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Singing such a happy tune with a smile on your face!
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Brother Zhang, I'm curious,
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what good news has you so excited, singing and dancing?
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It's fantastic news!
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Oh?
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Our long-awaited Lord Jesus has returned!
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He has returned?
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He is Almighty God incarnate!
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Almighty God has expressed many truths,
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and is doing the work of judgment beginning with God's house—(Hey …)
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Hold on, hold on.
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You're saying Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus,
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and that He's speaking new words and doing new work?
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Yeah, yeah, yeah …
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No, can't be.
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That goes beyond the Bible!
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All God's words and work are—(Hang on.)
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Calm down.
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Were you about to say that
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all of God's words and work are in the Bible,
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that none of His words and work can be found outside the Bible,
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and that anything beyond it is heresy?
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Yes, yes, yes, right, that's precisely it.
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Then I'd like to ask you
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where did you get that idea from.
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The pastors and elders tell us that all the time,
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and those are the words we keep.
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Did the Lord Jesus ever say this?
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Well, no, He did not.
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Did the Holy Spirit say it?
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Not once.
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Is it even in the Bible?
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I guess not.
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And despite all this,
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the church pastors and elders dare to say,
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"God's work and words don't exist outside the Bible,
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and anything outside of it is heresy."
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Does that fit with the truth?
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Does it fit with the facts?
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I'd like to hear exactly
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how what the pastors and elders say doesn't fit with the facts.
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Then I ask you,
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do you remember how John 21:25 goes?
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That makes it pretty clear, right?
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The Lord Jesus lived on earth for over 33 years,
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and preached for 3.5 years.
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In all those years,
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how much do you think He spoke and did?
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Surely a lot!
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But if you read all the Lord Jesus' words from the Bible,
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you could recite them in just a few hours.
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What does that prove?
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It proves that …
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it proves that God's work and words
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aren't recorded entirely in the Bible. (Yes!)
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Also,
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when the Bible was being compiled,
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due to human omissions,
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a portion of Jehovah God's words as conveyed by the prophets
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was not included into the Old Testament.
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And what does that prove?
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It proves that …
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it proves that God's words and work can be found outside the Bible.
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Right, and in John 16:12–13,
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what did the Lord Jesus say?
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Yeah, and in Revelation, we see it prophesied,
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Revelation also prophesies
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the scroll that can only be opened by the Lamb.
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So then, what does all of that prove?
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It … it proves that …
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Maybe you should just tell me.
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It proves that, in the last days,
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the Lord will return to speak.
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Do you think the words of the returned Lord Jesus
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would be written in the Bible in advance?
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Then that means,
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when the pastors and elders say,
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"God's words and work don't exist outside the Bible,"
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it doesn't fit the facts,
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so that means it's wrong!
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What was that? I didn't hear you.
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Ha! I said,
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the idea that "God's words and work don't exist outside the Bible"
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doesn't fit with the facts.
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Absolutely right.
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God is the Lord of creation,
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the ever-flowing source of the living water,
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so how could His words be limited to just that tiny, little bit in the Bible?
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So then,
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when pastors and elders say,
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"God's words and work do not exist outside the Bible,"
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that idea is completely wrong,
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and it comes from people's imaginations!
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Hey, I admit
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that the "God's words and work don't exist outside the Bible" concept
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does have some problems.
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Yeah.
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But still,
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the pastors and elders always stress that
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"God's work doesn't exist outside the Bible,
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and anything outside the Bible is heresy."
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There's not a problem with that idea, right?
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I have an answer for that:
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There's a big problem!
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Tell me, is God's work required to be based on the Bible?
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Is God unable to work without the Bible?
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I don't see what's so questionable about that.
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Think about it.
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When God created the heavens, earth, and all things,
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did He do so based on the Bible?
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Well, no.
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When Jehovah God led the Israelites out of Egypt and issued His laws,
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did He do so based on the Bible?
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They didn't have the Bible back then.
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If they had it then, you think God would have done His work based on it?
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Of course He would have!
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When the Lord Jesus preached repentance, forgave mankind's sins,
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cured the sick, cast out demons, revealed miracles, bestowed grace upon mankind,
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and was crucified as the sin offering,
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were all those words and work based on the Bible?
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Well those …
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No, I guess they weren't.
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That's right!
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The Lord Jesus' words and work weren't based on the Bible,
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nor were they limited by it.
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In fact, they went entirely outside the Bible.
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That's actually true.
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Don't you think we're denying the work done by God Himself
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if we go by the pastors' and elders' theory that
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"Anything outside the Bible is heresy"?
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You know, I just realized this is a big problem!
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But why didn't I ever see it before?
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Hey, what are you mumbling on about?
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I said,
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it … it's just that you've changed a lot in the last few days!
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If not for Almighty God expressing the truth,
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no one could see these problems clearly.
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Oh?
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What does Almighty God say about it?
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Which is greater: God or the Bible?
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Which came first, God or the Bible?
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Right.
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I got it! Of course God is greater!
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Of course God came first, then the Bible!
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That's right.
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God is the source of life for all things.
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Mankind could never fathom the greatness of God.
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But the truth is,
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man only began to record God's words,
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and compiled the Bible
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after God had finished His previous work.
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The Bible is nothing but a historical account of God's work from the past.
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So how could it be compared to God at all?
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Right, right, right …
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If we use the Bible to limit God and define His words and work,
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that's … that's completely ridiculous!
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Right!
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God works according to His management plan
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and the needs of mankind to lead them and to save them.
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God's work is always moving forward and always new.
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God never repeats His old work.
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So, do you think God's work in the last days
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is really based on something as limited as the Bible?
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Oh my!
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So when the pastors and elders say
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"God's words and work don't exist outside the Bible,
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and anything outside the Bible is heresy,"
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that's such a deceiving fallacy!
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It's much worse than that!
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It's using the Bible to delimit all God's words and work,
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which is resisting God's appearance and work in the last days,
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as well as preventing us from hearing the Lord's voice.
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It's one of Satan's tricks!
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Oh no!
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That's like fugu prepared by a pastry chef!
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That's a big problem!
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Now he's getting it.
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Now let me ask you—
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Hey, bup, bup, bup …
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I was trying to ask you a question,
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and you're cutting in
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and asking me a whole pile of them!
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It's only because I'm worried about you.
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Then let me ask you something.
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Go ahead.
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So, our Pastor Jia always says,
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"The Bible was given by inspiration of God,
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and it is all His word.
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So the Bible represents God."
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"Believing in the Bible means believing in the Lord,
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and believing in the Lord means believing in the Bible.
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No matter when or where,
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we can't depart from the Bible.
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By keeping the Bible,
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we will enter the kingdom of heaven!"
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Hey! He does a pretty good impression!
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That's the question I want to ask.
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Then we'll just have to ask Pastor Jia
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his basis for the claim that the entire Bible was inspired by God.
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Did the Lord Jesus ever say that?
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The Lord Jesus never said that,
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but Paul very clearly said,
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Is there a problem with that?
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I have an answer for that:
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There's a big problem!
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Does Paul represent the Lord Jesus?
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Most certainly not.
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Then Paul's claim that
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"All scripture is given by inspiration of God"
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has no basis in the Lord's words, and no testimony by the Holy Spirit.
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Does that fit with the truth?
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Does it fit with the facts?
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So that means that Paul's claim was mistaken?
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The truth is that
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only a small minority of the words in the Bible were inspired by God.
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Most of the Bible is historical records or people's letters,
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none of which can be said to be inspired by God.
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That makes sense.
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Anything directly inspired by God in the Bible
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is clearly marked as such.
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It's marked?
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Yeah.
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Now you remember!
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In the books of the prophets, things inspired by God are clear,
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such as
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Right.
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Also that,
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not only does it contain God's words,
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the Bible also contains the words of Satan, the ancient serpent,
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Moses, the apostles, Pharaoh,
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not to mention robbers, and the words of Pontius Pilate,
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even the words of the Pharisees, and high priest—(Hey …)
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I think I get it.
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If we say that all the Bible's words are the words of God alone,
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that's … that's not right either.
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We need to be able to discern which words are God's,
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and which come from man.
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You can tell that by taking a look at who is speaking.
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Oh?
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If it's God, then those words are God's words.
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Anyone else means it's the words of man.
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Even if they accord with the truth, they're still the words of man.
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And Satan's words?
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Obviously the words of demons!
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Right, right, right …
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The words of God, of man, and of Satan
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cannot be mixed into the same pool. (Right.)
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If we say that all the words in the Bible are all inspired by God,
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that it's all God's word,
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that's … that's twisting the facts and confusing right and wrong.
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It's belittling and blaspheming God.
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Oh no.
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So when the pastors and elders say,
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"Everything in the Bible was inspired by God,
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it's all God's word,"