(remember, these are unedited/draft show notes, not a transcript — listening is always better — and if you listen AND follow along below, you’ll see why)
Focus Question:
Are atheists bad?
Intro:
So some of us here — and I’ll put myself in this category — pine for a day when the elderly were given respect. There are reasons, such as the propagation of information in the last few hundred years and particularly the last couple decades, that make it easier for young people to show old people when they’re wrong, but that also throws the baby out with the bathwater. And this idea of showing elders respect shows up in the book of Job today.
NEW TESTAMENT SEGMENT:
Before we get there, however, we turn to our NT segment we hear nothing but red words. Yesterday we heard Jesus contrast the poor in spirit vs the self-reliant, and the rest of this passage, often used as a “how to love like Jesus” lesson, is a good time to ask our focus question, “Are atheists bad?”
Passage: Luke 6:26-49
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 23
Words: ~492
Are atheists bad? After all, if you’re like me, you probably know some God-deniers who are upstanding folk and some Christians who, uh, don’t exactly model Jesus. That said, it’s useful to remember a distinction. Everybody and even every religion has some truth, perhaps even a lot of it. Everybody and even every religion has a version of morality, perhaps even a lot of it. But there’s a difference between that at the perfect goodness God requires to enter His presence relationally and, by extension, heaven as an eternal expression of that. The salvation Jesus offers isn’t to make bad people good, per se, it’s to make dead people live.
ORIGINAL TESTAMENT SEGMENT:
Now as we get to the Original Testament, we hear from a new voice…somebody that’s we figure out has been part of the story as a silent observer. You’ll recall that in the ANE in particular, a high degree of respect was commanded by the elderly, and we even heard that in Job’s woeful plea yesterday. But today? Here comes Elihu, and I’ll let him speak for himself.
Passage: Job 32-35
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 108
Words: ~1777
THE BOTTOM LINE:
<You’ll just have to listen>
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
(1) David S. Dockery, ed., Holman Bible Handbook (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 1992), 319.
(2) Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 873.