守住真道 05 神的奥秘

In the last lesson, we discussed the gradual nature of revelation and the importance of the Bible alone.

We must know God through His Word, just as you must know me through my self-introduction, right?

Our thoughts and beliefs must have a source, a starting point.

Without a logical foundation, people cannot communicate; similarly, without a theological foundation, we cannot begin to have faith.

Therefore, God gave His Word from eternity and speaks to us personally.

The Holy Spirit personally leads us to understand His Word, and we can begin to know Him through the Bible in Jesus Christ.

Today, we will explore the mysteries of God through the revelation of the Bible.

To know God, we must begin with His definition.

Adam's understanding of animals began with naming them; naming is essentially defining.

What is God? What is the definition of God?

Before God's revelation came, humanity, as a religious creation, had already begun to imagine God for itself.

Humans had created their own definition of God, defining His image for themselves.

In the Book of Exodus, Moses asked God, " You asked me to go back to Egypt and bring the Israelites out.

If they ask for your name, how should I introduce you?"

You see, before that, the Israelites' concept of God was very simple: the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

What does the Israelites' question show?

It shows that at that time, people believed there could be many gods, and to distinguish them, they gave various gods many names.

The Israelites lived in Egypt, where there were many, many gods, countless false gods.

So the Israelites asked, "Does your God have a name?

If this God is going to save us, what will his name be?"

This is very interesting.

Adam named the animals in the Garden of Eden, but here we see Adam's descendants starting to presumptuously name gods.

This illustrates an epistemological truth: any human thought, even thought about God, must first define the concept.

But think about it this way: what does it mean if a God allows you to name Him?

It means He's not a true God at all.

This is the paradox of truth we discussed earlier: you can't have a discussion if you don't define God, but if you define God and give Him a name, then God is no longer God; you're greater than God.

It's a chicken-and-egg situation.

Gregory the Nazareth, an early Church Father, wrote , "It is difficult to conceive of God, but impossible to define Him."

Humans naming God is quite offensive to Him.

Humans are so foolish.

You can name your son because you're his father, but what kind of nonsense is it to name God?

What does it show?

At the very least, it shows you don't take Him seriously.

Therefore, defining God or naming Him is a very serious theological issue.

The most important revelation of the Bible is that it reveals or demonstrates God's supreme nature: He is a self-revealing God, an eternal God.

This declares that He is supreme; His name and attributes, if He didn't reveal them, no one could know them.

Because the minds of sinners are completely corrupted, they can no longer even see the most basic logical contradictions.

That's why Moses asked this question. What does this show?

It shows that he spent 40 years in Egypt and was influenced by Egyptian polytheism.

He thought his ancestral god was just one of many gods.

So, he was asking, "You want me to bring them out? What's your name?"

He didn't realize that the definition of God dictates that He must be the only true God.

It's clear that people's understanding of God is a gradual process.

In fact, throughout the Old Testament, although the Israelites received the Law of Sinai and established the concept of one God, we see that in their faith practice, they didn't act according to their faith.

They still often treated Jehovah God as just one of many gods, and even viewed the results of wars between them and other nations as an indication of Jehovah God's power and whether He had defeated other gods.

This is the limitation of sinners' epistemology.

So, among such a group of sinners, must the truth God reveals to humanity be simple and easy to understand, catering to the sinners' comprehension and imagination?

The Bible tells us no.

When God reveals himself to us, he certainly uses language and logic we can understand, but He constantly maintains His transcendence, reminding us that His essence is something we cannot fully comprehend.

So, when we open the Bible to the first page, it speaks of God creating mankind, and He uses the word "we": "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness."

But when He speaks to Moses, when He reveals Himself, He says, "I am the one true God."

See?

This immediately confuses us.

We humans are strange; we don't allow mysteries to exist.

Think about why we love reading detective novels so much?

Why do we love exploring the unknown and uncovering its mysteries?

The most popular channels on YouTube are all related to mysteries—case analysis channels, alien channels, or various conspiracy theory channels— they're incredibly popular.

Explanations of various murder cases also garner high click rates.

Science enthusiasts explore the infinite universe, the mysteries of extraterrestrials, and the mysteries of time, while medical experts are concerned with the mysteries of human consciousness and life itself.

This yearning for and pursuit of the unknown is, in fact, beneficial to humanity, driving human development and scientific advancement.

Indeed, we are driven by the unknown; the unknown guides human civilization.

However, the current state of the world tells us that without the revelation of Christ, without the revelation of God himself, humanity's exploration of the unknown could not have spontaneously produced the civilization we have today.

This is the uniqueness of Christian revelation. Unlike other ambitious humankind, Christian revelation tells us from the very beginning a mystery that can never be solved.

Therefore, the Bible begins with the most profound mystery, directly capping human thought, setting a ceiling for it.

God's word begins with mystery, and this mystery will remain unknown until God unravels it.

So, in Genesis 1:26, God says, "Let us make mankind in our image," and then in chapter 27 he says "in our image," at which point the verb becomes singular .

This is a huge grammatical contradiction .

Gentiles think the Bible's grammar is wrong, and that's how non-believers interpret it.

Jews only care about the law, not grammar, so we rarely see their interpretation of this passage; they carefully circumvent it.

But Christian theologians are different .

They have the revelation of the Holy Spirit, and they see God's transcendence in it.

They accept that the Bible is God's personal revelation, and that the Bible cannot be wrong.

Therefore, it cannot be a case of "Moses wrote it wrong" —no, it is what God said.

Starting from this logical origin, you can only arrive at one conclusion, which is what Augustine meant when he said, "If you understand, then what you understand is not God."

So you can only arrive at a very definite conclusion by following the logical origin of God's revelation.

They saw God's warning to humanity in the Bible, which constantly reminds us that we are facing an infinite being whose existence transcends the boundaries of human thought and language.

Therefore, it is impossible for humans to comprehend God's revealed words; this concept is clearly revealed to us in the first chapter of Genesis.

When faced with this statement, an honest attitude of faith should be to acknowledge that some things are beyond our comprehension, because our human minds are extremely limited.

Even living in this material world, we ourselves still have so many mysteries beyond our knowledge.

Science's understanding of the world is actually only a very small part.

Look at everyday life; most murder cases are unsolved, and only a small percentage are solved.

Even among those solved, many are wrongful convictions.

So how much do we really understand about the mysteries of God?

When God began His revelation through the Bible, He presented us with two undeniable facts: first, we cannot know the true nature of God; but second, we can understand His revelation, which He willingly allows us to know.

Our understanding of Him through the Bible is real.

Why? Because the Bible comes from God, and His omniscience and omnipotence guarantee the feasibility of this understanding.

If He willingly reveals Himself to us, but we still cannot grasp it, then God has failed . But God is omnipotent.

. But God is omnipotent.

However, a complete understanding of His true nature is impossible because God's nature is inexhaustible; He is infinite.

But we can truly know Him because He has mercy on us and willingly reveals Himself.

But we must remember that we can never fully comprehend Him.

God's imposition of such limitations is a great blessing.

It allows us to maintain our faith without feeling defeated, because our knowledge of God is guaranteed by His omnipotence and omniscience; yet, it also humbles us, leading to genuine awe and heartfelt worship.

It's like God has set up two barriers on our path of faith, like barriers on a highway.

The Bible is replete with such boundary limitations.

For example, God uses plain language that everyone can understand to describe His most transcendent and mysterious works.

The language of the Bible is clear, simple, even straightforward, but its content is transcendent, irrational, and even anti-human.

This tension leaves only one option: to believe or not to believe.

The tension in the Bible is fascinating . For instance, the Bible's content is vast,

fascinating . For instance, the Bible's content is vast, yet the Gospel is remarkably simple; Paul's summary is Jesus and His crucifixion.

The process of revelation is lengthy—the Old Testament spans 1,500 years— but Christ's ministry lasted only three and a half years, and his resurrection only three days.

The language of the Bible is simple and easy to understand, yet most people claim they can't understand it.

We've previously discussed that the Gospel isn't about understanding; all incomprehension stems from unbelief.

Since it's God's revelation, there's no question of not understanding it . As we just mentioned, the Holy Spirit guarantees you'll understand;

. As we just mentioned, the Holy Spirit guarantees you'll understand; if God wants you to understand, you will.

But how does God help you understand?

The Bible tells us it requires you to believe first.

Therefore, faith is the key to understanding the mysteries of the Bible.

So, faith is simply a matter of belief— this is the ultimate question God asks us, because whether we are chosen, whether we follow Christ, will ultimately be revealed through our faith in Christ.

People in the world have their own favorite mysteries; they enjoy researching unsolved mysteries and extraterrestrial life.

But we Christians also have our own favorite mysteries.

The question I hear most often, or rather, the question Christians most often explore, is whether someone is saved.

When we see a believer who proclaims themselves to be a Christian but whose theology is a mess, our first thought is that they are not saved, that they are a false believer.

But in fact, we often forget where we started.

I always remember how I was when I was baptized.

You might have started from scratch, while I might have started from a basement.

I didn't even know the relationship between Jehovah and Jesus, and I knew nothing about the Bible.

So if I feel that I have received grace, then I cannot doubt whether those brothers and sisters with poor theology are saved.

Why? Because my theology must have been at the very bottom.

You might all be better than me, but no one was worse than me.

So now I see hope in others because I always remember my starting point, you know?

So when someone walks into church, even if they don't believe in Christ, but I ask them: Have you read the Bible?

If they say yes, I think, wow, this person has so much hope.

Study hard. Whether they can become an Augustine, we don't know, but at least their starting point is higher than mine.

The Holy Spirit has already led them into the church, and I believe the Holy Spirit will continue to work.

This is somewhat like a story in the Bible, like Paul. When Paul was preaching, he didn't want to take Mark with him,

like Paul. When Paul was preaching, he didn't want to take Mark with him, but who could have imagined that God would use him to write the Gospel of Mark?

So God's work is so wondrous.

Paul later acknowledged Mark's ministry in his letters.

This is the revelation the Bible gives us.

We don't know the composition of believers, we don't know what stage of faith they are at.

In fact, the Bible describes the situation of believers as very diverse, and the scope is very broad.

From the robber on Jesus' right, who had almost no theology, he knew nothing about theology; he was practically a novice in faith.

Then there's Zacchaeus, who climbed the tree like a monkey to look at Jesus; and Peter, who denied Jesus three times.

If you were in that situation, you would definitely think that this person was doomed, that Jesus had abandoned him.

We even see the Apostle Paul later, who went around hunting down Christians, as if he had a deep hatred for them.

If I were a Christian present at that time, I would never have believed that he was saved by God.

So you see, but God's actions are truly beyond our comprehension.

Paul was later greatly used by God; he not only had the miraculous experience of being taken up to the third heaven, but he also wrote most of the New Testament . All of these were believers.

. All of these were believers.

If Jesus hadn't verbally granted salvation to that robber, personally told the tax collector Zacchaeus "I will stay at your house today," and personally told Peter "You will shepherd my sheep," and if God hadn't personally told Paul "I will send you to the Gentiles,"

I doubt anyone would have dared to be certain they were truly saved.

See, the Bible gives us such a broad sample of believers.

How can you categorize true and false believers according to theological knowledge?

You can't.

Therefore, God himself defined the scope of believers, encompassing almost all theological stages, from the robber justified by faith to Paul, who completed the entire marathon of faith— the entire range is included.

Anyone in between could be a true believer, or a false believer.

Not only are God's chosen people diverse, but even the language God uses is the same.

Looking at the Bible, the Pentateuch is mostly straightforward and very simple, even its interpretation of the law lacks emotional depth.

But when we look at the Psalms and the Song of Songs, it's a different story.

The Psalms are rich in emotion, and the Song of Songs is both romantic and passionate— this is another form of biblical expression.

Then, if you look further, you see Romans, which is completely different; it's a debate full of rational tension.

And then, if we look at Revelation, well, that's it—nobody can understand it . It's filled with ineffable visions.

. It's filled with ineffable visions.

God's revelation to us encompasses everything that humanity can understand, experience, and feel, and even includes things that are incomprehensible and unexperienceable.

Even the most complex and inexpressible aspects, including both emotional and rational ones, are beyond our ability to fully grasp. This compels us to explore the original meaning of the words at the time of revelation, especially within the context of their historical era.

Words, when spoken, inevitably bear the characteristics of their time; their meaning then may have changed over time and is unlikely to be fully understood today.

Therefore, theologians throughout history have continuously pondered how to ensure that the words of the Bible always reveal their original meaning.

Some interpret them from a historical perspective, but history, with its passage of time, diminishes the meaning of its language, making it difficult to recapture the original historical context.

However, under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, theologians have clearly seen the method God has given us: interpreting Scripture with Scripture.

Only by defining the words within their own context can we achieve the most accurate interpretation.

In this transcendent way, the Bible continuously guides interpreters throughout history back to its source, back to the beginning, back to God's unchanging center.

Because the Bible defines the words in its own words, its content must be incredibly rich, and it must record a vast amount of information to create a comprehensive database of vocabulary.

When you don't know the definition of a word, or if you want to know its definition in the context of the Bible, you can refer to other passages within the Bible for explanation.

This is a capability that no other so-called faith based on false god worship possesses.

Sometimes we might think, "The Bible reveals a very simple truth: Christ offered an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

It's so simple, so why use such a vast amount of text to explain it?

It's such a thick book!"

I believe this is to prevent sinners from blurring, diluting, or drifting away from the truth as time changes.

God reveals the truth and explains it to us personally using the vocabulary of the Bible.

Therefore, our theology must be defined by God, thus setting a rational boundary for our interpretation of scripture.

This might sound abstract and theologically focused, so let me give an example to help you understand what it means to interpret scripture with scripture.

For example, in Hebrews 11:6, it says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

Based on this verse, one might easily conclude that we must believe in God to please Him.

When one understands it this way , faith becomes an action: when I believe in God, I please Him; God's pleasure is built upon the act of faith.

But when we carefully consider what it means to please God, how do we understand this phrase? What does it mean?

this phrase? What does it mean?

When we try to understand the meaning of this term, we return to the Bible to find out what kind of people are pleasing to God.

We then find it in Deuteronomy 10:15: “But the Lord delights in your ancestors; he loves them and has chosen their offspring from among all nations—you, as is the case today.”

When you see this verse, light enters, and the Holy Spirit shines upon you.

It turns out that those who are pleasing to God are a group chosen by God, selected from among all nations to love only Him.

God first makes them His people, and then begins to educate and lead them.

Therefore, we understand the definition of those who are pleasing to God: they are a chosen group.

Now, if we look at this statement from the opposite perspective, we will have a different understanding.

It says that without faith it is impossible to please God.

This statement needs to be understood in reverse, because the cause and effect are reversed.

You can understand it this way: those who please God are people of faith, and only after having faith can they come before God.

This faith is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the grace of the Holy Spirit.

It is a noun.

When a person receives the grace of faith, the chosen ones can come before God through this faith, believing in God's existence and believing that even the act of seeking God is a reward from God.

See?

So this reward doesn't refer to other worldly benefits, but rather to God's gift of faith in the Lord Jesus.

This is what religious reformers, like Calvin, did.

They first established the supreme authority of the Bible, then defined all terms based on the content of the Bible itself, and then used human reason and logic to describe the content revealed to us by the Bible, ensuring that it did not conflict or contradict other biblical passages.

Theology established in this way strives to conform to the Bible to the greatest extent possible and is acceptable to our conscience.

Arminianism contains too many biblical passages that defy moral judgment, which is why this theology has been consistently condemned throughout church history.

Arminian theology, essentially Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism within the church, is frequently condemned, arguably the most condemned heresy in church history.

Why?

Because it doesn't conform to biblical revelation.

Why did Arminian soteriology emerge within Roman Catholic theology?

Because they placed the authority of the church above the authority of the Bible.

This gradually diluted their principle of interpreting scripture through scripture.

Arminianism was influenced by Roman Catholic thought; a close friend was a Jesuit, and his view of salvation was influenced by him.

He interpreted the Bible according to human reason, naturally becoming influenced by human sinfulness, leading to deviations and a superficial humanistic understanding that leans towards the instincts of sinners.

Especially later, with the rise of liberal theology, the Bible had little authority in their eyes, having been subjected to numerous rounds of critical critique.

Therefore, it's not surprising that the church eventually embraced Arminianism.

So we see, if you go back to the origin and look for the cause, it actually stems from their failure to recognize the Bible as the highest authority.

Because only the Bible determines the subsequent series of "only," only the Bible allows us to rationally deduce "grace alone," "faith alone," "Christ alone," and "the glory of God alone" —all these are interconnected.

Why? Because all these subsequent revelations come from the Bible.

Although the Bible provides us with a sufficient vocabulary, there are clearly aspects of God's will that words cannot cover.

So how does the Bible express these transcendental aspects?

It's simple: some parts of the Bible truly require interpretation beyond the literal meaning of the words; that is, they require spiritual interpretation.

This is what we usually call allegorical interpretation or spiritual interpretation.

This method of interpretation has truly brought a lot of diversity to faith life, producing various different responses to the world.

Because your theological understanding differs, your reaction to the world will naturally differ.

This diversity leads us to continuously explore upwards and delve deeper, especially allowing us to look to the future.

This makes divine revelation transcend any era, forever guiding our faith and nourishing believers throughout the ages.

Therefore, God's revelation will inevitably have diversity, just like the human vocabulary we use.

The language God gave us has multiple meanings for each word.

So we shouldn't worry about theological diversity among believers or that you and I are different.

We don't need to see each other as enemies; there's no need. Even

the leaves of a tree created by God are not identical, let alone living, thinking, and feeling people.

Sometimes when we look at the Bible, it does seem to leave us with many ambiguous areas.

For example, regarding eschatology, the Bible has very clear parts on eschatology, but also some less clear parts.

This ambiguity is intentionally left by God so that different saints, under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, see different light and produce different behaviors.

Then together we will accomplish God's will and plan.

So Paul said in Philippians chapter 2, "For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose."

See?

Therefore, none of us can be proud of our own theology, because nothing is received from God.

So we Reformed believe that as long as you are a true believer, even if you have some differing opinions from me, I still believe that the Holy Spirit is working in your heart to accomplish God's plan.

So it doesn't matter if you and I are different; we each do our own thing.

I must hold fast to the vision the Holy Spirit gives me, because if He gives me this vision, but I don't speak up because of other reasons, to save face for myself or for you, then I am sinful.

Of course, you must also hold fast to your vision; you are also expressing your position.

When we do this, our actions are actually within God's providence, part of His divine will, and ultimately God's will is accomplished in us.

If God wants to change my opinion, it's incredibly easy; the same goes for changing yours.

However, if you happen to click on my video and watch it, and your beliefs gradually align with my ideas, that too is the work of the Bible or the Holy Spirit in your heart.

Therefore, you should follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit; we should shake hands even from afar.

Just like Paul and Barnabas's decision regarding Mark, they each held their own beliefs, but ultimately they merged in God's plan.

Therefore, we love all those who love Christ, and we share with them the promptings and insights entrusted to us by the Holy Spirit.

We do not consider other denominations as enemies; they are objects of our love, even though their theology is sometimes highly questionable.

They are still places set up by God, perhaps as a stage in the path of faith.

I often say they are like a faith kindergarten; perhaps God simply places babies there to nurse for a few years, and the Holy Spirit will gradually nurture them into adulthood.

So we don't need to worry.

Because we are all sinners, and sinners are often limited.

Sometimes we become particularly interested in parts we don't understand.

For example, everyone likes to interpret the Book of Revelation.

So many people have left messages asking me to talk about it.

To be honest, you guys are bolder than I am; I'm not quite sure I dare to talk about it, because frankly, I haven't even understood it myself.

Some people are also quite interesting.

I've met a brother who can completely reverse literal and spiritual interpretation of scripture.

This is quite interesting.

For example, he interprets parts that require literal interpretation, like the first chapter of Genesis, using spiritual interpretation, but he prefers to interpret the Book of Revelation, which requires allegorical interpretation, using literal interpretation.

This makes his theology very interesting.

He has ideas like divinely guided evolution, and his eschatological view is dispensable.

This creates a huge difference between his theology and ours.

But as I just said, differences in human understanding are inevitable, and God allows them to exist, which is indeed necessary.

When we talk about eschatology later, we will understand how God's establishment of this mystery has driven the development of modern and contemporary history.

However, this doesn't mean that people can sin according to their sinful nature; there's a difference.

But no matter how many mistakes people make, God never makes a mistake.

We see this in the Old Testament: Israel suffered greatly, yet Christ's salvation was still accomplished.

So, as the saying goes, "The Son of Man must be crucified, but woe to the one who sells him!"

These are the two hurdles of our faith, the two hurdles on either side.

God's will will surely be fulfilled, but people must be responsible for their own actions and thoughts.

God has set up hurdles on both sides at every level of our faith: the boundaries of reason, cognition, emotion, faith, and the world— all clearly shown to us.

But what do sinners love to do most?

Sinners love to break boundaries, especially the boundaries set by God.

What is the typical characteristic of sinners?

Rebellion. Even

one-year-olds and two-year-olds are rebellious.

The most representative example is the beginning and end of the Bible.

It begins with the most irrational book, Genesis, and ends with the most irrational book, Revelation.

Isn't God humorous?

Absolutely.

God created the world in six days— how is that possible?

I was immediately tripped up by the very first page of the Bible.

Years later, when I opened the Bible again and read the first page, I thought, "Wow, that makes so much sense!

Why didn't I understand it back then? Why didn't I believe it?"

This happened to me personally.

My own beliefs hadn't changed much, but why did my faith suddenly shift so drastically?

God was telling me in this way that salvation comes solely from God.

Honestly, with age, one should become more rational and mature, so why did I become more gullible?

What does this mean?

It means that faith is not a rational thing.

The same applies to Revelation.

All heresies love to interpret Revelation.

Why? Because the Book of Revelation was specifically designed by God to limit human reason, yet sinners always try to break through the limitations of reason to interpret God's mysteries, it's actually quite easy to identify anti-God thoughts and heresies based on this.

Their problems essentially stem from Genesis and Revelation.

Moses clearly tells us that the hidden things belong to Jehovah; people should believe what God says, because God has already given us the revealed things.

We can't even learn all the revealed things the Bible reveals to us, yet we indulge in fantasies about the hidden things, which only shows that we are sinners.

The origin of the world is beyond human reason's comprehension, cannot be restored, and cannot be repeated; it is a one-time event, and once it's over, it's over.

Similarly, the end of the world is beyond human reason's control, and even beyond human emotional desire.

Who would want the future to end?

People all want a better future.

Moreover, the end of the world is beyond human will's control .

No matter how much people want to make the world better, God's will has already predetermined everything.

The period from the creation of the world to the final judgment is the scope of human rational activity.

God himself defined human reason through the Bible, and only human thought that submits to the principles of both is pleasing to God.

When humanity humbles itself before God, God blesses humanity.

The most obvious example is the scientists of the late Middle Ages, who were essentially also theologians.

Creationism was the foundation of their thought.

Without the concept of a single true God, it would be impossible for humanity to persistently search for a single law in such a complex world, because such a concept simply cannot arise.

Only with a single God can the world created by God have unity; otherwise, with a multitude of diverse and free thoughts, a unified concept is impossible, and ideas like universal gravitation cannot emerge.

This is why science could not arise in any other civilization.

Even the atheistic scientists we see later are, in fact, developing upon the achievements of creationist scientists.

They themselves are unaware of their own ignorance; they are actually building upon the foundations laid by their predecessors, all of whom were theologians.

What is natural science if we start studying it apart from God?

The group we talked about before, the Enlightenment thinkers, the encyclopedists, asked a hundred thousand questions back then, and ended up with a bunch of fake answers.

For example, I remember when my son was little, he loved reading "100,000 Whys." One question he particularly enjoyed was: Why is the sky blue?

The answer was that sunlight undergoes Rayleigh scattering as it passes through the atmosphere.

I thought that was a good question, and the child learned something, which made me happy, and I thought the child should be happy too, right?

But actually, no.

My son then asked another question: If it's Rayleigh scattering, then why does the atmosphere exist?

Where does the atmosphere come from?

Why does light pass through the atmosphere? Why does light scatter when it passes through the atmosphere ?

This series of questions completely stumped me.

It wasn't that I couldn't answer them; if you wanted to, you could answer them all, because he could indeed explain them.

The key point was that I immediately sensed something was wrong.

If I allowed him to keep asking like this, it would go on forever, because no question could be stopped.

When he asked these questions, I felt like I was facing two mirrors, each reflecting the other without limit.

In other words, for any answer I gave him, he could ask a series of derivative questions.

Human questions are interconnected, endless.

So I felt a sense of dread, you know?

I felt like, wow, this is crashing, this won't do.

So after I developed faith, I understood that unless you answer him with the idea of ​​a divine creation, no answer can satisfy him.

If you don't acknowledge Christ and only focus on the myriad "whys" of nature, it's actually very dangerous because it can only go in two directions: one is endlessly asking "why," ultimately leading to agnosticism; the other, even more dangerous, is that it easily establishes simplistic cause-and-effect relationships

—single-chain, superficial. You only ask "why," and

—single-chain, superficial. You only ask "why," and it can only answer you the first, most direct cause.

It doesn't know anything deeper, or it can't answer the second level, and you don't care anymore. You've already obtained a very superficial answer, and you think it's the truth.

This is why my videos sometimes run for five hours.

We're not answering the question of "why," but rather looking at history according to biblical revelation.

The Bible says that God works all things together for good, so we need to study as many social phenomena derived from theology as possible, analyze the hearts of sinners, study related political policies,

and then understand the state of faith behind those policies.

Finally, we see the social effects produced by the collaborative efforts of so many sinners.

Explaining this path clearly takes several hours, so I don't want to break the videos into smaller parts. It's one video;

smaller parts. It's one video; whether you watch it or not is beyond my control.

If the Holy Spirit wants you to see it, you will.

If the Holy Spirit doesn't want you to see it, and doesn't give you so much complex content or burden, it's because the Holy Spirit cares for you.

After this analysis, we can understand why, after the French Encyclopedists, simple causal laws became prevalent in the scientific and intellectual communities without requiring many generations.

We've previously discussed reductionism, which was a philosophical thought that arose in that era.

Evolutionary theory is essentially a form of reductionism.

So what happens when we try to combat reductionism? It

easily breeds skepticism.

Hume's skepticism actually arose little by little in this way.

You say there's only simple causality, only a single causality, but I disagree, because my intuition tells me there aren't that many simple causal relationships.

There are many other factors working together to lead to this result.

You say it's a single causality, but I think there are infinite causal relationships we don't know. What happens then?

Skepticism arises from this background, because you can't say it's wrong.

So-called skepticism is refusing to believe in definite causality.

Therefore, from the rise of psychology to the proliferation of drugs in modern medicine, it all stems from books like "100,000 Whys," or the intellectual descendants educated in these books.

They use data subjectivism to establish simple causal relationships, then create products to sell to the masses, to exploit the public.

Ultimately, their purpose is to serve the capital controlling these companies, ultimately serving the Mammon cult.

So you'll understand how vaccines are produced; vaccines are actually just a simple causal relationship.

Then, rejecting simplistic causal skepticism, their ideas inevitably developed into atheism, agnosticism, and deism.

These ideas, in turn, gradually provided justification for the existence of all subsequent paganisms. See?

It's always the human heart that changes first, then paganism begins to exist openly, and slowly, the worship of Satan can begin.

Therefore, these erroneous ideas provided fertile ground for the secularization of the Christian world.

So, we later saw the whole of Europe gradually de-Christianize, leaving Christianity.

But we must remember that Europe was once a Christian kingdom.

Once these people left Christ, the consequences of their departure from the Bible were quite severe.

For example, what kind of concept does eschatology become after leaving Christianity? The

consequences are quite serious.

In fact, a post-Christian world that has left creationism will inevitably enter an eschatology without Christ, because creationism is gone first, and then there will inevitably be an eschatology without Christ.

For example, what is Marxism?

Marxism is actually a secularized post-millennialism.

I don't know if everyone is familiar with post-millennialism?

Regarding the concepts of "before the Thousand," "after the Thousand," and "without the Thousand," if you're unfamiliar with them, you can Google them or check GBT .

I won't elaborate here, as it would be a very large topic and would lengthen the video.

We might discuss this later if we have the opportunity.

For example, communism.

Communism is essentially a heavenly kingdom on earth without God.

In the traditional Christian concept, heaven meant the presence of God.

Communism, however, abandons God. We still

want a heavenly kingdom on earth, but we don't want God. They've imagined a godless heavenly kingdom on earth.

Dispensationalism is essentially ecclesialism influenced by evolutionary theory.

Do you understand?

It's about using evolutionary theory to understand ecclesialism, which ultimately leads to dispensationalism in the interpretation of the Bible.

What's the biggest problem with dispensationalism?

The biggest problem is that it removes Christ from the Old Testament.

It assumes that God's methods of action and salvation differ in different eras.

In the Old Testament, God's method of salvation was the law.

This is a fatal error because the Bible reveals Christ from beginning to end; it hasn't changed.

If dispensationalism holds true, then God becomes a changeable God, a God constantly patching things up throughout history.

This would eventually lead to process theology and all sorts of strange theologies.

If such a theology portrays God as so powerless, constantly patching and mending, will their followers develop reverence for God?

Impossible.

Therefore, our understanding of God determines our attitude towards Him.

If your understanding of God is flawed, your attitude towards Him will inevitably be dismissive.

Evolutionary theory, in fact, is a theory of humanity influenced by reductionism and excluding Christ; it discusses humanity without considering creation.

Therefore, you can only find common ground with monkeys, since we are all animals.

Because humans abandoned the image of God revealed to us in Genesis, they transformed themselves into monkeys, thus justifying the release of their sinful desires.

If you see yourself as a monkey, of course you can release your desires.

Following this line of thought, you'll understand why sexual desire must be satisfied— because you are animals.

Observing animals, they discovered that if their desires aren't satisfied during their mating season, they will bite.

So, by analogy, if humans are sexually repressed, that won't work either; you must promote sexual liberation.

If you don't promote sexual liberation, and if humanity continues to experience sexual repression, then the crime rate will definitely increase, and society will become chaotic.

Therefore, for social stability, sexual liberation is necessary.

We discussed this chain of events in a previous episode.

This actually has a gradual progression over time; it's a continuous evolution from evolutionary theory to psychology, and then to social ethics.

History is n't fragmented; it's coherent.

So this is incredibly ironic, because 100 years earlier, the social atmosphere was completely opposite.

Christians in Western societies, influenced by post-millennial theology, generally had boundless optimism and confidence in the future of humanity.

They believed tomorrow would be better.

Many liberal theologians abandoned the core truth of redemption through the cross and instead promoted and advanced the social gospel movement.

Why did they do this?

They believed that God's kingdom already existed in people's hearts.

If people could take Jesus as their moral model and use love and morality to transform society, then our earthly society would surely progress, gradually becoming an earthly kingdom, manifesting the kingdom on earth.

This was the theology driving their movement.

It was under this trend that the Prohibition movement arose, and the Civil War broke out.

Later, this liberal theology gradually took over Harvard, Princeton, and Union Theological Seminary in New York.

These were all theological seminaries at the time and they began to promote morality and justification by love from their lecture halls. As

a result, within 100 years, all these schools fell victim to the catastrophe; none could escape it.

We see that humanity has completely lost its moral standards today; we've all become relativists, haven't we?

Relativism has no standards.

We've all achieved sexual liberation.

A seven-year-old can decide to castrate themselves.

You can't drink alcohol before you're 21, you can't be alone at home before you're a teenager, but you can castrate yourself.

Think about it, what moral standards do these idiots have left?

And then there's psychology.

Psychology is also very interesting.

Psychology is a kind of sin theory without Christ, departing from the concept of original sin revealed to us in the Bible.

So they can only look for scapegoats in the world, because human instinct knows we are sinful, knows we can make mistakes.

And the instinct is to shift blame, just like Adam.

Adam could only shift blame to Eve, and even considered shifting it to God.

So sinners have the instinct to find scapegoats; shirking responsibility is finding a scapegoat.

Now let's think about it again: what is something that everyone in human society shares and that profoundly affects each individual, something that all humanity cannot escape?

That is the family of origin.

Because nobody springs from a stone, and everyone has a family of origin, that's it—the perfect scapegoat.

See?

Nothing is new.

Nothing in this world is new.

Every deviation we take from Christ and God's revelation has a major, catastrophic impact on humanity.

Since the birth of psychology, the human mind has entered an unprecedented crisis . Now, look around—there are far too many mentally unstable people.

. Now, look around—there are far too many mentally unstable people.

Western societies eventually closed down mental hospitals.

What does that mean?

It means mental illness is everywhere; you can't control it all.

So, let's not even go there with Marxism . You know its origins:

. You know its origins: a Jew who joined Lutheranism for business.

What does that mean?

It means he was neither a true Jew nor a true Christian.

Therefore, his theories opened the door to Satanism.

He used human greed to build an empire of lies, an empire built on human lives.

It's clear that humanity cannot be separated from Christ for a moment, nor can it lose its reverence for God for a moment.

Therefore, the Christian God, on the one hand, reveals himself to us, and on the other hand, declares that he possesses an absolute, supreme, and inviolable mystery.

Therefore, Christianity is a revelation imbued with mystery, which is what distinguishes it from all other religions.

God reveals himself in a completely different way than the false gods of pagan peoples.

When God reveals himself, it is always in a very real context, without ambiguity or deception, yet he is never fully captured by human reason or completely encompassed by human knowledge.

He makes himself known, but he forever remains mysterious and majestic.

So we see this scene: when God called Moses from the burning bush, it was quite interesting.

God first called him, "Moses, Moses."

Moses said, "Here I am."

Then God immediately said, "Do not come near. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5).

Many people don't understand this, desperately trying to analyze why this place is holy. Muhammad later drew inspiration from this,

holy. Muhammad later drew inspiration from this, which is why they had to take off their shoes before entering the mosque.

Judaism is even more straightforward; in Judaism, God tells you that you cannot enter.

Only priests can enter the Temple, and the Holy of Holies is only entered by the High Priest once a year.

So whether the priests took off their shoes inside is unknown.

However, I think if we focus on the ground or the shoes, we are clearly deviating from the very clear command in God's word.

God's very clear command is: do not come near.

Do you see?

From these two verses, we see a very profound truth about God's eternal nature.

When we are called by God, we are both invited by Him and simultaneously see His limitations upon us.

We can draw near to Him, but only to a certain extent; we must not cross the boundaries set by God.

No created being can transcend these boundaries. There is an eternal distance between the infinite Creator and finite creation,

these boundaries. There is an eternal distance between the infinite Creator and finite creation, a distance we cannot cross— a depth of existence and God's eternal holiness that we cannot fully comprehend. This limitation exists not only because we are sinners, but even if we were sinless, it would still exist.

For example, God's command to Adam was not explained to Adam why he could not eat the fruit; He simply gave him a command.

God did not answer Job's myriad questions; instead, God asked Job 100 questions.

Therefore, this vivid description in the Bible constantly reminds us to be mindful of the boundaries between God and humanity.

God reveals these limitations not to discourage or restrict us, but to guide us towards a correct way of understanding Him.

What is the way God reveals to us to know Him?

It is what God told the Israelites after leading them out of Egypt: through worship.

So when God sent Moses to speak to Pharaoh, He said, " Let my people come to the wilderness to worship me."

Therefore, the only way we can know God is through worship.

God's transcendence is unquestionable.

That's why, after leading the Israelites out of Egypt, God first established worship and sacrificial rites.

Worship is God's revelation of the heavenly realm to us.

We were created to worship Him.

But the most essential quality for worship is not reason or knowledge, but humility.

You must acknowledge yourself as a created being before the Creator; only then will your reason be awakened, and you will possess the knowledge to know Him.

The Bible says that knowledge makes one arrogant.

If you don't know God, if you are not humble before Him, then all the knowledge you acquire will only make you more blind.

While reason and knowledge can lead to knowledge about God, and through logical deduction and analysis, you may gain some understanding of God, we must understand that knowing God and knowing about Him are two different things.

Therefore, the Bible specifically emphasizes that Moses' encounter with God was face-to-face, meaning their understanding was related.

This is similar to how we can search online for a lot of information about the King of England, even learning a great deal about his life, but we still don't truly know him.

Without face-to-face interaction, how can we say we know him?

We only know him, we have some knowledge of his life.

Therefore, we know that the first hurdle to overcome in knowing God is to treat Him as God and worship Him; this is the starting point for knowing God.

Without reverence for God, it's impossible to receive His words; without His words, you cannot correctly understand Him.

Therefore, our reason has no boundaries; reason and knowledge, ironically, limit our proper worship of God.

So, it's dangerous if our reason has no boundaries.

Frankly, reason and knowledge aren't always a good thing; sometimes, excessive self-indulgence leads to freefall.

We've seen this outcome in the world since the Enlightenment.

Those so-called intellectuals after the Enlightenment believed they possessed reason and knowledge, but they lacked reverence for God.

They didn't worship Him according to His revelation, so they slowly slid from liberal worship to theological liberalism, ultimately falling into the abyss of moral decay.

How then can one humbly worship God?

Humanity doesn't know how to properly worship with humility because people like to worship in their own way, like Aaron's two sons.

God said the Chaldeans were arrogant; who were the Chaldeans then?

In the Bible, the Chaldea was a place rife with polytheistic worship, demonstrating their arrogant and self-important worship.

What does this show?

It shows that people can be proud while simultaneously worshipping God.

See?

Humans are contradictory because they don't know their own hearts, nor do they know what they are doing.

The Israelites of the Old Testament were the same; they received the covenant at Mount Sinai, yet immediately forced Aaron to make a golden calf.

Humans are foolish.

If we don't approach God with reverence and humility, if we don't diligently study every word of God's revelation, we won't know what we are doing.

We may have zeal, but it won't be based on true knowledge.

Worship is the correct way to know God because it includes humbly acknowledging ourselves as created beings.

See?

This establishes our proper place first, and once that place is right, everything else can proceed naturally.

Therefore, the Psalms say, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

Because only through fear can you begin to have faith, it continues, "All who obey his commands are wise" (Psalm 111:10).

That is to say, only by fearing God will you obey His commands.

If you don't fear Him, how can you follow His words ? If you don't fear Him, you will arbitrarily change His commands,

? If you don't fear Him, you will arbitrarily change His commands, and what happens then?

Eventually, Israel's faith deviates towards Babylonianism.

In another wisdom book, Proverbs, it is also clearly stated, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" (Proverbs 9:10).

See?

It emphasizes that God is the Holy One.

Sinners often don't see God as the Holy One; we often see God as our servant, a errand boy, like the lamp slave in Aladdin's lamp, not God.

Therefore, the last Psalm specifically emphasizes, "Everything that has breath, praise the Lord; praise the Lord!"

See?

God is supreme and holy.

In fact, sinners who haven't been saved by God are fundamentally incapable of recognizing God's transcendence.

So don't be fooled by their apparent intelligence; when it comes to matters concerning God or knowledge about Him, their ignorance immediately becomes apparent.

I think the most telling example of human folly is this phrase, which I've typed on the screen: "Worship the gods as if they were present."

It means that when you worship the gods, you must be truly devout, as if the gods were actually there.

The original intention was to emphasize an inner reverence, a respect for God that isn't merely superficial or a formality.

Doesn't that sound correct?

This is the highest form of humility that humans can conceive of— a respectful attitude when worshipping, as if God were standing before you.

It makes us seem like children, behaving well when our parents are around and mischievous and playful when they're not.

But think about it this way: those three words, "as if they were present," reveal the limitations of their reason.

Why?

Because they violate the definition of God.

God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient.

What does "as if they were present" mean?

"As if God were present" implies that God is sometimes absent, sometimes unknown, and that you can deceive Him.

See?

This is a completely flawed definition of God, yet someone still pretends to worship Him, emphasizing reverence and a good attitude.

What does this show?

It shows that people are worshipping blindly, completely unaware of what they are doing.

This is why I strongly oppose some pastors' claims that classical Chinese culture contains much wisdom.

I disagree.

All human wisdom is foolish, laughable in God's eyes, and merely a chaotic self-interpretation of God.

We must know God through His word.

No matter how incomprehensible His word may be, we must marvel at it, for He is infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.

If we do not deny ourselves, we cannot receive God's word.

The God revealed to us in the Bible is an eternal mystery, an eternal mystery.

How does God reveal this eternal mystery to us?

It is embodied in His Trinity.

To be honest, our channel already has a lot of videos about the Trinity.

I've dedicated many videos to praising this mystery because it's so beautiful.

Our gaze must never leave Him.

When we pray to the Father in the name of the Son in the Holy Spirit, we are united with the Triune God; when we are reconciled to the Father through the Son, we are the people of the Triune God.

When we enter into Christ, when Christ enters into us, when the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts, then we naturally see this Triune God, and you will certainly see God's Trinity.

Because when we enter God's Holy Place through Jesus, we can certainly see the Trinity.

So seeing the Trinity isn't because I'm clever, but because I'm in Christ, and the Holy Spirit allows me to see it, the Holy Spirit allows me to believe.

But people in the world think this doctrine is foolish and incomprehensible.

Why?

It's like a house; they're looking at us, at God, from outside the house, through frosted glass.

Of course, they can't see it.

But what about us? We are inside God.

There is no veil between us and God.

We are in Christ, coming before God through the body of Christ.

We see God with clean, clear eyes, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, and therefore we believe.

Therefore, the Catholic Church considers your acceptance of the Triune God as the foundation of faith, because this attribute can only be truly known and truly believed by entering into God.

This is extremely discerning; it directly determines whether you are inside or outside, whether your faith is true or false .

Now let's consider another "why" —we have many "whys."

If we push the "why" forward, why must we enter into the body of Christ to understand the Trinity of God?

Because this is revealed in the Bible, because the Trinity is an inherent attribute of God.

That is to say, the Trinity is an inherent attribute of God; you cannot see it from the outside.

So when we look at God from the outside, what does God say? "

I am the one true God."

Therefore, the Israelites suffered greatly in the Old Testament in their attempt to know the one true God because they could not avoid worshipping false gods.

In Genesis, let's return to what we just mentioned. In Genesis 1:26, it says, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness."

We need to consider what happened before He said this. Before saying

this, He spoke many things, like "Let there be light," and so on.

Every word God spoke in creation was outward, addressed to the world: " Let there be light," and there was light; "Let the earth produce grass," and " Let the waters bring forth living creatures," and it was so.

But in verse 26, when God speaks again, you'll find that His direction shifts.

He's speaking inward, speaking to Himself: "Then let us make mankind in our image."

If I were to say "we," there would certainly be someone else beside me.

But God is infinite; God cannot be counted in numbers.

So when God says "we," who is this "we"?

To whom is God speaking?

Therefore, here we see for the first time God's inner life— an inner, relational communion of the Triune.

Verse 27 explains this: God created mankind in His own image.

See?

Because what is the image of God?

The image of God is relational, it is the Trinity.

So we see the plural in verse 26, and then the singular in verse 27.

At this point, a very profound truth is revealed: the one God uses the plural when talking about Himself, but He is unique when revealing Himself to us and to His creation.

So think about it this way: when we are outside of God, when we have no relationship with God, like the Israelites, trying to understand God, even if we use reason and logic, like the ancient Greek Socrates who kept asking endless questions, he

could only conclude that God is unique, and that's where he would stop.

This is like God Himself revealing to the Israelites—"I am one."

But when we come before God through Jesus, the Holy Spirit dwells within us, and we have a true communion with God.

When we have a relationship with God, we can recognize God's inner, eternal relationship, which is the Triune relationship.

Through Christ, we establish a relationship with God; through the infinite Holy Spirit, our relationships with one another are restored, enabling us to love our neighbors as ourselves . Otherwise, we would be filled with hatred and

. Otherwise, we would be filled with hatred and find it difficult to get along with others. Hating God and humanity is the instinct of sinners.

others. Hating God and humanity is the instinct of sinners.

But after being renewed by the Holy Spirit, we can love God and also love others.

When we try to love those who seem unlovable, we discover that we can truly love, that we have truly changed.

God uses the transformation in our lives to make us realize that we are truly in Christ, that we are truly God's chosen people.

If you don't practice love, if you don't love your brothers and sisters, you won't know your own transformation.

If you don't truly feel your own transformation, you will doubt the assurance of your salvation.

Therefore, you will often seek spiritual gifts, miracles, and strange things, all because you haven't practiced your faith according to the way the Bible reveals.

The Bible says that if you only hear the word but don't practice it, you are like grass or stubble, easily blown down by the wind.

God is a God of relationships, a Triune God, and therefore, we are also human beings with relationships.

This world is organically connected and linked together by God through various relationships.

Therefore, nothing in this world exists without connections; even animals have a food chain.

Thus, a misunderstanding of the Triune God will affect every aspect of our lives, and it will also impact our spiritual lives.

We see that the Israelites, not recognizing the Triune God, were unable to manage the relationship between faith and nationhood.

They were clearly a nation chosen by God because of their faith, yet after 2,000 years they have become a secular nation.

They don't have a temple, but you must understand that without a temple, there would be no Old Testament faith.

Without a temple and without the Bible, what would be the basis for the existence of the nation of Israel?

So their paradox of faith is quite interesting.

God didn't command them to build a temple, which means what?

It means that the Old Testament temple's mission was complete, but the Israelites were still stubbornly determined to build a third temple.

They were persistent, very stubborn.

Muslims are essentially the same.

They rely on the concept of a single God, but this God is unrelated; they've fabricated a false God by copying information from the Old Testament.

Therefore, they are unable to handle ethical relationships between people, resulting in a chaotic state of Muslim ethics.

Naturally, they also cannot manage relationships between nations because they don't recognize the relational Triune God.

They lack a proper relationship with the true God, leading to chaos in all their other endeavors.

An incorrect understanding of God leads to a long string of incorrect understandings . Consider

. Consider this: Islam and Judaism are two major monotheistic religions, and even these two face so many difficulties. The situation

is even more dire for other forms of idolatry and atheism.

Everything they do is chaotic and self-contradictory.

The political systems built upon their theology are essentially digging their own graves.

This is particularly evident in the dynastic history of China, where each ruler's descendants ultimately become the gravediggers of their own dynasty, because humanity itself lives in paradox.

We understand the cognitive dilemmas of humanity, and we understand that we can only truly know the Triune God.

Therefore, the next point is simple: why must we believe in Christ to know God?

Because Christ is the Word of God, the Way of God; He is the truth.

Why can't we believe in God through believing in Muhammad?

Because God did not reveal Himself through Muhammad.

No one in this sinful world can perfectly represent God; God cannot find a single person of faith in this world.

This is stated in the Gospel of Luke: "Yet when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

No.

Therefore, only the Bible clearly tells us: In the Old Testament, the Israelites were the ones who could bear the Word, yet they crucified Christ.

Therefore, no one in the world has faith.

God must reveal Himself through His own words, and we must come to know Him by believing His words.

This is why the connection between the Bible and Christ is so close.

Why?

Because they are both the Word of God, one manifested in history in written form—the Bible; the other in life form, also manifested in history, prophesied and fulfilled.

See?

The history of the Bible and the history of humanity are both witnesses to the Word of God.

In this process, the Holy Spirit is like the lighting technician; when he turns on the lights, Christ can be seen on the stage— the sole protagonist on God's stage, the sole mediator between God and man, the sole sacrifice between sin and redemption, the sole focus between justice and mercy— our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the radiance of God's glory, the truth of God's being.

Knowing Him means knowing God.

What does knowing God mean?

The Bible tells us it means eternal life.

What is the difference between the Triune God and the One God?

Why is the Trinity so important?

The Bible gives us the answer: God is love.

In the episode on faith, hope, and love, we discussed how love can only be manifested within relationships.

When God created Adam, He said everything was good, but later He said it was not good for the man to be alone.

Why?

Because a person cannot express God's love.

A person without love cannot find an object of love among animals.

Because what is God's command?

"Each according to its kind," so you cannot seek out animals to love.

God also cannot find an object of His love among His creations, because God's love for us is humbled; it is not reciprocal.

Although God loves the world He created, the Bible tells us that God is love itself.

That is to say, God loved even before the world was created.

Therefore, eternal love predates creation, and then God created this world because He loves it.

So you see, God's love must predate creation, then God creates this world, and then loves it; or rather, God loves this world, and then He creates it according to His love.

So you see, God's love comes first, the world comes later.

Therefore, when God loves the world, we must understand that this isn't a reciprocal love.

Reciprocal love is eternal love, a love that pre-exists within the Trinity.

If there were no Trinity, to whom would God love?

So, to correctly interpret the statement "God is love, " love must exist before the world exists.

Therefore, it must be an eternal, triune love, relational, manifested within relationships.

This love is the root of all love in the later-created world.

I'm speaking in a roundabout way, but please slow down. Don't listen at 1.5x; 1.5x makes me sound terrifying.

1.25x is the fastest possible speed, but please don't listen at 1.5x.

Some people even listen at 2x.

I tried listening to it myself, and oh my god! The image is absolutely ferocious!

If you listen at 2x speed for too long, you'll hate me, you'll despise me.

Anyway, let's get back to the point.

Because much of the content is quite convoluted, I deliberately slow down my speech sometimes to help everyone follow my train of thought.

Actually, my normal speaking speed is about this; it's not particularly fast.

Let's look back at how we understand the love between the Triunes.

The Bible clearly states that the Father loves the Son, and therefore gave His chosen ones to Christ.

Therefore, Christ said, "No one will come to me unless my Father draws them."

In John chapter 17, Jesus said, " I have revealed your name to those you have given me out of the world; they are yours, and you have given them to me."

This message is very clear.

So what did Jesus do?

Jesus loved the Father and paid the price of his life for those chosen by God the Father.

He cleansed our sins with his precious blood.

"But then the end will come, when Christ will have destroyed all rulers and authorities and powers," and the next sentence is crucial: "and will give the kingdom to God the Father" (1 Corinthians 15:24b).

See?

Christ loved the Father, completed the redemption ordained for him by the Father, and then gave the kingdom to God the Father.

See?

This is the love between the Father and the Son.

Therefore, the entire plan of salvation for humanity is actually the Father's eternal plan, completed by Christ in time, and then the Holy Spirit transcends time and space to renew the spirit within our bodies into a spirit that can be united with Christ.

It is the Holy Spirit who gives us a new life, a spirit that can be united with God.

This is like what?

It's like our frequency is now different from that of people in the world.

We are still receivers, but they can only receive Satan's messages, while our frequency is different; we can receive God's messages.

At this point, as a receiver, our charger is different; our charger has a Thunderbolt interface.

Even USB 3.0 chargers in the world cannot charge us.

In other words, no matter how profound the knowledge in the world is, it cannot nourish us spiritually.

We must connect with Christ to be recharged.

If we have already been renewed by God, have a new charging interface, but you constantly fail to recharge with Christ and instead desperately seek recharging in this world, then your life will be quite miserable; you will enter a power-off mode.

That's why Paul said, "If in this life we ​​have hope through Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied" (1 Corinthians 15:19).

That's what he meant.

Why?

Because on the one hand, when you have changed, when you have a new life, then the things of this world can no longer satisfy your spiritual life; but on the other hand, if you don't seek satisfaction in Christ, then such a life is naturally difficult, leading to spiritual fasting.

Spiritual fasting will eventually cause your life to wither.

The loving relationship between the Triune God enables us, the blessed sinners, to practice God's love.

When Adam heard God's word and came to know God, he already had love, so he loved Eve dearly, calling her "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh," and singing love poems without fear of being nauseating.

But when he disobeyed God's word, Eve was no longer lovable; " bone of my bones" became "bone," and " flesh of my flesh" became "flesh of flesh." They were so affectionate just moments before, but after eating the forbidden fruit, they shared it, eating it with great gusto.

When God came to question them, their true colors were revealed, and they wanted to shift all the blame onto others.

Therefore, we must know the Triune God.

How do we know the Triune God?

God is love . The Bible reveals to us that God is love.

. The Bible reveals to us that God is love.

Therefore, many biblical passages, starting from this Triune theology of God being love, allow us to understand another truth: we love because God first loved us.

The meaning of this statement is clear: if God doesn't love us, if He doesn't first regenerate us, we cannot possibly love God; just as if God didn't love this world, He wouldn't have created it, and the world wouldn't exist.

See?

That's the logical relationship.

However, sinners often understand it the other way around: sinners must think, "I must be lovable for God to love me."

Therefore, we must practice love.

Why? Because love is the most important behavioral marker of the chosen ones— a good tree bears good fruit.

Similarly, when a pastor corrects our theological errors, honestly, we can sense whether he's doing it out of love, or just dryly pointing out mistakes like a teacher grading homework, or simply because he's disliked us for a long time and is looking for an opportunity to punish us.

What kind of person is he? Does he have love or not?

Frankly, our spirit can sense it.

So, as a pastor, sometimes I hear pastors reflecting on themselves, saying things like, " I constantly examine myself to see if I'm saying these things out of love for Him."

When he says this, I'm quite moved.

What does this show?

This shows that he knows God's love, that he is loved by God, and therefore he is able to constantly examine himself and do his utmost to love God's people.

Finally, let's return to the beginning of today's video, which discusses the mystery of God.

The Trinity is the mystery of God.

We believe in God's mystery; God's mystery is in Christ.

In Christ, we understand God's mystery, which is itself a very mysterious thing.

However, sinners cannot understand this mystery on their own.

Let's think carefully about why sinners cannot understand it.

As we mentioned before, why?

Because sinners cannot tolerate the mystery.

Sinners' attitude towards the mystery is quite complex—a mixture of love and hate.

Why?

We can analyze ourselves carefully.

Looking back, I used to really like and encourage children to read encyclopedias.

When my son was little, he loved reading a science series called "100,000 Whys."

I used to think it was great; children have a strong thirst for knowledge, and I didn't see anything wrong with that.

However, through this analysis today, I suddenly realized that books like "100,000 Whys" can actually limit our thinking.

They lead us into a mindset focused on establishing simple causal chains.

We've already analyzed what establishing simple causal chains means, so why does this book have this effect?

​​This brings us back to the series of "whys" my son asked when he was little: Why is the sky blue?

The answer is simple: light is scattered through the atmosphere.

But my son, of course, is a bit of a contrarian; he'll keep asking.

But you know, most children are satisfied with such an answer.

However, the Bible tells us that God's created world is a unified organism, not just a shallow, first-level answer.

So, as we just said, these kinds of questions can go on endlessly.

Light is scattered and produces blue, so where does light come from?

Why does light have different wavelengths?

Why are they different colors when reflected?

So, in fact, every "why" answer can have thousands of layers of "whys" waiting to be answered.

The questions are endless, and as we delve deeper and deeper, we will inevitably be led back to God's creation.

However, encyclopedias only provide a superficial answer, leading us to believe it's the final answer— this is a significant problem.

We are not children; we are not satisfied with a simple answer.

We must investigate the universal sinfulness behind such actions.

When we are in school, textbooks tell us: when a seed encounters rain and light, it sprouts, and we think we know the truth.

This is how we learn knowledge, but have we considered that this is a false truth?

We don't actually know why a seed sprouts when it encounters water and light.

We don't know; we only know the phenomenon, not the essence.

It's like in-vitro fertilization (IVF).

An embryo and sperm are combined to create a fertilized egg, which slowly develops into a baby, eventually bringing life.

But we only know how to operate it; we don't know how life is created.

Only the Bible reveals to us that God makes them grow.

You sow, someone waters, but it is God who makes them grow.

Paul merely planted, Apollos merely watered.

We humans may do these things and feel quite capable, often saying, "No sowing, no harvest," emphasizing self-reliance.

But sometimes you have to think about it this way: there's another possibility—you might plant and still reap nothing.

If God doesn't send rain, what harvest will you have?

So people often overlook the most important factors and take all the credit for themselves.

It's clear that what people think they know as the truth isn't the truth at all.

Human knowledge can only lead us to a new kind of ignorance, only showing us new problems. If you have the argumentative spirit of Socrates, you'll definitely confuse yourself completely.

But we need to think about it this way: humans are very intelligent. Socrates are a minority, after all.

So, in thousands of years, only one like him has emerged.

Most people don't follow Socrates' path; they take a different approach, solving problems from a different angle, like the "100,000 Whys" book— they feed themselves a simple answer, satisfying themselves with the first level of the solution.

See? Sinners have two ways of dealing with things.

The popularity of books like "100,000 Whys" and other enigmatic works shows how immense our sins are.

We try every possible way to deceive ourselves, using the most superficial answers to satisfy and deceive ourselves, and then pass these on as scientific knowledge to the next generation, continuing to deceive them.

But we don't even realize it when we do all this.

Establishing simple causal chains is a typical characteristic of sinners.

For example, I once dedicated an episode to discussing the law of causality.

I might say without thinking that I'm late because I overslept.

If you were my boss, you'd think that's the reason.

But in reality, there's a deeper reason.

I overslept because I went to bed late last night.

But why did I go to bed late?

There could be a whole series of other reasons.

For example, a friend came over to chat last night, and he left late, causing me to oversleep.

Why did your friend come over? Because

he and his wife had a fight and came to confide in me.

And if you ask them why they fought, the possibilities are endless.

So, in a previous episode, we dedicated an entire episode to discussing complex causal laws.

We need to understand that the information in this world is a massively complex chaotic system; all phenomena are caused by complex factors.

But what is the highest form of self-deception we humans engage in?

It's abandoning deep thinking and settling for superficial answers.

What is this?

Isn't this self-deception?

Humans are truly strange creatures.

Sometimes I can't help but wonder why we are so foolish.

Why are we always both curious and so easily satisfied with these superficial answers?

This leads us to humanity's persistent attitude towards the unknown.

If we think this way, we are forced to return to the nature of humanity itself.

We need to examine the nature of sinners… So how do we understand the nature of sinners?

The best way is to return to the scene of Adam's sin.

Since Adam's initial motivation for sin was to be like God, this motivation became part of his subconscious.

He instinctively believed he could be like God, and to be like God meant desiring divine attributes— to be omniscient and omnipotent.

Therefore, he both wanted to explore mysteries and yet hated them.

He sought to eliminate mysteries through research.

What is this behavior?

This behavior is a manifestation of the sinner's desire for omniscience.

Because he wanted to be like God, and God should be omniscient and omnipotent , how could he allow mysteries to exist?

He had to understand what they were, right?

So he was obsessed with mysteries, yet simultaneously hated them, hated their existence, and wanted to eliminate them.

Therefore, he explored mysteries.

We observe that few humans can tolerate mysteries.

Why do you like to go through your wife's phone?

This is because humans cannot tolerate mysteries.

Humans are always striving to eliminate ignorance through endless thought.

Unsolved mysteries on YouTube are always more captivating.

As we've mentioned, videos about aliens are always popular, and conspiracy theories always have a market.

Why? Because sinners hate the existence of mystery, and humans crave omniscience, like gods.

To satisfy this desire for godlike omniscience, humans simultaneously engage in two behavioral patterns.

On one hand, humans love endless questioning; in faith, this manifests as countless "whys," or pedantry. Churches have the most pedants—

pedantry. Churches have the most pedants— there aren't many pedants in the world, but churches have the most.

Another place with the most pedants is the courts; you'll see many pedants are lawyers.

Humans also exhibit this pedantic spirit in science, constantly exploring its mysteries.

Therefore, humanity is driven by this desire to understand mysteries, to know everything like a god.

This drive propels humans to constantly venture into the jungle to explore the world. Why did

Columbus cross the ocean to explore Earth ? Because God said the world was created by humans, and

? Because God said the world was created by humans, and that humans could understand it through understanding God.

Therefore, saints are also full of curiosity about the world, but the enthusiasm of atheists in the world is no less than ours, because in the deep-seated thought of sinners, humans can know everything like gods.

On the other hand, we also see that humans go to great lengths to simplify their understanding of the world, even establishing a single causal law, blinding themselves and ceasing to think, deceiving themselves that they already know the answer, that the answer has already been given to them.

The purpose of sinners doing this is very simple: to understand the world using a simple causal chain, and then deceive themselves that they already know a lot, that they already know everything, that they are like gods, that they are omniscient.

So, interestingly, the world of sinners is precisely driven by this desire to understand the mysteries. Therefore,

humanity's exploration of the unknown world has promoted the development of human science, the enrichment of knowledge, and economic development, which seems good.

However, at the same time, it has also caused enormous harm to humanity itself.

Because technological advancement has not made it easier for people to obtain the benefits of Christ; on the contrary, it has gone in the opposite direction.

We have seen that technological development has led to the weakening of faith and the secularization of the Christian world.

Modern technology has placed humanity in a more complex social environment, and information has become more chaotic and harder to distinguish between truth and falsehood.

Information used to be simple and direct, but now the information we receive is virtual, generated in a virtual world, and more ideologically driven than relevant to real life and relationships.

This false, empty, and distant information overwhelms our daily lives, not just work, but also this information.

In such an environment, the voice of the Gospel becomes thinner and diluted, ultimately pushing humanity further away from the message of salvation, harming themselves and future generations.

Sinners, by yearning to understand the mystery, in fact distance themselves from the ultimate, blessed mystery— this is the tragic state of humanity.

We deceive ourselves, whitewash ourselves, and numb ourselves in various ways; this is the tragedy of humankind.

However, there's another perspective.

We see that theologians throughout history, driven by their yearning for mystery and the mysteries of God, constantly sought higher theological understanding, praying to the Holy Spirit for greater insight.

It is this group that has preserved God's pure revelation to this day, from which each of us benefits.

Therefore, the way people treat mysteries and the way they treat God are quite similar .

When people don't understand mysteries, they pursue them, but the purpose of this pursuit is to destroy them.

Why? Because once you understand a mystery, it ceases to exist, which is equivalent to destroying it.

The same applies to how people treat God . People pursue God, and

. People pursue God, and false god worship is simply people pursuing God on their own.

But when they believe they have finally found God, found the truth, then in that instant, they destroy the God they have found through their actions, realizing a paradox of truth.

So you see, God is truly wondrous.

Through the mystery of the Trinity, God makes us understand our own folly.

The mystery of the Trinity forever keeps those who think themselves wise outside the door of faith, waiting for the wondrous work of the Holy Spirit to come upon us.

Only God Himself can unlock all mysteries for us.

Therefore, in Romans 11 (verse 32), Paul says, "God has bound all people into disobedience because he had mercy on them."

When the light of the Holy Spirit comes upon us, we see the single law of cause and effect that God has prepared for us.

This world has a single law of cause and effect.

We shouldn't think that everything has a complex law of cause and effect.

God has still prepared a single law of cause and effect for us.

This is one God, because God is the singlest explanation for this world.

The Bible says that from Him and through Him and to Him all things exist.

You see, this is the single law of cause and effect.

The solution God has prepared for us to sin is also a single law of cause and effect, and it is also unique: Christ, the One Lord.

"All things existed through him," which refers to the material world, and then he says, "We also exist through him" (1 Corinthians 8:6).

What is this?

This refers to a new spiritual life.

See?

So, the material world and our new spiritual life are also governed by a single cause-and-effect law, because of Christ.

And through what method?

The Bible says that the Holy Spirit provides us with the only way.

In 1 Corinthians, it says, "But whoever is united with the Lord becomes one spirit with him" (1 Corinthians 6:17).

See?

So, we are united with the Lord in the Holy Spirit . Believers are all united with the Holy Spirit,

. Believers are all united with the Holy Spirit, so we also become one with one another, because we are united by the same Holy Spirit.

Therefore, 1 Corinthians (12:13) says: "For we were all baptized by one Holy Spirit, and became one body, whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, and drank from one Holy Spirit."

This kind of faith, through one baptism, makes us understand that our sins have been forgiven.

So it's one baptism, a simple cause-and-effect law.

One baptism; no need to baptize twice, no need to baptize repeatedly.

Why is the Anabaptists considered heretical?

Why did the Reformers consider the Anabaptists heretical?

That is, according to biblical revelation, it's not about human thought.

The more times you wash with human thought, the cleaner you become; you'll naturally be cleaner the more times you wash.

However, the Bible reveals to us that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is above all things.

Therefore, any church that doesn't recognize baptism from other churches—some churches only recognize their own—and demands a re- baptism if you come from another church, is, frankly , somewhat suspicious. They 're

placing their own work above the authority of the Holy Spirit . I once met a sister

. I once met a sister who went to a church that, while nominally a Baptist church, was a bit peculiar.

They required all believers who had received a light baptism in other churches to be re-baptized.

My friend was very uneasy about being re-baptized and asked me if this was right.

We must understand that whether you're fully immersed or only lightly baptized, it's all human work.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is invisible.

The thief on Christ's right wasn't even baptized.

Therefore, we shouldn't stray from this point; we must remain aligned with the truth.

According to God's clear will, the disciples should be baptized whenever conditions permit, but the method of baptism should follow the traditions of church history.

However, we do not deny other forms of baptism; we can discuss and progress theologically together.

But you shouldn't just grab someone and baptize them again; that carries an element of offense against the authority of the Holy Spirit.

This is, at least, a rather serious matter.

This is the paradoxical nature of the world.

The world we humans face is a massively complex chaotic system of cause and effect, but the highest peak of God's revelation is precisely all about simple cause and effect— that's where God's humor lies.

God has prepared for us the only way, the only cause and effect, the only truth, and the only life.

No one can come to the Father without Him.

The Book of Jonah says, "Salvation is from the Lord," and the Lord Jesus emphasized that there were no other miracles to show you, only the miracles of Jonah.

Jonah, this hot-tempered Jewish nationalist, besides foreshadowing Jesus' death and resurrection by spending three days and three nights inside the fish, uttered the most spiritual statement while inside the fish: "Salvation is from the Lord." After

he said this, the Lord vomited him out of the fish.

The Chinese phrase "Salvation is from the Lord" seems to refer to the source of salvation, but the original or English translation is more accurate: " Salvation belongs to the Lord, belong to God. "

What's the difference between "belonging" and "from"?

If something belongs to me, I can give it to whomever I want; if something comes from me, I know its origin after receiving it.

Therefore, there are some very subtle theological differences between these two.

If it's "Salvation belongs to the Lord," then we can understand Paul's statement, which the Bible reveals several times, "I will have mercy on whomever I want, and I will have mercy on whomever I want."

Because for him, "Salvation belongs to the Lord," it's mine, and I can give it to whomever I want.

So let's revisit the five absolutes of Reformed belief: Scripture alone, Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone, and the glory of God alone.

See?

They all follow a single causal law.

So we need to think about Scripture alone.

Since it's already Scripture alone , how can there be the other four absolutes?

If you only have Scripture , then the other four aren't.

What does "only" mean? It means exclusive .

If all five absolutes were true simultaneously, then it would be equivalent to having none at all.

According to human logic, shouldn't we understand it that way?

But we need to think about it the other way around, because the logic of sinners cannot solve theological problems. Who decides theological problems? The Bible decides.

Therefore, the five absolutes revealed to us by the Bible are all true.

So we need to understand these five absolutes from the perspective of the Bible.

How do we understand these five absolutes?

This precisely proves that these five "onlys" are actually one and the same; they all speak of the same truth: "Salvation is from Jehovah alone."

If any one of these "onlys" is not upheld, then human effort is attributed to others in the process of salvation.

Therefore, if we don't rely solely on the Bible, then on what basis can you say that those who believe in the Quran cannot be saved?

Then paganism would have a legitimacy.

If we don't rely solely on grace, then people have works and merits, something to boast about, and you deny the most important revelation: salvation is from Jehovah.

Similarly, if we don't rely solely on faith, then through what channel does grace come to us?

Is it through burning incense and offering sacrifices?

Then what's the difference between you and pagans?

There's no distinguishing feature whatsoever.

Ultimately, frankly speaking, if we don't rely solely on Christ, then all people in the world are brothers and sisters, so what's the point of Christianity?

What's the point of the Bible?

See?

Doesn't this bring the sinner's logic back to square one?

It's clear that the sin of the sinner is immense, because the absence of logic is the logic of the sinner.

Therefore, we cannot acknowledge only a few of these five "onlys" while denying the others; this is the law of logical identity.

In other words, the five "onlys" all speak of the same thing: salvation comes from Jehovah.

The Bible is the word of Jehovah, grace is the love of Jehovah, faith is the gift of Jehovah, and Christ is the only begotten Son of Jehovah.

When all these things are done in us, Jehovah will be glorified.

Thank the Lord for showing us the depth of our sin .

When we understand this truth, when we can loudly proclaim the five "onlys," it is our greatest comfort, because we can no longer rely on ourselves, but solely on the Lord Jesus Christ.

All glory to Him, Amen! We praise Him!