Defending a Lion, Part 2

Pastor and Bible teacher from Leading the Way, Dr. Michael Youssef. My beloved special friends, I want to tell you, if there is a desperate need today, it is to understand the times in which we live. It is to discern how we got to the state that we're in, as far as biblical knowledge is concerned.

We live in unique times, unlike any other point in history. Information about anything is available to anybody at any time. But please, choose sources carefully, filtering out opinions and agendas. Despite this unlimited access to knowledge, biblical illiteracy seems to be at an all-time high. Up next on Leading the Way Audio, Dr. Michael Youssef challenges you to read, believe, heed, and obey the entirety of God's Word. And please do remember that Leading the Way is listener supported. Lives are impacted worldwide, in fact, across six continents. We're here with Dr. Youssef to passionately proclaim uncompromising truth when you call 866-626-4356.

You can also visit ltw.org. Wait until later though, because right now, Dr. Youssef begins this special life-changing teaching time. Biblical literacy has reached a very low ebb in our culture today. In fact, I read the story about a pastor, a new pastor, who came to one of those mainline denominations where the Bible has not been central.

And he is very Bible-centered, Bible-oriented pastor. And so, he wanted to feel the pulse of the church, and he decided to visit the different Sunday school classes. So he went to a Sunday school class of boys, and then he asked them the question, Do you know who knocked down the walls of Jericho? The boys, one after another, began to deny any knowledge of it. Everyone says, I didn't do it, I didn't do it. One said it wasn't me, the other said I wasn't anywhere near it.

The other said, I don't even know where it is. This new pastor was so deeply distressed, he was so deeply appalled by the Biblical illiteracy, and he decided to go and speak to the parish council. So the parish council was meeting, and he came and he said to them, He said, I went to these specific boys Sunday school class, and I was appalled at the fact that none of them knew who knocked down the walls of Jericho.

The members of the parish council were very quiet. And finally, a seasoned veteran of disputes in that church spoke up. He said to the minister, he says, It appears that this matter has bothered you a great deal, but I've known those boys since you were born. They're good boys, and if they said they did not do it, they did not do it. I believe them.

Let's just take a special offering for the repair and maintenance fund, and fix the walls and get on with it. While general knowledge has been on the increase in the last hundred years, Biblical knowledge has been reaching lower and lower. Even non-believers in the past, they used to have some Biblical knowledge. They used to have some understanding or some knowledge of some stories from the Bible, and you can still hear it today. But no more.

No more. And the reason for this is that our postmodern culture has invaded every aspect of life. Our postmodern thinking has replaced Biblical worldview. Our postmodern culture thinking has erased or erasing the knowledge of the Scripture.

How did we reach this abysmal condition, this abysmal state of Biblical illiteracy in the West? 1 Chronicles chapter 12 verse 32 says that the people of Esakah, that's the tribe of Esakah, were wise. But why were they wise?

Because the Bible said they had understanding of the times in which they lived. And my beloved special friends, I want to tell you, if there is a desperate need today, it is to understand the times in which we live. It is to discern how we got to the state that we're in. It is to understand all of the facts that brought us to such abysmal state as far as Biblical knowledge is concerned.

It is to know where we have fallen, repent, and turn to the Lord. A few moments ago, when I began, I talked about our postmodern culture. I have no doubt some of you did not know what that means. But you nodded your head.

But you're in good company. I spent many years in graduate school hearing professors use big words. I didn't understand, but I nodded my head. Historians have divided the history, AD, after Christ, into three segments. They said there is premodern, modern, and postmodern.

And I'm going to tell you about each one of them very, very quickly. The premodern time began with the collapse of the Roman Empire on the fourth century. When Constantine made Christianity to be the religion of the Roman Empire. The official religion of the Roman Empire. People from that moment on, they began to interpret reality in terms of their relationship with God.

That was the beginning of this premodern culture. Their world view were colored by the knowledge of the Bible. But, gradually, the word of God and the world view became distorted.

It became disfigured. And the power and the authority that was in the word of God shifted to the Roman Catholic Church. Which ushered what the historians called the modern period. The fourteenth century. During the modern period, there were two competing world views.

Listen very carefully because this is very important. Two competing world views. And those competing world views have replaced premodern to a modern time.

What are these two competing world views? The Reformation, and the Reformation came first. Followed by the Renaissance, or Renaissance as some pronounce it, either way is fine. The Reformation opened the eyes of the population of Europe. But what happened, the Renaissance came nipping its heel and hijacked the Reformation. The Renaissance gradually fought against Reformed theology. And made man to be the center stage instead of what the Reformation said that God and his word at the center stage. Slowly but surely, in western civilization, man displaced God. And the cry of the time was, I think, therefore I am. Now, here's the important point. Securalism, which we now see in spades, secularism is the direct descendant of the Renaissance.

See, everything is connected. One historian claimed that this was the time when God was dethroned and man was enthroned. This was the time when humanism and the natural world began to replace biblical world view.

This was the beginning of the marginalizing of the supernatural. Mercifully, there was a group of good and godly men and women who tried to escape from this horrors of the Renaissance and the persecution of Christians. And make no mistake about it, Christians were persecuted in Europe.

I'm talking about faithful Christians, Bible believing Christians. And so these godly men and women wanted to escape from the toxic environment in European culture and the persecution. They sought to found and build a biblical society in the new world where the word of God occupies the center stage and not man.

And thus, they landed on Plymouth Rock. Can I get a thank you, God? Don't you ever believe anybody tells you that America was founded on anything other than the Bible, the word of God. As a matter of fact, David Horowitz, an agnostic Jew, wrote a book called The Dark Agenda. He asked me to endorse it. I was so blessed that this agnostic Jew is showing clearly with evidence that this nation was built upon the word of God.

And so at my endorsement I said, I'm sure you're asking the question, what would a nice evangelical pastor doing endorsing an agnostic Jewish book, an author? But in the end, my endorsement is, the truth is the truth is the truth no matter who said it. But as often the case, even in this brave new world, even in the people who wanted to found a new world built and based upon the word of God and the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the godly founders of this nation who came and wanted to have a nation built on biblical truth. But as always the case, I told you, Satan always nips at the heels. And by the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th centuries, I showed the attitude that man can do all things.

Not through Christ who strengthens him, but if he puts his mind to it. Have you heard that before? You see, and this attitude unleashed what has now become known as postmodern period of history in which we now live. Although even some historians are saying that we are coming out of that, but we never know normally until we look back. Postmodernism did not start in the 60s as some people say.

Postmodernism thinking and secularism thinking began with the roaring 20s. And this brings me exactly where we are today. We want to make sure before we know where we are that we know how we got here.

In fact, we have a saying in the Middle East, you don't know where you're going unless you know where you came from. Now I pray God, please God, that from this place God would ignite an awakening, a revival that would usher forth a godly remnant that will stand strong against the current of culture. Question, what are the characteristics of postmodern thought that is now flooding our schools, university campuses, workplace, entertainment industry, social life, and the tragedy of all tragedies, some churches. Here's a sample of postmodern thought, and I know you will be familiar with this. The pursuit of truth is meaningless. The idea of morality is obsolete.

The sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, husband and wife is archaic. The authority of any shape, form, any authority is to be despised. All of these falsehoods are in books, in the academia, in the court systems, even it's in businesses, it's in the boardroom, it's on the shop floors, it's in the movies, the television industry.

And sadly, yes, it has invaded many a church. Everywhere you go, you meet the foot soldiers of postmodern culture. Everywhere you go, there are foot soldiers.

These foot soldiers are ready to pounce on you, to intimidate you, to silence you, to hound you down and beat you down emotionally until you surrender to them. And before long, you find yourself beginning to talk like they talk, and you begin to defend their arguments under the guise of love, and then you begin to adopt your biblical convictions to their worldview, and you become anxious to be accepted by these vicious soldiers, of the foot soldiers of postmodernism. And so you begin to reinterpret the Bible.

We're seeing that happening all over the place. They're reinterpreting the Bible, they're rewriting the Bible in order to be accepted by those soldiers of political correctness. You may ask, well, Michael, what are the characteristics by which we can recognize this cultural invasion of postmodernism?

Well, I'm glad you asked because I want to tell you. And I have five characteristics that help you recognize falsehood. And I'm telling you, every one of those can only be combated by reading, believing, heeding, and obeying the Word of God. First of all, when you hear, all truths are equally valid, or every opinion is equally correct. When you hear it put this way, you know you're dealing with a foot soldier of postmodernism. When you hear them say, those in authority have no right to exercise their authority, that the husbands have no right to be the spiritual leaders in their homes, that the parents have no right to instruct their children.

In fact, some are working on making that to be illegal. We say, what about the authority of the Word of God? They will say, oh, this is just the church's way of enslaving people. What about the absolutes of God? Oh, that's just your interpretation.

When you try to defend the truth and the fact that the Bible said there is right and there is wrong, they say, yes, the Bible is an archaic book and no longer relevant to the 21st century. Second way to recognize, second characteristic by which you recognize these foot soldiers of postmodernism, is style more important than substance. Outward appearance is far more important than inward commitment.

Now, beloved, listen to me. That is why the fastest growing profession is the spin doctors. Spin doctors are not only in politics, they are everywhere.

Spin doctors are hired in businesses, they are hired, even by some churches are employing spin doctors. Postmodern thinking says, you create the impression you want to create. Impression is everything. Appearance is all that matters. Packaging is more important than content. Outward appearance is more important than inward reality.

And that is why Hollywood make belief has blurred reality. Thirdly, the third characteristic of postmodern thinking is this. Words have no inherent meanings. What do I mean by this? A word may mean one thing to you and mean something else to another person, or mean something else to me. The same word they're talking about, same word. Dictionary definition of words do not mean anything anymore.

Some people sometimes hear me preach my heart out from the word of God and they would walk out and say, well, that's just his opinion. Fourth characteristics of postmodernism thinking, which overwhelming our culture today, and it is this. They put it in different ways.

Just watch for it. Western civilization is oppressive. Other civilizations are much better. And so now, they take civic studies out of curriculums, removing them out. Remember, it was Western civilization that originally was founded upon the Reformation, the Reformation theology, not the Renaissance. The Renaissance hijacked the Reformation. It is Western civilization that brought about the technology that we all enjoy, that brought about all the freedoms that we have in our constitutions.

Here's their argument. Because Western civilization has been built on Judeo-Christian thought, therefore it is oppressive. Father God is out.

Mother Earth is in. Fifth characteristics in this postmodern culture is where thinking has been replaced by feelings. Some of you read my book, When the Crosses are Gone. Well, that book thesis is I'm showing how in seven aspects of life, including education, the environment, in all these aspects, your feelings, all that matters. Thinking is out. Feeling is in. And so Christians in the past, when they shared the gospel, they appealed to a person's intellect, but no more. Now, in postmodern culture, where feelings and emotions of each individual person and your value, your own personal value, that's all that matters.

We cannot appeal to intellect anymore. Years ago, I remember one of our church members came to me so excited that she has led her Hindu neighbor to Christ, that she received Christ and prayed with her that she received Christ. I said, wonderful. I said, did you tell her that she now has to give up all the other gods? She looked at me, she said, no, it never occurred to me. I said, do me a favor, just go back and ask her, if now she received Christ as Savior and Lord, would she let all the other gods go? And my friend, to her utter horror and amazement, came to see me, she said, I can't believe it. She said, no, I just added Jesus to all the other gods.

See, that's what we're dealing with. Beloved Hinduism has invaded our culture more than you realize. Hinduism is reigning supreme on Hollywood. In the past, when we disagreed with non-Christians, we used to think, well, they're sadly mistaken. We still love them.

But in the post-modern culture, when we disagree, we assume that all views are correct with someone except the Christian faith, ABC, anything but Christians. Now, beloved, Satan's deception has never changed. Let me tell you something about Satan. He's a one-trick pony. He really is.

He's a one-trick pony. He's not very creative. God is a creative God. All creativity comes from God. Satan is an imitator.

What he did thousands of years ago in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, he's doing today with professing Christians. You do not need to read, believe, and obey the Bible, do you? Why? Why?

Why do you do that? Because if you read it, it's going to tell you that sin is lawlessness, that sin is of the devil, that sin is evil, that sin is an affront to a holy God. Why would you read, believe, and obey the word of God when it tells you that immorality is a rebellion against God when in reality it's a matter of taste? It's a matter of sexual preference.

It's a matter of gender preference. It's all a matter of personal choice. Hey, Murad, please, I'm getting close to the end. The Bible answer to Satan's deception is found in Proverbs 14, 12. There is a way that seems right to man, but in the end, it will lead to death. If you want to live, I mean really live, read, believe, and obey God's word. But if you want death, though you might be living, then ignore it. If you want life and life abundant, drink deeply from the spring waters of the word of God and be satisfied.

If you choose the wilderness of slow death, you stay in the desert of post-modernism. If you want life, then allow the power of the word of God to change your behavior. But if you want death, follow Satan's deception and doubt its authority. From the very beginning, God gives us an opportunity to choose life or death, life or death. In the garden, Adam and Eve chose death, and they were thrown out of the garden. In the wilderness, God said to his people through Moses, you can choose life or death. And then later on, Joshua said to them, choose this day whom you'll obey. Today, God's Spirit simply speaking to everyone at the sound of my voice, please listen, this is God's word, this is not my words, I am incapable. This is God's word, and God's word is saying to everyone here and watching around the world, choose life, choose life, choose life. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for Leading the Way.

Have you been challenged to dig deeper into God's word, moving to a greater level of obedience and sacrifice? Well, maybe hearing ways the Bible applies to life in 2022 would help you in your spiritual journey. That's why we encourage you to engage with a powerful podcast from Leading the Way. It's called Candid Conversations with Jonathan Youssef. In this popular podcast, Jonathan, the youngest son of Dr. Michael Youssef, who serves as pastor of the intergenerational ministries in the local church, tackles topics common to life and culture in 2022. You'll listen in on engaging conversations with people who speak directly to timely and often divisive issues.

You can learn more at ltw.org slash candid, ltw.org slash candid, where you can search for candid in your favorite podcast platform. Oh, and you can also call and speak to a ministry representative. The number is 866-626-4356. That's 866-626-4356. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth around the world. Learn more at ltw.org.