, the minute you acknowledge there are more textual variants than there are words, you're kind of contradicting your previous statement, right right, yeah, do you understand textual variant? Okay, yeah, I for anyone who doesn't, no textual variant is there are all kinds of manuscripts that we find, right, guess what we find a manuscript? Manuscript one has a reading of Matthew one three. This manuscript has a reading of Matthew one three, And this manuscript has a reading of Matthew one three. They don't all agree on the reading of Matthew one three they have. Sometimes the variants are insignificant word order. Sometimes they can be spelling. Sometimes sometimes though they changed the entire meaning. Well, then guess what, who gets to determine which reading is correct? So they may know who the translator? Because when you read this most of the time you don't know if there's a variant. When do we find out there's variants? When I asked Steven to read the never indended version and they were like, what was that? Because they're using a different translation technique, and in many cases they're utilizing other manuscripts. Now, some will come and say all manuscripts are wrong except the ones we think are right. Oh, that's that's convenient. That's convenient because you know what which ones were writing with, because in many cases the manuscripts you're using are what copies of other manuscripts, which are copies because none of us have the original. Now we have enough copies to feel that what we have here is close to what the original intended, but we don't have the original. So you see, once you start bringing up some of those facts, that's you're not gonna win a debate. When you say the Bible is the inspired without error word of God, You're not gonna win that technical debate. What you have to say is you believe that the Bible is the inspired world have got, and you believe that in spite of variants, I can trust. But I'm not gonna win that debate on a purely technical debate scale of judging things. Rman wins. And the reason he wins is most Christians are completely clueless to textual variants, their existence, or even what to do with it. They've never even heard it. So they get to a debate and they're like, well, and and youth group, we ate pizza. I don't know what to tell. The Bible's not done, and so people get mad at that is bartnerm an evil for pointing out textual variance. No, he's genius because he's making millions of dollars selling books, and he has one of the most popular classes on the University of North Carolina because kids love going there going whoa, Mom and dad didn't tell me this? Well, mom and dad should have told him this because Mama, dad should have taught them to think critically. And what's one of the key elements and thinking critically hearing something you don't agree with, that's the way it works. Presented an idea that you're like, whoa, not so much? Who nah that I'm not so I'm not. Oh, that makes me uncomfortable. Christianity doesn't want that. Two examples of how Christianity doesn't work that I taught at a Christian high school, right, So I thought it'd be a good opportunity because all the kids in the class were already already this, So I thought, why not bring the book that will help them understand what they are. I brought the Satanic Bible, right because I wanted to go through the Nine Points of a Satanist because I was teaching a bunch of Satanists, right, so I wanted them to understand what they were right that they were self worshiping little narcissists. Okay, that I wanted them to know that they were. That's what they were, self indulgent narcissists who worshiped themselves, and I hated all of them. Okay, no, but that's what I wanted them to understand. Guess what. Guess what happened the next day? I was called back to the school. Guess who was waiting for me in the office? Parents? Guess what? I was never allowed to do bring any material into the classroom that does not agreement. Let's go on. I'm like, oh, and so what my response was because I didn't need the job because I was in the military. I'm like, oh, so, what you really want as all your kids to remain stupid? Gotcha? Gotcha? Glad the school has such a high standard of academic freedom that we just want the kids to be stupid. Another example, I was preaching a sermon on the doctrine of the Trinity. Guess what I brought to the pulpit The Book of Mormon. Guess what happened After the sermon? I was told I'm not allowed to do that, and I wasn't in this church. It was my church in Nebraska, I was told I was not allowed to bring any material to the pulpit because who know, who know it could hurt someone's mind. That's that's that's the epitome of being against indoctrination. Does that understand like like that that that is creating a system that's like you can only read what agrees with us, you can only think you. We control your thoughts, we control what you see, we control everything. That's that's what communism does. They come in and obliterate any ideas that are contrary. They not What did the Nazis do? What? What would one of the things they burned? What books did they burn? Did they hate reading? No, they hated reading anything that would challenge that. What does North Korea do? Do the people have free access to the internet North Korea? No, not even in China. Why Because on the Internet they could find ideas that are contrary to them. That's how Christianity sometimes works. And like I've never understood that. And there was like, well see you you gotta be careful because and that that's not what we need. So I got to try to wrap this up. So let's go through those words again. We can't wait There's a lot more we can say about indoctrination, but please know, do you see how indoctrination manipulation clearly work together, because sometimes in doctrination utilizes what manipulation. Okay, sometimes it uses manipulation. It will alter stats, it will alter the Bible. Good example, if a great example in my church in Nebraska, its Becca's I think second birthday, and a bunch of the people from the church came over because Stacy thinks that people need to come over. All right, so people came over. This is why I hate people. Right. And I had been studying in depth of the doctrine of election or quote unquote what some people refer to as Calvinism, which is kind of inappropriate to call it that, but okay, all right, so the doctrine of election, and I had all kinds of books out and think, well, the men who came with their wives to the to the birthday party started discussing it with me. So we kept going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Right, I thought it was a good, respectful but heated philological debate. Okay, I can have those all day. Everything was great. Party ended about five o'clock, six o'clock, and then I get a phone call for the pastor, Oh, you need to come to my office four. Oh, well, you know you just need to come. Oh so you're not gonna tell me now. First of all, if you're not telling me, what are you setting up, You're gonna have the position of authority and surprise because I can't be prepared. I cannot stand that. That's the oldest trick of authority. I need you to come. You're gonna we're gonna have a meeting tomorrow at five, but I'm not gonna tell you what the meeting's about. Therefore I have the upper hand. That bosses do that, all forms of authority, school teachers do that. I cannot stand that. Okay, if you think you have the upper hand, let the other person at least know what's coming so that they can be prepared. Okay, that's all. That's none. If I called you, if I'm tired of Sarah acting like the Pope, I would call her and say, hey, Sarah, we got to meet because your pope stuff is going a little too far. I would let her know before she arrived. Then she could show up with her and cyclical letter explaining to her why she has divine authority to declare dogma and she could at least be prepared that you owe that to the person. And that makes I cannot stand how authority does that? Oh drives me crazy. So I show up when I walk in and guess what's there? The two men who are at the birthday party? Guess what now? Now, immediately I know what's up. I'm getting ready to be kicked out of the church because I'm because I'm a Calvinist. Now, first of all, nowhere in our discussion Dad ever claimed to be a Calvinist. I was simply arguing the Calvinistic perspective to challenge them to go, we've got to consider this this argument. So first I never have said it. So the argument begins, and everything he says, he doesn't know a thing about Calvinism. So I begin to go against what he is saying, not because I'm a Calvinist, and I keep explaining this, you're you're an idiot. I didn't say those words, but I said, you don't know what you're talking about. So the more I tried, the more he did. It got and so when finally he could not argue with him, with Bible. He could not argue with me with Greek, he could not argue me with Hebrew. He didn't really he finally he put everything down, He took his glasses off, and he said, brother Hamlet, what will you do if Becca is not one of the elect? Now? What is that? That's stinking manipulation? And I'm like Pastor Breidman, She'll go to hell and mocking his quote unquote sincerity, because that's what would happen, Okay, Like like my personal feelings or truth doesn't care about your feelings. That's the wonderful thing. That's why I love truth so much. Who cares if you're crying? It doesn't care. Your tears doesn't wash it away. You Like if I cry enough, truth goes away. That's why I used to always whenever not to be to say it's always females, but most of the time, anytime in the military that I had to get onto a female who called into the office and I had they always cried, right, And I was like, you can cry all day. It's not gonna wash away me riding you up, or wash away what you did because you did it, so crying doesn't change it. Right now, you can be emotional because of it. And it's one thing to be emotional, because it's another thing to use tears in order to try to get out of it. Does that make there's a different Does that understand? Like, like you can be upset because emotion is okay, but when you're using an emotion in order to manipulate, then it's not okay. So you see how manipulation can can work. Give you another example, just an example of the media using a little bit of indoctrination and a little bit of manipulation. Right, we give you this. It was on CNN. Everyone here is aware last Sunday what occurred in Vegas? Right, worst mass shooting and modern American history? Okay, fifty eight to fifty nine. I think it's at fifty nine now individuals have died, all right. The individual in the room had what thirty between thirty and forty guns depending on the report, And does everybody know what he did? Used on the guns a bump stock. Right, some of you probably know what a bump stock is. Some of you probably have no clue. Okay, there's two parts to the gun, the grip and the stock. The stock is the thing that goes against your arm. All right, If you take the normal stock and the normal grip, they do not move. Okay, they're firm. The recoil just comes because of the shot, right, and the grip does not extend past the trigger. Everybody understand that and know more about guns. So if I say something in correct, y'all can correct me. Okay, it doesn't extend past the trigger. So guess what you have your gun? You can pull the trigger and fire one shut at a time, unless it obviously it's an automatic wrap rifle with most of those were banned in the nineteen eighties. So what does a bump stock do. Well, you install it by taking off the grip and you take off the stock. The bump stock is one complete piece that has the stock and the grip connected. So you put it on and the grip now extends past the trigger and it moves. So here's what happens. You simply grab onto the grip, you grab the front part of the gun. You put forward motion on the forward part of the gun, and you pull back and guess what it does, holds the trigger down and it now turns it into an automatic wrap rifle. Okay, that's a bump stock. If you see a gun with the modification, you can see it automost instantaneously because you're gonna he's a little indention that goes beyond the trigger. It's easy to see. So CNN is talking about bump stocks. Now you know, I'm not obviously pro gun, okay, but what do I hate? And doctrination and manipulation and propaganda. So they show a picture of a gun saying bump stock. The gun has a silencer on it, the gun has a grenade luncher on it, but guess what, it doesn't have a bump stock. And I'm like, what are you showing? Okay, So now everyone's running around to ban the bump stock. Okay, if you've ever fired a gun with a bump stock, I don't know if anyone ever has. Okay. Now, of course, in the military, I had to shoot M sixteen's because you know, I was security Forces. I had to shoot the nine mil. And I had to become qualified because I had to carry those, not because I loved guns and I was horrible at shooting, but I had to shoot. I had to hit the target enough. They kept me there like from sun up to sun down and told I like, okay, combined, you hit the target enough. Okay, But I had to do that so I could be qualified because they wanted me to be a coup with a gun. I don't know why, and I got stuck there forever. Okay. So so a lot of times one day would take us to the firing range that we used all kinds of different devices to kind of show us how you can manipulate a gun and lots of things. So I've at least seen a bump stock and action. All right, here's the thing. If you take a bump stock, and let's say you're a I don't know how good a shot Bobby is, but let's say he's an excellent shot marksman. If he takes a bump stock and he's twenty five yards from the target, he's probably not going to hit it one time. Fifteen yards. He may hit it once or twice. Maybe it's it's the worst device ever for accuracy. You're not gonna hit anything. I mean, you're just gonna be because you're pulling one way and pushing back, so you're immediately the gun's the recoil. You can't control the recoil. Does that make sense? So the fact that he used a bump stock. Is the fact that only fifty nine people if it had just used the rifle with this normal modification put a silencer on it, they would have taken forever for them to find them. And just simply he would have probably taken out hunt and there was twenty two thousand people below him, he would have taken out hundreds. So here we have everyone going crazy over the bump stock who don't have a clue how it operates. They wouldn't even know one if they saw one. We have CNN putting up a picture of a rifle that doesn't even have a bump stock on it. I'm like, what is going on? What is happening. We have a little bit of indoctrination, we have a little bit of manipulation, we have a little bit of propaganda creating a dogma. Now, the issue is we can talk about should a man have forty rifles and enough ammunition to start a war, any bottle about fifteen of those within like a month period, should that set off a red flag that Now that we can debate that, like some people will be like, Nope, I don't think there should be any restrictions. If you want nine hundred and twenty seven thousand weapons you can and others will be like, yeah, I don't know, I think there should be any Does that make sense that that's a debate. But what can you not do in the debate. Don't manipulate, don't don't use propaganda, don't do this. This is what you have the issue guns? Right? And then what do you have to bring into the discussion. Okay, we start with we start with the Second Amendment. Right, we have a second Amendment. How does one read the Second Amendment? Well, it doesn't matter how we read it. We have to look at how the Supreme Court is ruled upon it. The second the Supreme Court has ruled upon it that it applies to private gun ownership. Okay, that's there. Now, what do we know about the constitution? An amendment can be what changed? That's a fact. I hope everyone agrees that it can be. Right. Remember the thing prohibition it was changed, right, Remember the thing called slavery? Okay, right, Like, there are lots of things that can be changed. So you can't tell me it can't be changed, because it clearly can't. Now the issue is should it now? So we start with that. Then you start with some basic arguments. Okay, what are the statistics. You don't use statistics statistics to manipulate. You just try to find out the facts. Then you start discussing it and you discuss what will help, what will not help, and if it does help, it's not gonna help right now because we have more guns in the United States of America than any industrialised nation in the stinking world. So even if you pass twenty laws right now, you're not gonna get rid of all the guns that would only come It would only begin to impact the country twenty or thirty years down the road. It's not gonna do anything now because guns are everywhere. So you have to consider all of the issues. The problem is people get caught up in what aspects and they're so in dark to a position that they're unwilling to listen to and a like, if you're pro gun, what should you be reading the opposition's arguments why so that you can reevaluate your position? And if your anti gun, what should you be reading or listening to their pro gun side? Every Wednesday? I don't know how. On the way to church, I listened to Pratt on Texas pro Gun as program can be conservative and I think he's got three brain cells. Okay, he drives me crazy, but I listened to him on the way here. Okay, on the way home, I listen to Levin crazy Conservative. Do I always agree? No? Sometimes during the day I listened to Rush Limbaugh crazy Conservative because in many cases these people are going with positions that are contrary to mine. But why do I listen to positions that are contrary to mine? Because that's how critical thinking is formed. Does that make sense? Like, like like when I whenever I'm like if I if there's a book written that goes against say, Isaiah was written by four authors after the captivity, I'll go read that book. Why that goes against the way I think about Isaiah? I'm not afraid of that way? Does that make sense? Like like this and this idea that indoctrination is good is not a good thing, and Christians sometimes are This is how this is the Christian ideal And I'll end with this. The Christian ideal is we hate any indoctrination that's not Christian. We want to replace bad indoctrination with Christian indoctrination. I want to challenge everyone in this church to say, let's remove all in doctrination, and let's replace it with what critical thinking, because sometimes to get to truth you have to utilize critical thinking. Does that sense, Like I'm not scared of an opposing an opposing idea. I'm not afraid to hear it. It doesn't bother like people get like, I don't know. I think. I think sometimes the reason people don't like hearing an opposing view is it makes it is based off an insecurity, Like I don't have the ability to contradict this, so I don't want to hear it, Like I don't get emotionally invested. Like, Oh, Friday night, Marilyn Manson released a new album and I listened to it Friday at one o'clock in the morning because I went through like every new album, That's what I do every Friday night. And I'm like, whoa man, me and Marilyn need to talk. He's got some problem. I mean, that's some messed up stuff in the new album. I'm like, whoa dude, calm him down, Okay, like you've got some we got some issues. Do I agree with what he says? Absolutely not. I mean it's Craig Craig, Craig Cray, but guess what, a lot of people will listen to it. A lot of people will know. So I know what's going on, and I can engage in a discussion about it. And because I like to keep up. So hearing something that goes against you is not the thing that should make you nervous. What should make you nervous is your lack of ability to engage it. So don't shut it down, don't burn it down, don't censor it, engage it. And if you engage it, that's fine. And if you think about it in a roundabout way. In the Book of Acts, they kind of set up a Christian it's used as the Christian formula. Do you remember what they do in the Book of Acts? Does anybody remember they burn books? Do every remember that they did voluntarily? But they still burn it right now? And that got there's yeah. Now, what they were burning is stuff that represented their old way of life. But it has been now utilized by Christians to burn records, to burn books, and they use the Book of Acts as justification. Yeah, if you want to burn something you used to own to show a departure from the old way of life, I guess that's okay. I would rather keep it and then utilize it for what purpose? Instruction teaching, to be able to say, hey, back when I was a pagan, this was my favorite book. So guess what we're gonna do tonight. Let's go through it, right, and everybody's like, oh no, let's not right. But and because we're gonna hear ideas and you're gonna be like, like when we did the allegorical commentary, that wasn't what I wanted to do. But what did it give you insight into? Now you walked away more against it than you were before, but it was now you're more against it based off what knowledge, not based off me telling you it's wrong. Does it? You see the difference? All right? So I think I think, especially with everything going on in our world, when it if it's North Korea, if it's global warming, if it's if it's healthcare, there's so many major issues facing our country. Tax reform, the issue is think critically, don't allow indoctrination, manipulation, propaganda to create a false dogma. If you want to be dogmatic, Before you can be dogmatic, you have to do what. Remove all indoctrination, remove all manipulation, remove all propaganda, find facts. Think critically through the facts until you come to a knowledgeable, factual conclusion. Does that make sense? And does that not? What I try to teach you how to do. Every time we deal with the Bible. Do we conclude dogmas? Yes? Sometimes? But how did we conclude those dogmas? And I try to get rid of all the indoctrination, manipulation and propaganda. If you do that with every aspect of your life, you'll be someone who can engage the world. That would be helpful, not continue to confirm conform to the ideas that are already hurting our nation. So I'll stop there. I went a little long, but we didn't start till ten after, and so we ended at ten after. So I still got my hour in no matter what. Okay, So all right, let's pray the Lord guy. We come before you this morning. Lord. We live in a world today where there's just such a lack of thinking, and it's frightening to see that we have so many big problems, yet we can't seem to come to any conclusions or fix the problems because no one is thinking. They're just arguing. We've five hundred years after the Protestant Reformation, We've seen Christianity now more divided than ever because we've had five hundred years of indoctrination, manipulation and propaganda and not critical thinking. No matter if it happens in the church, no matter if what happens in the home, no matter if it happens in society, it always leads to trouble. And I pray that you would allow us to become people who think, who use the gifts you've given us to try to find truth. We also pray this morning for the Dazzlers and for Miss Carrol that transition is always a difficult part of life. Pray that it'll just be best for her, and that you'll give peace and comfort to the family and no sense of guilt which sometimes occurs, and just be with them, and be with anyone else in our church not present or struggling with unspoken request. And we asked this in Jesus name, and guys people said, and you can probably guess that was a very popular message. We have been listening to a message from twenty seventeen in this for this episode of Theology Central Radio where I grab from the past play it in the present. So hopefully the past message can have some kind of prayer isn't positive impact. We talked about Christian and doctrination, Christian manipulation, Christian propaganda, and Christian dogma, and I basically criticized all of that to try to put forth a concept of Christian critical thinking, right, questioning, challenging, really, you know, trying to work through things, which is what I attempt to do on this podcast every single time I turn on the microphone. But even recently, some of the criticism that I have received is because I try to do that very thing. We don't need a program asking questions because you have a list of things you think I'm supposed to teach, and you have a list, and you have the rules and exactly the way I'm supposed to teach it. So I'm supposed to teach it a specific way according to your specific dogma. Well, no, I'm going to challenge and question and try to get people to critically think about everything. And that's what we attempt to do. Right now, we are working on Joshua one eight. We are being very critical to the majority interpretation of Joshua one to eight, but I'm doing so based off questioning it, challenging it, putting forth a counter argument, trying to bring forth historical context the language, and so that's what we do hour after hour right here at the Theology Central podcast. So hopefully this episode of the Theology Central Radio podcast series where we pull from the past will challenge you in the present. Hopefully it even gives you, in some ways a greater understanding of what I've been trying to do. Really all of my life, I've been trying to do this. I know it's not popular. I know I will always be in the minority, but I hope that it will be somewhat challenging to you. If you have any questions about my approach and my thinking, you can email me at news That's News if all run together News the letter I F at yahoo dot com. That's NEWSI F at yahoo dot com. Thank you for listening to this episode of Theology Central Radio. Have a wonderful day, and hopefully what you've just heard will lead to some very interesting conversations today and I hope that they prove to be beneficial. Everyone. Have a great day. God bless