Hey, good evening. A lot of good things to praise the Lord about and to be thankful for. One is, for sure, His salvation, the gift of salvation. But you know, He's given us three resources that we can be very thankful for, one being the Word of God. The other being the Spirit of God, and the third one being the Church of God. These three resources are of vital importance to our spiritual well-being and sustaining truth in the world. I'm going to wrap up our series of worldview conflict with lesson number 67 here and talk about the biblical worldview in today's culture. According to Proverbs 14, verse 34, righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. In other words, a culture that thrives in every way possible, including safe streets, being able to walk anywhere, any time of the day, safely, without fear, decent language being spoken between people. and being rewarded or earning and enjoying the fruits of your own labors, being responsible and hardworking, is built upon the foundation of righteousness, which must be the righteousness of God. Because as our creator, he alone is the source of righteousness and knows the right way we should live in order to thrive. He's our creator, our designer. God has given us the resources, the commission, and the instructions about how to influence our culture to be right. But the way of righteousness has not prevailed. Dakota, does it look like righteousness prevails out there in the world? You get to see the dark side of humanity, don't you? That's why we have police and police states. People won't control themselves. The tendency of man is to go the way of unrighteousness. There's none righteous, no, not one. What's the reason for unrighteousness prevailing over righteousness? Well, Jesus told us the answer in John 3, verse 19. He said, and this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. People prefer walking in sin. They love unrighteousness rather than righteousness. They want to do it their own way, think their own thoughts, do their own thing, not God's way. Despite Jesus' perfect ways when he came and presented himself to the world, despite that, and despite perfect communication with the words, perfectly delivered, and a perfect demonstration of power among people, most people still rejected them. The way of unrighteousness is the preference for most, regardless of the efforts made. Oh, if most people rejected Christ, for regardless of all the perfection he had demonstrated, the perfect words, the perfect presentations, everything, and most people still rejected him, how much more we should expect to be rejected? Being imperfect, with imperfect words, imperfect message, we don't deliver it as well as Christ. Fortunately, Christ doesn't leave us alone without resources and instruction to continue his work. We have the Holy Spirit of God. Along with the proclamation of Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Nonetheless, and despite these resources and promises, this will not change how most will respond. This is the biblical worldview of culture. This is what we saw demonstrated when Christ came. Most still rejected him. They went as far as crucifying him. Strategically, when we're engaged in a losing battle against unrighteousness, we need to pray. The trend of world culture will get worse. It won't get better. Our mission, however, has not changed, regardless of the way and the trends of the world. It doesn't matter. Our commission's still the same. Our commission is to continue the work Christ has given to us to the very end, regardless of the preferences others have for unrighteousness, because some will choose the way of Christ. I don't know who those are, do you? That's why we broadcast the word of God all over the world to everyone, because we don't know who they are, but someone may say, yes, Lord, I want your way. So whether or not we're engaged in a ministry of soul winning or discipling, We're not doing this because of what others are doing, because of the choices others make. We would do it regardless of what others choose to do. Why? Because Christ said to do it. Because of Him, not because of what others do, because of what God has done. and we follow him and his admonition. We are engaged in a search and rescue mission for that which was lost. And that's exactly what Jesus expressed in Luke chapter 19, verse 10. For the son of man has come to seek and to save that which were lost. Then he commissioned us to go and do likewise. That is the biblical worldview. Not surprisingly, Satan has captured the four pillars of culture to shape and influence how people think and live. These four pillars are education, media, government, and business. And in the hands of ethical leaders, in particular God-fearing Christians who live by the biblical worldview, these four pillars allow the population to live free and safe. But in the hands of unethical leaders, the population will be enslaved and manipulated with lies. Living in a world of sin with Satan as its God, there is no hope for lasting freedom and safety in this world. This is the way world culture is trending. And you know what that means, no point in getting bent out of shape over that. The way things are going, the Bible told us that's the way it's going. It already let us know what to expect. So why ring the hand and fret? Oh, things are getting so bad, yeah? Read your Bible and you won't be surprised. And it's gonna get worse. The freedom and safety that exists should be enjoyed while they last, whatever freedoms and safeties there are left. Because when they cease, and they will, it should come as no surprise. And this is how to understand our times. By capturing education, media, government, business with worldviews that are not Christian, Satan has been able to direct our culture away from Christ, away from salvation, away from eternal life, and away from being restored with their creator. Humanity would naturally go this way anyway without Satan's help. Satan just accelerates it. And Satan has been very successful in achieving his objectives through these four pillars of culture influence. By capturing education, the field of science has been corrupted with humanistic bias. The significance of science is demonstrated by the appeal to science as the authority in our culture by which decisions are being made and, as we're told, should be made to make laws and policies that govern the population. We see that in cultures like in Russia and China, in America. The policies implemented during the COVID pandemic demonstrate the power of unethical people in government, the use of scientific authority to justify their policies, and the manipulation of narratives to influence people. For example, science was appealed to as the final authority for COVID policies. Now, as a scientist who specializes in immunology and infectious diseases and developed vaccines for my research, I had knowledge and reasons not to be afraid of the science or the vaccines. That's me, but that's because of my experience and training. Not everyone has that background. I wasn't afraid then and I'm still not afraid. I had knowledge and reasons not to be afraid. What I am afraid of and oppose are the policy makers who have the power to tell us how we're going to live. Even if I agree with the science behind vaccinations, I don't agree that lawmakers have the right to force people to do that which violates their consciences. People should be given freedom to decide what they want to do. for their own health and well-being. As early as 1981, I wrote a diatribe and spoke out against the reckless decisions made by the CDC and the American Red Cross that resulted in contaminating the world's blood supply. And I spoke about that back in the 1980s quite a bit from the pulpit. Dr. Anthony Fauci, surprisingly still around, held the position of Chief of the Laboratory of Immunoregulation at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the time, and played a significant role in federal government's response to the AIDS crisis. 1981 was the first case that popped up. I still think he and many others are culpable for the deaths of those who died of HIV infection due to receiving contaminated blood from the National Blood Supply. And when I was in the hospital over here for a blood transfusion, I told Dr. Hayward, I am not taking blood out of the blood center here. And that's when a lot of the men here in the church lined up and donated blood. I have the brethren's blood, literally, physically, the brethren's blood running through my veins. Well, it's been cleared out now, but I have to say that because Jack's sitting here. But literally, I told the doctor, I am not taking this blood. Because I already knew, again, what you know, knowledge is power, right? I knew what Fauci and others had done to make a political statement. I was already the crackpot up here at the university in the department because I was a creationist and didn't accept the legitimacy of evolution. But then I started going around like Socrates, the gadfly. How can we tell people how they can't get AIDS? Well, we don't even know how they can get it. We're supposed to know better than anyone in the population about these questions. And we don't even know how they can get it. How can you stand up and say you can't get it from the blood supply? And then they run the Red Cross blood mobiles up into Haydash, San Francisco, and infect the entire blood supply. They didn't even have the proper filters at the time. It wasn't developed. Anyway, I can talk quite a bit about that. I've seen the politics. I've experienced the politics, even with creation and evolution. I know from first-hand experience the clash of humanism and biblical worldviews in the field of science. Science is not the problem, as I've said. It's the humanism in science. Science is fine. It's like a car. It's like a gun. It's a tool. It all depends on who's holding it and what they're doing with it. Well, their politics led to infecting the entire blood supply, and I wrote a little book, in fact, The Anomalies of AIDS. That wasn't getting reported. If you knew where to look for it, you could find the reports, and I collected them all together and put them together in a publication. But it wasn't coming through, and that was being censored. And I won't go through those stories, but there's some really interesting stories that popped up. The crazy politics seen during COVID pandemic was the same as that during the 1980s AIDS epidemic, pandemic. People who are not trained in research of vaccine development typically have not been able to separate their politics from science. So they're confused when they hear someone like me defend the science but attack the policies. Well, no, you gotta be both on one side or the other. No, you don't. The confusion is designed, I should say the confusion is by design in this world. Our world is led by the father of lies, who is all about creating confusion. The politicization of diseases is unconscionable. But again, it's intentional. And this results in predictable confusion. And when this happens, people feel justified to make up their own narratives and rules. We've witnessed and we've lived through experiences in recent years of clashing worldviews. Humanists have used science as their authority to justify their policies. And this demonstrates the strategic significance of capturing education, media, business, and government. All four pillars of influence were coordinated by a common worldview in our culture to impose laws on everyone, resulting in a clash of worldviews, one in power and the other not in power. This clash is still taking place and it will continue until Christ comes to destroy Satan and his minions. And this means we need to understand that we live in times that are expected to get worse, not better. 1 Timothy 4 verses 1 through 3 says, now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their consciences seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meets. which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. It's shocking reading this verse to think. In fact, most of us, and I've done this most of the time when I read through this verse, I just gloss over it. But it is shocking when you stop and think and ponder that a society would actually enact laws to forbid marriage and forbid eating meat. Poor brother Brad. But this shows us that the ungodly will gain enough power to make the laws that govern marriage and food. And why not? If you can govern one part of people's lives, you can govern all of it. Those who gain power through government will dictate and require their approval for acceptable morality and worldviews. I mentioned four pillars of influence in a culture, education, media, government, and business, but there is another cultural pillar of influence of vital importance, though it may not be as prominent as the other four. This pillar is the church Jesus built. In fact, the Bible calls the church the pillar and ground of truth. In 1 Timothy 3, verse 15, Paul wrote, but if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. The church built by Jesus is the most important pillar in world culture because it's the pillar of truth. Specifically, the pillar of truth about how to be delivered from eternal condemnation. There's no greater message than this. In Romans chapter 1, verse 16, Paul proclaims, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The gospel message changes more. than how to think and live. It changes the heart, the soul, and the mind. King David wrote in Psalm 51 10, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. When we're saved, we are made brand new. In 2 Corinthians 5.17, Paul stated, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. From personal change comes cultural change. This is a natural byproduct of changing lives one by one. We don't have to focus on cultural change as though that's our mission. That's not our mission. We don't have to focus on cultural change. It will happen automatically if we focus on personal change. The culture will change automatically as people change. True, lasting cultural change requires change rooted in personal change. Otherwise, it's superficial change that won't last. With the gospel message, deep-rooted, lasting change in people produces a solid, righteous culture of people who live by the biblical worldview. And in this context, Christ can be viewed as the fountainhead of cultural life because his message produces the deep-rooted heart change in individuals that results in a population of people who live the right way, the way of righteousness, the way of Christ. The significant implication gained from this insight is really exciting to think about. Not only do we share a message that wins souls to Christ in the experience of everlasting life, but we train disciples to do likewise and thereby produce a population of people who understand and teach others to live the right way. This is how a culture thrives, as declared by Proverbs 14, 34. Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Furthermore, the gospel changes our destiny. Jesus said in Matthew 25, 46, and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. There's nothing more important than where we spend eternity. As the pillar and ground of the truth, the church is responsible to defend the gospel message. And the gospel message must be defended in a world ruled by Satan. It must be defended because we live in a culture that's hostile to Christ, hostile to his messengers, and hostile to his message. Christ and his message are constantly under attack, being maligned with misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation. Nonetheless, the church has assurance of Christ recorded in Matthew 16, 18, where he says, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. This assurance is significant because it tells us that the church is protected by God, divine protection, as his personal possession to withstand the corruptive influence of Satan. And truth will be preserved and protected in his church. God's hand of protection on his church is essential because the church will always be counterculture to that which Satan sets up in the world. It teaches people to serve God rather than the flawed ways of men or themselves. It teaches truth of God contrary to the lies of Satan. It teaches the word of God rather than the words of corruption. The church proclaims the word of God by teaching from the Bible. As did the priests in Israel. The church teaches the Word of God to show people from the Word of God the unmistakable truth in the Word of God. Nehemiah 8.8 describes the custom of the priests, saying, so they read in the book of the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. Teaching distinctly means they taught with clarity and explanation. They gave sense of the instructions by showing the insights to be understood from God's Word. They caused understanding by their instruction to make the Word of God personally relevant and practical. The role and responsibility of the church today is to read the word of God with explanation, reveal insights to be understood, and to show and demonstrate how to apply God's word to everyday living. Unfortunately, mishandling the word of God by too many has led to the distorted perception that God's word is obsolete, irrelevant, and impractical. We hold up the Bible and present it confidently and unashamedly to be the inspired word of God. As the word of God, it tells us how to view the world correctly. As the creator designed the world to be. with four fundamental questions. I showed the evidence for the Bible being the inspired word of God and the only credible source for viewing the world correctly. All narratives and claims can be determined to be true or not by their conformity to the word of God. Some question whether the Bible continues to be true and accurate. Do we really have the Word of God today? Has it continued? Has it been preserved? Is His Word preserved and inspired? Well, some charge that the inspired Word of God, the Bible text, has been corrupted and is unreliable and untrustworthy. Many argue that because there are so many different versions of the Bible, there's no way to know which one is the true version. But just as easily as the questions about whether there's more than a physical world, is there a God, which God, and how does God reveal truth, just as easily as those questions are answered, it's easy to answer the question of whether God's inspired word is preserved. First, the answer to the claim that God's word cannot be found due to too many versions is that the number of counterfeits does not determine the existence of truth. Just the opposite. To the contrary. The purpose of counterfeits is to confuse people and make them give up looking for the truth. In other words, the persistence of counterfeits indicates that truth persists to exist. Otherwise, there would be no purpose for the counterfeits to exist. And it's noteworthy that the Bible is the one religious book that has more counterfeits than any other religious book. Oh, let me clarify. My search showed something very interesting and rather profound. It showed that the number of versions for the Bible, different versions, is over 450. Over 450 versions. My search comparisons found no differing versions of the Quran. None for the Torah, none for the Bhagavad Gita, and none for the Tao Te Ching. There are varieties of translations and commentaries for these others, but there are no different versions of their texts. And I consider this to be very profound, a very profound discovery and worthy of the point that counterfeits of the Bible exist only because the true version of the Bible, the true version of God's inspired truth still exists and can be found. And for that reason, Satan is doing everything he can to counterfeit. Why are the other religious books not being counterfeited? Because they're already wrong. Satan doesn't have to worry about them. It's the truth he worries about. God wants to be found and he wants his message to be findable. He wants souls to be saved. The only way to do that is to ensure that his word is preserved and findable. And consider this, why would he bother inspiring the prophets to record his message if he was not intending to ensure his message would be findable and readable? Unlike other religious and ancient books, there's an overwhelming number of preserved manuscripts for the Bible. Approximately 5,800 Greek manuscripts exist just for the New Testament scriptures. In other words, there's no excuse not to know exactly what God inspired the original writers to write. The manuscripts have been collated, scrutinized, translated, and a huge number of collating manuscripts is a testimony to the historical foundation and verification of biblical authenticity. Ancient Egyptian religious writings claim only a few dozen writings, manuscripts, There are no surviving written copies of Buddhist texts that can be dated before 4 AD. That's almost 900 years after he lived before he even find a copy. Copies of all other secular ancient writings are meager in number compared to the Bible's 5,800 manuscripts. And the total number of biblical manuscripts in a variety of languages other than the Greek exceeds 25,000. From the extraordinary numbers of collated manuscripts, the text of the Bible has been written. The first Bible text is known as the majority text. From the text, translations have been produced. The KJV was translated from the majority text, also known as the Texas Receptus, or the TR, or the received text. William Tyndale began translating the Bible from the original languages of Hebrew and Greek into English from the collated text produced by Erasmus. His work was finished by other courageous translators, and I say courageous because the Catholic Church killed Tyndale for heresy, the heresy of translating the Bible into English. The KJV Bible is the only translated Bible from the majority text. The new KJV by Hodges and Farstad was translated from additional manuscripts with the same philosophy of prioritizing the majority. But all other Bible versions are translated from or refer to questionable and flawed eclectic texts, also known as critical texts. Therefore, we use the King James Bible to determine God's message. Having established that the Bible is indeed the inspired word of God, we can go to the Bible and ask. What does the Bible say? It's inspired by God. So what does the inspired word of God say about itself? Luke 1.70, as he spake, by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began. Second Timothy 3.16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Second Peter 1, 19 through 21 says, we have also a more sure word of prophecy, where unto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn. And the day star arise in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Here's the bottom line. God wants his message to be known because he wants to be known and found. He wants people to know he loves them and wants to save them. He offers salvation to everyone and anyone who will trust and believe his message. And for this reason, he has preserved his message in the Bible. And for this reason, Satan has manufactured hundreds of counterfeits of the Bible, unlike any other religious writings. As the inspired word of God, the Bible is the final authority on right and wrong. That's where you find how to think correctly about things, in the Word of God. It's how you find out who Jesus Christ really is. The Bible is God's message to us, and His Word is true and authoritative. Anything it has to say is right, on any position. The biblical worldview is the right worldview because it's God's worldview. All thoughts and deeds then should be evaluated in light of biblical teaching. There's no greater, more important, and more reliable message than the message revealed from God in His Word, the Bible. Everything it says should be believed and obeyed. It should be consulted for everything, from knowing God's will to how to live, from who to marry to how to raise children, from understanding the purpose of life to how to fulfill that purpose, from how to treat yourself to how to treat others. You name it, the Bible tells us how to do it. The Bible is our history book, revealing how God created all things, what happened in the Garden of Eden, how the rising population of humanity rebels against God, and how God responded. It tells us how God judged the earth with a flood, who Abraham was, and the covenant God made with him for the benefit of all families in the earth. It recounts the story of the Israelites, their origin, their role in history, the purpose of God's covenant with them, and their future. It records the history of all other nations as well, of the prophets, of Jesus Christ fulfilling the prophecies, of the origin of the church, of the Great Commission, of the rise of the Antichrist, of the Battle of Armageddon, of the millennial reign of Christ on earth, of the final battle of Gog, and finally, the new heaven and new earth. Hebrews 4.12 says, for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It reveals what we are, who we are, how we think, what our problems are, and how to solve our problems. It is the ultimate how-to book. It's a time. Its message is timeless. It's relevant at all times to all people anywhere. It tells us what our priorities should be, what to do first, what to do after that, and how to do it. It tells us about our creator, how he designed us, and how we should live according to our design. Ultimately, the Bible is the book that connects us to our creator. revealing his love for us and the reason for our existence. In the message of the Bible, God invites us to unite with him as our creator, to bring that which is created into unity with the creator. And those who study the Bible and live by its teachings know its value. So I leave us with this thought. Having presented the evidence, establishing the Bible as the Word of God in the only credible worldview, we're faced with a choice. The choice is whether or not to accept its message, to embrace it, and to adopt its message as our own life directive and manifesto. We're faced with a choice to live God's way in the way of righteousness and thrive to do right or to live our own way in the way of unrighteousness and do wrong. Here's five questions to ponder. Do you believe the Bible is God's word? Do you believe it is the right worldview? Do you believe it is the authoritative standard to determine what is right and wrong? Do you believe that you should obey its instructions and conform your life to its message? Do you believe that its message is so vital to life that you should share it with others? The biblical worldview is the right worldview. and it will never steer us wrong. It has all the answers and all the solutions to all the problems that are troubling humanity today. And if we find enough people to believe his message, this world will be a better place to live, especially of those who, and if they're engaged in education, media, business, and government. That's how to understand our times. Amen. Well done. You know, talking about things that cause