By the way, there's many other prayer requests. They're on your sheet. Just remember to pray for one another. If you were in the auditorium the last two weeks, I wasn't in here. We had another group going upstairs that I was involved in. But for the two or three weeks before that, we began a new series called Alleged Discrepancies in the Bible. So-called contradictions. I don't believe there are any. There's a lot of people that believe there are. And they'll tell you that. They'll tell you the Bible's full of contradictions. And what we're trying to do, in case this is your first time with us tonight, is we're taking some of these so-called contradictions and we're looking at them. And some of them are very easy to explain. Some of them are rather difficult. I'm convinced that the Bible is God's word from cover to cover. Don't have a doubt about it. I'm convinced of that. But at the same time, I'll admit that there are many passages in the Bible that take some difficulty to explain and to understand. I believe that. And some of them I've struggled with. I'm convinced this is God's Word, and I trust the Bible is God's Word. It's a book you can trust. But I want you to be convinced of that for yourself. See, I don't want you to go around this community, believe in the Bible, and somebody asks you why. Well, the pastor says it's the Word of God. It's not a good reason. I want you to be convinced from your own examination that the Bible is the Word of God. I want you to be certain, just positive with it. And what better way to become convinced to see our faith increase than to look at some of these difficult passages that one day someone may throw into your face as a contradiction. Let's look at some of these difficult passages. Let's don't be afraid of them. Let's don't run and hide from them. Let's look at them and let's see what the Bible has to say. Now, three Wednesday nights ago, we began looking. I gave a partial answer to a letter written or an article written by Professor John Patterson of Iowa State University. It was published February 5th, one month ago tomorrow, in the ISU Daily. The article is entitled, I've got a copy of it right here. Someone here in the church gave it to me. The title of the article is Bible Contaminated by Satan? And just by way of review, it's been three weeks. Let me reread to you the part that we looked at last week. I won't read it all, but just parts of it. Evangelists claim the Bible teaches love, tolerance, truthfulness, forgiveness and other moral virtues. I agree with that. Too few ever check this out because the Bible contains so many dreary and repetitive passages. Hence, few Christians realize that the biblical heroes, including God himself, actually display most of the filthy conduct, hatred, deceit, injustice, intolerance, and vindictiveness found in the Bible. And this is his opinion. Filthy conduct? Consider the passages where God orders individuals to eat their own dung. And he gives some passages. We looked at these. God wants certain others to have dung smeared in their faces. And in Ezekiel 4, his orders are, quote, Thou shalt eat it as barley cakes and thou shalt bake it with the dung that cometh out of man, end quote. Should schoolchildren be encouraged to revere any book with this kind of filth in it? What kind of God would inspire such filth and what kind of demented individuals would include it in a Bible for the general public? Ever heard of the New Testament passages on self-mutilation? They're pretty sick. In Matthew 19, Jesus advocates castration for anyone willing to become a unit for his, quote, kingdom of God, end quote. In Matthew 5 and Matthew 18, Jesus directs those who lust to cut off the offending limbs or organs, hands, feet, eyeballs. Nor was Jesus silent on how his disciples should relate to members of their own families. In Luke 14, he states, if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brother and sisters, yea, and even his own life, he cannot be a disciple. This idea is repeated again in Matthew 19, 29. Now, all the passages there, and I've skipped over some for the sake of time, all of these passages we address The last time we looked at this subject, three weeks ago, we looked at Isaiah 36, Malachi 2, Ezekiel 4, Matthew 19, Matthew 5, and Luke 14, and we showed, at least to my satisfaction, I hope to yours, how these so-called contradictions and these so-called discrepancies and these so-called inconsistencies are not contradictions, discrepancies, or inconsistencies at all. The Bible is very consistent, and these accusations of Dr. Patterson are not true. Tonight, I want us to look at the last half of his article, and I just want us to let's just open-mindedly look at what he has to say. He goes on to say, and I read, in Mark 4, 11 and 12, Jesus used deliberate deception to prevent outsiders from being converted. that they might, or so that they might gain forgiveness for their sins." Now, here's the contradiction. He's saying on the one hand, Jesus taught never lie, be truthful. But on the other hand, he says in Mark 4, and by the way, how many of you would agree that the Bible teaches that it's wrong to lie, that we ought to always be honest? Would you agree with that? Amen? He's assuming that we all agree with that. He's saying, well, if that's the case, how come Jesus practiced deliberate deception to keep people from believing so that their sins might be forgiven? He accuses Christ of deceiving people deliberately, right? Is this true? What's the explanation? Well, first of all, Titus 1 and verse 2 says that God cannot lie. We know that. If the Bible is God's Word, and again, you're looking at a fellow that's convinced it is. If the Bible is God's Word, and God cannot lie, then there are no contradictions in the Bible. It's true. You can trust it. You can stand upon it. Alright, well, if God can't lie, and the Bible teaches that we should never deceive, And how do you explain Mark 4, 11 and 12? He said unto them, unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. But unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables that seeing they may see and not perceive and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them. What I want you to do, I don't have a whole lot of time, but take about 10 or 15 seconds and jot down on that prayer sheet you've got there. What's your answer? How would you explain this passage? I don't want you to answer out loud, but just to yourself. Somebody asked you tomorrow at work. How do you explain this? You tell me that God loves everybody, wants everybody to be forgiven of their sins, but here He speaks to them in parables so that they can't see, so that they can't hear, so that they can't be converted and have their sins forgiven. How do you reconcile that? What would your answer be? Not out loud. Write it down. Reconcile it. If you were here the first week of this study, we laid down some principles. Some principles to follow when you come upon a seeming contradiction. One of those principles was always view the text within the context. Always look at the context. Okay? You can make the Bible teach anything you want to teach by simply pulling a verse out. I'm not kidding you. You can make it teach anything. Every cult known to man is based on a misinterpretation of the Word of God. You can make it teach anything if you just pull out a text. You've always got to look at the text within the whole context. And when you view this text within the context, you'll see that it's a context of unbelief and hostility. Look back at chapter 3 and verse 6, where the leaders of the Jewish people or taking counsel how they might kill Jesus. Look at verse 21 of chapter 3. His friends, or his relatives, are going to lay hold of Jesus because he's beside himself, out of his mind, crazy. The leaders of the people are saying, let's kill him. His own family is saying, he's crazy. Look at verse 7 or 22. There others are saying the scribes and the lawyers are saying he's demon possessed. This is the context. He's claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God. Some are saying, he's a liar, let's kill him. Others are saying, he's crazy. Others are saying, he's demon possessed. I mean, he's got demons within him. Some, you see, had already decided to reject him. On the other hand, some had decided, had chosen to believe in him. But many had already chosen. They'd made up their minds. He's not our Messiah. He's a liar. He's crazy. He's demon possessed. The decision for many of them had already been made. Look at verse 11 very closely. To those who believed in him, to you, he says, to the disciples, God opened their eyes. He enabled them to see in Jesus the mystery or the secret about the kingdom, about who Jesus was. He's the King of the kingdom, the kingdom of God. To you who believe, to you the disciples. But to those on the outside of belief, to the unbelieving crowd, to them He spoke in parables in order to conceal the truth. Do you see it? Some had heard His claim and said, We believe. To them, the mysteries, the secrets of God's kingdom were revealed. Others had heard Christ's claims and said, We will not believe. We do not believe. There's nothing you can do that will make us believe. You're demon-possessed. You're crazy. You're a liar. We want nothing to do with you. They were adamant in their unbelief. That's the context here. To them, Christ said, Fine. You don't want to believe? You don't have to believe. In fact, I'm going to speak to you in parables so you can't believe, so you can't understand. Seeing, you're not going to see and hearing, you're not going to hear and you're going to die in your sins and you're not going to be forgiven. That's the idea. He quotes here in verse 11 and 12 from Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6 lays down a principle we're going to find several other times tonight. It teaches that spiritual blindness comes to people from God as a form of judgment. Are you listening? God sends spiritual judgment to people as a form of judgment. Judgment because they already have chosen, they've exercised that free will, they've chosen to reject God's revelation. See, these people had persistently, time and time again, closed their minds to God's message. It was a persistent thing. It was an absolute thing. It was a time and time again thing. They heard, they rejected. They heard, they rejected. They heard, they rejected. They would not believe. Therefore, God sent them spiritual blindness as a form of judgment. See, He spoke to them in parables. to keep them from understanding. Folks, I believe the Bible teaches that Jesus came into this world to open eyes, not to close eyes. But these people continue to reject Him. See? And so He says, in essence, hey, if you will not see, then the time's going to come when you cannot see. And if you will not hear, the time's going to come when you cannot hear. See? Did you get that? If you will not see, I'm going to judge you. The time's going to come when I'm going to blind you to where you cannot see. And if you refuse to hear, if you will not hear, I'm going to send you a delusion. The time's going to come to where you cannot hear. See, when a person persistently, continually rejects the revelation of God, God sometimes sends judgment in the form of spiritual blindness. so that that person no longer understands and cannot hear or see and have his sins forgiven. That, I believe, is what Mark 4 is talking about. And by the way, that is so consistent with the rest of the Bible. He cites another example of God's supposed deceit in Ezekiel 14 and verse 9. Let's turn there. Now, this is the hardest one that we're going to look at tonight. In my opinion, Ezekiel 14, verse 9. If you don't have a Bible with you, look on with someone that does have a Bible, would you? Ezekiel 14, verse 9. This is the one you might have the hardest time with. You may have to work through this one over a few days or a few weeks, okay? But I think if you'll really prayerfully approach it, I think you're going to feel comfortable with it. Ezekiel 14 and verse 9, God is speaking here and He says, and if the prophet be deceived, and you could use the word enticed there. This is an equally good translation. If the prophet be enticed, but if you want to use the word deceived, fine. If the prophet be deceived when he had spoken a thing, I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet. And I will stretch out My hand upon him and will destroy him from the midst of My people Israel. All right, suppose you're talking to some guy that's done his homework. You're witnessing to him. Each one, reach one and teach one. You set your sights on this guy that he's the one I want to reach for the Lord. Suppose he says, I can't believe in a God that lies. You say, my God doesn't lie. He says, sure, he does. He says, flip in your Bible to Ezekiel 14 verse 9 where God says, I the Lord have deceived that prophet. Your answer. Don't. Not out loud. On your paper. How do you answer them? You stutter and you say, wait a minute. You run to the next room, close the door, call Pastor Nelms and whisper, help. And the secretary comes back on the line and says, Pastor Nelms is busy. You'll have to talk to Dan or Rob or one of the others. I don't like the hard questions. I like the easy ones. What's your answer? Jot it down. By the way, for many of these hard passages, there's not necessarily one only right answer. You may come up with a solution that's different from mine, and that's fine. But I'm going to share with you what I think. Same as the last issue, look at the context. When you talk about the book of Ezekiel, well, it's a tough book. I think it's one of the two or three hardest books in all the Bible. It is for me, at least. It's a tough one. Verses 1 through 6. We don't have time to look at it all, but some of Israel's elders came to see Ezekiel. And if you're familiar with the book of Ezekiel, some of the Jews had been carried away from Jerusalem into captivity. They were hundreds of miles away. Ezekiel was one of them. The Jews were spreading. The false prophets were teaching that God was going to bring the Jews back immediately. to the promised land, to Jerusalem. But Ezekiel was prophesying, forget it. You're going to be here a long time, for decades. You're going to die here, most of you. Okay? So the elders of Israel came to Ezekiel, I presume, seeking a message from God about the length of their exile or maybe about whether Jerusalem was going to be burnt to the ground or not. And as they sat before Ezekiel, you can look at it there, verse 1, God spoke to Ezekiel and told him that these men, these elders of Israel, had idols in their hearts. Do you see it, verse 3? Their hearts were full of idols. And these idols, like stumbling blocks, would cause the people of Israel to fall. You see, these elders were the leaders of the people. The people looked to the elders for leadership. The elders of Israel, their hearts were full of idolatry. They were going to cause the whole nation to stumble. This is a very serious thing. By the way, they're very hypocritical. They come to the true God for answers while having other gods, little g, other gods in their hearts. They're a bunch of hypocrites. They don't worship Jehovah God. They worship idols. And so God asks there in verse, the end of verse three, He says, hey, should I even let these men inquire of me at all? In other words, I'm not obligated to give these guys a time of day. They're hypocrites. They're not really seeking me. They've already made up their minds. They worship other gods. They've rejected me. They've rejected my word. They've rejected you, Ezekiel, my prophet. They've already made up their minds what they believe. He then instructs Ezekiel in verse 4 to tell them, When anybody comes to me harboring idolatry in their heart, I'll deal with that idolatry. In verse 6 he tells them, repent. Turn from your idolatry. You guys are full. You've got sin in your lives. Turn from your sin. And then in verse 7 and 8 he continues, and let me just read what I've got here. If anyone comes to a prophet to inquire of me with idolatry in their hearts, I'll answer him by myself. I'll make him an example and a byword, an example again. I'll cut him off from the people. I'll kill him to serve as an example to the people. Now, let me read verses 9 through 11. And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. Now, let me say this. Let me stop. It is not stated. But from the context, I believe it's implied that this prophet is a false prophet. How many of you put that down as a possible explanation? It's not stated. If Dr. Patterson were here and if he were to say the passage doesn't say they're false prophets, I would say you're right. But I would answer the passage doesn't say they're not false prophets. I think it's implied that they're false prophets. Read on. Verse 10. Both the person that came to the prophet with idolatry in their hearts and the prophet, both of them, they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity. The punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him." Do you ever remember in the Bible God punishing godly prophets for speaking what God reveals to them? Never. But would God punish a false prophet for prophesying lies? You better believe it. Verse 11, all of this will happen that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me. How are they led astray? By prophets, false prophets that lead them into idolatry. Neither be polluted anymore with all their, the prophets and the people with idolatry in their hearts, by their transgressions, but that they may be my people and I may be their God, saith the Lord God. Again, it's implied here, I believe, that these prophets are false prophets. In other words, people with idols in their hearts are coming to prophets that claim to be speaking for God, but they're not speaking for God. They're wolves in sheep's clothing. They're false prophets. And so what God does is God says, I'll entice, if you want to use the King James Word, I'll deceive that prophet. I'll give him the false message. so that he can then give these idol worshippers a false message. See, in other words, their prophecy doesn't come to pass. They prophesy lies. What they say doesn't happen. Just the opposite happens in order to reveal that these guys are false prophets. Because what is the test of a true prophet? What he prophesies comes to pass. Do you get it? If you understand that, say amen. It's kind of hard to see. But if he prophesies that which does not come to pass, obviously he's a false prophet. And what God is saying here is, I'm going to expose him as being a false prophet. I'm going to send him a false message so he'll prophesy it. But then when it doesn't come to pass, the people will know he is a false prophet. His true character will be revealed. By the way, Great Bible illustration of this, if you're taking notes, is in 1 Kings chapter 22, verses 19 through 23. It is exactly what happened there. Ahab is getting ready to go to battle with the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat. Was that his name? I got it right? And all the prophets of Israel, false prophets, are brought before Ahab and they say, Here are some iron horns. With these horns, you'll drive the Syrians into the sea and the Syrians will not prevail against you. You're going to be victorious. And one prophet of God is brought forth and he says, I saw all Israel's sheep scattered on the hillside without a shepherd. Ahab, you're going to die if you go to battle. And one of the false prophets comes up and slaps the prophet of God And the prophet of God, in essence, if I can put it in my own words, he says, hey, I saw a vision. In the vision, God asked, who can we get to deceive Ahab? Keep in mind, Ahab had time and time again rejected God. Ahab had made up his mind he's not going to follow God. He's not going to be God's servant. He has made up his mind. His mind is set. So God says, okay, I'm going to send you a strong delusion. I'm going to judge you for your unbelief. How can I judge him? I know I'll send a delusion. I'll deceive Ahab. He'll go into battle and he'll get killed. That'll be his judgment. And a lying spirit, I suppose a demonic spirit, spoke up and said, keep in mind, Satan has access to heaven, the Bible teaches. A lying spirit spoke up and said, I'll go. and be a lying spirit in the mouth of his prophets. His prophets will prophesy to him, go to battle, you'll succeed. He'll go to battle and he'll be killed. God said go. And that lying spirit came and entered the false prophets. They prophesied a lie. Ahab believed it. He wouldn't believe the truth, but he believed a lie. Isn't that interesting? He refused to believe the truth, but he would gladly believe a lie. And he went to battle, and the judgment of God fell. Remember the verse, a man took an arrow, and by venture, he just shot it. I don't even know if he was aiming at Ahab. He just shot it. And God took that arrow, and it penetrated between where the armor came together, that one little crack. The arrow penetrated it. Ahab died, and the dogs came and licked the blood out of his chariot. That's what Ezekiel 14 is saying. It is not saying that God goes around deceiving prophets to deceive people. What it is saying, though, is this. When people have already made up their minds, they're not going to believe in God. The God. Their hearts are full of other gods. And when false prophets prophesy to these people that follow idolatry, God says, you've made up your mind. You've rejected me. I will send you a deception in order to bring judgment upon you. Again, the deception was for the purpose of judging them for their hardened, persistent unbelief. Now, I don't know if you're following me, OK? How many of you think you halfway get it? Say amen. I hope you do. Let's move on. I want to get through this letter tonight. He then says, and I read, more examples of deliberate deceit can be found in 2 Thessalonians 2, 11 and 12. Let's turn there. Back to the New Testament, 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 11 and 12. Very quickly. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 11 and 12, he says, this is another example of God deliberately deceiving people. And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. God shall send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie in order that they might believe the lie and might all be damned. Dr. Patterson is saying here, God purposefully deceives people in order that they would believe a lie and spend eternity in damnation and hell. Again, right on your paper, what is your answer? How would you explain this to someone? By the way, this is one I'm getting ready to say has nothing to do with this passage, but the other day in church, I half-jokingly mentioned that I'm Calvinistic. And some of you have been taught that The word Calvinist is a dirty word. What you think of when you think of Calvinist, I think of a hyper-Calvinist. It's just a matter of how you define the terms. And when I say I'm a Calvinist, Calvinists believe in eternal security. If you believe in eternal security, whether you know it or not, you're Calvinistic. Okay? You might not want to call yourself that, but if you believe in eternal security, you are a Calvinist at least to that degree. That's what I meant by it, by the way. But my point is this, here's what I'm getting to. There are, because of verses like these and many others, it's no wonder that there are millions of Christians, good Bible-believing Christians, that really believe that some are just, they're going to go to hell no matter what. I mean, it's a predetermined thing, whether they want to go or not. Now, I don't believe that. I don't believe that at all. But there's a lot of people that do, a lot of good Christians that do. A lot of good Bible believers that believe it's foreordained. You're either chosen or you're not. And if you're not one of the chosen ones, you can repent all you want to repent and do all you want to do, but it's not going to work. And they'll often use verses such as these. But that has nothing to do with the accusation here. Alright, what's your answer? Look at the context again. Back in verse 8, you're in the days of the tribulation. The Antichrist is in view here. Do you see it? The wicked one, the lawless one. Look at verse 9. He's empowered by Satan. He works counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders. Do you see it? Now look at verse 10. Why do they perish? They perish because they, quote, refuse to love God's truth and be saved. End quote. Do you see it again? Is that the same thing we've seen in the other two? These people perish. Why? Because they refuse to believe God's truth and be saved. If you see it, say Amen. It's very clear. They've already made up their minds. We refuse. We will not believe God's truth in order that we might be saved. It's adamant. It's firm. It's a done deal. They've made up. their minds see. All right? Let me go on. God desires to save everybody. 1 Timothy 2 says He would have all men to be saved in accumbent to the knowledge of the truth. But again, when people consistently refuse to believe God's truth, God again, often as a form of judgment, will send a strong delusion. He'll allow them to be deceived. He says, in essence, OK, you choose error over truth, then I'm going to subject you to a powerful delusion. So far, you will not believe. Now it's going to be to where you cannot believe you. You've rejected truth for error. I'm going to send you a delusion so strong as a form of judgment to where you can't believe it's going to be impossible for you to believe. But rather, verse 11, you'll believe. The lie. What lie? In this case, that Antichrist is God. They wouldn't believe that Jesus is God. So God's going to allow the Antichrist to have all this great power to work all these miracles, signs and wonders, saying, I'm the Messiah, I'm the Christ. And these people who refuse the truth that Jesus was the Christ will be given a strong delusion. They'll believe that lie. See, they'll be suckered into the thing. And the result is, they'll perish. By the way, this passage tells us it's a dangerous thing to reject God's truth over and over and over again. If by some chance you're here tonight and you've not accepted Christ, I want to tell you, you're playing with fire. Literally. Amen? It's a dangerous thing to keep rejecting the truth of God's Word. See, you may just cross over a deadline where God says, You've persistently rejected my truth. Fine. I'm going to judge you. I'm going to allow you to be deluded. I'm going to allow you to be deceived where you can't believe because because you would not believe. Do you see it? Same thing all the way through. The Bible definitely teaches this principle. He cites another example. Turn to John 12 very quickly. Oh, I don't want to run out of time here. These long winded preachers. John 12, verses 30 through 40. He cites as another example of God's deliberate deceit. We won't read it all for time, let's read just verse 40. John 12, verse 40. He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes or understand with their heart and be converted, and I should heal them. Well, it sounds like he doesn't want sinners to believe, doesn't it? I mean, if somebody just opened up the Bible and that's all they read to you. That's all you knew about God, you'd walk away thinking, boy, he's a mean God. He blinds people's eyes. He he doesn't want them to see. He doesn't want them to believe. He doesn't want them to be converted. He doesn't want their sins. He's a mean God. That's what you would think if that's the only virtue you knew about God. Again, look at the context. Listen, if you're a new Christian here tonight, it's so important that you get this. Always look at the context. The whole passage. Okay? If you take it out of the context, you're going to have problems. Look back at verse 37. But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him. Miracle after miracle they had seen. but they refused to believe. Their refusal to believe fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, the next verse taken from Isaiah 53, which implied that only a few people would believe when Messiah came. Isaiah prophesied that when Messiah comes, very few are going to believe. They're going to see all these miracles, but they're going to refuse to believe. He goes in a quote from Isaiah 6 again, a passage that we talked about already. Again, Isaiah six taught that because people constantly rejected God's word, they persistently rejected God's revelation. He punished them with blindness. Look back at verse thirty seven here. They would not believe. Therefore, verse thirty nine, they could not believe. Do you see it? Same principle, isn't it? You will not believe, therefore. I blind you. Now you can't believe. You no longer have a choice in the matter. You know the classic example of this is in the Old Testament? Pharaoh. Remember how he hardened his heart and he would not believe God's message sent from the man of God, Moses. Remember that? Moses spoke to him directly the Word of God. He would not believe. He hardened his heart. He said, no. But you know what God did? God stepped in and hardened Pharaoh's heart a whole lot more. God said, since you will not believe, you cannot believe. Since you hardened your heart against my word, I'm going to really harden it. And when I get through hardening your heart, my judgment is going to be so severe on you, Pharaoh, all of Egypt is going to be ruined. See? That's what happened. Well, one last one very quickly. Turn to Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45, verse 5 through 7. I hope this is helping you some. I get tired of Jehovah's Witnesses showing me verses that I can't explain. I made up my mind one day, I'm not going to skip over these passages that don't make sense. I'm going to try to figure them out. Isaiah 45 verses five through seven let me it's a paragraph here let me read it for you. This is his quote Dr. Patterson's quote is Satan really the quote great deceiver in quote as the evangelist frequently tell us. The problem of who created evil presents the greatest quandary of all for Christian evangelists. They usually pretend it is the sinful nature of humans human arrogance and human quote free will. that have conspired to bring evil into God's universe. Blame the victim. If they were honest and open, they might point to what the Bible has to say on this important point. According to my King James Version, God himself creates evil. Speaking through the prophet Isaiah in chapter 45, God says, verse 5, I am the Lord, there is none else, there is no God beside me. Verse 6, I am the Lord and there is none else. Verse 7, I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. Do you see it? I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things." Clearly, the Bible is chocked full of anti-Christian contradictions. Couldn't some of these have been planted by Satan? Couldn't the evangelists who avoid these revelations be covering up for Satan and his forces? All right, let's look at Isaiah 45, verse 7. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. What's the answer? Jot it down on your paper. See if you can get it. This one is much easier. The evil here, and if and I please don't misinterpret what I'm getting ready to say, but some of you might have a different translation that makes this verse a little clearer, OK? The evil here speaks of a natural evil, not a moral evil. There are two different evils. OK, for example, the word peace there is not talking about peace of heart. It's talking about prosperity. Whereas evil there is not talk about moral evil sin, it could be translated calamity, disaster, affliction, adversity. A natural evil. Like a tidal wave comes and knocks down everything you've got, an evil in that sense of calamity, a tornado drops down and destroys this building before we can sell it April 1st. natural evil, a calamity, a disaster. That's the idea. See, evil in the sense of like Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed with fire and brimstone, that kind of an evil, not a moral, lustful, deceitful, hateful, moral evil, but a natural disaster, affliction or calamity. So look at it. Verse seven, God is saying, saying I send prosperity. I also create disasters like Sodom and Gomorrah again. See, the Bible is not saying that God is the creator of sin, the creator of moral evil. The Bible is saying, God is saying, hey, in Egypt, I sent plagues. I turned the water into blood. I sent hailstones. He's going to do it during the tribulation, isn't he? Hailstones that weigh up to 100 pounds each. That's a disaster, a natural evil. See, God again to judge sin as a judgment on sin. Sometimes sins, natural disasters. So to me, that one's a little bit easier. Let me conclude this. Professor Patterson ends his article by saying, I quote, Read your Bible. Think about it. And ask good questions that I agree with them on. I think we ought to read our Bibles. I think we ought to think about it, and I think we ought to ask good questions. There's nothing wrong with that. I have looked at his article. I've examined his examples of so-called contradictions. You know what? I don't agree with them. I still believe this book right here you can trust. How many of you agree with me? It didn't shake my faith. I read them, I thought it through, I asked a lot of questions, just as the professor told me to. I did what he told me to do. But I've come to a different conclusion than he came to. Now, I've got five minutes. I want to give you four observations that I make from this article in closing. Number one, please get this. You need this. Number one. I do not know that the professor is lost. I don't know that you're lost or saved. I'm not God. I'm not going to pretend to play God. But from the tone of the letter, the tone of the article, it would seem to me that he's not a Christian in the sense of what I believe a Christian to be. A true, born-again, regenerated, indwelt-by-the-Spirit-of-God Christian. That's what I mean by Christian. I don't mean a member of a so-called Christian church. And with that having been said, let me observation number one, it is difficult for lost people to understand the Bible. The Bible is spiritually discerned. It's hard to understand the book that the Holy Ghost wrote if the Holy Ghost is not in your heart. OK, it's difficult. And if this man is not a true, genuine born again believer, if I didn't say he's not, If he's not, it's no wonder that he finds so many contradictions so-called. It's hard to understand the book without the help of the Holy Spirit. That's observation number one. Some of you tonight may have a hard time understanding this book because either the Holy Spirit is not in your heart, Or maybe you've asked Him in, but you've not yielded yourself to Him. You're still controlling your own life. He's kind of stuck down, locked in the basement of your heart. You need to let Him out of the basement. Put Him on the throne of your heart. You'll be surprised how much clearer the book becomes. Amen? Observation number two. I get the impression, I may be wrong, But I get the impression that he's approached these passages looking for contradictions. Did that occur to anybody else as I read the article? Or was it just me? I mean, I get that impression that he's got a magnifying glass out looking. I mean, anything that moves, he's looking for contradictions. I don't get the impression that he approaches the Bible with an open mind of, quote, could this be from God? But rather with an attitude of no matter what it says, I'm not going to believe it. And it irritates me that you do. And so I'm going to try my hardest to shape your faith. Did anybody else get that impression? That's the impression I got. I'm not going to believe it. I don't care what you say. And I get so irritated as you Bible thumpers. I'm going to do all I can to Straighten out your perverted minds. That's the impression. That I get from this guy, by the way, a lot of so-called intellectuals that talk about academic freedom and and all of that. It's a joke. Just a joke. I want to tell you something in so-called areas of higher learning, the intellectual elite, if you are not politically correct in your viewpoints, they won't give you the time of day. They will not give you the time of day. You go into a school of higher learning, you go to a major university, You walk into a faculty meeting. You stand up and announce publicly before the president of the university and all the doctors with all their peach. You stand there and say, hey, I believe in creation, a direct act of God, six days. He rested on the seventh. I believe in a literal flood and Jesus really walked on the water and the whale swallowed Jonah and Adam and Eve. They'll laugh you out of that room. consistent with their viewpoint. You can forget academic freedom. Number three. This article is a good example of how a young person weak in the faith could easily be shaken by a nonbeliever. At a university. Can you imagine your teenager turning 18? It's really weak. I mean, it's all you can do to get them in church, much less to read their Bible or pray. Can you imagine them going and sitting in this guy's classroom and having him influence them day after day after day? It's no wonder so many kids raised in church leave school just messed up. Can you see how he can mess with them real easy? Would your 17-year-old kid that's rebelling against God, could he answer Isaiah 45 where God says, I create evil? Dr. Patterson shows him that verse. That kid's going to go back to his dorm and say, hey, God creates evil. Why can't I do evil? It's God's fault. You see what I'm saying? You can see from articles like this why so many kids and weak Christians get their faith shaken. So what am I saying? How important it is to be grounded in God's Word. We need to get grounded ourselves. We need to raise our children in this book. See, we need to get back to the book and get grounded in this book before somebody that has a few degrees behind their name Gets a hold of us and messes with us. Finally, number four, and I'm done. Time's up. I want to ask those of you that know how to pray to add one more prayer request to your sheet. I want you to put down Dr. John Patterson. I want us to pray for his salvation. Would you do that? We're going to take this message and the first one. We're going to edit out all my rantings and ravings, anything that would be offensive. And I'm going to send him a reply, a written reply to this article. I'm going to offer to meet with him and talk with him if he'd like to talk. I used to be scared of doctors and not anymore. I'm going to write him a loving letter. And I want you to join me in asking God to save him. Wouldn't it be wonderful if two or three years from now, this same man wrote another article in the ISU Daily titled, The Bible Is Not Contaminated. by Satan. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Think of the testimony, the glory that our God would get out of that. I don't want you sending hate mail. I don't want you writing them dirty letters. I want you to get on your knees and love the man like Christ loved him, because Jesus died for this guy. I want you to love him. Remember, love is the evidence of maturity in the faith. See, a lot of us have been raised, ah, let's roast the guy. Forget that. The evidence of maturity in Christ is love. Let's love Him. Let's hurt for Him. Let's love Him like Christ loved Him when He hung on that cross. Let's pray for His salvation. Hey, thanks for being here tonight. Drive home safely next Wednesday.