Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - Logic & Philosophy Solved
How should we think about the created world? How do we solve conflicts in priorities and rights? How do we even think about thinking so we can understand ourselves, our world, and God? The solution is embedded in the Triune Godhead, His very nature teaches us.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament Framework. Today, the full lesson from Jeremy Thomas. Here's a hint of what's to come.
Speaker 2:What you do in this life is going to be evaluated at the judgment seat of Christ, and rewards will then be given out.
Speaker 1:Where does language come from? What about logic? How we think about things? What's the origin of logic? How do we balance the needs of the individual with the needs of the group? Is the husband more important than the wife? Is either of them more important than the marriage? Is a citizen more important than the nation, or does the nation have precedence over the individual? Whether we've thought about these questions or not, the basis for how they are answered is rooted firmly in the Trinity. God has laid out how we balance the needs of the individual with the needs of the group, and he has given us this basis of talking about it and thinking about it in the same location, the Trinity. It is all about how God, the triune God, his nature and character manifests and is the basis for his creation and for how we live in this life. The Trinity is so amazingly and terribly and beautifully important to life.
Speaker 2:We want to finish off right some of the implications of the hypostatic union. What's the hypostatic union saying? Well, jesus Christ is undiminished deity, united with true humanity in one person, without confusion or separation, forever. Basically, six points in there, and we've gone through that and dealt with that, and so the implications are like okay, so what does that have to do with other areas of life? How does this impact me? Well, first, we showed that, basically, that one of the implications is that the creator-creature distinction will forever remain intact. What do we mean by that? We mean that in the person of Christ, here's where you have the creator and the creature in one person, right, and never were the two mixed and never were the two separated into two separate persons. So you have the creator and the creature in this one person.
Speaker 2:And yet what I showed was in the Gospels Christ has to live out of his true humanity. He can't, you know, cheat and borrow his deity. And I took you, I think, to the temptations and showed you that in the temptations he had to meet those temptations as humanity and attend to the learning of Scripture which he himself had undergone in his true humanity. He grew in his understanding of the Scripture, of course, in his deity. You can never grow in your understanding of Scripture or knowledge, because you already know everything. So the point was to show that he becomes the test pilot for the Christian life. He shows us how to live the Christian life and in the temptations, which went on for 40 days, right, and then he became hungry, and that's when you see the three temptations. So there's a lot more than just three. But what we get to see is those last three temptations and how he is depending upon the Spirit of God to address Satan's temptations. And he is using the Scripture, he is using the Word of God, and this is the same thing that we have to do to live successfully in the Christian life. We have to depend upon the Spirit of God and we have to use the Word of God right? So I laid out several passages that our Lord may have turned to in his training to learn to trust in the Lord Isaiah 40s, luke 4 is the temptations, and then Philippians 4, you know, be anxious for nothing but by prayer and petition, present your request to God, and the peace of God that transcends all comprehension will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. So these types of promises, these concepts, these principles that our Lord used in his true humanity to show us that, oh indeed, the Christian life can be lived.
Speaker 2:It's already happened, it's already taken place as a historical fact in space and time, and so you and I can't come up and say, well, I tried the Christian life and it doesn't work for me. Well, maybe, maybe you didn't actually try. Try it. I mean, have you been learning the word of God? Have you been hiding it in your heart? Have you learned and are you learning to depend upon the Holy Spirit? Because if you are, then of course you have you learn to live the Christian life successfully. Does that mean you never fail? No, it doesn't mean you never fail. The Lord, jesus Christ, never failed, but he is the test pilot and he shows us how it can be done effectively, how we can live the Christian life.
Speaker 2:The second implication that we didn't spend any much time on at all is the Creator can never meet us more fully than in the person of Jesus Christ. The Creator can never meet us more fully than in the person of Jesus Christ. The Creator can never meet us more fully than in the person of Jesus Christ. Here's an implication of that statement. Can I learn more about God the Creator through studying Islam? Can I learn more about the Creator by studying Mormonism, smith and all that? So the the answer would be we will know. I mean, obviously, if the fullest way we can meet our creator is through jesus christ, then we meet god the creator through him. He is the avenue and he is the only place to go.
Speaker 2:So John 1, verse 18. Let's look at that the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 18. Almost every verse in chapter 1 is a great verse. So memorize verses 1 through 18 and have that ready for us next week. You will stand up here and give us a reading from memory of the first 18 verses. No, it wouldn't be a bad idea, though. Right? John 1.18,.
Speaker 2:No one has seen God at any time, the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father. He has explained Him. Exegeoma, from which we get exegeted Him. That's the word for exegesis, which is what you're supposed to do. It's the application of your hermeneutic, your interpretive method, how you interpret, and it means to draw out. So you use your interpretive method to draw out what is in the text in the Bible.
Speaker 2:So what is this saying about who Jesus Christ is. It's saying he drew out who God is. He showed us exactly who God is, and that's the second point. Right, the creator of God can never more fully meet us than in the person of Jesus Christ. Why? Well, because he drew out who he is.
Speaker 2:Let's go over to John, chapter 14, verses 9 through 11. I mean, you don't need any to go to anybody else no religious gurus, no other founders of other religions to know more about the creator. You only need to go to Jesus Christ because he is the. He drew out exactly who God is. 14, 9 through 11, verse 9. Jesus said to him that is, to Philip. Well, let's look at Philip's question, or statement in verse 8. Philip said to him Lord, show us the Father, and it's enough for us. You know that'll be it, we'll be satisfied. Jesus said to him have I been so long with you and yet you have not come to know me, philip, he who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you? I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father, abiding me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves. In other words, what Second point right? Who were you meeting when you met Christ? If you knew Christ, you knew the Creator, because he is the fullest expression of who God is. And therefore, all these other religions and religious gurus, they cannot get you any closer to God.
Speaker 2:Hebrews, chapter 1,. Let's turn there. Hebrews, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. Verses 1 through 4. Speaking of God's revelation of himself to us. In these introductory verses it says God after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets, in many portions and in many ways, so that would be the Old Testament period. Right Through visions, through dreams, through just direct revelation, he spoke to them. Verse 2,. But in these last days, speaking of the days when the Messiah came, he has spoken to us in His Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world, and he is the radiance of His glory. He is the exact representation of His nature and he upholds all things by the word of his power. Look at those words at the beginning of verse 3. He is the radiance of God's glory. He is the exact representation of God's nature or essence. Right? You cannot meet the creator any more fully than you meet him in the person of Jesus Christ, because he is the creator and the creature in one person, without confusion or separation, forever. All right, let's go to the third point. Okay, that should keep us away from false religions and thinking we can gain something by going to those.
Speaker 2:Third point is history has eternal importance. What do we mean by this? Remember I said there's some views like extreme Calvinism and ascetic views that almost view history itself as like an illusion, that it's not really real, that the real is somehow the beyond, that it's not really real, that the real is somehow the beyond, and so understanding that history has ramifications that will go on forever, into eternity, is important. I mean, history is important. That's what this point is stating. John 20, 27. Let's look at John 20, 27. So back to the Gospel of John.
Speaker 2:This is the scene with Thomas, and he had not yet seen the resurrected Christ. We've looked at this verse actually a lot of times the last several weeks John 20, 26 and 27. After eight days, his disciples were again inside, inside a house, right, and Thomas was with them this time. And Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and he stood in their midst and he said peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas reach here with your finger and see my hands, and reach here your hand and put it in my side and do not be unbelieving, but believing.
Speaker 2:How does this passage relate to history having eternal importance? Well, what body is Jesus in when he stood there in the house? He's in his resurrection body. So is he still in the same resurrection body right now? Yes, is he going to have this resurrection body when he comes for us at the rapture? Is he going to have this resurrection body at the second coming of Christ, when he comes to earth to rule and reign for a thousand years? Yes, he's going to have the same exact body that was there and Thomas reached and touched and saw body that was there, and Thomas reached and touched and saw.
Speaker 2:Now this body is derived from this history, right, in that the resurrection is a transformation. I mean, his body was laid in the tomb, his mortal body was crucified. It was laid in the tomb, but then it wasn't there. On the third day, right, it was risen, meaning that body was transformed into a resurrection body. So it was the body that was in history. It was now transformed into an immortal condition that is a part of the world to come. Will it be there in the new heaven and new earth? Revelation 21 and 22. Same body Not going to change. Are the scars going to go away? Where were those scars inflicted In time in history? Or in eternity? In time in history, and they are carried into eternity.
Speaker 2:Look at Revelation chapter 5. We're pointing out the importance of history and hopefully this will make you realize that your life is important in history. That's where we're going with this. Your life is important in history. What you do in history carries over in some way into eternity. Revelation chapter 5 and verse 6, this is where you've got the scroll, the seven-sealed scroll, and nobody can open it right. And then someone steps forward. Who can? And we notice in verse 6, I saw, between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders, a lamb standing as if slain. Standing as if what Slain? Now it's standing, so it's alive, but it looks like it's Slain. Not standing, so it's alive, but it looks like it's been slain right. In other words, it bears scars. Scars from when? From the crucifixion Again, when did the crucifixion take place? In time in history or in eternity? It took place in time in history, and yet here he is standing and John sees him, and he looks like a lamb, as if slain, you know, having carried those wounds from history into this eternity. So history is important.
Speaker 2:Now let's look at our own lives. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10. Is there anything in the Christian life that relates to this idea that our lives are really important in history? What we do with them, how we spend our time, what we do with our time, what we do with our lives, is that important? 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10.
Speaker 2:Paul says For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. We call this the Bema, right? It's a Greek word that means you go to a judgment seat. It was used in the ancient world for Olympic games or competitions, when the competitors would have a race or whatever their event was, and then they would go and they would stand before the Bema, where the judges were the judges for the contest, and they would then award those who won their events. Right, this is the type of thing that we will stand at, viewing the Christian life as like a race that we are running and Paul says elsewhere you run so as to win right. Win what Win prizes? He's talking about rewards.
Speaker 2:So let's read on. So we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ you, me, all of us who are believers in Christ. Why? So that each one of us may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. In other words, then there's going to does what we do in history? Does it have any effect on eternity? Yeah, because what you do in this life is going to be evaluated at the judgment seat of Christ, and rewards will then be given out or not given out, depending on how we lived our Christian lives. So again, is your life important? Is history important? Yes, it is important.
Speaker 2:Some people say, well, the only thing that's important in life is believing in Jesus Christ. I believe that is the number one thing that is of greatest importance that a person believe who Jesus Christ is and what he did for them on the cross, and the sole condition for enjoying eternal life is just believe right, just believe in him. That's not everything, though. Once you become a Christian right, the second biggest thing in life is how you live the Christian life, because once you've believed in Christ, eternity is set. You have everlasting life. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. But the issue becomes how do we live the Christian life? Because there's also going to be an evaluation, an abayment, a judgment seat, and rewards will be given out, and those rewards are for eternity.
Speaker 2:Jesus said it this way out. And those rewards are for eternity. Jesus said it this way store up treasure in heaven, right when moth and rust don't decay, right. So that's talking about what you do now in history having eternal ramifications. So that's an implication of the hypostatic union, because it all starts with Christ. You really get to realize that what he does in time, in history affects eternity and is reflected even in his resurrection body. So your lives are important too.
Speaker 2:And you know Paul says in Ephesians 5, 15,. He says making the most of your time for the days are evil, making the most of your time because the days are evil. Or the most of your time because the days are evil. Or the Greek says buy up the time. In other words, don't waste time Because you're only here for a short period of time relative to eternity. I mean, all of us will look back and our lives will be just like a vapor, and yet, of course, that's all we know. So we make mountains out of molehills right here. I do, I do it all the time, but really it's just a vapor. This life is so short, but eternity is forever. So what does Jesus say? Store up for yourself treasure where In heaven. Why? So time is going to affect eternity. What you do in time is, in fact, very important. That's what he's saying and that's why he says in Ephesians buy up the time, make use of it. Okay.
Speaker 2:And lastly and this will help us transition into the Trinity the last implication of the hypostatic union is that the basic categories of human thought are derived from the hypostatic union. I said a lot in one sentence. It's probably not totally understood. So let's turn to Colossians, and I want to start to develop something that will relate to apologetics, and I guess the new understanding of the implications of the Trinity will develop out of this that we're seeing in the 20th century, the early 20th century. So I want to talk about that, but I want to start with Colossians 2.8, because this verse is critical.
Speaker 2:Colossians 2, especially verses 8, and following Paul, is addressing four things at Colossae, four false theologies. The first one is getting enamored with human philosophy, the second is legalism, the third is licentiousness and the last is mysticism. And he's saying human philosophy, legalism, licentiousness and mysticism, these are not anything that are going to get you closer to God through Christ. They're not a part of the spiritual life, the Christian life. The first one he talks about is philosophy. And so let's look at verse 8 and notice what he says.
Speaker 2:See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. Now you see two accordings. Maybe you see two accordings in that verse. Well, actually three. According to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. That's kata with accusative every time. It means according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to christ. That's kata with accusative every time. It means according to some standard. And he's warning us make sure no one takes you captive. I mean anybody here been like a captive and like a pow in war. You don't want to be taken captive. That's the imagery. Okay, what could you be taken captive to? Well, philosophy, human philosophy, empty deception, things that are according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world.
Speaker 2:I want to talk about this elementary principles of the world a little bit and then contrast this with taking things captive to christ. Okay, elementary principles is a greek word, stoikia. Stoikia. You see it under point one here. The Greeks said the stoikia were the fundamental building blocks of knowledge. In other words, you had to have these in place and from these things you could build knowledge, you could build wisdom, a philosophical system. These fundamentals in the ancient world, these building blocks earth, fire, water and air. And everybody goes. Well, that's so ancient, you know, yeah, that's old, you know. Like nobody thinks that anymore, except they do.
Speaker 2:Because look at the modern. What modern scientists say are the basic, fundamental categories upon which we build knowledge. Well, there's solid, which corresponds to earth, energy, which corresponds to fire, liquid, which corresponds to water, and gas, which corresponds to earth, energy which corresponds to fire, liquid, which corresponds to water, and gas, which corresponds to air. In other words, have we really advanced that far in the last 2,500 years of human knowledge and thinking, or I should say, humanistic knowledge and thinking. There really hasn't been a change in the basic categories that modern scientists are utilizing. They'll say well, we've got atoms, we've got energy, we've got spontaneous generation and evolution by chance, random processes. That gives rise to everything that we see today, and this is what we know. This is our knowledge of the world. Notice how everything starts with these basic building blocks Solid energy, liquid and gas.
Speaker 2:From there we use so-called scientific laws to develop theories about things that explain how the world came to be as it is. In other words, your starting point this is what I'm trying to get to your starting point determines your conclusion, your end point. This is why starting points are very important. This is why Paul is saying in 2.8, don't be taken captive by the starting points of the Greeks and their philosophy, because if you start there, the conclusion is already made for you. And, by the way, evolution in its modern sense, with Darwin who was giving a mechanism for evolution, is not new. Empedocles taught this in the ancient world, before the time of Christ. You can see forms of it in Egyptian philosophy and their art and all their stuff.
Speaker 2:So even Satan said I will become as God, which means to transgress a boundary, to become something you are not, in other words, to evolve. I will set my throne above his throne. I will become okay as God. So there was this concept. I believe it's obviously satanic in origin that you could become something that you are not. But at any rate, the basic building blocks of knowledge among the Greeks and how they would formulate their philosophical systems was to build them on the stoichia and Paul's saying don't do that, don't be taken captive by that. It did take me captive when I went to the university, at Texas Tech. I mean, I was enamored by all this and we could have all this knowledge and understanding to the point I wanted to go and teach it to other people and explain these things to them. But if I'd known this verse and I'd been paying attention to the Lord, I would realize I was being taken captive. All this was just empty deception. It was just traditions of men and held by even the Greeks. So rather than that, he says be taken captive or take things captive according to Christ.
Speaker 2:Now the point here, right A, is that the basic categories of thought should be set up according to Christ. Well, who's Christ in hypostatic union? He's the creator and he's the creature. Right the creator-creature distinction, which is the first thing you learn in the Bible. In the beginning, god, and then he created. So you've got God, he's the creator, and then everything else that he's created, the creation. So the creator, creature distinction is always there, right? Who is Jesus Christ? He's the creator and the creature in one person. Is that what Paul means here? Yes, look at the next verse 2.9. Why? Because in him, that is, in Christ, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. You see the creator and the creature in verse 9? All the fullness of deity, that's the creator. Bodily form, that's the creature.
Speaker 2:What is this saying? This is saying that the basic categories for human thinking always have to start with the creator-creature distinction, the most fundamental distinction in the entire Bible. It is there from verse 1, and it is forever there, to the end of the entire Bible and it never goes away. And it's saying this is where you start in your thinking. You start with the creator and the creature in one person. That is Christ, and that is what controls your thinking and your outlook and everything about the way you reason okay and develop what I would call a Christian philosophy, a Christian way of thinking.
Speaker 2:Why do we have to have Christian philosophy. We have to have it because it's the way we interact with people in the world. Okay, so this isn't a lecture on Christian philosophy versus pagan philosophy, but there is such a thing as Christian philosophy, but it's controlled by theology. If put in an analogy, it could be put this way If the hand is theology, the glove is philosophy. So philosophy is not something independent of theology. It is, in fact, simply an expression of what is already there theologically and it forms to it like a glove. So yes, we have to, and you do.
Speaker 2:Whether you think, you philosophize or not. You have philosophies and ways of thinking. You don't even know, perhaps, but you use reasoning. He's saying the starting point for that reasoning is to take every thought captive to Jesus Christ. Okay, we could go to 2 Corinthians, 10, 3 through 5, show another passage shows essentially the same thing. But the point is the scriptures are saying look out, christians, do not be taken captive by the stoichia of the world. And that can happen to any Christian. They can start going down this path in middle school and high school and into college, and they get into what I just today call scientism. You know and they think science is knowledge and this is how you know. I mean it's Latin right Scientia, which means knowledge. So, which means knowledge. So, and it is very alluring Most science today actually I don't want to get on a rant, but most science today is politicized science.
Speaker 2:By that I mean a lot of things, but primarily that there are agendas by political people that are designed to fund and grant research of scientists who will support the political agenda. And if you're not on that page with whatever the governing authorities, the politicians, want, then suddenly your grant money dries up and then you can't finish your research and you can't get everything you want as a professor and all that kind of stuff. So most science today is politicized science. We saw this a lot with. You know, anthropogenic global warming, so-called climate change, all that stuff. You know, 25, 20, 25 years ago, this became very obvious that what was going on was politicized science. Just select the people that will actually present data from scientists to give it credibility that this is actually taking place and we need to therefore become a third world country so we don't destroy the ozone layer. Okay, whatever, you go back to the 1400s.
Speaker 2:Now, third point, under the danger of setting up false categories of thinking, the starting point take every thought captive to christ. Christ is the creator and the creature in one person. That's hypostatic union. So this is fundamental to right thinking. You don't see it yet, that's okay, we're going to get there. The image of God is the setup for all this. What do I mean by that? The image of God is, you know, only one creature in the entire universe is made in the image of God, and it's not angels, it's not animals, it's you, it's you.
Speaker 2:Now I understand that theologically, a lot of people say well, it's a spiritual aspect of man is made in the image of God, because God doesn't have a body. So our physical bodies are unrelated to the image of God. This is essentially the way the argument's gone. And if you think it is, then maybe you're a Mormon or something, because in Mormonism, of course, god is a physical being. Now, that's not. I'm going to say that the human body, the human form, is not just an afterthought, but that it is actually made in the image of God. But what I mean by that is this If God were to incarnate himself, it would be in the human form. In other words, when God created Adam, who did he have in mind? Jesus Christ. That is why our form has, upright standing, two arms, two legs, opposable thumbs, eyes, nose, ears what we have.
Speaker 2:And then when we read the Bible right and we see God saying things like at the Exodus my mighty arm delivered you. Or with an outstretched arm, we don't say, well, that means God has an arm, he has a physical arm up there. No, but we know, the outstretched arm is what we use to deliver with. It's a powerful instrument. And so we make a connection between the physical appendage that we have, right, and something in God, his power. And if we didn't have that connection, we wouldn't know what it was talking about. If we didn't have an outstretched arm, you know what would that mean? You couldn't know anything about God. So we are constructed in his image to reveal, even in our physical selves, who he is, and everything that we have is that way.
Speaker 2:When the scriptures say that God looked down and he saw what man was doing, you know eyeballs, right. If we didn't have eyeballs, what would that mean? That sentence wouldn't mean anything to us because we would have no contact point with sight. But it does convey something to us about God. It means that God is interested in what's going on in the creation and he's observing it without physical eyes, of course. So this is a setup for all this.
Speaker 2:Now here's what happened the Lord Jesus Christ comes into the world. He's material and immaterial. He a. He has a true human body. He's got a true human spirit. He's a, he's a human soul, right? So you've got material and immaterial in one person. I mean, just like you, right, you're material and immaterial in one person.
Speaker 2:The greeks could get this together. That's why almost all Greek philosophy, well, it's always dualistic. You've got to keep material away from immaterial. You can never get these together. Okay, in Greek thought, because they basically said that if anything's material, it's inherently evil, intrinsically evil, and the spirit, that's totally good. So they said evil, intrinsically evil, and the Spirit, that's totally good. So they said you can never get these together. It was a dualism. But didn't you have Jesus Christ? Material and immaterial together, and it wasn't intrinsically evil, but he was in fact intrinsically good, good in both body and spirit and soul. So this sets some things up for getting past moving past greek thinking and all this dualistic type terms and allowing us to see material and immaterial can come together, okay. So this is important.
Speaker 2:Now, trinity okay, we're going to look at a lot of verses next week in the Old Testament. You're going to be shocked at how much of the Trinity is in the Old Testament, because most people say, well, I mean the Old Testament, it prepares us for Trinity, but there's very little about the Trinity and the New Testament develops and explores it. But I'm going to show you a lot of passages that will affect the Trinity. So today, what we're going to do from right now for the next few minutes, is start to prepare for the Trinity by asking the right types of questions. What do I mean the right types of questions? Questions that matter, big questions Like issues that basically affect the entire world and whether you're a believer or not. Okay, so the Trinity is a huge doctrine. It's obviously heavyweight material, and so let's just start to jump in.
Speaker 2:Okay, the Trinity is criticized typically as being a logical contradiction by unbelievers. They'll say you Christians, don't you realize that you have a contradiction at the very heart of your system, of your faith? I mean, god is one and God is three. How could you not be more contradictory than that? One does not equal three. So you are at the very heart of your system is a logical contradiction. Now, so what unbelievers do to make this objection or this criticism is they start with their logic machine, right? And then what they do is they subject God to the logic machine, right? And then what they do is they subject God to the logic machine, right? In other words, they put God under human logic and evaluate him. Actually, it's exactly the reverse. Okay, what I'm trying to show you through this portion is that the logic machine doesn't exist without the Trinity, that the Trinity is the basis for the fact that we have logic machines. The only way we have the ability to think logically and use language is if there is Trinity, and this goes for everybody, because everybody is made in whose image, god, whether you're a believer or an unbeliever.
Speaker 2:So let me start to try to develop this in what is known as the problem of the one and the many. Now, you may never heard this problem, but it is the most important philosophical problem that ever will be discussed, because it's never been resolved by anyone who's not a Christian. Let me explain what it basically means and then talk about a few of these individuals I have up here on the screen from the 20th century. The problem of the one in the many basically deals with this problem Unity and diversity of things. Which is more important? The group as a whole or the individuals that make up a group? Quick basic question Family.
Speaker 2:How many of you in here does not have a family? I mean, basically, you all came out of a family. You're an individual in a family. Which is more important? The family or you as an individual in the family? Which gets priority, which gets emphasis? We've all faced this. Sometimes you as an individual had to sacrifice for the sake of the family and sometimes the family had to sacrifice for the sake of you as an individual. This is where we struggle with this.
Speaker 2:But I'm going to show you. It's not just family, it's in politics, it's in nations. I always one is global, the many are the nations that are on the globe. We see this in politics, between well, I'll talk about all this in a minute. I'm just trying to frame basically what the problem is as far as the way that people are interacting with issues in their world. Their marriage, the two shall become one flesh. Does that mean that all individuality is erased and the two individuals who have differences among them are lost for the sake of the unity of the marriage. Okay, everybody's involved in this problem, because I just got you all involved. Okay, now it wasn't realized. Now I'm going to tell you a little story about what's on the board here corneas van till and princeton and westminster theological seminary. Corneas van till probably not well known, but he was a student at princeton.
Speaker 2:Princeton, of course, was originally founded as a theological seminary and what happened in the early 1900s was, you know, liberalism. Liberal Christianity was moving in, it was making its mark on the major schools like Princeton, and there was a divide among the faculty at Princeton and basically it split and some of the guys that were there went and formed Westminster Theological Seminary. Now they'd been dialoguing in faculty for years and years over these issues. Between you know liberal Christianity, which is using logic and language to undermine Christian theology and those who are standing by the fundamentals of the faith. So it's really the fundamentalists versus the liberals at Princeton and other institutions. J Gresham Machen was basically like the voice of the day, who held on to the fundamentals of the faith. You know the virgin birth, you know Trinity, you know deity of Christ, you know like basic things, whereas the liberals were denying all these things. Right, and he wrote for the fundamentalist cause.
Speaker 2:Cornelius Van Til was one who came out of this and he left Princeton. He went to become a faculty at Westminster Theological Seminary. Now, who was this guy? Well, basically, he's kind of like he never wrote anything popular, so most people are never going to pick up his book. He basically lectured right in seminary and later people said this is such valuable, they took his curricula and they published him in book and it's like reading through sludge. I mean it's thick. It's the thickest reading I've ever done. I read them a long time ago.
Speaker 2:Van Til was concerned about what happened, like why did the liberals win? How did the liberals beat us? I mean, we were the fundamentalists, we were standing on the scriptures. How did they beat us? Well, what? We were the fundamentalists, we were standing on the Scriptures. How did they beat us? Well, what he found out was we really weren't standing on the Scriptures. We were borrowing from paganism and trying to fight them on their own ground. And he found out this was a mistake. He realized that and he developed what's called presuppositional apologetics. I'm not into everything about presuppositional apologetics, but here's what he found.
Speaker 2:And, by the way, this guy was somebody. This guy was a serious, good guy. He was a Dutch guy. He came to America. He basically wanted to be a farmer, but he was super brilliant and he got into theology and all this. Okay, he hung out with people like J Gresham Machen, who basically led the fundamentalists against the liberal war for two decades. He hung out with Robert Dick Wilson. I don't know if you've ever heard of this guy, but this guy knew over 25 languages and he knew every Semitic language on the earth. So this guy is no slouch. And these are the people that Cornelius Van Til hung out with. Okay, I'm just saying he's not a slouch. He did his dissertation on Immanuel Kant, who you know is probably the most influential philosopher in our entire world to this day okay, following Plato, I mean modern philosopher and this work that he did was used by the professor of philosophy at Princeton to write the standard text work on Immanuel Kant. So this guy is super brilliant, even though he wanted to be a farmer. That can happen, right, that can happen.
Speaker 2:Van Til pointed out that in his study of the philosophy of the world all through history is that the problem of the one and the many was the most basic philosophical problem that has ever been faced, and he's pointing out that everybody faces this problem. Nations face this. I gave examples a moment ago. I'm going to give more examples and explain. Politicians face this, accountants face this. Accountants face this, spouses face this, children face this. And his point was there was a renewed understanding of the importance of the Trinity. That the Trinity was already there. I mean, it was understood by the fifth century. It was written, it was articulated God in three persons, blessed Trinity, Great, great, great. And we believe that. But what difference does it make? That's what he found. He found out what the significance of it was and why this is such an important doctrine.
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's state the problem again, and then I'm going to give some examples. The statement first of all, which is more important, right, you've got the one, that's the group, and then you've got the many, that's an individual or a particular. Let's use some examples Nation the world is heading toward one world government. Right, they want to do away with individual national sovereignty in favor of one world government. So, which is being emphasized in that example? Right, the one world government. The nations will be sacrificed. Individual nations will be sacrificed for the one world government. The nations will be sacrificed. Individual nations will be sacrificed for the one world government which will take priority.
Speaker 2:Does the Bible have anything to say about this? I mean, is there a story in the Bible about this? Yeah, we know that the world is heading toward a one world government, one world religion, one world economy and by default, then it's moving away from the many, the concept that we need individual nations to maintain their distinctness and function under their own rules of law. Right, we're rejecting that. But these are the two ways you can swing right that, but these are the two ways you can swing right. You can swing toward a one-world government in which a nation's rights will be given over to elitists, either monarchy one elitist or an oligarchy, a few elitists who rule the world with their set of laws.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you've seen about this, or, oh, what's the end of that? What's the end of that? If that's the presupposition and we're going to emphasize the one over the many, where is that going to end? It's going to end at absolute totalitarianism. That's the end of that and that's what the Bible says. Actually, that's the way the world's going to go. They're dealing with the problem of the one and the many and they're going to choose in favor of the one and they're going to sacrifice the many nations and get rid of them.
Speaker 2:So the other option is to allow each nation to govern themselves autonomously, more like it is now but let's go back a couple hundred years and it would be even more representative right and where we have nations, separate nations, and they war against one another as they vie for supremacy in the world, and the end of that is anarchy. The end of that is anarchy and people struggle over these, they have a tension over which way we should go, because we do realize, right, there basically has not been a year where there wasn't war since Daniel wrote his book. I did a research on that one time. I was like I don't think there is any years when there was not war going on somewhere in the world for the last 2,600 years. So you know, I think people are tired of that right in the world right now and they're thinking well, maybe if we all just come together and we get an elite oligarchy or an elite ruler, then all the world's wars will go away. That's the reasoning process that is taking place. Of course, you have to give up all your rights as an independent nation to be a part of this. So that's an example.
Speaker 2:Politics, politics. This is similar but a little different. Here we have the state versus the individual. Is it better to have a unified society where we sacrifice individual rights to the state and the state decides what is right and wrong, or that's an all-powerful state right? Or is it better to give everybody their individual rights and sacrifice the unity in society so everyone kind of breaks up in their own little gangs and clubs and races and so forth and fights one another, fights for their rights? What happened? Here's the example. What happened? Here's the example. What happened with covid, not just in america, but all over in other nations of the world, which was an attempt toward global unity, uh, and globalism.
Speaker 2:But what happened? Well, we were basically told you needed to take this shot. You need to stay at home, you need to to socially distance. In other words, you need to forfeit your individual rights. Let's just put it that way you need to forfeit your individual rights. For the sake of what? For the sake of one, for the sake of society, for the sake of the state. Why should we do it? Because the government tells us to do it. Sacrifice your individual rights and we will give you security, and a lot of people didn't like that and they said well, I don't want to take the shot and I don't want to stay home and I don't want to stay four feet away, six feet away from whoever you know.
Speaker 2:I want to just be able to function here Instead of, like I'm always, like, tiptoeing around everybody. The lines are six miles long now because I've got to be six feet apart from everybody. See how this is a problem. See how that decision was made in favor, once again, of which One or the many? Did individuals favor their rights or the one, the society as a whole? Society as a whole and people who tried to stand up for their freedoms lost their jobs. And now these companies don't have good people to do those jobs and so they can't keep up with the supply chains. And here we are right Supply and demand Price is doing what Soaring, inflation doing what Soaring.
Speaker 2:Okay, this is too hard to see that at the root of this issue was a determination that we are going to lean toward an answer for the one rather than the many. I read some of the Supreme Court cases that came out of this. One of the judges actually appealed to a case from, I believe the late 40s, where an individual was deprived of her rights and the courts later came back and realized you know, we shouldn't have done that and he cited that in reference to cases that were going on during COVID that what we're doing is running roughshod over individuals' rights and all that does is move us toward the state being more totalitarian, doesn't it Controlling every aspect of our lives? So, yes, the one in the many is a problem right here in politics.
Speaker 2:How about in marriage? Should we emphasize the unity of the marriage of two individuals? If you do, then each individual in the marriage loses their individuality, their own personal expressions. They all get wrapped up in the concept of the marriage. Now, that would be an emphasis on the one, the marriage being taken priority over the individuals in the marriage. But the other side of it would be emphasizing the individual's rights in the marriage. And that goes. If you do that, the end of that is divorce, because you've got two individuals. They're viewing themselves as having their own specific rights, and if this person infringes on my rights, then I'll just divorce you.
Speaker 2:Which way has society tended on this Individual? They've gone individual. In fact, the whole legal system is set up around individual rights, not around marital rights. Okay, so the whole legal system is built on this. It's an answer of the problem of the one of many in the favor of the many.
Speaker 2:Here's the problem. See, I'm just starting to touch on the problem. Okay, they can't get the balance. They're always swinging from one side to the other side on these issues and they can never strike the balance.
Speaker 2:And I think what Christianity and the Trinity is doing is giving us an answer for the balance. I'm not ready to dump all this on you yet, but think about it. Which is more important in the Trinity, the oneness of God or the threeness of God? You don't have to answer. If you want to, if you want to blurt it out, go for it. It's fine, you'll probably get the answer right.
Speaker 2:What is the answer? Which is more important, the oneness of God or the threeness of God? Both they're equally important. In other words, balance is struck in the problem of the one of the many, in God himself, in Trinity. And then the Bible comes along and says in marriage, the two shall become one flesh. So which has priority, the individual in the marriage or the marriage? Both. You can't sacrifice the marriage just for individual rights, and you can't sacrifice the individual rights just for the marriage. You have to find the balance, you have to strike the balance. God has struck the balance. He showed us what the balance is and now he says okay, I'm making you like me in my image, I put two together in one flesh. Now you have to find, strike the balance. It can't all be about you or you whichever spouse. It also can't be just about the marriage, because you also have individual expression in the marriage. So you have to find the balance and I've given you the model one and three Family. Here's another one Family which is more important? The family or the individual in the family? Well, this has already been decided in our country too, in the legal system, in favor of the individual and against the family. You can say thanks to Karl Marx for that, because that's how it came into our country in the 40s. Remember the McCarthy days and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:Communism was coming in, bringing what ideas? Marxist Leninism, that's what they were bringing in. And they came up with this thing called inheritance taxes, which Karl Marx invented. So when your parents die, your kids are left behind. You're going to inherit what your mom and dad give you right, wrong, because you're going to have to pay so many taxes. You may not be able to deal with it. You may have to just sell it off Whatever it is, get rid of it somehow. Can't deal with it Because the government's got to have their little hand in that Inheritance taxes.
Speaker 2:So the emphasis here is on how to destroy the family. That's what Marxism was trying to do. Try to destroy the family. That's what Marxism was trying to do. Try to destroy the family. So it was an overemphasis on which one, overemphasis on the many. They swung toward that side and sacrificed the one, sacrificed the family. Biblically balance, right, biblical balance Filing. I'll use this as the last example. I'm just setting you up for Trinity and the glories of Trinity and this is all we can do today.
Speaker 2:Why do you need a filing system? Let's say I walk in your house or you walk in my house, you see on the table there's all these papers everywhere. Now, because the mail came in, I hadn't been there for four days or I hadn't looked at it in four days Pieces of paper everywhere. Okay, I got homeschool people and their work, I got artwork. I got all this stuff going on in the house, right? I mean, you look at that and you say this is chaos. We got to do something. And we got to do something about this.
Speaker 2:Everybody goes through this. Okay, you look at your computer. You're like I can't find my files. So what do you say? I got to get a filing system right. So what do you start doing? You start separating these pieces of paper right into what Categories? Right, files that are. They're all categories. They're going to be labeled. Right, this is going to be beautiful. You're going to go get your new label maker. You can put some label. It's going to be a great Saturday.
Speaker 2:And then you know why are you doing this? You're doing this so you can think right, so that everything has a place, you can think through it all. Okay, you're putting a label on there and then, six months later, you've got another pile that is building up over here and you're like where am I going to put that stuff? Because you don't really know where it goes, right. And so what do you have to do to your filing system and your category? You have to change them. What are you doing? As you do this, you're trying to make sense of everything. That's what you're trying to do, and we all do this. And if you've ever seen a bad filing system and I've seen some bad ones done by people that were like mathematicians and everything was just numbers and I'm like that doesn't tell me anything about what's in there but if you've ever seen a bad filing system, you know how important it is to have a good filing system.
Speaker 2:Now, in these filing systems, there has to be an emphasis on the one, because there's got to be something that holds this whole thing together and shows you kind of the big picture of everything that's there. But there also has to be the many different file folders and subcategories, categories and subcategories right, because that's the only way you can preserve the details. So you've got to have the big picture and you've also got to have the details, and they've all got to have the big picture and you've also got to have the details and they've all got to be kept together here. This is the issue we're all trying to deal with, okay, and we're trying to strike a balance between the one, the broad picture, and the many, all the details. And again, there's no people in no place in any time of history ever who are not struggling with this in any time of history ever who are not struggling with this. Now, that is what leads us to how we solve it, but I'm not going to leave you hanging on this point.
Speaker 2:You have to have language and you have to have logic to do this. The filing system is a really good example. Logic and language are linked, because logic is thinking and language is what you use to think. If you don't have language, then you can't think, and then all you have is, and then all you have is ugh, ugh. You don't have anything to organize with. So aren't language and logic intrinsic to this whole problem?
Speaker 2:Where do we get those? Okay, where do we get those? Well, plato realized that we needed these. Okay, and he's the guy. I'll show you the art. Maybe it's the next picture, I don't know where it is. He's the guy on your left. Have you seen this painting? That's Plato on the left, that's Aristotle on the right. And do you see the difference in what their right arms are doing? Plato on the left is pointing where Universal, the one, that's what he's about in his philosophy, the one he emphasized, the one. Now, what is Aristotle doing with his right arm Down here? The many, the particular, the individual. He's emphasizing that. That's what these two philosophers. They were wrestling with this very issue. Okay, this is truly modern. I've shown you examples. Okay, they couldn't solve it.
Speaker 2:Plato said we have to have these universals, this one thing that holds everything together. If we don't, I mean everything loses meaning. All the particulars get lost. There's nothing there. So he knew that. But he didn't believe in the Trinity or God and the Bible, all that stuff. So he had to create an abstract, universal one. It was abstract, it was just an emanation of Plato's mind. That's all it was. But he knew this has to be smart. He's right, you can't have anything without that. He was dead on. But here's the thing it was abstract. In other words, it wasn't necessarily real. It was dead on. But here's the thing it was abstract. In other words, it wasn't necessarily real. It was just an idea in his mind. So it's really floating, right. There's nothing there. There's nothing concrete. What's going on with the Bible? Okay, where do you get this? Plato said it's an abstract projection. Is there a concrete basis for these things? Language and logic are basic to everything you do. Anyone want to disagree with that. It's basic to everything you do.
Speaker 2:People come along, they use language and logic right, every single day, believers and unbelievers, unbelievers come along, they criticize the Trinity, the Trinity Right, sorry, contradiction. Without the Trinity you don't have a concrete basis for language and logic. Where do those tools come from that we use? And if you don't have Trinity, you know three, threeness and also oneness. That threeness isn't there language going on in the Trinity Between Father and Son and Son and Spirit and Spirit and Father? Isn't language there? I mean, wasn't language there in the beginning with Him In the beginning was the what Is this not like? Right at the center of everything. And you're made in the image of this word, which means you have language and you use language to think, and that's logic. Animals don't do that. Okay, they don't have this tool, but we do. But the only reason we have it is because it's first in the concrete universal. And that concrete universal is the Trinity. And the irony of it now, as you can probably see, is that unbelievers come along and they use the tools that depend on the Trinity to say that there's a contradiction in the Trinity and that was Van Til's entire point of presuppositional apologetics is that the unbeliever cannot justify where he gets language and logic from to say there is no God, psalm 14.1, psalm 53.
Speaker 2:To which the Bible says the fool says in his heart there is no God. Because what Proverbs 26.5? Answer a fool according to his folly. Do not answer a fool according to his folly. What does that mean? You just contradicted yourself. No, not, if you understand the creator-creature distinction, because one phrase means don't answer the fool on his own grounds, as if logic and language just exist on themselves. They do not, he says. Answer them only on the basis that it does exist, because it's rooted in the Trinity. So, yes, answer him, but answer him on the right grounds, that is, trinitarian grounds, because this is the only way we can even have a discussion.
Speaker 2:Every argument and debate for the existence of God presupposes the existence of God. It does. They're using language and they're using logic. Did the debater justify where they came from? I mean, unbelievers use it all the time. Some of them are very logical people. They have great vocabulary, their language is wonderful, but can they give a justification for where the language and the logic comes from? Justification for where the language and the logic comes from, or are they actually borrowing it from the Christian triune God and then using it to argue against the existence of God.
Speaker 2:It's irony I'm trying to show you. It's really absolutely futile and silly. What's going on out there. When we get into the Trinity you're going to realize, gosh, you know, the bible says all the riches of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in christ. Maybe I should have taken that a little more literally, because all of them are all of them. I mean you're thinking here today because god made you in his own image. Be glad that you're on, you're saved by his grace through faith, right, I mean? Because actually what he did was save way more than just you individually for eternal salvation. He saved logic and language and everything that you have. And you're sitting here and you should be saying thank you, thank you, I appreciate you, I worship you. I use my language and logic for you. I worship you, I use my language and logic for you, for your glory right, for your namesake not to try to deny you All.
Speaker 2:Atheism presupposes theism. It has to, it can't get off the ground without it. Atheism and materialism that's one of the silliest views ever. Can you please show me a logic? If you believe everything's material, please show me a logic. I would like to see a logic, please. Can you bring it forth as evidence. How about the number one? This one always blows me away. Can anybody show me the number one? You say, oh, I'll write it up here. No, that's a symbol, I want to see one. You draw an apple. You say one apple. No, that's an apple, I want to see one. Nobody's ever drawn it or seen it, because it's an idea and you can't see those. So atheists and materialism, which says everything that's material, can account for concepts that are immaterial, including language and logic.
Speaker 2:So there, you know, this is very easy, and this is what Van Til was saying, and I'm trying to communicate it. I know it's difficult, because he's saying I want you to really think, I want you to really think about thinking, and that's the hardest thing to do to think about how you're thinking. Okay, but all this is background for the Trinity, and if you're like I mean, this sounds crazy what you're saying, that's okay, that's okay, I'm just trying to take you on a little ride, okay, and next week, when we get into the Trinity verses, you know, you just have a new appreciation. It also may be helping your marriage, it also may be helping your family, it'll also help you think through politics, right, because they're all related to this question and you've got to find the balance. The balance is found in the Trinity and it's concrete. One is equal emphasis to the many, marriage one and marriage, individuals yes. Family, yes, individuals yes, balance, balance, balance, balance, balance. And God wants us to live a balanced Christian life that starts with balanced thinking.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app, and until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.