WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:16.140 All right, well, welcome team. 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:21.080 We want to begin this morning a series on Scripture 00:00:21.080 --> 00:00:26.120 and take up the topic of the authority of Scripture. 00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:35.020 But I think germane to any attempt to state or formulate the Bible's authority 00:00:35.020 --> 00:00:45.380 is a recognition of the cultural context in which such an affirmation might be made. 00:00:46.880 --> 00:00:52.000 For notions always have a plausibility within a particular context. 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:55.680 I think we instinctively know this. 00:00:56.119 --> 00:01:02.119 It makes a difference whether we seek to make a case for pacifism at West Point or Quaker Town. 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:05.379 The context matters a lot. 00:01:06.500 --> 00:01:15.000 So why don't we commence by considering what notions of authority are prominent, 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:19.019 even prevailing within our culture? 00:01:19.759 --> 00:01:24.199 Now I know by culture, you know, microcultures, all kinds of, there are lots of cultures, 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:28.959 there are diverse cultures, but in terms of generalizations that can be made are our culture. 00:01:29.179 --> 00:01:30.579 So that's what I want to do this morning. 00:01:30.579 --> 00:01:42.640 Look first at the cultural context and then turn to the biblical context to see how it might address some of these cultural issues. 00:01:42.920 --> 00:01:44.640 So that's where we're going. 00:01:44.780 --> 00:01:47.319 Why don't we ask the Lord's help in this? 00:01:47.319 --> 00:01:52.759 Father, we thank you that you are there and that you are not silent, 00:01:52.759 --> 00:01:58.239 but you have disclosed yourself to us through your scriptures, through creation, 00:01:58.919 --> 00:02:05.519 through your scriptures more effectively and supremely through the son of your love. 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:08.840 Thank you for your spirit, who that son has promised, 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:16.139 that we might be able to appropriate and apprehend the things that you have given us for our good and your glory. 00:02:16.579 --> 00:02:20.560 So we ask your spirit to be present with us as we know he is by your promise 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:22.379 and to be greatly at work. 00:02:22.900 --> 00:02:24.659 In Jesus' name, amen. 00:02:26.879 --> 00:02:29.859 Okay, so the cultural context. 00:02:29.860 --> 00:02:35.220 Next, undoubtedly, authority has fallen on hard times. 00:02:35.860 --> 00:02:46.080 Of late, in our culture, the very notion of authority evokes suspicion, even reaction. 00:02:48.580 --> 00:02:54.360 One of my Princeton professors remarked, 00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:59.680 modern thought was born in a crisis of authority. 00:02:59.860 --> 00:03:07.680 Took shape in a flight from authority and aspired from the start to autonomy. 00:03:08.440 --> 00:03:15.020 It's a wonderful book by Jeffrey Stout, Flight from Authority, Religion, Morality, and the Quest for Autonomy. 00:03:16.100 --> 00:03:20.980 The common attitude is conveyed in the widely sported bumper sticker. 00:03:20.980 --> 00:03:28.640 That's a little snapshot from myself of a bumper sticker that I saw recently. 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:30.639 Question authority. 00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:31.619 Question authority. 00:03:31.939 --> 00:03:34.779 That slogan popularized in the 60s by Timothy Leary. 00:03:35.839 --> 00:03:41.199 So why this visceral reaction against authority in our culture? 00:03:41.959 --> 00:03:46.719 Well, let's maybe begin by acknowledging sympathetically 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:53.599 that much of this has to do with our experience of its abuse. 00:03:53.599 --> 00:03:59.900 We have experienced the abuse of authority in horrific ways. 00:03:59.900 --> 00:04:12.379 So often we observe or are ourselves the victims of authority deployed exploitatively or oppressively. 00:04:12.379 --> 00:04:25.259 It all has too familiarly been exercised as if in service of the agenda of the evil one who seeks to steal, kill, and to destroy. 00:04:25.259 --> 00:04:31.540 And this lamentable experience is, of course, not exclusively a recent phenomenon. 00:04:31.540 --> 00:04:37.580 It's not as if we in our day are the special victims of authority's abuse. 00:04:38.220 --> 00:04:40.100 There have always been perpetrators. 00:04:40.900 --> 00:04:42.040 Time immemorial. 00:04:42.640 --> 00:04:43.420 Shoguns. 00:04:44.020 --> 00:04:44.740 Satraps. 00:04:45.080 --> 00:04:46.600 And there have always been victims. 00:04:47.340 --> 00:04:48.600 Serfs and slaves. 00:04:48.879 --> 00:04:56.000 As the kind of schadenfreude-esque popularity attests of that 30-volume series. 00:04:56.100 --> 00:04:57.520 Have you guys come across that at all? 00:04:57.519 --> 00:05:00.219 The horrible history series. 00:05:00.579 --> 00:05:01.359 They're kind of funny. 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:02.319 I kind of grew up with them. 00:05:02.519 --> 00:05:02.740 Yeah. 00:05:03.379 --> 00:05:05.039 Those who have kids probably haven't. 00:05:05.339 --> 00:05:06.199 The horrible histories. 00:05:06.299 --> 00:05:08.839 I should have showed you some of the book covers. 00:05:09.060 --> 00:05:11.680 You know, just horrible things that have been perpetrated throughout history. 00:05:11.979 --> 00:05:23.419 But it's difficult to discern whether abuse has become in our day more pervasive, more pernicious. 00:05:23.420 --> 00:05:24.740 Maybe. 00:05:24.740 --> 00:05:24.860 Maybe. 00:05:25.660 --> 00:05:41.220 When Arnold Toynbee, the celebrated historian, they asked him, how would you summarize, most aphoristically, how would you summarize the 20th century? 00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:43.040 That century. 00:05:43.840 --> 00:05:45.540 And he said, the worst yet. 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:46.939 The worst yet. 00:05:46.939 --> 00:06:03.740 But whatever the magnitude as to the mechanisms, we seem today peculiarly adept, do we not, at discerning and tracing its working, unveiling its operations. 00:06:03.740 --> 00:06:12.939 We have internalized the unmasking intuitions of the masters of suspicion. 00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:19.280 This is Paul Ricoeur's term, the masters of suspicion, referring to some of these folk. 00:06:20.280 --> 00:06:21.040 Ah, Nietzsche. 00:06:21.300 --> 00:06:22.680 You've probably seen him. 00:06:22.980 --> 00:06:23.660 What a mustache. 00:06:26.439 --> 00:06:27.379 What a mind. 00:06:27.480 --> 00:06:27.960 What a philosophy. 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:28.519 I don't know. 00:06:28.660 --> 00:06:29.100 A philosophy. 00:06:29.100 --> 00:06:31.920 There he is. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:33.120 That's Friedrich Nietzsche. 00:06:35.180 --> 00:06:41.900 Nietzsche's, perhaps you're familiar with this phrase that's associated with him, philosophizing with a hammer. 00:06:42.620 --> 00:06:50.100 And, you know, we imagine, you know, some sort of, you know, Teutonic burly swinging his hammer around. 00:06:50.100 --> 00:07:03.340 And, yeah, maybe, maybe, in the German, the hammer, remember that hammer has more than one meaning, as Nietzsche intends, always, double entendre guy. 00:07:03.640 --> 00:07:08.980 It can mean hammer, the thing that you violently swing to wreck everything before you. 00:07:09.080 --> 00:07:12.580 But it also means tuning fork in German. 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:13.160 Tuning fork. 00:07:13.220 --> 00:07:18.100 And if you read all of his works, it is likely that that's what he has in mind chiefly. 00:07:18.100 --> 00:07:27.500 He takes his tuning fork and puts it up against things that he sees in culture to see whether they yield a hollow sound. 00:07:28.400 --> 00:07:30.900 Is there something substantive there or not? 00:07:31.320 --> 00:07:35.220 Are they indeed what they seem or what they claim? 00:07:35.300 --> 00:07:36.680 I suspect no. 00:07:37.960 --> 00:07:42.420 So, as Nietzsche says, I do not refute ideals. 00:07:43.320 --> 00:07:46.400 I merely put on gloves before them. 00:07:46.399 --> 00:07:48.639 This is in his echo homo. 00:07:48.859 --> 00:07:49.279 Echo homo. 00:07:49.679 --> 00:08:00.879 In other words, dissecting gloves to perform a vivisection, to lay bare the inner workings, or simply inspire suspicion. 00:08:01.939 --> 00:08:07.259 Kind of like the sibilant, seductive voice in the garden. 00:08:07.719 --> 00:08:09.939 Is it really the case that? 00:08:11.079 --> 00:08:13.039 Is it really the case that? 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:17.980 Similarly, Marx. 00:08:19.140 --> 00:08:20.060 Ah, there he is. 00:08:23.500 --> 00:08:28.780 Behind claims of the right and rational lurk economic and class interests. 00:08:29.379 --> 00:08:36.940 A concealing veil must be pulled back to reveal the true actors and the true dynamics. 00:08:36.940 --> 00:08:40.060 Again, a master of suspicion. 00:08:40.059 --> 00:08:44.479 And we've internalized these sorts of attitudes. 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:47.240 Or, another familiar one. 00:08:47.320 --> 00:08:49.820 Let's see if we can get another bearded man. 00:08:49.899 --> 00:08:50.519 Ah, yes. 00:08:52.039 --> 00:08:53.399 Sigmund Freud. 00:08:54.519 --> 00:09:04.080 Reality is not what we imagine it to be, but reflect darker, hidden, even subconscious processes that really affect these different things. 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:05.320 We need to kind of go back beneath. 00:09:05.320 --> 00:09:09.160 Be suspicious of what you might see on the surface. 00:09:09.280 --> 00:09:15.200 Well, these masters of suspicion, we as a culture have internalized. 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:22.200 And it has become our instinct to distrust and to deconstruct. 00:09:23.160 --> 00:09:24.800 The smooth politician. 00:09:25.640 --> 00:09:26.620 Big pharma. 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:28.280 The CDC. 00:09:29.180 --> 00:09:30.660 The powers that be. 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:35.379 Whatever it is that makes some sort of authoritative claim. 00:09:35.379 --> 00:09:43.980 And in our interrogations, our suspicions, have they not, often been proved warranted. 00:09:44.600 --> 00:09:50.860 As it turns out, there is much to feed a hungry cynicism. 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:54.179 Was it Nora Ephron who put it? 00:09:54.580 --> 00:09:59.000 No matter how cynical I get, I just can't keep up. 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:02.980 Yeah, that's the feeling we have. 00:10:02.980 --> 00:10:10.639 And not only does our experience sour us to authority. 00:10:11.539 --> 00:10:17.320 Authority also runs up against powerful cultural enthymemes. 00:10:18.039 --> 00:10:18.800 Enthymes. 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:24.060 This is Aristotle's term that were drawn from his rhetoric. 00:10:24.580 --> 00:10:28.700 And by enthymeme, we mean a prevailing, he meant, and we mean accordingly, 00:10:28.700 --> 00:10:34.340 a prevailing sensibility or way of thinking we virtually take for granted. 00:10:36.060 --> 00:10:40.540 Things that you can pretty much count on your audience believing. 00:10:40.539 --> 00:10:41.939 Okay? 00:10:42.939 --> 00:10:49.219 So, what are some of these enthymemes that just pervade our culture? 00:10:49.539 --> 00:10:54.919 Well, three seem particularly potent and germane to this question of authority. 00:10:55.039 --> 00:10:56.860 The prospects for authority. 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:00.279 The first is freedom. 00:11:01.279 --> 00:11:02.039 Freedom. 00:11:02.039 --> 00:11:11.579 There are few things we insist upon more vehemently than our utter and absolute freedom. 00:11:12.659 --> 00:11:21.879 It is our prevailing premise, is it not, that none can legitimately abridge my liberty of self-determination. 00:11:21.879 --> 00:11:28.220 Any attempt to exert authority over me is to violate my radical autonomy. 00:11:30.860 --> 00:11:36.039 And freedom instinctively taken to mean the absence of constraints. 00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:39.539 That's how we typically as a culture construe freedom. 00:11:39.799 --> 00:11:41.740 The absence of constraints. 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:45.200 Does he look familiar? 00:11:46.019 --> 00:11:46.759 Jean-Paul Sartre. 00:11:46.759 --> 00:11:54.860 In his autobiography, Le Moe, or the words, he captures the spirit. 00:11:56.120 --> 00:11:59.379 If you've read it at all, you might remember some of the opening scenes. 00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:01.080 He's a little boy. 00:12:01.399 --> 00:12:09.360 He writes that a small boy, he mischievously took matches to light their home carpet on fire. 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:12.960 So as to like, you know, threatening to burn down the household. 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:24.259 And as he was about to light the fire, light the carpet in his house, he experienced the interruption of his conscience. 00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:29.360 And he identified that, even a small boy, with God. 00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:39.960 And was irate at the thought that God would dare intervene with his freedom and spoil his boyish fun. 00:12:39.960 --> 00:12:50.700 He hated the thought that any authority, even that of God, would challenge his own sovereign freedom. 00:12:51.519 --> 00:12:54.680 And later he would develop this into his philosophy. 00:12:55.840 --> 00:13:02.340 Would formalize this bedrock enthymeme as the premise of a syllogism. 00:13:02.340 --> 00:13:08.560 He said later, if God exists, I am not free. 00:13:09.980 --> 00:13:11.820 But I am free. 00:13:12.780 --> 00:13:14.560 Therefore, God cannot exist. 00:13:17.080 --> 00:13:22.379 We've observed that modern thought took shape in a flight from authority. 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:27.460 By modern, we mean ushered in by the enlightenment. 00:13:27.460 --> 00:13:35.600 And illuminating as to its central theme is the 1784 essay of Immanuel Kant. 00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:39.820 There he is, Immanuel Kant. 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:44.820 His essay, What is Enlightenment? 00:13:45.080 --> 00:13:46.139 What is Enlightenment? 00:13:47.259 --> 00:13:51.400 Enlightenment, modern thought, the culture that we are in largely. 00:13:51.399 --> 00:14:00.899 He describes as, quote, release from self-imposed immaturity. 00:14:01.379 --> 00:14:04.459 Release from self-imposed immaturity. 00:14:04.799 --> 00:14:09.259 And by immaturity, he means, these are all quotes from his essay, 00:14:09.639 --> 00:14:15.279 the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another. 00:14:15.279 --> 00:14:21.899 So the enlightenment takes as its watchword, says Kant, the injunction of Horus, 00:14:22.399 --> 00:14:27.819 sapere aude, dare to know, meaning dare to know for yourself. 00:14:27.820 --> 00:14:36.800 We must come of age, he says, and cast away our tutors and guardians, 00:14:37.720 --> 00:14:42.420 come out of our nunnage, not nunnery, nunnage, our infancy, 00:14:42.980 --> 00:14:46.280 and our nunnage of dependence upon guides, 00:14:46.600 --> 00:14:50.340 and leave behind the leaving strings of the toddler, 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:53.660 and walk upright by ourself. 00:14:53.659 --> 00:14:59.059 So here, authority is cast in opposition to freedom. 00:14:59.299 --> 00:15:04.079 Authority and opposition are contrasting prospects. 00:15:05.059 --> 00:15:09.659 And the restriction of this freedom is asserted as degrading. 00:15:10.939 --> 00:15:15.559 Authority tramples on the sacred rights of maturity, 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:18.299 just as a human being. 00:15:19.259 --> 00:15:21.720 Now, perhaps you think, well, that's 1784. 00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:27.639 Or that is far too historically distant to be very telling of our present-day sensibilities. 00:15:28.300 --> 00:15:31.920 Well, let's consider a more recent expression. 00:15:33.100 --> 00:15:38.980 Upon the 200th anniversary of Kant's essay, so in 1984, 00:15:39.700 --> 00:15:41.720 French philosopher Michel Foucault, 00:15:41.720 --> 00:15:49.379 he offered his own essay, 00:15:49.800 --> 00:15:51.560 What is Enlightenment? 00:15:52.019 --> 00:15:56.240 Standing in very conscious continuity with Kant 00:15:56.240 --> 00:15:57.960 and interacting with Kant on this. 00:15:57.960 --> 00:16:02.000 And in Foucault's essay, 00:16:02.420 --> 00:16:08.560 there is equal assertion of utter and unconstrained freedom, 00:16:09.340 --> 00:16:12.019 such that our task as individuals, 00:16:12.180 --> 00:16:14.759 and I'm drawing quotes from his essay here, 00:16:16.100 --> 00:16:23.280 our task is a permanent creation of ourselves in our autonomy. 00:16:23.279 --> 00:16:29.159 The patient labor of giving form to our impatience for liberty. 00:16:30.699 --> 00:16:35.519 But in this impatient labor of self-constitution, 00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:41.100 so pervasive and profound are the many forces external to us 00:16:41.100 --> 00:16:43.519 that would seek to define us, 00:16:43.860 --> 00:16:46.720 impose some norm upon us, 00:16:48.659 --> 00:16:52.600 regulate, require compliance and conformity. 00:16:52.600 --> 00:16:56.139 All these things, whether it be the bureaucrat's form, 00:16:56.840 --> 00:17:01.360 whether it would be the norm of what is normal sexuality, 00:17:01.580 --> 00:17:06.240 whatever would seek to define or confine us in any way. 00:17:06.819 --> 00:17:12.200 These things, we must be ever vigilant against those things 00:17:12.200 --> 00:17:14.920 as threats to our freedom. 00:17:14.920 --> 00:17:21.640 For these intolerable impositions and usurpations of power 00:17:21.640 --> 00:17:25.120 must be opposed and resisted. 00:17:26.700 --> 00:17:30.240 You could kind of take the whole of Corpus of Foucault 00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:31.740 and kind of shrink it down. 00:17:31.840 --> 00:17:33.440 This is how I do this. 00:17:33.580 --> 00:17:36.060 It's not quite a Foucault quote, but it's pretty close. 00:17:36.059 --> 00:17:39.480 Whatever renders me a subject, 00:17:40.139 --> 00:17:41.480 subjects me. 00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:45.559 Whatever renders me a subject that defines what I am, 00:17:45.940 --> 00:17:50.079 subjects me, puts me under a thrall of some alien thing. 00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:57.779 Hence Foucault's prescription of defying all imposed boundaries 00:17:57.779 --> 00:18:00.319 in the interest of freedom. 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:05.039 What he calls an ethic of transgression. 00:18:05.700 --> 00:18:07.899 An ethic of transgression. 00:18:08.319 --> 00:18:12.700 In other words, if we encounter any sort of boundary, 00:18:13.180 --> 00:18:17.980 we have a moral imperative to transgress it, 00:18:18.399 --> 00:18:22.619 merely to assert our freedom as absolute. 00:18:22.619 --> 00:18:28.879 Not too long ago, there was a display at Yale Art Gallery on this. 00:18:29.119 --> 00:18:30.939 And they were trying to think, well, how can we do this? 00:18:31.379 --> 00:18:33.619 And the way they would do it is they would put the frame 00:18:33.619 --> 00:18:35.019 for the picture they're supposed to do 00:18:35.019 --> 00:18:36.899 and then do the picture outside the frame. 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:38.939 No, nope, we can't even have any boundaries. 00:18:39.619 --> 00:18:41.519 So, yeah, kind of goofy. 00:18:41.519 --> 00:18:49.559 But the sovereign Foucault, as he does put it, 00:18:49.559 --> 00:18:55.019 the sovereign individual in his or her absolute freedom 00:18:55.019 --> 00:18:58.740 is a being correlative of God. 00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:04.940 In other words, as we define it, utterly sovereign, utterly free, 00:19:05.399 --> 00:19:06.139 well, that's God. 00:19:06.359 --> 00:19:07.619 Ah, that's who we are. 00:19:07.679 --> 00:19:08.759 We're correlative to that. 00:19:09.119 --> 00:19:10.220 That's what we are. 00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:16.000 So there's the first and the end, freedom. 00:19:16.839 --> 00:19:18.619 And does this not resonate? 00:19:18.619 --> 00:19:21.919 I mean, we see and feel these things in our culture very much. 00:19:22.599 --> 00:19:24.139 They're very, very present. 00:19:25.059 --> 00:19:30.979 A second enthymeme we might call anti-hierarchy. 00:19:31.479 --> 00:19:32.619 Anti-hierarchy. 00:19:33.459 --> 00:19:37.339 There is in our culture a robust aversion 00:19:37.339 --> 00:19:40.719 to hierarchy among persons. 00:19:42.139 --> 00:19:44.959 We must all be on the same level. 00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:49.259 None may be elevated above his or her fellows 00:19:49.259 --> 00:19:53.460 and none subject to one so elevated. 00:19:54.360 --> 00:19:59.380 For no one is the better or more worthy than anyone else. 00:19:59.380 --> 00:20:03.680 It's a species of radical egalitarianism 00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:10.320 in which any hierarchy is regarded as a violation of basic justice and equity. 00:20:11.160 --> 00:20:17.000 Indeed, a violation of the personhood of the one positioned to submit. 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:22.000 To be subordinate is to be degraded. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:27.200 Here's a testimony to this. 00:20:27.279 --> 00:20:32.680 Oliver Wendell Holmes made this observation before the Harvard Law School, 00:20:32.779 --> 00:20:35.599 no doubt with dismay within that elite setting, 00:20:36.220 --> 00:20:38.259 back in 1886, I think. 00:20:39.579 --> 00:20:40.660 Holmes writes, 00:20:40.660 --> 00:20:46.060 I think we should all agree that the passion for equality 00:20:46.060 --> 00:20:48.440 has passed far beyond the political, 00:20:48.620 --> 00:20:50.420 one vote per one person, that's fine, 00:20:50.779 --> 00:20:54.380 has passed far beyond the political or even the social sphere. 00:20:54.920 --> 00:20:59.960 We are not only unwilling to admit that any class or society 00:20:59.960 --> 00:21:02.759 is better than that in which we move, 00:21:02.759 --> 00:21:10.299 but our customary attitude toward everyone in authority of any kind 00:21:10.299 --> 00:21:16.140 is that he is only the lucky recipient of honor or salary above the average, 00:21:16.140 --> 00:21:19.660 which any average man might receive as well as he. 00:21:23.319 --> 00:21:27.819 This anti-hierarchy is deep in the American spirit 00:21:27.819 --> 00:21:29.660 and has long historical roots. 00:21:29.960 --> 00:21:32.000 Indeed, America's founding identity 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:35.859 as a nation is rooted in a rebellion from authority. 00:21:37.019 --> 00:21:38.759 It's just, it's in our blood. 00:21:41.460 --> 00:21:44.380 And a, so anti-hierarchy. 00:21:44.740 --> 00:21:48.140 And a final enthymeme to notice, 00:21:48.140 --> 00:21:51.759 we might call, and I'll explain, 00:21:52.539 --> 00:21:56.619 poiesis supplants mimesis. 00:21:57.619 --> 00:22:00.599 Poiesis supplants mimesis. 00:22:00.599 --> 00:22:03.619 Poiesis, P-O-I-E-S-I-S. 00:22:03.779 --> 00:22:08.579 Mimesis M-I-M-E-S-I-S. 00:22:09.379 --> 00:22:17.219 So this represents, these two terms represent divergent orientations to life 00:22:17.219 --> 00:22:21.839 and the way we think about the world and us in it. 00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:26.859 Okay, so mimesis, think of mimicry. 00:22:26.859 --> 00:22:33.139 Upon the mimetic understanding, the world has an order. 00:22:34.220 --> 00:22:39.079 An order, an external order, a reality that impinges upon us. 00:22:39.179 --> 00:22:42.939 And we need to conform to it. 00:22:42.940 --> 00:22:49.100 And we adapt ourselves to a reality that's external to us. 00:22:49.960 --> 00:22:56.120 And this has been the framework of our lives and thoughts as humanity for millennia. 00:22:56.720 --> 00:22:57.480 For millennia. 00:22:58.680 --> 00:23:03.059 Whether that external reality to which the individual needs to conform 00:23:03.059 --> 00:23:09.379 is the fierceness of nature in primitive tribes and its cruel elements. 00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:14.659 If you just go out to plant your seed any old time you want 00:23:14.659 --> 00:23:20.559 and do not conform to the cruelty of nature in terms of when it can grow, 00:23:20.679 --> 00:23:22.579 you will starve to death and die. 00:23:23.240 --> 00:23:27.440 There are these external realities that impinge upon you necessarily. 00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:32.240 Steer clear of the volcano when you see it smoking. 00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:33.340 You know, all of these things. 00:23:33.460 --> 00:23:36.480 You know, these are realities that will impinge. 00:23:37.519 --> 00:23:40.759 So maybe that's, those are the external realities. 00:23:41.080 --> 00:23:46.340 Or the gods who demand a certain worship and obeisance. 00:23:47.840 --> 00:23:52.759 Don't neglect these propitiating sacrifices or it will not go well with you. 00:23:53.180 --> 00:23:54.380 We must conform. 00:23:54.380 --> 00:24:01.760 Or perhaps the tribe which determines these practices to which we must conform for the collective benefit. 00:24:02.780 --> 00:24:05.460 Don't have any dealings with the Samaritans or whatever. 00:24:05.580 --> 00:24:07.600 You know, you get, you get these things all over. 00:24:08.280 --> 00:24:08.460 Okay. 00:24:08.620 --> 00:24:11.380 Or perhaps the polis, the Greek polis. 00:24:12.700 --> 00:24:16.100 The city state which dictates the roles of its citizens. 00:24:17.560 --> 00:24:18.120 External. 00:24:18.700 --> 00:24:22.160 You know, Lycurgus in Sparta comes up with these laws. 00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:25.200 Well, why, why these laws? 00:24:25.480 --> 00:24:27.600 Well, the Oracle of Delphi. 00:24:28.240 --> 00:24:31.540 There's this extra, we have the, the gods impose these things. 00:24:31.600 --> 00:24:33.460 And we must conform to these things. 00:24:35.460 --> 00:24:41.160 Or religion, which unveils the will of God to which we submit our own wills. 00:24:41.160 --> 00:24:52.480 So notice, in all of these, there is a governing reality outside of us, which lays claim to direct our lives. 00:24:52.700 --> 00:24:55.340 Our very being and our sense of identity. 00:24:56.480 --> 00:25:00.220 It sets down a course to which we can form. 00:25:01.220 --> 00:25:04.360 A path that we must walk after. 00:25:04.600 --> 00:25:06.860 A script to follow. 00:25:06.859 --> 00:25:10.959 And that's how we become who we are. 00:25:11.959 --> 00:25:14.179 Mimetically or imitatively. 00:25:14.699 --> 00:25:22.579 Like the little duckling, you know, who grows into the duck by waddling after her mother in mimicry. 00:25:23.139 --> 00:25:24.919 A formative mimicry. 00:25:25.240 --> 00:25:27.859 Or mimesis, as philosophers call this. 00:25:28.479 --> 00:25:33.240 So there's, there's that, that, that one orientation to all of life. 00:25:33.319 --> 00:25:35.419 A frame of reference in which we exist. 00:25:35.420 --> 00:25:38.720 Mimesis, mimesis, as some pronounce it. 00:25:40.900 --> 00:25:44.220 And that has, for millennia, that has been the case. 00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:47.100 Different iterations, but basically the same framework. 00:25:47.560 --> 00:25:51.320 Something from outside you determines these things to which we conform. 00:25:51.319 --> 00:25:58.819 In contrast to the age-old mimetic view of life and the self. 00:25:59.700 --> 00:26:05.460 And of quite recent appearance historically is an orientation of poiesis. 00:26:06.019 --> 00:26:07.779 So think of the word poetry. 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:09.500 They're, they're, they're related here. 00:26:09.919 --> 00:26:13.099 The terms, a creative work. 00:26:15.099 --> 00:26:16.319 Poiesis. 00:26:16.319 --> 00:26:28.059 And on this view, the external world is seen as the raw material out of which I create my own reality. 00:26:28.899 --> 00:26:31.579 Purpose, meaning, sense of self. 00:26:31.579 --> 00:26:37.059 I do not look outside of myself to some guiding reality. 00:26:37.179 --> 00:26:40.359 Instead, I look within myself. 00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:51.879 And from that well, within, draw out the inspiration to fashion myself, my identity, my meaning, 00:26:52.099 --> 00:26:54.460 as my own creative work of art. 00:26:54.460 --> 00:27:02.019 We can see how such a view can flourish, perhaps could only flourish, 00:27:02.680 --> 00:27:10.740 in a world in which it is increasingly easy to imagine that reality is something that we can simply manipulate. 00:27:11.740 --> 00:27:13.160 Very easily manipulate. 00:27:13.240 --> 00:27:14.960 According to our own wills and desires. 00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:20.900 And not something to which we need necessarily to conform or passively accept. 00:27:20.900 --> 00:27:24.820 Do we want fresh bananas midwinter? 00:27:26.180 --> 00:27:29.080 Simply order them off Amazon and they'll arrive tomorrow. 00:27:29.300 --> 00:27:31.820 I mean, we can manipulate our world, it's so it seems. 00:27:32.380 --> 00:27:37.880 Geography seems completely irrelevant now with, you know, airplanes and so forth. 00:27:38.100 --> 00:27:43.040 These things that were, that were so robust seem to be liquefied. 00:27:43.039 --> 00:27:46.339 Now, in our ability to manipulate reality. 00:27:46.500 --> 00:27:52.759 So it can engender easily this sort of expansive sense that I can create reality myself. 00:27:57.639 --> 00:28:01.740 Reality is what we creatively fashion it to be. 00:28:02.559 --> 00:28:09.019 It is not given to us, but graven by us. 00:28:09.019 --> 00:28:12.839 It is a poetic world. 00:28:13.980 --> 00:28:22.920 In a poetic world, purpose, meaning and identity is not discovered, but invented. 00:28:24.599 --> 00:28:33.639 Anything that transcends the self and disappears from reality, or at least relevance. 00:28:33.640 --> 00:28:40.800 No creator's purpose or human nature can dictate the shape of my life. 00:28:41.440 --> 00:28:45.820 I choose for myself as a creative self-expression. 00:28:47.660 --> 00:28:53.900 So we're left with what Charles Taylor, a Canadian philosopher, calls an imminent frame. 00:28:53.900 --> 00:28:57.300 Not open to any transcendence. 00:28:58.060 --> 00:29:05.180 Imminent frame with, as individual, what he calls expressive individualism prevailing. 00:29:05.460 --> 00:29:08.620 As part of a culture of authenticity. 00:29:09.360 --> 00:29:12.400 So these are his terms. 00:29:13.680 --> 00:29:16.300 A culture of authenticity. 00:29:16.540 --> 00:29:19.000 I simply have to be true to myself. 00:29:20.340 --> 00:29:23.040 That's the all-important thing. 00:29:23.039 --> 00:29:27.440 True to my own self-creation, self-perception. 00:29:28.799 --> 00:29:34.819 What I find within, to conform to anything outside me, would be inauthentic. 00:29:35.420 --> 00:29:37.000 Surely that's not right. 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:38.680 Inauthentic. 00:29:41.440 --> 00:29:44.899 If you're interested in these things, some books on this. 00:29:45.159 --> 00:29:49.139 So I mentioned Charles Taylor, The Secular Age. 00:29:49.140 --> 00:29:52.420 Yeah, that's sources of the self. 00:29:52.860 --> 00:29:55.120 He has the ethics of authenticity. 00:29:56.000 --> 00:29:57.120 These are three of them. 00:29:57.160 --> 00:29:59.140 I think I might even have... 00:29:59.800 --> 00:30:00.960 Ah, yes, there's Charles Taylor. 00:30:01.200 --> 00:30:02.220 There's Charles Taylor. 00:30:03.280 --> 00:30:04.400 So these are good. 00:30:05.400 --> 00:30:07.500 Also, Philip Reif. 00:30:08.040 --> 00:30:09.080 If you've come across him. 00:30:09.900 --> 00:30:11.140 Triumph of the Therapeutic. 00:30:11.140 --> 00:30:11.860 Therapeutic. 00:30:14.360 --> 00:30:21.640 Speaking about the same notion is we don't necessarily ask, well, what is real or what is authority? 00:30:21.640 --> 00:30:25.560 But what will make me feel good or be happy or lead to that? 00:30:25.620 --> 00:30:33.940 And how can I shape reality to conform to what would just be conducive to my own self-conception of my well-being? 00:30:33.940 --> 00:30:38.700 And this is the all-decisive consideration for us. 00:30:39.259 --> 00:30:40.900 This is a triumph of the therapeutic. 00:30:41.240 --> 00:30:42.779 He also has three-volume work. 00:30:43.120 --> 00:30:44.220 Really, really hard. 00:30:44.380 --> 00:30:47.700 It was really hard for me to get through. 00:30:47.820 --> 00:30:55.940 It's an incredible dense prose and idiomatically really eccentric, but remarkably profound. 00:30:57.940 --> 00:30:59.380 Death works or something. 00:31:00.180 --> 00:31:01.500 I forget the exact title. 00:31:01.700 --> 00:31:03.720 But this is Philip Reif. 00:31:03.720 --> 00:31:08.259 But he talks about similarly kind of the first world, second world, and third world. 00:31:08.319 --> 00:31:09.579 And we live in the third world. 00:31:09.700 --> 00:31:11.799 He's kind of tongue-in-cheek, calls it that. 00:31:12.039 --> 00:31:17.140 Same sort of observations about mimesis being supplanted by poiesis. 00:31:17.500 --> 00:31:19.220 So those are some good books. 00:31:19.579 --> 00:31:24.100 Probably most accessible, he tried to take some of this thought and render it somewhat accessible, 00:31:24.579 --> 00:31:30.700 is a work by Carl Truman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. 00:31:30.700 --> 00:31:46.240 Very helpful in this, where he's particularly looking at how this plays up in terms of our particular understanding of sexuality and kind of a politics of recognition. 00:31:46.240 --> 00:31:52.799 He opens up by saying, you know, the statement that is commonplace today. 00:31:53.019 --> 00:31:57.440 Well, I'm a woman just trapped in a man's body. 00:31:58.180 --> 00:32:00.940 How this just makes so much sense to us today. 00:32:00.940 --> 00:32:08.640 But how, like, several generations ago, you try that on for your grandfather or grandmother, and they think, excuse me? 00:32:08.640 --> 00:32:13.220 I can't even begin to understand what that could even mean. 00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:23.360 What is it that has happened in our culture for something to be utterly incomprehensible to become commonplace? 00:32:23.440 --> 00:32:27.160 I mean, these are fascinating historical questions to ask. 00:32:27.520 --> 00:32:32.060 So that's Carl Truman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. 00:32:32.059 --> 00:32:36.279 An easier book to read is A Strange New World by Carl Truman. 00:32:36.679 --> 00:32:37.940 Ah, thank you, Raul. 00:32:37.960 --> 00:32:40.899 It's a little thinner, and he goes through everything in his book. 00:32:41.619 --> 00:32:42.119 Excellent. 00:32:42.279 --> 00:32:42.899 Okay, great. 00:32:43.220 --> 00:32:44.599 The Strange New World. 00:32:45.059 --> 00:32:46.339 Okay, very helpful. 00:32:46.679 --> 00:32:47.460 Strange New World. 00:32:48.799 --> 00:32:48.960 Good. 00:32:50.299 --> 00:32:59.819 Yeah, the late, yes, alas, late, Sir Roger Scruton sees this sea change of mimesis to poiesis, 00:32:59.819 --> 00:33:02.299 even manifested in popular dance. 00:33:02.500 --> 00:33:12.200 He's got this piece where he talks about earlier forms of dancing typically involved formal steps that needed to be learned. 00:33:13.919 --> 00:33:22.799 One, you know, one would imitate kind of the dance instructor, and you would be formed by the dance. 00:33:22.859 --> 00:33:26.559 It would kind of regulate your motions, and that's what it used to be. 00:33:26.559 --> 00:33:34.480 And a meaning and a pleasure was derived from the individual taking part in a coordinated effort. 00:33:35.059 --> 00:33:38.740 We still have, you know, what, I don't know, Texas, I don't know. 00:33:38.980 --> 00:33:41.179 There still are dances like that thing. 00:33:41.180 --> 00:33:49.240 Yeah, but, and then he, Scruton contrasts this with kind of what he calls the nightclub style dance. 00:33:49.660 --> 00:33:52.019 Dance is not my forte, so I'm not in kind of way. 00:33:52.400 --> 00:33:58.640 But nightclub style dancing in which the individual simply kind of does their own thing. 00:33:58.740 --> 00:34:02.799 It's kind of like just an individual creative self-expression. 00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:08.259 So even in the way people dance expresses this. 00:34:09.340 --> 00:34:14.639 Well, with poiesis supplanting mimesis as the cultural enthymeme, 00:34:15.019 --> 00:34:19.099 and where does it not in our current culture, 00:34:19.880 --> 00:34:27.820 any claim of authority faces a steep uphill climb, incredibly steep uphill climb. 00:34:27.820 --> 00:34:35.559 So this then is some of the ethos of our culture when it confronts authority. 00:34:35.980 --> 00:34:42.260 An atmosphere suffocating, or at least deeply skeptical of the imposition, 00:34:42.580 --> 00:34:46.780 even suggestion of any authority claim. 00:34:46.780 --> 00:34:57.200 Let's pause here and ask, because I've been droning on for a long time now. 00:34:57.600 --> 00:35:02.640 Let's ask together, okay, what is right? 00:35:02.960 --> 00:35:08.019 What is right about these sensibilities? 00:35:08.480 --> 00:35:11.519 Often as Christians in relation to culture around us, 00:35:11.519 --> 00:35:16.519 we immediately assume a stance of opposition and contradiction. 00:35:16.780 --> 00:35:18.100 Oh, that's wrong. 00:35:18.460 --> 00:35:20.580 That's not right. 00:35:20.800 --> 00:35:23.440 For these 19 reasons, it's not right. 00:35:23.800 --> 00:35:26.480 And we need to get there eventually. 00:35:27.260 --> 00:35:30.560 But sometimes if we're engaging with unbelievers, 00:35:31.360 --> 00:35:36.800 it's much more profitable to ask, 00:35:36.800 --> 00:35:39.280 is there something I can affirm? 00:35:41.019 --> 00:35:43.700 You know, as these views are articulated, 00:35:44.100 --> 00:35:45.880 is there a way that we can respond? 00:35:45.880 --> 00:35:48.000 Yes, I see that. 00:35:48.260 --> 00:35:49.920 I see that concern. 00:35:50.760 --> 00:35:52.860 I feel that. 00:35:53.740 --> 00:35:57.420 I think that, that bit there is right. 00:35:57.619 --> 00:35:59.660 And it seems very important. 00:36:01.760 --> 00:36:04.920 To begin with some genuine affirmation, 00:36:05.240 --> 00:36:11.400 can fruitfully reframe our encounters with as yet outsiders to our faith. 00:36:11.400 --> 00:36:13.940 You see what sort of difference that can make? 00:36:13.940 --> 00:36:18.380 Can we frame it as maybe a problem or a puzzle 00:36:18.380 --> 00:36:24.500 that we commonly find ourselves in and could collaboratively work together to solve? 00:36:24.880 --> 00:36:31.059 And this sort of shifts the interaction from a conflictual to a collegial. 00:36:31.059 --> 00:36:34.079 Wow, these are really hard things, aren't they? 00:36:34.460 --> 00:36:34.860 Wow. 00:36:35.480 --> 00:36:37.679 Let's, let's, let's, let's figure this out together. 00:36:38.779 --> 00:36:40.159 Let's put the puzzle together. 00:36:41.420 --> 00:36:43.039 Have you found any corner pieces? 00:36:43.299 --> 00:36:45.380 Is something reasonably solid for you? 00:36:45.559 --> 00:36:46.599 How about this piece? 00:36:46.639 --> 00:36:47.380 Does that fit in? 00:36:47.380 --> 00:36:51.480 Could that, that, that, that blue, mostly blue with a little white? 00:36:51.700 --> 00:36:54.039 You think that that's sky and cloud? 00:36:54.340 --> 00:36:56.519 Or could it be water and wave? 00:36:57.240 --> 00:36:58.400 I don't, what do you think? 00:36:59.019 --> 00:37:02.740 See, then you're engaging together with them. 00:37:02.739 --> 00:37:09.119 So, let's practice that a little bit together as the people of, people of God. 00:37:10.259 --> 00:37:14.479 And again, I think we have a theology that allows us to do that. 00:37:14.579 --> 00:37:16.079 I mean, we could talk about that too. 00:37:16.119 --> 00:37:17.139 That would be a great discussion. 00:37:17.279 --> 00:37:22.119 But remember, every individual that we encounter, you know, 00:37:22.179 --> 00:37:25.159 I remember asking one of her daughters, I won't name which one, 00:37:26.059 --> 00:37:28.639 and, and, oh, she was being critical. 00:37:28.759 --> 00:37:29.979 I said, oh, wait, Bill. 00:37:29.979 --> 00:37:30.839 What, what, what? 00:37:30.899 --> 00:37:31.799 Oh, I'm sorry. 00:37:32.739 --> 00:37:33.679 Forgive me. 00:37:35.079 --> 00:37:40.519 Wait, what, what, what, what do we know about every person? 00:37:40.879 --> 00:37:42.599 They're sinners, Dad. 00:37:42.919 --> 00:37:43.599 They're sinners. 00:37:43.799 --> 00:37:45.579 But, but, but, more fundamentally. 00:37:46.099 --> 00:37:46.859 More fundamentally. 00:37:47.000 --> 00:37:48.659 What do we know before that? 00:37:49.299 --> 00:37:52.459 Okay, they're in the image of God. 00:37:52.739 --> 00:37:53.179 Yes. 00:37:53.599 --> 00:37:54.459 So, what does that mean? 00:37:54.539 --> 00:37:58.399 That means that they reflect something of the divine glory in them. 00:37:58.559 --> 00:37:59.239 Yes. 00:37:59.239 --> 00:37:59.339 Yes. 00:38:00.019 --> 00:38:05.439 So, in every time you encounter somebody new, at least the first five minutes, 00:38:06.079 --> 00:38:10.699 discover and delight in what you find in them that reflects the image of God. 00:38:10.699 --> 00:38:15.480 It will make for a happier life for you and a more promising encounter. 00:38:15.839 --> 00:38:16.819 Okay, Dad. 00:38:18.099 --> 00:38:19.339 But she's getting better at it. 00:38:19.419 --> 00:38:21.500 She's, she's, she's getting a lot better at it. 00:38:21.559 --> 00:38:22.239 It's, it's wonderful. 00:38:22.480 --> 00:38:24.359 So that's, that's, that's what we want to do. 00:38:24.859 --> 00:38:29.980 Um, um, so a much more promising dynamic, at least in my experience. 00:38:29.980 --> 00:38:33.000 Um, so let's take some of these things. 00:38:33.000 --> 00:38:39.420 Uh, and, and, and for a while, uh, uh, uh, what, what seems right? 00:38:40.639 --> 00:38:44.960 Or on the right track with these notions and sensibilities that animate our culture? 00:38:46.440 --> 00:38:50.679 Uh, do we have any reason to question authority? 00:38:52.599 --> 00:38:53.519 Yeah, yeah. 00:38:54.300 --> 00:38:55.019 There you go. 00:38:55.099 --> 00:38:55.679 Yeah, yeah. 00:38:56.400 --> 00:38:57.159 There you go. 00:38:57.159 --> 00:39:03.719 We, we have experience, do we not, of, that's just, it's not always good. 00:39:04.019 --> 00:39:04.259 Yeah. 00:39:04.779 --> 00:39:05.059 Yeah. 00:39:05.239 --> 00:39:05.500 Yeah. 00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:12.059 Um, I don't remember what, which, uh, person that we were talking about here, but, uh, one 00:39:12.059 --> 00:39:16.699 of them seemed to mention that, like, there was a, there's some set scripts that are handed 00:39:16.699 --> 00:39:19.319 down to us by authorities that we're, we're supposed to follow. 00:39:19.460 --> 00:39:19.759 Yeah. 00:39:20.019 --> 00:39:25.699 Even things like, I don't know, television sitcoms teach us how to run our relationships. 00:39:25.699 --> 00:39:30.019 So, like, when is it okay for me to forgive something wrong to me? 00:39:30.099 --> 00:39:36.460 Like, well, if they cheated on me this way, then I'm never going to speak to them again, 00:39:36.599 --> 00:39:37.019 again. 00:39:37.119 --> 00:39:42.659 Or if they lied to me in this way, I guess that's acceptable because I understand why 00:39:42.659 --> 00:39:50.439 they, you know, there's these, these literally scripts are teaching us how to run our lives 00:39:50.440 --> 00:39:55.079 so that when we encounter the same situation, we, we have this, like, uh, mental preset, 00:39:55.260 --> 00:39:56.539 this mimesis. 00:39:56.720 --> 00:39:56.840 Yeah. 00:39:56.940 --> 00:39:57.139 Yeah. 00:39:57.139 --> 00:39:57.320 Yeah. 00:39:57.320 --> 00:39:57.559 Yeah. 00:39:57.960 --> 00:40:02.619 Oh, I, you know, that made a lot of sense to me when I saw it on TV and now I'm in this 00:40:02.619 --> 00:40:02.960 situation. 00:40:03.179 --> 00:40:03.679 This is not. 00:40:03.740 --> 00:40:04.099 Yeah. 00:40:04.360 --> 00:40:04.659 Yeah. 00:40:05.159 --> 00:40:11.380 Conscious thoughts running through our heads, but we, we're, we're trained by culture, even 00:40:11.380 --> 00:40:17.019 with things like forgiveness in which Jesus has sometimes radically different things to 00:40:17.019 --> 00:40:17.320 say. 00:40:17.500 --> 00:40:17.659 Yeah. 00:40:17.659 --> 00:40:20.860 So, those authorities may be, ought to be questioned. 00:40:21.099 --> 00:40:21.579 Absolutely. 00:40:22.019 --> 00:40:22.300 Yeah. 00:40:22.360 --> 00:40:22.539 Yeah. 00:40:22.539 --> 00:40:22.579 Yeah. 00:40:22.579 --> 00:40:23.039 Helpful. 00:40:23.239 --> 00:40:23.500 Yeah. 00:40:25.059 --> 00:40:25.500 Yeah. 00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:30.599 Can you think of any sort of biblical warrants that we would, that we would, you know, 00:40:30.599 --> 00:40:33.619 do we always just take all authority as it, as it, as it comes? 00:40:33.619 --> 00:40:42.139 Can you, can you think of any, any, um, biblical, uh, principles or, or, or, um, stories 00:40:42.139 --> 00:40:46.659 that, that, that might give us as believers reasons to be pretty sympathetic to the need to 00:40:46.659 --> 00:40:47.399 question authority. 00:40:49.799 --> 00:40:52.219 The guys in the fiery furnace. 00:40:52.779 --> 00:40:53.359 There you go. 00:40:53.519 --> 00:40:54.980 That's, yeah, yeah, that's right. 00:40:56.960 --> 00:40:57.480 Excellent. 00:40:58.039 --> 00:40:58.420 Yeah. 00:40:58.420 --> 00:40:58.519 Yeah. 00:41:00.480 --> 00:41:09.199 Remember, uh, uh, when, um, when, when Jesus was often confronted by these, these strange 00:41:09.199 --> 00:41:14.199 claims or actions with the question, by what authority do you do these things? 00:41:14.199 --> 00:41:17.779 Was he dismissive of that, that line of questioning? 00:41:18.559 --> 00:41:19.679 No, he engaged it. 00:41:19.879 --> 00:41:20.539 I'll tell you. 00:41:21.259 --> 00:41:22.099 I'll tell you. 00:41:22.419 --> 00:41:24.399 And it's a little, it was a legitimate question. 00:41:24.739 --> 00:41:26.500 He, uh, yeah. 00:41:27.659 --> 00:41:33.599 Paul writes to the Thessalonians, examine all things and cling to what is good. 00:41:34.079 --> 00:41:35.019 Cling to what is good. 00:41:35.259 --> 00:41:36.619 Examine all things. 00:41:37.039 --> 00:41:38.480 I don't just want to take these things in. 00:41:38.480 --> 00:41:40.480 Uh, yeah. 00:41:41.719 --> 00:41:42.000 Yeah. 00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:44.820 There's, there's, there's a lot of false or bad authority. 00:41:45.599 --> 00:41:47.579 Remember the story of the seven sons of Sceva? 00:41:48.500 --> 00:41:49.519 In Acts. 00:41:50.079 --> 00:41:51.019 Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. 00:41:52.179 --> 00:41:53.139 In the name of Jesus. 00:41:53.179 --> 00:41:53.519 Whoa, whoa, whoa. 00:41:53.559 --> 00:41:56.400 I know Jesus and I've heard of Paul, but who are you? 00:41:56.920 --> 00:41:57.920 Who are you? 00:41:58.420 --> 00:42:00.480 Didn't turn out very well for them. 00:42:00.480 --> 00:42:09.039 How about, you know, this, we, we, we talk about the masters of suspicion. 00:42:10.139 --> 00:42:12.340 Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, and, and others. 00:42:13.059 --> 00:42:19.980 Um, uh, any biblical grounds that we might have for suspicion? 00:42:20.139 --> 00:42:20.539 Yeah, yeah. 00:42:20.539 --> 00:42:27.579 So some of these enlightened thinkers shaped the Protestant Reformation or the ideas around that, 00:42:27.739 --> 00:42:31.279 which led to us being able to read the Bible independently and have copies. 00:42:32.159 --> 00:42:40.779 So in some ways rejecting the authority of the Catholic Church led to access of God's Word. 00:42:40.860 --> 00:42:41.539 Yeah, yeah. 00:42:42.039 --> 00:42:45.440 It led to a thousand denominations in the church, schism. 00:42:45.960 --> 00:42:46.880 That is also true. 00:42:46.880 --> 00:42:49.039 Yeah, also true. 00:42:49.039 --> 00:42:51.199 Yeah, so it's not uncomplicated, is it? 00:42:51.239 --> 00:42:52.460 So there's some good authority. 00:42:52.719 --> 00:42:55.840 There's some that needs to be held up to a touchstone. 00:42:56.400 --> 00:43:02.320 And many of them, the reformers, what they wanted to do is they, there was a, there was 00:43:02.320 --> 00:43:08.900 a question of on what ground, on what grounds do we evaluate these things? 00:43:10.500 --> 00:43:11.619 Popes can err. 00:43:12.119 --> 00:43:13.880 Councils can get it wrong. 00:43:13.880 --> 00:43:19.519 The word of God being the touchstone. 00:43:19.680 --> 00:43:21.680 My conscience is captive to the word of God. 00:43:21.760 --> 00:43:23.160 Here I stand, I can do no other. 00:43:23.880 --> 00:43:31.360 You know, so that question of how do, what, what is authority for the believer in our Christian 00:43:31.360 --> 00:43:34.940 life was a critical question to try to grapple with. 00:43:34.940 --> 00:43:35.740 Absolutely. 00:43:35.740 --> 00:43:35.940 Absolutely. 00:43:36.659 --> 00:43:44.740 That quote is an interesting in-between where you were questioning the authority of humans 00:43:44.740 --> 00:43:52.920 involved in religion, but in opposition to Foucault, whose conscience that God is then 00:43:52.920 --> 00:43:54.119 imposing on his faith. 00:43:54.119 --> 00:43:54.300 Yeah. 00:43:54.559 --> 00:43:54.760 Right? 00:43:55.039 --> 00:43:55.280 Yeah. 00:43:55.599 --> 00:43:55.780 Yeah. 00:43:56.119 --> 00:43:56.619 Excellent. 00:43:59.079 --> 00:44:02.039 Did Jesus entrust himself to all people? 00:44:02.039 --> 00:44:04.880 No. 00:44:05.759 --> 00:44:06.880 He didn't. 00:44:07.219 --> 00:44:08.159 And why not? 00:44:08.420 --> 00:44:11.199 Because he knew what was in them. 00:44:11.199 --> 00:44:17.000 See, you know, there are good grounds, I think, to, you know, whether we call that suspicion 00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:17.900 or caution. 00:44:19.039 --> 00:44:26.920 You know, we can identify with these instincts of, as yet, unbelievers that are pervasive in 00:44:26.920 --> 00:44:27.539 culture. 00:44:28.420 --> 00:44:28.699 Yeah. 00:44:29.480 --> 00:44:30.840 How about freedom? 00:44:32.039 --> 00:44:35.599 Is it something we can affirm about this instinct for freedom? 00:44:35.940 --> 00:44:38.460 It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. 00:44:38.480 --> 00:44:39.239 There you go. 00:44:39.340 --> 00:44:40.800 We are fantastic. 00:44:41.019 --> 00:44:42.119 Galatians 5.1. 00:44:42.320 --> 00:44:44.639 It was for freedom that Christ has set us free. 00:44:44.960 --> 00:44:47.920 If the Son has made you free, you are free indeed. 00:44:48.860 --> 00:44:50.179 Ah, free indeed. 00:44:50.460 --> 00:44:54.179 In other words, there are probably other species of freedom that maybe are false freedom. 00:44:54.259 --> 00:44:56.159 Not free indeed, but seemingly free. 00:44:56.159 --> 00:44:59.819 But so, yes, yes, but it's complicated. 00:44:59.960 --> 00:45:01.119 Let's figure this one out. 00:45:01.659 --> 00:45:03.159 What really enslaves us? 00:45:03.159 --> 00:45:08.920 It's like a fish is only free of the water and a train is only free on the tracks. 00:45:09.139 --> 00:45:09.440 Yeah. 00:45:09.659 --> 00:45:11.279 Once it's out of the water, it dies. 00:45:11.420 --> 00:45:13.420 Once it's off the track, it can't do a thing. 00:45:14.199 --> 00:45:14.679 Yes. 00:45:14.719 --> 00:45:18.399 We have our own perimeters that we can't cross over. 00:45:18.400 --> 00:45:19.980 Right, right. 00:45:20.079 --> 00:45:20.240 Yeah. 00:45:20.360 --> 00:45:21.160 So, so helpful. 00:45:21.380 --> 00:45:28.240 You know, we oftentimes, maybe we just think about freedom from, but freedom for what? 00:45:28.900 --> 00:45:30.920 This, you know, were we made for something? 00:45:31.059 --> 00:45:31.539 Absolutely. 00:45:32.099 --> 00:45:32.660 Good. 00:45:34.039 --> 00:45:39.200 Once we worship the creation, instead of the creator, I think we would come and play. 00:45:39.199 --> 00:45:40.559 Yeah, yeah. 00:45:40.699 --> 00:45:41.399 Isn't that, yeah. 00:45:41.739 --> 00:45:46.059 And that's precisely what Romans 1 talks about. 00:45:46.339 --> 00:45:57.919 It's these things that we elevate and worship, they become actually our masters. 00:45:59.599 --> 00:46:05.139 We think that they're going to serve us, but we end up serving those things. 00:46:05.579 --> 00:46:06.299 Yeah, absolutely. 00:46:07.980 --> 00:46:09.139 Anti-hierarchy. 00:46:09.539 --> 00:46:10.659 How about, how about that? 00:46:12.799 --> 00:46:20.099 Anything that we could affirm about this, this anti-hierarchical impulse as believers? 00:46:21.299 --> 00:46:21.779 Yeah, yeah. 00:46:21.779 --> 00:46:24.159 Jesus is praising the Pharisees. 00:46:24.739 --> 00:46:25.139 Ah. 00:46:25.539 --> 00:46:27.799 He says, you know, they put themselves in the seat of Moses. 00:46:28.799 --> 00:46:29.439 Very. 00:46:29.759 --> 00:46:30.119 Yeah. 00:46:31.119 --> 00:46:31.799 Yeah. 00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:32.519 Yeah. 00:46:32.799 --> 00:46:33.159 Right. 00:46:33.599 --> 00:46:34.199 Very helpful. 00:46:35.439 --> 00:46:39.179 Being lied to by presidents and so forth. 00:46:39.199 --> 00:46:40.339 And they're stuck. 00:46:41.039 --> 00:46:41.419 Yeah. 00:46:41.519 --> 00:46:43.939 Just because someone's elevated doesn't, doesn't, doesn't. 00:46:44.159 --> 00:46:44.419 Yeah. 00:46:44.719 --> 00:46:44.939 Yeah. 00:46:45.939 --> 00:46:51.099 The, one of the, one of the interesting things of this notion of the image of God. 00:46:51.099 --> 00:46:58.599 Historians will say this was radically democratic in the sense, because you did have a notion, 00:46:59.360 --> 00:47:01.679 the image of God, that that would be Pharaoh. 00:47:01.679 --> 00:47:05.019 But Pharaoh alone sitting atop the society. 00:47:05.019 --> 00:47:08.139 Or the king alone was the image of God. 00:47:08.559 --> 00:47:11.699 But then the Hebrew scriptures come in, or our Bible says, no, no, no, no. 00:47:12.079 --> 00:47:16.079 Every human being is equally the image of God. 00:47:16.539 --> 00:47:20.340 Radically egalitarian in that, in that, in that sense. 00:47:20.340 --> 00:47:25.059 So there's, there's something robust to affirm that, that, that we can. 00:47:26.740 --> 00:47:33.300 So no one is more or less elevated with respect to value, worth, dignity in those. 00:47:33.420 --> 00:47:34.480 We can affirm those things. 00:47:35.400 --> 00:47:38.180 How about poiesis mimesis? 00:47:39.640 --> 00:47:41.039 Was there, yeah, yeah. 00:47:41.039 --> 00:47:48.079 I think in some ways, yeah, sort of, there's a freedom to innovate or be creative or even 00:47:48.079 --> 00:47:50.199 sort of, or Amazon Fresh, is that what's called? 00:47:50.259 --> 00:47:51.239 Or you can order bananas. 00:47:52.340 --> 00:47:57.639 You know, it can lead to, like, people in unresourced areas having access to fresh foods. 00:47:57.639 --> 00:48:02.820 It's not, not always in and of itself a bad thing to be able to innovate and sort of think 00:48:02.820 --> 00:48:03.719 outside the box. 00:48:03.980 --> 00:48:05.000 Yeah, yeah. 00:48:05.500 --> 00:48:07.699 Or could be used for human flourishing. 00:48:08.400 --> 00:48:08.559 Yeah. 00:48:08.559 --> 00:48:08.799 Yeah. 00:48:08.860 --> 00:48:11.059 That's one of the ways we're in the image of God. 00:48:11.179 --> 00:48:11.980 God is a creator. 00:48:12.519 --> 00:48:14.480 And we, as people, like to create, right? 00:48:14.559 --> 00:48:15.840 All artists are creators. 00:48:17.259 --> 00:48:18.599 Everyone kind of is a creator. 00:48:18.779 --> 00:48:19.619 Yeah, wonderful. 00:48:19.759 --> 00:48:22.199 What, what Tolkien calls sub-creation. 00:48:22.440 --> 00:48:23.460 And that's what we are. 00:48:23.500 --> 00:48:25.960 And we image God by being creative. 00:48:26.239 --> 00:48:32.699 And we do that, not all the same, but in all kinds of unique signature ways. 00:48:33.360 --> 00:48:36.000 Just like we all have our signature ways of being. 00:48:36.000 --> 00:48:37.519 We're all alike sinners. 00:48:37.519 --> 00:48:40.079 Others, all we like sheep, have gone astray. 00:48:40.599 --> 00:48:42.719 But we each have our individuality. 00:48:43.219 --> 00:48:45.380 Each one has gone their own way. 00:48:45.880 --> 00:48:47.579 We all have our signature sins. 00:48:47.900 --> 00:48:53.239 And likewise, too, with, you know, with, with, with, with glory, star will differ from star 00:48:53.239 --> 00:48:53.759 and glory. 00:48:53.920 --> 00:48:54.500 We will eat. 00:48:54.659 --> 00:48:56.320 There will be a uniqueness. 00:48:56.599 --> 00:49:01.019 There's a creative individuality that glorifies God and finds expression. 00:49:01.619 --> 00:49:02.300 Tulips are nice. 00:49:02.360 --> 00:49:03.539 He didn't make all tulips. 00:49:04.159 --> 00:49:05.119 There's a variety. 00:49:05.119 --> 00:49:07.299 He loves, he loves this. 00:49:07.300 --> 00:49:13.180 So, what is the, yeah. 00:49:15.220 --> 00:49:19.519 Jesus talking to Peter about how he would glorify him. 00:49:20.280 --> 00:49:25.019 And then John says, well, you know, and then Peter says, well, what about him? 00:49:25.280 --> 00:49:26.580 Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. 00:49:27.400 --> 00:49:28.699 What is that to you? 00:49:29.119 --> 00:49:33.239 If I want to do this with him and you, well, you follow me. 00:49:33.460 --> 00:49:34.599 You got your own path. 00:49:34.699 --> 00:49:38.380 We're each going to have creative, you know, poiesis. 00:49:38.739 --> 00:49:41.460 There's a, there's a, there's a God glorifying poiesis. 00:49:41.639 --> 00:49:42.900 Every tongue tribation. 00:49:43.099 --> 00:49:45.420 And it gets even more particular, I'm sure. 00:49:45.480 --> 00:49:48.440 So things to affirm, things, things, things to affirm. 00:49:48.440 --> 00:49:56.019 And I, I, try that on as, as a good godly discipline. 00:49:56.159 --> 00:50:03.880 When you encounter these things that you, okay, that's kind of, that, that's, that's a really tough environment for authority. 00:50:03.880 --> 00:50:16.599 But before I just negate and fire away at that thing from my church parapet, let me see if I can, you know, sympathetically engage with some of these, these things they have. 00:50:16.660 --> 00:50:21.940 Because remember, everybody's created in the image of God, but also fallen sinners. 00:50:22.380 --> 00:50:30.140 So there, there, there will be some sort of twisting of the timber of all of our notions. 00:50:30.139 --> 00:50:38.539 All of our notions will, will be an amalgam of something that reflects the image of God and something that reflects our sinfulness. 00:50:38.679 --> 00:50:38.779 Yeah. 00:50:38.879 --> 00:50:43.739 Sometimes God says that he's a jealous God, but when he does jealousy, he does it perfectly. 00:50:44.379 --> 00:50:44.900 Yeah. 00:50:45.659 --> 00:50:46.719 It's warped. 00:50:46.839 --> 00:50:47.559 Yeah, exactly. 00:50:47.779 --> 00:50:48.460 Great example. 00:50:48.659 --> 00:50:49.259 Great example. 00:50:49.539 --> 00:50:52.480 And then to, to, to, to, to discern that. 00:50:54.619 --> 00:50:55.139 Okay. 00:50:55.239 --> 00:50:55.579 Thanks. 00:50:55.679 --> 00:50:56.440 Oh, yes. 00:50:56.440 --> 00:51:05.019 Let's, let's move on quickly and, and turn now from our cultural context to the biblical context. 00:51:06.320 --> 00:51:12.599 You know, can, in such an atmosphere, is it even possible to construe authority as a good? 00:51:13.500 --> 00:51:17.059 Can authority be rehabilitated in any positive sense? 00:51:17.059 --> 00:51:22.279 And it seems from the perspective of the Bible, it's vital for us to do so. 00:51:22.920 --> 00:51:28.599 For our well-being, both as a culture and as individuals will depend upon our doing this. 00:51:29.779 --> 00:51:31.039 Why is this the case? 00:51:31.279 --> 00:51:34.940 Well, the biblical context provides the answer. 00:51:34.940 --> 00:51:43.420 And while the Bible acknowledges and fiercely opposes the abuse of authority. 00:51:44.320 --> 00:51:50.700 And again, it's not as if modernist or postmodernist pundits and their hermeneutics of suspicion. 00:51:50.700 --> 00:51:54.800 It's not as if we really need them to reveal these things. 00:51:54.860 --> 00:52:00.159 The scripture has been telling us all along in categories of the false and the desperately wicked heart. 00:52:00.159 --> 00:52:13.980 But, you know, but yet the Bible insists that our negative experience of authority derives from a twisting of a good thing. 00:52:14.859 --> 00:52:17.480 A corruption of something that's positive. 00:52:17.480 --> 00:52:24.820 And again, I wish we had more time because I don't want to just skate over this. 00:52:25.559 --> 00:52:31.400 For lives have been broken terribly by such abuse. 00:52:32.219 --> 00:52:39.240 And you can't just move on without weeping with those who weep in these areas. 00:52:39.239 --> 00:52:51.500 And seeking to bind up the wounds and setting ourselves to kind of beat those plows or those swords that have been so wounding into some sort of helpful plowshares. 00:52:52.959 --> 00:52:55.899 And we'll hope that he spends more time on that. 00:52:55.900 --> 00:53:12.880 But critically, it is the unrelieved assertion of the Bible that in God, authority is utterly uncorrupted. 00:53:13.920 --> 00:53:15.220 Never abusive. 00:53:16.340 --> 00:53:20.119 Always an instrument of holy good. 00:53:20.680 --> 00:53:25.200 So let's consider briefly the nature of God's authority. 00:53:25.900 --> 00:53:28.860 So, first, the king's credentials. 00:53:29.840 --> 00:53:31.820 First, God's authority is good. 00:53:32.840 --> 00:53:35.800 The Bible presents the authority of God as a reign. 00:53:36.800 --> 00:53:41.760 It is that rule or rulership that prevails within the kingdom of God. 00:53:42.119 --> 00:53:52.480 And because God's rule is benign, the kingdom, as a result, is the sphere of blessing and flourishing, healing and restoration. 00:53:52.480 --> 00:53:59.880 The sphere, as Romans 14 says, of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 00:54:01.400 --> 00:54:05.199 So the one who finds it finds a great treasure, Luke 13. 00:54:05.519 --> 00:54:07.280 A pearl of great price. 00:54:07.920 --> 00:54:13.460 Something so wonderful that it's worth giving up all that you have to obtain it. 00:54:13.460 --> 00:54:16.659 Unspeakably wonderful. 00:54:17.380 --> 00:54:21.500 The Old Testament term to characterize this kingdom is shalom. 00:54:22.199 --> 00:54:27.159 A comprehensive well-being of everything perfectly in place. 00:54:27.420 --> 00:54:34.159 And by perfectly in place, we mean perfectly submitted to God's will and well-ordered rule. 00:54:34.159 --> 00:54:38.899 The kingdom, the sphere of the authority of God is a place of blessedness. 00:54:39.599 --> 00:54:43.019 He exercises his sovereign reign for the good of his people. 00:54:45.639 --> 00:54:46.619 Jeremiah 32. 00:54:46.920 --> 00:54:47.819 You know, good, good, good. 00:54:47.879 --> 00:54:50.599 You don't have to be an English literature major to pick up the theme. 00:54:50.699 --> 00:54:52.460 Good, good, good, good, good. 00:54:53.579 --> 00:54:54.379 Jeremiah 29. 00:54:54.380 --> 00:54:55.900 I know the plans that I have for you, saith the Lord. 00:54:56.160 --> 00:55:00.720 They are plans for your, not for your calamity, for your welfare and your flourishing. 00:55:01.200 --> 00:55:03.140 To give you a future and to give you a hope. 00:55:03.680 --> 00:55:04.579 Jeremiah 29.11. 00:55:06.039 --> 00:55:07.599 You know, Matthew 7. 00:55:07.700 --> 00:55:13.559 Remember, oh, if your earthly father knows how to give good gifts to you, to children, 00:55:13.940 --> 00:55:21.559 how much more your heavenly father, how much more your heavenly father knows how to give good gifts. 00:55:21.559 --> 00:55:26.119 The Holy Spirit is metonymy for all things good and wonderful, superlatively so. 00:55:27.559 --> 00:55:35.199 And not only is God's authority or rule good, it is also, second, right and real. 00:55:35.779 --> 00:55:37.460 It is right and real. 00:55:37.799 --> 00:55:41.320 God's claim to authority is a just claim. 00:55:42.139 --> 00:55:46.299 For his authority is derived from his being the creator. 00:55:46.300 --> 00:55:52.580 Indeed, the very word authority derives from author. 00:55:53.700 --> 00:55:56.880 He is the author of our existence. 00:55:58.400 --> 00:56:01.539 Therefore, he has authority over our lives. 00:56:01.640 --> 00:56:02.360 Romans 9. 00:56:02.440 --> 00:56:04.260 Remember, quoting Jeremiah 18. 00:56:04.920 --> 00:56:08.060 Does not the potter have a right over the clay? 00:56:08.059 --> 00:56:18.299 And while this claim is absolute over all creation, all of his created beings, his claim is compounded for the believer. 00:56:20.380 --> 00:56:24.059 We are his not only by creation, but also by redemption. 00:56:25.219 --> 00:56:26.360 You are not your own. 00:56:26.460 --> 00:56:28.000 You have been bought with a price. 00:56:29.219 --> 00:56:31.460 Therefore, glorify God in your bodies. 00:56:31.980 --> 00:56:33.039 1 Corinthians 7. 00:56:33.039 --> 00:56:42.860 And in his authority, we have not only a just claim, but a giant credibility. 00:56:44.079 --> 00:56:46.179 His authority is real and credible. 00:56:47.920 --> 00:56:52.539 It is, for one, it reflects an intimate knowledge of us. 00:56:54.500 --> 00:56:56.599 Psalm 139, you know, begins in verse 1. 00:56:56.679 --> 00:56:58.000 Thou dost know me. 00:56:58.179 --> 00:56:58.820 And then on and on. 00:56:59.019 --> 00:57:00.920 For thou hast formed me. 00:57:00.920 --> 00:57:07.920 He fashions us so he knows what will be for our flourishing, not for our floundering. 00:57:10.760 --> 00:57:12.780 It's kind of like the engine maker's warning. 00:57:12.980 --> 00:57:15.280 Don't put diesel in this tank. 00:57:15.360 --> 00:57:17.019 It runs on something else. 00:57:18.220 --> 00:57:24.579 The problem with all earthly authority is that it is finite and fallen. 00:57:25.480 --> 00:57:26.480 It's finite. 00:57:26.480 --> 00:57:32.199 So, like the World Bank or your substitute teacher, doesn't always know the best. 00:57:32.860 --> 00:57:35.420 Exercises authority ignorantly. 00:57:36.059 --> 00:57:37.400 Fruit and drug administration. 00:57:38.280 --> 00:57:40.699 Oh, whatever you do, don't eat eggs. 00:57:41.280 --> 00:57:42.400 Oh, no. 00:57:42.920 --> 00:57:44.280 Eat as many eggs as you can. 00:57:44.380 --> 00:57:45.059 Oh, don't eat eggs. 00:57:45.159 --> 00:57:46.400 You know, it's like, you know. 00:57:46.400 --> 00:57:57.880 So, finite or finite doesn't have the ability to bring it about. 00:57:58.220 --> 00:58:00.840 It exercises its authority impotently. 00:58:01.760 --> 00:58:04.340 Kind of like the stop signs in New Haven. 00:58:06.400 --> 00:58:10.820 It's as if everything that's kind of got a white frame, that must just be a suggestion, not a demand. 00:58:10.820 --> 00:58:17.680 So, finite, but also it's fallen. 00:58:18.280 --> 00:58:23.720 Like the corrupt cop or the corruptible judge doesn't always desire the best. 00:58:24.340 --> 00:58:28.720 Exercise of authority self-servingly or exploitatively. 00:58:30.780 --> 00:58:37.600 But God's authority is neither hamstrung nor compromised by finitude nor fallenness. 00:58:38.280 --> 00:58:40.160 He is a credible authority. 00:58:40.159 --> 00:58:48.099 Another aspect of its credibility is that God's authority will be vindicated and upheld. 00:58:49.079 --> 00:58:52.099 We may not spurn it without consequences. 00:58:52.659 --> 00:58:56.299 Whether we experience the effects of our defiance throughout our lives. 00:58:56.719 --> 00:59:03.960 If we have lived against God's authority, contrary to his benign reign, 00:59:03.960 --> 00:59:07.000 we are living against the grain of the universe. 00:59:07.000 --> 00:59:11.179 And we'll probably get splinters if we do so. 00:59:12.539 --> 00:59:17.699 Furthermore, his authority will be vindicated when we are called to account at the judgment. 00:59:18.900 --> 00:59:28.239 To spurn his authority is to miss of the way of blessing and, finally, to experience his just and certain wrath. 00:59:28.239 --> 00:59:34.879 So, some of that judgment is just the unfolding consequences of our own bad choices, 00:59:35.419 --> 00:59:38.899 gathering up inertia and playing out for all eternity. 00:59:39.899 --> 00:59:45.659 But some of it is that you have offended God and there is a just retribution also. 00:59:46.519 --> 00:59:48.359 So, both of those aspects. 00:59:48.360 --> 00:59:55.380 His authority is not bluff and bluster. 00:59:55.380 --> 00:59:57.380 It is very real. 00:59:58.740 --> 01:00:00.519 So, how does this play out? 01:00:00.720 --> 01:00:07.480 Well, God exercises his authority by establishing his creatures in a context, an environment of bounded freedom. 01:00:08.200 --> 01:00:10.880 Where they enjoy the blessedness of his reign. 01:00:10.880 --> 01:00:12.400 Think of the Garden of Eden. 01:00:13.019 --> 01:00:13.460 Freedom. 01:00:14.700 --> 01:00:17.840 Of any of the trees you may freely eat. 01:00:19.539 --> 01:00:20.340 But bounded. 01:00:20.579 --> 01:00:23.900 But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat thereof. 01:00:25.820 --> 01:00:26.260 Boundaries. 01:00:26.480 --> 01:00:27.039 Yes. 01:00:28.059 --> 01:00:32.920 But these were to protect and to promote freedom and blessing. 01:00:33.700 --> 01:00:36.780 Concerning God's boundaries, David writes in Psalm 19. 01:00:36.780 --> 01:00:40.900 Moreover, by them, these boundaries, is thy servant warned. 01:00:41.500 --> 01:00:44.180 And in the keeping of them there is great reward. 01:00:45.280 --> 01:00:45.800 Warned. 01:00:45.900 --> 01:00:46.380 Protection. 01:00:47.820 --> 01:00:49.080 And great reward. 01:00:49.220 --> 01:00:49.700 Provision. 01:00:50.040 --> 01:00:54.019 So, all of God's boundaries are for our protection and for our provision. 01:00:56.400 --> 01:00:59.320 And recall the serpent's stratagem. 01:00:59.820 --> 01:01:05.160 To insinuate that the boundary, that the restriction is not for our good. 01:01:05.159 --> 01:01:08.259 God wants to limit your flourishing. 01:01:08.739 --> 01:01:09.819 Keep you down. 01:01:10.460 --> 01:01:11.899 He's a killjoy. 01:01:14.139 --> 01:01:17.739 Tragedy is that we, like our forebearers, believe the lie. 01:01:18.980 --> 01:01:22.119 And when we do, we end up where they did. 01:01:23.579 --> 01:01:28.779 You know, defiance of God's authority did not bring that satisfaction that the serpent promised. 01:01:28.780 --> 01:01:36.019 But disappointment, sense of loss, we realize we've been had, sold a bill of goods. 01:01:37.580 --> 01:01:45.400 And with a further consequence that each time we distrust and disregard God's authority, 01:01:45.720 --> 01:01:51.040 it makes us all the more susceptible to doing so again. 01:01:51.039 --> 01:01:56.019 Rebellion picks up momentum and inertia. 01:01:57.219 --> 01:02:01.519 And ironically, rather than the sorry consequences, 01:02:02.039 --> 01:02:06.860 wising us to Satan's stratagems and blandishments, 01:02:07.099 --> 01:02:13.099 it seems more to addict us to his fare and clouds our judgment. 01:02:14.800 --> 01:02:16.059 Where are we left? 01:02:16.059 --> 01:02:19.619 Fugitives from God's authority. 01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:23.279 Inheritors of a deadly independent streak. 01:02:23.920 --> 01:02:26.059 With our judgment darkened. 01:02:26.860 --> 01:02:32.659 And darkened further and further by every exercise of our rebellious rejection of God. 01:02:32.659 --> 01:02:40.380 In desperate need of coming under his rule as the realm of healing and flourishing. 01:02:40.380 --> 01:02:43.760 Dying of our self-inflicted wounds. 01:02:44.300 --> 01:02:52.340 And all the while, distrustful of the only thing, the only one who can rescue us. 01:02:53.700 --> 01:02:57.820 Well, into this dismal condition of ours, the king comes. 01:02:58.480 --> 01:03:00.079 So finally, the king's coming. 01:03:02.420 --> 01:03:05.340 The king comes in the earthly ministry of Jesus. 01:03:05.340 --> 01:03:10.920 Where he dispenses healing and shows that his reign is the realm of blessing. 01:03:11.720 --> 01:03:13.019 Blessed are you when? 01:03:13.100 --> 01:03:15.220 And then he points out the kingdom path. 01:03:16.100 --> 01:03:16.840 And flourishing. 01:03:17.140 --> 01:03:19.940 I've come that you might have life and have it abundantly. 01:03:20.079 --> 01:03:20.700 John 10. 01:03:22.360 --> 01:03:25.260 He offers reconciliation to rebels, a fresh start. 01:03:25.480 --> 01:03:28.680 And invites us to experience his life-giving rule. 01:03:29.059 --> 01:03:29.579 Invites. 01:03:29.660 --> 01:03:31.620 Is that not tender and gentle? 01:03:33.220 --> 01:03:33.780 He could. 01:03:33.780 --> 01:03:36.900 Come unto me, all ye that weary and are heavy laden. 01:03:36.920 --> 01:03:38.100 And I will give you rest. 01:03:38.240 --> 01:03:39.880 He could command us, Acts 17. 01:03:40.320 --> 01:03:42.780 Commanding all men everywhere to repent and believe. 01:03:44.340 --> 01:03:46.460 Because we are subject to his authority. 01:03:46.580 --> 01:03:48.580 And our refusal is a fateful scandal. 01:03:49.380 --> 01:03:50.640 But he invites us. 01:03:51.440 --> 01:03:54.920 Of course, the rule realm of his kingdom to which he calls us. 01:03:56.180 --> 01:03:58.500 Is, as in the garden, a bounded freedom. 01:03:58.500 --> 01:04:00.380 Out of love he restricts us. 01:04:00.380 --> 01:04:03.940 From all that is death-dealing and destructive. 01:04:04.340 --> 01:04:06.780 Like the guardrail on a mountain road. 01:04:08.059 --> 01:04:11.539 And here, we must trust that his rule is good. 01:04:12.800 --> 01:04:18.780 In the garden, we had no reason to distrust him. 01:04:18.780 --> 01:04:25.140 Why believe an interloper with whom we had no relationship? 01:04:26.820 --> 01:04:29.080 We only had reason to trust. 01:04:30.160 --> 01:04:34.000 But we now, after the incarnation and the cross, 01:04:34.740 --> 01:04:38.160 do we not have even more reason to trust him? 01:04:38.920 --> 01:04:41.040 Greater love has no man than this. 01:04:42.040 --> 01:04:43.900 And he'd give up his life. 01:04:43.900 --> 01:04:46.280 Romans 15. 01:04:50.480 --> 01:04:52.119 The cross. 01:04:52.940 --> 01:04:55.240 This was the glorification. 01:04:55.440 --> 01:04:56.300 John 17. 01:04:57.460 --> 01:04:59.240 Father, the hour has come. 01:04:59.340 --> 01:05:00.160 Glorify me. 01:05:01.300 --> 01:05:03.900 And don't think that the cross, because of its so hideousness, 01:05:04.660 --> 01:05:05.920 was just that moment that he had to get through, 01:05:06.000 --> 01:05:07.079 that then he would be glorified. 01:05:07.160 --> 01:05:07.700 Then, afterwards. 01:05:07.820 --> 01:05:07.940 No. 01:05:08.160 --> 01:05:10.180 The cross, John says clearly in his gospel, 01:05:10.500 --> 01:05:10.900 was the glorification. 01:05:10.900 --> 01:05:11.420 Glorification. 01:05:11.920 --> 01:05:15.579 That is, this is the supreme manifestation. 01:05:16.280 --> 01:05:17.539 This is the praiseworthiness. 01:05:17.700 --> 01:05:20.900 This is where God is most penetrated and praised. 01:05:21.240 --> 01:05:21.619 Here. 01:05:22.380 --> 01:05:23.119 And what was that? 01:05:23.340 --> 01:05:26.220 An utter pouring out of the self. 01:05:27.260 --> 01:05:29.519 And as Lewis writes, I think, in The Problem of Pain, 01:05:29.680 --> 01:05:31.400 you know, this was, on the cross, 01:05:31.500 --> 01:05:34.320 this was just God doing in the wild weather of the outlands 01:05:34.320 --> 01:05:37.220 what he had always been doing for eternity. 01:05:37.219 --> 01:05:39.539 That complete self-giving. 01:05:40.719 --> 01:05:43.379 The Father completely pouring out the self 01:05:43.379 --> 01:05:45.759 in adoration and joy and delight 01:05:45.759 --> 01:05:48.459 and serving and giving, self-giving to the Son. 01:05:48.719 --> 01:05:50.419 The Son receiving and giving that back. 01:05:50.579 --> 01:05:51.819 That's for all eternity. 01:05:52.579 --> 01:05:55.459 And that is displayed in the cross. 01:05:55.579 --> 01:05:57.719 That is the nature of this God 01:05:57.719 --> 01:06:01.459 who is our authority. 01:06:01.819 --> 01:06:03.579 Is that not reassuring? 01:06:03.579 --> 01:06:07.340 How it could not be used exploitively. 01:06:08.199 --> 01:06:10.460 So the question is, will we trust him? 01:06:11.679 --> 01:06:15.360 This very credible king who has come, 01:06:15.639 --> 01:06:17.279 will we submit to his reign? 01:06:18.579 --> 01:06:20.960 Surely if we know his rule is the way of life, 01:06:21.099 --> 01:06:23.319 we ought to render glad submission. 01:06:23.440 --> 01:06:25.940 As David says, run in the way of his commandments. 01:06:26.880 --> 01:06:27.619 Psalm 119. 01:06:27.619 --> 01:06:30.639 To run out of the way is to abandon the way of life. 01:06:30.799 --> 01:06:32.880 To exclude ourselves from the sphere of blessing. 01:06:33.500 --> 01:06:35.779 It is to rush headlong into destruction. 01:06:36.880 --> 01:06:38.900 As the Bible so often presents it, 01:06:39.339 --> 01:06:41.139 sin and rebellion is insanity. 01:06:41.519 --> 01:06:42.799 We can't look at these verses now, 01:06:43.079 --> 01:06:44.380 but you know, 2 Timothy 2. 01:06:45.179 --> 01:06:46.920 Like when we pull a person from sin, 01:06:46.960 --> 01:06:47.679 it's like an intervention 01:06:47.679 --> 01:06:50.400 for them to come to their senses. 01:06:51.500 --> 01:06:54.980 The prodigal son came to his senses. 01:06:54.980 --> 01:06:57.059 It's insanity. 01:06:57.260 --> 01:06:58.099 Sin is insanity. 01:06:58.280 --> 01:06:58.840 Rejection of this. 01:06:59.940 --> 01:07:01.780 Ezekiel asks repeatedly, Ezekiel 33. 01:07:01.960 --> 01:07:03.260 Why would you die? 01:07:03.920 --> 01:07:05.619 Why would you die? 01:07:06.380 --> 01:07:07.400 Choose life. 01:07:07.539 --> 01:07:08.619 Deuteronomy 30. 01:07:08.940 --> 01:07:11.659 Again and again, we would go home and read this. 01:07:13.980 --> 01:07:17.559 This is the positive biblical context for authority. 01:07:18.880 --> 01:07:22.320 And it must overcome the negative cultural context 01:07:22.320 --> 01:07:24.639 if we are to have any hope of flourishing. 01:07:24.980 --> 01:07:28.400 If we are to experience life worth having. 01:07:28.860 --> 01:07:29.920 Well, I've gone on long. 01:07:29.980 --> 01:07:31.539 I better stop there. 01:07:31.880 --> 01:07:35.920 I will stick around if anybody has any questions or comments. 01:07:36.280 --> 01:07:38.199 Next time, Lord willing, 01:07:38.599 --> 01:07:43.840 we will begin to take up the scriptural case for its authority. 01:07:44.280 --> 01:07:45.119 Looking at what I find, 01:07:46.639 --> 01:07:48.420 it's like the hanging gardens of Babylon. 01:07:48.579 --> 01:07:50.860 There's so many reasons that the Bible gives 01:07:50.860 --> 01:07:52.539 to trust God's authority and take this authority. 01:07:53.219 --> 01:07:57.239 We're going to look at what I think are the best grounds. 01:07:57.840 --> 01:07:59.480 And then we'll consider that next time. 01:07:59.519 --> 01:08:00.300 And then the third time, 01:08:00.679 --> 01:08:02.340 looking at what if you still have doubts? 01:08:02.539 --> 01:08:03.599 How do we deal with doubts? 01:08:03.800 --> 01:08:05.039 So that's where we're headed. 01:08:05.779 --> 01:08:06.800 So, yeah. 01:08:07.300 --> 01:08:08.500 Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. 01:08:08.840 --> 01:08:08.960 Yeah. 01:08:09.480 --> 01:08:10.079 Go ahead, Tom. 01:08:10.079 --> 01:08:11.019 Yeah. 01:08:11.019 --> 01:08:11.079 Yeah. 01:08:11.500 --> 01:08:12.079 Father in heaven, 01:08:12.239 --> 01:08:15.019 let me just thank you for your reign over us. 01:08:16.059 --> 01:08:17.640 We cast ourselves on you. 01:08:17.760 --> 01:08:20.559 We ask that you help us to submit to your gentle, 01:08:20.819 --> 01:08:23.579 just, and righteous reign and to your authority. 01:08:24.779 --> 01:08:27.019 Help us also to place ourselves under your word. 01:08:27.720 --> 01:08:30.059 Help us to be filled with joy as we do so, God. 01:08:30.760 --> 01:08:32.079 We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. 01:08:32.699 --> 01:08:32.880 Amen. 01:08:33.159 --> 01:08:33.559 Amen. 01:08:33.800 --> 01:08:34.260 Thank you. 01:08:34.420 --> 01:08:34.720 Amen. 01:08:34.720 --> 01:08:34.859 Amen. 01:08:34.859 --> 01:08:34.899 Amen. 01:08:34.899 --> 01:08:34.920 Amen. 01:08:34.920 --> 01:08:34.939 Amen.