Postmodernism

At this time, I would like to introduce our speaker for the 1st 2 sessions, 2 sessions, 1 introduction. John Rittenhouse currently serves at Viola University as a professor of undergraduate biblical studies. His forte is apologetics and worldview. He has been on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ for over 25 years working with college students.

He has spoken on over 100 100 universities across the United States and in 5 foreign countries. John has a passion for training students to be more effective in evangelism and to be prepared to defend their faith using apologetics. john was one of my professors back in the day, and one of the things that I appreciate so much about John is that he is not an armchair theologian, he is a practical. Theologian, as well.

He has respectfully and graciously shared the message of Christ to thousands of folks over a few decades. As my professor John spoke from a reservoir of experience that more than qualifies him to speak to us today. And so, John, thank you for being here with us today and we look forward to what you have to say. Let's give him a warm welcome.

Thank you, brother. Thank you. I wish you were a little bit closer. I don't like being this far away.

My passion for 40 years has been college students, so I've done college ministry for 40 years. I still do it. 10% of my time is teaching at Viola University and 90% of my time is mentoring my brothers in Christ, which is the passion of my life. So my 40 years of ministry on college campus, which continues, hasn't been an academic pursuit, but it's been a very practical pursuit.

I can do the academics. I teach at Bio University, but I'm really more interested in what affects people significantly on Ground Zero or in the trenches or the, the people of everyday life. So I'm not looking for this massively rigorous, heady examples to try to persuade people. I'm not gonna give them a textbook and ask them to read it because they're not gonna read it anyway.

So I want to be very practical. So my entire life, my entire ministry has been driven by practicality. For us, for those of us that are Christ followers, John chapter 8, Jesus says to the disciples, he says, if you're my disciples, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. So Jesus says entering into a relationship with Him gives us additional access to truth.

Now our culture today doesn't want to admit, doesn't want to acknowledge that truth even exists. I was speaking to my daughter's high school class. I think it was maybe when she was in either 10th or 11th grade, and, dads could come in and speak about what they do and so she wanted me to come in. I said, you need to tell your professor at the university, you need to tell him who I work for.

I work for Campus Crusade for Christ. So you need to let him know because if he has misgivings about it, he can opt out of this. He's, no, no, that's OK, that's OK. So I show up in the classroom and he gives me the hour to talk and talk about what I do and early on in the presentation, I said to the students, I said, let's participate.

I said, how many of you have ever been lied to? Raise your hand. So all the hands in the classroom went up, every hand went up in the classroom, they've been lied to. And I said to him in response, I said, that proves that truth exists.

And not one of them got it. Of course they're high school students. And so then one brave girl in towards the front, she raises her hand. I call on her and I'm like yes and she's like, What do you mean?

I said, well, a lie is a departure from something. A lie is a departure from the Truth. And then they all got it. it was like Christmas in July.

all the light bulbs went on. They're like and one of the guys in the very back student goes, he's like, oh, that's good. So I don't need to give them a thick textbook to prove that truth exists. I just have to ask them a simple question.

It works every single time. I don't care who I'm talking to. Have you ever been lied to? Yeah.

That proves that truth exists and they get it. It's simple. It's a, it's a, a million dollar answer but it only costs you a dime. That's great.

Paul Copen, who's the president of the Evangelical Philosophical Society, says the difficulty of finding truth is no excuse for not looking. Even if it is difficult to find, you're still obligated to look for it. One of my students last spring at biology, she put it very succinctly, she said we must argue with a humble confidence. That allows us to be approachable to others.

As believers, we ought to be approachable. I've done a lecture entitled Stump the Professor. Done it on about 30 campuses. If a student can ask me a question related to the Bible that's not trivial.

If I cannot answer it for them, I will pay them $100. I've done that on 30 campuses. Now, you'll have to talk to me at the break and ask if I ever paid out. I was at the University of Latvia in Riga, Latvia.

Did a lecture, unrelated to today, a little bit. I actually was speaking on Satanism, which is a weird topic, but, God uses lots of things. And afterwards I met with the numerous people that were at my lecture. One was a math professor.

We sat in the cafeteria the next morning, we talked and he said he didn't believe in God. I said you should, and he said, why? I said, because truth exists. And if there's, if there's objective truth, then there's got to be an ultimate absolute.

And so he's a math professor, so I put down on a piece of paper 2 + 2 equals, put a line and a question mark. I said, what's the answer to the question? He said 4. I said, how many right answers are there to the question?

He said, one. I said, how many wrong answers? He said, infinite. And I said, if there's a right answer to this question, why isn't there right answers to other questions?

There's a right answer to questions. Now you and I may not know the answer, but there is a right answer to the questions. And then he said, to finish the story a little bit, he said, those are just symbols on a piece of paper. I'm like, oh man.

These questions like this are music to my soul. That's what I tell my, my Bible students. It's like Beethoven's symphony to me. When people say, challenge me, not, not because I'm argumentative, because I have such a passion for people to know the truth.

And I said, yes, you're right, those are symbols, but those symbols represent objective reality. And he got it. And I said, if there's absolutes, there's got to be an ultimate absolute, and he looks at me and he says, you're right, God exists. So I convinced him of the existence of God over 2 + 2.

I didn't give him a thick 200 page textbook. That's OK too. if he wants to read it, that's good. So, letter A in your notes.

Finding truth is not as hard as finding Nemo. Peter Creef in his book The Handbook of Christian Apologetics, increasingly the very idea of objective truth is being ignored, abandoned or attacked, not only in practice but even in theory, directly and explicitly, especially by the educational and media establishments who mold our minds. Paul Copen again. Truth is true even if no one knows it.

Truth is true even if no one admits it. Truth is true even if no one agrees what it is. Truth is true even if no one follows it. Truth is true even if no one but God grasps it fully.

Those are great statements. Just because it's difficult to know truth, that's, that area of philosophy is called epistemology. Does not mean that truth doesn't exist. Metaphysics.

Our culture has completely mixed up these two terms. She'll say, they'll say this or, they don't say it as clearly, but this is what's in their process of the brain. Because truth is difficult to know, that means truth doesn't exist. And they're wrong.

I don't care how difficult it is to know genetics or nuclear physics or astronomy. But it doesn't mean that there's no truth in those areas. Just because it's difficult to know, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And our culture is completely mixed up about this.

Pilot, John chapter. 8, I think, or maybe it's another place. Pilate's discussion with Jesus. Jesus is before Pilate.

Pilate said to him, so, so you're a king? Jesus answered, you say correctly that I'm a king. For this I've been born and for this I've come into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who hears the truth hears my voice.

And in response, Pilate said to him, What is truth? Now I don't think Pilate wanted an answer to the question. But the question is actually a very good question. What is truth?

And the short answer to it is truth is that which corresponds to reality. All truth that exists is God's truth. Truth is God's word. Truth is also contained in God's world.

So we shouldn't be afraid of truth because truth finds its source in the nature of God. If you're reading a chemistry book, don't be afraid of it. If you're reading a biology book, don't be afraid of it. If you're reading a psychology book, don't be afraid of it, because if there's truth contained in those books, that truth finds its source in the nature and character of God.

Most things in chemistry books are true, not everything, but most of it. Some things in biology books are true and some things aren't. Some things in psychology books are true and some things aren't. You have to filter them to determine, to decipher what actually is true to reality.

Truth corresponds to reality. Page 24 tests for determining truth, logical consistency. Good example. I love all people and I love myself.

That's appropriate. Love your neighbor as yourself. You already do love yourself. So I, that's a good example of consistency.

If I say I love all people but I hate myself, I'm not being logically consistent. Second test, internal coherence. It's consistent with itself. Buddhism is inconsistent.

It says you should have a desire to have no desire, but if I have a desire to have no desire, then I'm having a desire and that's not no desire, so should I have a desire to have no desire? It's, it's incoherent as my oldest son would like to say with statements like this. He's, he's like, Papa, that's a square circle. It's irrational and Buddhism is in large part internally incoherent.

Explanatory power, the problem of evil. Buddhism says it doesn't exist. Well, I'm gonna give you a good swift kick where it hurts and when you cringe in pain, I'm gonna say it's all an illusion. Doesn't exist Or Buddha or Hinduism says it's because you've done something bad in your previous life, reincarnation.

Well what happens theoretically if this is my first life and I'm experiencing suffering? There's no answer to the question. Or Islam says it's the fate of Allah. Everything that happens, Allah wanted to happen, dying of leukemia, rape, murder, everything.

This is exactly what God wants, Allah wants. That's an insufficient answer to the question. Christianity has got explanatory power with lots of things including the problem of evil. It's freedom exercised wrongly.

It's like Elvin Planega from Notre Dame says, God cannot make a will that doesn't will. Think about it. When he makes a square, he has to make it four-sided. He doesn't have an option to make it five-sided or three-sided.

A square is four-sided. God can't make a will that doesn't will. It's an oxymoron. Fourth, which we already said, correspondence to reality.

Examples of things correspond to reality when you put an acid and a base together. When you put vinegar and baking soda together, you get a neutralization reaction. And the result is the formation of a salt of some sort and water. I was on board an airplane flying to who knows where, I don't remember.

Guy sitting next to me, he made a comment that his daughter had shacked up with her boyfriend, he saw nothing wrong with it because morality was relative. And so I found out what his educational background was, chemical engineering. Well, that's my undergraduate degree, chemical engineering. So I know an awful lot of things that he knows also and I know common ground.

So I said to him, when you mix an acid and a base together, do you get a neutralization reaction because you believe it to give a neutralization reaction? And he looks at me like I'd said the dumbest thing he'd ever heard on planet Earth. He's like, no, of course not. It, it, it gives you a neutralization reaction whether you believe it or not.

I said the same thing is true with morality. If there's truth in the area of chemistry, why isn't there truth in the area of morality? And morality is not determined by what you believe. It exists apart from your belief, and he bought it.

He bought it and he changed his opinion of his daughter shacking up with her boyfriend. Three distinct disciplines. Number 3, relating to finding truth. And again, our culture doesn't get these.

If you get these, you understand these, you're going to be able to tear things up a little bit. Science deals with matter, physical objects. Science only deals with material objects. There's a movement in our culture.

It was more prevalent when I was being raised up because in my culture, I was raised in a culture of modernism. If you're about 45 or 50 or older, you're raised in a culture of modernism. If you're about under 40, you've been, you've been raised in a culture that is largely post-modern and your culture has influenced you. I don't care if you're a believer or not, you've been influenced by the culture, so have I.

And in modernism, modernism champions science. Science is everything. If you can't prove it scientifically, then it's not true, which is an absurd statement. Only scientific statements are true.

What statement is that? Is it a scientific statement? Nope, it's a philosophical statement. So I guess if only scientific statements are true, and that's not a scientific statement, therefore your statement can't be true, can it?

Light goes on. I can see it in their face, light goes on. And I'm like, too bad you're not paying me tuition for all the stuff that I'm teaching you. I'll tell the guy when I'm interacting with somebody, on the campus because it's an, it's an education.

Science deals with matter. History deals with events. And particularly past events history deals with. And the third thing, philosophy deals with ideas.

So you have to use the right discipline for a particular question at hand. So for example, Do you love your mother? Now, if I ask you, do you love your father, that's not a very safe question in today's culture actually. Because I'm going to get some very strong kickback on that question from some people.

It's a lesson for us as fathers. But it's a safe question to ask, do you love your mother, because I'm gonna get about 100% hit on that. Do you love your father? I'm gonna get about a 60% hit on that.

So I never asked, do you love your father because it's gonna be a mixed bag. I always asked, do you love your mother? I said, of course I love my mother. Can you prove to me scientifically that you love your mother?

Can you prove to me scientifically that love exists? Can you prove to me scientifically that love is real? No, you can't because love is not a physical object. So science has absolutely nothing to say about the question.

It is irrelevant. What caused the universe to come into existence? It's not a scientific question actually. Because prior to the universe, there's no time, there's no space, there's no material substance.

There's no energy So prior to the beginning of the universe, which we describe frequently as the Big Bang, Big Bang is not the cause, it's just a description of the event. So there's no material substance prior to the Big Bang, no matter. So what caused the universe to come into existence is not a scientific question. Because matter doesn't exist and science only deals with matter.

So the question actually, in a, in a certain sense lightly could be a history question, but that's not gonna help you a lot. Philosophy, it is. It's a philosophy question. And you look to philosophy for an answer to the question, or do you have a soul?

A soul is not a material object, so science is irrelevant to the question. So when science tries to entertain that question, try to answer it, it's, it's, it's a fish out of water. They're not, they're not competent to answer the question. Because science only deals with matter.

So in our culture, we, the culture thinks, oh, if you can't, if you can't prove it scientifically, then it just ain't true. Well, that just ain't true. Or another one, did Jesus raise from the dead? Did he rise from the dead?

It's not a science question. It's not a philosophy question. It's actually a history question because it's an event in history. So we have to look to history to answer that question.

And when we get these three categories down, we begin to see things a little bit clearer in our culture and when people say things we say no, no, dude that's a philosophy question. No, dude that's a history question. Dude, you're right, that's a science question. Three popular misconceptions about truth.

All truth is relative. Well, if that's true, then I guess I don't have to believe anything that you say, do I? Why are you boring, boring me with emotional expressions? Because you don't have anything to tell me.

One guy, unfortunately, he claims to be an evangelical, he wrote an article entitled, there is no such thing as Objective Truth and it's a good thing too. And my response is, then I guess I don't have to read your article. Because there's no objective truth in it, so there's no point of me reading it. Pointless.

I was at State University of New York at Stony Brook. I was doing a lecture on who knows what, I think it was on the occult. And one of the students there was really not happy with me. He was getting amped up.

And he kept on interrupting. Finally I solved that problem and Nicely got him to realize he needed to be a little bit respectful, wait until the Q&A time, and so Q&A time comes, I tell students, give me your first name. I like to know their first name because it builds some relationship when I can use their first name. It lowers the conflict level, makes it more congenial.

So, Q&A time, he just, man, he, he just thrust his hand up in the air and he was ticked. He was just amped like crazy. And I call him, he said, my name is Dan. I've got a question.

It really was a statement and lots of times it's statements, not questions. He says, you can't make statements about absolute truth. I said, are you sure? He said, yes.

I said, are you absolutely sure? He said, yes. I said, you just made a statement about absolute truth, Dan? And he goes.

And he looks at me and he's like, you're right. I said, I know. All truth is relative. I'm sorry that won't work very well.

Or another misconception, all views are equally valid. So if you have cancer, if you go to your cancer specialist, it might cost you about 500 bucks for the appointment. Your local plumber, he only charges about 75 or 80 bucks an hour. So, if all views are equally valid, why don't you go to your local plumber?

It's a lot cheaper. Hey Joe, what do you think about my cancer? What should I do? Drano, corkscrew, what should I do for my cancer.

It's cheap, 80 bucks for a whole hour. You don't, you get more than 1012 minutes. Get a whole hour for 80 bucks, man. It's cheap because all views are equally valid, right?

And when we share an illustration like that, we see the absurdity of the comment. No, all views are not equally valid. Or the 3rd 10, this one's, this one's raging in our culture. It's wrong to force your views on others.

So I was at State University of New York at Buffalo. I was giving my lecture on the occult, witchcraft, Satanism, yada yada yada. And after the lecture, a gal and her accomplice in crime, a guy came up. She was very congenial, she's very nice, but she emulated a statement that really represented what is going on in the culture and she said to me, and she said it gently, she wasn't being abrasive in the least bit.

But she said, John, I don't think it's right to force your views on other people. And I said to her gently, What are you trying to do to me right now? And the guy next to her said, he's right. And the light went on again for her.

The light went on. And she got it. Now, there's 2 problems with this. The first problem, it's impossible for you to, for me to force you to believe anything.

It's impossible. So I did, I did this at the University of South Dakota during my Q&A time. I asked the girl, I said, can I ask you a personal, can I, can I ask you something? She's like, yeah, I said, would you, do you need an extra $5000 next semester for tuition?

She said, boy, yeah, man, I could really use it. I said, I'm prepared to give you $5000 for tuition next semester if you will believe for me, not say that you believe for me, if you'll believe for me that the number 2 is odd. She said, I can't do it. I said, why not?

She said, because it's not odd. We'll just believe it. Just OK, I believe it. Can't do it.

You cannot force yourself to believe anything. So why do you think I've got greater power over your beliefs than you do? I can't force you to believe anything. You can't even force yourself to believe anything.

But the second reason, letter B, is really what it's getting at, but they don't have enough clarity of thought. They actually think that persuasion is morally unacceptable. It's wrong to try to persuade people, but they try to persuade you that it's wrong to persuade people. They break their own rule all the time.

John, you can't make statements about truth. Just did You can't know anything. You just made a claim of knowledge. I can't speak one word of English to you.

What did I just do? So they break their own rule. This is one of my principles I teach my students. Whatever a person says, apply their statement to their statement.

And 80% of the time, the argument is going to be over because their statement destroys their statement. If your friend were upset over something and wanted to commit suicide, would you try to persuade them not to kill themselves? Of course you would If Jesus is the only means to gain forgiveness and eternal life, is it right to try to persuade somebody that doesn't believe it? Of course it is It's not only good, it may be morally obligatory.

Morally, you have a moral obligation. If your best friend says I'm gonna kill myself tonight, you have a moral obligation to intervene in his or her life. You and I that are Christ followers have a moral obligation to gently and lovingly involve ourselves in their lives and tell them the truth of the gospel. If you're a cancer specialist and a cure for a particular cancer and your friend has it, you're obligated to tell him.

Kenneth Bowen his book 20 Arguments for God or 20 Evidences. It is the job of neither feelings nor tradition to serve as the basis for accepting a belief. A belief should be embraced because it's true. Because it's based on reality.

See a biblical view of truth, characteristics of truth. Proverbs 23:23. Buy truth and don't sell it. Get wisdom and instruction and understanding.

From that verse, there's three qualities right in. This is the only blank in your whole notes. Three qualities of truth from this one verse. One is so obvious you probably wouldn't come up with it.

First one is it exists. It exists 2, it's obtainable because the text says buy it, buy it. So that means it's obtainable. And 3rd, it's valuable.

Buy truth and don't sell it. It exists, it's obtainable, it's valuable. Mark 5:33, she told him the whole truth. Truth exists.

Truth is expressible via language. This is a killer for today's postmodern culture. Postmodern culture says language creates reality, language doesn't express reality. So I was at UC Irvine, I was talking to a student, claimed to be a believer.

He said, John, you can't use language to communicate meaning. I said, what do you mean? He said, well, I don't think you can use language to get people to understand what you're trying to say. I, I don't understand what you're trying to say.

So I played his game with him for about 7 minutes, played the game. I put myself into his world, into his worldview, and I acted like his worldview was true. And after about 7 minutes, he looks at me, he smiles, he says, I know what you're trying to do. I said, I played dumb.

I said, what am I trying to do? He's like, you're trying to get me to see that language actually is sufficient to communicate meaning. I said, have I accomplished my goal? He says, yes, you have.

People don't like to live in the world they create. Interesting. Very interesting. Truth decay of the book.

It should be clear that such a view of truth collides with postmodernist notions of the social construction of reality and the relativity of truth. Rationality and scientific inquiry are valid means of ascertaining truth and progress is both possible and desirable. John chapter 1 verse 14 says, the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. I like the order of those words.

Grace and truth, there's a mixture. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 15 says, speak the truth and love. Literally it's actually truth it out in love is the literal from the Greek. Truth it out in love.

There's a mixture in scripture between grace and truth, love and truth. We need to love people we're trying to communicate truth to. I'm not trying to win the argument. I'm trying to win the person.

2 John chapter, well, 2 John 1, whom I love in the truth, and not only I but all who know the truth. Next page. Some other verses in order that all may be judged who do not believe the truth, chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth. These things I've written to you in order that you may know.

So the text of scripture says truth exists and we can actually know it. John 17:17, I love it, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth, man, that fires my heart up. My heart just gets all kinds of an adrenaline rush when I read that verse.

Truth sanctifies, transforms our life, and God's word is truth. Even if no one knows it or no one accepts it, it's still truth. It's a self-refuting statement to say you cannot use language to express truth. Isaiah 40:8, another verse I love.

The grass withers, the flower fades. But the word of our God. sands forever. John 14:6, we all could quote it.

Jesus said, I'm the way and the truth. He's the source of truth. Truth finds its source in the nature of God. I joke with my students at times, I'll say, where does the number 2 live?

They're like, what? So where does #2 live? And one student, I always have one. I'm hoping that somebody will be one of these students will be like this, out of the box thinker and I just had it, I just did it.

One of the guys said, between the number 1 and 3. I said, I love that answer. I totally love that answer. It's totally wrong but I totally love that answer cause you're thinking outside the box.

I love it. And I'll ask him, so where does it exist? Where does it find its existence? Truth exists before humans existed.

Truth exists independent of us. We didn't invent math, we discovered math. So, one student, 1 or 2 students usually get it because they're thinking and they'll say, in the mind of God. I said, exactly.

That's where the number 2 exists. It exists in the mind of God. And it doesn't have to be exemplified by a symbol on a piece of paper for it to be real or for it to have existence. Then I teach him something else.

I said, Numbers are not physical objects, so they don't have geographic location. So my question in philosophy is actually called a category fallacy question. What does the letter C taste like? What color is the, the musical note B flat?

Where does the number 2 live? Those are all category fallacy questions. Letters don't have color, notes don't have taste, numbers don't have geographic location, so I was tested them twice at the same question. And then they start getting this.

I tell them, I don't want you to be critical people. Please don't be critical people. Be critical thinkers. Not critical people.

So here's some statements. In your nose. Truth is exclusive. It's specific.

It's antithetical. John says it clearly. No lie is of the truth, man. That's, that's point, point blank simple.

No lies of the truth, of course. Truth is exact and precise, and the slightest departure from truth is the substitution of falsity for truth. Truth is universal and it's normative. Example, Acts 4:12.

There is salvation no one else. There's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must. Be saved. There's only one solution to the problem.

People say, well, there's lots of claims. Well, when I look at history, if I look at the history of religions in the world, I, I only know one person who ever claimed to be God. Boot ever claimed to be hot? No, he'd cut your head off if you said that.

But did Buddha claim to be God? No, Buddha didn't even believe in God. He was an atheist. Did Gandhi believe in God?

Yeah, 630,000 of them. Did he believe he was God? No. Did Moses believe he's God?

No. So nobody's actually even made a claim to be God except for Jesus, so you don't have a lot of options to consider. You only have one option to consider. Is he really telling the truth?

Is he a, is he a liar? Is he a lunatic out of his cotton picking mind? Doing seriously, serious hallucinogenic drugs. Or is he really the Lord and God that he claimed to be?

You only have three logical options, says CS Lewis. Lord, liar, lunatic, take your pick. Don't come up with any of this preposterous nonsense that he's a good moral teacher. He hasn't left that option open to us.

Lewis is right. Truth is universal and it's normative. Truth is central to God's nature. Psalm 3315.

You have ransomed me, O Lord, God of truth. Now I'm going to get into trouble for saying this. I'm sorry, but I like to take relevant tangents. Three things God can't do.

My theology friend at bio gets a little nervous when I say this. And God can't do things that are contrary to his nature. Can't commit suicide, can't tell lies. It's contrary to his nature, can't do it.

God cannot do things that are logically inconsistent. He cannot make four-sided triangles. We're not talking about the word that we put as a label to describe that geometric figure. We'll, we'll maintain the word.

God could change the words, but we're talking about the same thing. So we'll use the word square to represent a geometric figure that's four-sided equal sides of length, 90 degree vertices all connected. That's what we mean by square. God cannot make a three-sided square.

He could make a square and call it whatever he wants, dog, cat, whatever he wants. He could use any label he wants, but it's still got to be four-sided. So God's nature is such that he cannot tell lies. It's impossible.

So if God is a truth teller, what should we be? We should be a truth teller. Did you ever see that, I forgot, Verizon commercial. I think it was a telephone commercial about Abraham Lincoln and his wife, and she puts on a dress and she says, well, sweetheart, what does it make me look fat?

honest Abe, I was told the truth. So, it's really hilarious little commercial. He says, well, Maybe a little bit. Honest Abe.

Truth is central. The third thing God can't do, which I don't have time to explain, God cannot do things that are metaphysical impossibilities. God cannot make a rock that thinks. Now some of you are gonna disagree with me, that's OK.

Catch me at the break or at lunchtime and I'll explain why that is actually true. Isaiah 45:19, I, the Lord speak the truth, I declare what is right. He has no other option to declare what is right than what is right because that's his nature. God's truth is grounded in God's eternal being.

It has no expiration date, needs no image makeovers. Truth corresponds to reality. Next page. The Hebrew word for truth, Amet, has notions of conformity with reality and fact.

It has ideas of reliable, authentic, faithful, and veracity. The book Truth Decay says lies become idols and every idol obscures the truth. This is because all idols are unrealities in deceptive dress, untruths and shabby social constructions of the supposed sacred. Characters of truth from these verses.

We already quoted this. If you want a greater access to truth, Jesus says, come and follow Him. He gives us insight. One of the benefits of being a believer, Ephesians chapter one, is he reveals his mysteries to us.

That's one of the benefits of friendship. One of my friends, is the head football coach at the University of Redlands. I'm the only person on that campus. I used to spend a lot of time there.

I don't anymore, but when I was spending time there, Mike Maynard. I'm the only person that could call him by his first name. President of the university, never called him by his first name because I was coach. But for me, he wanted me to call him by his first name because of the closeness of our friendship.

I knew things that nobody else knew. He's going to take a job interview with another college for a coaching position. He had a football coach position, he told me. foretold anybody And he asked me what I think.

I said, I don't think you should take the job. I think you've got a great situation here at Redlands. Got great opportunities and you're influencing students for the gospel. Shortly after he became a believer, he said to me, John, I just want to share the gospel.

I want to help fulfill the great commission. That's the most important thing in life. He said, can you help me? I'm on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ.

Can you help me? Yeah, I can do that. I can do that. Yes, very easily, I can help you do that.

Galatians 2:14, but when they, when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, if you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it you compare the Gentiles to live like Jews? Truth. Paul confronts Peter related to truth. Proverbs 27:6.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. Nine ways, this is not exhaustive, 9 ways to obtain knowledge, the means of knowledge. Number 1, reason. Reason.

Ryan is taller than John. John is taller than Nathan, therefore, Ryan is taller than Nathan. These are my sons. Ryan is 6'4 or 5.

I'm 6'2 and my younger son is 6 ft tall. So Ryan, 6'4, is taller than me. I'm 6'2, but I'm taller than Nathan, who is 6 ft. I don't have to measure Nathan and Ryan to see that Ryan is taller.

I don't have to do that because reason tells me that he is. I don't have to do any measurements. Revelation, what's the nature of the Trinity? What's the requirement for salvation?

Is there life after death and what does it look like? What is the texture of that life after this life? I'm gonna need revelation. I won't be able to just look at the stars and say, oh yeah, yeah, God's eternity.

Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, heaven's gonna be wonderful. I can't find that out from looking at the cosmos. I'm gonna need special information. And that's revelation.

Third experience, what does it feel like to be drunk with alcohol? I always ask my students this. They're always afraid because, it's bio university, you're supposed to be perfect., nobody is, but, it's in a culture where you're supposed to be perfect, but, you can't tell anybody that you're not. That's also called the church, right?

It's not always, it's not always very helpful to tell people that you're imperfect. Especially if you're a pastor, you have to be more perfect than the lay people, right? It's a heavy burden sometimes. I, I want people to know who I am, to accept me for who I am, not to accept my faults or my sin.

To accept me as a person, I, I mentor men, thing I do with 90% of my time, just met a new guy in my class, I teach two classes, one on apologetics, the other class I teach, which is my favorite, just started teaching it, love, friendship, and mentoring. That's the title of the class. That's what my life is all about, those three words, love, friendship, mentoring, that's my life. So I just met with one of my students and I like saying to men that I mentor, I promise you two things.

I will love you no matter what. And I will accept you no matter what. I don't care what you tell me about your life, those two things are not going to change. I will love you no matter what, and I will accept you no matter what.

That should be the texture of the local church. Because then we're not afraid to expose who we are. Henry Cloud in his book How People Grow, he said some people, some people don't know you and therefore like you. Some people know you and therefore don't like you.

What we need are people who know us. And love us. And he said the bridge between knowledge and love is something called acceptance. And we need that desperately in the local church.

We desperately need that in the community of faith, so to my students, I will love you no matter what. I accept you no matter what, and what? The heart opens up like a floodgate. Like I did Thursday with my student, my brother in Christ.

He's, John, I've never told anybody these things. I've never told anybody these things. But I'm telling you because I feel safe. He is safe.

He's extremely safe. I'm not walking away from this brother or from this friendship. That's how God is. He says to me, when I do stupid stuff, he said, I doubt whether or not God loves me.

I said I love you no matter what. And if I love you no matter what, God is bigger and better than I am. So he's got to love you more than I do, and then light goes on. He's like, oh yeah.

Yeah. Human relationships are a good way for us, if they're good for us to catch the character of God, to catch a glimpse of God. So when I ask them, how many have ever been drunk, they raise, they raise. I give them a hard time just jokingly.

I'll say, boy, man, you're a bad boy, you're a bad, and then I just start laughing, they crack up. I said, well, I probably beat all of you, on this area. When I was 18, I drank 18 shots of tequila. Had the dry heaves for 3 days.

And then I tell him, I said it was a wonderful experience. And they're like, you're crazy. I'm like, yeah. And then I tell them, I say, I don't, sorry if I step on any toes, Pastor Carlos, if I step on any toes, forgive me.

I don't think it's wrong to drink. In moderation, but I do not drink alcohol. And I've not drank alcohol for the last 41 years. I was just with my college roommate.

We roomed together as a freshman. this is, 40 years ago that I graduated. Hadn't seen him in 27 years. I talked to him twice a year, my birthday, his birthday, but I went to his house a year ago, wanted to spend a day with him.

And so he's fixing dinner for me and his wife and he says to me, would you like a beer? And I just almost cracked up laughing. I said, Eric, you're gonna have a hard time believing this. But the last time I had a beer was when you and I were roommates as freshmen in college, 40 years ago.

Then he used some words that, I can't share, here because they're too descriptive, a little bit vulgar, and, he cussed a little bit and he's like, I can't believe that, really? I said, yeah, that's, that's true, bro. I'd rather have grape juice, or my favorite, Diet Doctor Pepper. I'm addicted to soda, but My, my youngest son always says with my eating habits, he's like, Papa, that's not good for you.

I said, well, son, if you have to die, you might as well die happy. So number 4, senses, your senses, your five senses, sight, touch, hearing, taste, smell. Most of what we get actually is through our eyes. Whether we read a book or we see something, most of our information that we get into our life is actually through our eyes.

reflection. I like asking my students this, and we pursued a little bit. I said, I want you to reflect for a second. When's the last time you felt lonely?

So they'll think and I'll say, how many of you thought of the last time you were lonely? All the hands go up. I'll say now a more significant question. How many of you were not aware of the last time you were lonely until I asked you the question?

And about 50% of those hands go up and say I wasn't aware of it. So you just learned new information about yourself. You just gained knowledge by personal reflection, and they're like, yeah, so reflection is a way you can gain knowledge. Particularly about yourself, other things too, when you start to think, 6, history.

George Washington was the first president of the United States. Can you prove it scientifically? Of course not. Can you prove it philosophically?

Of course not. Authority, sometimes I'll ask students, I'll challenge them because it's blank in their notes and I'll ask them and I already know the answer but I'll say, hey, what's your name? Jerry. How do, how do that's your name?

Well that's, that's what everybody calls me. They could be playing a trick on you. They're like, well, it's on my driver's license. It could have been forged.

Now they start getting worried, especially if I do it with a girl, she starts getting worried. Guys are just like trying to figure out what, what am I doing. Professor's being a nut, but girls start getting a little bit upset, insecure. I'm like, how do?

It's it could be forged on your driver's license, what it says on my birth certificate. So it could be forged too. And then they'll, they'll think and then they'll say, as a last resort, they'll say, well that's what my, that's what my mother named me. And then I'll push a little harder.

I say, what does your mother know? And then they'll say, well, she's, she's the one that gave me my name. I'll say, exactly. Your mother is a good authority on what your name is.

Why? She gave you your name. So authority source, it's a good source of information in certain areas. Community people teach us many things we don't know.

I have a lot of my students that I mentor, they don't know anything about cars. They barely know where to put the gasoline and that's, that's, that's about it. And so my father was an auto repair mechanic. He owned his own service station.

I worked with him. I just, as we're walking out of my house this morning, Jerry and I stayed over last night. I pulled an engine and transmission from a '96 Ford Taurus about two weeks ago, putting a new engine in. I've done it about a dozen times, so it's on the driveway, it's tore out.

I got to put it back in the next few days, hopefully. So I know tons about engines, tons of people call me up, hey, it sounds like this. what is it? I'm like it's your brake pads, so my dad is like that.

He could listen to a car, he could tell you what's wrong with it. I can usually do that. I drive in somebody's car and they're like, what is that noise? It's a bad axle.

What is that noise? I don't know. Or I'll do my wife's routine, you got a noise. She always says to me, just turn the radio louder.

Oh, that'll work. That'll work. Till the tire falls off, that'll work. Number 9.

Investigation Investigation can give us more information. We're doing this with the universe around us, exploration, discovery, we're finding out. This is a tangent, but it illustrates the exploration. We know massive amounts about the formation of the universe.

We've, we've, we're getting data from the entire existence of the universe through light rays, electromagnetic radiation. When you see me, light is bouncing off of me and that light reaches your eyes and you see me. I actually think you actually do see me, not just a reflection or an image of me, you're actually seeing me, which is a major philosophical statement which we don't have time to pursue. So we've got all that data of the universe.

The only thing we don't have a great certainty about is the first nanosecond of the universe, from 0 to 10 to -9 2nd. So everything after 10-9 2nd, you will round off. From 1 2nd onward, we got massive amounts of data and we can explore it. Another tangent.

This is not only the best place in the universe to have life, planet Earth. And this, this is extremely unusual. The book Privileged Planet, the video Privileged Planet talks about how this is absolutely abnormal. The universe, the direction that the universe goes by just naturalistic processes actually builds planets that will not sustain life.

That's the direction that it goes in. So to have a planet that is perfect for human life is completely contrary to the physics of the universe, completely contrary. But the other kicker thing is that's really interesting is planet Earth is in the absolute best location to observe the universe. We're on the, we're on the first row seats 50 yard line watching the game.

There is no better place in the entire universe to observe, explore, and to discover the universe than planet Earth. That wasn't an accident. Psalm 19 says, the heavens declare the work of God. And the firmament, the work of his hands.

He wants us to discover about our universe. My class that I'm teaching on friendship is called an integration seminar. So we're talking about what God's word says about this topic, but also what God's world says about this topic. What does psychology say about a person's ability to be mature and enter into friendship?

Your cerebral cortex, your frontal lobe is not fully developed until you're 25 years of age. So if you're under 25, give it a couple more years. You've got some, you've got some brain deficiencies because of development. What does sociology say about friendship?

What does culture say about friendship? What is cinema? Does, do the movies say anything about friendship? All over the place, just crazy amounts of stuff about friendship and actually a lot of it's actually accurate to reality.

It's good actually. About loyalty and commitment and connection and sacrifice. It's phenomenal stuff. My class, I'm having them watch 4 movies.

Three Idiots. If you haven't watched the film, you should watch it. It's quite good actually. 3 Idiots.

It's an Indian film. The other one they're gonna be watching next week is Finding Forrester. Finding Forrester. The last part, last scene, oh man.

When I watched the thing I replayed, I watched it 10 times in a row. My youngest son said, I'm crying the whole time. My son is like, Papa, how many times are you gonna watch this? 10 times in a row, first time I saw it, I'm like, man, this thing just moves my heart.

Remember the Titans. And recent film, McFarlane dealing with mentoring. I'm having to watch that film, that's the reading assignment for that day, watch the film. That's easy for students to do, then, then that's easy.

OK, last page. 5 minutes. OK. Two major types of philosophical arguments, inductive and deductive.

An inductive argument is an argument based on generalizations. Science uses this method exclusively. JP Morland, one of my heroes, teacher at Viola, says, in an inductive argument, the premise is, 0.1 and 0.2 do not guarantee but merely provide support or grounds for the truth of the conclusion. The issue here is one of probability.

It's probably going to be true. Example, 95% of people taking amoxillin get well when they have a bacterial infection. John has a bacterial infection and took amoxilian. Therefore, it's highly probable that John will get well.

Well, if the John in that statement is this John that's speaking to you, he will not get well, you will probably kill him. Because I have a very violent reaction to amoxillin. So it's not gonna cure my bact my bacterial infection, it's gonna kill me. So it's not true for me.

But it's probably true. It cures it 95% of the time. This is science. Science deals on the area of probability.

So when science says Darwinian evolution is a scientific fact. Even if Darwinian evolution were true, it's not, but even if it were true, that is an overstatement. Of reality because science can't prove that it's a fact. Science doesn't deal with proven facts.

Science deals with probability. Now don't get me wrong, I like science. I'm a fan of science. My undergraduate degree is chemical engineering, but one of my 4 master's degrees is philosophy.

And philosophy evaluates every single discipline on the face of God's good earth. You cannot do science without philosophy. I was talking to Ivan. Ivan's Russian.

He's got a PhD in chemistry. I asked him one day after chapel, I said, Are atoms real? I think so I said, are electrons real? He's like, I think so.

So I push it. Have you seen one? Now I was hoping he was going to come back at me, which I was ready for his comeback. I usually am.

Because I've been doing this for 40 years. Answering questions. I was hoping he'd say, we've seen electron microscope images of electrons. Oh, so you've seen a shadow on a photographic plate.

How do that shadow on a photographic plate represents reality accurately? How do that? You haven't seen an electron directly. You've just seen an image on a photographic plate, and you're assuming that image represents reality accurately.

How do it? And the answer is philosophy. Because science is based on philosophy. Are numbers real?

It's not a scientific question. It's a philosophical question. Are your eyes accurate receptors of external reality? It's not a scientific question.

You're gonna use your eyes to tell me whether or not your eyes are accurate? That's a really good argument. It's a bad argument. So the inductive method is based on empirical evidence, of observational data, the notion of cause and effect, and an assumption about the uniformity of nature and the world.

How do the world is uniform? It's a philosophical assumption. It's a good one if you have a theistic worldview. If you don't have a theistic worldview, you have a naturalistic worldview, that assumption is actually not a very good assumption.

Why in the world should the universe be uniform? Einstein said the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it's comprehensible. 2, deductive argument. This argument is based on principle.

This is what philosophy uses. Some examples, all men are mortal, in other words, they die. Socrates, the teacher of Plato, is a man. Therefore, Socrates, sorry, got clicked off.

Therefore, Socrates, it should say, is mortal. A couple of other ones. This might get somebody upset, sorry, I apologize. A necessary condition for a religion to be Christian is that it be monotheistic, necessary.

It's not sufficient, but it's necessary. Mormonism is not a monotheistic religion. Case in point, Journal of Discourses, Volume 2, Brigham Young says, quote, there are more gods in the universe than there are grains of sand on the seashore, end quote. That's a direct quote.

How many grains of sand are there at Newport Beach? More than one? Yeah, OK. There are more gods in the universe and there are grains of sand on the seashore, so it's not a monotheistic religion, ergo conclusion.

Mor Mormonism cannot be a Christian religion, just can't be, it's impossible. Not unless they become monotheists and then it's a possibility, but it's still not gonna necessarily happen. Third one, things that have beginnings have a cause. The universe had a beginning.

Therefore, the universe must have a cause. That's a valid deductive argument. Things that have beginnings do have causes. The universe did have a beginning.

It's not eternal. They used to think it was eternal. They thought you and I as Christians were idiots because the Bible said the universe had a beginning, was created from nothing. Exlo Paul talks about in Romans.

And they thought we're just totally imbeciles. How in the world you Christians, Golly, you're so dumb. Yeah, God said and bang, yep, that's right. So the universe isn't eternal, the universe had a beginning.

Now we know that. When people challenged me on that, oh man, I'm, man, I'm, I'm happy. Oh golly, I'm happy. I was at USC.

I was speaking for Crusade there. It was after the meeting. They, some of the guys invited friends including the student president of the atheist club on campus, Colin, so he came and I was talking about the existence of the universe, coum cosmological argument, the universe had a beginning and totally, he's totally nice, but he challenges me on a point and I'm, man, I'm just, it's Beethoven's symphony. Oh golly, I just It's just music to my ears when people say, why do you believe that or why, why do you think that?

I just, it's just music. I'm not offended in the least bit. It's just an opportunity to share truth. So I gave him an answer and he was impressed and he says to Greg Triplett, who is the director for Crusade, he had to go early and he said to Greg, tell John.

He's got a standing standing invitation to speak to the atheist club at USC anytime he wants. So I took him up on it 2 months later, went, spoke to the atheist club, talked about the existence of God. Afterwards, Colin says to me. John, I think we should do this once a month.

Until you become an atheist or I become a Christian. I said, I think there's a better chance of you becoming a Christian. OK Last one, if humans are the products of evolution, then they are only physical things. Humans, however, possess thoughts which are non-physical things.

Therefore, humans are not the products of evolution. Evolutionists are gonna agree with statement one. They're going to have to disagree with the statement too, otherwise the game is over. You can catch more of my content online if you want.

You can go to the website open.biola.edu and my entire apologetics course, 15 lectures is online for free. So you can catch lots more. This is just a little, this, I'm just wetting your taste. So if you want more, I'm not the premier guy.

There's lots, lots of good guys out there, Robbie Zacharias and JP Morland and William Lane Craig, probably a lot better than me, but, if you want the content, you can catch it, it's free. And so we'll stop there. We're out of time. We'll take a 15-minute break and then we'll come back to another session in just a bit.