then we will be doing a final lesson here in our series on Bible Answers to Error, Dealing with False Religions. But I also want to take a little bit of time and deal with some of the issues related to Israel. I know that Earl I'll be preaching tonight in my absence and he has a message on Israel so I don't want to steal his thunder. So maybe I can be the lightning and he can be the thunder tonight. But I do want to touch on that a little bit because I know there's a lot and we feel like our head is on a swivel sometimes or what is that game Whac-A-Mole? Sometimes you feel like you're just, you're constantly putting out fires or whacking and it just seems like constantly there's this barrage of information and sometimes you don't know who to believe and what sources to go to. I have been able to find a couple of good sources. I am not a big ex-Twitter. formerly known as Twitter. I'm not a big follower there, but there is a trusted source. Her name is Mindy Bells. Mindy Bells, if you get on X and you find Mindy Bells, she's got a list of several sources. She spent many years as a Christian journalist in the Middle East, and she has an excellent Twitter account. X page with all kinds of good sources that gives good conservative and in some cases Christian views of the conflict. But anyway, I'll deal with that some more a little bit later. It is an area I know that is on our hearts and minds. Our missionary, Craig Hartman, tonight at 6 o'clock, he will be doing a radio broadcast And we probably don't live close enough to New York to be able to get the AM or the FM station, but Matt Recker, he is a church planner. I've been to Heritage Baptist Church there in Manhattan. Matt Recker is a good man. That is a man who as a zeal and a fire for the Lord. He planted a church there in New York City. When I was there, it was five or six floors up on a sky rise, and they had rented out one of the floors. And he was just in the beginning stages of that church. But that church is still going strong there in Manhattan. And he has a radio program. And Craig Hartman, our missionary with Shalom Ministries, is gonna be doing a live Q&A radio interview. I know that'll be right at the end of the service tonight. And I don't know if we would wanna try to get that on the screen and stay afterward. I don't wanna cut into Earl's time. But anyway, that's just food for thought, kinda thinking out loud here. But if you wanna jump on to YMCAW, I said Y, that's where Joey works, The WMCA, sorry, WMCA.com, go to the Listen Live tab, and at six o'clock tonight, Craig Hartman will be doing an interview and be dealing with the topics regarding the conflict, the war there in Israel. And I trust Craig Hartman's view of things, his opinion of things. I hold that very, very high as he is very knowledgeable, comes with a independent Baptist preacher, premillennial view, and obviously being a Christian Jew, he has a unique perspective. And so if we can tune into that, just wanted to make mention of that to you. All right. Do I give you enough time to write that down or take a picture of it? I hope, if not, I'll bring it back up. So, the dangers of false religion. We've been dealing with false religion. I have struggled this week with all the news coming and all the different ways in which the conflict causes questions in our mind and all the complexities of what's going on in Israel and how it relates to prophecy, how it relates to the biblical worldview. eschatology, prophecy, end times. I've decided to touch on it just a little bit, but really I want us to begin, instead of dealing with some of the topics I was going to deal with today, I'd like to maybe in the new year, I'd like to come back. I have lessons on Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness, several other false religions. I may come back to that in January and do another series and deal with some of those. But in looking at false religions in general, we understand that there is one true religion, biblical Christianity, faith alone and Christ alone. And then all the other religions and manifestations are false religions, okay? So there's the wide, there's the wide gate or the wide way or the broad way, and then there's the narrow way, okay? And we understand that is biblical teaching and there's only one true, God, and the only way to the one true God is through His Son, Jesus Christ. And we have the inspired, infallible, and errant Word of God, the written Word that tells us all about the living Word, that declares unto us that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Him. So Satan is a master deceiver. He's a murderer, he's a liar, and he has been deceiving the world, and there's all these various manifestations. We've been looking at some of the major world views the last few weeks. But let's talk about in a general sense 1 Corinthians chapter 10, 1 Corinthians chapter number 10. I have a couple of these verses up on the screen, but let's look at the dangers of false teaching in a general sense. 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 20, notice what Paul says, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to what? Devils could also be translated demons. And not to God. And I would not, I would not that you should have fellowship with what? Demons. So idolatry, false religion is ultimately the worship of demons. It is ultimately satanic. Are there moralistic false religions? We can name some. Mormonism. at least on the surface, appears to be very clean cut, very moral. We could talk about Catholicism. I've been in an email exchange with a man who was listening in on our series and watched my lesson on Catholicism. We've been emailing back and forth, and it's been an interesting discussion. But anyway, Catholicism, we dealt with that as a false religion. that denies salvation by faith alone in Christ alone. Is it moralistic? Has a lot of morals attached to it. We would agree on some of those social issues of marriage and life, sexuality. We would agree on some of those. But ultimately, there is a doctrinal foundation that is wrong. There is another gospel, a false gospel. And we know from Galatians 1, in verse number 8, If any man preach any other gospel unto you, even an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel than that which we have preached unto you, let him be a curse, let him be anathema. So we're dealing with false religions, and all false religions, in some way, shape, or form, to some degree or another, are worshiping the devil. Demons are in some way being led astray by the deception of Satan himself. of false teaching and Satan being the father of lies. Verse 21, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils. Is he not very strong about the false religion and idols that man has set up? I know that we don't have as much of that. There are religions around the world that still set up graven images. Idols, but do we not have idols in America? They come sometimes in the form of flesh and blood. If I named a certain individual that the NFL just seems to be absolutely obsessed with right now, you would say that person is an idol. The way that she is treated, she's an idol. She's treated like a goddess. There are people who would just about worship her. Well, they practically are, but the way they behave. Do we not have idols in our culture? We may not set them up in stone. In some cases they are, but not in the image of some Ashtorea or Baal or the goddess of Diana. It may not be quite that obvious. As we know from Bible times, there were literally temples to false gods in some of those Greek cities. And there would be gods, goddess Diana and temples built to her and we know the veil worship and the Astra and Molech and all that. The worship of those idols is the worship of the devil, ultimately. Demons. Demons are behind that. We're in the month of Halloween. And I know that there are some innocent forms of Halloween, but a lot of it, and you see on the advertisements, slasher movies, all kinds of blood, guts, and gore, and you find out a lot of it when, if you do any kind of, just watch a trailer or two, and if you did any kind of little research, I don't, I recommend that you dabble in this because a lot of this slasher stuff is demonic. Some of the sacrificial stuff that they do is, and there's Satanism in some of that, it's dangerous stuff. It's a very pagan holiday, but I'm not here to get into all of that. But there's a lot of spiritism and demonic influence that is associated with Halloween. So 2 Corinthians 6, is it not very clear in 2 Corinthians 6 that the opposition, the diametric opposites in 2 Corinthians 6, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. I know we're talking about personal ecclesiastical separation, but notice the terms. what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? What concord hath Christ with Belial? What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you." There is a clear command to come out from among what is unclean, what is idolatrous, what is of unrighteousness, what is of belial, what is of darkness. And he literally says, what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? So we see the contrast there very clearly in the need for separation. We see the danger of false religion. What does Exodus 20 warn us in the first three commandments? No other gods, no idols, not take the name of the Lord in vain. That's not just a verbal taking his name in vain, but that's also in the way we live. Taking his name in vain in the way that we act, in the way that we think, in our attitudes, as well as in our words. Obviously making no graven image, no idols, and then no other gods before him. Nothing between us and God. And then Ephesians six and verse number 12. Principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places. there is clearly a spiritual demonic operation behind false religions, is there not? Okay, so let's continue here. This is what I was going to spend most of my time on, but I wanna just touch on this and then maybe deal with some of the worldview applications of what's going on in the Middle East. Christian or quasi-Christian political groups. Sometimes they fall under the term Christian nationalism. Christian nationalism has various splinter groups. Some people identify four, some people identify five. To the mass media, anybody who claims biblical beliefs, conservative principles, would be considered a Christian nationalist. So what I have read this week, I am a Christian nationalist. We are Christian nationalists according to the legacy media, the mass media, the corporate media, okay? But there's different groups. We'll call them Christian or quasi-Christian political groups. I don't like the term Christian nationalism because it's often a word or a phrase that's used by Like I just said, the mass media, the corporate media, the legacy media to blanket statement and put all conservatives, all so-called Christians into one big lump. So I don't even like the term, okay? But one of the reasons I don't like the term Christian nationalism is because some of those groups that claim to be Christian nationalists, one of which is the New Apostolic Reformation. It's a more political version of the Word Faith Movement and the Prosperity Gospel. They believe they are the newest and the latest manifestation of the sign gifts. And they have received the full gift of the Holy Spirit in the form of the apostles and prophets and all their accompanying signs and authority. Believing this idea that man lost dominion over the earth to Satan after Adam and Eve's fall, and it's up to us to then regain dominion over all these areas. one of which is the government, media, I forget all the other ones. So the New Apostolic Reformation is based on a prosperity gospel, it's an outflow of the word faith movement and the excesses of the charismatic movement. So now you have people coming along and they have such a following that they are capturing entire churches. Can I just go ahead and say that Bethel and Hillsong are a part of the New Apostolic Reformation? They sell millions of dollars in music. They have millions of followers, but Bethel and Hillsong are a part of the New Apostolic Reformation. They have bought into this false view, and they have millions of followers. I know good churches that will play their music, will sing their songs, and I refuse As much as I possibly can, I refuse to allow our music to be Bethel or Hillsong, because it is a false view of God. They sing about God, they sing about Jesus, and they celebrate a view of Jesus. But they are, they have bought into the New Apostolic Reformation, and they believe there are new prophets and new apostles with signs and wonders, And they are claiming authority and trying to bring dominion with their power and by their signs and by their authority that they claim to have been given by God. And they are trying to reclaim dominion in all these areas. It's the word faith. It's the prosperity gospel. It's dangerous. I'm not saying that everybody who uses Bethel and Hillsong music is an apostate. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying we should not borrow from Bethel and Hillsong. They're charismatic, apostate, heretical in their views, and they are prosperity gospel and word of faith in their theology. Dangerous stuff. If you follow any of their music, you see any of their services, there's some, I would just go so far to say some demonic type activity when people are down on the floor and they're flopping. and they're in some sort of transcendental state and they're supposedly that way because of the Holy Spirit. And you look at some of their lyrics in their songs and you look a little deeper and you find out it's really not celebrating the God of the Bible and Jesus Christ of the Bible. It's a figment of man's imagination and there's a lot of celebratory and there's a lot of decent worship lyrics in a general sense, but very superficial and shallow and really not exalting the one true God in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ according to the word of God. It's part of man's imagination in trying to reclaim and take dominion where they believe man lost it. We know sin affected the earth. We know sin affected each and every one of us. We're sinners by birth and by choice, by action, as well as by birth. But is it our job to retake dominion over the earth? God is not still sovereign, and God is not providential, and God is not still in control. Does Satan have a measure of influence as the prince of the power of the air? as the God of this world, but to say that it is our job through our faith and our word faith and through new apostolic reformation, apostles and prophets who claim lordship even over individual churches and denominations and then dictate how churches and denominations should operate because under their authority, we can then have renewed dominion, that's dangerous stuff. It's taking man and making him God and shoving God and the true God of the Bible and Jesus Christ off to the side. Dangerous stuff. Part of this is, whoops, I went too far. There's a group called the Theonomists. Theo, Theonomists, there we go, Theonomists. This is a group that believes God's judicial laws in the Old Testament are the standard for all nations. So then they think that we ought to be living by the Mosaic law and the judges in the courts and all of that should follow basically the Mosaic Old Testament law. So if we went to that logical end, there'd be a lot of dead people today. Because according to God's judicial laws and the Mosaic laws under the theocracy and that dispensation, there were a lot of sins that required capital punishment. So I would venture to say that some of us wouldn't be here right now. And I wonder if they would be willing to apply that to themselves. I don't know much about the theonomists, but that's one group that's out there. And then there's the kinists, or the kinists. I think it's called kinists. The kinists are a group within reform circles that say a person's so-called race makes them kins, or related to all people within their ethnic group, within their race. According to kinists, all white people have a shared ethnicity and culture that should be preserved. They believe in racial segregation, they oppose strongly interracial marriage, and they are ultimately a reaction to critical race theory that borrows from and justifies white supremacy and racism. There are hard kinists and there are soft kinists. I know this is a newer term. Just be on the lookout for this kind of stuff. Watch out for this. They are in churches and denominations, and they basically advocate a Christian version of white supremacy. And they borrow from avowed white supremacists. and they would hold to a white supremacist view, they would Christianize it, and they would even get into, I mean, they would advocate for literal, prejudiced, biased, racist types of activity on the part of white people toward minority groups in violation of God's law. and what we're even gonna deal with in James. We know that racism is a sin, and we are all made in the image of God, and we all are given dignity by being made in the image of God and his image and likeness. Is there racism in America? Yes. Okay. Are we to advocate a Christian form of white supremacy and racism? No. That is a violation of scripture that in Christ we're one and the fact that we're human beings and we all bleed red blood. We know this is a major issue, and basically the term racism now has become a term for any time the left disagrees with anything on the right. We realize that, right? They use the term racism to pretty much say anybody that says anything that they disagree with. Now, I dealt with racism on a regular, consistent basis in school administration on the west side of Indianapolis. And I dealt with it a lot. I dealt with it every year, even more so as I came near the end of my time. But, I mean, one of the issues I was dealing with my last year as a school principal was I had a mom who was, she was just dead set that this second grader was a white supremacist racist against her second grade daughter. So if this girl said anything remotely unkind, it was because of racial prejudice and white supremacy, and I had to deal with that. It was quite the ordeal. Anyway, questions on these? They're out there. They're infiltrating our churches. New Apostolic Reformation is very popular. You don't have to go very far on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music. You don't have to go very far. You'll find Bethel and Hillsong. I mean, it's everywhere. And they are singing, many times, a different view of God and a different view of Jesus Christ. And you get into their theology, it is not of God. in tune with scripture. You've got to watch out for them, okay? Again, let me qualify that by saying not every Christian that's out there that sings a Hill song or a Bethel song is a part of the New Apostolic Reformation and is an apostate heretic, okay? All right? Just, we've got to be careful. Satan is the master deceiver. Questions or comments? Okay? So let's deal with this again, critical theory. Why are there so many people right now who are taking the side of the Palestinians? Hamas, let me just call it the terrorist organizations. Why are there so many people right now who are actually literally taking the side of Hamas? who are defending the brutal, savage murders of women, children, and babies. Yes, Kelly? Yes. Yes. And there's a worldview that this victim mentality springs up from. Bob? Yes, yes. What is Satan always trying to do? He's always trying to overthrow God's authority. From the beginning in heaven, what did he say? I will be God. Okay, so we're seeing the manifestation. Satan takes the same sins and he repackages them, remarkets them, and resells them, but they're the same sins with different labels. Just like when you go to certain car lots, it's the same car but just with a different label on it. They're made by the same manufacturer pretty much. It's just a little bit of differences. I don't know, all the Dodge Chrysler and the different, okay, the different cars that oftentimes GMC, wouldn't GMC also make the same Chevy car but called a GMC or something like that, okay? Well, you see Satan relabeling, repackaging the same sense. They just manifest themselves in a little different way. Critical theory, we're in a critical theory mood in our culture today. There's a false religion that is overarching in this, as Bob just referred to. We talked about Islam in here, and the diametrical opposition that Islam is to biblical Christianity, okay? These kinds of ideas creep into classrooms, into walls of academia, they creep even into our churches. Critical theory teaches that all people are divided into two groups, those with power and those without. Your level of oppression is based on categories. And who gets to define the categories, by the way? The oppressed. The liberal left. Many times false teachers. They then define the categories of the oppressed. The more categories of oppressed groups you are in, the higher your moral authority. So we get into what's called intersectionality. About a year and a half ago, I dealt with this a little bit, and I'm not going back and rehearsing everything, but here's some of the categories. Race, sexual orientation, religion, gender identity, or gender identity or gender and then all the different identities. Immigrant, economic, all these are different categories. And the oppressed, many times the liberal left, false teachers, they are the ones who will then try to define the groups, the categories. So there's constantly a power dynamic. And the oppressed, if you have several categories of oppression, can I just go ahead and say Gavin Newsom, he chose a non-California resident to be the one who replaced Dianne Feinstein, right? And he chose a black, female, lesbian. He checked three intersectional categories. So she has higher moral authority than a white, straight male, just because she is black, a woman, and a lesbian. You see what I'm, you understand the dynamics here, right? Okay, this is what's in our culture. Critical theory has a different view of humanity. We're not all made in the image of God, made in the image and likeness of God with dignity. We're all in various categories. And it recategorizes, redefines what it means to be human. Different view of sin. Is sin original in all of us? All have sinned and come short of the glory of God? No. Sin is in whether you are the oppressor or the oppressed. So I'm a big sinner, just by the sheer fact that I'm a straight white male. I don't even like to use the term straight. I don't even like to be identified by my sexuality. That's another thing. I don't walk up to anybody and say, hi, I'm a heterosexual. Isn't that just kind of ridiculous? Hi, my name is Brent, and I am a heterosexual. I'm identifying, when did we ever start to identify ourselves by our sexuality? I mean, it's kind of gross, first of all, but just ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. But that's where we're at in our culture, and they have a different view of sin. Everything is then based on these categories of oppressed versus oppressor. Can I just go ahead and say communism, Marxism, It's all wrapped up in this. Different view of salvation. Then how does anybody get saved? How does a straight white male like me get saved? I have to surrender myself to all of the intersectional categories because I'm an oppressor, just by the sheer fact that I have white skin. So now what is my, how do I get saved? I have to completely surrender myself to all the woke ideologies. That's their view of salvation. So then I ought to be not, I was a bigoted racist homophobe when I allowed the doctor when my children were born to say, when they looked at the plumbing and they said, that is a girl and that is a boy. I was the biggest, I was a big, bigoted racist homophobe. Really? Ridiculous, right? Insanity. But that's critical theory. Obviously, great problems with that. Power and oppression do not explain everything. Power and privilege are relative concepts. I mean, you can have power, you can be in a place of influence in New York City, and then you can go to Tehran, Iran, and you would have no influence. You would be in political prison. But you would have influence in New York City. These are relative concepts. Power and privilege are relative concepts. They're not fixed categories of objective truth. You hear this term lived experience now? You hear this a lot? Well, you can't say I'm wrong and you're right because your lived experience is different than mine. So I can partake in all kinds of lived experiences of sin and perversion and iniquity, and if I am okay with that and I seem to have benefited from that, I think I'm okay with that, then who are you to judge my lived experience by yours? See where that goes? See how dangerous that is? It totally turns truth and goodness and righteousness upside down. Good becomes evil and evil becomes good, Isaiah 5. And then it's self-defeating because when does it ever end? It's just a vicious cycle of power and overthrow of power and taking power. So I follow a guy online who is a native of Ghana, Africa. He said that his tribe I forget if his tribe was the slave sellers or if they were the ones who were taken as slaves that were sold off, can't remember. But he said in his, in Africa, in Ghana, his tribe were the ones who, or it could have been, I could have it vice versa, but his tribe, one tribe took the other tribe and sold them to the slave masters. So he said, which of them had power and privilege in my own country of Ghana? He said, we're all black, we're all African, but one tribe sold the other tribe. So then he said, what about reparations? How far back do we go with reparations? And then again, as I mentioned before, one of the perpetrators of slavery that's not mentioned in our modern culture is Islam. The Muslims were huge slave traders. What do we do about the sex slavery today, the sex trafficking and the human trafficking? Are we not complicit down in the southern border where there's not just drug trafficking, but there's sex trafficking, human trafficking, child trafficking coming across the southern border? Are we not complicit? Is not our current administration emboldening and empowering slavery? But they consider themselves what? Woke. And so it's totally twisting right and wrong, good and evil. And then it just creates this constant cycle of power and overthrow of power. So then countries that buy into this or have that kind of thinking, they're in constant revolution. One group takes over for a while, and then they abuse their power, and the next group comes along. And then we have countries who have 14 different constitutions, and they've only been around for 50 or 60 years. They've had how many dictators? in just 50 or 60 years of independence. Sad. So, we have to understand critical theory is a worldview. It is a set of lenses to see the world. Claims to have a source for evil. Claims to have an answer for evil. But it fails to offer any hope for redemption or salvation. There's no forgiveness nor hope. Ultimately undermines the authority of God's word. Redefines sin and evil. Reduces salvation to social activism and overthrow of authority. And that's a big part of this. is the constant rebellion against authority, and ultimately against God's authority, and replaces God with man-centered power systems. That is in our culture today, okay? This kind of mood, attitude, it's creeping in even into our churches. So, coming from that is something called post-colonialism. theory or colonialism. It's the occupation of a land or a country by a foreign nation. It could be a rule by a foreign people or oppressor group. It could be forced cultural influence by a minority or foreign people. Again, an oppressor group. And you hear the term apartheid being thrown around. Now, was there apartheid in its wrong racial makeup in South Africa? Yes, okay. The abuse of power by white former British colonialists who kept the minority native South Africans and abused them and used their power in wrong ways, okay? Nelson Mandela, we don't have to get into all that. But this critical theory has so crept into society now that we're hearing this term. Have you not heard it this week? The apartheid state of Israel, Israeli colonialism, it comes right out of this. Okay? So, in critical theory, any power dynamic or cultural practice forced or unforced on a people group by a foreign people. So, when I was in Africa, there were certain cultural practices that were immoral. Okay? I don't wanna, I don't wanna, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be discreet here, but I was in a little town in West Kenya. And they practiced, as a cultural tribal practice, they practiced female genital mutilation. Okay? Obviously, the missionaries preached against that, but that was a common tribal practice. That was considered gross, perverse, and was considered abusive. Now it's standard practice in America on little kids in certain children's hospitals. Oh, we say that was tribalistic. It's in America. It's paid for by taxpayer money. It subjugates children to millions of dollars and hundreds of doctor's appointments for the rest of their life and constant chronic pain and sterilization. And it's in America, okay? That's where this stuff goes. Hank? Yes. Yes, exactly, yes. Transgender surgeries are genital mutilation. Yeah. So what does this post-colonial theory do? It attacks the gospel. So Elizabeth Elliot and her husband Jim and those missionaries that died as missionaries to the Aka Indians, they were involved in Christian colonialism. What was that an attack on? The gospel. How dare you take the gospel? They don't want the gospel. You're bringing this Christian colonialism to the Aka Indians. Maybe they are happy to be in their primitive state, walking around half naked and murdering each other. Who are you to bring the gospel and force your cultural Christian views on them? It's out there, okay? It excuses, justifies immoral, sinful practices. It assumes that all foreign cultural influences and practices are bad, and nothing profitable could come from them. Monday, some of you had Monday off. And don't you dare call it Columbus Day, right? It was Indigenous Peoples Day, because Columbus was, Christopher Columbus was a savage, racist, slave owning, right? You hear it all, right? Okay, there was nothing possible that he could have ever brought. There couldn't have been any kind of civilization, couldn't have been any profit, it couldn't have been anything. Now, aren't many times the people who are cursing all of the progress that they are benefiting from, aren't they guilty of the same kind of colonialism that they claim is so wrong? Did not the Muslims in the Ottoman Empire practice colonialism? And violently overthrowing cultures and pushing Islamic Muslim culture? Are they not trying that in Minneapolis and New York City where they are broadcasting Islamic prayer times? which actually includes a claim on New York City and Minneapolis for Allah. Is that not a form of colonialism? Okay. This is what we're hearing today. So how is Israel a colonial country? Do we realize that no Nation controlled the land of Palestine since the Romans overthrew Jerusalem in AD 70. Since the Roman Empire collapsed, there has not been a sovereign nation ruling Palestine. So when the Zionist movement began in World War II and the Holocaust was going on and Jews began to come back to Palestine, it wasn't like they overthrew some sovereign nation. There was a loose authority of some Muslim nations around, but there was no sovereign rule of the land of Palestine. So that's one lie that you hear. 1948, the War of Independence, May 14th, I believe, is Israel's Independence Day. It was just celebrated this past May. The Sinai War in 1956, the Six-Day War in 1967, and the Yom Kippur War in 1973. So the war in Israel right now against Hamas is, 50 years from the Yom Kippur War. And it was clearly this time on the anniversary that they chose to invade. And they consider Israel to be a colonial nation. And according to post-colonial theory, Israel is an oppressor group that is oppressing. And some of the anti-Semitic views are that the Jews control the wealth of the world. And one of the anti-Semitic views is that the Jews were murdered, genocide was committed against them in World War II by Hitler, and it was justified because the Jews were actually ripping off the world, taking all the money. And so Hitler was justified. That is in the Hamas leadership. That's what they're saying. You can read it. The Hamas leadership, military and political, which is together in Muslim and Islamic teaching, the political and the religious are together. Hamas has kept Gaza in poverty, including taking their water pipes, cutting them up, and turning them into rockets. Israel has provided free water and free electricity to Gaza since 2005, 2007. And Hamas has subjugated the people and kept them in poverty, including taking their very water pipes and turning them into rockets. Some of the Hamas leadership then goes into other countries and siphons off the money and leaves the people in poverty. Who's the oppressed and who's the oppressor group? But the Jews are considered, Israel's considered a colonial as practiced according to their teaching, their views, this colonialism. Okay? Sorry, I didn't realize those hadn't popped up yet. Okay. All right. So as we come to a conclusion here, we get into some of this just war theory. Is the cause for going to war and the intention behind it just? Is the war waged by legitimate authority? Is force used as a last resort? Force used in war must be proportionate to the threat. Force must not target noncombatants. And finally, there must be a reasonable chance of success. So Israel right now is even saying what? Citizens, get out of the way. Where is Hamas building their fortresses? bunkers, they're building them in hospitals, their headquarters have been in hospitals, underground so that the shells fall on the civilians, and then they can say, see, you killed innocent people, and they publish that. Israel's saying, get out of the way, warning ahead of time, and what did Hamas do? Did they give any kind of warning? They went in and they murdered, beheaded 40 babies, 260 people at a concert on and on week ago. but supposedly Israel is the one that's the colonial evil. Okay, this is where we're at. So is there a violation of the just war theory by Hamas? Yeah, Israel's trying to practice these things, and they have for years, with some violations, yes, but by and large, they have followed these principles. Why did these principles ever get developed? in the Geneva Convention because of Christianity. Did the Romans care about who was a civilian and who was a baby and who was a woman and who was a soldier? The Romans didn't care. They came in and just plundered. The Babylonians? All those pagan empires? The Vikings? Not the Minnesota Vikings, by the way, which are terrible this year. Sorry. I'm a Colts fan, but I also like the Vikings. I don't know why I like the Vikings. That's another story. Hank? Right, right, right, and that's a big argument too. They'll claim Israel's not a legitimate authority, and Hamas is, but yeah. Right, right, right, yeah, that gets into some of the complications of this, right. Sometimes you just go ahead and fight because you have to, Stop or slow down or. Yeah, sometimes you just fight out of principle whether or not you're able to win or not. Right, good point, yeah. There's a rightness to the cause, a principle that you're standing up for. Good point. Now we don't have time, I wish we had time to get into this, but there's all kinds of talk today now about this moral equivalence. Are all sins the same? They are in the sense that they all are a violation of God's law. So we're all sinners just by violating one principle, one transgression of God's law makes us a sinner. But do all sins have the exact same consequence? Is a crack in the wall the same as a crack in the foundation? If I'm speeding by five miles an hour out on the highway, is that the same as murdering someone? There's consequences that sin then Yes, as a moral violation, a transgression of God's law, all sins are the same, and we're all sinners because of that, but not every sin has the same moral equivalence in the sense of consequence, okay? So we have to understand that, and we have to look at Proverbs 6, six things the Lord hates, yea, seven are an abomination unto him. All right, we can look at Hebrews 13, four, whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge, Achan, Ananias and Sapphira, Sodom and Gomorrah. Okay, we have to look at Romans 13, Romans 12, Matthew 5, 44. There's a lot here, I wish we had time to unpack this all, we don't. But we have to understand while any one sin, if we think of sin in a link of chain, a chain link, all it takes is one link of that chain to be broken and the chain is broken, right? Only takes one sin to make us all sinners. but not every sin has the same moral equivalency in the sense of consequences. A crack in the foundation is gonna do a lot more damage than a crack in the wall. True? Okay, so are we not in a moral crack, earthquake of our moral foundation right now? Yeah. Well, yeah, we probably let some cracks in the wall go that we should have dealt with, but we are morally having an earthquake, because we've, removed ourselves from God's moral law, from the authority of God's word. All right, lot there. We're out of time. Over time, sorry about that, and I know I did more preaching and teaching than actually Q and A, but I wanted to get some of this stuff out there and try to give us some biblical framework for it, because we're hearing a lot of this in the news today. All right, let's pray, and then we'll get ready for the service. Lord, thank you for our time together already this morning. Encourage us, strengthen us by your word. May we go out from here with a biblical worldview. Lord, applying the principles of your word that speak truth, to this day and age in which we live and to what is going on in the world around us. May we continue to be faithful, strong Christians convicted by the word of God and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ that saves souls and changes lives, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, thank you for being here. Sorry for going a little long. We will start the service in about 15