Looking at our world from a theological perspective, this is the Theology Central Podcast, making theology central. I don't want to do this, and I know what you're thinking, but you don't have to. It's your broadcast. I know that. But I, oh, do you want to talk about it? Do you? Were people at church talking about it? Have you heard other ministries talking? I don't want to talk about it. I think the whole thing is ridiculous, and I think Christians are way too i think easily offended about everything i mean come on but all right all right okay i know i know all right ladies and gentlemen it's monday yeah it's monday does it feel like a monday it's monday it's monday july the 29th 2024 It is currently 11.13 a.m. Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Let me ask you a question. Do you watch the Olympics? Like, do you really, really watch the Olympics? Do you watch the opening ceremony to the Olympics? Because I've seen a lot of people very upset about the opening ceremony to the Olympics. Very, very, very upset. But at the same time, a lot of the people I've heard yelling and screaming about, I'm like, I don't think you're really a fan of the Olympics in the first place. So were you even watching it live? Did you see it live? Or... You saw it on social media. Now you're outraged. I'm, I'm offended. Well, you weren't even watching it when it was live, but I'm offended. Oh, come on. You know what I'm talking about? The whole world seems upset about it. At the opening ceremony of the Olympics, something happened. that has deeply offended Christians, because Christians feel that Christianity was being mocked, and they are outraged, and they are upset, and they are bothered, and there are ministries sending me emails about the outrage. Oh, okay, well, I'll read one of them, because I think it's just, oh, well, we'll talk about it. But I've been seeing it, and I have tried to just kind of say, you know what? Well, I haven't really had the opportunity, but I'm like, I'm just not, I'm not gonna talk about that. I'm just not going to talk about this. I'm not. So I was sitting here in front of the microphone going, okay, what do I do today? What should I do today? Because there are some days I can sit down in front of the microphone and I just feel overwhelmed because I have so many things I want to talk about. I don't have a, there's not a shortage. I want to talk about this and I want to do this and I want to do this. And there are other days I sit down in front of the microphone and I'm kind of like, Why do I even own this microphone? Why do I even have a podcast? I don't even know what I wanna do. Do I even feel like broadcasting? So I was kind of in one of those moods where I just like, do I even really wanna do this today? Does it even really matter? Just kind of like, not necessarily, maybe just more cynical, maybe just kind of more like whatever kind of attitude. And so then I was like, well, let me grab the Sermons 2.0 app. And let me look at my under the feed tab and just see what's there. And then I notice, oh, there's a sermon on Ezekiel chapter 36. I spent a considerable amount of time yesterday in Ezekiel 36. Hmm. That could be interesting. So I started getting everything ready. I downloaded the file, realized the audio wasn't loud enough. Then I opened up software, artificially increased the volume, then put it back. Okay, then made sure my microphone, I was doing all of that. And then I was like, well, how do I do my introduction for it? How do I do my introduction? And so I thought, well, when I do my introduction, I'll just talk about all the different things that I was looking at. And And I'm like, well, I will at least mention, I will mention the Olympics and the opening ceremony. I will at least mention it. But then I'm like, well, if I start mentioning it in my introduction, then my introduction will probably then go longer than it should. And it's going to be a sermon review. Okay, no, let's not do that. So then I was like, okay, I'm going to change my introduction. I'm just going to ignore the Olympic stuff." And as I was trying to ignore it, well, more and more things kept popping up about it. And I'm like, okay, for crying out loud, we're just going to have to talk about it. In fact, if you go to the Christian Post today, right here, So I say, you've got three stories. You've got something about pro-life activists, something going on in Venezuela. Okay, you've got about the presidential run and politics. And then right under that, underneath that, right? You have opinion. The woke French win the gold medal for mockery. The woke French win the gold medal for mockery. I know I kind of run that together and didn't sound correctly. Let me read it one more time. The woke French win the gold medal for mockery. It's written as a headline, so there's no comma or anything there. So the woke French, they win the gold medal for mockery. Well, I'm pretty sure I know what that's about. So I click on it, and well, there is the picture that Everyone is so up. The screenshot, okay, the woke French win the gold medal for mockery. This was published today, Monday, July the 29th, 2024. The largest religion in the world today is Christianity, with 2.4 billion followers, comprising 31% of the total population of the planet. And second place is Islam, with approximately 2 billion followers. Even though it is the largest religion in the world, Christianity is often attacked in the mainstream media and in popular culture. It happened again during a disgusting display at the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Paris Olympics. French organizers thought it was a clever idea to make a satirical spectacle of Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting, The Last Supper. Filling the role of the apostles were drag queens, including one who was partially naked, a transgender model, a singer dressed as a Greek god, and a child. Representing Jesus was a scantily clad overweight woman in an outrageous costume. Why are you going to focus on her weight? What difference does it make? What difference does it make? because they're overweight? Someone's overweight? That's an issue? Hey, I am mad because the person who supposedly is Jesus was overweight. I guess like, okay, all right, whatever, but. I don't know why they mentioned that. And because it's an overweight woman, would you have said that the person was overweight if it was a man? I don't even already like that. But okay, for many Christians, the presentation was incredibly sacrilegious and a blatant attack on the religion. The Deputy Prime Minister of Italy labeled the performance sleazy and noted that opening the Olympics by insulting billions of Christians across the world was a really bad taste. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson blasted the opening ceremonies as a mockery of the Last Supper. He said it was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world. Johnson also lamented that the war on our faith and traditional values knows no bounds today. It's a war, ladies and gentlemen. It's a war. Okay, come on now. All right. Okay. So then they go on, but there's just already just one, that's one article. All right. So they're, they're upset about it. Then, then the next article right next to that disrespectful to Christians, Elon Musk blast Olympics opening ceremony and calls Christianity Toothless. Okay. Toothless. Okay. What should we do, Elon? Should I come to you for theological and biblical advice? Is Elon Musk now the spokesman for Christianity? I don't even know anymore. Okay. It says, the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics has come under criticism from major leaders worldwide for featuring a scene that many perceive as a parody of The Last Supper involving drag queens. In this controversial performance, over a dozen individuals, including Just note over a dozen individuals. Please note over a dozen individuals. Just you may want to keep that in mind, just over a dozen individuals. All right. So. including drag queens, were arranged along a long table reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci's iconic painting which portrays Jesus' final meal with his disciples before his crucifixion. Broadcast live from a rain-drenched Paris on Friday evening, the scene showed the drag queens moving suggestively along the table on either side of a lesbian who appeared to represent Jesus. Standing still at the center, she wore a headpiece resembling a halo and held her hands in a heart shape. The scene quickly sparked backlash on social media, drawing particular criticism for including a child. All right, so everybody's upset, everyone's mad, everyone's angry. We get the idea, all right? Now, at least this article didn't attack the weight of the woman. Okay, but all right. So, you know, I guess, you know, hey, once you mock Christianity, then I guess we can point out and mock your weight. Again, this is all on Christian websites, so I guess it's all good. The CEO of the Evangelical Alliance of the United Kingdom expressed disappointment. While he wished for the success of the Paris Olympics, he labeled the depiction as utterly insensitive and unnecessary and offensive. However, it was really appalling to see Christianity so openly mocked in the opening ceremony with the unbelievable crass portrayal of the Last Supper he wrote on X. Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, who recently referred to himself as a cultural Christian, also weighed in on X, describing the performance as extremely disrespectful to Christians. He added a subsequent post, Christianity has become toothless. So we're going to listen to someone who calls himself a cultural Christian, and then he's going to criticize Christianity for being toothless. Exactly what would you want Christians to do? I don't know. The performance was branded woke by some social media commentators. Everything is supposedly woke, right? Everything is supposedly woke. While others pointed out that the organizers would have not dared to mock Islam in such a manner. American Catholic Bishop Robert Barron condemned the act as a gross mockery of the Last Supper, questioning why France chose to mock this very central moment in Christianity during an event intended to highlight the best of French culture. He further emphasized that France's culture identity is grounded very much in Christianity. Why would they ever have dared mock and they go on and of course everyone's upset everyone's upset everyone's upset all right and then well you could read all the comments you get it everyone is bothered everyone is upset So what should I do here? I don't even want to really be discussing this, because I knew that this is a no-win situation for me, right? It's really no-win, because you know, inevitably, my approach is going to be contrary to 99.9% of everything you're going to hear coming from the pulpit and coming from Christian podcasters. I'm going to have a radically different approach. You know what my approach is? I don't care. I don't care what lost people do. I don't care what people who don't claim Christianity do. They can mock Christianity. They can make fun of it. They can... I don't care. Why do I care what lost people do? I don't expect them to respect Christianity. I don't respect them to care about Christianity. I don't care if they mock Christianity. It has nothing to do with me. So what? Oh, wow. You mocked Christianity. You're edgy. You're cool. Wow. Wow. So, so hip. So artistic. Yeah, great. Okay, next. Now I'm going to move on. Now, another reason I don't care is I don't watch. I typically don't watch much of the Olympics. Sometimes I will. There's like a million events going on. How much am I going to watch it? Is it really worth my time? Do I even really care? And I definitely don't watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Now, if you watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics and you love the Olympics, then you would have obviously far more right to be bothered by it than people who don't. What bothers me is people who didn't even watch the opening ceremony, not even paying any attention. Next thing you know, they're outraged. So what do you want? Something happened in a show that you don't watch. Do you care? In fact, so many times, the outrage and the caring and getting so upset only makes it a bigger issue. If everyone would just ignore it, then nobody cares. Oh, they did it. Yeah, what? So what? Next, move on. And at some point, you know what? You take power. It is known, and everyone knows this. There are artists. Some may push the envelope and say something or do something in regards to Christianity because they're literally trying to make a point. Others know it's a great way to get publicity. Like many artists will say or do something outrageous and then it blows up. And then guess what? They sell more albums. They get more people to go to their movie. They get more people to read the book because the controversy actually helps. I don't know when Christians are never going to realize that. Typically our outrage and our screaming, not in every situation, but in many, it simply backfires and only makes the thing more known or more popular. Sometimes the best thing to do is just go, come on, can you try a little harder? Could you do something a little better? Could you? But no, most Christians won't. It's got to be like, oh, it's an attack upon our faith. It's an attack upon our faith. and we got to be offended by everything. I don't care if they attack our faith, right? Just move on. Focus on what's going wrong in the church. Focus on what's going wrong in our own Christian lives. Focus on our own weaknesses, our own sin, instead of worrying what people who probably have no claim to Christianity, what they're doing or not doing. Christians constantly get offended and get bothered, and Christians seem to have this attitude that everyone has to do things that simply fits the Christian idea. Why do we want everyone to do things are we? Why are they bound to do things that only will please us and not offend us? I don't understand why we are so arrogant to think everyone should. I want them to do what they want. If that's their artistic vision and they believe that what they did had something to do with the Olympics, something to do with the culture in France, well then so be it. The Olympics are Greek, right, in origin. Okay, we'll go back to some of the things that—I mean, We could get into a long discussion of everything that's happened in the Olympics, going back to the original, going back to our early Greek culture. I mean, was all of that very, very much in line with Christianity, going back to the origins of it? Was it? I mean, you tell me, go study some of this. Someone was showing me some artwork associated with some of the original Olympic games, and you'd be like, well, I think most people would be greatly offended by that, meaning that maybe even the origins of some of this is not even that Christian. And then would you consider France, the culture in France in 2024, would you consider that nation a Christian nation? So it's France and it's the Olympics, which are Greek. Like, what do you expect? I don't know what you expect, right? I don't know what you should expect. I just doubt you should expect necessarily that it's going to reflect everything that you care about as a Christian. You may say, well, I think it's ridiculous that they did it. You can think it's ridiculous. There's a lot of things people do that are ridiculous. And you just kind of go, all right, whatever, you know, all right. next, move on. You know, you take power from it. By not creating the outrage, you take power from it. Because then if they were trying to get a reaction, well, they didn't get the reaction. Well, that would then, that kind of motivates people not to try it in the future. Now, if they weren't trying to get that kind of reaction, then maybe, maybe you will accomplish something. I don't know. I just think the whole thing is crazy. But Let me kind of walk through everything that's happened here. So that's on the Christian Post. There's probably, there's more articles on the Christian Post all about this. So the Christian Post obviously is going to create one headline after another headline because I bet, in fact, I could be wrong. I think they used to have here on the Christian Post a section of their like most popular stories, most popular, Okay, yeah, one of the most popular stories right now is the story about Elon Musk blasting the Olympic opening ceremony and calling Christianity toothless. So they know then that's generating clicks, right? So the Christian website's like, hey, we need more stories about the opening ceremony for the Olympics because that's generating clicks. So Christian media, and I can't even tell you how many probably Christian podcasts are going to be talking about it. So everyone knows that this is the thing. So it's like, oh, why? And again, my take was, I don't care. So I wouldn't even be discussing it. So I'm not here really to get into what the Olympics was trying to do or not doing. I will talk about it a little bit because I think there's been a lot of misrepresentation to what actually occurred and I think a lot of people are not connecting it to ancient Greek culture and not connecting it to a Greek deity in Greek mythology. I think a lot of people are misrepresenting what happened, but you can debate that. But I'm more want to deal how Christians are handling it. So that's the only reason I'm talking. I don't even really want to be talking about it, but I feel like there's got to be someone like, hey, everyone calm down. All right. It's like everyone's so outraged by it. But okay. So let's go through this. Let's go first to see when did I receive this. On July the 28th, yesterday at 4.08 p.m. July the 28th, 4.08 p.m. I receive an email. Subject line, a global ridicule of Christianity. Now, at first, I panicked when I saw the subject line. I'm like, a global ridicule of Christianity. Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no. This is going to be some listener who's outraged at this and wants me to talk about it. And then when I talk about it, they're going to be outraged at me because I'm not going to be as outraged as they are about that. And then they're going to think that I'm a liberal and then I blah, blah, blah. And if you really cared about God, you'd be upset. And I'm like, oh, no, I'm going to lose a listener over this. So I clicked on it reluctantly and I'm like, oh, good. It's not from a listener. Okay, good. So I can't offend anyone yet. So I'm like, all right, what does this say? And now I'm realizing, oh, this is from Dr. Robert Jeffress. And I'm like, oh boy. All right, the pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas. He's on Fox News all the time. Politically hijacked would be the understatement of the world. And I'm like, oh boy. All right, so what has he got to say about it? All right, then it has deer, has my name, then it says this. The Olympics are supposed to be a time where nations and people from across the globe come together and put aside their differences and unified by sport. Instead, Friday's opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics included a debauched depiction of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper with drag queens as Jesus' disciples. I talked about this on Fox News and spoke of how this attack on the very essence of the Christian message is not funny and is offensive to every Christian everywhere. Okay, well, you want another hot take of mine? You ready? You ready? On one, I just don't care. But here's number two. You know what I'm more offended by? Oh boy, okay, you go ahead and write this down. I am more offended at how churches celebrate the Lord's Supper than how the Olympics supposedly mocked it. I am offended that churches practice open communion instead of closed communion. I am offended that churches practice close communion instead of closed communion, because if you read 1 Corinthians and see how if someone partakes of the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner, well, at least in the Church of Corinth, people got sick and died. Well, if that can still happen in 2024, you think, I don't know, the term historically was used, fence the table, guard the table, so you don't put people's lives at risk? I don't know, but we treat it in the most irreverent way possible. I was listening to a very famous pastor, I will not mention the name because I don't have the audio clip in front of me, but he was talking about how they were doing the Lord's Supper and then they're like, hey, we've run out of, we've run out of, you know, the grape juice or the wine, and we've run out of the, you know, the little pieces of bread. Well, what do we have? Well, we're having a potluck back. We got some Sprite, we got some like, you know, I don't know what kind of bread, garlic bread or something. Well, we'll just serve that. And the pastor's saying it like it's a funny thing. I'm like, what in the world? What in the world is that? That's irreverent. I'm offended at how churches handle the Lord's Supper. I don't care how the Olympics portrayed it. I don't even care if the Olympics mocked it. Christians, in many of their churches, they mock the Lord's Supper by how they don't follow or even care that scripture say, well, if someone partakes of this in an unworthy manner, some are sick and some sleep, meaning died. I don't know. That would be like, whoa. And if you eat or drink of this in an unworthy manner, you basically eat and drink damnation upon yourself. Okay, that's some serious stuff. That should scare everyone to death. I'm more offended by how churches mishandle it than I am about what the Olympics did or didn't do. But hey, we should be offended. This should be an offense to every Christian. But most importantly, it doesn't matter whether you or I was offended by this. God was offended by this. What was he? Did you get a phone call? Did you get a phone call? You see, I wonder which one God is more offended by. What lost people do towards Christianity, or how Christians handle Christianity. I wonder if he's more offended by lost people's mockery of Christianity, or all of us as Christians, well, our own sin, our own hypocrisy, and our own failures. God's probably more offended by me, a Christian, and my sin than he probably is what lost people are doing or not doing because they're already condemned. They're already lost, right? They're like... I don't know. Hebrews 10.29 says, How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve, who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? Okay, now that's a good quote from Hebrews 10.29, but what's the context there, and who's that referring to? What those drag queens did was ridicule and reject the path that they or any one of us have for the forgiveness of our sins. That is what is most serious about this event. Oh, so we get the forgiveness of sins by partaking of the Lord's Supper? Or are you saying that they were, that they were ridiculing the blood of Christ? Is that, is that what you're like? Okay. We can get into a whole discussion here, but then this is what they, so then guess how the, this is where the email goes. All right. I invite you to watch the rest of the interview. Here is the link. This event confirms how critical our mission is at Pathway to Victory. We are absolutely committed to piercing the darkness with the light of God's Word and giving hope to those in need. This has never been more important in a world where open ridicule and attacks on our faith are acceptable. We must continue to spread the message of faith, love, and redemption to a weary and sin-sick world. When you make a gift to Pathway to Victory, you will ensure that we will continue to effectively communicate the truth of the gospel to those who need it most. That's when I almost just smashed my iPad into a million places. Okay, so the Olympics did something. We should be offended by it. And then what I should do is send you money. You're going to use what happened at the Olympics as a way for people to send you money. That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen in my life. I'm more offended at that. Hey, hey guys, did you see what happened at the Olympics? Now send us some money. Send us some money so that we can air our sermons online. So should I have started my broadcast? Hey, this, ladies and gentlemen, did you see the, the blasphemy and the horrible mockery of Christianity that happened at the Olympics? You should be offended by it. It's horrible. It's a travesty. It's, it's blasphemy. Now, please consider sending $15 or more to the Theology Central podcast so that I can keep spreading the news in the midst of darkness. In fact, please consider sending, I don't know, $75,000 so that I will be guaranteed to be able to broadcast for years to come. They used it as a way to raise money. Oh man. I, I, okay. All right. Let's so, so that is one. Well then this one, Don jr. Donald Trump jr. Right. Don jr. John Donald Trump's son. All right. Oh, I can't completely, I can't completely, uh, Hang on. This article is somewhat locked here. I don't think I can get to it. Hang on. It wasn't unlocked. Now it's locked for some reason. Okay. Don Jr. slams satanic Olympics opening. Mom was Olympian. as well as flaming Olympic organizers, which while wrongly thinking part of the show was irreligious, Trump Jr. revived disputed claims that Ivano... Okay, so they get into a lot of things, but the point is Don Jr. slams the Olympics as satanic. He's making a claim that his mom was an Olympian and there's some arguments about that. Okay, I don't want to get into all of that controversy, but it's satanic. Now we've got people involved in politics saying it's satanic. So now it's going to become a political thing. I can't read all of that article. I'm trying to go from, I don't know why it's locked. Hang on, let me do a refresh. Okay, here it is. Wait, okay, wait. Oh, it just opened. Okay, so Donald Trump Jr. No, it just locked again. All right. Okay, it locked. I can't do anything about it. All right, so. We have some politicians involved. We have churches using it as a way to raise money. We have Christians that are supposedly all offended. We have the Christian Post ensuring they continue to make stories about the subject because, well, it's good for clicks and drives more traffic to the site. All right, got you. My take is, number one, I don't care what lost people do. I expect lost people to do well things that lost people do. I don't have any expectation for them to love Christianity, to respect Christianity, and I have no expectation they will not mock it, all right? Because that's kind of what they do, all right? So what do I want them to do? stop mocking Christianity, or do I want more for them to become a Christian? What's more important to me? I don't know. And then secondly, I am more offended at how churches handle the Lord's Supper than anyone supposedly mocking the Lord's Supper. Now, but there's more to this story. This article currently is not locked. I'm sorry that the other Don, the Don Jr., Donald Trump Jr., I'm sorry that that article got all messed up because, well, it locked on me, all right? So, and I'm not gonna pay money currently to see it, all right? So here we go. Here's another article. This one, Paris 2024 Olympics. Did everyone get it wrong about that controversial opening ceremony moment? Now, as soon as I saw this, I'm like, ooh, I wonder if people got this wrong. Because again, it's the Olympics happening in France, the Olympics of Greek origin. So we have Greek culture with the culture in France. Hmm. I wonder if people are misinterpreting this. So, Here we go. Alternative theory about controversial Olympic moment, Christian leaders claimed, now this is Christian leaders claimed, it wasn't referring to the Last Supper. I'm like, oh, that's interesting. All right. So the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics sparked outrage for the so-called blasphemous depiction of the Last Supper, but a new theory has emerged about what the bizarre performance was really about. Reverend Benjamin Creamer, based in the U.S., shared a post on social media which dispelled the allegation that the controversial scene featuring drag queens was mocking Leonardo da Vinci's classic painting and therefore Christianity. The post reads, it was a representation of the event called the Feast of... Now, how many know this word? The Feast of... Are you ready? The Feast of... Hang on, let me see if I can play this. Hang on, here we go. The Feast of... All right, now my... Nothing is working for me right now. Okay, here we go. Dionysus. Here we go. Dionysus. The Feast of Dionysus. The entire thing was depicting the Feast of Dionysus and had nothing to do with the Last Supper. Others say, well, it had a little bit to do with the Last Supper, but it was also bringing in the Feast of Dionysus and kind of bringing the two concepts together, right? Hey, we're going to bring these two cultures together in this one display because both The Lord's Supper and the Feast of Dionysus has some similarities, so we're going to merge the two. Now, you may say, well, that's horrible. They can't do that. Well, if it's an artistic expression, you want the artist to be able to do whatever they want. You don't have to like it. But is it really worth getting all bothered by? Again, I'm more bothered by how churches handle the Lord's Supper than I am by what they did or didn't do. But many are saying this was the Feast of Dionysus. So let me go back to this. I've got so many articles on this. All right. So. So the post reads, it was a representation of the event called the Feast of Dionysus, Greek god of festivity and feasting and ritual and theater. So again, according to this one pastor, the representation was the Feast of Dionysus, the Greek god of festivity and feasting and ritual and theater. The Olympics are from Greek culture and tradition. French culture is deeply rooted in feasting and festivity and performing arts. According to the theory, the scene depicted in the opening ceremony was based on a painting called The Feast of the Gods, which was made in 1602. Another social media post challenged the idea that the scene was depicting the Last Supper. Another person stated, the painting is not specifically Dionysus, but it is showing how feasts were often depicted during the Renaissance period with a lot of Greek influence. It can look like the Feast of Dionysus. It can also be reminiscent of the Last Supper. In other words, they're saying, hey, this idea of feasting, this idea of all coming together for theater, feasting, festivity, it was depicted at a certain period of time along this way, whether it was the Feast of Dionysus or whether it's the Lord's Supper. So in other words, there was far more trying to be shown than just like, oh, they're mocking Christianity. All right. And it says, that's because during the Renaissance, many paintings depicted a feast would have a table with people on one side and maybe a few on the ends, and have them seated or standing in different positions. Adding weight to this argument, her post was shared by a pastor. The Reverend Rapko wrote, it wasn't the Last Supper, which is housed in Italy, not France. It was the Feast of Dionysus. replies to the post where many were in full support. Thank you. I didn't automatically make the leap that they were deliberately mocking The Last Supper, but some clearly did. Another voice said, French actor and singer was playing the role of the Greek god of wine Dionysus online. He was referred to as the Naked Blue Man. Now there's a picture of him. kind of there on the table, he's all in blue, kind of like an orange beard, and they're like, he's literally, that actor was literally performing as Dionysus. So they brought Dionysus into the entire scene. Spectators believe the performance was a recreation of the famous biblical scene of Jesus Christ and his 12 apostles sharing a last meal before the crucifixion. But the artistic imitation, which also included a group of drag queens and a transgender model, has caused offense among many Christians for making a gross mockery of the religion. Complete with models, dancers, fashion icons, and drag queens from the host nation, the performance took place on a bridge over the capital river, around a table, which also doubled as a catwalk. As the center was a woman in front of DJ equipment with a golden halo style crown surrounded by several drag queens and dozens of dancers and performers. A fashion show which showcased clothing designed by some France's most promising young designers took center stage as those seated on either side performed a choreography. So then it talks about all this and it goes on. And Okay, so they have the pictures, and of course they go on and talk about everything else. So there's already some going, that's not exactly what it was. Now, just a few hours ago, this article dropped. Paris Olympics organizer, the organizer of the Paris Olympics says, drag performance was not to Greek mythology, not Last Supper. An organizer of the Paris Olympics said that the drag performance during Friday's opening ceremony was a nod to Greek mythology, not The Last Supper. Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the ceremony, told French news channel on Sunday that the inspiration for this scene was the Greek god Dionysus, according to NBC's Today. He comments came after the opening ceremony included the scene that some said looked like Leonardo da Vinci's painting of The Last Supper. There is Dionysus who arrives on this table. He is there because he is the god of celebration in Greek mythology, Jolly said, according to NBC. The idea was to have a pagan celebration connected to the gods of Olympus. You will never find me a desire to mock and in any way speak negatively of anyone." So right there, even the artistic person behind it said, look, Dionysus literally arrives on the table. This is about the gods of Olympia. In fact, his exact words were, the gods of Olympus. This had nothing to do with Christianity. Now, what I have always heard is when we see that picture—I've heard pastor after pastor say this—when you see that painting of the Last Supper, ignore that. That is a misrepresentation of what the Last Supper would have looked like. It would not have been sitting at a table like that. That's not—in fact, it's a misrepresentation. So what I have always heard is that that painting actually does a disservice because it gives a wrong impression of what the Last Supper looked like because that's not how it would have been done. Now all of a sudden, if you mock that painting, then the world loses, Christians lose their mind because I guess now it was an actual photograph of the Last Supper. So the whole thing just becomes more and more ridiculous by the moment. So, what should we do with this? What should we do with this? Here's what I would say we do with this. And this is always my answer. When the world, let's go with the theory, let's go with the idea, this was a direct attack upon Christianity. They were sitting in a conference room and they were like, Hey, opening ceremony to the Olympics. Here's our opportunity. Let's mock and make fun of Christianity to the best of our ability. Let's offend them. Let's show them that we hate their religion. Let's show that we hate them. Let's do that. And everybody in the conference room was like, yes, this is a great idea. Let's do it. Okay, so what do we do? We're going to attack the Last Supper because we want to attack the Lord's Supper. Let's do it. All right. So let's say that's what they do. All right, now, here's my thought. You can get offended. You can get mad. You can try to, I guess, tell them that you're not going to watch anymore, you're going to boycott, and you can try to make that artistic expression, only agrees with Christianity and never mocks it. I guess you can do that all day long. I guess if that's your approach. I don't know really what you're going to accomplish. I would just say, if you're going to say that there is no mocking of something, like if Christians don't want to be mocked and we don't want anything to make fun of our religion or to mock it, this is what I would say. then do not. support when pastors mock other religions, when pastors say derogatory, mocking things to different people, to different groups, when pastors say mocking things to liberal politicians. Like, if the idea is that mocking is wrong and making fun of or is wrong, then I don't want—look, I've heard Christians mock homosexuals. I've heard Christians mock—so, like, mock non-Catholics, mocking Catholics. I'm and on and on and on and on. If the idea that mocking is wrong, then okay, let's do it. No mocking of anything. But let me just make it very clear. I don't want lost people to be forced to live according to Christianity. I want them to be able to live their life the way they see fit. And I want to be able to now condemn behavior. I want to be able to condemn ideology. And I want to be able to speak against it. And I want to call them to Christ, but I have no desire to control them. So I don't know what we want to do. Do we just want to get on social media and yell and scream about it and say it was a mockery? And then you want to use it for people to send money to your ministry? So I'm not, I don't, I'm not a fan of that approach. Here's more of my approach. Okay. Let's talk about the Last Supper. See, if, if, if let's say this was about the Last Supper, all right, then let's do this. Let's, instead of using it to get offended, instead of doing it to get upset, well then let's actually talk about the Lord's Supper. What was the significance of the Lord's Supper? What was it pointing to? How did it transition from, was it a Passover meal that transferred? Like, there's lots of theological and doctrinal issues we could discuss. Did it go from the Passover to now the Lord's Supper? And now, how is this to be done? Okay, well, does the Bible outline how it's supposed to be done? Yes, we can go to 1 Corinthians. It gives great detail on how the Lord's Supper is to be done. Okay. Well, instead of allowing ourselves to be offended, let's ask ourselves, are churches handling the Lord's Supper in a biblical manner? What should we believe about it? Should we believe the Lord's Supper is since a memorial meal, will we remember what happened? Or does it make present the actual blood of Christ? Is transubstantiation correct? Or is the more Lutheran view there? Like, which view of the Lord's Supper is the correct one? Like, let's use it as an opportunity to talk about the actual theological issues that are significant to the Lord's Supper. Let's talk about, should it be open communion? Should it be closed communion? Or should it be closed communion? How do we understand if people got sick and died, is your church possibly guilty of handling it out in a way that could lead people to get sick and die? Wouldn't you be more concerned about that than what happened at the Olympics? So typically when someone attacks, it's always better sometimes to just say, well, let's look at ourselves. Let's look at ourselves and how, what, how the church overall handles the Lord's Supper. Do we handle it in a correct way? To me, that is much more productive than getting on social media yelling and screaming and, oh, this is blasphemy, this is horrifying. Maybe we should look and see how the church handles the Lord's Supper in such a way that may be even more offensive and more wrong because we really are taking this very important doctrine, and doing things with it that are completely—either we're not showing reverence and respect to what can actually happen if it's done incorrectly, according to 1 Corinthians, and maybe be more focused on that. But no, no, no, no. What we always do is we get mad and we get offended, and we want everyone to act the way we want them to act. Why do we think we can control other people's behavior? And why do we even want to? Now, if you didn't even watch the opening ceremony, then the only reason you're offended by it is because you're looking at what other people are saying about it. It didn't have any impact on your life because you didn't even watch it. Now, if you watched it and you got offended by it, then okay, at least you were watching it and then it had an impact on you. You didn't go find it from, you know, because you saw something on social media. Well, then okay. Now, the question is now, you're offended. What are you going to do with it? What are you going to do with it? What do you want? What do you want? What exactly do you want to happen? Do you want everything to always be in the line with Christianity so you're never offended? Well, that's not... We're in the world, we're not of the world. You can't ever expect that the world's going to act, think, or be considerate or care about how Christians feel because they're not Christian, they don't think that way, and in many cases, they hate Christianity. So what do you expect? To me, what we should do is like, huh, okay. Hey, guys. I don't know if you saw, there's a lot of controversy right now about the Olympics and the Lord's Supper. What we're going to do is we're going to, next week at church, we're going to do a sermon. We're going to start a sermon series on the Lord's Supper. What is it? How should it be done? What's the doctrinal significance of it? Hey, hey, if you're a youth director, hey, kids or teenagers, hey, has everyone been talking probably on TikTok a lot about the controversy at the Olympics? Yeah, yeah. What do you guys think about that? Okay, well, let me ask you some more important question. What is the Lord's Supper? Why do we do it? What does it mean? How should it be done? Are there dangers in taking the Lord's Supper? Could you get sick and die? What I would be more offended by is you can ask basic doctrinal questions about the Lord's Supper to many of the Christians who are supposedly offended about it, and they would fail a test on basic questions in regards to it. Use it as an opportunity to teach. Use it as an opportunity to deal with it. Use it as an opportunity to talk about the different views in Christianity in regards to the Lord's Supper. Not get offended by it! Say, okay, hey, you mocked it, thank you so very much. Now we've got the whole world talking about it. Guess what? We live in a culture where the world is not that well-versed in Christian things. They may not even really know what the Lord's Supper is. So then that's our opportunity to go, hey, we're not here to really argue about what the Olympics did, but what we want to do is help you understand exactly what the Lord's Supper is. and how it actually looked and when it actually happened and what was going on and what immediately happened after. Instead of yelling and screaming, you're not adding any light to the situation. You're not adding any benefit. All you're doing is just adding more noise. That's my, Challenge. Don't fight it. Say, okay, okay. What can we do to talk about the Lord's Supper in a more positive way, in a teaching way, in an edifying way? Now, what I would challenge you to do, here's what I would challenge you to do, because I want to turn this into something positive. This week, Your assignment is to spend a good portion of this week reading 1 Corinthians 11, starting in verse 17 to verse 34. 1 Corinthians 11, verses 17 to 34. 1 Corinthians 11, verses 17 to 34. I want you to read that at least five times this week. Just read it. And just consider some of the things said there. I mean, they had added kind of a feast to the Lord's Supper. Some sometimes refer to it as the agape feast. And that was becoming a problem. And Paul tells them, hey, stop, go home and eat. So why do churches continue to have potlucks and fellowships when Paul literally tells them, go home and eat, come to the church to partake of, well, the Lord's Supper. And we're doing this for spiritual reasons, not to shove food down our throats. Oh, and see, we don't want to have a discussion about that. No, no, no. See, no, no, no. We just want to yell at the people at the Olympics who is representing something that had more to do with probably Greek culture and what was going on in France than it had anything to do with the Lord's Supper and Dionysus, a Greek god, and the gods of the Olympus. It probably had more to do with that than had anything to do with the Lord's Supper. But you know what? Nobody really cares whether it does or not. I'm not even going to get into the debate because it's just people yelling and screaming at each other and nobody actually cares to do any serious research. But I know this, if you're gonna say it's the Lord's Supper, and now everyone's talking about the Lord's Supper, then let's talk about the Lord's Supper. So this week, instead of arguing and fighting with people, go read 1 Corinthians 11, 17 to 34, and see how well you actually know everything that's going on in that. 1 Corinthians 11, 17 to 34. And then what I want you to do is this week for the Sermons 2.0 app challenge, just find some, look up random sermons on 1 Corinthians 11, 17 to 34. And then when people are talking about it, you say, well, you know what? You're upset about it. Let's talk about the Lord's Supper. Let's just talk about it. Let's add light to this subject instead of just yelling and screaming about it. Because a lot of the yelling and screaming, you're literally judging motives. See, Christians are running around saying, they, they were mocking God, and accuse, like you can't accuse and judge people's motives because you don't know motives. You can't see into their hearts. That's when your judgment becomes the wrong kind of judgment. You can judge the action, and you can argue, well, I think the action was this or that, and they can come back and go, well, you misinterpreted my action. I was going with the Greek god Dionysus, and you think it's about Jesus. You're missing the whole point. Or maybe it's trying to bring all of it together. I don't know. But what value comes in debating that or fighting that? It would be better for us to spend the week actually looking at the Lord's Supper. So, 1 Corinthians 11, 17-34, that's what you're going to read at least five times this week. And you're going to look up random sermons on 1 Corinthians 11, 17-34. And then you're going to avoid fighting and yelling and screaming with people on social media where it's about as useless as going and banging your head against a wall. In fact, banging your head against the wall may be a more, you may accomplish more because at least maybe you'll end up with a concussion or bust your head open and need stitches. That will be probably more valuable than what you're doing on social media. So my take is, I don't really care what lost people do. My second take is I'm more offended about how churches handle the Lord's Supper than someone mocking it. Third, I am more offended by at least one ministry, Robert Jeffress, using the opportunity as a way for me to send money to his ministry. That's offensive. I'm offended that a Christian article talking about it attacked a woman's weight. Okay, that's offensive. I'm offended that this turns into a political thing. And I'm offended that Christians never see the opportunity presented them. This is an opportunity. Oh, the whole world's talking about the Lord's Supper. Nobody really understands it. Hey, shh, stop fighting and start teaching. Your teenagers and your church, they're going to be seeing it on TikTok. Say, hey guys, let's talk about the Lord's Supper. Sunday, you could immediately just change your entire curriculum. Hey, hey, hey, hey, let's talk about it. Hey, hey, young people, how many have seen this on TikTok? How many people have seen this on Instagram or whatever social media platform they're utilizing? Oh, okay. What do you think? What do you think? What do you think? Well, that's great. I'm glad all of you have your opinions. Now, let me do this. I'm going to hand out a 10-question quiz on the Lord's Supper, and let's see how many you get right. Oh, okay. So you all think it was blasphemous, but guess what? You all failed a test on the Lord's Supper. Which is more offensive? You being a church member and a Christian who can't pass the test on the Lord's Supper? Is that more offensive than lost people supposedly mocking it at the Olympics? I am more offended at what Christians say about the Lord's Supper and their misunderstanding of it than I am at what's happening at the Olympics. What do you think? Now, my job always is on this podcast to kind of challenge what everyone else is saying. I kind of always find myself in the minority of the minority. We almost could call this, this, this podcast, the minority report, because I'm always in the minority. And I understand that. And I know that makes me very unpopular. I know that can greatly hinder who will support what I do and not support what I do. I understand all of that, but come on. What happened at the Olympics? Now a ministry is using it to raise money so that they can make money? Claiming that now they're—because they're going to go take light into the darkness? Give me—if you're going on Fox News, you're preaching to the choir. So where are you taking the light into darkness? If you're broadcasting on Christian radio, come on now. Right? So, there you have it. I do apologize that the article about Don, Don Jr., Donald Trump Jr., I apologize that we got all messed up. It was, it was open. And then when we went back to it, it decided, no, you got to pay to continue to look at this article. Well, I was looking at it five minutes ago. Why did you do that? But it was just going to be the political take on it. So, because I was trying to add the kind of the different perspectives, like how Christianity was handling it, how the politics were handling it. how some are pushing back, going, you don't even understand it, and how some of the organizers of the Olympics themselves are saying, you're misunderstanding this. This is about the Greek god Dionysus. And if that's the case, do you realize how stupid we look? If that's the case. I can't say it is or whether it isn't. Because here's the thing, I can't judge what's inside someone's heart. So instead of yelling and screaming about the action, say, thank you so very much. The Summer 2024 Olympics have now provided me the opportunity to get as many people as possible talking, thinking, and studying the Lord's Supper, so by the time the Olympics are over, everyone that I can reach will have a better understanding of the Lord's Supper than they did before the Olympics began. So see it as a positive. I don't know why Christians don't do that more frequently. All right. See, I think sometimes it requires being as wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove. Sometimes it's better how to fight. You know, we're supposed to overcome evil. We're not to be overcome by evil, but we're to overcome evil with good. Sometimes the way we respond, I'm not going to listen to Elon Musk say, well, Christianity is toothless. What exactly do you want me to do? Elon, yell, scream, fight. Go spend four hours on X posting things about it. newsifatyahoo.com. That's newsifatyahoo.com. That's newsifatyahoo.com. I've taken this controversial issue. I've given you two assignments. Read 1 Corinthians 11, 17 to 34 at least five times this week and use the Sermons 2.0 app to find random sermons on 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and see by the end of this week if you know more about the Lord's Supper than you did when the week began. If you have questions about the Lord's Supper, by all means, email them to me, and we can do an entire broadcast just answering questions about the Lord's Supper somewhere before this week is out. So email me, newsifatyahoo.com, newsifatyahoo.com. And because I and bringing light to this very dark situation. Please send me your best financial gift. I need $78,000 so that can pay off my house. And so then I can broadcast for years to come and never have to ask for really anything else ever again. So please do that now. Okay. Right. See, see how ridiculous that would be. to use the opportunity as a way for you to send me money. I, that, I've seen everything in Christianity, but I'm not surprised by it. Cause I've seen those kinds, I get those, I get emails from ministries constantly. And usually when something big happens, they immediately use it as a fundraising campaign. And I'm like, man, that's my problem. I'm not clever enough to use every difficult situation that happens or ever controversial thing as a way for me to make money. And the best he could offer me was a link to his interview on Fox News. Why didn't he turn on a microphone and do an hour teaching on the Lord's Supper? All right. Thanks for listening. Everyone have a great day. I'm going to go retire and give up. And yeah, that's what I'm going to do. God bless.