Is the Blessed Life of the Beatitudes What You Really Want? Part 2 of 2

Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want?

Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want?

Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want?

Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want?

Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want?

Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want? Is the blessed life of the Beatitudes what you really want?

What do you really want? Be sure to take advantage of two free resources that will keep you informed and sharpen your worldview. The first is the Christian Worldview weekly email, which comes to your inbox each Friday. It contains a preview of the upcoming radio program along with need-to-read articles, featured resources, special events, and audio of the previous program. The second is the Christian Worldview annual print letter, which is delivered to your mailbox in November. It contains a year-end letter from host David Wheaton and a listing of our store items, including DVDs, books, children's materials, and more. You can sign up for the weekly email and annual print letter by visiting thechristianworldview.org or calling 1-888-646-2233.

Your email and mailing address will never be shared, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Call 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianworldview.org. Welcome back to the Christian Worldview radio program. Today we're talking about the blessed life. In contrasting that, what Jesus lays out in the Sermon on the Mount, these nine Beatitudes of the truly blessed life that are not dependent or conditional upon your circumstances, so in the midst of coronavirus and social unrest and anything else that's going on in your life, you can have this blessed life that Jesus talks about because they're all inner qualities.

They're not dependent on external circumstances like racial harmony or health or your particular financial situation. And before the break, we were going over some of these just in summary, and we're down to, I believe, what was it? Maybe the fifth one. One, two, three, four.

We're down to the fifth one. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Those who are merciful don't give people what they deserve.

That's what mercy is. Justice is people or someone getting what they deserve. If God gave us justice, we would be sent to Hell immediately after the first time we sinned because we sinned against our Creator.

It's a prison. It's a crime against an infinitely holy God. And if we got justice, what we deserved, well, we would be justly condemned and sentenced to Hell because of the first sin we committed. But God is merciful. He's patient. He doesn't give us what we deserve, at least right away. He gives us opportunity to be right with Him. He gives us grace. That is being given what we don't deserve.

So those three terms are interesting to think about. Justice is being given what we do deserve. Mercy is not being given what we do deserve.

We deserve judgment. And grace is being given what we don't deserve, with forgiveness and eternal life, rightness, reconciliation with God. And that's a blessing if you are merciful in life because that makes you like God. The next one, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Being pure in heart means you seek holiness. And if that's your desire rather than seeking sinfulness, that's a blessing.

You have a blessed life. The next one, blessed are the peacemakers, for they should be called sons of God. Right now there's such an easy time, a natural time, to be so contentious and so divided. And so, you know, just, I got the right way here and you got the wrong way.

It's us against them. But that's not what Christ says. He says, blessed are the peacemakers, those who try to seek peace, for they should be called sons of God.

Now sometimes it's not possible, of course, to seek peace with someone else who doesn't want it, but trying to be a peacemaker is a good thing. It's a blessed thing. And then the last two are sort of almost combined together. It's in the past and it's in the present. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And then the last one is blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you. So there's a past tense for those who have been, and there's a present tense for those who are being insulted and being persecuted and saying all kinds of things against you falsely because of me. It says rejoice, isn't it?

It's not to say dread this. It says rejoice and be glad, he says, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. In other words, when you have been persecuted or have been insulted and persecuted for righteousness' sake or because of Christ, you're sharing in the suffering of your Savior that he came to earth. He lived a perfect life, and yet he was persecuted and insulted and eventually martyred on the cross. He was crucified.

And so you're sharing at least a little bit of the one you're following. And it's also showing you, you're blessed because it's showing you that if you're willing to suffer for the sake of righteousness, for following Christ, to be persecuted for that, it's showing you, and you're blessed because it's showing that you're loving God more than your own personal safety and security and sort of peace and ease. Because it was always easier, as Troy was saying in his last answer, to kind of shimmer away from that kind of thing. Get away, you don't want to be, no one wants, I mean, who wants to be persecuted? It's much easier to have personal peace and affluence, right, than be persecuted. But when you're willing to suffer persecution at the hands of, or because you're a follower of Christ, that shows that you love God more than you love your own personal comfort. And then that's why Jesus calls you blessed.

So these are all internal blessings that we can have in the midst of any situation. Now I just want to contrast that, as I was reading this week, a story came out from the Smithsonian, about the Smithsonian Institution, the great historical institution that keeps track of American history and artifacts and all sorts of things here in our country. And they had a chart and a column on their website about this issue of race, which has been so much in the news recently. And according to the Smithsonian Institution, of course, of so much of our culture today, they would say, blessed or privileged are the white people, for theirs is the power, not the kingdom of heaven, but for theirs is the power in our society. So blessed are you if you're white, and actually, to those who resent that, reviled are you if you're white. So just contrast how different the definition of blessing is according to those who see everything through racial identity, and what a dead-end street that is, and something that the Bible never does and never divides us according to the melanin count or the color of our skin, or even our ethnicity. It doesn't divide us according to that. It only sees us as one race, the human race. But if you say that today, well, you're denying, you're a racist.

You're denying what is patently observable. Well, that's because they're dividing people into categories that there shouldn't be division. They're focusing and dwelling and obsessing over skin color and culture, and leads only to more division. So they came out with a chart, the Smithsonian Institution. And on the chart, the title of it is, and they actually took it down. You probably could find it somewhere on the internet if you just type in aspects and assumptions of whiteness and white culture in the United States. And they have all these different categories in this particular chart. So they describe what whiteness and white culture is. It's rugged individualism.

That's one of the categories. It's the individual is the primary unit. This is a symbol, or this is a trait of whiteness is that you're an individualist. You're self-reliant. You have independence and autonomy is highly valued and rewarded. I'm just reading off this chart. An individual's assumed to be in control of their environment.

You get what you deserve. That's what they call white culture. If you're individually minded rather than community minded.

Number two category is you are a part of white culture and you have white superiority. If you believe in a family structure of the nuclear family where you have a father and mother and raising, as they say, 2.3 children is the ideal social unit. That's the ideal social unit.

That's a symbol or a trait or a characteristic of whiteness. And by the way, the implicit tone here is that this is not right to have these particular things, to have self-reliance or to be an individual as the primary unit. That's not a good thing. Or the nuclear family is the ideal social unit.

That's not a good thing. Or a husband, as it says here. A husband is the breadwinner and the head of the household. And the wife is the homemaker and subordinate to the husband. That's also what they say here.

Children should have their own rooms and be independent. Next category is emphasis on the scientific method. This is a trait of whiteness and white culture. And so the bullet points under that one are your objective. You have rational, linear thinking as if that's somehow lacking. You should not be objective and rational and linear in your thinking. You should be relative and you should be irrational in your thinking.

Apparently that's better. You have cause and effect in relationships. People treat you badly, there's a cause and effect for that. Next one is history. White culture is based on Northern European immigrants experienced in the United States. It's a heavy focus on the British Empire, the primacy of Western and Judeo-Christian tradition.

Now they're getting at something here. They're saying our white culture, what they deem white culture and whiteness, is based on Judeo-Christian tradition. Again, it's not saying that this is just an observation of what white culture is in the United States.

There's implicit negativity attached with this particular white culture in America. Next category from the Smithsonian Institution and talking about race, aspects and assumptions of whiteness in white culture, in white superiority is what they get into in their column, is the Protestant work ethic. The bullet points under that are hard work is the key to success. You work before you play. If you didn't meet your goals, you didn't work hard enough. I'm not so sure about the last one. Maybe for some people we'll take it to the extreme, but as if hard work isn't a good thing, as if it's better to play before you work.

That's a better value than actually working before you play. The next category of white culture and hence white superiority is aesthetics. It's based on, again, European culture.

Bland is best. Women's beauty is based on blond skin like a Barbie doll. Man's attractiveness is based on eyes here, glasses, economic status, power and intellect.

I would just say that that is probably the last one about man's attractiveness. Tell me which society in the world isn't that based on. If you go over to Asia, Russia, the Middle East, wherever, position, economic power, status, intellect, isn't that always a powerful position to be in? Why is that actually a category of white culture? Holidays, the next category according to this chart, they're based on Christian religions, based on white history and male leaders.

Our holidays are based on Christmas and Easter and so forth. It seems kind of rather obvious in a society like ours who has a majority of white people who came from Christian backgrounds and founded upon Christian principles and values that this would be the case. Some of the things they're writing about here came from Judeo-Christian worldview, so you'd expect that there would be a focus on the individual, not the community. The Bible always focuses on the individual, not the community. You think there would be an emphasis on the nuclear family. That's what the Bible teaches. You think there would be an emphasis on work. Man won't work, neither let him eat. You think there would be an emphasis on Christian holidays.

This is just basically stating the obvious, but also it's portraying the obvious in a very negative connotation like there's something better out there than what we have. We'll come back and talk more after this. ...who caused all things, even the hard things, to work together for good. Order the book for your friend who needs to hear about God's grace in the gospel or the one who has gone through a difficult trial or loss or just the dog lover in your life. Signed and personalized copies are only available at myboyben.com or by calling 1-888-646-2233.

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You can also order by calling toll-free 1-888-646-2233. That's 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianworldview.org. All right, final segment of the day here on the Christian worldview radio program. In the first half of the program today, we talked about what Jesus said in the truly blessed person. These nine beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5 from the Sermon on the Mount where he talks about the blessed person has these inner spiritual qualities and not dependent on your race, your economic position, your marital status, what your job is, how many children you have, how many grandchildren you have. That doesn't bring necessarily a blessed life. Those may be some blessings of this life, but those things aren't what Jesus said are the blessed life. And we're contrasting that to what our society now is telling us is the blessed wife, the blessed life, that those who are white and male and heterosexual and Christian and hardworking and individualists and income makers and married to a woman of someone of the opposite sex, those are the blessed people in our society because they have the power. And they may be blessed themselves, may be privileged themselves, but to them they think they're blessed, but to the other side, the left in our country, they're actually reviled, and that's what has to be overturned.

I've been reading this chart which describes this from the Smithsonian Institution. The title is Aspects and Assumptions of Whiteness in White Culture in the United States. Now, just even that title, just imagine just for a second, can you imagine the Smithsonian Institution or anyone, any media outlet ever putting making a chart like this on aspects and assumptions of blackness in black culture in the U.S., or can you imagine an organization being entitled White Lives Matter with the beliefs statedly right on the website that we are unapologetically white in our positioning, as Black Lives Matter says we are unapologetically black in our positioning? Can you imagine a congressional white caucus? Can you imagine historically white colleges instead of black colleges? Can you imagine an organization called the National Association for the Advancement of White People instead of Colored People? I mean, there's so much duplicity within this whole thing. It's so racialized, and it is so ultimately divisive.

They want to go to a place. They say they're going to a place of racial reconciliation, but ultimately it's not going to ever get there. It's going to become more divided, and ultimately it's going to be a power struggle, and it's ultimately, as James Cohen said, it's all about holding power.

That's what the ultimate goal is. It's power control. Those who don't think they're in power because they're not the right kind of skin color for our society want power, and the only way they can get it is to shame those who are in power, and hopefully they'll give it up and take it over. So to the humanist mind, blessed are those, again, who are white, but it really has nothing to do with being white. These things in the chart has everything to do with the influence of Christianity, because what they described as white culture, at least most of the things that they describe as white culture in this chart, are mostly based on biblical values. This is this chart in this whole white fragility, white superiority, white supremacy movement. It's a really not-so-subtle attack on Christianity.

It needs to be asked from this chart. So it says the white culture focuses on the individual. So is it better to have community rights over individual rights? Is it better to have non-nuclear family arrangements where there isn't a mother and a father raising children? Is it better to have relative non-rational thinking in a society? Is it better to have people not working in a society?

Is it not good, as they say, as they get into justice? They say the white culture is noted by protecting private property and entitlements. Is it better not to have private property?

And protect private property is to let people take what they want from you? Is it good that they talk about communication? Let's see, they say speaking clearly is in understandable terms, in words. That's an attribute of white culture. Is it better not to speak clearly? They say white culture doesn't show emotion. Is it better to show every emotion you ever have come into your mind?

Just let it all hang out? You see, this is a not-so-subtle attack on biblical Christianity because what of what they deem white culture, so much of that is based on the Judeo-Christian worldview. And ultimately, I think what it is, is it's making excuses for sinful traits of people, any people, any skin color, who reject God and his word. It's really an attempt at Marxism, which is what Black Lives Matter is all about. And as I said, racism only gets worse when more emphasis is placed on your skin color.

It only gets worse. Just think about Martin Luther King Jr., what he said, that he envisions a day in America, I said this back in the 60s, when the content of one's character was more important than the color of one's skin. He's absolutely right, but that's not what the race movement believes today. That line, content of character over color of skin, that's actually helpful toward racial reconciliation because it helps toward a colorblind society where we don't just categorize and pigeonhole people according to be in certain ethnic or people of color categories.

That helps towards that. But Black Lives Matter doesn't want that. They don't want racial reconciliation.

They don't want Marxism and communism. They basically just say so. And so there's a whole column associated with this chart that's been taken down on the Smithsonian Institution website, and the column is actually linked at our website, thechristianworldview.org. The title is Whiteness by the Smithsonian Institution.

I would really encourage you because next week we're going to do a topic on this program. We're going to have sound bites from some of the leading proponents of this idea, the worldview of whiteness. Right at the top of that list is an author named Robin DiAngelo. She's an American academic and lecturer and author. She's written a book that's extremely popular called White Fragility, which is basically a strong criticism or critique of white culture, as we were talking about in this chart that I was reading earlier today.

We'll have sound bites from her and others. And this really gets at the heart of what the racial tension and what's at stake in our country right now. It's a pulling down of what they like to say white culture, which again is based on the Christian worldview, much of it is, not all of it.

Of course, culture can have really bad elements and take things too far beyond what the Bible intends. But it's really a subtle attack on that and what are they after. And so next week we're going to get into that, the issue of white privilege and so forth.

I'll just give you an example from this column. Since white people in America hold most of the political, institutional, and economic power, there's the word again. You've got to remember that word. It's all about power. They receive advantages that non-white groups do not. These benefits and advantages of varying degrees are known as quote white privilege. For many white people, this can be hard to hear, understand, or accept. But it is true, if you are white in America, you have benefited from the color of your skin. It's all based on the color of your skin. It's not based on attributes. And it's certainly not based, the blessed life isn't based, on what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, those Beatitudes, those inner things that any person of any color can have when they enter into a right relationship with God through Christ. Then you can truly have the blessed life.

And it's not based on your skin color, or your circumstances, or your health, and your wealth, and your prosperity, and your position in life. So stay tuned. Much more coming up on this next week on the Christian worldview.

You know, we do live in a changing and challenging world. But there is one thing we should always remember. Jesus Christ and His word are the same yesterday, today, and forever. And until next weekend, think biblically and live accordingly. We'll see you next week. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly.