NT Framework - Never Discussed

There are some things that secular culture never discusses but always struggles with, the conflict of the rights of the individual and the needs of the group. Why? Because they don't have an answer.

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and
our series on the New TestamentFramework.
Today a smaller, bite-sizedpiece from the larger lesson.
We hope you enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
In other words, there is no concept of threeness and
oneness unless God is firstthere as three and one, and so
this is the basis, or root orjustification for why we
experience number and theconcepts that we all use every
single day, whether you're abeliever or not.
Now I said I don't want this tobecome too abstract, but it's

(00:33):
not abstract and this problemhas been pointed out.
In fact, I pointed out thatthis is exactly the problem that
Aristotle and Plato weredealing with in Athens, you know
, centuries and centuries ago,right Four or five centuries
before Christ.
But here it's called theproblem of the one and the many,
the oneness meaning.

(00:54):
Well, it's easier to talk aboutthe many.
The many is the individualthings that are in our world.
Okay, like you're an individualthing, okay, or person.
The one in this case would beour society as a whole, let's
say our nation, the UnitedStates of America, or we could
also look at it this way themany would be the many nations

(01:17):
on earth, but the one would bethe whole earth or global
concept of governance and law.
So there's always one and many.
We're always dealing with thiswe have in family or, let's say,
in marriage.
In marriage, you have theindividual persons in the
marriage and then you have themarriage itself.
So the many would be the twoindividuals, the one would be

(01:41):
the marriage itself.
And we're always askingourselves in these questions
which we're all involved inevery single day.
You're either in a marriage,you have a family there's the
concept of a one family butthere's many members in the
family.
You're always asking yourselfwhich takes priority.
Does the individual's rightsand needs, are they the priority

(02:02):
, or does the family's interesttake priority?
In our country we have peoplewho are very individualistic.
They are concerned aboutindividual rights right, and
they're strongly in thatposition.
And then you have other peoplewho are strongly concerned about

(02:24):
the unity of society andkeeping everybody together.
So they're more interested inthe one, the country, society
and other people are moreinterested in the many, that is,
the individuals and individualrights.
And they say if you allow thegovernment more power, then that
will take away freedom, andwe're interested in our freedom.
More power, then that will takeaway freedom and we're

(02:48):
interested in our freedom.
And both of these have logicaloutcomes.
If you emphasize one over theother, if you emphasize just the
one, the government, the many,the whole, then of course, there
are a lot of laws that governevery single thing that we do
and we lose freedom right, welose, lose individual freedom.
But if you emphasize justindividual rights, right, then

(03:09):
everything runs to anarchy,because everyone does what's
right in his own eyes.
So we're all involved in thisproblem, okay, whether we like
it or not.
And I'm going to show you it'seven worse than that.
It's worse than that in thesense that you're involved in it
every time.
You say a sentence okay, thatyou cannot escape this problem.

(03:29):
And Plato and Aristotle knewthis.
They just didn't have an answer.
They could never resolve it,and so societies swing from one
to the other.
You know, we have a crisis inour country.
Which way do we swing Towardmore control or do we swing
toward allowing people morefreedom?
Well, more control.

(03:50):
That's the tendency, because wehave to come together, we have
to stop this problem or solvethis problem.
So let's make all these lawsand freedoms get restricted.
So how do we balance these?
Okay, and what is the answer tothe problem?
So, everybody faces it.
That's the point of this slide,and you're trying to decide

(04:11):
which gets more emphasis.
So how do you solve the problem?
Or the one in the money, thisancient problem.
By the way, this problem, ifyou take a philosophy course
today, will likely not bediscussed, and the reason even
though it is the greatestphilosophical problem in
question ever discussed in thehistory of the world still being

(04:32):
discussed and people areobviously still trying to deal
with it, is because there's noanswer from unbelief.
Paganism has never been able toanswer it, and so it's just
been pushed out of thediscussion.
So how do you solve it?
Well, you need two things.
You need language.
By that I mean propositionalspeech, as I'm using now.

(04:52):
I don't mean like stomping onthe ground, like a herd of
elephants communicating toanother herd across the desert.
We're talking aboutpropositional speech, where
ideas can be entertained anddiscussed and words can be put
together in sentences and viableideas that present concepts and
logic.
You also need logic.
Now, those are linked.

(05:12):
Language and logic are linkedright, because logic is thinking
and language is what you use tothink.
If you don't have language,then all you have is that's all
you have.
There's nothing more than afeeling.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with
Jeremy Thomas.
If you would like to see thevisuals that went along with
today's sermon, you can findthose on Rumble and on YouTube
under Spokane Bible Church.
That is where Jeremy is thepastor and teacher.
We hope you found today'slesson productive and useful in

(05:49):
growing closer to God andwalking more obediently with Him
.
If you found this podcast to beuseful and helpful, then please
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next time, we hope you have ablessed and wonderful day.