Looking at our world from a theological perspective, this is the Theology Central Podcast, making theology central. Good afternoon, everyone. It is Saturday, June the 8th, 2024. It is currently 210 p.m. Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. So imagine with me that you're sitting around somewhere, maybe on a Saturday. You have your phone in your hand or you have a tablet and you're on some podcasting app and you're just going from podcast to podcast to podcast to podcast. Because as you are aware, there are millions of podcasts available. Maybe you're on the Sermons 2.0 app, where there are millions of sermons available. Maybe you're on the Edify Christian Podcast app, where there's over two million Christian podcasts. It doesn't matter the app, it doesn't matter the platform, you are very aware that there are millions upon millions of different things to listen to, different things to choose from. And let's say you're going through and you're listening and you're listening, and all of a sudden you hit play, and you hear some guy talking, and you decide, I don't know if it takes five minutes, I don't know if it takes 20 minutes, I don't know if it takes 45 minutes, but you decide that this person speaking, you just don't like them. You don't like what they teach. You don't like their theology. You don't like their approach. You don't like anything about their podcast. You just absolutely hate it. You dislike it. In fact, it really, really bothers you. In fact, maybe you feel a little, maybe you feel anger. Maybe you feel dislike. Maybe you're, maybe you just feel frustrated by it. Whatever the, there's negative feelings. Now, what do you do? What do you do? Honestly, what do you do? Do you immediately grab your app and go, wait a minute, wait a minute. Okay, wait, wait. Is there a place for comments? Okay. Oh, it's on YouTube. Do you start typing out a comment? Oh, wait, wait, wait. This one gives a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Thumbs down, thumbs down. Or wait, this one has a star rating. 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1. Or wait, wait. Or maybe you can't find on a particular app a place to really leave a comment or a star or a thumbs up or a thumbs down. So then do you start searching on the internet to find where you can leave a review? And then you take the time to write a review to let them know how much you dislike their podcast? What is your approach just to move on? I mean, there are millions of other things to choose from, or do you feel that you have to let, you've got, do you want to let the podcaster know how much you dislike them? Or do you feel like it's your duty to post so everyone can see how bad you dislike this podcast? Like what, at that point, what is your, course of action and what is your motivation? Is your motivation is, I really want to let this podcaster know how bad they are? Or is your motivation, I really want to help this podcaster out? Or is your motivation is, I want everyone else to know how bad it is so that they will stay far, far, far away from it? What is your motivation? I'm just curious because a lot of times I'm somewhat baffled how people who greatly dislike this podcast, it feels they kind of go out of their way to let their opinion be known because as far as I I think about 95% of the time, I end every broadcast with saying, you can contact me directly by emailing me at newsifatyahoo.com. That's newsifatyahoo.com. So I give people who dislike me or don't like me a direct way to communicate with me, a direct way that they can literally Now, I used to give out my phone number, but that turned into, well, threats and, well, all kinds of really negative, negative. So that didn't really go very well. So now I just give my email, but it's directly to me. And anyone who's ever emailed me, typically, you know, I try to respond usually less than 24 hours. It may not always be the most detailed response, but I typically try to reply with something. So what would your course of action be? I think most people would just be like, well, that's a dumb podcast, next. I think most will. But if for some reason you are so impacted by it that you have to let your opinion be known, well, that says a lot, right? I mean, what does that say? I don't know. You can draw your own conclusion. Now, if you are the podcaster, You're someone who takes up a lot of their time and energy and money putting forth the effort to take a microphone, a computer, and record whatever the subject is, your thoughts, your opinions, whatever it is on whatever subject, to put it out there. What do you do as a podcaster when you receive one of these very negative responses, whether it's email, or whether it's a public posted comment. How do you respond as a podcaster? Now, as a podcaster, what you can do is you can say, well, I'm going to ignore this and I'm going to move on. I'm just going to ignore this. I'm going to consider all the emails I get, all the positive reviews I get, and just ignore it. So you could do that. If it's a public comment, Well, I mean, typically, now a lot of people who listen to podcasts, you don't understand this, but most of the platforms, I think a large number of them, I think YouTube is the only one who really doesn't do this, but on our pod page, Sermon Audio, many other platforms, when someone sends a very, very negative Email or they post a negative comment or post a negative review, typically you get an email. It may be from Apple, it may be from PodPage, it may be from wherever and say, hey, someone just absolutely threw you under the bus. I'm paraphrasing the email. It's obviously more professional and we're not going to post it. So in many cases, they just refuse. They don't want their comments and review sections filled with just negative things. Sometimes they allow you to choose, do you want this? Because the idea is this could greatly hurt your brand. This could hurt your podcast. And a lot of times, listeners don't even understand. They think, oh, I'm just going to send this, and I'm going to let it be known. Well, you may never see your comment. And in some cases, it has nothing to do with the podcaster. Sometimes I'm sitting there going, no, no, no, go ahead, go ahead and post it, go ahead. Well, no, we don't really want, no, go ahead. Let the world know this person absolutely despises me. Now, I don't know what your approach would be. as a listener or as a podcaster. Now for me, I usually have a couple of things. If the person who either posts a comment and they hide their name, like they won't even post their name, that's typically where I just ignore that. Because look, if you're not even willing to put your name on it, then I typically ignore it. If it's someone who will put their name, but they don't even bother to email me, even though I've given my email out, probably, and this is probably no exaggeration considering how many years I've been broadcasting and how many years I've been using the exact same email address and how many episodes have been published. I probably, it's probably not an exaggeration to say probably somewhere on the airwaves internet somewhere, I've probably said my email address over 7,000 times. So I sometimes like, and you didn't bother to email me. You just had to go, I'm going to try to, I'm going to try to make a public statement. So what do I do? I don't know what you would do. I want you to think about what you would do. Like if you don't like it, if you're the listener, how do you respond? And if you're the podcaster, how do you respond? Now, the question is, how would we respond and what is the right way to respond? Those are radically different questions, right? Because how I want to respond rarely is the right way to respond. Now forget podcasting, forget all of that, forget podcasting now, forget it, forget you as being the listener, forget you being the podcaster. Now let's put this in a category that you can greatly understand. What do you do? Let's say I don't know what job you have, you're working, and someone Maybe you're getting ready to walk out to your car and you see that they've left a note or maybe they contacted your place of employment. Like, this guy is garbage. This guy is horrible. This guy doesn't know what he's doing. He thinks he's a big deal. He's clueless. It's ridiculous. And they just tear you apart. Either they leave a note, they post something. How do you respond if someone attacks you in your place of employment? They go after you. How do you respond to that? How do you respond when people say really mean or negative things to you in your just everyday life? How do you respond? Now, how should you respond and how you respond? I bet you can, I bet we all have felt when someone says something mean to us or attack us or criticize us or says just some really trying to be demeaning to you, you probably respond by getting pretty upset and pretty angry, right? Now this is an area where we can all relate. So what I want to do is take a situation clearly I'm alluding to, clearly you know where I'm going, right? I think I've given it away by this point. But I want to take this situation because this is going to deal with me as a podcaster and something I received today. but I want to just set that aside and just, I want you to put this in the context of your life where you get criticized, you get attacked, someone says something demeaning to you, clearly they seem to be trying to minimize what you do or try to make you feel foolish. How do you respond? Typically we lash out, we strike back, we come back at them. That's typically what we all do. And trust me, in all the years I've been broadcasting, there's been plenty of times I've turned on the microphone and went full-blown nuclear on people who came after me. And by no means am I justifying any of those reactions or saying that that's right. In my own everyday personal life, I've done the same thing. I'm not I'm very aggressive in that way. I can be very, well, I can just be absolutely ungodly in that way. So what do you do? Someone went after me on YouTube. Someone went after me on YouTube. They left comments. And I think they were attacking me, basically, you know, my, well, I can't even use the word they said. Basically, they were saying, they really went after, basically, my theology is no good. And basically, I don't know what I'm talking about. Basically, almost making me feel like I'm dumb. But what was hilarious is they their the punctuation in their their comment was completely i think they have an apostrophe where it wasn't supposed to be an apostrophe i can't remember exactly it was all the punctuation was all messed up and so part of me wanted to immediately respond going you're going to come after me for being dumb Your comment is riddled with punctuation errors. Now, I should be the last one to ever criticize punctuation errors because, you know, I don't even use punctuation. I don't believe in it. It's against my religion. So, but it would have been an easy way to go back at the person and try to belittle them and demean them and make them feel less sin. But that would have been completely ungodly. Now, I didn't do it. But guess what? I did it in my mind. So am I really spiritual? Not really. Not really. I'm just as ungodly if I would have done it publicly. There's probably times I've attacked people that way. There probably was. I definitely used to be much more that way. I probably have grown up a little bit, probably not much. Maybe I've gotten to the mentality of a 13-year-old by now. Maybe I'm just barely getting there. It's difficult knowing what to do. But I want to make this applicable to you. I don't want this just to turn into me talking about the podcast. We all deal with this in life. Look, I've been in places of employment where you get attacked either by a coworker, maybe even a boss, or it can be someone else and they just demean you and undermine you and make you feel stupid and make you feel foolish and attack you. And man, how do you respond to that? I'm not very good at doing it the way I should, but I'm gonna try to all give us some tips, alright? Now, as I give you some tips at the end, as I give us some scriptural perspective at the end, because theology is central, when I give us a theological perspective on how to respond to personal attacks and insults and people demeaning you or belittling you, By the time I get to that part, I may have already violated everything I'm going to say at the end, and I'm very aware of that. In fact, there's a high probability I'm going to violate the very advice I'm going to put forth, but that's the difference between sometimes us as sinful human beings and our inability to keep God's law. but I'm going to bring scripture into this before I am done. So are you ready? Let's explain everything that's going on. Okay, so let me see if I have the time here. Let me go all the way over. What time is this? I got like so many windows open here, so many windows open. Let me find if I can find exactly where this all started. Let me see, I didn't bother to save the actual email. So this all started, I think it was right before 11 a.m. if I remember correctly. Let me go here and look. Maybe that's the first time I saw the email. Okay, at first at 2.56 AM, I got a very, very, very, very nice email about our D-Day remembrance. And they were talking about all of their family. And I think the person is from Nebraska. Everything in their family and all the things that how they had family members involved with D-Day. And it was powerful and an emotional email, okay? So I saw that this morning. So that was a positive. And then, let me see here. I don't know if I have it. Maybe, did I delete it? Oh no, at 10.48 a.m. I told you it was right before 11 a.m. I mean, I said 11 p.m., I apologize. Right before 10.48 a.m., I received an email from our pod page, right? Theologycentral.net. Podpage is the company that hosts our pod page, and they put it all together, and they've been really good to me, all right? So I see 10.48 a.m., and it says pod page, Now it has one star, and it says, a new on-site review is ready. And as soon as I saw the one star, I was like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm like, okay, well, that's not good. That's always bad, right? But okay, that's life. you know, someone doesn't like the podcast, that's okay. I mean, you know, I have made it very clear throughout everything I've ever done. I have never gone into anything for a popularity contest because if I did, I would follow the standard template. I have never followed the standard template from day one all the way to this day. And everything I've tried to do, I have not followed the standard template. I don't wanna do that, right? I don't wanna do it. Clearly, I'm not going for a popularity contest, and I know that my podcast—I know everything I've ever done in ministry is not for everyone. I know that. I mean, I used to say that when anyone would visit my church, and I just realized that this is not going to be like your typical church. If this is not what you want, then this is where you don't need to come here, right? And I've always been that way, from the very first Sunday evening. When I was asked to be the pastor, I was like, this, we're not going to do church like all the others. If we are, there's no reason for us to exist. There's going to be a unique perspective here. So I've always maintained that. So I know I'm going to get negative. So I'm not like too shocked when I see a negative, but I'm always, but at the same time, I'm a human being. I'm like, oh man. All right, here we go. So I click on it and basically there's like, hey, we've hidden, We've hidden a review because it's not good. And I'm like, okay, well, all right, that's fine. Let me look at it, right? So here it is. Now I've tried, I have gone in to the settings 15 times to try to get it to post to theologycentral.net. I've tried to say feature it on the homepage and it keeps popping back up, hidden, hidden, hidden. And I've tried to click on the hidden to remove it from hidden, but it goes right back to it. basically they're saying you don't want this posted on your site and I'm like no I do want it posted on this site right and the main reason is because this individual at least gave their first and last name which I've got nothing but mad respect for that they didn't hide behind some anonymous name or some you know no they went with their full hey man I I got nothing but respect for that. Now, the person could have emailed me. I mean, the person could have emailed me. I mean, that would have been simple. But this is the title of it. So it's one star. Probably they were mad that they even had to click on one star. I don't think they wanted to give this one star. I don't think they think this podcast deserves one star. But it's called Circle Talk. And I'm like, oh boy. Did I use circular reasoning? That's my first thinking. I'm like, oh man, that's a logical fallacy. I wonder if I used some circular reasoning. Maybe I did. Typically, I try to point out circular reasoning. Maybe I've utilized it. So maybe I need to look up, you know, again, the logical fallacy of circular reasoning and see exactly how I fell into that trap. Because I try to be very, very aware of it. So I'm like, okay, I wonder what circular reasoning, because circular talk, circular reasoning, that's where my mind went. All right, so it starts. Talks in circles. All right, so I talk in circles. All right, I can't completely disagree. There's times I talk in circles, not times. It's a calculated I'm doing it for a calculated reason, right? Like if I'm talking about a subject, let's say sometimes when we get into the argument over lordship salvation and, well, you've got to do this to prove you're saved, but doing this doesn't make you saved, but if you don't do it, you're not saved. There's a circular aspect to that. You're just going in circles. Well, you don't have to do it to be saved, but if you don't do it, you're not saved, meaning I have to do it in order to be saved, but you don't have to do it to be saved. It's circular reasoning, right? Hey, you're saved by an imputed righteousness and all your sins are forgiven and God in Jesus, he satisfied all of God's wrath. Well, then you can't say, if I don't do this or I don't do this, I don't do this. I'm not saved because I'm saved by an imputed righteousness. All my sins are forgiven. So any sin you point out has been forgiven and all of God's wrath has been taken care of for me in Jesus Christ. Like you can go through and say that you're just going in circles. Now, in that case, I'm trying to point out circular logic, but I may speak of it over and over and over in a circular way just to demonstrate that. That's what I at least attempt to do. But all right, so I talk in circles. Well, maybe sometimes I talk in circles because some theologies are circular in their entire structure, but okay. I ask a question and I answer it with a question. Wait, I ask a question and answer it with a question? Now that is just uncalled for, ladies and gentlemen. I have never done that once in my life. No, of course I've done that. I ask a question and answer it with a question. There's a reason for that, right? Especially in some philosophical circles, you do that for a reason, right? You ask a question and then you answer with the question because you're trying to get the audience to get involved in the process of figuring it out. One of the things I talk about all the time here is I like to throw out and hypotheses, or a thesis, and I throw it out there, and I try to get the listener to, well, what about this, and what about this, and what about this, and what about this, and then I say, hey, now, and then usually I give assignments, hey, go work on this, look this up, work on this, look at this, look at this, look at this, and then email me at newsifatyahoo.com if people participate. then typically I come back and then what do I tend to do? Then sometimes it goes from asking questions to now testing that hypothesis and providing answers. It just depends. Maybe in one broadcast there could be four in a row where I don't provide any answers. But there's plenty of cases where I do. I do like to ask lots of questions and lots of times I like to answer answers with questions. A lot of time I do that, but there's usually a process. You can't judge what I'm talking about on one episode. Anyone who listens to this podcast, I think most of the listeners would agree with that. We can be over here in our series on, say, Proverbs. But then there may be some discussions over in the Sermons 2.0 App Sermon Challenge, where now you're going to get some answers. Or maybe we slide over to a Bible study exercise, or maybe we slide over to a devotional message. And so many times there's multiple aspects going on, where this one, I'm just asking the questions, and maybe then I'm answering with more questions. And then over here, maybe I'm providing answers. Maybe over here I'm critiquing or analyzing someone who provided a hypothesis that goes this way, and I'm going an opposite way. I think if you put it all together, there's plenty of questions, but there's plenty of answers. Maybe not in one single episode, but rarely do I talk about something just in one single episode. All right, but so far these are basically I think basically this is relatively fair, right? I talk in circles, okay? There's elements of that. I ask a question and answer with a question. I think those are fair criticisms. I think that that's fair. I can't argue against that. I definitely do. I don't think it's, I think it's, it's, I don't, I think it's fair. I think it's just missing the greater context because you take any particular subject, tell me which one you're referring to and let me go pull together all of the episodes related to it, put it in a playlist and say, this is where the discussion started. This is where it stopped. And almost inevitably, it's going to go from questions, questions, questions, questions, questions, questions, questions, to now a hypothesis, test, test, test, test, test, to some type of conclusion. I think most people, I think most people can see the structure. It doesn't always work out clean and perfect, but I've always said, I don't want it to be clean and perfect. I want it to be very real and organic. Basically, basically says everyone else, especially other teachers and podcasts, are wrong but him. I say everyone else is wrong but him. Now, let me just make it very clear. There may be some level of criticism where that is true, but let's make it very clear. Every pastor thinks they're right. Every Christian podcaster thinks they're right. Every denomination thinks they're right. If they thought other denominations were right, they wouldn't exist. If this church didn't think that they were right, they would close down and go to the church across the street. Everyone thinks they're right. That's the whole thing about Christianity. Everyone thinks their theology is right. Everyone thinks their doctrine is right. Everyone thinks their interpretation is right. But let me make it very clear, on this podcast, let's make it very clear, on the Sermons 2.0 App Sermon Challenge, what have I done? I've spent this entire year trying to get you, the listener, to go listen to other people. How many times do I say in a podcast where I'm like, I disagree with this or I disagree with that, but go listen to them because you may agree with them more. Hey, here's their hypotheses, here's my hypotheses. I disagree with theirs, but I still tell you, what I tell you to go read their books. I tell you to go listen to them. I tell you that you may agree with them more. So don't get me into this, oh, this to me now, now I start getting a little frustrated, all right? Because I say everyone else, especially other teachers and podcasters, are wrong. Well, in one sense, everyone in Christianity does that. And to say that they don't is ridiculous, because that's just the way theology works. You hold to a theology, and you believe that theology is right, and any other theology that disagrees with your theology, inevitably you're stating whether you want to explicitly say it or simply imply it, it is wrong. Charismatics believe I'm wrong. Presbyterians believe I'm wrong. Amillennialists believe I'm wrong. Covenant theology believes I'm wrong. Non-reformed people believe I'm wrong. Lutherans believe I'm wrong. Catholics believe I'm wrong. Greek Orthodox believe I'm wrong. Episcopalians believe that I'm wrong. Okay, come on now. It's just, you could say that to any, any Christian broadcaster, you could say, you think you're right and everyone else is wrong. Well, everyone who disagrees with them, they think they're wrong. That's the way it works. That's literally the way theology works. Theology makes dogmatic assertions. Bible interpretation makes dogmatic assertions. When you say what you believe about baptism, you're making a dogmatic assertion that that's the right view of baptism, and anyone who disagrees is wrong. If you believe in the charismatic gifts are continuing, and God is speaking to you outside of the Bible, anyone who disagrees with that, you're going to say is wrong. If you believe that the gift of tongues is in as active today and someone else says no it's not it sees you're they're gonna think that you're wrong but it says um that basically says everyone else especially other teachers and podcasters are wrong but him now i think see i i i feel i'm now there is a level of that that i i am agreeing with But anyone who listens to me, I mean, currently, I mean, this email or this review is posted right in the middle of what is currently going on in this podcast. I read from a book that put forth a hypothesis about Solomon. And what did I say? I'm like, okay, guys, here we go. Let's prove whether this is true. or false? I gave everyone steps to take, right? Let's look up the chronological order of the books of Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Proverbs. Let's do that. Okay, let's do this. Let's look this up. Let's look this up. Okay, you can look at it from this chapter, this chapter. You can go to 1 Kings 11. Okay, I gave everyone plenty and what did I say? I'm not going to say what I think because, you know what, I could be wrong. So I'm going to throw away all of my past understanding and we're going to find out if I've been wrong. And if I do, I said I would turn on the microphone and say that I was wrong. And I said, and I even said I was nervous because maybe I've been wrong this entire time. I constantly do that with almost every subject. Here's, and I constantly say things, here's my hypothesis. I see that over and over and over. Here's my hypotheses. I'm not being dogmatic. We're going to test it. And then what do I say after we've tested it? Well, here's the conclusion I've come to, but the next time we study it, what do I do? I throw away all of my past understanding and start anew because my past understanding could be wrong. I try as much as possible to do all of that. And I allow you to be right there challenging the hypotheses, testing the hypotheses, participating in the studies, emailing me, over and over and over. I allow people to do that. I beg people to participate. And even if you accuse me of thinking I'm the only one right, again, that's very prevalent within Christianity. But what about all of my efforts? I have a podcast series called the Christian Podcast Spotlight, where I try to turn the spotlight on other Christian podcasts. Now, when I review them, sometimes I say I think they're right. Sometimes I think they're wrong. But what am I doing? And what do I say? Hey, you may like them better. Go listen to them. I'm always pointing people to every other, from books, to podcasts, to ministries. everything I can to get people to listen to other people. I bend over backwards to get people to listen to other people. I don't say, I'm the only one you should listen to. I've never done that. I've never said that. I say, go listen to anyone and everyone. And what do I do? Even when we do sermon reviews, what do I do when I do a sermon review? Okay. Here's what they say. Here's what I say. And if I get negative, I almost always am apologetic at the end, going, well, hey, don't make this attack upon that person. We're just having a discussion about the hypotheses that they presented. Now, if there's something a ministry is doing that I've got major problems with, like, you know, I don't know, excommunicating a woman who was being beat by her husband, and he was sexually molesting her children, and he goes to prison, but the church doesn't lift the church discipline on the woman, yeah, I'm going to criticize that. One of the most difficult things in trafficking within theology is how do you balance out like, what does humility look like in theology while at the same time you're supposed to be opening the Bible and making dogmatic assertions about the interpretation of a text? When I read, you know, 1 Kings 3, if I go to 1 Kings 3, We've been doing a lot of work in 1 Kings 2, and it says, now Solomon made a treaty with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and married Pharaoh's daughter. Okay, now I've got to make some kind of judgment on that action, and I'm going to probably have to state it in somewhat of a dogmatic way. And then if you get down to 1 Kings 3.3, now the king, speaking of Solomon, he went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for there was the great high place. Wait a minute, why is Solomon offering a sacrifice on the high place? Is that right or is that wrong? I've got to make some kind of dogmatic assertion and interpretation about it. So, on one hand, you've got to be dogmatic in theology. You have to. I have to believe. Do I believe that we're justified by an imputed righteousness or an infused righteousness? Well, if I say imputed, then I'm saying the belief in an infused righteousness is completely wrong. If I go with repentance being a change of mind more than a change of action, well then I'm saying the other view is wrong. I mean, if I say baptism is for believers by immersion in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then I'm saying everyone who baptized by sprinkling, baptism, or baptizing in the name of Jesus only, then none of them are valid. I mean, I've got to be dogmatic in those cases. There's nothing I can do there. Now, what I try to do is say, hey, this is my view now, but I'm more than willing to change my view. And anyone who's listened to me for 20, 30 something years, I have changed my views on so many things. In fact, that's usually what I get criticized for. So how do you maintain humility? I don't know the way to maintain humility. I can remain teachable, which I think I am. I can change my views, which I am very, got a track record of doing. I can try to set up a study system that throws out my past understanding so that I can study something new without relying on my past understanding in case my past understanding was wrong. That is a way of trying to implement humility. Is it ever going to be perfect? No, because I have a sinful nature that by its very nature is prideful because that's the very essence of sin. They go on to say, but never really says what he believes. I never say what I believe. I never say what I believe. I never say what I believe, ever. I never say what I, so I just say everyone else is wrong, but you don't infer from that that I'm saying what I believe. If I say someone else is wrong, well then clearly I don't believe, I believe the opposite of what I'm criticizing, right? I never say what I believe, but yet I tell you that I'm the only one right. Meaning, if I'm criticizing... When we did some reviews of the top two podcasts on the Spotify religion and spirituality chart, both of them were very charismatic. I've made it a very clear that I loathe charismatic theology. I despise charismatic theology. So that's a pretty good idea that I'm not charismatic. So that would make me what? If I'm not a charismatic, what would I be? What would I be? A cessationist? Maybe, maybe, maybe. Could I be that? Maybe, maybe. Possibly? I've been doing an entire series on eschatology. I've not clearly defined what I believe there. We did an entire series on baptism in the early church. Did I not clearly define what I believe there? I could go from series to series, law and gospel. Have I not made it abundantly clear what I believe about the proper distinction between law and gospel? Have I not made it abundantly clear that I believe in a justification by an imputed righteousness versus an infused righteousness? Have I not made it abundantly clear what I believe in regards to Lordship? I can go on. I mean, there's thousands upon thousands and thousands of messages online from me that would clearly indicate what I believe. Let me see. My church holds to the London Baptist Confession of Faith. That would probably give me a clue. Oh, I'm on Sermon Audio, meaning, oh wait, we have to agree to a statement of faith. So clearly I agree with the statement of faith that Sermon Audio puts forth. Huh, let me see. I don't know what else I can do to make it clear. quick to point out contradictions in the Bible, then gives no answer as to what he thinks is correct. Okay, let me get very clear. What do we do here? I don't point out necessarily contradictions. I point out things that are difficult or convoluted or confusing or appears to be a contradiction. And then we spend hour after hour after hour after hour trying to come up with a salute. What do you mean I never give an answer? We spend literally hours and hours and hours trying to come up with the answer. What are you talking about? That's literally all we do. We've been struggling with things with Solomon. What have we been doing hour after hour? Hey, giving people assignments, giving questions, giving quizzes. Let's do this. Let's work on this. Let's work on this. Giving you the opportunity to be a part of finding the answer. I never give an answer? Look, hey, if you've got the answer to the apparent contradictions I pointed out, by all means, email me at newsifatyahoo.com and provide me the answers. Then I could turn on the microphone and read all of your answers. But I mean, that's in every issue, we're like, okay, hey, ladies and gentlemen, I'll turn on the microphone. Okay, guys, we have a problem here. This and this, that seems to make no sense. That seems, we got to figure this out. We've done entire series that way, entire series of, well, what about this? Or what about that? Wait, hey, a lot of people interpret the Sermon on the Mount this way. Well, if you interpret the Sermon on the Mount this way, oh, that seems to contradict then the actual use of the law. So what about this? What about, we then we provide ultimate, we've done that with, I can't, I could go on and on. That's all we do here is we present the problem and try to be very open and honest about the problem. And then guess what else do we do? I go grab other messages from other people that I have not listened to yet. So that's one of the things. When people criticize me this way, it very much frustrates me because it seems to be that they demonstrate a lack of awareness of anything we do. So we'll have a problem. And I'm like, okay, so here's the problem. Let's see how other people approach this problem. And then I'll review a sermon or review a sermon. Do I listen to those sermons in advance? No, I'm choosing random sermons because I may agree or disagree. Allow you to hear someone else's perspective, typically give you the name of the broadcast so you can go listen to the rest of it for yourself. And then we are confronted with their hypotheses, their hypotheses. So now you've got three, four different hypotheses. And then I will then put forth my hypotheses and go, okay, guys, what do you think? Here's all the different perspectives. I don't give any answer. That is absolutely ridiculous. That's all I do. I give no answer as to what he thinks is correct. Well, if I give no answer to what I think is correct and I never tell you what I believe, then clearly I can't be telling you I'm the only one who's right since I'm not stating anything in the affirmative. Now it goes on to say, maybe he has deconstructed and wants everyone else to do the same. We've talked about, I've talked about all the issues in Christianity that leads to deconstruction. I'm the one who's been speaking about the whole, well, because a listener emailed me and started telling me about deconstructionism and all these TikTok videos, and I've talked about it and mentioned it over and over and over and over and over and over as the things that can lead to deconstruction. I've never once said anything about me. Now, sometimes by the time I'm done reviewing a sermon, I tell you, I joke around saying, I'm ready to go to the liquor store and deconstruct. Now, all of that, all of that would not have me turn on the microphone. Okay? That's just the kind of frustrating, that's just kind of frustrating, right? That's just kind of frustrating, right? That's just kind of irritating. and it just feels like someone who's misrepresenting, they're not being fair, right? They're throwing out accusations, they're attacking, and it doesn't seem like it's very fair or accurate. As, I mean, I would know, I mean, I'm the one who does thousands of hours of broadcasting a year, I think I would know that this is not a fair representation. Now, many of you who listen to me, you, by all means, you can email me at newsifatyahoo.com, and you can say, well, I think that person was correct in that, and I'll be more than happy to listen to that. just feel personally that that is complete misrepresentation of what I do and I've got thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of hours of audio to pull up to disprove every one of these claims. and because I'm broadcasting on a site that makes me sign a confession of faith, clearly it's not what I believe. Now, maybe this person doesn't have any clue about that. That's why you got to be careful before you start accusing and attacking and making sure you know. But this is the part that made me turn on the microphone, because this really bothered me. Former pastor of 25-member church and now sits in his house and broadcast alone, yet acts like he is big time. Now that's just a straight up personal attack. Now, if this individual wants to really attack me, I can give you far better ammunition than just attacking the size of the church or the fact that I now broadcast from my home. If you want to really attack me, you can just email me and I can send you a long list of sins that I've committed, mistakes I've made, stupid things I've done, And you'll probably go, man, I was going for the easy stuff. But I mean, if you want to attack me, that I, my, well, first of all, I don't know if you know the history of the church, but at one point in time, there was almost 100 people in that church building. But okay, I mean, if you want to get in there, but that's okay. It's never, it was never going to be a large church just because the way I did things. There's times we had a lot of people, but okay, maybe 25 members makes up almost 100 people in there. I don't remember. I'd have to sit there and count the numbers, but okay, it doesn't matter. So now you're going to attack me because my church was small? Is that the way we're going to do things now? You know what? I've stated it on this podcast a thousand times. So let me just get this out of the way for everyone who wants to attack me. As a human being, from a human perspective, my ministry has been an abysmal failure. I approached ministry from a very, very, very, very unique perspective. And I always said, I'm not going to do this like all the other churches. And I always knew that that was going to limit my numbers. I mean, obviously it was very clear when I got kicked off Christian Radio that my approach was not always going to be popular. And I know that. So from a human perspective, it has been a failure. So you can really rub that in. You're right. I had a very small church. You're right. And you're right. I do broadcast alone. Now, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but almost all podcasts are recorded by someone alone in a room. Maybe they have a co-host, but typically it's just two, maybe three people in a room alone recording. I mean, that's called a podcast. Like, I don't know what should I, I shouldn't be broadcasting unless I have an audience of what, 50 people in front of me. But, so, because I broadcast from my home? Do you know how many podcasts, you know how many musical acts record, it's called bedroom pop. You know how many famous pop stars made many of their famous albums in their bedroom? Like, is there now a crime because you can have studio software in your house? I mean, that just seems like someone just wanting to belittle me. That's okay, belittle me. You're right. I am a podcaster sitting in a room by himself who was an abysmal failure in ministry. You're absolutely right. I have made a million mistakes, mistakes you probably aren't even aware of. I have failed in thought, word, and deed. There is no way to get around it. And then he says, I'm a former pastor of a 25-member church, and I now sit in his house and broadcast alone. Your acts, means yet acts, like he is big time. Now see, right there, that was wrong of me, because I'm pointing out that he didn't type the word yet. He typed the word your, Y-E-R. So now I'm just being a jerk, because now, see, my ego is attacked, because he belittled me, and now I want to strike back. Maybe I do act like I'm big time. Maybe I do. I tend to joke that I'm not big time. I tend to joke that I'm Maybe I do. You may be right. You know what? Maybe that criticism, maybe I do act like I'm big time. I don't know exactly how I act like I'm big time, but maybe I do. Maybe I act like I'm big time when I give statistics about how many people listened, or we accomplished this goal, or we got listed at this top percentage of podcasts, or I could go through some numbers right now. But yeah, so maybe I do act like I'm the big time. Maybe I do. I think I've tried to be very, very, very transparent about how I feel like a complete and horrible failure for everything I've done wrong in ministry. If someone is a failure, right? If someone is a failure in one area, does that mean they should never speak again? Can you not learn from those who failed? Can we not learn from those who've messed up and made mistakes? Is there no room? Is there no place for someone? I mean, I don't know. must make him feel important as he criticizes solid, successful ministries that actually give answers instead of more questions. So, I guess I make myself feel important as I criticize solid, successful ministries. See, so I am not a solid, successful minister, so therefore I should not criticize anyone else. I guess many of the prophets should not have been criticizing the religious leaders because they weren't very successful because they didn't have a lot of followers like Jeremiah or Isaiah. But I won't get into that because I think John the Baptist was – well, I guess he was somewhat successful with the people, sure wasn't successful with the religious leaders, but OK. I mean, Jesus, and when it all said and done, I mean, how many, all of his disciples walked away and didn't even follow with him anymore until the, okay, but all right. I, you know, I don't, I guess, I guess now if, if, if a ministry is successful based off numbers, then they are above being criticized. And again, I've stated it over and over, if anyone's listening to me, I almost always say, we're not criticizing the ministry, we're taking their hypotheses. Now, when it comes to charismatic ministries, oh yeah, I'm all down, I'll go all, but even then, what do I say? We're trying not to criticize the people, we're trying to criticize the theology. Because it comes to charismatic theology, absolutely, I'm a complete and total jerk. I hate charismatic theology, believe it's a cancer and should be eradicated from the face of the earth. But that would seem to indicate that I'm telling you what I believe, but I guess that doesn't. Now, see, the first part, that's OK. I mean, that's just my typical criticism that I may get. But then it got just so personal and attacked me personally. And I just don't understand. But that's OK. That's OK. So to the person who sent this, you're right. I'm a failure. You're right. I'm a failure. I got no, I literally mean that. Thank you for reminding me of that because you're probably right. I probably do think I'm a big, big time thing or a big, what's your exact words? That I'm big time. You're probably right. I probably do think I'm big time. You're probably right that I probably, you know, I should not speak after these big successful ministries. Well, actually, I disagree with that. I'm not gonna say that. Now I'm just being, now I'm being foolish. I disagree with that. I think just because something is successful from whatever metric you're using to define successful does not make it above any form of criticism. I just think that that's not, I don't think that that's accurate or fair. The church history has not even demonstrated that. because the Catholic Church was so successful, Luther shouldn't have criticized it? I mean, come on. I mean, come on now. Like, I mean, I just, I just, that just doesn't, we can go throughout history where sometimes, I mean, yeah, I'm not going to get into all that. So I'm going to disagree with that. You're probably right. I will, I will agree with this. I do ask a lot of questions and sometimes do not provide immediate answers. I do believe much of your criticism is not a fair assessment of all the things I do and all the work we do to put forth a problem, put forth a hypothesis, listen to other people explain their hypotheses, and narrow it down to what we think is the most workable solution, which is what I spend hours upon hours upon hours upon hours of my time doing. But OK. So I don't think that's necessarily a fair argument, but I'll give that it can be maddening to people. And I typically acknowledge how maddening it can be to people when I do that. So, but all right. You are absolutely correct. that I pastor a very small church. It's always been small. It's always been small. We can get into how many people have always been there or not been there, but okay, all right. We can get into the times of small, times of growth, and in times of massive decline to where it all ended. Okay, you're absolutely right. I am a failure. I've got no problem. From a human perspective, when it comes to a From a human way of judging it, in every criteria, I am an abysmal failure. You don't even know how many ways I have failed. I could give you a list of ways in which I have failed. Miserably, horribly, and in every way that I have failed, I have been wrong. It's my fault, nobody else's fault. I got no problem admitting that. Yes, I do broadcast alone because that's typically how podcasts are recorded. If there is a way of recording podcast where you're in front of a large studio audience, please tell me the best way to construct that. If you want to, I don't give some money so I can build a studio that has a live audience inside of it. I guess I could do something like that, but most podcasts are recorded in small studios alone. That's kind of the way they work, but okay. All right, but yes, I am and I'm recording in my house. And so if that's all to belittle me, then congratulations, you have belittled me. I'm a failure who broadcast in my home alone. All right. And you're probably right. There's probably times I do act like I'm much more important than I am. And I probably do need to be knocked down. And so I will accept that. And I don't know, I don't think criticizing anything has ever made me feel important, but you're probably right. There's probably a little bit of that. So, and all of that, you're right. I think you're throwing a lot of rocks, and I'm glad that you have nothing in your life that could be open for criticism or attack, because it's got to be good to be standing in such a position of moral superiority. But you probably are morally superior to me, and so I got no problem with that as well. Feel free to do that. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I don't know if you've ever been criticized exactly like that or been demeaned, or I'm probably even saying the word correctly, belittled, people just really going after you that way. Forget podcasts, just think of the ways in which that has happened to you. So what I wanna do is end with this. The Proverbs offers some valuable wisdom and how to handle personal attacks and hurtful comments. What you've heard me do for about 50 something minutes is probably not necessarily do that correctly. Let me just go through some of these quickly. All from the book of Proverbs, because while we've been working in the book of Proverbs. So if I can connect this to the book of Proverbs, then I think I make this somewhat beneficial. Proverbs 15.1, a soft answer turns away wrath. but a harsh word stirs up anger. Whenever you are personally attacked, you need to guard your words, your words, forget their words, you have to guard your words. You have to respond calmly and with gentle words. Sometimes that diffuses conflicts and prevents escalation. I don't know if I accomplished that. You can judge me and tell me how I failed. I tried to use soft answers. I tried not to use harsh words. If I failed in doing that, learn from me, because somewhat today, someone could possibly attack you, or say something hurtful to you, or say something mean to you, or belittle you, or demean you in some way, shape, or form. When they do that, please guard your words. Respond calmly and with gentle words to diffuse the conflict, and to prevent it from escalating. Please try to remember that. I need to remember that, because I didn't do so good today. Proverbs 20, verse 3. Proverbs 20, verse 3. It is honorable for a man to stop striving since any fool can start a quarrel. Avoid strife and avoid fools. It is wise to avoid engaging in quarrels and arguments, especially with those who are looking to provoke strife. Now, maybe I failed here. Maybe the best thing I should have done is just deleted that. But I had a hard time because it was so personal, right? It was demeaning. It was belittling. It humiliated me. I was humiliated by some of that because, yes, I know. Look, I am more painfully aware of my failure than maybe anybody else. I've said it so many times. Whenever I would drive to the church and see how few people are there, I have felt that failure. I am painfully aware of that failure. and I allowed that to get to me. So guess what? Maybe it would have been honorable for me not to strive. Since any fool can start a quarrel, any fool can post a comment, any fool, and I'm not saying the person who posted it is a fool. I'm not saying that. I'm saying anyone can post something and send something. It doesn't mean I need to engage in it. So I may have been wrong there. Do not repay evil for evil. Proverbs 20, verse 22. Do not say, I will recompense evil. Wait for the Lord and he will answer you. So do not repay evil for evil. Now I kind of did that a little bit, right? Because of a typo. I kind of threw it out there because I was being a condescending jerk because my ego was hurt. Instead of seeking revenge, leave room for divine justice and trust that God will ultimately deal with those who wrong you. You know what? It's not about God dealing with anything. I should have just left it alone and just be done with it. So don't strike back. Don't strike back. Proverbs 12, 15. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise. Well, you know what? What I need to do is try to heed the counsel. from this particular email as much as possible, from this particular comment. Is there any counsel in there? Probably so, probably is some need that. Another thing though I could have done is I could have sought wise counsel. When you face personal attack, seek the advice of wise and trustworthy individuals who can provide guidance and perspective. Maybe what I should have done is like, you know what, I need to go, I need to ask someone about this and how I should respond. But I didn't because my own personal ego, I wanted to say something. So it's a selfish reason. But at the same time, I should try to take whatever counsel I think I can derive from this. I mean, do I take the counsel? Hey, you're a failure. So why are you broadcasting? You're not a big time anything. You're a failure. You're not successful. Basically, if I paraphrase, you're pathetic, you're not successful, you're not a big time, you're not big time, you're a failure, so you shouldn't be broadcasting. You should be embarrassed that you're broadcasting from your house alone. Maybe they're right. Maybe they're right. I mean, I have contemplated just quitting everything. Maybe they're right. Maybe this is the message I needed to hear. Proverbs 25, 28. Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls. Maintain self-control. Reacting in anger or retaliation only escalates the situation. It is important to maintain self-control and respond thoughtfully. Did I maintain self-control here? Probably not, because if I maintained true self-control, I would have just ignored it and went on with my day. But I've now spent an hour, so I have not maintained self-control. So learn not to do this for me. Look, please do not make this about, if you listen to this, for those who are listening to this, ignore what the entire, thing that was sent that was so critical of me and a personal attack upon me. Don't make it up. Make it about you and how you get sometimes attacked. People can demean you, belittle you, and hurt you. How do you respond? Well, guard your words and respond calmly with gentle words. Avoid strife. It is wise to avoid engaging in quarrels and arguments, especially those who are looking to provoke strife. Know when to walk away. Do not repay evil for evil. Seek wise counsel. And if you do receive criticism, at least try to take heed to maybe what's being told. There's something in there you can learn from. Maintain self-control. Again, Proverbs 25, 28. Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls. Hey, control, have self-control, maintain self-control. Proverbs 19, 11. Proverbs 19, 11. The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger and his glory is to overlook a transgression. Forgive and let go. Holding on to grudges and bitterness only harms oneself. Practice forgiveness and let go of the hurt caused by personal attacks. Let me read that to you again. The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger. Have I been slow to anger? And his glory is to overlook a transgression. Can I overlook these personal attacks? Can I overlook them? Can I turn the other cheek? Can I forgive as I have been forgiven? Can I love even someone who's treated me as an enemy? That's what I'm called to do. Am I going to do it perfectly? No, I'm going to fail at that as well, because one thing we do talk about on this podcast over and over and over is that I'm a sinner with a microphone, and I fail all the time. I sin against God in thought, word, and deed by what I do and by what I leave undone. So I have probably failed in this as well. See, I should be slow to anger and my glory is to overlook a transgression. Can I just overlook this? Because it felt very personal. I felt very, it went after my male ego. It went after everything. It makes me want to just quit. Because I feel stupid now. I feel idiotic. I feel foolish. I feel little. I feel insignificant. I feel small. I feel foolish. I feel dumb. I feel like an absolute idiot. Who am I to ever turn on the microphone and try this? Who am I? Now, by all means, maybe the person who emailed this, they probably could do much better than me. So maybe other people should be doing what I'm trying to do. And maybe what I'm doing doesn't even matter. Proverbs chapter three, verse five through six, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding and all his ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. Ultimately, I should place my trust in God. I should seek his guidance and handling personal attacks, trust that he will provide wisdom in his word. and comfort in difficult situations. If I even attempt to try to follow these teachings of Proverbs, I can hopefully navigate personal attacks and hurtful comments with wisdom, grace, and a heart that seeks reconciliation and peace. So today, or tomorrow, or whenever you feel attacked, or someone says mean or hurtful things, guard your own words, And that's Proverbs 15, 1. Respond calmly with gentle words that can diffuse conflicts and escalation. Number two, avoid strife and fools. That's Proverbs 20, verse 3. It is wise to avoid engaging in quarrels and arguments, especially with those who are looking to provoke strife. Number three, do not repay evil for evil. That's Proverbs 20, 22. Number four, seek wise counsel, Proverbs 12, 15. I think that means trying to hear any counsel you think you can get from those attacks. And also, sometimes you gotta go listen to other people and listen to them tell you what you should do. Number five, maintain self-control, Proverbs 25, 28. Reacting in anger or retaliation only escalates the situation. It is important to maintain self-control. Number six, forgive and let go, Proverbs 19, 11. Number seven, trust in the Lord, Proverbs 3, 5 through 6. I have failed in ministry. I have probably failed as a podcaster. I know I have failed as a Christian. And I probably have failed in all the different ways I've handled criticism. And I will continue to fail. If I broadcast for another three months, I will fail in those three months. If I was to broadcast for another six months, I will fail. If I was to broadcast for another five years, I will continue to fail. But I do believe even those of us who are failures and those of us who are sinners still can offer something. I could be wrong, but I think there's room enough out of the millions and millions of podcasts for someone who's a failure to be able to turn on a microphone and talk about theology. Thanks for listening. You can email me directly at newsifatyahoo.com. Newsifatyahoo.com. I hope your Saturday is better than mine has been. But now I'm going to try to do what that great philosopher once said and shake it off. That's a little joke because I'm referring to Taylor Swift. All right, everyone have a great day. God bless.