Welcome to Episode #170 of the Way of the Bible podcast. This is the second of eight episodes in our Twenty-Second mini-series entitled The Return of Jesus Christ. On today’s episode, we’re going to do a high-level overview of the Bible to present the case for why Jesus is coming back. What we’ll discover is something that will blow your mind. I’m talking about literally make your head hurt, turn your stomach, and hopefully make you want to run around for winning the Mega Cosmic Lottery.
There is a low view today in the Western world of Christianity. It seems to be much like it was in the first Century when Rome considered Christianity a cult and worthy of persecution. Even the mega-churches that were birthed in the 1990s through around 2010, are experiencing the vacuous gale blowing through their emptying arenas where once thousands to ten thousand and more were packed in for each of up to six services each Sunday. Many of these have already joined the ranks of the small neighborhood congregations they emptied with the promise of freedom from sin and condemnation, no matter what the newcomers had done or continue doing.
Surprisingly, you may discover for the first time that “everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” [1 Jn. 2:16]. This includes the church, which long ago adopted the practices of the world. [See Jesus’ seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3]
The glitz, the glamour, the charisma of the pastor or priest, the rock and roll praise and worship music shrouded in darkness, strobe lights, dance, song, with incense laden fog all mean nothing. Icons of religious figures, pictures, images, colors, etc. to produce a dramatic effect or to evoke an emotional response do not come from God.
While these, and I could name numerous other things as well, do not come from God, does not mean God did not allow their existence and sustains them for his purposes. This is not meant for church shaming but rather for us all to have a gut check of what we are doing in our worship services.
Now to getting our heads hurting with a little bending of our minds.
Let’s start with concept of nothing. Are you there? Now, assume out of that nothing comes something. Recall that you intuitively understand that nothing comes from nothing. For there to be something, something beyond the nothing had to create the something. Not only that, but, the materials for creating something in the nothing must also have come from beyond nothing. BUT if there was nothing, how can there be something beyond the nothing?
Now your head must bother you enough to hit the 15-second backup to listen again as you got lost at “Let’s start with nothing.” You may find yourself still listening but stuck on nothing. And knowing that nothing comes from nothing is the secret to knowing the truth about everything.
One more time. Nothing comes from nothing. There is no something beyond nothing. Nothing is nothing. Draw a circle on a whiteboard. Identify what is inside the circle as nothing (that’s not it). Now erase the circle (that’s still not it). Incinerate the whiteboard to ashes (that’s still not it). Incinerate the earth to ashes (that’s still not it). Incinerate the entire cosmos to ashes (that’s still not it). Nothing is not something inside of anything. Nothing is no thing at all. It is a mental concept and likely unprovable, much like infinity. Yet we believe nothing can exist since our entire modern science foundation postulation is that there was nothing. Then out of nowhere, in the nothing, there was something smaller than a nickel in size. This nickel-sized mass in nothing exploded, creating everything in the entire cosmos.
Don’t laugh, but that is in most simple form the explanation modern science has for the existence of the cosmos. Even more fictitious than this, and even more
Comments & Upvotes