Truth Be Told

Truth, Belief, Faith, and Hope - A Biblical Understanding of Terms as They Relate to Pentecost

This is a sermon that I gave on the day of Pentecost celebrating the initial outpouring of God's Spirit on His church nearly 2,000 years ago. 

In this message I attempt to highlight the intricate difference (though intimately connected) concepts of truth, belief, faith, and hope. Often, modern students of the Bible confuse the terms faith and belief as being interchangeable. This misunderstanding, along with the fact that ancient Greeks and Hebrews only had one term each (used in various contexts to show distinction) to express these two concepts makes it nearly impossible to gain any context on the topics of belief and faith, and can even confuse two other words that are directly connected - truth and hope. 

If we confuse faith and belief, which could also cause us to misunderstand the connected nature of truth and hope - it is no wonder modern Christians have such a hard time sharing what they believe with the world - just as the Apostles did at the start of the early Church. We look at a faithless and hopeless world and assume that preaching salvation to them will net us nothing. 

However, if we have a biblical view of the terms truth, belief, faith, and hope which act as stepping stones, one to another, we might at least take that first step. We might have no chance of causing someone to go from being antagonistic to Christianity to hope in Jesus Christ, but might we at least offer them truth? Might that truth stick with the person long enough for them to come to believe it? Might their hard hearts, under the weight of what their subconscious now believes, soften unto faith? Might that faith (which comes with life-changing action) might not lead to hope someday? Are not all things possible for God?

As Paul says in Romans 10:14-15 "How then will they call on Him (faith) in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe (belief) in Him of whom they have never heard (truth)? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵ And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news (hope)!”

The Faith it Takes to Listen

Listening is one of the hardest things for people to do. We're very good at discussing, informing, and telling - but listening takes a certain humility that can be very difficult. 

In this study we look at the importance of listening to God, examples of how people have not listened in the past, as well as good examples of people that listened to very difficult instruction or sayings from God.

By taking a look at this topic we should, hopefully, have a more gracious approach to those in the Bible who didn't listen (by realizing that we are often very much like them), more admiration for those who did listen, and a better understanding for how important it is to God that we listen to Him. We might not often pair the concepts of faith and listening together, but it truly does require faith to listen to God when our human reasoning doesn't make it easy to obey.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Moon Knight, Idolatry, and the Supernatural

After watching the new Marvel series, Moon Knight, I was struck with how much it seemed to be in line with my spiritual worldview. Particularly one fight scene depicting Khonshu and Ammit in their full, towering forms battling in the backdrop of a physical fight between Moon Knight and Arthur Harrow.

How can we learn about the spiritual world from a TV show about super heroes? Where did I get the idea that the Bible might somehow relate to a fight scene between ancient Egyptian deities? Isn't the spiritual world made up of God, Satan, and the angels and demons on either side of the fight? 

In this episode we'll take a look at what the Bible says about the supernatural world in order to broaden our understanding of its reality and take it seriously when confronted with it interacting in our lives as the Bible claims it does.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful By Twisterium

Logo: Matt Hernandez

How Do We Respond to ”New Ideas”?

New ideas can almost become taboo within Christianity. The primary elements of our faith have been around for a long time and we believe we can trace our roots back to the beginning of time when our God created all things - what else could there be that is new for us to consider? Also, doesn't much of the New Testament warn us against "new ideas"?

Sometimes new ideas aren't actually all that new, and sometimes, something presented as a new idea is really only a new perspective. However, if we react to some of these things as vehemently as we would a false gospel or false prophet we could easily be rejecting a lot of good that we haven't considered, we could be weakening our skills of discernment, and we could be alienating someone who is postulating something in good faith.

Today we take an in-depth look at several people in the Bible who were posed with an idea that was new to them to see how they responded - whether for the negative or the positive - to see what examples we would like to follow when handling similar situations. We'll also take a look at Old and New Testament precedents for the handling of new ideas so that we can be better equipped to discern when something might actually have value vs. when it needs to be rejected as a danger to believers.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful By Twisterium

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Expectation vs. Reality of Christ’s Calling

Though many sayings of Christ have been interpreted different ways over time and some can be a bit confusing if not placed in the right context - His instruction, "follow Me," was always presented in a clear and concise way and remains unchanged throughout the centuries. His call to men and women in the 1st century is applicable to you today but, just like some men and women in the 1st century, sometimes our expectation of Christ's call doesn't always match the reality of it. 

Are we ready to follow Christ wherever He leads us? Are we ready to follow Christ whenever He calls us? Are we ready to follow Christ into whatever end He has for us? Are we ready to follow Christ in doing all that He told us to do without moderating His command into something a bit more comfortable for us to follow? In this episode we look at these questions to see how our expectation of Christ's calling matches the reality of what He has called us to.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful By Twisterium

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Learning From Satan’s Mistakes

Christians are called to love their enemies, pray for their enemies, and treat their enemies with kindness - but this doesn't mean we should be glad when an enemy succeeds against us. If an enemy makes a mistake while trying to cause harm to us, that should be a good thing.

Christians deal with more than just disapproval, or even persecution, from others, but also a continuous persecution from a host of spiritual adversaries, with Satan as their chief. Fortunately for us, even when Satan's plans all seem to work out in his favor, we serve a perfect God who can work all things together for good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. 

In this brief episode, we take a look at three actions that Satan deliberately took against God and His people to practice seeing how God can use, what Satan believes to be, a success, to teach us amazing truths about Him and His plan for us.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful By Twisterium

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Finding Yourself In Bible Prophecy

Often Christians can get caught up in the idea that the Bible is a historical book that, periodically, "comes alive" whenever a particularly interesting subject is brought up. However, the Bible speaks of itself as "living," not, merely, resurrected when our interest is piqued. 

The people of the New Testament lived their lives believing they had the Bible in the Old Testament, unaware that they were to be primary subjects in the Bibles that we have today. Could we be making the same mistake in thinking that the Bible is about people who lived in the past rather than encompassing people of other times as well?

Throughout this episode we will take an in-depth look at Bible Prophecy and Typology to show that all Christians (throughout time) have a central role in the overall message in the Bible and that the words on the page deal directly with our lives, not only in a practical or logistical sense, but in a prophetic sense as well. You were written about in the pages of scripture and in the prophecies of God's messengers - find yourself there and realize that the Bible is, and always has been, the living word of God.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful By: Twisterium

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Dr. Peter Gurry Interview: Textual Criticism

In this episode Dr. Peter Gurry and I explore the topic of textual criticism, or textual reliability, which is a practice used across many literary works, including the text of Scripture. While gaining a better understanding on the topic, it should be come clear that textual criticism, while fascinating and valuable as a study for Christians, should never be a study that ones faith hangs on. The Bible has been proven to be textually reliable, though there is still so much to look into and ask questions about, and trust in the text is well founded.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful By Twisterium

Logo: Matt Hernandez

What is Your Value?

So many people struggle with feeling valuable. Fortunately, our value isn't up to us, or even those around us. We were bought with a price and that price is the, immensely valuable, sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 

In this episode we study the concept of value and take a look at the analogy used by Peter between "corruptible things like silver and gold" and the blood of Christ to see what deeper meaning we can draw out.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful By Twisterium

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Louis Markos Interview: Virtue and Myth

Dr. Louis Markos and I discuss virtue, myth, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and pagan writers. How do we think about pagan writers? How do we think about truth?

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Video: Jamie Schreiber

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful, By Twisterium