[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:07] It's Rick. Welcome back to the Nomad Pastor Podcast. I want to say thanks for joining me again. Thanks for listening, the subscriptions, the messages and comments. I really appreciate that.
[00:00:17] So today I want to talk about.
[00:00:20] Well, before I do that, you know, a couple episodes ago, I said, hey, I'm going to. I'm going to do a series on judges. And so that's going to start next on the next episode.
[00:00:30] Judges is just deep and there's a lot going on. And so it's just taken me a lot of time to build the structure around the podcast series itself. How much should I talk about in each episode?
[00:00:45] But that's going to be. I'll be done, and we'll be ready to do that in the next episode.
[00:00:49] But today, what I want to talk about is truth. And more importantly, you know, truth when it's confronted, when it's confronting the history or faith or just our changing world in society today.
[00:01:04] And so, I mean, I'll start, like, I guess I do a little story, maybe a long one.
[00:01:11] And I want to be very clear.
[00:01:15] This is not designed to attack anybody.
[00:01:18] And it's not meant to stir up any anger or division. I just want to talk about the truth.
[00:01:25] Because at the end of the day, the truth is what sets us free.
[00:01:29] And the truth, I believe, is what the current world is fighting hardest to silence.
[00:01:36] And so before we get into anything kind of heavy, I want to remind everybody of something real simple.
[00:01:43] All people matter to God.
[00:01:47] Atheists matter to God.
[00:01:49] Mormons matter to God. Muslims matter to God. Christians matter to God.
[00:01:55] Every person walking this earth has value.
[00:02:00] And when we talk about Islam or Christianity or persecution or culture, we're talking about doctrine and ideas, not attacking human beings. So I want to make that very clear.
[00:02:13] This is not designed to attack anybody.
[00:02:17] And I hope it doesn't create anger or division.
[00:02:20] And so laying that out, I just want to start right. Remember I said I'm going to tell you a story.
[00:02:27] So here's the story.
[00:02:29] Imagine a young man walking the streets of Jerusalem a thousand years ago, right? The air is warm. The merchants are calling out to him.
[00:02:40] Families are buying bread. Children are laughing.
[00:02:46] And the city, above all this noise, is Christian.
[00:02:54] The city has been Christian for centuries.
[00:02:58] Pilgrims come from everywhere.
[00:03:02] There are churches that fill the streets. Scripture is sung in worship.
[00:03:06] Faith is part of every rhythm of every person's life.
[00:03:14] But history was about to turn.
[00:03:17] You see, in the seventh century, armies carrying a new message began sweeping the ancient world.
[00:03:25] At the end of the day, it was Islam rising Up in just a few generations.
[00:03:31] Jerusalem falls, Antioch falls, Alexandria falls, Carthage falls.
[00:03:38] Cities that had been Christian since the days of the apostles are suddenly under this brand new rule of law.
[00:03:47] So if you can imagine being a Christian father in that moment, you hear these warning messages. You hear that your church may be taking away, that your faith may be restricted, that your family could be pressured. You, you watch your world shifting under your feet and you have no power to stop it.
[00:04:08] And that continues for centuries.
[00:04:13] And then you go to the 11th century.
[00:04:17] The pilgrims that are traveling to Jerusalem are attacked.
[00:04:21] Holy sites are restricted, churches are destroyed. There is tension everywhere.
[00:04:29] Eventually, the emperor sends a desperate plea for help.
[00:04:35] That desperate plea, that cry, is what triggered the Crusades.
[00:04:42] You see, the Crusades weren't Christians waking up one morning and deciding to march east for no reason.
[00:04:48] The Crusades were a response to four centuries of Islamic military expansion that had already overtaken two thirds of the Christian world.
[00:05:01] Now again, we are going to stay honest.
[00:05:05] We are going to talk about truth.
[00:05:07] A lot of terrible, terrible things happened during the Crusades on both sides. There was sin, violence, that dishonored Christ.
[00:05:17] Not every soldier went there with a clean heart.
[00:05:22] But history is not served by telling only half of the story. And I think for a long time that has occurred.
[00:05:30] The Crusades were not the beginning of the conflict.
[00:05:34] And a lot of people claim that they were, but they were the middle of it.
[00:05:42] So if you step back in time before the Crusades, you can think of this picture of this young man hearing Muhammad teach in the early days of Islam. The message is simple. God is one. Jesus is a prophet, not God.
[00:05:57] The Trinity is false. Jesus didn't die on the cross.
[00:06:02] Surah 4, 157 says exactly that. It says Jesus was not crucified.
[00:06:09] That becomes the foundation of his belief. Islam denies the most important moment in Christian faith. And not only does he deny it, but replaces it.
[00:06:21] So think about that young man years later and maybe he's sitting across the table from somebody and they open the Bible and show them first Corinthians 15 where Paul says, if Christ had not been raised, then our faith is worthless.
[00:06:40] You see, Christianity stands or falls on the cross and the resurrection and Islam removes both.
[00:06:48] So now that young man is confronted with a truth he never learned growing up.
[00:06:56] So think about this. You ask him what the Quran says about unbelievers and he opens up Surah 3, verse 85, which says any religion other than Islam is rejected.
[00:07:06] He opens Surah 5, verse 72, which says Christians who believe Jesus is God are unbelievers.
[00:07:12] Surah 9, verse 7, commands fighting and killing of polytheists.
[00:07:19] Surah 9, verse 29 commands fighting the people of the Book until they pay a tax and feel subdued.
[00:07:26] Surah 47, verse 4, talks about striking the necks of the unbelievers in battle.
[00:07:33] Let me be clear about this, because I do know a lot of Muslims, a large majority of Muslims do not want violence.
[00:07:43] Most are peaceful, kind, sincere people.
[00:07:49] But these verses exist.
[00:07:52] They are part of the text. And throughout history, extremists and jihadists have used those verses to justify violence.
[00:08:04] Now, I want you to imagine that you turn from those verses to Christ.
[00:08:13] It's completely different. Jesus never commanded his followers to kill.
[00:08:19] He never pushed his kingdom through force.
[00:08:22] He never ordered violence.
[00:08:25] But instead he says in Matthew 5:44, to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you in John 18:36, that his kingdom is not of this world.
[00:08:39] When his disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven, he rebuked them.
[00:08:47] Imagine that same young man hearing the story of Christ for the first time.
[00:08:54] Hearing about a savior who gives his life instead of taking life.
[00:08:59] Hearing about a God who came down rather than demanding you climb up.
[00:09:04] Hearing about a cross that defeats sin, not an army that defeats people.
[00:09:12] Maybe he sees God who loves him personally.
[00:09:21] And I bring all this up, and I talk about this because I want to move forward into today's modern world.
[00:09:31] Look around at the headlines, the news, the social media, the pressure, the division.
[00:09:36] Today, Christianity is the most persecuted faith on Earth.
[00:09:42] And according to Open Doors international, more than 365 million Christians face high levels of persecution.
[00:09:49] That's one in every seven Christians in the world.
[00:09:55] In Africa, it's one in five.
[00:09:57] In Asia, it's one in six.
[00:10:00] In Nigeria, thousands of Christians are killed every year.
[00:10:05] I mean, in North Korea, if you own a Bible, it can lead to your execution.
[00:10:13] In China, pastors are arrested and churches are shut down.
[00:10:17] And in India, mobs burn churches.
[00:10:21] You see, the persecution of the Christian church has never stopped. It just has changed forms in America, in the west, that danger doesn't come from swords like it did centuries ago.
[00:10:41] It comes from culture.
[00:10:43] It comes from pressure, comes from ridiculous ridicule, from being silenced, from being told you can't speak the truth because if you do, you're labeled as hateful for believing what Jesus taught.
[00:11:01] You can lose your job for refusing to compromise your convictions.
[00:11:06] Students are afraid to say they follow Jesus because of what a classmate might think.
[00:11:14] This hostility is real, and the pattern looks all too Familiar to me.
[00:11:24] In the ancient world, Christians were pushed out of the public life, and today Christians are pressured to stay quiet.
[00:11:34] In the ancient world, Christian beliefs were mocked, and today our beliefs are mocked as outdated and intolerant.
[00:11:45] In ancient times, Christians were told their faith was offensive.
[00:11:49] And today, as believers, we are told that our faith is bigoted for teaching biblical truth.
[00:11:59] Peter or Paul could step into our culture right now, and I believe if right now they stepped into our culture, they'd be like, I recognize this.
[00:12:09] I've lived through it.
[00:12:13] It's just a different era, but it's the same spiritual war.
[00:12:22] So as I tell this story, I want you to picture yourself in it.
[00:12:27] You stand in a world that's getting louder, angrier, matter more confused, more resistant to truth.
[00:12:37] And into that noise, you walk, carrying the gospel, you carry the message Islam denies.
[00:12:46] You carry the message that culture hates, the message that the enemy fears.
[00:12:53] You carry the cross, you carry the resurrection, and you carry Christ.
[00:12:59] That's why we cannot stay silent. That's why we must speak truth.
[00:13:06] And that's why we can't compromise, we can't be intimidated, because the truth is not fragile.
[00:13:17] The gospel is not weak. Jesus is not threatened by the secular culture. He's not threatened by history. He's not threatened by persecution.
[00:13:26] He already defeated death. He already conquered sin.
[00:13:30] He already has the name above every name.
[00:13:33] And that truth is still changing lives today.
[00:13:43] So if you're listening to this podcast right now and you've never heard the gospel clearly, you've only heard stereotypes about Christians.
[00:13:55] You have been raised to believe Jesus is just a good man or, you know, a prophet.
[00:14:02] You've never known that God actually loves you personally.
[00:14:07] Maybe for the first time in your life, you're hearing that Jesus died for you.
[00:14:16] Maybe that's what's going to start to crack the walls.
[00:14:25] I hope it does.
[00:14:28] Because there's one or two things to think about.
[00:14:32] Jesus was either who he said he was or a liar.
[00:14:39] And there's too much evidence to point to that he is who he says he was.
[00:14:45] Biblical fact and even non biblical recordings to prove who Jesus was. Non biblical recordings to show that he was raised by the dead, that after his crucifixion and burial, that over 500 people saw him.
[00:15:03] Non Christians declare it.
[00:15:09] This is why we tell the truth.
[00:15:13] This is why I try to do it with compassion.
[00:15:16] I try to not attack people, but I will never bend Scripture.
[00:15:23] It's why we study scripture. It's why we study history and doctrine and culture.
[00:15:28] And that's why we point every person to Christ because at the center of everything we've talked about is one truth.
[00:15:42] Culture ignores the cross, the world resists the cross, but the cross still stands. The empty tomb still testifies, and the Gospel still saves.
[00:15:56] And Jesus Christ is still Lord.
[00:16:01] If you got anything out of this, I want to say first, thanks for listening. I know it was a little bit different than what I've done before, but if you got a question, send me an
[email protected] I'll answer it the best I can. Again, I'm not a theologian. I didn't go to college for this, but I do a lot of research and I do a lot of reading and I do a lot of studying, and.
[00:16:22] And it's important that we talk about truth. You know, a couple podcasts ago, I talked about subjective truth versus objective truth. I recommend you go listen to that because it's important to understand that there is a truth, and it's not my truth or your truth, and two things can be the same. It doesn't work that way.
[00:16:46] So I would go listen to that. But again, I want to thank you for listening today.
[00:16:50] I started this off by saying I don't want to create division. I don't want to create anger. I don't want to. I'm not here to attack anybody, but I'm here to talk about truth.
[00:16:59] And the main truth is that you always have to remember is to love God and love people.
