Dec. 9, 2024

Pastors vs Podcast

Pastors vs Podcast

Pastoral authority In the age of podcast

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Pastoral authority In the age of podcast

WEBVTT

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Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is

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the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. What is the

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very first thing that comes to your mind when you

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hear the phrase pastoral authority or pastor authority, pastoral authority,

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the authority of a pastor. What is the very first

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thing that comes to your mind when you hear that phrase,

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depending on how you want to say it, pastoral authority,

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pastor authority, the authority of a pastor. What comes to

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your mind? I mean, honestly, what comes to your mind?

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Do you go, absolutely, I believe in the authority of

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a pastor. I submit to the authority of a pastor.

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Pastors have more authority to do? What to interpret the Bible? Like,

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what does it mean to you? I really want you

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to think about that when it comes down to church authority.

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What comes to your mind if you hear the phrase

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church authority or the authority of the church. Do you

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believe the church has any authority? Do you really believe

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a pastor has any authority? Well, we're going to talk

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about that. We're going to talk about that in light

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of kind of contrasting with this thing called podcast, because well,

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I'm a podcaster I do a podcast, and well, there

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are these things in conflict and what does this ultimately

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does this lead back to the Protestant Reformation. We're going

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to talk about all of these things, and we're going

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to do that right after I say well, good afternoon everyone.

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It is Monday, December the ninth, twenty twenty four. It

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is currently one twenty eight pm Central time, and I

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am coming to you live from the Theology Central Studio

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located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, my initial thought

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today was okay, if I do a broadcast, asked, well,

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I know, we need to kind of finish up the

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sermon's two point oh app sermon challenge. We need to

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keep moving forward because before we know it, December is

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going to be over, and then this year's challenge is over,

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and then we'll figure out what to do next year.

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I also felt like, well, yesterday I only got to

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do one hour of teaching on Isaiah forty. We did

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finish our observational outline. There's still some things I could

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talk about. There's some things I could add to that

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discussion that maybe I didn't get to. There's other things

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we need to work on, There's other things we need

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to finish up, just kind of trying to figure out.

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You know, I had lots of different ideas. I guess

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I can say that. But when I finally walked up

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the steps to the studio and I sat down, all

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of a sudden, I found myself going, well, I think

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I know where we're going today. In fact, this maybe

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began a week long focus. I know that's going to

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take away from the sermon's two point oh app sermon challenge,

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but this may become our focus for this week. I

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don't know, maybe it will not. Maybe we can cover

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it all in one broadcast. But I let me explain

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what happened. I opened my iPad and I had the

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Gospel Coalition dot oorg open on the iPad. The Gospel

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Coalition dot org. You can open that right now if

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you would like to follow along the Gospel Coalition dot org.

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And I see a headline pastoral pastoral authority, and I'm like, oh,

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pastoral authority, Okay, all right, now that's a topic that

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I have strong feelings about when it comes to this

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concept of pastoral authority. Let me just get it out

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of the way. I think the concept of pastoral authority

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is a fraud I think it's an illusion. I think

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people like to pretend that pastors have authority. They don't

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have any. It's a joke, it's a complete fraud, an illusion.

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It's any of these, this concept pastoral authority. Look, I'm sorry,

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and the Protestant world, there is no pastoral authority. You

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can pretend all day. You can have the structure, you

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can have the hierarchy, you can do it, but when

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it comes down to it, you don't have any And

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that's that's I'm just gonna get that idea out of

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the way right now because I have strong feelings about it.

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So that caught my attention, pastoral authority. But then what

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really caught my attention was pastoral authority. Let me read

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the rest of the headline, pastoral authority in the Age

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of Podcast, and I'm like, oh, you've you're speaking my

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language all right, pastoral authority. I have strong feelings about it.

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Podcast Obviously, I have strong feelings about that because I'm

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a podcaster, So oh, let's talk about this and I

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and I don't know, I haven't even read all of

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the article yet. I haven't even read all of the article.

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I've just looked at it just a little bit. So

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I'm going to have have certain assumptions, some predictions. I

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will say my prediction is it's going to be basically

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an article that says, hey, podcast undermine pastoral authority. Those

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mean bad podcasts, they undermine pastoral authority. We need to

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be careful with these podcasts, because what I have seen

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is many church leaders, many pastors, are not so warm

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to podcasters. They don't like bloggers. They don't like podcasters

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because sometimes bloggers and podcasters are in a sense outside

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of that church structure, offers criticism, offers critique. Maybe sometimes

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the podcasters can say things that say things that no

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one within the church structure can say, and the pastors

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don't like it. They don't like the criticism. They don't

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like it, so they get very upset all these podcasters

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out there saying this, these pody They almost whenever they

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talk about podcasters or bloggers, it's almost very derogatory. It's

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almost like those podcasters, those bloggers, as if if you're

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not a pastor, you have no right to offer a

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critique of the institutionalized church. But I think when it

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looks at the institutionalized church, I think there's some things

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that people can point out and going I have a

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problem with this. I have a problem with this, And

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I know that that kind of creates us versus them mentality,

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and I'm not saying that that's the way it should be,

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but there is Look, there's grounds to critique the church. Look,

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you can you can critique the church, just on a

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very pragmatic level, like on the most pragmatic level possible.

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I think there's grounds for critique. Critique. Some people don't

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like this because they say it's too fleshly. But if

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we just get very practical, let me explain, and I

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say this all the time. If you go to church,

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you typically have access to the monthlier yearly budget report,

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and you can look or you can ask your pastor

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for a one, because on most all cases the church

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will provide someone who asks right, especially a member, and

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it will show you the operating costs, how much it

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costs to operate the church, and it'll break that down.

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How much money goes to the building, how much money

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goes to the pastor, how much money goes to curriculum,

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how much money goes to activities, how much money goes

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to programs, and you can add it all up and

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say Okay, it costs this much per year for my

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church to operate. Anyone can figure that out. You don't

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even need all the specifics. Just what is the annual

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amount of money required to keep the church operating, just

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to keep it breaking even how much is required. Now

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you take that and then you look at exactly how

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much teaching and preaching the church is actually producing for

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that amount of money, and then look at the quality

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of that preaching and teaching for that amount of money.

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Sometimes from just a purely practical level, you're like, wait,

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it cost us almost a million dollars to operate per year,

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and this is what we get from it for it.

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It costs US five hundred thousand dollars a year and

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we're lucky to get three, you know, in depth sermons

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per week. Now, you can take that step back to

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anyone with a microphone and a computer, with a desire

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and a willingness and a love to teach and study

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the Bible. They can produce, in many cases, one hundred

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times the amount of content, sometimes far more in depth,

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for basically a fraction of the cost. Even if the

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podcaster was trying to make some honey and make a living,

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if the people were actually able to support it. The

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podcaster can make a living and be able to broadcast,

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and I guarantee you provide deeper content more uh far more.

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They can far a great let me state it this way,

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a greater quality and a greater quantity. I stand by that,

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and we I mean, how many sermons do we have

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to review that? Sometimes you're just like, wait that that?

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What was that? What was that? And it's not even

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about disagreement. It's not about what well they hold to

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this illological position. It's just an I hold to a

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different philological position. Sometimes it's just like you didn't even

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really deal with the text, or you so mishandled the

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text that it should be you know, malpractice suit Like

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what was that? I mean, come on, now, that's just

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a Now I see, it's easy for the podcaster to

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say that we're inside the church. You can't say that

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because you gotta you gotta keep support, you gotta keep

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promoting the whole structure. We need people, we need money,

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and we gotta play it. Pay for this program and this,

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and we gotta pay for this building, and we gotta

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pay for this and this and this and this and

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this and this. You you can't be criticizing the structure.

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You gotta keep you gotta keep supporting it and bringing

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in the money to prop it up. So sometimes the criticism,

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people don't like the criticism, but sometimes it needs to

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be made. I'm not saying that that. I'm not saying

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that that proves one thing or another. I'm saying from

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a purely pragmatic perspective, podcasters may say this, where pastors

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are gonna be like, no, no, no, no, keep coming, keep giving.

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We need more money, give more money. We need a

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stewardship month, we need a stewardship week. We need a

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giving this, we need a giving that. We need this,

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we need a we need a love offering. We need this,

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we need this, we need this, we need a building fund.

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We need it because you gotta keep the whole, you know,

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industrial complex operating. So that immediately right there you can

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just see that there can be some criticism. So I'm

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assuming this article is going to kind of go after

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that concept. But they're going after it not from they're

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going after from the perspective of on one side, or

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at least this is the way it looks like. Again

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I'm being predictive here. I could be very wrong. They're

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looking at it from pastoral authority on one side and

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those pesky podcasters on the others. We would have gotten

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away with it it wasn't for these pesky kids, right,

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and that how Scooby Doo used to how all at

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the end whenever they capture the bad guy. I would

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have gotten away from this if wouldn't for your pesky

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kids and that ridiculous dog. Okay, well, I think in

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many times pastors will like pastoral authority would be great

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if it wouldn't for these pesky podcasters causing all of

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these problems. That's the way I think this is going

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to go. I could be very wrong now I'm trying.

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The reason I've spent twelve minutes saying a lot of

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these things is I want to be very transparent with

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my feelings and thoughts. And the reason I want to

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be is because then you're going to I'm obviously going

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to come at this and you're gonna hear some of

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those feelings. So I want to be transparent, meaning I

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could be somewhat biased here, So I'm gonna try to

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recognize that I could have a bias here and try

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to be fair. I'm going to try to be so

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are you ready? Here we go? This was published on

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December the ninth, twenty twenty four, so it's published today.

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Hot off the I mean paper, Hot off the presses. Okay,

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here we go, Hot off the presses, Hot off the presses.

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I'm not actually reading an article on paper, but I

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can't do anything with the iPad. I could just go

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just slap. That doesn't so I just keep this paper

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here just so I can do this. I just printed this,

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all right, but I didn't print it. I didn't and

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I don't know all the printers at the bottom of

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the steps and hasn't been hooked up in thirty five years. Okay,

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all right, but all right, that's a little hyperbole. But yeah,

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it's at the bottom of the steps. I don't even

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know why we have a printer. Okay, but are you ready?

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Here we go? Published today Pastoral Authority and the Age

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of Podcasts. Now, I'm predicting that the article is going

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to be like podcast undermine pastoral Authority's that's the direction

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I think I'm going to go. I could be wrong.

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Let's find out. First paragraph. Have you noticed the subtle

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shift and how congregations seek spiritual guidance? Where where consurgations? Okay, yeah, well,

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let's talk about how podcasters can't correctly. Let me try

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this again. Have you noticed a subtle shift in how

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congregations seek spiritual guidance? Where congregants once began with My

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grandmother always said they now regularly began with I was

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listening to this podcast or I saw on YouTube. All right,

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I gotta stop right here. This is I don't even

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know what this person is talking about. When when did

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congregations ever begin? My grandmother always said, did I miss that? Like,

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where's maybe there's some congregants who said my grandmother always said,

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I never said that, because I don't think. I don't

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even I don't even know. I didn't know any of

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my relatives, so I would have never said that. And

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even if they were, if I ever would have spoken

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to them, I doubt they would have ever given me

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any spiritual advice. So I don't even know what that means.

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Well from my experience, and I came into the church

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as a teenager, so way before podcasts ever existed, way

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before the internet, way before people had cell phones, I

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still never heard people in the congregation said, Well, my

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grandmother always said, no, I would hear did you hear

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on Christian radio? This? Did you hear on Christian radio? This?

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Did I read in this commentary? This I read in

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this Christian book? This? So how is that any different

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than when people today say I was listening to a

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podcast or I saw on YouTube. I so this is

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already creating Like back in the olden days, people would

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just begin with my grandmother always said two oh, no,

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Now things have gotten really bad because now they say

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podcasts and YouTube. I don't understand what the difference. People

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have always listened and gathered spiritual information, knowledge and perspectives

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from a wide range of sources that were available to them.

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I guess we could go back to where they maybe

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didn't have all these other sources available to them. But

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I mean, come on, I mean, so, I don't know

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has there been a subtle shift, But just think about it.

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Whether the congregants are saying my grandmother always said, or

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whether the congregation is saying, I was listening to a

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podcast or YouTube, let's just go ahead and get this

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out of the way. Neither one of the No matter

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whether you go podcast, YouTube, or grandmother, none of that

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is my pastor always said, nobody is quoting pastoral authority.

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They're always quote. They're all are quoting outside the church

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authorities or church voices. Let's see what the next paragraph reads.

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As pastors, we increasingly need to address not just scriptures teaching,

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but an expanding universe of digital voices shaping our congregants

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understanding of faith and an error where every sermon point

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can be instantly fact checked and every piece of council

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compared against countless online sources. We must reconsider how pastoral

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authority functions effectively. All right, So he's saying that the

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church needs to relook at how pastoral authority functions effectively. Again,

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I'm going to say, you don't have any authority. Any

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authority you think you have, it's in your own mind.

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It's a figment of your imagination. You have not had

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any pastoral authority since the Protestant Reformation. The entire Protestant

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system says no to church authority, yes to individual authority.

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What So we gotta figure out now it is true

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that now anything in a sermon can be instantaneously fact

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checked about time. Maybe they wouldn't have to be fact

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checked if we didn't have you know, hundreds of years

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of pastors saying absolutely ridiculous and fraudulent and crazy things

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from the pulpit that just are just was never true.

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I'm sorry that you don't like being fact checked, but

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maybe we wouldn't have to fact check you if the

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pulpit was a place that wasn't so full of absolute fraud.

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I mean, I've done plenty of sermon reviews where you're like,

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that's not true, that's not true, that's not true, that's

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not true. Okay, and guess what, There's been times I've

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said things that are probably not accurate as well, and

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there's no excuse no matter who's doing it. Now. We

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may not like that we're gonna be fact checked in

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an instant, but that's just the way it works. And

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it is true that in modern times, any council given

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from the pulpit can immediately be compared to counsel anywhere else.

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But let me make it very clear. This all started

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way before the internet. People will use it looking at

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their study bibles and going well, MacArthur doesn't say that

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people were looking at commentaries. People were comparing what was

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said to other pastors on radio or television. So this

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stuff has been going on forever. So I don't think

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it's I don't think it's really changed much. I think

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it's just maybe the speed we can get to other information.

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But everyone's already always had access, at least in modern day,

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to something else. Christian radio, books, commentaries, study Bibles. They've

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had other things to compare to anyway. So I again,

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I'm not seeing this. Oh oh, back in the olden

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days where nobody could fact check us, back in the

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olden days, where nobody had any other access to any

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other information. Oh, I'm not saying this is what the

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author is doing, but I don't think it was ever

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this cutting this black and white. Let's go to the

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third paragraph. The challenge extends beyond mere technological change or

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increased skepticism. It reflects a fundamental transformation and how people discover, evaluate,

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and accept truth claims. Today's pastoral council no longer competes

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simply with contrary opinions. It competes with an entire ecosystem

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ecosystem of digital influences, each offering its interpretation of faith,

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life and truth. Understanding this shift is a sin for

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fulfilling our calling in the digital age. Well, I do

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agree that pastors and churches now need to acknowledge there's

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an entire ecosystem out there. There's an entire system out

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there offering thoughts and opinions and providing teaching and biblical

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counsel and perspectives and doctrine and everything else. The church

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does have to come to an understanding a you're not

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the only game in town. Now. You haven't been the

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only game in town really in a very very, very

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very long time. But now it's even quicker for people

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to get that other information again. I mean, just think

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about it, Just think about it. You have your church, right,

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how many church Just think just we're at the end

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of the year. Should be easy for you to calculate

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how many sermons has your church produced in calendar year

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twenty twenty four? How many sermons? All right, you got

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the number right now? How many sermons are available on

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the sermons two point oh app you're talking millions versus

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maybe fifty forty nine, forty eight, forty seven, not that

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many sermons from your millions. How many Christian podcasts are

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there out there, and how many episodes have been produced

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justin calendar year twenty twenty four? Millions? Have millions and

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millions of sermons, millions and millions of podcasts, like, I

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don't know if the church is ever gonna go Well,

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what are we gonna do? I mean, what do you?

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I don't even know what you do with that. I mean,

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it's a reality. I'm not trying. I know some people

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are gonna get mad at me. I'm just pointing out

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a reality. But I agree. Pastoral council no longer competes

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simply with ordinate contrary opinions. It competes with an entire

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ecosystem of digital influences, each offering its interpretation of faith,

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life and truth. Understanding this shift is essential for fulfilling

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our calling in this digital age. Well, I do believe

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the under you need to understand the shift. But again,

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I think that's still minimizing that the shift has already

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been in place for a very long time. Historically, Western

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society recognize religious leaders as a primary source of truth.

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Let me stop right there. Historically Western society has recognized

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religious leaders as primary sources. It's plural, I said it,

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just a source, but primary sources of truth? Ah? Now

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maybe historically all right, So let's consider this. I will argue,

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prior to the Protestant Reformation. Maybe one could argue that

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it was seen that religious leaders were a primary source

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or primary sources of truth. After the Reformation, I will

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argue that that was no longer the case, whether intended

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or unintended, because basically, Luther said, the Church is no

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longer the primary source of truth because the Church is wrong.

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The church is wrong on this point. The church is

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wrong on this point. The Church is wrong on this point.

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The Church is wrong on this point, and I am

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not going to listen to the church because the Bible

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is the source of truth, not the Church. Now, I

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know he may not have stated it in such an

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emphatic way, but that's clearly the implication. The Church is wrong.

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The Church can be wrong. The Church is wrong, can

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be wrong. So the Church has to be checked with

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something else. Now it's the Bible. So guess what After

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the Protestant Reformation, the source of truth is not the Church,

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it's the Bible. And now me as an individual must

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study the Bible so that I can check the church

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to see whether it's being what is being preached is

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true or false. So the Church now is just the

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institution that I must correct, that I must challenge as

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an individual. That's what the Protestant Reformation gave us, whether

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people like to admit that or not. And you may

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hear me repeat that a number of times over the

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next thirty minutes. But that's a very important point. The

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article goes on to say, these leaders served as what

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philosophers called epistemic authorities. So there was a time that

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the religious leaders with the epistemic authorities, they were the

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trusted experts, granted the power to make authoritative claims about

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what's true and real within their domain of expertise. But

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at the Protestant Reformation blew this all up again. I'm

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not seeing Luther. This was his intended, his intended, you know, thought,

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this is what he was attending to do. This was

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his intention, was this, But the all the unintended consequence

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of this was Hey, no, no, no, the church is

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not the trusted expert. The pastor is not the trusted expert.

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The priests are not the trusted expert. They don't have

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power to make authoritative claims. The Bible has the power

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to make authoritative claims. My job now, as an individual,

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it's any authoritative claim that the Church says, I'm supposed

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to now interpret the Bible, and then I determine if

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their authoritative claim is true or false. So then who's

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the authority. Is it the one making the claim or

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the one judging the claim to be whether it's true

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or false. Well, it's the one judging. They become the authority.

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And are pastors seen as having some domain of expertise,

408
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You know they're not. Look, you can post any article

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on the Christian Post about something a pastor says. Within seconds,

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the comment section will be like, he's wrong, he's wrong,

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he's wrong, he's wrong. They don't say, well, he's an expert.

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Pastors have no expertise in the eyes of the people

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sitting in the pew unless they agree with the pastor.

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Then the pastor is an expert. He's a genius, he's amazing,

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until they disagree with him. Pastors were included among those

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trusted to provide reliable knowledge about reality, meaning about reality,

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about knowledge about reality, and about meaning. So there was

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a time pastors were included among those trusted to provide

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reliable knowledge about reality, meaning, and proper conduct. Again, I

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say that is that that blew up? It may not

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have it may not have shown up in a practical way,

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but the unintended consequences that in theory this became just

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not true. Pastors now were people who gave their thoughts

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about knowledge, about reality, and about meaning, and about proper conduct.

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But the people would then go to the Bible and say, sorry,

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you're you're wrong about your knowledge, You're wrong about reality,

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you're wrong about meaning, you're wrong about conduct. They quote,

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as Arnold Kling notes, between the time of Christ and

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about fifteen hundred, the Western world's epistemic authorities were religious leaders. Now,

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I please note that between the time of Christ and

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about fifteen hundred, see we get into the fifteen hundreds,

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we get to the Reformation. The Reformation utterly annihilated that system.

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The Enlightenment. Now they blame the Enlightenment undermine their epistemic

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authority and the authority of science arose or scientists. So

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they're saying, when it came to the Enlightenment, the Enlightenment

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undermined the authority. Now some will argue it was the

437
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Enlightenment that led to the Reformation. The Enlightenment began to

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call in to question the authority of religious leaders and

439
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the authority of the church. And then Luther just really

440
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kicked the door down and said the church is wrong,

441
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and everybody's like, yes, the church is wrong. Down with

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the church. And while Luther was saying down with the church,

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exalt the scripture, everyone was like, down with the church,

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exalt me, because now I'll take the scriptures and I'll

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determine what's right and wrong. And then I'll say down

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with Luther. And then it was down with Calvin, and

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then it was down with Wingley, and then it was

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you just nay. No matter which group arose, someone would

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then take their Bible and say that group is wrong,

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and then someone would take a Bible and say that

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group is wrong. And then someone else would take a

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Bible and say that group is wrong. And then someone

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else would take a Bible and say, but you're wrong.

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Before the fifteen hundreds, yes, the pastors were the experts.

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They gave authoritative interpretation, authoritative explanation, authoritative doctrine. And then

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in the fifteen hundred it was like no scientists. Within

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the general public, scientists became the authority. Pastors lost their authority,

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and within Christian dumb the church lost its authority. Even

459
00:30:59.599 --> 00:31:01.799
though it was supposed to be an exaltation of scripture.

460
00:31:02.319 --> 00:31:07.680
In an actual practice. It became the authority of the individual.

461
00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:18.559
The Enlightenment dramatically altered the authoritative or the authority landscape.

462
00:31:18.640 --> 00:31:23.680
Scientific rationalism rose to prominence, and religious authority was increasingly

463
00:31:23.720 --> 00:31:28.920
regulated to matters of private faith rather than public truth.

464
00:31:29.680 --> 00:31:33.319
But another profound shift has occurred in recent decades. Now

465
00:31:33.440 --> 00:31:37.240
here's what's so weird. It looks at the Enlightenment, but

466
00:31:37.319 --> 00:31:43.680
it ignores the Reformation. Within society, the church lost its

467
00:31:43.720 --> 00:31:48.200
power and science rose to the authoritative level. But what

468
00:31:48.400 --> 00:31:51.319
was going on. That's the Enlightenment going on outside of

469
00:31:51.359 --> 00:31:55.440
the church. Inside the church, it was to down take

470
00:31:55.480 --> 00:31:57.680
down the authority of the church, and take down the

471
00:31:57.720 --> 00:32:02.359
authority of the pastor and elevate the authority supposedly of scripture,

472
00:32:02.480 --> 00:32:05.799
which ultimately led to the rising of the authority of

473
00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:10.160
the individual. The article completely ignores the Reformation. Here it

474
00:32:10.200 --> 00:32:13.240
goes from the Enlightenment to modern times. You can't skip

475
00:32:13.279 --> 00:32:18.000
the Reformation. Everything that happened in Christiandom that leads us

476
00:32:18.039 --> 00:32:27.079
to this issue of today started in the Reformation. The

477
00:32:27.200 --> 00:32:31.000
article jumps from the Enlightenment to while another profound shift

478
00:32:31.039 --> 00:32:35.000
has occurred in recent decades, as basically, you now have

479
00:32:35.119 --> 00:32:39.119
information that's kind of become you know, it's no longer

480
00:32:39.160 --> 00:32:44.119
controlled by one source. The information has become spread to

481
00:32:44.319 --> 00:32:49.599
anyone and everyone, and this has happened through digital technology

482
00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:55.839
has basically this has largely displaced traditional experts, both religious

483
00:32:55.880 --> 00:33:00.000
and scientific, as societies trusted truth sources. So what is

484
00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:03.839
happened is religious leaders are no longer seen as truth sources,

485
00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:06.599
scientists are no longer seeing as truth sources, and the

486
00:33:06.640 --> 00:33:11.240
individual has well. So you can take the Enlightenment, that's

487
00:33:11.279 --> 00:33:14.559
what leads to where we are today in society. You

488
00:33:14.599 --> 00:33:17.440
can take the Reformation, and that's where we ended up

489
00:33:17.480 --> 00:33:21.279
today in the church, and it's the exact same place.

490
00:33:21.599 --> 00:33:25.599
The individual is God, the individual is the Pope, the

491
00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:30.000
individual is the magisterium, the individual is the scientists, the

492
00:33:30.079 --> 00:33:45.599
individual is everything. Today's epistemic authority increasingly resides not with

493
00:33:45.839 --> 00:33:52.160
pastors or scientists and institutional settings, but with influential voices

494
00:33:52.240 --> 00:34:01.200
on social media, popular podcasters, and online content creator. People

495
00:34:01.319 --> 00:34:03.960
are more likely to trust someone they feel they know

496
00:34:04.559 --> 00:34:10.280
through regular online consumption than traditional authorities they encounter only

497
00:34:10.400 --> 00:34:17.559
formally or institutionally. This shift presents unique challenges for pastoral ministry.

498
00:34:19.559 --> 00:34:22.800
Hey now see now the problem is this information just

499
00:34:22.840 --> 00:34:26.960
get anybody everybody. So so now there's challenges for us

500
00:34:26.960 --> 00:34:29.679
in ministry. How are pastors going to respond to this?

501
00:34:37.639 --> 00:34:42.360
It goes on to offer an example, consider, for example,

502
00:34:42.480 --> 00:34:46.960
counseling for a couple struggling in their marriage. And previous decades,

503
00:34:47.000 --> 00:34:49.400
they might have primarily sought guidance from their pastor and

504
00:34:49.440 --> 00:34:52.000
perhaps a few trusted books on Christian marriage. Now it

505
00:34:52.039 --> 00:34:54.320
does acknowledge, See, they still would have been looking for

506
00:34:54.400 --> 00:34:59.480
outside sources. Okay, but all right, today that couple likely

507
00:34:59.559 --> 00:35:03.480
arrives having already consumed hours of relationship advice from social

508
00:35:03.480 --> 00:35:08.360
media influencers, relationship coaches on Instagram, and popular psychology podcasts.

509
00:35:08.480 --> 00:35:12.039
They may reference concepts from these sources more readily than scripture,

510
00:35:12.239 --> 00:35:15.000
and they might evaluate their pastor's counsel against these other

511
00:35:15.079 --> 00:35:19.239
voices rather than the other way around. Okay, that may

512
00:35:19.280 --> 00:35:26.519
be true, all right, what is he gonna take with this?

513
00:35:27.280 --> 00:35:30.480
He says, this new reality fundamentally transforms how we provide

514
00:35:30.519 --> 00:35:35.920
pastoral care. Our authority again, you don't have any authority,

515
00:35:35.960 --> 00:35:38.079
all right, but okay, continue to pretend like you do.

516
00:35:38.840 --> 00:35:43.280
Oh drives me crazy. Our authority now stems not from

517
00:35:43.320 --> 00:35:45.920
the position alone, but from our ability to help our

518
00:35:45.960 --> 00:35:49.039
flock navigate different sources of knowledge while staying anchored in

519
00:35:49.079 --> 00:35:52.800
Scripture's truth. You don't have any authority. You never had

520
00:35:52.800 --> 00:35:56.039
any authority. It's an illusion. It's made up. You have

521
00:35:56.119 --> 00:35:59.559
authority until the person's like you're wrong. Then you no

522
00:35:59.599 --> 00:36:02.119
longer have authority. They can just walk out of your door.

523
00:36:02.280 --> 00:36:04.480
They can go to another church. They can start another

524
00:36:04.559 --> 00:36:06.719
church that can seek to get you fired. They can

525
00:36:06.760 --> 00:36:11.760
split the church, split the denomination. Nobody has any stinking authority.

526
00:36:12.119 --> 00:36:24.960
Stop pretending to understand the contemporary challenge and opportunity for

527
00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.679
pastoral authority, we must first grasp the concept of meta

528
00:36:29.760 --> 00:36:35.159
epistemic authority, a term that describes individuals or institutions trusted

529
00:36:35.199 --> 00:36:38.880
to identify and interpret reliable sources of truth for others.

530
00:36:39.559 --> 00:36:44.239
While an epistemic authority directly provides knowledge, a meta epistemic

531
00:36:44.280 --> 00:36:49.920
authority helps people determine which sources of knowledge they should trust. Now, oh,

532
00:36:50.039 --> 00:36:54.880
my goodness, gracious, there's nothing new. This has nothing to

533
00:36:54.880 --> 00:36:58.280
do with technology. This goes way back to the day

534
00:36:58.360 --> 00:37:02.400
when pastors would say, don't read that book, don't listen

535
00:37:02.440 --> 00:37:06.480
to that Christian broadcaster, don't go to that conference, don't.

536
00:37:06.519 --> 00:37:10.280
The church has always tried to serve as this meta

537
00:37:10.360 --> 00:37:14.199
epistemic authority, telling you which things are, which sources are good,

538
00:37:14.199 --> 00:37:16.599
and which sources are bad. And some people would buy

539
00:37:16.599 --> 00:37:18.400
into that. Then we go to a pastor going tell

540
00:37:18.440 --> 00:37:21.239
me which commentary to get, tell me which book I

541
00:37:21.280 --> 00:37:23.559
should read. Well, they're only going to give you book

542
00:37:23.599 --> 00:37:26.800
and commentaries that agree with him. So then when you

543
00:37:26.840 --> 00:37:29.079
look at the outside source, you're going to have now

544
00:37:29.119 --> 00:37:32.519
reinforcement that the pastor is right. The pastor is not

545
00:37:32.559 --> 00:37:34.039
going to say, well, go look at this, and go

546
00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:35.840
look at this, and go look at this, because those

547
00:37:35.840 --> 00:37:38.039
things are going to say that he is wrong. So no, no, no,

548
00:37:38.079 --> 00:37:40.039
the pastor is only going to tell you to read

549
00:37:40.239 --> 00:37:44.559
well what already agrees with him, which reinforces him being right.

550
00:37:44.679 --> 00:37:46.559
I mean, how do you not fall for that? I

551
00:37:46.360 --> 00:37:53.119
mean I don't get it. So I guess now pastors

552
00:37:53.119 --> 00:37:56.079
should like, don't listen to that podcast, don't watch that

553
00:37:56.199 --> 00:37:59.920
YouTube channel, don't watch this, don't read the only watch

554
00:38:00.119 --> 00:38:03.800
and read what I tell you to. Come on now.

555
00:38:05.440 --> 00:38:10.800
As Klings explains, a meta epistemic authority is someone who

556
00:38:10.920 --> 00:38:14.119
is trusted to tell you who the epistemic authorities are

557
00:38:14.480 --> 00:38:17.039
and who and what they are saying. He uses the

558
00:38:17.079 --> 00:38:21.440
example of The New York Times as a meta epistemic

559
00:38:21.519 --> 00:38:24.880
authority that tells you to believe Anthony Falci, former director

560
00:38:24.880 --> 00:38:28.679
of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the

561
00:38:29.239 --> 00:38:33.199
epistemic authority. Most pastors, particularly in the modern area, have

562
00:38:33.280 --> 00:38:36.519
implicitly understood their role this way. As servants we point

563
00:38:36.519 --> 00:38:39.079
people to scripture rather than as direct sources of truth,

564
00:38:39.480 --> 00:38:43.400
as direct sources of truth themselves. When Paul describes pastors

565
00:38:43.400 --> 00:38:45.840
as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God,

566
00:38:46.079 --> 00:38:50.440
he's describing precisely this kind of derivative authority. However, this

567
00:38:50.519 --> 00:38:53.400
distinction often remains unclear to church members who may have

568
00:38:53.440 --> 00:38:59.039
a muddled view of pastoral authority. Understanding pastoral authority through

569
00:38:59.079 --> 00:39:02.880
meta epistemic lenses offers a compelling way forward. And our

570
00:39:02.920 --> 00:39:07.280
digital age, church members will inevitably encounter numerous spiritual influences online,

571
00:39:07.599 --> 00:39:11.440
and this position pastors to help them discern more wisely,

572
00:39:11.599 --> 00:39:14.400
you know what this is saying, Hey, pastors get to

573
00:39:14.440 --> 00:39:18.360
determine what you should and shouldn't listen to. Oh yeah,

574
00:39:18.440 --> 00:39:22.519
and there's possibly no, no conflict of interest here, because

575
00:39:22.559 --> 00:39:24.199
pastors are going to tell you to listen to the

576
00:39:24.199 --> 00:39:27.960
people he agrees with, so that you're going to hear

577
00:39:28.159 --> 00:39:31.599
that which agrees with what he says. He's not going

578
00:39:31.679 --> 00:39:33.719
to say, go listen to someone who disagrees with him,

579
00:39:33.880 --> 00:39:38.679
of course not so. So does that mean now wait aute,

580
00:39:38.760 --> 00:39:41.480
and this just just just blows up the whole Protestant

581
00:39:41.639 --> 00:39:52.119
system anyway. Now I'm going to go back to I'm

582
00:39:52.119 --> 00:39:54.079
going to go to the bottom paragraph. It gives the

583
00:39:54.199 --> 00:39:59.079
steps that churches are supposed to take. I just have

584
00:39:59.199 --> 00:40:02.199
issues with all of it. Let's go to the end

585
00:40:02.239 --> 00:40:08.039
of this. The digital revolution has diminished pastoral ministry. Instead,

586
00:40:08.079 --> 00:40:11.800
it has forced us to clarify and refine our essential role.

587
00:40:12.119 --> 00:40:16.400
Our calling remains unchanged even as the context evolves. We

588
00:40:16.480 --> 00:40:19.440
will shepherd God's people towards truth and wisdom, but now

589
00:40:19.480 --> 00:40:23.360
we do so by helping them navigate an increasingly complex

590
00:40:23.519 --> 00:40:28.960
information landscape. As we as we fulfilled this role faithfully,

591
00:40:29.239 --> 00:40:33.079
we demonstrate that pastoral authority doesn't rest an institutional position,

592
00:40:33.400 --> 00:40:38.440
but in the persistent, patient, personal, and persistent work of

593
00:40:38.480 --> 00:40:42.280
guiding people towards biblical wisdom. So basically, the pastor's role

594
00:40:42.320 --> 00:40:44.639
now is to help people say, you shouldn't listen to this,

595
00:40:44.719 --> 00:40:47.280
don't listen to this, don't listen to this, listen to

596
00:40:47.320 --> 00:41:00.559
these things. I look, I don't. I h I have

597
00:41:00.639 --> 00:41:02.280
so many issues with all of this. All right, So

598
00:41:02.719 --> 00:41:05.360
there's the article. Now you can go read everything they

599
00:41:05.400 --> 00:41:08.559
have to say. But I had I had some issues

600
00:41:08.559 --> 00:41:11.920
with this. I had some issues with this. Right. So

601
00:41:14.559 --> 00:41:20.000
the writer's analysis seems to reflect a concern that the

602
00:41:21.559 --> 00:41:27.559
readily availability of philological content through digital platform seems to

603
00:41:27.679 --> 00:41:31.480
dilute the influence of local church leader leadership. If I

604
00:41:31.559 --> 00:41:34.079
can speak correctly, I think that that's I think that's

605
00:41:34.119 --> 00:41:37.280
a fair analysis, right. The article seems to reflect a

606
00:41:37.360 --> 00:41:42.800
concern that the availability of philological content on all of

607
00:41:42.840 --> 00:41:47.159
these different digital platforms can dilute the influence of local

608
00:41:47.239 --> 00:41:52.079
church leadership. The author seems to emphasize the importance of

609
00:41:52.199 --> 00:41:55.679
personal pastoral care and the unique role of pastors and

610
00:41:55.719 --> 00:42:01.000
guiding their congregation, a role that supposedly cannot be replicated

611
00:42:01.320 --> 00:42:06.679
by distant or in personal online content. Hey, the pastor

612
00:42:06.719 --> 00:42:09.400
can do. The pastor is present, the pastor is there,

613
00:42:09.519 --> 00:42:15.199
So I guess that makes it all right. So I

614
00:42:15.239 --> 00:42:18.360
did ask AI to critique the article. I said, hey, hey, Ai,

615
00:42:18.400 --> 00:42:22.480
here's this article. Critique it Ai gave me this critique.

616
00:42:23.599 --> 00:42:28.239
While the while, the while the article offers and raises

617
00:42:28.360 --> 00:42:33.239
valid concerns about the potential undermining a pastoral authority, the

618
00:42:33.360 --> 00:42:38.599
perspective may underappreciate the positive aspects of digital media. Podcasts

619
00:42:38.599 --> 00:42:42.119
and online sermons can supplement local teaching, provide access to

620
00:42:42.199 --> 00:42:47.519
diverse viewpoints. Now please note offer access to diverse viewpoints.

621
00:42:47.719 --> 00:42:49.960
It sounds like the article is saying the pastor's job

622
00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:53.039
is to stop people from getting to these diverse viewpoints

623
00:42:53.199 --> 00:42:56.239
and get to a more unified only listen to these

624
00:42:56.800 --> 00:43:01.599
and so yeah, the pastors don't want them, those diverse points.

625
00:43:01.639 --> 00:43:06.280
They don't want that. Podcasts may reach individuals who might

626
00:43:06.320 --> 00:43:09.360
not attend church on a regular basis. The challenge lies

627
00:43:09.400 --> 00:43:14.519
in integrating integrating these resources in a way that compliments,

628
00:43:14.639 --> 00:43:18.920
rather than competes with local pastoral leadership. Moreover, the article

629
00:43:19.800 --> 00:43:23.239
could delve deeper into practical strategies for pastors engage with

630
00:43:23.559 --> 00:43:27.760
digital media, constructively, encouraging pastors to develop their own online

631
00:43:27.800 --> 00:43:32.440
presence or to curate recommend resources. Further, congregation could bridge

632
00:43:32.440 --> 00:43:35.760
the gap between traditional pastoral roles and the digital age.

633
00:43:35.760 --> 00:43:39.719
But so the pastor is going to become the curator. Hey,

634
00:43:39.760 --> 00:43:43.960
I put together, I put together this week's playlist, listen

635
00:43:44.000 --> 00:43:48.440
to these sermons, listen to these podcasts. I guess now

636
00:43:48.440 --> 00:43:50.280
the pastor could do that, So try to keep the

637
00:43:50.280 --> 00:43:55.000
people away from anything that may disagree. But I don't know.

638
00:43:57.840 --> 00:44:01.440
But I then said, Okay, as you've already heard me

639
00:44:01.559 --> 00:44:05.280
offer my criticism. First, I think the article just completely

640
00:44:05.559 --> 00:44:09.199
forgets how it's always been. There's always been these outside sources.

641
00:44:09.239 --> 00:44:12.880
There's always been people weren't talking about what grandmother said.

642
00:44:12.880 --> 00:44:15.880
They were talking about this or this or this or

643
00:44:15.920 --> 00:44:18.679
this or this or this, this person said, this person said.

644
00:44:18.719 --> 00:44:21.320
On Christian radio, and some areas you have three four

645
00:44:21.400 --> 00:44:26.519
Christian radio stations. When I was in Omaha, Nebraska, I

646
00:44:26.559 --> 00:44:29.679
think there was like I think maybe two or three

647
00:44:30.639 --> 00:44:33.840
FM Christian radio stations, maybe two. There probably was like

648
00:44:33.880 --> 00:44:36.960
almost five or six Christian radio stations just in the

649
00:44:37.000 --> 00:44:41.320
Omaha area. And then Family Radio was broadcasting from Iowa

650
00:44:41.800 --> 00:44:46.199
and which people in Omaha could pick up. I mean,

651
00:44:46.199 --> 00:44:48.880
you had plenty. And I can't remember how many times

652
00:44:48.960 --> 00:44:50.519
in church people be like, well did you hear what

653
00:44:50.559 --> 00:44:52.079
so and so said? Did you hear what so? I

654
00:44:52.119 --> 00:44:54.960
didn't know they were doing this on KGBI that was

655
00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:58.079
the station from Grace University. Or Harold Camping said this

656
00:44:58.280 --> 00:45:02.360
or this, and they were always talking about outside sor

657
00:45:02.599 --> 00:45:04.320
or I read this in a Christian book, and that

658
00:45:04.360 --> 00:45:07.719
pastor was constantly getting frustrated. Don't listen to him. Don't

659
00:45:07.719 --> 00:45:10.599
listen to him, don't listen to him, don't read his story. Yeah,

660
00:45:10.800 --> 00:45:12.760
only listen to you. I got it. I got it

661
00:45:12.800 --> 00:45:17.960
because you are the pope. Oh wait, you're not. So.

662
00:45:18.519 --> 00:45:21.159
The article seems to forget the way it's always been.

663
00:45:21.440 --> 00:45:24.480
But to me, what bothered me most about the article

664
00:45:24.760 --> 00:45:28.519
is it mentions the Enlightenment and it leaves out the

665
00:45:28.760 --> 00:45:38.760
entire Protestant Reformation. I will argue that fragmentation and philological

666
00:45:38.920 --> 00:45:46.119
division has been the whole mark feature of the Protestant Reformation.

667
00:45:48.079 --> 00:45:55.760
This fragmented everyone believes something different, this philological division. If

668
00:45:55.800 --> 00:45:58.559
you say, what is the what is the fruit of

669
00:45:58.639 --> 00:46:04.079
the Protestant Reformation, It's been a fragmentation and philological division.

670
00:46:04.199 --> 00:46:07.840
I know people don't want to hear that, but it's true.

671
00:46:08.639 --> 00:46:13.079
The Reformation, which began in the sixteenth century challenged the

672
00:46:13.119 --> 00:46:18.960
centralized authority of the Roman Catholic Church. It emphasized this

673
00:46:19.079 --> 00:46:24.440
is key to remember in the Protestant Reformation. It emphasized

674
00:46:25.079 --> 00:46:32.039
the priesthood of all believers. It emphasized that we are

675
00:46:32.079 --> 00:46:41.679
all priests, all of us, and Scripture is the authority.

676
00:46:42.559 --> 00:46:46.880
And so basically, you are a priest. Scripture is the authority,

677
00:46:47.159 --> 00:46:51.760
and you need to consider your individual conscience, what you feel,

678
00:46:51.800 --> 00:46:57.639
and what you think. Now, this opened the door for

679
00:46:57.880 --> 00:47:03.760
significant philological some may say renewal, but it also opened

680
00:47:03.760 --> 00:47:09.880
the door for very much theological diversity, and it led

681
00:47:09.920 --> 00:47:16.719
to inevitable divisions as this person interpreted the scriptures one

682
00:47:16.760 --> 00:47:20.519
way and this person interpreted the scriptures the other way. Well,

683
00:47:20.559 --> 00:47:24.360
why could they offer an interpretation, Well, because scripture. They've

684
00:47:24.360 --> 00:47:26.840
got access to the scriptures. Oh, and they are a priest.

685
00:47:28.960 --> 00:47:31.639
They the priesthood of all believers. They are a priest.

686
00:47:31.719 --> 00:47:35.599
They have the spiritual authority to read, study, and interpret.

687
00:47:35.800 --> 00:47:38.119
So they would interpret it one way, this group would

688
00:47:38.159 --> 00:47:41.679
interpret it another way, and then well, the damn burst,

689
00:47:41.840 --> 00:47:44.440
it was over. There was nothing holding it back. The

690
00:47:44.559 --> 00:47:52.079
church no longer had the authority. The individuals had the authority.

691
00:47:52.800 --> 00:47:58.639
When we consider the Protestant Reformation and philological fragmentation. We

692
00:47:58.679 --> 00:48:06.840
could consider some specific points the multiplicity of interpretations. One

693
00:48:06.880 --> 00:48:12.360
of the primary outcomes of the Reformation was the rejection

694
00:48:12.480 --> 00:48:20.559
of a single centralized authority, the Pope in favor of

695
00:48:20.800 --> 00:48:27.719
that became the scripture, supposedly being the ultimate authority. However,

696
00:48:30.639 --> 00:48:40.679
this meant that individuals could and did interpret those scriptures.

697
00:48:41.639 --> 00:48:44.079
So it wasn't no longer the Pope, wasn't no longer

698
00:48:44.119 --> 00:48:47.119
the Church, wasn't no longer the magisterium. Now it was

699
00:48:47.159 --> 00:48:50.320
the Bible in the individual. The individual could interpret that

700
00:48:50.400 --> 00:48:53.039
scripture and guess what this led to. This led to

701
00:48:53.119 --> 00:48:57.679
a creation of numerous denominations and different groups and different

702
00:48:57.679 --> 00:49:01.960
thiological streams. This individual could interpret it this way, this

703
00:49:02.039 --> 00:49:04.719
individual could interpret another way. This individual would say that

704
00:49:04.719 --> 00:49:08.159
individual is wrong, and they would create denominations and create churches,

705
00:49:08.199 --> 00:49:12.639
and create groups and create systematic theologies that would reflect

706
00:49:12.840 --> 00:49:21.599
their interpretation, which would say that interpretation is wrong. So

707
00:49:21.880 --> 00:49:24.960
what came out of the Protestant Reformation and multiplicity of

708
00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.440
interpretations A multiplicity of voices no different than in the

709
00:49:29.480 --> 00:49:34.599
podcast age, but these state remained institutionalized. You had the

710
00:49:34.639 --> 00:49:38.079
multiplicity of interpretations. But everybody would then take that interpretation

711
00:49:38.239 --> 00:49:40.159
and make their own group and their own church. They

712
00:49:40.159 --> 00:49:45.199
would institutionalize it. The podcasting world can deinstitutionalize it. Now

713
00:49:45.239 --> 00:49:47.440
the voice may not be connected to a church, but

714
00:49:47.519 --> 00:49:53.679
it's the same concept. So the fragmentation or the Reformation

715
00:49:53.800 --> 00:49:57.320
led to theological fragmentation. The first idea is the multiplicity

716
00:49:57.320 --> 00:50:01.880
of interpretations. No one can deny that, and second denomination splits. Initially,

717
00:50:01.920 --> 00:50:06.400
the Protestant movement was marked by key streams such as Lutheranism, Calvinism,

718
00:50:06.599 --> 00:50:10.320
and Anglicanism, if I could speak correctly. But guess what.

719
00:50:10.440 --> 00:50:15.039
Over time, these major branches fragmented further into hundreds and

720
00:50:15.119 --> 00:50:20.000
even thousands of denominations and independent churches, each with distinct

721
00:50:20.039 --> 00:50:24.239
theological emphasis. See the Reformation happened, and they were like, well,

722
00:50:24.280 --> 00:50:26.480
we got this stream, you got the Anglicans, you got

723
00:50:26.480 --> 00:50:30.000
the Lutherans, You've got you got the Calvinists. Okay, you

724
00:50:30.079 --> 00:50:32.440
got these, you got kind of specific groups. Oh don't

725
00:50:32.440 --> 00:50:34.320
forget the Anabaptist is still thrown in there and all

726
00:50:34.320 --> 00:50:36.840
of this. Okay, So you already had these these different streams,

727
00:50:36.880 --> 00:50:39.920
these different and then it just broke down. Hundreds thousands

728
00:50:40.800 --> 00:50:48.400
just split, split, split, split, split split. So you had

729
00:50:48.400 --> 00:50:51.559
a multiplicity of interpretations, you had denominational splits, and then

730
00:50:51.559 --> 00:50:55.559
you end up with theological pluralism. Well, the Roman Catholic

731
00:50:55.679 --> 00:51:00.559
Church maintained relatively some form of doctrinal uniformity, not all perfect,

732
00:51:00.559 --> 00:51:05.199
but at least some. Protestantism became marked by its diversity.

733
00:51:05.800 --> 00:51:14.239
Debates over baptism, communion, predestination, ecclesiology, eschatology created theological pluralism,

734
00:51:15.239 --> 00:51:24.199
often leading to division not unity. So how does all

735
00:51:24.199 --> 00:51:28.519
of that relate to Well, the digital age. Those podcasters

736
00:51:28.519 --> 00:51:30.920
that seem to undermine pastoral authority, I want you to

737
00:51:30.960 --> 00:51:34.360
note all of that other stuff underminded pastoral authority because

738
00:51:34.400 --> 00:51:36.719
a pastor would have authority until the people disagreed with him.

739
00:51:36.719 --> 00:51:38.599
They would either get rid of him or just go

740
00:51:38.639 --> 00:51:44.159
start another group. Now, when it comes to the proliferation

741
00:51:44.679 --> 00:51:49.760
of podcasts, online sermons, and theological resources, if you really

742
00:51:49.800 --> 00:51:55.400
think about it, it's just a modern extension of the

743
00:51:55.440 --> 00:52:02.519
Reformation's individualistic approach to faith and theology. If you want to,

744
00:52:02.719 --> 00:52:06.440
if you want to complain about podcasts undermining pastoral authority,

745
00:52:06.719 --> 00:52:12.119
I'm sorry. Podcast is the fruit of the Reformation. The

746
00:52:12.159 --> 00:52:16.199
Reformation basically said, you are a priest, you have conscience,

747
00:52:16.400 --> 00:52:22.039
you have the word of God. Figure it out. Individualistic. Well, now,

748
00:52:22.519 --> 00:52:33.000
podcast is just the fruit of that individualistic approach. In

749
00:52:33.039 --> 00:52:37.880
the Reformation time, they didn't have podcasts, but they had

750
00:52:38.000 --> 00:52:41.760
something else, started with a p They didn't have podcasts,

751
00:52:42.000 --> 00:52:46.719
but they had the printing press, and that printing press

752
00:52:46.840 --> 00:52:52.639
was used to facilitate the spread of diverse theological ideas

753
00:52:52.920 --> 00:52:56.039
during the Reformation. Oh, let's put out a catechism, let's

754
00:52:56.039 --> 00:52:58.280
put out this, let's put out a pamphlet, let's put

755
00:52:58.280 --> 00:53:01.360
out there, and then more people got into hands these

756
00:53:01.400 --> 00:53:04.239
divers days. It was just the podcast of its day.

757
00:53:04.440 --> 00:53:08.440
The printing press, which was instrumental to the Reformation, was

758
00:53:08.480 --> 00:53:11.960
the podcast of its day. Don't criticize podcasts. It has

759
00:53:12.000 --> 00:53:17.599
been going on since the Reformation. Now the information or

760
00:53:17.639 --> 00:53:21.239
now the information today may be spread quicker and maybe

761
00:53:21.440 --> 00:53:28.679
more of it, but it's just the fruit of the Reformation. Now.

762
00:53:28.719 --> 00:53:32.800
This may raise questions about how pastoral authority and church

763
00:53:32.880 --> 00:53:35.880
unity can coexist with the accessibility in the variety of

764
00:53:35.880 --> 00:53:39.320
digital resources. But I will argue the printing press raised

765
00:53:39.360 --> 00:53:42.599
questions about how pastoral authority and church unity can coexist

766
00:53:42.679 --> 00:53:48.960
with the accessibility of printed resources now again. At that time, though,

767
00:53:49.119 --> 00:53:51.760
people were much more likely to take their new found

768
00:53:52.039 --> 00:53:57.559
theology and institutionalize it, create a church, create a denomination.

769
00:53:57.880 --> 00:54:01.039
So there was much more of a desire to take

770
00:54:01.079 --> 00:54:04.880
your ideas into an institution, where maybe in twenty twenty

771
00:54:04.960 --> 00:54:07.039
four it's more I'm going to take my ideas and

772
00:54:07.199 --> 00:54:14.239
leave the institution. That may be the only difference. The

773
00:54:14.280 --> 00:54:18.760
fragmentation of theological understanding may be critiqued, but it has

774
00:54:18.840 --> 00:54:22.719
been it. But it also it has also been defended

775
00:54:23.000 --> 00:54:26.679
as a natural consequence of the quest for theological integrity

776
00:54:26.800 --> 00:54:29.840
and a refusal to compromise on matters of conscience. This

777
00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.039
tension between unity and diversity has always been present in Christianity,

778
00:54:34.199 --> 00:54:39.639
with the Reformation merely intensifying this dynamic. I will see

779
00:54:39.679 --> 00:54:45.679
the Reformation blow it up. So I asked Ai about

780
00:54:45.719 --> 00:54:49.159
all of this. AI gave me a reflection. AI said

781
00:54:49.199 --> 00:54:52.360
that my observations that I've shared some of them with

782
00:54:52.440 --> 00:54:55.360
you and gave them to AI, ties into our broader

783
00:54:55.360 --> 00:54:59.360
conversation about the tension between authority and individualism and the

784
00:54:59.360 --> 00:55:04.440
Protestant tradition. If philological fragmentation and division are intrinsic to

785
00:55:04.519 --> 00:55:08.679
Protestantism's DNA. The current digital age might not be a

786
00:55:08.719 --> 00:55:13.360
wholly new challenge, but rather a continuation of the historical trajectory.

787
00:55:14.119 --> 00:55:17.239
The key question is how local pastors and congregations adapt

788
00:55:17.320 --> 00:55:21.760
to these realities without losing the essence of community and accountability.

789
00:55:22.320 --> 00:55:25.440
So Ai agrees with me that this is just a

790
00:55:25.519 --> 00:55:29.440
trajectory of where Protestantism has been headed since the beginning.

791
00:55:30.159 --> 00:55:32.800
It was using the printing press, now uses the internet.

792
00:55:32.960 --> 00:55:36.599
It's still individualism run amok. It's still every individual with

793
00:55:36.679 --> 00:55:39.519
the Bible, making their own interpretation, determining what is true

794
00:55:39.599 --> 00:55:47.280
or false. So I asked Ai, well, does the article

795
00:55:48.360 --> 00:55:52.039
ignore the historical reality? And it says the article's critique

796
00:55:52.039 --> 00:55:55.039
of podcast appears to overlook the historical realities and the

797
00:55:55.039 --> 00:56:00.519
philological consensus of the Reformation. The Protestant Reformation champions like

798
00:56:00.519 --> 00:56:03.679
Sola Scriptorrah and the priesthood of all believers, which inherently

799
00:56:03.760 --> 00:56:09.400
encouraged individual engagement with scripture and diversillological interpretations. These principles

800
00:56:09.480 --> 00:56:14.519
laid the groundwork for the decentralization of ecclesiastical authority and

801
00:56:14.599 --> 00:56:18.880
the proliferation of theological voices precisely the dynamic the article

802
00:56:18.920 --> 00:56:22.320
critiques and the age of podcasts. Yeah, the article completely

803
00:56:22.599 --> 00:56:28.880
ignored the history the Reformation. So AI goes on and

804
00:56:28.920 --> 00:56:31.599
gives me pages of things here to look at, and

805
00:56:32.039 --> 00:56:33.960
I'm just gonna skip all of it. But then I

806
00:56:34.119 --> 00:56:38.559
asked Ai this question. I'm like, okay, Ai, because I

807
00:56:38.719 --> 00:56:40.760
like to bounce off my ideas to Ai to see

808
00:56:40.760 --> 00:56:43.360
if it agrees or disagrees. But AI seems to think

809
00:56:43.440 --> 00:56:48.440
my historical analysis here is accurate, because I don't think.

810
00:56:48.480 --> 00:56:51.000
I don't think there's any way to debate my historical analysis.

811
00:56:51.039 --> 00:56:54.400
The Protestant Reformation blew this all all to pieces, and

812
00:56:54.400 --> 00:56:57.039
there's no way to put it back together. Right, the

813
00:56:57.159 --> 00:56:59.960
Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall, broke into a million pieces,

814
00:57:00.119 --> 00:57:04.719
and we're never putting it back together never ever. Okay,

815
00:57:04.920 --> 00:57:09.960
it's done. So then I asked Ai, but isn't it

816
00:57:10.039 --> 00:57:14.559
true that within the Protestant tradition, the pastor doesn't have

817
00:57:14.639 --> 00:57:18.960
any real meaningful authority since each individual is called to study,

818
00:57:19.280 --> 00:57:22.000
interpret the Bible and decide if what a pastor is

819
00:57:22.039 --> 00:57:24.920
preaching or what a church is teaching is true or not.

820
00:57:27.280 --> 00:57:31.159
So AI said, you are correct. I'm like well, thank you.

821
00:57:31.239 --> 00:57:35.159
That's it. That concludes this podcast. AI said, I am correct.

822
00:57:35.679 --> 00:57:39.960
That's it. We're done. Okay, Ai has spoken, this is

823
00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:42.360
the way, all right, all right, okay, okay. Maybe I'm

824
00:57:42.440 --> 00:57:46.280
being a little dramatic there, but AI acknowledges yeah. Within

825
00:57:46.320 --> 00:57:51.400
the Protestant Reformation, the pastor has no real meaningful authority.

826
00:57:51.599 --> 00:57:56.039
We can all pretend he can stand behind the curtain

827
00:57:56.039 --> 00:57:59.679
and say I'm the mighty Wizard of Oz, but someone's

828
00:57:59.679 --> 00:58:01.559
gonna go back to curtain and go, no, you're not.

829
00:58:01.599 --> 00:58:05.079
You're just a little guy pulling levers. All right, you

830
00:58:05.400 --> 00:58:11.800
don't have any authority pastoral. Now, Ai tries to be

831
00:58:11.880 --> 00:58:17.119
more diplomatic and politically correct. Pastoral authority is often limited

832
00:58:17.880 --> 00:58:21.039
by the principle that each individual believer has a right

833
00:58:21.519 --> 00:58:25.079
and a responsibility to study and interpret the scriptures for themselves.

834
00:58:26.039 --> 00:58:31.880
This belief flows directly from key Reformation doctrines such as

835
00:58:32.679 --> 00:58:37.480
Sola scriptorra the priesthood of all believers with the emphasis

836
00:58:38.519 --> 00:58:42.320
which emphasizes the sufficiency of scripture and the believers direct

837
00:58:42.360 --> 00:58:46.559
access to God without needing clerical mediation. So you don't

838
00:58:46.559 --> 00:58:48.960
need to go to a period priest, you can go

839
00:58:49.039 --> 00:58:52.039
directly to God. You got the Bible. It is sufficient

840
00:58:52.119 --> 00:58:55.039
for everything, and you have the right and the authority

841
00:58:55.079 --> 00:58:58.679
to interpret it. I mean all that flows from the Reformation,

842
00:58:58.920 --> 00:59:02.280
because it was a move away from church ecclesiastical authority

843
00:59:02.400 --> 00:59:09.760
to individual authority. So consequently, what happens while a pastor's

844
00:59:09.800 --> 00:59:15.440
authority is not intrinsic, it is conditional. It derives from

845
00:59:15.519 --> 00:59:19.960
the pastor's ability to faithfully teach scripture. But this is

846
00:59:20.119 --> 00:59:23.480
judged by whom who gets to say if the pastor

847
00:59:23.519 --> 00:59:29.000
is faithfully teaching scripture the individual yes to see. The

848
00:59:29.039 --> 00:59:33.440
pastor can say I'm faithfully teaching scripture, and the person

849
00:59:33.480 --> 00:59:36.039
in the pew can be like, no, you are not.

850
00:59:36.519 --> 00:59:39.320
I stand on the word of God. I can do

851
00:59:39.440 --> 00:59:42.760
no other. My mind and my will is captured by

852
00:59:42.760 --> 00:59:45.039
the word of God. My conscience is captured by the

853
00:59:45.039 --> 00:59:47.599
word of God. All I can do is stand and

854
00:59:47.679 --> 00:59:51.440
you are wrong, pastor. This church is wrong. You're all wrong,

855
00:59:51.639 --> 00:59:54.440
and I'm right because I get to interpret the Bible.

856
00:59:54.599 --> 01:00:02.239
That's exactly what the Protestant Reformation led to. I know this.

857
01:00:03.760 --> 01:00:06.639
I can't be much more. It doesn't I Look, there

858
01:00:06.679 --> 01:00:08.199
was a time in my christianof I thought, well, if

859
01:00:08.239 --> 01:00:10.760
I go to this school and I get an associate's degree.

860
01:00:10.800 --> 01:00:12.800
Then I'll get a bachelor's degree. Then I'll get a

861
01:00:12.840 --> 01:00:15.760
master's degree. I want another associate's degree. Wait, I want

862
01:00:15.800 --> 01:00:18.320
another bachelor's degree. I want another I'm gonna go back

863
01:00:18.320 --> 01:00:20.599
and get another bachelor's degree. And I kept getting this

864
01:00:20.800 --> 01:00:22.639
diploma and this degree and go from this school to

865
01:00:22.679 --> 01:00:24.440
this school. And you know what it matters. In the end,

866
01:00:24.800 --> 01:00:26.800
I can sit here and say whatever, and someone will

867
01:00:26.840 --> 01:00:31.599
be like, you're wrong, You're wrong, you're wrong. Okay, Well

868
01:00:31.599 --> 01:00:36.760
then so my education doesn't matter, position doesn't matter. The

869
01:00:36.840 --> 01:00:40.360
individual gets to say you're wrong, you're wrong. I haven't

870
01:00:40.400 --> 01:00:42.840
studied it, I haven't gone to school for it, but

871
01:00:42.880 --> 01:00:50.760
you're wrong. It's just a facade. It's not a podcast issue.

872
01:00:50.800 --> 01:00:58.760
This is a reformation issue. The authority. This is what

873
01:00:58.800 --> 01:01:02.239
AI says about pastoral authority. The authority is only meaningful

874
01:01:02.320 --> 01:01:04.719
in so far as congregants agree with the that the

875
01:01:04.840 --> 01:01:08.039
teaching alliance with scripture. If a congregation believes a pastor's

876
01:01:08.039 --> 01:01:12.119
interpretation is incorrect, they're free, according to Protestant principles, to

877
01:01:12.199 --> 01:01:17.159
disagree or even leave the church, or drive out the

878
01:01:17.159 --> 01:01:21.159
pastor remove the pastor and it doesn't matter if it's

879
01:01:21.199 --> 01:01:23.960
elder elders can try to. I've seen I've seen the

880
01:01:24.000 --> 01:01:28.239
splits happen in every kind of congregational led, pastoral led

881
01:01:28.559 --> 01:01:35.280
elder led The things fall apart. There's infighting, backbiting, gossip, slander, division,

882
01:01:35.679 --> 01:01:40.760
because everyone is the authority, even though we try to pretend. No, no,

883
01:01:40.760 --> 01:01:49.880
now the past who see authority until you disagree. The

884
01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:52.960
Reformation principle asserts that the idea of the priesthood of

885
01:01:52.960 --> 01:01:56.280
all believers. This Reformation principle asserts that every Christian has

886
01:01:56.320 --> 01:01:59.639
the right and ability to interpret scripture. It basically takes

887
01:01:59.639 --> 01:02:07.320
still logical understanding. It says anyone can have it. It

888
01:02:07.360 --> 01:02:11.519
breaks it up. It democratizes. If we want to use

889
01:02:11.920 --> 01:02:16.280
the word AI uses, it democratizes. Theyllo logical understanding, placing

890
01:02:16.360 --> 01:02:19.320
ultimate authority in the Bible itself rather than a pastor

891
01:02:19.440 --> 01:02:23.960
or ecclesiastical structure. Hey, the Bible is the authority. Now

892
01:02:24.000 --> 01:02:26.000
you have the authority to interpret it. And once you

893
01:02:26.039 --> 01:02:29.559
interpret the authority then of the Bible, then you by

894
01:02:29.639 --> 01:02:32.559
the authority given to you because you're a priest. Because

895
01:02:32.599 --> 01:02:34.719
of the priest of all believers, you can now judge

896
01:02:34.719 --> 01:02:42.960
the ecclesiastical structure, just as Luther did. In practice, this

897
01:02:43.079 --> 01:02:46.199
means the congregants are expected to evaluate whether a pastor's

898
01:02:46.199 --> 01:02:50.360
teaching is biblically sound, effectively limiting the pastor's ability to

899
01:02:50.400 --> 01:02:54.519
assert unquestioned authority. The people are supposed to listen and

900
01:02:54.599 --> 01:03:01.480
determine right or wrong. Protestants are often encouraged to follow

901
01:03:01.519 --> 01:03:07.119
passages like Acts seventeen eleven, which commends the Bahreans for

902
01:03:07.239 --> 01:03:09.800
examining the scriptures to see if Paul's teachings was true.

903
01:03:10.239 --> 01:03:14.719
This mindset reinforces the idea that individuals, not pastors, have

904
01:03:14.800 --> 01:03:20.480
the final responsibility for discerning truth. This dynamic often creates

905
01:03:20.559 --> 01:03:25.079
a basically a relationship between pastors and congregants where pastors guide,

906
01:03:25.320 --> 01:03:29.039
but individuals remain the ultimate authority over their own beliefs.

907
01:03:29.119 --> 01:03:32.400
Who's the ultimate authority the people in the church, not

908
01:03:32.639 --> 01:03:38.079
the pastor. So pastoral authority is a figment of everyone's imagination.

909
01:03:38.960 --> 01:03:42.880
Podcasts are not undermining it. It was undermined in the

910
01:03:42.920 --> 01:03:46.440
Protestant Reformation when Luther looked at the Catholic Church and

911
01:03:46.480 --> 01:03:48.840
said you're wrong. That gave everyone else the right to

912
01:03:48.840 --> 01:03:51.199
look to Luther and say you're wrong. And that it

913
01:03:51.280 --> 01:03:53.440
gave everyone else the right to tell those people who

914
01:03:53.480 --> 01:03:55.440
told Luther wrong that they were wrong, and then the

915
01:03:55.480 --> 01:03:57.519
people after them could tell them that they were wrong,

916
01:03:57.679 --> 01:03:59.599
and you're wrong, and you're wrong, and you're wrong, and

917
01:03:59.599 --> 01:04:03.639
you're wrong, and everyone's wrong but me. Oh wait, I'm

918
01:04:03.639 --> 01:04:05.320
going to find a couple of people who agree with me.

919
01:04:05.519 --> 01:04:07.519
But now we'll make a church. We are right and

920
01:04:07.559 --> 01:04:17.320
everyone else is wrong. So if you take all of

921
01:04:17.440 --> 01:04:24.280
that and now apply it to the article, if pastors

922
01:04:24.320 --> 01:04:28.559
do not have inherent authority but derive it from their

923
01:04:28.960 --> 01:04:33.400
biblical teaching, then podcasts and other digital resources merely extend

924
01:04:33.480 --> 01:04:36.280
the range of voices believers are evaluating. This is not

925
01:04:36.360 --> 01:04:39.679
a new challenge, but a modern manifestation of the Protestant

926
01:04:39.679 --> 01:04:47.519
emphasis on individual discernment. So you don't have any inherent authority,

927
01:04:47.760 --> 01:04:50.840
So the whole article just is missing the entire point.

928
01:04:51.280 --> 01:04:55.159
Congregants have always been free to compare their pastor's teachings

929
01:04:55.400 --> 01:04:59.840
with those of others, whether through books, conferences, and now podcasts.

930
01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:04.719
The podcast is just the fruit of what started. The

931
01:05:04.760 --> 01:05:08.559
digital age intensifies the plurality of voices available, but it

932
01:05:08.599 --> 01:05:12.559
doesn't fundamentally change the Protestant approach to authority. Believers are

933
01:05:12.599 --> 01:05:16.199
already accustomed to weighing and deciding between competing theological views.

934
01:05:16.519 --> 01:05:23.920
Podcasts simply make this process more accessible and varied. And

935
01:05:23.960 --> 01:05:27.400
the Protestant tradition, pastors have never had absolute authority and

936
01:05:27.440 --> 01:05:31.159
said their authority is contingent on their ability to teach

937
01:05:31.159 --> 01:05:37.079
scripture in a way that congregants find convincing. The proliferation

938
01:05:37.199 --> 01:05:40.880
of podcasts does not undermine this system. It simply provides

939
01:05:40.920 --> 01:05:44.239
more voices for believers to consider, which is consistent with

940
01:05:44.360 --> 01:05:49.400
Protestant emphasis on individual discernment. While pastors can and maybe

941
01:05:49.440 --> 01:05:53.360
even should, play a vital role and their congregants spiritual lives,

942
01:05:53.480 --> 01:05:57.000
their authority is always subject to the believer's ultimate responsibility

943
01:05:57.159 --> 01:06:01.119
to study and interpret the scriptures for themselves elves. So

944
01:06:01.159 --> 01:06:05.159
the bottom line is podcasts don't undermine pastoral authority because

945
01:06:05.199 --> 01:06:09.079
pastors never really had any authority, because the Protestant Reformation

946
01:06:09.159 --> 01:06:15.400
destroyed that entire concept. And in a Protestant system where

947
01:06:15.440 --> 01:06:18.599
the individual is supposed to not only has the right

948
01:06:18.679 --> 01:06:21.679
and the authority to do so, but has the responsibility

949
01:06:21.840 --> 01:06:25.039
to read, study, and then judge whether what is preached

950
01:06:25.119 --> 01:06:28.280
is true, or false. Then the authority rest with the individual,

951
01:06:28.519 --> 01:06:30.679
not with the church, not with the pastor, and we

952
01:06:30.719 --> 01:06:35.199
should just stop playing games and just admit what it

953
01:06:35.320 --> 01:06:39.079
is and what is the hallmark? What is the fruit

954
01:06:39.320 --> 01:06:49.760
of the Protestant Reformation? Division, disagreement, division, that's the fruit

955
01:06:49.800 --> 01:06:53.519
of it. You say, are you against the Protestant Reformation.

956
01:06:53.599 --> 01:06:57.480
I'm not saying that. I'm being honest about what happened. See,

957
01:06:57.519 --> 01:06:59.679
you're not allowed to be honest about it because people think, oh,

958
01:06:59.719 --> 01:07:01.800
you're you want us to go back to the Catholic Church.

959
01:07:01.920 --> 01:07:05.840
I'm just saying that the result of the Reformation, that's

960
01:07:05.880 --> 01:07:18.000
the fruit of it. Division, disagreement, dispute, debate, And you

961
01:07:18.039 --> 01:07:21.360
can have pastors and and everybody can like, oh, pastoral authority.

962
01:07:21.480 --> 01:07:24.440
I'm going to submit to my pastor until you don't

963
01:07:24.920 --> 01:07:28.440
like what they say, or until and then what you'll

964
01:07:28.440 --> 01:07:32.519
say is this is what the game church members play.

965
01:07:32.880 --> 01:07:35.159
It's not that I don't like what the pastor says.

966
01:07:35.360 --> 01:07:37.840
I just have concluded that what the pastor is saying

967
01:07:38.079 --> 01:07:42.440
is not biblical because of my extensive study of scripture.

968
01:07:42.639 --> 01:07:45.760
Oh you have determined the pastor is wrong? Yeah, your

969
01:07:45.920 --> 01:07:49.000
extensive study of scripture. I bet you really spent a

970
01:07:49.039 --> 01:07:50.840
lot of time. All you got to say is I

971
01:07:50.880 --> 01:07:53.480
don't believe the Bible. The pastor is right with according

972
01:07:53.519 --> 01:07:55.440
to scripture, and then you can just say I don't

973
01:07:55.440 --> 01:07:56.679
have to agree with the pastor, and you can go

974
01:07:56.960 --> 01:07:59.119
to another church, start another church, or do whatever you want,

975
01:08:00.400 --> 01:08:03.199
because you're ultimately the authority. And any game you played,

976
01:08:03.239 --> 01:08:06.320
you just played a game. Man. You just allowed the

977
01:08:06.360 --> 01:08:08.679
wizard to be the Wizard of Oz until you got tired,

978
01:08:08.679 --> 01:08:11.159
and then you pulled the curtain back, going, ah, you're nothing,

979
01:08:14.320 --> 01:08:20.800
because ultimately you're in charge in the first place. And

980
01:08:20.840 --> 01:08:22.880
who are you going to listen to online? The people

981
01:08:22.880 --> 01:08:25.800
who agree with you? That's what you kind of do.

982
01:08:26.039 --> 01:08:27.800
What are the books you're gonna read? The ones that

983
01:08:27.840 --> 01:08:30.479
agree with you? All you're gonna do is just find out,

984
01:08:30.560 --> 01:08:33.239
whether it's a church or whether it's online. You're just

985
01:08:33.279 --> 01:08:35.720
going to surround yourself with stuff that you agree with,

986
01:08:35.840 --> 01:08:39.079
and then everyone thinks that they're right, and nothing's supposed

987
01:08:39.119 --> 01:08:41.960
to ever enter into that echo chamber to say, guys,

988
01:08:42.039 --> 01:08:45.600
maybe you're all wrong. Sh silence him away with him,

989
01:08:45.800 --> 01:08:50.720
how heretic we are right. We are the ones who

990
01:08:50.760 --> 01:08:58.880
have the truth. I know that's a pessimistic and very

991
01:08:59.319 --> 01:09:03.760
cynical view. But the article is just completely misrepresent It's

992
01:09:03.760 --> 01:09:08.199
not dealing with history. The Enlightenment was the problem. The Enlightenment,

993
01:09:08.520 --> 01:09:10.800
some would argue, led to the Reformation. Some would say

994
01:09:10.840 --> 01:09:15.039
without the Enlightenment, you don't get the Reformation. Some will

995
01:09:15.079 --> 01:09:17.800
say without the rights of humanism, you don't really get

996
01:09:17.800 --> 01:09:22.359
the right because humanism was like, hey, the individual, not

997
01:09:22.520 --> 01:09:25.279
the institution. The Enlightenment, all of those states, all of

998
01:09:25.279 --> 01:09:29.079
those philosophies came together to give us the Protestant Reformation.

999
01:09:29.199 --> 01:09:32.159
It's not so simple as we always want to make it, like, oh,

1000
01:09:32.439 --> 01:09:38.159
one man stood against the heretics, one man the righteous one. Yeah,

1001
01:09:38.239 --> 01:09:41.600
until then everyone else then said, oh he's wrong. Becau.

1002
01:09:41.600 --> 01:09:43.359
I mean, not all of us are Lutherans, so we

1003
01:09:43.439 --> 01:09:45.560
all obviously, if you're not a Lutheran, you think the

1004
01:09:45.600 --> 01:09:53.039
Lutherans are wrong, and then you thuck the And if

1005
01:09:53.039 --> 01:09:54.720
you're not a Calvinist, you think the calvin Is is wrong.

1006
01:09:54.720 --> 01:09:56.239
But if you're a Calvinist, you think the other people

1007
01:09:56.279 --> 01:09:58.720
are wrong. I mean, goes on. If you're not a Presbyterian,

1008
01:09:58.800 --> 01:10:01.399
you think the Presbyterians are wrong. If you're just say

1009
01:10:01.399 --> 01:10:07.520
everyone thinks they're stinking right. Everyone does. Truth is whatever

1010
01:10:07.520 --> 01:10:09.960
the individual says. It is, like people like, no, it's

1011
01:10:10.000 --> 01:10:14.399
the Bible. It's your interpretation of the Bible. Because the

1012
01:10:14.439 --> 01:10:17.319
person sitting next to you, using the exact same Bible

1013
01:10:17.399 --> 01:10:20.680
you're using, says that you're wrong. And you say, well,

1014
01:10:20.720 --> 01:10:22.199
they don't know how to read. And they'll say you

1015
01:10:22.199 --> 01:10:23.479
don't know how to read. You say, well, they don't

1016
01:10:23.479 --> 01:10:25.560
know how to interpret. You don't know how to interpret. Well,

1017
01:10:25.600 --> 01:10:28.600
because we don't even agree on what the hermeneutical principles

1018
01:10:28.680 --> 01:10:30.920
are and how to I'll just forget it all, just

1019
01:10:31.159 --> 01:10:33.439
call it a day, and this all be done with it.

1020
01:10:35.520 --> 01:10:39.960
Just the article just blew my mind that, oh, those

1021
01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:44.319
podcasters are undermining our authority. Give me a break. It's

1022
01:10:44.359 --> 01:10:48.720
been going on forever. It's not podcasters, it's not bloggers.

1023
01:10:50.720 --> 01:10:58.000
It's been books, it's been pamphlets, it's been everything. Now

1024
01:10:58.039 --> 01:11:00.600
some people say, well, what do we do? I've only

1025
01:11:00.600 --> 01:11:03.079
said it about a million times. The only thing we

1026
01:11:03.079 --> 01:11:07.039
can really do is first acknowledge the reality. And nobody

1027
01:11:07.079 --> 01:11:09.760
wants to acknowledge that reality because it's very uncomfortable. It

1028
01:11:09.800 --> 01:11:12.399
really is, and it can lead you to want to

1029
01:11:12.439 --> 01:11:14.119
just throw your hands up and say I got better

1030
01:11:14.119 --> 01:11:16.560
things to do. I'm just going to go sell everything

1031
01:11:16.600 --> 01:11:18.560
I have and go live on a beach somewhere until

1032
01:11:18.560 --> 01:11:21.319
I die and just watch the sun rises and sunsets

1033
01:11:21.600 --> 01:11:23.600
come up over the water and wait till my life

1034
01:11:23.640 --> 01:11:25.319
to end. Because there's no point in all of this.

1035
01:11:25.880 --> 01:11:28.159
I understand that. That's, you know, but we got to

1036
01:11:28.199 --> 01:11:30.159
acknowledge it. I'm not saying we should go sell everything

1037
01:11:30.159 --> 01:11:32.079
and sit on a beach, but okay, you can go

1038
01:11:32.119 --> 01:11:34.560
sit on the beach. I'll probably go to Salem or somewhere. Okay,

1039
01:11:34.560 --> 01:11:38.199
but you get the idea. But the second thing we

1040
01:11:38.279 --> 01:11:43.560
can do is we can at least try say, hmm,

1041
01:11:44.960 --> 01:11:47.960
maybe we just get back to the Bible, try to

1042
01:11:47.960 --> 01:11:51.119
set aside all of our theological presuppositions and try to

1043
01:11:51.199 --> 01:11:55.680
learn and read and handle the Bible and it's historical context.

1044
01:11:55.720 --> 01:11:58.479
Now everyone says that, but as we've seen over and

1045
01:11:58.479 --> 01:12:01.039
over and over, I know if we ever really just

1046
01:12:01.079 --> 01:12:09.039
get to the scriptures, because we have great difficulty in

1047
01:12:09.119 --> 01:12:12.039
letting the scriptures say what they say we want. We

1048
01:12:12.079 --> 01:12:15.600
all have these things we oh, it's just very difficult.

1049
01:12:18.800 --> 01:12:21.000
And you hear how many sermon reviews we do, and

1050
01:12:21.039 --> 01:12:24.119
I'm like, oh my goodness, once again, we've just left

1051
01:12:24.159 --> 01:12:26.720
what the scriptures actually say. We're reading into the scripture,

1052
01:12:26.760 --> 01:12:30.000
we're adding to the scripture. That's the whole reason we're

1053
01:12:30.000 --> 01:12:32.439
doing the Isaiah forty through fifty five thing. It's because

1054
01:12:32.439 --> 01:12:34.880
I got tired of how Isaiah forty, forty one, forty two,

1055
01:12:34.880 --> 01:12:37.840
and forty three is being utilized in sermons. That's why

1056
01:12:37.920 --> 01:12:40.760
we did the whole First Samuel twenty sixth thing, the

1057
01:12:40.840 --> 01:12:43.239
James one nineteen to twenty seventh thing. And it's not

1058
01:12:43.279 --> 01:12:47.319
because it's my theology versus their theology. It's because I'm

1059
01:12:47.359 --> 01:12:50.760
just saying what does the text actually say based on

1060
01:12:50.800 --> 01:12:57.920
the context on which it's found, and not worry whether

1061
01:12:57.960 --> 01:13:09.199
it agrees with any philological team. The article raises an issue,

1062
01:13:10.359 --> 01:13:15.359
but it raises an issue by ignoring the real issue,

1063
01:13:15.840 --> 01:13:21.199
which is the unintended consequences of the Protestant Reformation. They

1064
01:13:21.199 --> 01:13:26.800
are clear, they are evident, and they have been severe.

1065
01:13:32.039 --> 01:13:34.359
Thanks for listening, God bless