Over opinionated with Josh Scott
Thank you for your time. Please enjoy and if you like the podcast feel free to check out my other episodes listed on my page. God Bless you All.
- Josh Scott, Host of Over Opinionated.
Over opinionated with Josh Scott
Who is Jesus? (replay)
The most important question anyone will ever answer is "Who is Jesus?" because how we respond determines everything in this life and the next.
• Different faith traditions have vastly different views of Jesus that fall short of biblical truth
• Jewish perspective often sees Jesus as merely a failed revolutionary against Rome
• Muslims view Jesus as a great prophet but deny his divinity and resurrection
• Mormonism teaches Jesus is a created being, spiritually related to Lucifer
• The Trinity is essential to understanding Jesus as eternally God the Son
• Biblical evidence for the Trinity includes Genesis 1:26, John 1:1-3, and Luke 3:21-22
• Jesus claimed to be the only way to salvation, not just one path among many
• God's grace is sufficient to cover our ongoing struggles with sin
• Theology matters – a false Jesus (even one that seems close to the biblical Jesus) cannot save
• When we sin after salvation, we're "playing with the nails" that pierced Jesus' hands
Please keep me in prayer as I feel God calling me to share the gospel more actively in my community, holding signs with Bible verses and engaging people in conversations about Jesus.
It's overopinionated with Josh Klott apologize. I said I was going to get this out this weekend and I wasn't able to, but I may just try to record on Saturday or Sunday and then release it Monday for the week. I'm still feeling around. I'm still very young to podcasting. I am trying very hard. I've had some personal issues with my car, I had to get a new car and other things. I'm not a big podcaster but I care about this podcast because I care about my listeners who tune in and we're small but steady. We still get those numbers small but steady and everybody matters. But ultimately, no matter what you do, if it's podcasting, if it's whatever, okay, we do it for an audience of one, because if we don't do it for the audience of one, then it becomes the reason we're doing it for is ourselves. We're the one we're trying to please other than God.
Speaker 1:Today's episode is not political at all, although there is a ton of political news out this week. This podcast isn't just about politics. This podcast is mostly about biblical truth. Hopefully that's what it becomes, but we're going to address politics because that's something I'm fairly knowledgeable in. With that being said, I do want to offer a correction of the last podcast, I said that the Republican presidential debates were going to come up next month. I was wrong. I think they're coming up next week and I will do a review of that.
Speaker 1:That's all I'm going to say about the term of politics, but I want to talk about something I think is the ultimate question that anyone could ever answer. It's the most important question you will ever answer in your life, and that is who is Jesus? Okay, there's a lot of things that he's not and there's a lot of things that he is, and the want you answer who Jesus is and who Jesus is in your life will determine everything in your life here and after. So we've got to get this right. Who is Jesus To Jews? Jesus was just a rebel who was killed for trying to overthrow the Roman Empire. Okay, I got a little clip from the conservative commentator from the Daily Wire, ben Shapiro, and I personally really like Ben Shapiro. I pray for his salvation, but I want you to hear what he thinks Jesus is, who he thinks Jesus is. This is from an interview from the Joe Rogan podcast from Ben Shapiro.
Speaker 3:From a Jewish point of view, where we don't believe in the divinity of Christ. There you can make an argument that the Gospels which were written he was just a prophet.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, we don't even believe he was a prophet. What do you think he was? What do you guys think what I think he was? Historically, I think he was a Jew who tried to lead a revolt against the Romans and got killed for his trouble, just like a lot of other Jews at that time who were crucified for trying to lead revolts against the Romans and got killed for their trouble. You know from a Jew.
Speaker 1:Just a Jew who tried to lead a revolt against Rome and killed for his trouble.
Speaker 1:Now, obviously, Ben is of a different faith than I am. I am. He's a Jew and I'm a Christian. But he's fundamentally wrong on who Jesus was. He was not just a Jew who led a revolt against Rome and was killed for his trouble. He was the sacrifice and the Lamb of God that came down before he made the world. He knew he would have to come down and sacrifice himself and die for the saved. He knew that he made that choice. He didn't lead a revolt against Rome. He said to Pilate if this was of my kingdom, I would have my disciples fight back I'm paraphrasing but I'm of the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1:Now, obviously, there's a big rift between Jews and Christians, and I love Jewish people, as I think God loves Jewish people and has blessed Jewish people greatly. But when you have preachers that say Jewish people have salvation, they're not being very loving. Jewish people have salvation, they're not being very loving or they have very bad theology or both, because Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. He is the only way to the Father. You cannot be saved without Jesus, even if you're the historical seed of Abraham, okay. So that's why I pray for Ben Shapiro daily to get salvation. I like him. I listen to his podcast almost every day I disagree with him, and I disagree with him on some financial issues because I'm more of a populist on politics, but when it comes to culture, when it comes to overall social conservatism and the lives of the unborn, I think Ben has done a good work and, believe it or not, I think God has used Ben Shapiro, but he's not saved, he's in rebellion. And theology matters.
Speaker 1:Okay, folks, some people will say, well, I don't want to talk about theology, let's just talk about Jesus' love. If you're going to talk about Jesus, you're going to talk about theology. It's just the study of God and the study of scripture. It's not an evil word. People make politics to be an evil word. Religion and theology those are not evil words. Now, do I want to be religious in the sense that I have to do this and jump this hoop and do that to get saved? No, I believe Christianity is a relationship between me and God, god and me. But am I religious in the sense that I believe in God? Yes, so it depends what definition we're talking about. Politics, religion, theology, these are not bad and scary words.
Speaker 1:They are words that have divided people but we need to have, regardless of your theology, regardless of your politics and regardless of your religion we need to have these serious conversations discussing our differences, and we need debates in a respectful manner Instead of saying I'm afraid of conflict, I'm going to run away. We've ran away too much. I love my grandfather. He's a good, godly man, but he'll always say you know, avoid this. You know, avoid this topic. If you're going to talk to a Mormon, you know, avoid this, avoid this topic. If you're going to talk to a Mormon, just try not to bring. If I don't bring up the gospel to a Mormon, how can they be saved? What if it's my job at Walmart when I run into a Mormon and we're chatting? What if it's my job to tell them about the real Jesus? I can't just say I'm not going to do this because I'm afraid of confrontation.
Speaker 1:Paul argued with people. It said he reasoned with people. Now, was Paul ugly? Was Paul mean? No, when he was reasoning with people, no. Now Paul did get stern. He was a father that would correct his children sternly. And when you read the epistles. But was he being mean when he was doing apologetics? No, apologetics is very important. The gospel says go into the world, getting them saved, baptizing them in the name of the Father, son and the Holy Spirit. It does not say sit in a church building and hope that they come. There's a difference. Let's move on.
Speaker 1:What do Muslims think of Jesus? Actually, this will surprise a lot of you, and I love the Jewish people. I've said that and I'm a big supporter of the state, the modern-day political state of Israel. That doesn't mean I think everything they do is right, but I support them because I think that they're the best country in that region. Okay, but moving on, what do Muslims think of Jesus? Muslims actually have a higher view of Jesus than Jews. Do Jews think that Jesus was a rebel who was killed, and a lot of them, and a lot of the Orthodox, really hate Jesus. They might not openly say it in the Christian culture, but a lot of them really hate him. I'm not saying all of them, okay. I'm just making a general statement that they hate him, not all of them, okay. Just want to clarify. But let's move over to Islam.
Speaker 1:Muslims believe that Jesus was one of the greatest prophets of Allah, of God, okay, and that he was born of the Virgin Mary. So pretty close so far, okay, mary. So pretty close so far. They believe that he will return before judgment day to restore justice and defeat the false Messiah, but they don't believe he is God. They don't believe he is eternal. They don't believe that he died on a cross and then was resurrected like we do. They don't believe that. They don't believe that he is part of the Trinity and we'll talk more about the Trinity they don't believe that he died on the cross for our sins and was resurrected. They come close. They come close to a lot of our beliefs, but not close enough for salvation. And you can get close in your beliefs about Jesus and still go to hell. That sounds scary. That sounds like God is being vindictive. But Jesus warned us as false teachers and we have to submit to the true Jesus, not the Mormon Jesus, not the Jewish Jesus. When I say the Jewish Jesus, I mean the religiously Jewish Jesus. Jesus was Jewish, but I mean religiously and not the Mormon Jesus.
Speaker 1:Mormons believe that he was made from Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother in heaven, like we all were. He's a child of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother in heaven, like we all were. He's a child of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. They believe that Jesus and the Father are two distinct beings, not being both God together as in a triune nature. They believe that Jesus and Lucifer, like we are, are spirit children of God the Father. I mean of Heavenly Father and of Heavenly Mother. They don't have the same Jesus okay, joseph Smith didn't believe in the Trinity. They don't have the same God the Father that we do. They call him Heavenly Father, but it's not our Heavenly Father. It was someone that was once a man that was exalted to heaven okay, exalted to his own realm. And they believe that we through yes, they believe Jesus died on the cross for us so that we can become gods one day and have our own planet and have our own spirit babies. Now, they might not say that up front, okay, but if you go to their website, you can look this all up. It's all there. It's a fake Jesus. They don't have the true Messiah. That Jesus died for our sins, our total sin nature, that we were totally depraved, without God saying I'm going to reach down to them and give them the opportunity to accept me Through regenerating their heart. They will use their free will to accept or deny me. That's the Jesus we believe in.
Speaker 1:The first council of Nicaea was a big deal. It was just a little bit after Christianity was legalized in the early 300s and AD. It was 325 AD. It was called by the council, was called by Emperor Constantine. I Now you might say, well, this was a state council. He did call it, but the Christian bishops which is kind of like a pastor of today they all came. There's about 300 of them. They did the whole council, and the whole council was because there was a fraction of Christians called Arianists.
Speaker 1:It was a theology start by Arianists, another bishop who said that Jesus was a created being, not eternal with the Father and separate from the Father. And all the church fathers and all the church bishops rejected it, with the exception of three of them Arianus and two of his followers. So Arianus was declared a heretic, as he was, but he believed that Jesus was born of the virgin and he was the Messiah and died for us, but he didn't believe that Jesus was eternally God or divine. He didn't believe that Jesus was eternal. He believed he was created. Okay, that is a heresy, because we have a fake Jesus, a Jesus that cannot save. You can only be saved by the true Jesus.
Speaker 1:Now we can talk about Calvinism, we can talk about Arminianism, we can talk about all the different denominations, as long as they're heterodox and they're not heretics, as long as they are truly part of the church of Jesus, we can talk about those secondary issues, but if Jesus isn't the true Jesus and he is not God eternal and God ever existing, okay, jesus is God the Son. Okay, god the Son eternal with the Father, eternal with the Holy Spirit. Jesus is one person of the Trinity. And let's, I'm going to go. I'm going to start talking about the Trinity. The Trinity is so complex that we could never truly understand it, because to understand the Trinity fully is to understand God, and we can never truly understand it because to understand the Trinity fully is to understand God and we can't truly understand that. We can make analogies, and a lot of them are bad. Sometimes they're okay, but most of them are bad because we don't understand God's very nature. But we can understand who God is.
Speaker 1:In the Bible, it's very obvious that there is a Trinity. It is all over the Bible. Some will say but the Bible doesn't use the word Trinity, but the Bible doesn't use the word rapture and the Bible doesn't use the word Bible. Okay, but it's a concept. It's a word that we're using for the concept which is in the Bible. You wouldn't deny that there is a Bible, because the word Bible isn't in the Bible. You know, most Christians believe that there is a rapture, such as I. Now, we can argue about when and where and how that takes place, but Jesus is coming back for his church and rapturing us, meaning to call up from the church that we will come to heaven, we will go to Christ, we will be raptured. But let's go back to the Trinity.
Speaker 1:Okay, there are three persons in the Trinity, three distinct persons. God the Father is not God the Son, god the Son is not God the Holy Spirit and God the Holy Spirit is not God the Father or God the Son. They are not each other, but they share one Godhood. So they are still One In their being, but three different Persons. And I could be saying a little bit Of it wrong, but what I'm trying to say is there is one God and three different persons. Okay, god the Father and God the Son and God the Spirit. God the Son and God the Spirit are all different persons but they are one God. They are free, separate, but one God. And there is a heresy that circled around the early church, called modalism, that tried to explain the way the existence of the trinity. It says that god presents himself as three different persons in three different modes, but he is one person. It's a heresy. Okay, they say that god the father, god the son and god the holy Spirit is all the same person. That's not true. Okay, god the Father is not God the Son and is not God the Spirit. Okay, just like God the Spirit is not God the Son or God the Father. Okay, but modalism teaches that all free persons are the same person in free different modes, are the same person in three different modes.
Speaker 1:There is a current denomination that my family descends from on my mom's side and it really scares me because I love them, they are good people and they love Jesus, but they believe a heresy. Does that mean they're going to hell? I don't personally think so. I think God's grace is big enough to cover their mistake on that. But I think that this teaching, if you follow it to a T and you keep going and going and going, can take you to hell, just like the Catholics. I don't think Catholics are just all hell bound, but I think a lot of their teachings when it comes to the Mary dogmas, when it comes to the works, if you follow it to a T and you keep going into it and into it, and into it, it can lead you to hell because you're no longer putting your faith in the biblical Jesus, you're no longer putting your faith by his salvation plan, you're putting it in your own works.
Speaker 1:When it comes to Catholics, and if you follow the Oneness Pentecostalism, which is totally different from Trinitarian Pentecostalism, they are heretics that branched off from the Pentecostal movement. I know a lot of people don't like Pentecostals. I love them. They're my family. I have a lot of views that are similar to them, but I have some that are different. Okay, but Trinitarian Pentecostals are 100% in line with the early church. They're 100% in line with the Bible when it comes to salvation and when it comes to who is God.
Speaker 1:Okay. So if you're picking fun at a Pentecostal for speaking in tongues but you're not as concerned about a Mormon, you have a misplaced. You have a misplaced theological problem and you have a misplaced heart. Okay, you can argue about praying in tongues later. It's a secondary issue. You can argue about praying in tongues later. It's a secondary issue. You can pray and debate the gifts of the Spirit later. It's a secondary issue. But if you're more concerned about someone being filled with the Holy Spirit, which I believe is 100% still for today, and I believe that praying in tongues is 100% for today I think that you can do it unbiblically and I think that you can put the focus of your gifts upon yourself and not on God. Not good, okay.
Speaker 1:And I believe there are abuses of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, for sure, but that doesn't mean that that gets rid of the Holy Spirit gifts Himself. And I'm a continuationist. I believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit because my view of the Bible it's not a personal view that I've seen people speak in tongues or I've prayed in tongues it's not a personal view, experience, view when I read the Bible. I don't know how to come away with that. These gifts are not for today. I think that's bad Theology. I don't think it's damnable theology.
Speaker 1:Okay, I realize Charismatics and Pentecostals are in the minority, but I would consider myself a Charismatic, not a Pentecostal. I love Pentecostals, but I think that Charismatic would destrive me more. Love Pentecostals, but I think that charismatic would destrive me more. I'd probably still call myself a Baptist because I believe that baptism is for believers who've made a commission of faith. I don't believe it's for salvation okay, I think you can be saved without being baptized but I think it's for believers. I don't think we should baptize babies and I'm not like a Mormon who thinks that we should baptize for the dead. They don't actually baptize dead people. They baptize people in their stead. We can go back to Mormonism one other day with my friend Caleb Curry.
Speaker 1:But getting back to the point Oneness, pentecostals and Trinitarian Orthodox Pentecostals are two completely different groups. They may both believe in praying in tongues, but that doesn't mean that they're united on God. And, like I said, I'm not saying that these people are going to hell. That would mean my grandfather and my grandmother and a lot of my family members are in hell because they were wrong about the trinity. When I read the bible, I don't see that you have to believe the trinity to go to heaven and I think a lot of them are confused about it and the trinity is very confusing. Okay, so I'm not saying they're all going to hell, but I do think they're playing with a very dangerous heresy and I think that you need to get out of there and go to another Pentecostal church If you still want to be a Pentecostal? Totally fine, go to another Pentecostal church that believes in the Trinity. That way you're in a safer standing before God.
Speaker 1:Trinitarian Pentecostals believe that Jesus is the Father, he is the Son and he is the Holy Spirit. They're wrong. Jesus is God 100%, but he's not God the Father and he's not God the Son, and he's not in three different modes, he's three different persons. They would accuse us of being polytheistic, which is not anything related to the early church. It's not related to the Holy Scriptures. It's just a fabrication and a lie. We're not polytheist. We don't believe in multiple gods. We believe in one God and three different people. Jesus is God the Son, god the Father is God the Father and then God the Holy Spirit is God the Holy Spirit. They are three different people in one God and oneness.
Speaker 1:Pentecostals I love them, got family in it. They're modalist and I really hope that they repent and get out of that and become Trinitarian Pentecostals. But, like I said, I'm not saying that they're all going to hell. I think God's grace is sufficient and I think he will overlook bad theology sometimes. But they are playing with fire. I'm not going to sugarcoat it either. And the UPC, the United Pentecostal Church. It's a oneness church. Their official statement online is we don't go by historic creeds, we just go by the.
Speaker 1:Bible. Well, when you say that, when you get rid of all of 2,000 years of church history and just say that it was all because they were Catholics, that's so unwise. We're getting rid of so much knowledge. And the Council of Nicaea was based on the Bible much knowledge. And the Council of Nicaea was based on the Bible. And there's a fairy tale out there that Council of Nicaea was where we put the scriptures and the canon. Anybody with any historical knowledge knows that's not true. If you've ever watched a movie the Da Vinci Code or read the book, it kind of makes that claim that that's where we put the scriptures together and we got rid of all the bad books we didn't want. Listen, you can still read those bad books, you know? Remember the History Channel's banned from the Bible.
Speaker 1:Guess what I have, the Apocrypha, guess what I have a lot of those writings. I have the book of Enoch. It's okay to read. There might be some wisdom in there, but it's not God-breathed scripture and a lot of the early church didn't use God-breathed scripture. There was some debate with the canon, but we pretty much had a settled canon, okay. So let's get over that crap. We're smarter than that. It's a deception from the devil to lead people to hell. Let's reject it and move on.
Speaker 1:And I want to read you a few Bible verses that confirm the Trinity, that confirm who Jesus is not just talking about church history. We're actually going to go to the Holy Scripture. I believe in Sola Scriptura and let's get meaning by Scripture alone, by faith alone. I believe in the five solos Sola Scriptura, sola Fide, faith alone, sola Gradias, grace alone, sola Christola, christ alone, sola Deo Gloria, the glory of God alone. Forgive me for not speaking those words correctly. I might not have them on my lips the best, but I have them in my heart. But let's go to the Holy Scripture and see who Jesus was. Okay, I'm going to read you a few Bible verses, but I want to clarify this is what I'm trying to prove by reading you these Bible verses Jesus was eternal, not created from God the Father, but eternal with God the Father.
Speaker 1:Jesus is God the Son, the second part of the Trinity. He was truly God and he was truly human, 100%, both. At time it was called the haper static union. He created the world, he was born of the Virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for the redemption of the world was resurrected and sits at the right hand of the Father, and he is the only way to be saved, the only way to go to God, the Father and heaven. You can't be saved by a different religion, you can't. You can learn some good morals, but you cannot go to heaven outside of Jesus. Let me stress this there is only one way to be saved and that is through Jesus. All else will not be saved, saved, and that is through Jesus. All else will not be saved. I say that out of love and fear and trembling, not out of hate and prosecution. I needed to be saved, even though I went to church my whole life and my grandfather was a minister. I needed to be saved of my sins and I'm thankful that God saved me.
Speaker 1:Okay, now let's go To the Bible. I'm actually going to go to the first Genesis, chapter 26. I'm reading now the New King James Version. Then God said Let us make man in our own image and according to our likeness. Let them have dominion Over fish of the sea. And to the topic, verse 26. God said let us make men, man in our own image, according to our likeness. Okay now I've heard some people say that this was him talking to angels that he had made. I don't believe that one bit. Um, I respect it. You can still believe that and go to heaven, okay, but I don't think that's right. He's saying let us make man in our image, okay, meaning we have the image of God. God has gave us our image. We are image bearers. So I think that this is God the father speaking to god the son and god the holy spirit saying let us make men in our image. Okay. I'm going to go to first john one one.
Speaker 1:This is a very famous passage from the scriptures. First john one one in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the Word was God. Okay, let's pause right there. Let's not read anymore until we analyze this. In the beginning was the Word, who was the Word? The Word is Jesus, okay, and the Word was with God, okay. So the Word, jesus, jesus, was with God. God who? God the Father? He's also with God the Holy Spirit, okay, and he and the word was God. Okay, so Jesus was God, jesus was with God.
Speaker 1:And then a lot of times I'll be like how does that make any sense at all? I can understand the confusion, but Jesus was with God the Father in heaven and God the Holy Spirit in heaven, while also being God. Okay, I'm gonna read verse 2. He was in the beginning with God. Okay, let's stop there. He was in the beginning with God, okay. So Jesus, being the word, also being God was in the beginning with God. He was not created.
Speaker 1:Since the beginning of the universe that God created, jesus being a part of that, he was with God. So, eternally there has always been ever existing Jesus as God the Son and God the Father is God the Father and God the Holy Spirit is God the Holy Spirit. All things were made through him. Capital H Without him, nothing was made that was made. So, and this is why I think Genesis 1, 26 is God the Father talking to God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. All things were made through him and without him there was nothing that was made. Jesus made everything. Jesus made this world, jesus made this planet, he made me and he made you. He made matter, he made time, he made space. He made me and he made you. He made matter, he made time, he made space. Okay, god the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit made everything.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm going to go back up one more time because I know it can be confusing. John 1.1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God. The Word Jesus and the Word was with God. So this isn't modalism, this isn't Jesus putting on the mode of the Father, this isn't Jesus putting on the mode of the Holy Spirit. This is Jesus, this is the word, this is the Son being with God. Okay, he's not putting on an attribute. He is God, the Son, not an attribute. He is and he is with God and the Word was God.
Speaker 1:I think that's very clear, okay, I think John 1 is 100% a case for the Trinity. It also gets rid of Arianism, which says that Jesus was created. That's right there. You can say Arianism, heresy, modalism, heresy. Okay, now it's one worse than the other. They're both pretty bad. Let's stay away from them.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm going to go to another scripture out of the Old Testament, psalms 110, verse 1. The Lord said to my Lord set at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Okay, let's go back. Let's read it again. The Lord said to my Lord set at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Okay. So David's Lord said to my Lord. So David's Lord said to my Lord it kind of seems like this is the Trinity. God the Father said to God the Son Okay, and I pulled this up in the Blue Letter Bible using the Hebrew conordinates and it breaks down word for word. It's even clearer. Actually, the Lord said to my Lord said to my right hand till I make you your enemies your footstool, so we have the Trinity in the Old Testament. Okay, now I'm going to go to back to the Gospel of John, chapter 14. You can pause the podcast and read these Bible verses and highlight them. This is John 14, starting at verse 6. This is red letters. Jesus said them. This is red letters.
Speaker 1:Jesus said them. Okay. Jesus said unto them I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father and from now on you know him and have seen him. Okay, so what Jesus is saying? We're going to go back to verse six.
Speaker 1:I like to double read things. It's good to have clarification. Jesus said to him I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father through me, except through me. Let's break this down I'm the way, I'm the truth and the life. That doesn't mean he's a way, a truth and a life. He's the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, nobody. Nobody can come to God, the Father, except through me, except through him. So he's the only way to go to heaven. That's what Jesus is saying.
Speaker 1:I'm the only way to go to heaven. That's not me being mean. I'm coming down as a sacrifice to die for your sins because you couldn't do it. I died for you because I loved you. I regenerated your heart because you were unconditionally depraved and gave you the free will to choose me or to deny me. And I used a lot of languages there that would have Calvinist and Arminian fighting. I did that on purpose and I think everything I said is true. Okay, you're the. But regardless if you're an Arminian or if you're a Calvinist, that's just true. The only way you can go to heaven is through Jesus. That's it Okay. Through faith and grace alone in Jesus.
Speaker 1:Whether you make the conscious decision by your own free will to accept him after he generates your heart, or if God makes you accept him through his divine plan, I think they go hand in hand. Okay, I think he has to. The only way anyone can ever get saved is if your heart is regenerated. Calvin was right about that, but I believe God gives you the free will to turn away and walk away or say, yes, lord. And that's not me saving myself. Okay, if God gives me the opportunity for and that's not me saving myself.
Speaker 1:Okay, if God gives me the opportunity for salvation, I'm not saving myself. If a lifeguard is throwing, he is throwing. A lifesaver puts it right next to me. All I have to do is reach out and have faith in that. Okay, that's not me saving myself. That lifeguard still saved me, the same way that Jesus came down, died for me and then gave me the opportunity to accept or deny him, and it is by faith alone that God gets us saved. Okay, forgive me for my Calvinism and Arminian talk. Let's get back to Jesus. If you had known me, you would have known my Father. So Jesus is saying if you know me, you know my Father, and from now on you know Him and have Him. So if you have Jesus, you have God the Father.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go to one more scripture and talk about oneness and modalism once again. Okay, luke, chapter 3, verses 21 through 22. When the people were baptized, that came to pass. That Jesus also was baptized, and while he prayed, the heavens was opened and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him and the voice came from heaven which said you are my beloved Son and you I am well pleased. Okay, we see all three persons of the Trinity in these two verses. Jesus is getting baptized. We see the Holy Spirit coming down like a dove upon him and a voice from the heaven says you are my son, in whom I am well pleased. That is God the Father, god the Son, god the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:Now, oneness. I've heard their excuse for this or their explanation for this. It's very poor. They said that was all three of them were Jesus and he was doing all three of them at the same time in all three different modes. So, god, he's just being a ventriloquist. Okay, I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but that's the picture that I feel like you're painting. He's being a ventriloquist and he's acting like he's free different people okay, or he is free different people and one Godhood. Okay, one God, free different people, and one Godhood, one God, free, different people. That makes so much more sense than modalism, than oneness. This verse disproves all modalism. It disproves all oneness.
Speaker 1:The Trinity is right in this verse. You have to see it. You don't have to go back to church history. You don't have to go back to church history and you don't have to go back to Nicaea. You can just go to Luke 21 through 22 and see that the Trinity is at work and is in existence.
Speaker 1:Don't deny your heart because you've been taught a theology your entire life. Please don't do that. Okay, if I've been taught something that is wrong, I reject it. Okay, I love my grandfather, but I think he's wrong about a few things I do, because I think the Bible tells me otherwise. He's still biblical, he's still going to heaven. He's still an Orthodox Christian in his beliefs and when I say Orthodox, I mean his beliefs are historically Christian and they don't hide and run away from the early church. And they don't hide and run away from the Bible. Okay, he believes in grace and faith alone to get to salvation through Jesus.
Speaker 1:Now, I have some differences when it comes to sanctification with him. I have some differences when it comes to women and ministry with him and when it comes to the idea of holiness. Okay, and I believe in holiness, but I don't believe that we can ever be totally holy while on this planet. I'm not saying he does believe that, but a lot of holiness people do believe that, but a lot of holiness people do I'm. And one of the reason I forgot to mention why I still consider myself a Baptist is I don't 100% believe in eternal security, but I'm very, very close to it.
Speaker 1:I think if you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, repent of your sins, acknowledge the gospel and repent of your sins and say I'm a sinner, okay, I believe the only way you can apostate and walk away is say I don't want to be with you anymore, god, and you can do that by your words or your actions. Most of the time, it's your actions. Okay, you just live a completely sinful life and you don't care about God. You can tell them by their fruits. With that being said, does that mean if I stumble in a sin that I'm going to hell, if I struggle with a sin that I'm going to hell, even if I struggle with it to the point where I die with that sin. Am I going to hell?
Speaker 1:People in the holiness movement a lot of them would say, yes, no, sin can go through to heaven. But my God is bigger than that. He came down because I couldn't do it. Because Josh Scott, because anybody else, because Billy Graham, because of Pope Francis, because Donald Trump or Joseph Biden, it doesn't matter, pick Taylor Swift, we couldn't do it. That's why I don't think we can live a sinless life on this planet. We can't do it.
Speaker 1:And people that talk about cheap grace, that think that, oh, you have cheap grace if you go on sinning and still believe that you're a Christian, you can't live this life without going on. You can't live this life without sinning. You cannot go one week without sinning. I bet you can't go a day without sinning, and sometimes I struggle to get a minute without sinning. Okay, because I am totally deprived and I need Jesus. But I also know that that sin nature that is inside of me, that's the old Josh, that is the dead Josh, and I am now alive in Jesus. I am alive in Jesus forever because he came down, he died for me so I can go to heaven. Because he said I know he can't do it. I know he can't do it, so I'm going to go and die for Josh and I will forgive him. Jesus died for our past sins. He died for our present sins. And this is where people don't like it. This is where it rubs the wrong way. He died for our future sins.
Speaker 1:He died for us, yet we were still sinners. Now, can you walk away? Can you make your heart so hard by living in such rebellion that you turn away from God? Yeah, you can. Yeah, you can, but I don't know how often that really happens. I'm not saying it never happens, because it does. Okay, it does happen. Don't do it. Don't play with sin. Run from all of it.
Speaker 1:I still sin. I struggle with sin. I have a lot of things I struggle with. I struggle not just sin. I struggle. I'm going to be open, I'm going to be real with you. I struggle with image. I struggle with depression. I struggle with lust. I struggle with where God wants me and what he wants me in my calling. I want to be open and I want to be transparent with that.
Speaker 1:But I do know this I know if I say the F word because I'm about to wreck and die in a car wreck and I get scared, I know that if I say the F word before I die and it's immediate, I don't have time to say I'm sorry, jesus, that his grace is sufficient enough.
Speaker 1:Even though I said a horrible word and even though that I did something that was awful, I know that God will still accept me in his kingdom. I know that if I mess up and if I'm scrolling on TikTok or Instagram or Twitter and I see a girl that's really pretty and she's wearing inappropriate clothes and a bad fault comes from my head I'm not talking about pornography, I'm just talking about the fault. Jesus said if you look at a woman in, you committed adultery with her heart. He's not even talking about adultery. He's just talking about someone walking down the street in Palestine and she was looking pretty good. That's all he was talking about. I know that if I have an impure fault in my head, that Jesus died for me because of that, because I'm a sinner and I know that I won't go to hell for that and I can take a step back and I can say Jesus, where can I improve my life?
Speaker 1:Where can I say I am wrong? And for all those people that say that's leaving in Jeep grace if you say a cuss word every once in a while. If you do this, if your dress isn't 100% down, if your dress isn't to your ankles and you're not wearing any makeup and la-la-la-la-la-la-la crap, legalism, crap. Okay, I know my God's bigger than that. I know my God's bigger than that. I know my God knows my heart and my God says that my heart was desperately wicked and had to have salvation so he came down and died for me. But I also know he knows my heart.
Speaker 1:With Jesus, this is a lot different and I have sinned since 2012. I don't believe I've ever truly walked away 100% from God and said I don't want you by my actions, but I did some horrible things that I'm very ashamed of and since I've been married, I've tried to commit myself fully to God and to my wife and said I was wrong. I know I was wrong for premarital sex. I know I was wrong for pornography. I know I was wrong for this and that and that and this and this and that I'm just naming the cultural big Christian sins right now.
Speaker 1:Okay, when we talk about cheap grace, you know what cheap grace is If God can't forgive you for saying the F word. If you're going down Interstate 81, when you see a big tractor trailer, let's say I don't know, you got lost in your mind and you didn't hit the brake in time, you say the F word, it kills you, takes you out. I think that's pretty cheap grace. So God's atonement you're telling me my Jesus' atonement on the cross isn't big enough to forgive that because I didn't repent before I died. That's works, that's legalism I hate it.
Speaker 1:I hate it. It's crap. It's pure crap. It's not true.
Speaker 1:Now, and there are also I know some people will say that's a cop-out there are false converts. There are people that believe that they're converting to Christianity and they haven't Okay. And then there are people that walk away from the faith, and this is a hard point in theology. This is the debates. Okay, I definitely think that you can walk away from the faith. I do. I believe in free will. I'm an Arminian. Okay, I believe that you can accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
Speaker 1:Harden your heart with so much sin. Walk away and just say I don't care anymore. You might still acknowledge him with your mind, but not your actions. That's a scary place to be too. Man Don't ever play with any sin, but God's grace is sufficient to keep us Now. Now I want to go back.
Speaker 1:Paul tells us does that mean we sin more, but so grace will increase more? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Stay away from sin, guys. It'll kill you. It's what put Jesus on the cross and what breaks my heart. You know what breaks my heart more than anything? And the reason I try not to sin more than anything isn't because I'm afraid of hell. I try my best to stay away from sin because it hurts my Father, it hurts God the Father, and it hurts God the Son and it hurts God the Holy Spirit. That's why I try not to sin. When you play with sin, when you go back and you look on the web on things you shouldn't, or when you maybe steal something that you shouldn't, or whatever, it is okay. You're playing with the nails that the Romans put in Jesus' hands.
Speaker 1:The Romans didn't kill Jesus. The Jews didn't kill Jesus. There's a debate between who killed Jesus, the Romans or the Jews. We did.
Speaker 1:I did. Josh Scott killed Jesus. Billy Graham killed Jesus, pope Francis killed Jesus. Billy Graham killed Jesus, pope Francis killed Jesus. Donald Trump killed Jesus. And guess what? And yet did the Romans kill Jesus? Did the Jews kill Jesus? Yes, but not them alone. We all did. We all killed Jesus in our sin. And every time we sin, every time we play with sin, even if we have salvation, we're playing with the nails that put him on the cross. Oh, someone, I heard that last week and it broke me. Man, how can I play with the nails that was drove in the Savior's hand? How can we do that? And I've done it, and you've done it, and we continue to do it, but we have to continue to get out of it. We have to continue to get out of it, guys. We don't want to
Speaker 1:live like that. I don't want to hurt my father. I don't want to hurt God the Son or God the Holy Spirit. I don't want to hurt the Trinity. I don't want to hurt God. I love them. I want my heart to be so full of love for God that you can see it down the road. We should be like a hill. We should be like a city on a hill, shining for all to see. You don't light a lamp and put it under a bed. You let everyone see it. Oh man, I'm sorry for the rant, but not really. This is kind of why I wanted to start the podcast, talk about theology and God and try to reach the people through the internet. That's one thing. I've also been praying and I want my audience to pray too. I've been feeling God telling me to get back into my calling, even though I don't deserve it, and I've done things I'm ashamed of, and that calling's not behind the pulpit right now.
Speaker 1:One day, I think it may be okay, but not right now. I've had in my heart to hold signs on the road or the interstate with a Bible verse and talk to people about Jesus and kind of like Ray Comfort does, and I think that's how we can win people to Christ and I'm going to try to put a team together, not through me, just through the new church I'm going to, and please be in prayer for that. I want to do it safely, I want to do it legally and I want God's hand to be in it and I want it to be all about him, nothing about me, and I hope it can bless. And if they don't go to the particular building that I go to to worship on, that's okay. If they go up on the hill, that's okay, as long as they're part of the universal Catholic Church and we get scared of the term Catholic because of the Roman Catholic Church. But all Catholic meant in the early days in church history meant was God's family, it was the family of God. The Romans would scream if they heard me say that. But all Catholic meant was the universal church.
Speaker 1:Okay. When God said I want them to be one, I don't think he meant they have to go to the same building and the same denomination. I don't even go to the. I go to a non-denominational church and there's problems with non-denominational churches, just like there is denominational churches. Did you know that there's problems in all of them? Because we're human beings? But we need to go to a good, universal church that believes in the holy scripture, that can take you to heaven and hear that. And we can have conversations about Arminianism and Calvinism and we can fight like cats and dogs in love in a good debate. Okay, as long as it's grace and faith alone in Jesus. And I think there's a lot of Catholics going to heaven too. Okay, I care if you really believe the true Jesus and if you're truly saved. Listen, if you're not saved, please, please, please, repent of your sins and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, because it doesn't matter who's president and it doesn't matter who's delegate, and it doesn't matter who's congressman or governor or king.
Speaker 1:If you don't have salvation, your life after this one will be awful. Okay, I'm saying this out of love. I love you, I want you to go to heaven. I want everyone on this planet to go to heaven. So how do we do that? We've got to meet people where they are and talk to them about the gospel. Let's do that, everyone. Thank you for this over-opinionated episode. It was a lot different than all the others and I am so, so, so, so happy to be with you Next week.
Speaker 1:If we have the debates next week, I will do a debate review from the Republican Party. If not, I'll just talk about general politics and we'll obviously have a verse of scripture. We had a bunch of verses of scripture so you can pick your own for the verse of the day and I'll tweet one for the podcast or I'll X'd one Also. One also just side rant. Changing the name from twitter to x was so stupid.
Speaker 1:I like Elon Musk when it comes to some things. I pray for Elon. Pray for Elon Musk to get safe. He's not safe, okay. I like Elon Musk when it comes to some things, but when it comes to other things, I mean mean, I don't know, that was weird, that was just weird, um, but but I'll I'll social media verse and then you can pick your verse to be the verse of the day for the podcast too. Get back in touch with me, give me feedback. I love feedback.
Speaker 1:Check out the Darrell McLean show. I like Darrell. He's, um a good friend of mine. I like Daryl he's a good friend of mine and we're fellow podcasters. We disagree on some things in love, and I think it'd be kind of crazy if we agreed on everything, wouldn't it? But he's a good biblical Christian and he's a Calvinist, oh no, but I love him. He's a good guy. Please go. If you want to support this podcast by financial means, which you don't have to at all, it's not required. I don't want your money, I want your ears, I want your heart. I'd rather you pray for the podcast and talk about it and share it. I'm not making a lot of money on this podcast. I'm actually losing money. But if you want to give me some money and I'm not doing this for money If you want to give me some money To help me out with the podcast, you can go to wwwoveropinionated679.com. The O in over Is capitalized in those spaces. God bless you. Jesus is king and I hope to see you next week. God bless you all, thank you.
