WEBVTT 00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:07.280 Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast. 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:08.400 My name's Clayton. 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:10.560 I'm the pastor here at MetaCurch. 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:18.160 And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you. 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:20.800 I hope that you enjoy today's message. 00:00:23.839 --> 00:00:29.600 In Luke chapter 4, starting in verse 17, the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Jesus. 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:38.719 And unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:48.560 He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:54.000 I want to welcome you to our third and final week of this series that we've been in on justice. 00:00:54.240 --> 00:01:02.320 Jesus takes the scroll of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah and he works his way through it to the exact spot of what he wants to say. 00:01:02.479 --> 00:01:09.040 Jesus is debuting his public ministry, and this is what he wants people to hear. 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:12.799 He is coming to make what is wrong right. 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:15.680 Jesus was coming for justice. 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:24.959 In our first two weeks, we worked really hard to get a biblical perspective on what justice means and how we can apply that in our life as followers of Jesus. 00:01:25.040 --> 00:01:30.319 And today what I want to do is I want to take an even wider view of justice. 00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:34.480 Now, today may feel less like a sermon and a little bit more like a lecture. 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:39.680 But before you log off and turn on Netflix, I need you to know this is important content. 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:47.040 And it's also the kind of message that speaks not just to believers, but to those who are spiritually curious. 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:56.719 This really is a message for the atheist, the agnostic, the seeking, the curious, those who have been hurt by the church or other religions in their past. 00:01:56.959 --> 00:02:02.799 And MetaCurch has worked very, very hard to be a place where all people can come, of all backgrounds and all worldviews. 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:07.840 MetaCurch is a place where you can belong actually even before you believe. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:21.199 If that feels like a non-church concept, consider that the disciples who Jesus called unto himself, they followed him for almost three years before they really even understood who he was and believed in him. 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:28.960 And so hopefully you have some friends and family who aren't so sure of this Jesus thing or Christianity or the church or what it all means. 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:31.840 And this is the message to share with them today. 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:40.560 Today, we're gonna dive in, we're gonna go deep, and we're going to answer the question: where does justice come from? 00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:42.560 Where does justice come from? 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:44.159 Would you pray with me? 00:02:44.719 --> 00:03:01.759 Father, I ask that you would bring to this message people who don't know whether or not they believe in you, maybe they are convinced you don't exist, people who see Jesus maybe as just a historical figure but don't believe his claims of divinity. 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:14.800 God, that you would bring people who are unsure, who are running out of hope, who feel like they're running out of options, people who don't have a lens to view the very tumultuous times that we're living through right now with. 00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:18.479 And so, God, I pray for open minds and open hearts. 00:03:18.800 --> 00:03:20.960 God, we would be open to learning. 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:22.719 We'd be open to hearing from you. 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:27.759 God, that we would be at least open to the idea of a supernatural experience today. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:29.599 And so, God, we ask you to speak. 00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:31.759 Holy Spirit, I ask that you would speak through me. 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:35.520 And God, we give it all to you, and we ask it in the powerful name of Jesus. 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:36.479 Amen. 00:03:37.199 --> 00:03:45.280 Now, when we ask where justice comes from, I'm specifically asking about the kind of justice we've been focused on in this series. 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:50.400 We've said every week that this is a series that really is best taken as a whole. 00:03:50.560 --> 00:04:00.560 Like to really get the full breadth of what we're saying in each of these weekends, it's better to see it as a complete work between weeks one, two, and three. 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:10.000 And so if you're coming in for the first time after this, you can easily get caught up on metachurch.tv slash watch or by subscribing to our MetaCurch YouTube channel. 00:04:10.159 --> 00:04:14.719 But today we are talking about equality-based justice. 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:20.319 What we've seen is that throughout history, justice has been based on equity. 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:22.800 Who has the most wins the day. 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:28.240 But now we are focused on an equality-based justice. 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:39.439 It's what we're crying for: equality among people, among people groups, equality among every demographic and every option in society. 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:56.000 Equality suggests things like upward mobility, equal opportunity in education and career, fair treatment by social institutions, non-discriminatory practices and love and understanding from your fellow human beings here on planet Earth. 00:04:56.240 --> 00:05:01.680 This form of justice seems to almost be seared into our hearts and onto our minds. 00:05:01.839 --> 00:05:10.000 We long for it, and when we see our world moving in the opposite of direction of that, we begin to take steps to rectify it. 00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:13.519 We've learned a working definition for justice in this series. 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:18.319 Justice is getting what you deserve and not getting what you do not deserve. 00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:21.839 It is the very baseline of understanding justice. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:27.519 That justice is ensuring you get what you deserve and you do not get what you do not deserve. 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:29.839 And if you've gotten what you deserve, then it is just. 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:33.360 And if you do not get what you do not deserve, then that is just. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:38.480 And because of that, we learn that justice cannot operate in a vacuum by itself. 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:40.720 It needs a worldview. 00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:53.759 And it needs a worldview because a worldview brings with it our ideas of morality and equality and equity and all of the things that inform what it is that we deserve. 00:05:54.079 --> 00:06:00.720 Worldview tells us what we deserve, and justice is the measurement of whether or not people are getting what they deserve. 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:07.120 Worldview fills in the blanks of what justice actually means to us in reality. 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:16.240 So to understand where justice comes from, we have to see how it operates in the dominant worldviews that have led us to this point of history. 00:06:16.399 --> 00:06:28.560 And today I want to suggest that there are and have been four primary worldview systems on earth, and that there are still four dominant worldview systems on earth today. 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:34.240 Now I know that within each of these worldviews, there are millions of secondary versions of them. 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:35.759 There's different flavors of them. 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:37.360 People have their own take on them. 00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:50.560 But what I am saying is that you can take any of these other flavors of worldview, and all of them will be informed by one of the four dominant worldviews that have led all of human history. 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:57.279 And if we look into these four worldviews, we will be able to answer the question of where does justice come from? 00:06:58.000 --> 00:06:59.199 And so let's dig in. 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:04.160 The first dominant worldview system is works-based religion. 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:06.000 Works-based religion. 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:13.199 Now, what you're going to notice is that all of these worldviews are driven by religious ideals. 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:25.360 And people who have really done their homework and really researched this understand that it is religious framework that has actually navigated us across different worldviews since the beginning of time. 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:30.560 Virtually every religion outside of biblical Christianity is works-based. 00:07:30.720 --> 00:07:39.199 To determine whether a religious system is works-based, all you have to do is answer the question: do I have to work to get to the afterlife? 00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:41.360 Whatever that version of the afterlife is. 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:49.920 I'm saying that every religion except for Christianity, real true biblical Christianity, falls into this category. 00:07:50.079 --> 00:08:03.920 There are steps you have to take, there's a ladder that you have to climb, there are sacrifices and sacraments, there are all the different things that you have to make sure you all have in place so that you can work your way to God. 00:08:05.519 --> 00:08:19.040 Now, the problem is that when you are working your way to God, the idea of equality and mercy and grace, the idea of charity has an inherent conflict of interest. 00:08:19.439 --> 00:08:28.639 Because you may be truly motivated to help someone, but by helping them, that is also how you climb the ladder to eventually get to the afterlife. 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:31.199 And so there's no form of pure charity. 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:36.799 It's not that you're working just from love, you're also working for love. 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:51.759 And we can even see in our children, and we can see in spouses, we can see in family, we can see in friendships, that when we have to work for love, it degrades our ability to truly and freely work from love. 00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:57.600 Basing our eternity on works will always be a fear-motivated system. 00:08:57.919 --> 00:08:59.600 There's no way around it. 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:01.279 There's no way around it. 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:15.039 Followers constantly have to wonder if they've done enough good, and they constantly have to wonder if they have kept from doing too much bad, so that one day they might even out on the scales and get where they're trying to go. 00:09:15.840 --> 00:09:18.159 This fear leads us to guilt. 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:19.600 Incredible guilt. 00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:25.679 You see people in works-based systems, even when works-based systems have crept into Christianity. 00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:31.759 That's why we have to differentiate between true biblical Christianity and forms of it that have brought in works. 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:34.159 Incredible guilt. 00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:40.720 Always wondering if you've gone too far, always wondering if you're gonna be good enough, always wondering whether or not God is going to accept you. 00:09:40.879 --> 00:09:49.120 And fear and guilt are the two most powerful levers to control any human population. 00:09:51.200 --> 00:10:07.519 Now, all these different religions that you can look at, you can point at, and they lay out their system and they tell you these are the steps that you have to take, and this is what you have to do, and some of them are very clear, and some of them are not very clear, but perhaps the greatest evidence of works-based is in its strictest form, which is probably found in Islam. 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:11.519 Islam stands out as perhaps the strictest form of works-based religion. 00:10:11.759 --> 00:10:14.480 And the reason is because of the lack of security. 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:16.799 Without security, you have fear. 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:23.279 And in Islam, there's really no way of knowing whether or not you're going to make it to paradise. 00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:26.799 They have all kinds of rules and regulations to follow. 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:29.279 You can follow them all to a T, but you can never really know. 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:32.399 In fact, there's only one way to know whether or not you're going to make it. 00:10:32.559 --> 00:10:40.320 The only way that guarantees you entrance into paradise is if you die as a martyr in the cause for Allah. 00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:48.720 In week one of this series, we saw that the opposite of fighting for equality, the kind of justice we're crying for right now, is fighting for equity. 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:51.279 This is what works-based systems do. 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:59.120 You are trying to build up your spiritual equity in order to make it to your spiritual afterlife. 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:04.399 And we don't have to guess what the results of those are, we can just study works-based religion. 00:11:05.279 --> 00:11:09.120 It creates people who are superior than others. 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:13.039 It creates systems of oppression. 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:25.039 In the Islamic-dominated parts of the world where Sharia law, the law created to protect the teachings of their holy book, the Quran, where that reigns, women have much fewer rights than men. 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:29.840 Different worldviews are thrown out, sometimes are even killed. 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:34.720 And people who are outsiders, foreigners, are treated with prejudice. 00:11:34.960 --> 00:11:37.759 Now, some think that this is just a cultural inconsistency. 00:11:37.919 --> 00:11:42.960 And let me say this very clearly because I know this is a touchy subject, and we're once again wading into some controversy. 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:53.200 There are millions upon millions of Quran-believing Muslims who live peaceful lives and want to help and want to be charitable and they really want to do good. 00:11:53.279 --> 00:12:02.240 And what I want to suggest is that that's not a logical outflow of what they believe in a works-based system, that they are stealing those ideas from somewhere else. 00:12:02.559 --> 00:12:08.559 Some people think that it's just cultural, that it doesn't apply everywhere. 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:17.519 But you can hold up the teachings of the Quran and the teachings of our Bible, and they are distinctly different in equality, which leads to justice. 00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:25.200 In Quran 4:34, it says, Men are in charge of women by the right of what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend from their wealth. 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:31.679 And so righteous women are devoutly obedient, guarding the husband's absence, what Allah would have them guard. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:36.799 But those wives from who you fear arrogance, first you advise them. 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:40.159 Then, if they persist, you forsake them in bed. 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:41.519 You quit having sex with them. 00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:43.600 Because if you don't have sex with them, they can't have kids. 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:45.360 And kids is the highest form of honor. 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:48.559 And honor is how you build equity, and equity is how you make it to paradise. 00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:55.759 And finally, finally, if you can't get your woman to get in line, finally, the Quran says to strike them. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:13:00.080 Take them in the bed chamber where no one can see and strike them. 00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:02.000 I'm not making this up. 00:13:02.159 --> 00:13:03.759 This is in the text. 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:06.240 It's equity-based and it creates this. 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:07.360 How does that work? 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:08.559 How does it function? 00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:11.039 How is that right and how is it just? 00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:16.799 It's works-based justice. 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:21.919 How does a husband gain the equity by following the works to get to eternity? 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:26.240 He takes control and leads a godly household. 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:34.159 How does a woman build her equity and get to eternity by respecting and serving her husband? 00:13:34.559 --> 00:13:42.000 So if he's got a smacker, what he's really doing is trying to point her back to the equity that she desperately needs if she wants any help of paradise. 00:13:42.399 --> 00:13:44.960 You compare this to the teaching in Scripture. 00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:55.039 The book of Ephesians says, husband, love your wife and lay your life down for them, just as Jesus did for the church. 00:13:55.519 --> 00:14:00.080 The comparisons could not be more diametrically opposed to each other. 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:05.519 Works-based religion is rooted in fear, and fear creates fractures. 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:10.320 Fractures fight for equity, justice and equality are left wanting. 00:14:10.639 --> 00:14:13.360 The first dominant worldview is work-based religion. 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:15.279 The second is the karmic cycle. 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:20.000 Karma is primarily found in Eastern religions, religions like Buddhism and Hinduism. 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:25.679 However, this idea of karma has now deeply infiltrated Western thought patterns over the year. 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:45.440 Now, the concept of karma is that throughout life, you are storing up a debt of the bad that you have done, and you are storing up a reserve of the good that you have done, and at some point you will receive back bad for what you have done bad, and you will receive back good for what you have done good. 00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:50.399 Now that sounds a lot like justice because justice is getting what you deserve and it's not getting what you don't deserve. 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:55.759 It at least sounds a little bit closer than the workspace system where it's just inherently fear and guilt-driven. 00:14:55.840 --> 00:15:00.799 But there are some real problems when it comes to equality-based justice and karma. 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:06.879 The first is that the consequences of your actions are rarely attached to the action itself. 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:11.600 So let's say, as an example, that you were stealing from your work. 00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:17.200 It would be just for you to be fired or demoted or suspended without pay. 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:21.039 Those would be just because there is an action and a reaction. 00:15:21.200 --> 00:15:24.960 The consequence is based on what you actually did. 00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:29.279 However, in karma, it's not that easy. 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:36.240 In karma, you might not get caught, you might not get justice, in karma, you might get away with it. 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:38.159 And it might be 30 years later. 00:15:38.320 --> 00:15:41.200 And 30 years later, you might develop stage four cancer. 00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:49.759 And that stage four cancer would be an indication that karma is coming back to punish your debt of wrongs that you have done throughout your life. 00:15:49.840 --> 00:15:55.919 And maybe it's not just stealing, maybe it's also flirting with people who weren't your wife. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:58.799 And maybe it was the kid you beat up when you were in middle school. 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:01.200 And maybe it was the hatred that you had towards your parents. 00:16:01.279 --> 00:16:04.559 And all of that has now combined and it is now coming back for you. 00:16:04.639 --> 00:16:12.240 And so here's the question: Does stealing some paper clips and post-it notes is a just punishment for that? 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:13.360 Dying of cancer? 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:14.559 Of course not. 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:22.559 The first big issue with karma is that your consequences are not actually tied, are not actually tied to your actions. 00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:26.720 There is a break there, and justice is not served. 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:35.440 Now the second issue is there are people, and we've all known them, who get away with it their whole life. 00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:48.559 And they do wrong and they lie and they steal and they cheat their way all the way to the end, and they make it to the end, and they have lots of success, and their success comes at the expense of other people that they have stepped on and stepped over to get where they are, and where's the karma for them? 00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:53.120 You see, you can't really believe in karma without believing in reincarnation. 00:16:53.360 --> 00:17:07.440 The belief of reincarnation is that you will be born again, not in a spiritual sense, like we believe in Christianity, but that you will literally physically be born again and again and again, reincarnated into life again and again and again. 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:15.759 And that even if you make it all the way through life, living a terrible life, that your karmic cycle will come back in your next life. 00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:24.640 Not only is the consequence not tied to your actions, it might not even come during your time here on earth. 00:17:25.519 --> 00:17:33.279 So if you live a bad life, you store up tons of negative karma debt, you'll be reborn into a negative life situation. 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:36.240 So let me like the let me make this very clear. 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:57.119 If you are struggling in life right now, if you were born into an impoverished situation, if you were abandoned by your parents, if you were cheated on by your spouse, if your kids disrespect you, if you are sick or struggling, whatever has happened to you in life is the result of a life that has come before this life that you have no memory of and no control over. 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:00.720 That is the opposite of justice. 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:09.440 If you're living lavishly and everything has gone your way, it is the result of a positive reserve of goods that you did in a past life. 00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:14.559 You're paying for the debt of the life that you lived before. 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:17.759 This is no kind of justice. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:27.599 Justice is getting what you deserve and not getting what you deserve, not you, supposedly, supposedly, from a different life. 00:18:28.079 --> 00:18:31.359 There's one further implication of the karmic cycle. 00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:35.119 Most Eastern religions operate on a caste system. 00:18:35.359 --> 00:18:37.759 Equality is not something to be sought after. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:41.119 People at the top of the caste are better, and at the bottom they are worse. 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:42.640 It is equity-based. 00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:48.880 Not only that, but there's no category for any kind of mercy, ministry, or charity, and here's why. 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:53.599 Because every life that is being lived is being lived in a karmic cycle. 00:18:53.839 --> 00:18:58.799 And people who are on the bottom of the caste system are paying off their karmic debt. 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:06.799 And for you to step in and help them, you will be prolonging their path to paying off their karma. 00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:21.920 To say it clearly, to show someone mercy would be the most unmerciful thing you could do because you will be prolonging the cycle where they can get back to a positive life. 00:19:22.079 --> 00:19:25.839 And so justice is replaced by just wait. 00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:29.200 Karma will take care of it for us. 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:33.359 And so people are trying to rethink karma. 00:19:33.519 --> 00:19:47.200 People are publishing works about rethinking Buddhism and rethinking Hinduism in there, trying desperately to add a social action element to have some kind of equality and some kind of justice because they know the world right now is crying for it. 00:19:47.279 --> 00:19:48.640 And maybe they'll be successful. 00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:53.440 Maybe they'll figure out a way to navigate charity and mercy inside the karmic cycle. 00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:56.880 But it will not be a logical conclusion from their system. 00:19:57.039 --> 00:20:00.720 It will be something they have stolen from elsewhere. 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:03.599 So far, we've looked at two of our dominant worldviews. 00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:07.440 We've looked at a work-based system and we've looked at a karmic cycle. 00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:15.920 And now we are going to go to what I would say is also a religion that has the most movement and momentum in America, and that is atheism. 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:22.880 Atheism's adherents are dogmatic, and they come from the most persuasive platforms in our culture. 00:20:23.119 --> 00:20:32.480 Celebrities, athletes, scientists, authors, college professors, these fields nowadays seem dominated by the deep belief that there is no God. 00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:36.000 Worldview answers the question: where did you come from? 00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:37.920 What are you doing and where are you going? 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:38.799 Where did you come from? 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:40.559 What are you doing and where are you going? 00:20:40.720 --> 00:20:42.960 On atheism, you came from nowhere. 00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:46.640 You are doing nothing, you have no purpose, and you will go nowhere. 00:20:46.880 --> 00:20:50.160 You came from nowhere, you're doing nothing, and you're going nowhere. 00:20:50.400 --> 00:20:54.160 That is the logical conclusion of atheism. 00:20:54.319 --> 00:21:01.359 Now, of course, you will see many atheists who are living lives and they are pursuing purpose and they think their life has meaning and that it's going somewhere. 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:07.200 And any of them that hold to that have stolen that worldview from somewhere else. 00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:10.480 We're looking for where justice comes from. 00:21:10.640 --> 00:21:13.839 And atheism immediately has a huge problem. 00:21:13.920 --> 00:21:15.519 And the problem is pretty obvious. 00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:18.559 Atheism is the belief that there is no God. 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:21.119 If there is no God, there is no creator. 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:23.680 If there is no creator, there is no designer. 00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:30.480 If there is no designer, there is no intentional design for your life and the world around you. 00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:32.400 History is meaningless. 00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:42.160 It is not a narrative that is being put together by a higher power that started from somewhere intentional and will end up somewhere with justice. 00:21:43.440 --> 00:21:46.640 It's all just random. 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:52.160 The logical conclusion of atheism is relativism. 00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:54.400 Everything is relative. 00:21:56.240 --> 00:21:59.440 There is nothing outside of us, outside of space and time. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:08.400 There is not an uncaused cause that we call God that is an objective anchor for things like morality, for things like equality. 00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:12.319 There is no objective anchor for what is real in our worldview. 00:22:12.480 --> 00:22:15.200 So there is no anchor for justice. 00:22:15.759 --> 00:22:17.839 What people deserve is up to you. 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:20.000 It's all relative. 00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:26.000 Is it good for the races to be equal on atheism? 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:26.799 Maybe. 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:28.000 It's all relative. 00:22:28.160 --> 00:22:32.000 At the end of the day, it's up to you or some kind of consensus. 00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:36.240 Is it moral to own slaves, to have discriminatory policy? 00:22:36.559 --> 00:22:37.519 Depends. 00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:45.440 Maybe this sounds insane, and I understand that the atheists that you interact with in your life are not actively living this way. 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:51.440 But it is because they are being inconsistent with the bedrock of their belief. 00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:56.000 Postmodern relativist and atheistic philosopher Richard Roerty admits this. 00:22:56.160 --> 00:23:08.559 He says the idea of universal human rights was a completely novel concept in history, resting on the biblical teaching that all human beings are created in the image of God. 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:25.200 This is an atheistic philosopher who is consistent with his own system that says there is no such thing as universal human rights, universal human equality, there is no such thing without the biblical concept that there is a creator. 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:29.359 If we have one creator, then we are all created equal. 00:23:29.599 --> 00:23:38.079 And so he goes on and calls himself a freeloading atheist because he knows he borrows his own morality from the Christian worldview. 00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:39.119 The point is clear. 00:23:43.119 --> 00:23:45.759 Well, anyone can find one quote that agrees with them, right? 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:50.160 And it's not just one quote, it is any quote from any atheist who is being consistent. 00:23:50.319 --> 00:24:06.160 Consider Friedrich Nietzsche, who is the grandfather of atheism and probably its most important philosopher, he says this, another Christian concept, no less crazy, has passed even more deeply into the tissues of modernity, the concept of equality. 00:24:06.400 --> 00:24:13.119 The concept of equality, what we are marching for and crying for, the concept of equality of souls before God. 00:24:13.279 --> 00:24:20.400 This concept, he says, furnishes the prototype of all theories of equal rights. 00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:34.880 All theories of equal rights from all time in human history started with a Christian concept, a Christian concept of equality that Nietzsche himself calls crazy. 00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:38.000 These are consistent atheists. 00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:44.559 Atheists who are willing to take their belief to its logical conclusion. 00:24:45.119 --> 00:24:48.000 Now, for thousands and thousands of years, there were atheists. 00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:58.079 There were people who didn't believe in God, but they didn't have much ground to stand on because they couldn't explain the one vital question of if there is no God, where did it all come from? 00:24:58.240 --> 00:25:03.279 Religion had the upper hand because every religion at least had some kind of creation narrative. 00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:05.119 They could explain it in some way. 00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:11.519 And people who were against the idea of God had no leg to stand on until Charles Darwin. 00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:14.000 And so what does Darwin have to do with justice? 00:25:14.160 --> 00:25:17.119 I want to suggest he has a lot to do with justice. 00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:22.240 Perhaps you know the name of his most famous work on the origin of the species. 00:25:22.480 --> 00:25:24.480 Everyone learned that in school at some point? 00:25:24.720 --> 00:25:30.880 The idea of evolution, the idea of going from fish all the way to philosopher of monkey all the way to man. 00:25:31.119 --> 00:25:34.559 Macroevolution started with on the origin of the species. 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:37.680 We know that title, but perhaps you don't. 00:25:38.079 --> 00:25:40.000 The full title is never taught. 00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:42.000 We never learn it in school. 00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:45.759 The full book is never read, only selected parts. 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:59.440 You may be surprised to know that this treatise was actually called On the Origin of the Species or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. 00:25:59.759 --> 00:26:02.559 This is the full title of Darwin's work. 00:26:02.720 --> 00:26:12.240 And when it is read in context, it is nothing less than a racist manifesto, the preservation of favored races. 00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:20.960 And if you have any question about who the favored races are, it is the ones who have evolved the melanin out of their skin. 00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:26.319 It is the white race that is the favored race that Darwin believes will be preserved. 00:26:26.480 --> 00:26:27.440 Maybe that's not what he meant. 00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:28.559 And I've read this, right? 00:26:28.799 --> 00:26:33.759 This revisionist history where people go in and they say, What he meant by races is he meant species. 00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:36.240 No, what he meant by races is races. 00:26:36.559 --> 00:26:39.039 It says on the origin of the species. 00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:42.480 Darwin wrote another book. 00:26:42.559 --> 00:26:44.079 It's called The Descent of Man. 00:26:45.440 --> 00:27:03.759 In it he says, at some future period, at some future period, this is his prophecy, the civilized races of man, the white races, will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage, non-white races. 00:27:06.079 --> 00:27:09.759 You'll see an ellipsis, dot, dot, dot at the end of that quote. 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:12.240 I had originally put the rest of the quote in my script. 00:27:12.400 --> 00:27:13.359 You can look it up on your own. 00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:14.799 It's out of the descent of man. 00:27:14.960 --> 00:27:17.599 I tried to preach it alone in my office and I couldn't do it. 00:27:17.759 --> 00:27:18.559 I couldn't say it. 00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:25.119 It is so viciously racist that although I would be quoting Darwin, I just couldn't get the words out of my mouth. 00:27:26.640 --> 00:27:32.400 This idea of evolution was rooted in racism. 00:27:32.960 --> 00:27:46.640 And it's so interesting as we have been looking at an analysis of our own country to have a declaration that explicitly says and implies all men are created by a creator and we're created equal. 00:27:46.799 --> 00:27:53.839 That's our declaration, but our legislation said that a part of our population was only three-fifths human. 00:27:54.079 --> 00:27:59.519 The declaration is a statement of a higher power of God. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.000 And the legislation was purely Darwinian evolution. 00:28:04.160 --> 00:28:06.079 What are you if you're three-fifths human? 00:28:06.240 --> 00:28:15.359 That means you are 60% evolved and you are 40% unevolved, 60% human and 40% primate. 00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:20.000 This is directly the lineage of Charles Darwin. 00:28:20.799 --> 00:28:24.799 Darwin had a contemporary named Thomas Malthus. 00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:31.759 He put forward a theory at the same time that the reason we needed Darwin's idea of survival of the fittest is because we were gonna run out of food. 00:28:31.920 --> 00:28:34.240 We didn't have enough resources to feed everyone. 00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:38.799 Darwin had seen it in animals competing over resources, and the ones who lost died. 00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:41.759 And so Malthus said, This is the same way for humans. 00:28:42.079 --> 00:28:53.519 We've got to get to this idea of one race, and we've got to fraction off and segment and segregate and fight for equity over the limited resources. 00:28:53.759 --> 00:29:01.680 And where Darwin intersected with Malthus came the most horrific experiment that perhaps has ever taken place on planet Earth. 00:29:01.839 --> 00:29:04.000 The experiment we call Nazi Germany. 00:29:04.160 --> 00:29:07.200 Hitler was directly influenced by both of these men. 00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:08.400 And what was his goal? 00:29:08.559 --> 00:29:20.160 It was to eradicate the lesser savage races and create one supreme race that would have access to everything they needed and could truly thrive and survive. 00:29:20.640 --> 00:29:22.799 It's equity-based justice. 00:29:23.119 --> 00:29:31.680 There's only so much out there, and so we have to band together with people we can identify with, and we have to take it and take it by force. 00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:40.480 Darwinian atheistic thinking has led in the last 100 years to over 130 million murders. 00:29:42.319 --> 00:29:45.359 130 million murders. 00:29:46.880 --> 00:29:57.599 Cultures that this has become the prevalent worldview have devolved into tyranny and extermination of people groups. 00:29:58.079 --> 00:30:03.920 Some people will say Christianity has been the cause of more suffering and more death than anything else ever in the world. 00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:11.519 And I will be the first to admit it that there is a huge gap for many Christians and even periods of Christian history between implication and application. 00:30:11.680 --> 00:30:13.440 That was the entire message. 00:30:14.319 --> 00:30:18.720 The problem is that there are a lot of believers in Jesus who are terrible followers of Jesus. 00:30:18.960 --> 00:30:21.039 The problem isn't the system itself. 00:30:21.359 --> 00:30:37.680 The system of Darwinian atheistic revolutionary thinking led to Stalin killing 40 million people in Russia, Hitler killing 15 or 16 million people in Germany, Mao killing over 70 million people in China. 00:30:39.680 --> 00:30:43.119 It all devolved out of the same worldview. 00:30:43.200 --> 00:30:45.119 And I'm not saying that atheists are bad people. 00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:54.880 In fact, the sad part is you will meet some people who are so much nicer and so much less judgmental than the people you sit next to in a pew on Sunday who are truly hardcore atheists. 00:30:55.039 --> 00:31:03.200 What I'm saying though is they are borrowing their morality, they are borrowing important parts of their worldview from somewhere else. 00:31:03.440 --> 00:31:11.039 Richard Rorty called himself a freeloading atheist, borrowing his morality from Jesus. 00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:17.359 And so here we are at 75%, three-quarters of the world's primary worldviews. 00:31:17.599 --> 00:31:19.359 Pretty bleak for the cause of justice. 00:31:19.519 --> 00:31:21.680 We can't find it in works-based thought. 00:31:21.839 --> 00:31:26.640 We can't find it in the karmic cycle, and we certainly can't find it in atheism. 00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:31.359 However, there is one more option, and that option is Jesus. 00:31:31.759 --> 00:31:34.640 And I was gonna call this last category Christianity. 00:31:34.799 --> 00:31:41.440 But again, the problem has been that people who believe in Jesus have often been so bad at following Jesus. 00:31:41.599 --> 00:31:57.599 And that gap, that gap between what the gospel explicitly says and implies, and our application of those truths has allowed the world to disparage the one movement that has actually created true equal justice, kingdom justice in the world. 00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:03.519 Make no mistake, the historical record leaves no doubt. 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:16.799 There is no doubt that the idea of racial, gender, and class equality, that idea, that category that we now are fighting for started and ends with Jesus. 00:32:16.960 --> 00:32:21.759 And what that means is no Jesus, no justice. 00:32:23.920 --> 00:32:26.960 If there is no Jesus, there is no justice. 00:32:27.119 --> 00:32:31.599 And so we're marching, we're marching in the streets and we're crying out for justice. 00:32:31.759 --> 00:32:33.759 And what we're crying out for is the kingdom. 00:32:33.920 --> 00:32:37.920 We want the kingdom, we want heaven right here on earth. 00:32:39.920 --> 00:32:43.279 We want the kingdom, but we've rejected the king. 00:32:43.599 --> 00:32:49.039 And millions of atheists have marched in the streets over the last two months. 00:32:49.359 --> 00:32:57.359 And millions of people who are counting on the karmic cycle to take care of all of the inequity in the world have marched in the streets. 00:32:57.440 --> 00:33:10.880 And millions of people who are trying to work their way to an afterlife have marched in the streets, and all of them are marching as a part of Jesus' movement, even though they have rejected Jesus Himself. 00:33:13.039 --> 00:33:36.720 The humility of the movement that Jesus started, the velocity at which it began to break down racial, cultural, gender, class barriers, the mercy and the grace that the world had never observed before, the desire to put others ahead of themselves, the peace in the midst of persecution, all of these things were brand new. 00:33:36.960 --> 00:33:39.599 All of them started with Jesus. 00:33:40.160 --> 00:33:43.279 Jesus turned the world upside down. 00:33:43.759 --> 00:33:47.039 Things that were vices were now seen as virtue. 00:33:47.200 --> 00:33:52.400 The way up was now seen as the path down, the path of humility. 00:33:52.960 --> 00:34:02.000 The enemies of the early church declared about its followers in Acts 17: these men who have turned the world upside down have come here. 00:34:02.160 --> 00:34:06.319 This is the warning that they gave in Thessalonica when the Christians showed up. 00:34:06.480 --> 00:34:16.400 These men who are turning the world upside down, turning justice upside down, turning equality upside down, turning gender roles upside down, turning race upside down. 00:34:16.559 --> 00:34:17.920 These men are here. 00:34:18.320 --> 00:34:20.880 They're bringing revolution. 00:34:21.440 --> 00:34:26.159 In a world fighting for equity, Jesus showed up and he fought for equality. 00:34:26.320 --> 00:34:31.039 In a world fighting to climb the ladder, Jesus came and he hung on a cross. 00:34:31.199 --> 00:34:38.320 In a world content with just signaling their virtue, Jesus came and led the ultimate virtuous life. 00:34:39.760 --> 00:34:42.719 The movement of Jesus is not works-based. 00:34:44.079 --> 00:34:46.400 You can't work your way to God. 00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:49.199 You can't climb that ladder. 00:34:50.079 --> 00:34:51.440 And God know this. 00:34:53.519 --> 00:34:57.920 Because we couldn't work our way there, God came down to us. 00:34:58.559 --> 00:35:03.840 Jesus incarnate, Jesus in human flesh, Jesus living the perfect life that we couldn't live. 00:35:04.079 --> 00:35:07.280 Jesus dying the death that you and I deserved. 00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:09.599 It's not works-based. 00:35:09.760 --> 00:35:12.400 To live the Christian life and to love those around us. 00:35:12.559 --> 00:35:14.960 We are not working for God's love. 00:35:15.119 --> 00:35:17.119 We are working from God's love. 00:35:17.280 --> 00:35:21.039 We are not working to try and secure ourselves a spot in heaven. 00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:26.239 We are working out of the security that it doesn't depend on us in the first place. 00:35:27.199 --> 00:35:29.519 Jesus movement is not karma. 00:35:30.880 --> 00:35:34.719 Every one of us has sinned against the most high God. 00:35:34.960 --> 00:35:46.880 Every one of us has a debt that we are incapable of paying, and every one of us deserves only one thing, and that is eternal separation from a holy God who cannot be in the presence of sin. 00:35:48.880 --> 00:35:58.639 There's not enough lifetimes that we could live where we could work out the offense of going against the God of the universe. 00:36:01.039 --> 00:36:06.400 But that God that we offended came down and paid that debt for us. 00:36:06.639 --> 00:36:10.320 We don't have to live a million lifetimes to try and work our way to God. 00:36:10.480 --> 00:36:14.480 Our God came down to us to make a way. 00:36:15.119 --> 00:36:18.639 When we see someone in need, we're not interfering with a karmic cycle. 00:36:18.800 --> 00:36:22.880 When we see someone in need, we should see ourselves because we're all in need. 00:36:23.599 --> 00:36:27.920 We are not doing charity to gain equity to try and get into paradise. 00:36:28.960 --> 00:36:35.920 We look at all with the equality of a world who desperately, desperately needs a savior. 00:36:36.559 --> 00:36:40.800 Jesus gives us the foundation that atheism never could, an objective standard. 00:36:40.960 --> 00:36:44.320 And no one, no one has ever truly followed Jesus. 00:36:44.480 --> 00:36:47.599 The Jesus of Scripture, the pathway led forward. 00:36:47.760 --> 00:36:53.519 No one's ever done that and led a less moral, less significant, less fulfilling life. 00:36:54.079 --> 00:36:57.119 If there is no God, none of it is significant. 00:36:57.440 --> 00:36:58.480 We're all stardust. 00:36:58.719 --> 00:36:59.920 We're here by accident. 00:37:00.079 --> 00:37:04.159 We came from nowhere, the random collision of particles floating in the ether. 00:37:04.400 --> 00:37:05.199 Now we're here. 00:37:05.440 --> 00:37:06.480 We have no purpose. 00:37:06.639 --> 00:37:07.760 There is no morality. 00:37:07.920 --> 00:37:12.880 We have nothing that we can point at that says an objective standard of what is good and what is bad. 00:37:13.039 --> 00:37:13.920 There is no God. 00:37:14.079 --> 00:37:17.760 You are God, you're the king, you're the judge, jury, you're the executioner. 00:37:17.920 --> 00:37:18.719 It's all on you. 00:37:18.880 --> 00:37:19.599 Figure it out. 00:37:19.679 --> 00:37:23.599 And at the end of your life, it doesn't matter anyway because we die and we stay dead. 00:37:23.679 --> 00:37:27.519