Basic Christianity: Who is Jesus?

Kenny Embry and Scott Beyer delve into the fundamental question of Christianity: "Who is Jesus?". They explore the historical evidence for Jesus' existence, discuss the implications of His claims to be the Son of God, and address the significance of His miracles. They also grapple with the complexities of understanding Jesus' dual nature as fully God and fully man, and emphasize the importance of a personal relationship with Him.

8 Key Quotes:

1. "Who is Jesus is fundamental... We call ourselves Christians. Christianity is the faith and belief in Jesus." - Scott
2. "The claim of Christianity is that Jesus died for all of our sins." - Scott
3. "Christianity is all about the historicity... Everything said in the New Testament hinges on real historical events that either happened or they didn't." - Scott
4. "Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. There are no other options." - Scott (quoting C.S. Lewis)
5. "The empty tomb is the true answer to whether or not Jesus is liar, lunatic, or Lord. If the tomb is empty, he is not a liar. He is not a lunatic. You’re only left with one choice, which is Lord." - Scott
6. “God doesn’t have grandchildren. He only has children. And if you’re going to be in His family, you better find ways to relate to Him.” - Kenny
7. "Jesus is the embodiment of the Word. He is the Word that walked amongst us so that you can understand all these character traits about God." - Scott
8. “What’s good about knowing Jesus? I know I’m safe. I know I’m loved, and I know I’m not in charge.” - Scott

6 Takeaways:

1. The question "Who is Jesus?" is central to Christianity.
2. Christianity stands out due to the historical evidence supporting Jesus' existence and the public nature of biblical revelation
3. Jesus' claims to be the Son of God and the Messiah have profound implications for how we understand Him and our relationship to Him
4. The miracles Jesus performed served as signs of His divine power and authority
5. A personal relationship with Jesus is essential, but it doesn't mean we will fully understand Him or His ways.
6. Faith in Jesus involves trust based on evidence, even when faced with unanswered questions.

4 Applications

1. Investigate the historical evidence for Jesus and the claims of Christianity
2. Reflect on the implications of Jesus' identity as the Son of God and King
3. Consider the significance of Jesus' miracles in demonstrating His divine power
4. Cultivate a personal relationship with Jesus through prayer, Bible study, and obedience to His teachings

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In this episode of Balancing the Christian Life, we
ask the question who is Jesus?
Welcome to Balancing theChristian Life.
I'm Dr Kenny Embry.
Join me as we discover how tobe better Christians and people
in the digital age.
Have you ever stopped to trulyponder the question who is Jesus

(00:22):
?
It's a question that lies atthe very heart of Christianity,
a fundamental concept thatshapes our beliefs, values and
how we live our lives.
It's not just a question fortheologians or scholars.
It's a question that everyone,regardless of their faith
background, needs to wrestlewith.
Why?
Because the answer to thisquestion has profound

(00:44):
implications for ourunderstanding of the world, our
purpose in life, our eternaldestiny and how we're going to
act.
From the first century to today,the question of who Jesus is
has really kind of challengedeveryone across cultures and
generations.
It's a question that everyone,regardless of their beliefs,

(01:08):
needs to struggle with.
Even in Jesus' own time, peoplehad a hard time figuring out
who he was.
Many had different answers.
Some thought he was a prophet.
Most everybody thought he was ateacher.
Many wanted him to be arevolutionary or a general of an
army.
Most people who came in contactwith Jesus, in my opinion, came

(01:33):
to the wrong conclusions.
They missed who Jesus was, andhe was right in front of them.
Today, the stakes are just ashigh and you have to answer the
same questions.
Today, the stakes are just ashigh and you have to answer the
same questions.
Choosing to ignore thisquestion or settling for a blind
, unexamined faith is dangerousand stupid.
Grappling with this questionforces us to confront the

(01:57):
evidence, examine our ownbeliefs and make a real decision
about who he is and how thatchanges our lives.
In this episode, what we'regoing to be talking about is,
again, just a really fundamentalbelief about Christianity.

(02:18):
I think this is one of thoseepisodes that I am really kind
of excited about.
We're going to be talking aboutJesus.
We will talk a little bit aboutthe historical evidence for
Jesus not much and we'll alsotalk about some of the most
important parts of who heclaimed to be and how we may

(02:38):
know that he was exactly who hesaid he was.
We'll also talk about themiracles for a little bit and
why it's okay not to have aperfect understanding of who
Jesus is.
Believe me, that is a questionthat I still grapple with, but I
think everybody does.
I'm going to be talking to anold friend of mine.

(03:00):
If you follow the podcast atall, you've probably stumbled on
a few episodes where I talk toScott Beyer.
Scott is an evangelist up inthe Louisville area.
He's a good friend of mine.
Now Scott is also the host ofhis own podcast, love Better,
and I could not recommend itenough.
I call him the Paul Harvey ofthe ministry.

(03:21):
He has a way of telling a storyand connecting it to spiritual
concepts really better thananybody I know.
Scott, let me ask you aquestion who is Jesus.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Who is Jesus is fundamental.
It is essential to Christianity.
We call ourselves Christians.
It's not just belief in him asa historical figure, but who is
he in the history of mankind andwhat does his identity mean?
The irony is that we're stillasking that question now in the

(04:01):
section of the Bible that'ssometimes referred to as the
Great Confession.
That was what he asked hisdisciples.
He asked him who do others saythat I am?
And then he says who do you saythat I am?
There was a variety of answers.
Some say you're a teacher andsome say you're a prophet and
some think you're.
Elijah come back and there wasmixed opinions on who Jesus was.

(04:25):
But then when he says, well,who do you say that I am?
That's where Peter gives thegreat confession.
He says you are the Christ, theson of the living God.
So let's break that down for asecond.
When Peter says you are theChrist, the Christ means the
anointed one or the Messiah.
You are the savior.
The claim of Christianity isthat Jesus died for all sins.

(04:50):
Now people die every day, andpeople die in pretty horrific
ways every day.
The crucifixion is an awful wayto die, but I could point to
people in the news who've diedsome pretty horrible deaths as
well.
There's no indication that wehave that dying a torturous way

(05:11):
somehow saves everybody.
There has to be more to it thanjust a bad death, right.
So that's one aspect of who isJesus.
Is he the savior?
Has he got that capacity?

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah, and let me just interject here and he's not the
only innocent person to dieeither.
There have undoubtedly beenpeople who were both framed but
who were mistakenly put to death.
So the idea that Jesus is theonly person who is guilt-free
but convicted of a crime, that'snot all that special either.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Excellent point, yeah , convicted of a crime, that's
not all that special either.
Excellent point yeah.
So this idea of him being aninnocent person who died a
horrible, undeserved death isall awful, but does not
necessarily make him the saviorRight.
So the second part is you arethe son of the living God.
That, I think, is the answer tothe Christ part.
If he is the second part, theSon of God, then he can be the

(06:09):
Christ too, because now it's notjust a person dying who was
innocent and dying a horrificdeath, it is God dying, and that
is a one-off.
It is somebody who is fullyhuman but also fully deity.
So he is 100% like us, but also100% eternal.

(06:36):
If that is true, it is ahistory-shattering truth.
Everything else pivots andhinges on that fact, and that is
exactly why Jesus says thatthat statement is what the
church is supposed to be builton.
That's his answer to Peter'sconfession, is the bedrock to

(06:58):
what Christianity would be builton.
If it's true, everything isdifferent.
If it's not true, now you haveto pivot to what Paul says over
in 1 Corinthians 15, where hesays if Christ didn't die for
our sins, if Jesus didn't dieand raise from the dead, then we

(07:22):
are pitiable creatures.
We don't have anything thatreally binds our Christianity as
being any better than someoff-the-shelf self-help book.
Who Jesus is is the centralidea of Christianity, and I also
think that one idea is thething that oftentimes makes the

(07:47):
difference between somebodybecoming a Christian or not.
If you agree to that assertion,you really have to be all in.
If you don't agree to it or youhave doubts about it, then you
aren't.
Everything else flows from thatweren't.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
Everything else flows from that.
Let me back up just a littlebit, because you said this very
quickly, but I think it'simportant, because who Jesus is
and who he claims to be issomething a little bit than
almost every other religiousleader.
We're not exactly sure if therewas a guy named Buddha.
There probably was, but we'renot sure.
For many religious leaders.
We're not exactly sure if therewas a real person or if this

(08:29):
was just a movement.
When you start thinking aboutJesus, he does claim to be a
real person, and he's not theonly one who is claiming that
there was somebody named Jesus,that he was spending most of his
time in northern Israel, thathe lived and died and, as you've
already pointed out, wasresurrected, that this is a guy

(08:53):
that you can actually get ahistory from.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, so I am convinced.
One of the things that makesChristianity stand out from all
other religions is the publicnature of the revelation of the
biblical sacred writings, thescriptures.
Right, everything said in theNew Testament hinges on real

(09:17):
historical events that eitherhappened or they didn't.
Right, and it's rooted inhistory, not mythology.
Right, let me put it that way?
Right, and it's rooted inhistory, not mythology.
Right, let me put it that way,right.
Right, if you go back to theGreek gods, that's mythology.
Nobody even attempted to findany sort of historicity to it.
Christianity is all about thehistoricity.

(09:39):
Matthew, mark, luke and John,the first four books found in
the anthology of the NewTestament.
They are all historicalaccounts of the New Testament.
They are all historicalaccounts of the life of Jesus.
They all claim these thingsactually happened.
Luke, in particular, does anexcellent job of rooting it
within the history of that time.

(10:00):
He tells you who was Caesarwhen Jesus was born.
He tells you who the governingauthorities were at different
times in which Jesus lived andwalked.
He mentions historical eventsthat would have been known to
the greater world.
The book of Acts, whichcharacterizes and tells you the
history of the church after theresurrection and Jesus'
ascension does the same thing.

(10:21):
This is where the movementstarted.
These were the events going onat the time that it started.
These are the names of thepeople who started it.
This is how some of them died.
All of these things would beverifiable events by people who
lived in that era and we haveaccounts of that history today
and find that it matches thearchaeological data.

(10:45):
It matches non-Christian sources.
Just to name a few, you haveJosephus Tacitus, pliny the
Younger.
All of these are ancienthistorical writers who have
ancient historian writings andthey mention Jesus in their
writings.
They mention the advent ofChristianity, even though

(11:08):
Josephus Tacitus and Pliny werenot Christians.
They provide corroborativeevidence of Christianity's
existence and Jesus'sspecifically, his existence as a
real historical figure rootedin time and space.
He lived in and around Israel,traveled through Galilee,

(11:33):
samaria, judea.
He had followers.
It was a movement.
He was crucified.
These are things that arebacked up by data that we find
in the historical accounts ofthe writers and in archaeology.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
Absolutely, but one of the other, and you've already
made allusion to this Jesus,especially at the end of his
life, made a pretty bold claimabout himself.
Made a pretty bold claim abouthimself.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
What was that claim, scott?
So are you referring to at thevery end of the book of Matthew,
that all authority has beengiven in heaven on earth?
Is that what you're talkingabout?

Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah, and are you the king of the Jews, and that he's
the king?
And, by the way, again, idea ofof messiah, another translation
of that is king and and yes,really one of the things that
that jesus preached, or part ofhis message, was the kingdom of
heaven is at hand, and what youwill learn at the end of jesus's

(12:40):
story is and he's the king, heis the king and and he is
bringing in his kingdom.
So that is quite a claim there.
You also mentioned the factthat not only is he a king, but
he is God in the flesh.
That's a pretty big claim too,scott.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah.
So if you look at the fourgospel accounts Matthew, mark,
luke and John let's focus onMatthew and Luke and John for a
second.
Not that Mark isn't worthtalking about, but for the sake
of our discussion, each ofMatthew, luke and John have a

(13:24):
particular emphasis.
Luke's we've talked about alittle bit already.
Luke's emphasis seems to be thehistoricity of Jesus.
This is the chronological orderof events.
This is how it happened.
This is when it happened.
You could go and visit theempty tomb If you wanted to know
.
At that time, you could go andsee where he'd been crucified.

(13:46):
You could have gone to theempty tomb, and likely people
did.
The movement of Christianitybegan in Jerusalem, at the same
place where they killed him andburied him, and yet those people
believed him to be raised fromthe dead.
Luke focuses on the historicityof it.
Focuses on the historicity ofit.

(14:10):
Matthew seems to focus onJesus's shocking fulfillment of
Old Testament prophecies.
If you go to the Old Testament,which was written over a
thousand years, really beforeyou start getting to Jesus,
these prophecies are starting tobe written about what the
Christ will be like, and there'sa whole myriad of them, some

(14:33):
more impressive than others.
He will be from Galilee, he'llbe of a certain lineage.
It will be an immaculateconception, a whole variety of
different details, most of whichyou couldn't just go and figure
out how to fulfill yourself.
It's not like you could build aresume, right?
And Matthew focuses look at allof these prophecies.

(14:56):
Jesus fulfills them all.
And then John his focus seems tobe on the fact that Jesus is
not just a man.
There are things about him andthings that he did and ways that
he talked that proved that thisis not just a man.
And, to your point, not only ishe the son of God, he is king.

(15:16):
And that idea of him being theChrist, the Messiah the anointed
one, would be another way tokind of translate that.
Messiah the anointed one wouldbe another way to kind of
translate that, well, youanointed kings, right?
So he is the king.
We like to think of Jesus as theSavior, but realistically, he's
talked more about as the kingthan he is the Savior.

(15:40):
And that kind of gets at thecore of it too, when Jesus,
after he had ascended, after hehad risen from the dead, and
before he ascended excuse me,that was one of the last things
he said to his disciples was allauthority has been given to me
in heaven and on earth.
All authority references power.
If Jesus is who he says he isand I believe that to be the

(16:03):
case based upon the evidencethen he's king, and that means I
have to act differently aroundhim, in the same way that this
is a kind of a small example butyou act differently around a
police officer when you'redriving on the road.
You act differently around thepolice officers than you do
around somebody else who'sdriving their car next to you,

(16:25):
because you, you know they havethe authority to do something if
you don't behave as you are.
Jesus has the authority to rule, and so you can't have the
conversation about who is Jesuswithout talking about.
He's the king and has authority, and at some point every knee
will bow, either voluntarily orinvoluntarily.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, you're right.
One of the things that I wouldbring you back to, though, is
what Jesus claims is, let's faceit, just kind of ridiculous,
because I know a bunch of peoplewho will make the same claims,
and we will cart them off to aninsane asylum, where they
undoubtedly belong.
Because those are ridiculousclaims, why, when we put them in

(17:07):
the mouth of Jesus, did theysuddenly become plausible?
Why aren't we taking him downto the insane asylum as well?

Speaker 2 (17:16):
Well, some people thought exactly that.
That's right.
That was the attempt Somepeople that was exactly how they
described it is he's crazy,right, right.
Some people referred to him asI'll use the old Kingames
version way of saying it a winebibber, which is another way of
saying a drunk right, like somepeople accuse him.
Well, he's just drinking andspouting weird things.
So those arguments have beenused.

(17:38):
Cs lewis, I've used this quoteso many times and I know many
others have too, just because Idon't think anybody's ever said
it better.
Jesus is either a liar, alunatic or Lord.
There are no other options.
He could be a liar, in whichcase, as a charlatan, he was

(17:59):
creating a movement gettingpeople to believe in him by
being deceptive.
If Jesus is that, he's a dime,a dozen.
Throughout the history ofmankind, there have always been
tricksters and grifters who haveattempted to get people to
follow them, using religion as ameans to gain power and fame,

(18:22):
right?
So if Jesus is a liar, we'veseen those before and we'll see
him again yeah, the other is alunatic right, he's crazy.
Somebody stands up and they sayI'm the son of God.
Um, I've, I've actually been inan environment where somebody
did that I was downtown Seattleone time and there was a guy who
I'm pretty sure had ingested alot of things into his body one

(18:46):
way or another that he shouldn'thave and he was spouting out
that he was the son of God andhe was on a street corner and
everybody was kind of walkingaround him and police were
keeping an eye on him to see ifhe became violent at some point.
All of us immediately dismissedhim because it sounds like a

(19:07):
crazy person.
And people did that with Jesus.
In fact, even his own familyseems to have done that at one
point, where they are afraidthat he's kind of lost it a
little bit, yeah, and they kindof seem to come to try and
collect him.
But here's the problem If he'sa liar, then why did all of the

(19:34):
things he say come true?
The things that he prophesiedabout and the things that he did
happened, and the people of theday couldn't argue with that.
They couldn't dispute themiracles.
In fact, that was one of themajor problems they had.
Is that they it's like how dowe get rid of this guy and get

(19:55):
rid of his influence when wecan't dispute that?
The blind now see and the lamenow walk and the demon possessed
.
People have had demons cast outof them.
So so the the liar argumentdidn't work in his day and it
doesn't work today either.
The lunatic one doesn't work fora variety of different reasons,

(20:18):
but one of those reasons isread what he said, one of the
things I tell people to do ifthey are wondering about the
sanity of Jesus.
Maybe he was just this kind ofstrange cult-like rabbi.
Read what he said.
He does not speak like alunatic.

(20:40):
He doesn't speak like a crazyman.
Nobody accuses Socrates orPlato of being crazy men, and
yet what they said and wrotephilosophically pales in
comparison to the teachings ofJesus of Nazareth.
And then the last thing and thisis truly the one that answers
all of the questions is theempty tomb.

(21:01):
The empty tomb is the trueanswer to whether or not Jesus
is liar, lunatic or Lord.
If the tomb is empty, he is nota liar, he is not a lunatic.
You're only left with onechoice, which is Lord.
And that is exactly why theadversaries of Jesus and you
read about this in Matthew, mark, luke and John.

(21:22):
They sealed the tomb.
They put guards in front of thetomb.
They knew if people could beconvinced that he was raised
from the dead, this movement,you're not going to be able to
stop it.
And so they did everything intheir power to keep that body in
the tomb.
And yet Christianity had itsinception in the very same city

(21:47):
where that tomb was, and to me,that is one of the hallmarks of
Christian apologetics.
One of the greatest proofs ofall time of Christianity is
here's what we know.
We know that Christians, fromthe very beginning, claimed that
Jesus was raised from the dead.
The apostles did it, the earlydisciples did it.

(22:09):
All of them said he raised fromthe dead, he's ascended to the
right hand of God.
That was a fundamental pillarof Christianity.
And they said it within thesame time period and the same
part of the world in which hehad been killed.

(22:29):
Well, if you want to kill amovement that says the hallmark
to our faith is that this manwho lived and you killed is
alive and the tomb is empty, allyou have to do is produce a
body right.
And.
And christianity was veryclearly opposed to judaism in

(22:51):
the first century.
Yeah, judaism did not like it.
Lots again of historical recordbacking that idea up that they
were not fans of, ofchristianity, and yet they did
not produce a body and and thethe people who were most likely
to believe that Jesus was risenfrom the dead were the same
people who were a five minutejaunt from the tomb.

(23:13):
Right, so you could just gotake your evening constitutional
out to the, to the garden thereat Calvary, and you could have
found the body or the guardsguarding it, and they couldn't.
Calvary, and you could havefound the body or the guards
guarding it and they couldn't.
So it is one of the greatproofs that he is not a liar, he
is not a lunatic, but he isindeed Lord, because that he was
raised from the dead.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
Number one I am impressed that you used the
phrase evening constitutional.
That phrase is not used enough.
Number two you're kind ofalluding to this and the
argument one of Jesus's greatestarguments in favor of him not

(23:56):
being insane is that he was ableto do miracles.
Why is that a big deal?

Speaker 2 (24:08):
Well, it was a big deal, because miracles, in
particular the definition ofmiracles that we find in the New
Testament, okay.
In fact, the word miracle isreally not the New Testament
word, it's signs and wondersRight.
If you read in the NewTestament, you probably are not
going to find the word miracletoo often.

(24:29):
What you'll see are the wordssigns and wonders Right.
If we use a New Testamentpicture of what a sign and a
wonder is, it's a sign meaning.
It signifies something.
And it's a wonder, because yougo, wow, I wonder.
I mean, what does this mean?
What Jesus performed were notthe sort of televangelist

(24:57):
garbage that you have today,where it's not verifiable.
There are plants in theaudience, somebody claims a
miracle, but there were nowitnesses.
Everything that you find in theNew Testament were.
This is a guy who's beenleprous for years.
This is somebody who was bornand has never walked a day in
his life.
This person over here has beenblind and everybody in the

(25:21):
community knows it Right, andJesus heals him.
This person died, has been inthe tomb.
Jesus tells them to come outand walk and everybody has to
take the bandages off of the guyso that he can properly come
out without waddling.
They were verifiable signs thatJesus had a power that man

(25:46):
doesn't have.
The definition of supernaturalis that it's something that goes
above the natural world.
There are people who are healedfrom cancer all the time in a
natural way.
Right, we use the things ofnature.
Way right, we use the things ofnature.

(26:09):
Modern medicine is stillnatural in the sense that we
haven't pulled something fromsome other realm.
We're just using the tools wehave to create medicine to help
people be cured of cancer.
Jesus used something that wassupernatural.
He had power that was fromdeity, from God, we're told in
the New Testament.
It was power from the HolySpirit to heal people and that
was a sign that he had power andthe stamp of approval of the

(26:36):
supernatural realm of his fatherin heaven.
And Jesus, by the way, willemphasize that when he says I
and my Father are one.
If Jesus was a liar, the Fatherwould not have put up with that
right.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah, when it comes to the miracles themselves,
basically what they had to bewas the suspension of natural
law, and what that did was itmeant that whatever Jesus was
saying— was backed up by a powerthat was higher than anybody

(27:14):
else that was there, and I am ofthe opinion that God invested
the physical Jesus with power,that God, the Father, invested
the physical Jesus with power.
It is my opinion and there's noway for me to prove this one
way or the other, that Jesus gotrid of the benefits of deity

(27:35):
while he was on earth and had tohave the relationship with the
Father.
He had to be reinvested withpower through God the Father in
order to do the miracles, whichbasically says whatever I'm
telling you guys is backed up bya power that is higher than all
of us is backed up by a powerthat is higher than all of us.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
There's a couple of examples that back up this idea
that the miracles were from apower that Jesus received, and I
think that that is important.
So one example of that is thehealing of the woman who had an
issuance of blood.
Jesus was walking along and hedidn't know she was touching him
.
She went up and touched the hemof his garment and then was

(28:17):
healed.
And he says I felt power, leaveme.
But he did not actively zap herwith healing.
It was the Holy Spirit who, atJesus as a conduit I guess we
might think of healed her.
And Jesus then said who touchedme?

(28:37):
And so he did not always havecomplete power over when he
could perform miracles or whenthey were performed.
And then the other one that Ithink is the most powerful one
goes back to the empty tomb.
Jesus was raised from the dead,not by himself.
He didn't raise himself fromthe dead, it was a sign from

(29:00):
heaven.
That was what Jesus' detractors, his critics, asked for.
They said show us a sign fromheaven.
He'd been performing all thesemiracles.
And they asked for a sign fromheaven.
And he says I'll only give youone sign from heaven, and he
alludes to the tomb that he'sgoing to be buried and then
raised from the dead.
Well, the sign from heaven myunderstanding of that is

(29:24):
literally a heavenly force.
The Father raised him from thedead.
Jesus raised him from the dead.
So that is a sign that thatheavenly force approved of him,
approved of his teaching,approved of all he had done with
his life.
It says this is my beloved son,in whom I am well pleased.

(29:46):
There are a lot of moments inthe New Testament that make it
clear the Father and the HolySpirit agreed with Jesus and
they were backing his claims.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
Yeah, and that was the purpose of the miracles,
that was the purpose of thesigns and wonders.
Let me ask you this, and Ithink this is kind of both
commentary and question, becauseI think one of the things that
if you are somebody who decidesyou're going to be a Christian,

(30:24):
there's a lot about Jesus thatyou're just not going to
understand.
Do you agree with that?

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah, I mean my life as a Christian and I don't think
I'm unique in this is a pursuitof knowing Jesus through the
sacred writings, the scriptures,the text, and then through the
application of that text Right,scriptures, the text and then
through the application of thattext, right, that that when we

(30:55):
uh obey him, um, that, that'sanother way in which we can
learn to know him by emulatinghim.
But, uh, knowing Jesus, youdon't need to know everything to
begin following him right Inthe and so that's, that's a.
That's one of the things that II caution people with and I

(31:17):
don't know if this is what youwere getting at or not, so I may
be completely taking off course, but you know I do that pretty
regularly and you're a veryforgiving fellow but is that you
don't need to know everythingabout Jesus?
You really just need to knowthe basics to begin following
him.
Right, if you are convinced heis the Christ, the son of the
living God, that's the impetusfor everything else.

(31:41):
Now you can have a deeperrelationship with him over time.
In the same way that there was alot that I didn't know about my
wife when we got married, right, right Now, there was a lot I
did know, but there was a lotthat I didn't Right.
And as we have been married 25years, oh wow, I've been

(32:02):
learning.
You know, there's been, there'sbeen times that I've been
learning things about her.
Yeah, um, and that doesn'tnegate the vow that I made in
the beginning.
It enriches it, right and addsdepth to it.
So there's a lot we don't knowabout Jesus.
There's a lot that I'm, as aChristian, now attempting to

(32:23):
learn about Jesus all the time,but that doesn't negate the fact
that when I was baptized intoJesus, I knew enough.
I knew enough, and that waswhere you start, not where you
finish.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
Number one.
That is exactly right.
That was not the way I wasanticipating the question, but I
think that's exactly right.
I think you know me.
Almost everything becomes acomparison of a family
relationship, and you areexactly right.
You make a commitment beforeyou really understand the
commitment and, just like withyour wife, with your children,

(32:57):
with any of these things, you donot understand what they are
capable of.
Neither do they.
I mean, there's a revelationthat happens as we go through it
experiences.
But I think the way that I wasmeaning this question was more
like this how is Jesus 100% Godand 100% man?

(33:18):
How did Jesus exactly do themiracles?
What did Jesus really keep interms of being deity while he
was on earth?
What were his limitations?
And I think one of the thingsyou can make yourself crazy with
is recognizing there arequestions that you will never be

(33:38):
able to answer.
There will always be a part ofJesus that you will never
understand.
Does that make sense?

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Yeah, so this will not be done on video, which is
good because I got a face madefor radio, but the entire time
Kenny was saying that.
I am nodding my head up anddown because, yes, that is
absolutely true.
There are things about Jesusyou will never comprehend this
side of heaven, and maybe wedon't comprehend on the other

(34:08):
side of heaven too, I don't know.
That's another thing.
I don't know heaven too, Idon't know.
That's another thing I don'tknow.
But that doesn't changeanything, right?
Because something to thinkabout is a God that I could
completely comprehend is not aGod at all.
If Jesus is, I can put himentirely in this neat little box

(34:30):
that makes sense to me.
Put him entirely in this neatlittle box that makes sense to
me, then he is a God of my owncreation.
And I think there's an elementthat we find within the
scripture that you know.
Deuteronomy says the secretthings belong to God.
There's a reason that there aresome things that are beyond us
and an element to faith.

(34:51):
Now, I don't want any of thelisteners to misunderstand me
when I say there's an element offaith that requires you to
accept things you don't know.
I'm not saying faith isn'tbuilt off of evidence.
It is built off of evidence.
I know enough about Jesus toknow who he is, and so if there
are parts of Jesus I don'tunderstand, that is due to the

(35:13):
fact that he is the son of theliving God, and I have plenty of
evidence that that is the case,including the empty tomb,
including his writings andwhatnot or the things written
about him.
He doesn't actually have anywritings himself, but the
quotations of him in Matthew,mark, luke and John.
But the fact that there aregoing to be some things that

(35:36):
don't make a lot of sense to meas a human being doesn't
minimize the fact that that heis who he says he is.
In fact, it kind of makes sense.
If he is the son of the livingGod, there should be some things
about him that are hard ormaybe even impossible, this side

(35:58):
of eternity, for me to get.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
Yes, I completely agree with that, which means if
you have questions about Jesusthat you're just struggling to
answer, join the club.
There's not going to be anybodywho's going to be able to
answer all the questions youhave to have, that you want to
know about Jesus, and that's forsome people that's a very

(36:23):
uncomfortable place to be, butit is where we are, whether you
feel comfortable there or not.
But there is no other faith,and I call anything that you
have to believe about evolutionor any of these other things.
They require faith as well, andthere are problematic

(36:43):
statements or problematic ideasthat come up with those as well.
I'm not trying to say thatfaith in Jesus is just like a
faith in the Big Bang, but whatI am trying to say is, when you
start thinking about things thatyou struggle with in
Christianity, you will alwaysstruggle with parts of things in

(37:05):
Christianity.
Do you see what I'm saying,byer?

Speaker 2 (37:08):
Yeah, so Hebrews gives this definition of faith.
Faith is the evidence of thingsnot seen.
It's not a blind faith.
That's the idea that I can'tsee anything.
There is evidence, but there isa certain element of trust.
Now to go back to otherrelationships and connect that

(37:30):
think about your spouse, who,for many of us, is the person on
this planet you trust more thananybody else, right?
And if you trust them, it's notthat you know everything about
them I'm always learning newthings about my wife Nor is it

(37:53):
that you would accurately guesswhat they will do in every
circumstance, right, becausethey're sometimes going to
surprise you.
But it's that you know enoughabout them.
You have enough evidence ofthem being trustworthy people
who have your best interests atheart that you can trust them in
the areas you can't see.
This is exactly the same withJesus.

(38:17):
I have enough evidence of whoJesus is and his attitude and
disposition towards me, towardsall mankind.
I don't know everything abouthim, but I know he died for me.
That is a truth I can't ignorethat.
He died voluntarily for me.
It wasn't an accident and itwasn't where he was grabbed

(38:41):
against his will.
Everything in the gospel pointstowards a voluntary sacrifice
for my well-being that I mightbe forgiven.
Now there are going to be lotsof things about Jesus because of
who he is that I do notunderstand yet, or maybe ever.
But I know enough that I canhave faith in him.

(39:04):
I have enough evidence that inthe things that I can't see, I
can trust him too.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
The way that we know Jesus and this is something that
you've kind of alluded to is wehave these books called the
Bible, and the first four booksof the New Testament Matthew,
mark, luke and John all maintainthat they're giving the story
of Jesus's life and one of thethings that you recognize almost

(39:36):
immediately and Luke is myfavorite gospel I'm just not
going to mince words about thatbut when you look at something
like Matthew and when you lookat something like Luke, they
tell different stories and someof these stories don't feel like
.
I mean, in Matthew it talksabout the killing of male babies

(40:00):
, but Luke doesn't talk anythingabout that.
In Matthew he talks aboutJesus' parents having to go down
to Egypt.
Luke doesn't say anything aboutthat.
And even then, matthew and Lukeboth give a genealogy and they
don't look identical.
And you would expect thegenealogy of one person to look

(40:24):
exactly the same, no matterwhere you find it.
What do you do with thesediscrepancies, these things that
change about the stories ofJesus?

Speaker 2 (40:36):
So one thing that I would say with the Gospels,
which one way to thinkofitnesses will inevitably give
different accounts, not becausethey're lying or being

(41:00):
manipulative, but due to theirperspective on the same event.
Right, that is actually a signof authenticity.
So if you imagine you knowyou're Matlock or something like
that, that's a fairly datedreference, but Matlock or
Columbo.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
That's another dated reference, thank you.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
Another dated reference, and you have
different people all put ininterrogation rooms.
So you've got four differentinterrogation rooms and so
you're going to go in and askthem all about the same series
of events.
One way that interrogators anddetectives know people are lying

(41:44):
this is a proof that they useas immediate red flag is when
the accounts are exactly thesame.
That is, that is one of theclearest signs of manipulative,
lying, deceptive behavior isthat the verbiage everything is
exactly the same, because that'snot how people are People.

(42:05):
When they see something, theyalways superimpose a little bit
of their own perspective on it,and that's normal.
So one, four accounts ofJesus's life.
If they were all exactly thesame, you wouldn't have four
eyewitness accounts, you'd haveone or you would have a red flag
of deceit.
So that's one element.

(42:26):
Something for us to consider isthat differences do not mean
that they are deception.
Another thing to factor in iseach of these eyewitness
accounts were written fordifferent purposes to different
audiences.
Yeah, so leaving details outdoes not necessitate a lie.

(42:50):
It just means that I'm tellingthe story to somebody else.
I will do this, and I suspectother people do the same thing.
I'll be telling a story of somesort of thing that happened,
and I will mention people whowere there, but I won't
necessarily mention everybodywas there.

(43:11):
The people that I mention willbe the ones that I will mention,
the people that are known by myaudience.
So if I mention oh and Perrywas there, it's because the
person I'm talking to knowsPerry.
That's what makes thedifference.
So, as you look at it, each ofthese eyewitness accounts are

(43:35):
geared towards a differentaudience.
And then the other one and thisis a specific one that you
mentioned is the lineages ofJesus, and you said well,
shouldn't lineages be exactlythe same?
No, they shouldn't, because youhave a paternal and a maternal
lineage.
Jesus had two lineages thatwere traced, and one account

(43:56):
gives maternal and the othergives paternal, and both
fulfilled the requirements ofthe prophecy, and that was part
of the point.
So, again, if you're talkingabout your family lineage, you
might show a different onedepending on who you're talking
to, right, and so all of thosedetails matter, but differences

(44:22):
do not mean there's some sort oflying.
It just has to do withperspective, not deception.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
Right.
The Bible is making some reallyoutlandish claims.
Somebody is born of a virginHoly cow.
How often does that happen?
Well, it doesn't.
It's making a claim about aresurrection.
I mean, extraordinary claimsrequire extraordinary evidence

(44:54):
and extraordinary research.
So you're going to have to do alittle digging on this.
Conflicting stories can meanjust different perspectives, but
conflicting stories can alsomean a lie.
So what you need to do isactually do some digging a lie.

(45:15):
So what you need to do isactually do some digging.
The problem that the Phariseeshad is they could not deny the
miracles, but they still wantedto stop Jesus and they stopped
doing the research.
They stopped looking at theevidence.
That was their mistake.
That was their biggest mistake,in my opinion.
From a character point of view,they were hypocrites.
Jesus tells them that severaltimes but from dealing with

(45:38):
Jesus.
Well, the thing that was theirbiggest mistake, in my opinion,
is they never examined theevidence.
That was right in front of them, which is what the miracles
were meant to do.
When you start looking at thestory of Jesus, one of the
things you have to put in theback of your mind is well, maybe

(46:00):
this is all a lie, maybe all ofthis doesn't work out because
it's not true.
And let me tell you why youhave to do that.
Because when you look at otherpeople's claim to be a Messiah,
you're going to be looking atthem with the same eye, which is
does your evidence stack up ornot?
And that's a fair question onevery side.

(46:24):
The other thing that I wouldsay is you are 100% right.
When you look at the way Matthewis constructed, it is written
primarily for an audience ofpeople who understood Old
Testament stories really well,and when you come up with a
family that is coming up out ofEgypt, when you are talking

(46:49):
about a family whose sonbasically survived the the, the
sacrifice of the firstborn, whatJesus starts sounding like is
another Moses, and that's theillusion and that's the
perspective that that thatwriter is writing to, because he
understands that that audiencewill recognize that Jesus is

(47:13):
special and that there'ssomebody, is somebody that bears
a striking resemblance to him.
When we get to Luke, he'sprobably not talking to a bunch
of people who know the story ofMoses very well.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
No, this is more likely a Gentile audience, right
, and so Luke's got a differentgoal.
Let me put these things inchronological order so you can
make the decision for yourself.
That's right, so.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
I mean, it's not that Matthew isn't recording every
story.
By the way, none of them arerecording every story of Jesus,
correct?
Yeah, is that a problem, infact?

Speaker 2 (47:50):
John will make that point.
John will make the point thathe says look, if we tried to
record everything that Jesus did, we wouldn't have enough ink,
right?
So there is a very clearstatement made and John probably
makes it clearer than all therest.
But all of them are attemptingto tell you things so that you

(48:11):
would have faith in Jesus Right,so that you would understand
why they chose would have faithin Jesus Right, so that you
would understand why they choseto have faith in him Right.
One of the interesting thingsabout these four eyewitness
accounts is all of them have ashared goal of trying to convey
to their audience a good,logical reason to believe that

(48:31):
Jesus is who he says he is, thathe is the Christ, the son of
the living God.
And that is another thing that Ithink is special about
Christianity Christianity, whendone as the New Testament is
designed for it to do.
I understand that there aremany things done in the name of
Christianity that don't matchthe Bible at all.

(48:53):
I mean, it's a name that hasbeen hijacked and been used for
people's ulterior motives.
But when we just go back to thetext, the New Testament paints
a picture of Christianity beingsomething built upon the
foundation of reasonableevidence, that it is not people

(49:14):
who were caught up in the momentand so, based off of a flurry
of emotions, made a decision.
It is instead based off ofpeople who, through rational
discourse, people who had beenstudied with and talked to in
the marketplaces and thesynagogues, came to the

(49:35):
conclusion that the evidencesays there is only one right
answer.
He is not lunatic, he is notliar, he is Lord.
And so they bowed the knee toJesus, the King Right.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
Yeah, and it is a series of stories.
There is precious littlepreaching in there.
We know about the Sermon on theMount, which is, in my opinion,
a sermon that Jesus wouldprobably preach more than just

(50:09):
once and probably more than justby the Sea of Galilee.
I think one of the things thathe did was that was probably the
message he took everywhere Inmodern Church of Christ.
That was his meeting message.
He would take that and he woulduse that a lot.

(50:31):
But I think that is whatencapsulates what Christianity
is and I think one of the thingsthat is important for us to
remember.
If you're thinking about whoJesus is, realize that Jesus is
going to be frustrating to somepeople Because he is not giving

(50:51):
us a blow-by-blow account ofevery law that's out there.
He's not writing Leviticus forus.
He's not writing Deuteronomyfor us.
He's not writing the TenCommandments for us.
What he is instead doing ismodeling a life worth living
that is in conformity to God,and that's how you figure out

(51:12):
how to do Christianity.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
In Jesus's life you have the application of the will
of God.
One way to think of it is to goback to the beginning of the
Gospel of John.
In the beginning was the Word,and the Word was with God and
the Word was God.
Jesus is described as the Wordin the sense that not just a

(51:43):
single word, but the ideas orthoughts.
In the same way, you might say,hey, can I have a word with you
?
You don't mean I want to tellyou the word animal and then
walk off.
I want to talk to you aboutsome ideas.
Jesus is the embodiment of theideas and thoughts God wanted to
convey to mankind.
And so, instead of just sayingthose words, jesus lived those

(52:06):
words and we, being people wholearn through story, who learn
through seeing, can look at hislife and understand God in a way
we couldn't when it was justacademic.
And so Jesus is the embodimentof the word.
He is the word that walkedamongst us so that you can

(52:28):
understand all these charactertraits about God God's attitude
towards justice, his attitudetowards mercy, his attitudes
towards forgiveness, the thingsthat make him mad, the things
that engender his pity andcompassion.
You can see that in Jesus.
And so who is Jesus.
He's God amongst us, and thatis another one of the names for

(52:50):
him.
The Emmanuel, who is God, iswith us, right, right.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
We've talked a lot about who Jesus is, and I think
that's an important question.
Let me ask this very personally, because you've heard this that
we all have a personalrelationship with Jesus.
What does it mean for you tohave a personal relationship
with Jesus?
How does Jesus change you?

Speaker 2 (53:18):
Well, I guess I should start by saying that's
not a Bible phrase.
No, it's not.
You have to have a personalrelationship with Jesus.
That's a very Western approachto it.
Now, I'm not saying it's wrong,but I think we should be
careful when we bumper stickerChristianity.

(53:39):
And that's a very bumper stickerway of saying it.
Now, some of the ideas in there, once you start to unpack it, I
think are very biblical.
Philippians talks about theidea of working out your own
salvation with fear andtrembling.
Philippians talks about theidea of working out your own
salvation with fear andtrembling.
That doesn't mean I'm trying tosave myself, but I need to work
out my relationship with theSavior with fear and trembling.

(54:03):
I need to make sure that I,individually, am connected with
Jesus.
Some of the parables that Jesustold were somewhat shocking to
more of an Eastern culture.
Right, so he was.
He lived in an era of more ofthe Eastern culture, which is
characterized more by, uh,tribal thinking, like the group

(54:24):
is more important than theindividual.
Western culture, the wayindividual is more important
than the group, right?
So, um, there's, there's twosayings.
A very American saying is thesqueaky wheel gets the grease.
The Chinese saying, thecounterpart to it, is the nail
that sticks up gets pounded down.
There's the difference inculture, right there, there you
go.
In an Eastern culture that wasmore about the group is the most

(54:49):
important thing.
Jesus tells this parable of thewheat and the tares, and in that
parable he says that God'skingdom will be like a field
that has wheat in it and tares.
Now, tares are essentiallyweeds that look like wheat but
they don't ever produce a grain.
And then he says at the end theworkers will go into that field

(55:13):
and they will differentiatebetween the wheat and the false
wheat, the tares, and the taresget thrown in the fire and the
wheat gets gathered into thebarn.
And his whole point with thatis here on earth there will be
many people who are associatedwith the kingdom of God, meaning
they, you know, in our kind oflanguage.

(55:35):
They go to services on Sunday,right, they might even lead a
prayer publicly.
They, they are um, they giveall of the trappings of
religiosity.
They are, from our perspective,a part of that same field as
all the rest of us, right, butthey're tares, right, and God

(55:56):
knows Right.
So the key is when you starttalking about having a personal
relationship with Jesus.
I think it gets to the wheatand the tares question.
Just being in the field withother wheat, sitting in the pew
next to other people, is not apersonal relationship with Jesus
.
Being a part of a familygrowing up in a Christian

(56:20):
household, growing up in ahousehold where there were
Bibles around and people went toservices and people talked
about Jesus being married to aChristian.
This does not make you wheat.
Every stalk gets its ownjudgment day, in that sense,
right.
And so we need to be aware that,yes, from the Eastern side,

(56:44):
you're not meant to be aChristian alone.
That's something that you runinto the culture too.
It's like, hey, I'll justworship Jesus, but it's my own
personal faith and I keep it toto myself and I kind of do my
own thing and I don't go tochurch, but I'm very spiritual.
That's the most American thingyou will ever hear.
That's wrong.
You got to be a part of thefield, you got to be a part of

(57:05):
the kingdom.
But also the idea of being partof the field, being amongst
people of faith, automaticallymakes you somebody of faith, is
also wrong.
And so a personal relationshipwith Jesus means that I'm
looking at the guy in the mirrorand I am comparing who I am to

(57:28):
who I want to be and, moreimportantly, who Jesus wants me
to be, and I'm making measuredefforts to be a good citizen in
his kingdom, to submit to him asking, and I'm not going to do
that perfectly, but that's okay.
He says it's okay, he died sothat I could do it imperfectly.

(57:49):
But I better be doing it andI've got to do that, and I can't
look to other people around meand say, well, since they're
doing it, it's good enough.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Yeah, I think that's the sense in which I'm meaning
this.
I do think the trap that we allfall into, especially in the
United States, is having apersonal Jesus versus having a
personal relationship with Jesus.
A personal Jesus looks a lotlike you, and that's the problem
with a personal Jesus.
I remember Oprah Winfrey manyyears ago saying my God would

(58:23):
never, which is another way ofsaying I would never.
And the fact is, god doesn'tneed your approval and does not
require your interpretation.
God doesn't need you at all.
But you need God and you needJesus, and you better find ways

(58:43):
to relate to him, because if youdon't, there's an old saying
and I know you've heard thiswhich is God doesn't have
grandchildren, he only haschildren.
And if you're going to be inhis family, you better find ways
to relate to him, becausethat's more important for you.
I know you agree with that.

(59:04):
You're welcome to disagree, butI don't think you do.

Speaker 2 (59:08):
No, I agree wholeheartedly, and you're right
, wholeheartedly, and you'reright.
The danger of creating apersonal Jesus is that you turn
him into this malleable figurethat thinks like you, approves
of what you want him to approveof.
He disapproves of otherpeople's bad behavior, but he
offers you grace when you do theexact same thing.

(59:28):
Right, and there's definitely adanger.
And there is a biblical wordfor making Jesus into your own
God.
It's called idolatry and that'sthroughout the Bible.
There is warning after warningafter warning of fashioning gods
after your own ideals and withyour own hands.

(59:49):
And so, yeah, it is importantwhen we say who is Jesus.
That is an objective question.
It's not who is Jesus.
To me it is who is Jesus, andlearning who he is is something
that all of us should bepursuing.
But it's not who we want him tobe that we pursue.

(01:00:10):
It's who he actually is, in thesame way that me getting to
know my wife is not me gettingto know who I want my wife to be
.
It's who she actually is.
Right, right, right.
And if you're going to have ahealthy relationship with any
person, you have to understandwho they actually are and not
somehow try and make therelationship all about you.

(01:00:33):
We're pretty good at narcissism.

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
Maybe you are, but, wow, love you too.
I think the other, the otherstruggle that we have when we,
when we have that, that, thatidea of, of and and you've kind
of referenced this, but kind ofobliquely which is coming to

(01:00:59):
terms with the idea that youwill never understand exactly
who he is.
I mean, again, it's, it's theproblem of perfection in
anything.
Will you be the perfect parent?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
And if you can't come to termswith the idea that you'll you be
the perfect parent, no, no, no,no, no, no, no.
And if you can't come to termswith the idea that you'll never
be the perfect parent and youjust think, well, if I can't do

(01:01:20):
this perfectly, I just need tostop.
Well, that's an idiot, that's abull's errand.
Realize that you are alwaysgoing to know less than you want
to know, that you're nevergoing to be nearly as good as
you want to be, and it's notthat you're ever going to be
perfect, but you're going to try, and that's good enough that

(01:01:43):
you're going to have to, andthat's again.
We have talked about thisbefore, but I think it bears
repeating.
Grace is not the spiritualwhiteout for the mistakes you
make Grace is the relationshipthat God gives you because he
knows that you're less thanperfect.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
And part of getting to know Jesus is understanding
what grace means.
Yeah, because he's the oneoffering it.
That's the other thing.
Grace is something that has tobe offered.
That's the other thing.
Grace is something that has tobe offered, that's right, and he
offers it to who he wishes tooffer it to.
This is another problem that wedo is we dole out Jesus's grace
to who we want?

(01:02:22):
That's not how it works, right.
It's like no, he doles it out towho he wants.
And then we ask ourselves thequestion am I in that category?
I need to be in the category ofthose that Jesus would offer
his grace to.
That's what matters.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
Yeah, and I think one of the things that can get us
in trouble is we want to speakfor God without letting him
speak for himself.
Again, that's just another waythat we make God in our image
and not allow him to be in hisimage, and that's when you are a

(01:03:02):
child.
I think that is probably, andall of us have been children.
I think that's the bestunderstanding.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Some of us never stopped.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
That's probably the perfect understanding of what it
means to be in a relationshipwith God, because we understand
as children that we are notpowerful, that we have limits,
that there are things that wecannot do and we're okay with
that, and we learn a healthyreliance on somebody who can

(01:03:33):
reach the top shelf, on somebodywho can provide for you.
It is when we get to the pointwhere we want to rebel against
that that we start getting introuble.
All right, I end all of mypodcasts with be good and do
good.
What's good about knowing Jesus?

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
Well, that's a whole podcast in and of itself, but
let me put it this way there's asaying that we tell our kids,
especially when they're young,but continue to do as they get
older.
We tell them you are safe andyou are loved, but you're not in

(01:04:15):
charge.
And I think that's what's goodabout knowing Jesus is that I
know I'm safe, I know I am loved, but the cost of that is I'm
not in charge.
Now, as you know Jesus more, itdoesn't feel like a cost to not
be in charge.

(01:04:35):
It feels great.
I love not being in charge.
In the beginning it kind offeels like I'm giving something
up.
In the end it ends up feelingwonderful when you realize, man,
that's not my responsibility.
So what's good about knowingJesus?
I know I'm safe, I know I'mloved and I know I'm not in
charge.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
I like that, byer.
Thanks for doing this man.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
Thank you.
I always love talking with youand this is a good fundamental
topic, and so thank you fortaking the time to put these out
.
Thank you, I appreciate it, man.
And the time to put these out,thank you, I appreciate it, man.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
I've enjoyed talking about these fundamental concepts
.
I've got about 30 of theseideas that I put together,
really with Josh Creel, somebodywho's helped me think through
some of the basic ideas ofChristianity.
By the way, I hope to get Scottin on some of these episodes as
well.
I think there's some thingsthat we don't often re-examine

(01:05:36):
and just kind of take forgranted after a while.
The existence of Jesus is oneof those things.
I think it's easy for us tosimply build on that idea
without re-examining that ideawith any frequency at all.
We kind of take it for granted.
So I'm glad that we're havingthese fundamental discussions
about basic ideas ofChristianity.

(01:05:58):
I also want to remind you thatif you have not signed up for
the Balancing the Christian Lifeconference we're about two
weeks away You've got some timeand I would love for you to be
there.
There are a lot of people whoare going to be speaking for us,
including Scott, but we've alsogot a lot of people who are
going to be speaking for us,including Scott, but we've also
got a lot of people that areexcellent speakers that I know.
It will be good for all of you.

(01:06:20):
So until next time, let's begood and do good.