- There's a group of authors
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who've been called the
four horseman of atheism.
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Today we're gonna
talk about one of them,
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and I'm gonna show you
some stuff that apparently
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all of his fans
have failed to notice.
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[uplifting music]
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Going back a few years now,
atheist Christopher Hitchens
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put out a provocative new
book called "God Is Not Great".
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And just in case a
title doesn't make you aware
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of his position on God,
the designers made the cover on
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some additions
feature a lowercase G for God,
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and an uppercase G
for the word great,
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which is the pattern you find
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all the way through
the rest of the book,
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the word God is
never capitalized.
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Hitchens was
making it plain as day
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that he thought very
of the God of the Bible
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even though most people
tend to use capitalization
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as a simple gesture of respect
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when referring to the deities
of other people's religions.
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And I know, the word God
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is not really a proper
noun in the traditional sense,
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but it is one of the
shorthand names we use
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for the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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And I should probably
admit that I'm a little bit late
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to the game with
today's show because
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the author has been dead
for roughly a decade already,
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but well, this show
didn't exist at the time,
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and the book he wrote
is still in circulation.
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So I guess in a
sense he made sure that his
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rather stringent ideas
about faith would survive him
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and his influence does
continue after his death.
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So I thought maybe we
should still talk about it
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because I happen to
have a much different opinion
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and I do think
that God is great.
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Mr. Hitchens was a journalist
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and a lover of literature
who frankly hated religion,
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and not just any particular
religion, but all religion.
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He described it as poison even
though he was raised with it.
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And I suspect that's where
the real problem actually lies,
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how this man was
raised with religion,
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because that can often make
all the difference in the world.
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Not that his
descriptions of early childhood
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reveal any serious
problems because they don't,
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and often people from
example religious homes
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still go on to reject
the faith of their parents.
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Hitchens book
starts with a description
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of a kindly school
teacher named Jean Watts,
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who used to teach
Hitchens and his schoolmates
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lessons about
Scripture and nature.
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She would take the kids outdoors
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and help them identify
birds, trees, and plants,
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and she would openly marvel
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about the
goodness of the Creator.
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And according to Hitchens,
she once made a statement
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that started him down
the path toward unbelief.
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Here's how he describes it.
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He says,
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"However, there came a day
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"when poor dear Mrs.
Watts overreached herself.
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"Seeking ambitiously
to fuse her two roles
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"as nature instructor
and Bible teacher, she said,
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"'So you see children, how
powerful and generous God is.
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"'He has made all the
trees and grass to be green,
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"'which is exactly the color
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"'that is most
restful to our eyes.
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"'Imagine if instead the
vegetation was all purple,
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"'or orange, how
awful that would be.'"
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Now that statement
seems innocent enough,
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and while it
might be an expression
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of somebody's simple
faith and a personal opinion,
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Hitchens said that her
insistence that colors were made
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for human benefit
seemed ludicrous to him.
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Now I could probably
comment on that for a bit
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because unfortunately for
Mr. Hitchens science seems
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to slowly be moving in
the direction of suggesting
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that Mrs. Watts was
at least partially right,
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but let's just
keep forging ahead.
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Hitchens continues, and
I want you to pay attention
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to this rather caustic language
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because that kinda language
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is a major feature of this book.
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He says.
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"And now behold, what this
pious old trout hath wrought."
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Now just in case old trout
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is a moniker
you've never heard before,
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it's used to
describe an annoying old woman
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or even a bad
tempered old person,
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which completely
contradicts his next paragraph,
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or he describes what
a lovely person she was,
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and how much he liked her.
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That's what we would
call an ad hominem attack.
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It's a classical logical fallacy
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where you attack
the holder of an idea
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instead of dealing
with the idea itself.
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He's setting the table
for you to dislike Mrs. Watts
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before you even
know what she said.
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And the reason I'm pausing
to point this out is because
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this is an unfortunate pattern
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you find all the
way through the book,
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Mr. Hitchens
seems utterly incapable
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of dealing strictly with ideas.
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It seems like he
can't help himself,
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he applies angry
insults to everybody
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and everything he doesn't like
over and over and over again.
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And honestly you think
that someone like Hitchens,
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an accomplished
writer, a journalist
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would know that he's
contradicting himself
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when he describes
this kindly old teacher
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with such a demeaning
insult, but there you have it.
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And so I guess I'm
a little disappointed
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that someone with Hitchens
considerable credentials
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prove to be such
a careless writer
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to the point where he
gets a lot of simple details,
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well, just wrong.
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I mean, take for
example, the brief paragraph
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where he goes
after Mr. William Miller,
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a retired army officer
who converted from deism
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and became a Baptist preacher,
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and almost single handedly
launched a nationwide revival
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in the middle of
the 19th century.
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Here's how
Hitchens describes this man,
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and remember his real
name is William Miller.
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He writes,
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"In 1844, one of the greatest
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"American
religious revivals occurred,
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"led by a semiliterate
lunatic named George Miller.
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"Mr. Miller managed to crowd
the mountain tops of America
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"with credulous fools who having
sold their belongings cheap
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"became persuaded
that the world would end
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"on October 22 that year."
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Well, first of all Mr.
Hitchens, his name was William,
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and he was
anything but semiliterate.
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Now it's true that he set a
date for the return of Christ,
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and you've
probably noticed by now
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that he was wrong about
that, but wouldn't you know it,
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I've actually taken the time
to read William Miller's books,
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and I can tell you he was
anything but semiliterate.
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In fact, I would
say that Miller's work
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is far less sloppy
than Hitchens work.
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And while he was clearly wrong
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about giving a date
to the return of Christ,
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a date by the way
that he easily found
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in the text of Daniel 8,
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I mean, William Miller
was hardly the only person
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on this planet
to notice that date,
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but assigning the
date to the Second Coming
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was a basic mistake simply
took Miller down the wrong road.
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Anybody who was actually
bothered to read Miller's work
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can see that he
wasn't raving lunatic,
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it's well researched, well
argued, and well presented.
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There is no
comparing what Miller wrote
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to the likes of Jim
Jones, or Marshall Applewhite,
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or all of these other
apocalyptic cult leaders
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we've heard about.
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Miller's work is
calm and reasonable,
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and obviously written by someone
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who had a decent
grasp of history.
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But Mr. Hitchens
clearly didn't know that
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because he didn't
even know the man's name,
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he just threw an
ill-informed and salacious story
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into his manuscript condensing
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a major American
Christian revival movement
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into four short sentences.
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And I guess he just
assumed that his readers
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would never take
the time to look it up,
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and obviously his
editors didn't think so either,
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but unfortunately
for them, I have read it.
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And so it goes with
the rest of Hitchens book,
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it reads more
like an angry screen
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than a work of history,
psychology, or philosophy.
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And while I'm
clearly not an atheist,
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I do respect the work
of thoughtful atheists
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because at least they
aren't shooting from the hip
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and dumping out all their
personal frustrations in a book.
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But back to Mrs. Jean
Watts now, the teacher
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because Hitchens claims
that she was the starting point
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for his journey into
disbelief when she suggested
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that colors somehow
benefit the human race.
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Here's what he says.
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He writes,
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"I was frankly
appalled by what she said.
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"My little ankle-strap sandals
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"curled with
embarrassment for her.
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"At the age of nine I
had not even a conception
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"of the argument from design,
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"or of Darwinian
evolution as its rival,
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"or of the relationship
between photosynthesis
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"and chlorophyll.
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"The secrets of the
genome were as hidden from me
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"as they were at that
time to everyone else.
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"I had not then
visited the scenes of nature
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"where almost everything
was hideously indifferent,
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"or hostile to human
life, if not life itself.
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"I simply knew almost as
if I had privileged access
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"to a higher authority,
that my teacher had managed
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"to get everything
wrong in just two sentences.
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"The eyes were
adjusted to nature,
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"and not the other way about."
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And honestly, that's it.
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As a young boy, he
took exception to the idea
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that the world was somehow
designed for our enjoyment.
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That's what turned
this sweet old teacher
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into and I quote,
"a pious old trout".
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I'll be right back after this.
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[light music]
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- [Announcer] Life
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- One of the claims that
Christopher Hitchens makes
00:10:04.03\00:10:06.07
is that he was very
biblically literate,
00:10:06.07\00:10:08.94
and he says that
religious objectors to his ideas
00:10:08.94\00:10:12.07
were always
confounded by his supposedly
00:10:12.07\00:10:14.34
broad biblical knowledge.
00:10:14.34\00:10:16.34
Here's how he puts it.
00:10:16.34\00:10:18.41
"I frequently passed
'top' in my Scripture class.
00:10:18.41\00:10:21.72
"It was my first
introduction to practical
00:10:21.72\00:10:23.82
"and textual criticism.
00:10:23.82\00:10:25.79
"I would read all the chapters
that led up to the verse,
00:10:25.79\00:10:28.59
"and all the
ones that followed it,
00:10:28.59\00:10:30.29
"to be sure that I had got
the point of the original clue.
00:10:30.29\00:10:34.00
"I can still do this,
00:10:34.00\00:10:35.50
"greatly to the annoyance
of some of my enemies."
00:10:35.50\00:10:38.90
Now I gotta say, I don't
know who was handing out grades
00:10:38.90\00:10:41.14
in that
particular Scripture class,
00:10:41.14\00:10:42.67
but I can assure you,
00:10:42.67\00:10:44.34
I've taught more than
one Scripture class over my
00:10:44.34\00:10:47.21
lifetime, and the
stuff I find in this book
00:10:47.21\00:10:48.81
would hardly put Mr. Hitchens
at the top of the class.
00:10:48.81\00:10:51.91
I mean, maybe he
was able to recite
00:10:51.91\00:10:53.98
a few Bible versus from memory,
00:10:53.98\00:10:55.82
but his overall
grasp of the subject
00:10:55.82\00:10:57.95
was even worse than his
grasp of religious history.
00:10:57.95\00:11:01.19
And honestly, it's hard to know
00:11:01.19\00:11:02.99
where I should
start with this because
00:11:02.99\00:11:04.49
there is so much bad
information in Hitchens book
00:11:04.49\00:11:08.00
that I could probably
put together a mini series.
00:11:08.00\00:11:11.07
He seems to take tired
old caricatures of religion
00:11:11.07\00:11:13.97
and knock them
down like straw men
00:11:13.97\00:11:15.84
instead of actually dealing
with the very real eye ideas
00:11:15.84\00:11:18.87
that have carried
Christianity forward
00:11:18.87\00:11:20.88
over the last 2,000 years.
00:11:20.88\00:11:23.55
But if I'm gonna zero in
00:11:23.55\00:11:25.11
on just one area
for a few minutes,
00:11:25.11\00:11:27.08
maybe let's talk
about his assessment
00:11:27.08\00:11:29.25
of the Old and New Testaments
00:11:29.25\00:11:31.52
to which he devotes
one chapter a piece.
00:11:31.52\00:11:34.49
And with the time we've got
I think it might be beneficial
00:11:35.92\00:11:37.96
to look at his
complaints about Moses,
00:11:37.96\00:11:40.76
and then if we have more time,
00:11:40.76\00:11:42.00
we can always go on from there.
00:11:42.00\00:11:44.13
As Hitchens is
getting ready to assassinate
00:11:44.13\00:11:46.13
the credibility of the
Old Testament, here's what he
00:11:46.13\00:11:49.27
writes. He says,
00:11:49.27\00:11:50.54
"A further difficulty
is the apparent tendency
00:11:50.54\00:11:53.21
of the Almighty
to reveal himself
00:11:53.21\00:11:54.91
"only to unlettered in
quasi-historical individuals,
00:11:54.91\00:11:58.55
"in regions of
Middle Eastern wasteland
00:11:58.55\00:12:01.22
"that were long the home of
idle worship and superstition."
00:12:01.22\00:12:06.09
Well, wrong again Mr. Hitchens.
00:12:06.09\00:12:08.72
The Old Testament is
centered on the notion
00:12:08.72\00:12:10.39
of breaking away from
idle worship and superstition.
00:12:10.39\00:12:13.80
But then from that
point, Hitchens goes on
00:12:13.80\00:12:16.23
to start
discussing the person of Moses
00:12:16.23\00:12:18.37
whose writings undergird
00:12:18.37\00:12:19.73
the three big
monotheistic religions,
00:12:19.73\00:12:22.20
Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam.
00:12:22.20\00:12:25.57
Moses is easily one of the
most revered religious figures
00:12:25.57\00:12:28.94
in world history.
00:12:28.94\00:12:30.41
And what Hitchens does is
try to turn you against Moses
00:12:30.41\00:12:33.82
by suggesting that he
was probably unlettered
00:12:33.82\00:12:37.45
and not even real.
00:12:37.45\00:12:39.52
Now I can see all kinds of
people cheering for that notion,
00:12:39.52\00:12:42.39
particularly if they don't
wanna read the Old Testament
00:12:42.39\00:12:44.99
or recognize that it might
have any kind of credibility
00:12:44.99\00:12:48.33
or authority.
00:12:48.33\00:12:49.90
That would make sense
for people to feel that way,
00:12:49.90\00:12:52.93
but if you're going
to oppose something,
00:12:52.93\00:12:54.97
at least make sure
you're opposing the real thing
00:12:54.97\00:12:57.61
instead of a straw man
constructed by somebody
00:12:57.61\00:13:00.31
with an ax to grind.
00:13:00.31\00:13:01.48
To describe Moses as
illiterate or unlettered
00:13:02.61\00:13:05.21
is frankly being
dishonest with the story itself.
00:13:05.21\00:13:08.62
Moses was a Hebrew child adopted
by the Pharaoh's daughter
00:13:08.62\00:13:12.05
and raised in
the palaces of Egypt
00:13:12.05\00:13:13.72
where he got a
first rate education
00:13:13.72\00:13:16.49
by the most advanced
civilization of his day.
00:13:16.49\00:13:19.33
Egypt frankly was the same place
00:13:19.33\00:13:21.46
that people like Plato or
Pythagoras went to get educated.
00:13:21.46\00:13:25.27
Plato studied in
Egypt for 13 years,
00:13:25.27\00:13:27.87
and Pythagoras
studied in Memphis because
00:13:27.87\00:13:30.61
the Egyptian priests
had superior knowledge
00:13:30.61\00:13:33.07
of things like
medicine and astronomy.
00:13:33.07\00:13:35.78
Egypt was the most
literate place on earth.
00:13:35.78\00:13:39.88
But what Hitchens does is
place people like Moses in,
00:13:39.88\00:13:43.25
and I quote
"Middle East wasteland".
00:13:43.25\00:13:46.52
That's just dishonest.
00:13:46.52\00:13:48.32
I mean, our very word alphabet
00:13:48.32\00:13:49.76
has roots in Semitic languages.
00:13:49.76\00:13:51.86
The Greeks got their alpha
beta from the Hebrew aleph-bet,
00:13:51.86\00:13:56.83
and that's because
the Hebrews are one
00:13:58.03\00:13:59.33
of the earliest literate
societies on the planet.
00:13:59.33\00:14:02.74
But where Mr Hitchens
really begins to flounder
00:14:02.74\00:14:05.81
is in his assessment of perhaps
00:14:05.81\00:14:07.71
one of the
greatest moral contributions
00:14:07.71\00:14:10.18
of the Hebrew people
to modern civilization,
00:14:10.18\00:14:12.71
and that's the Decalogue
or the Ten Commandment.
00:14:12.71\00:14:16.52
Now honestly, in my experience,
00:14:16.52\00:14:19.39
the only people who
really have a problem
00:14:19.39\00:14:21.56
with the moral principles
found in the Ten Commandments
00:14:21.56\00:14:24.23
are people who do
not wish to live by them,
00:14:24.23\00:14:26.53
but that's probably
another subject for another day.
00:14:26.53\00:14:29.26
Here's how Hitchens
starts in on the Big 10.
00:14:29.26\00:14:32.47
He writes,
00:14:32.47\00:14:33.67
"The first three,"
commandments he says,
00:14:33.67\00:14:35.90
"are all
variations of the same one,
00:14:35.90\00:14:38.54
"in which God insists on
his own primacy and exclusivity,
00:14:38.54\00:14:42.41
"forbids the
making of graven image,
00:14:42.41\00:14:44.31
"and prohibits the
taking of his own name in vain."
00:14:44.31\00:14:47.55
In the next sentence,
in typical Hitchens style,
00:14:48.75\00:14:51.12
he calls these first
three commandments and I quote,
00:14:51.12\00:14:53.99
"prolonged throat
clearing" on God's part
00:14:53.99\00:14:57.43
as if that's some
kinda serious argument.
00:14:57.43\00:15:00.13
Hitchens is making a
ridiculous caricature
00:15:01.26\00:15:03.53
out of the God of
the Old Testament,
00:15:03.53\00:15:05.40
suggesting that the people
who actually believe the Bible
00:15:05.40\00:15:08.30
are some kind of mindless idiots
00:15:08.30\00:15:09.87
who just accept
what they're told
00:15:09.87\00:15:11.41
and never do any
real kind of thinking.
00:15:11.41\00:15:14.81
This is a childish
dismissive approach.
00:15:14.81\00:15:17.58
And one of the
big problems with this
00:15:17.58\00:15:19.88
is that it conveniently
ignores thousands of pages
00:15:19.88\00:15:23.25
of supplemental
material in the Bible
00:15:23.25\00:15:25.49
designed to help you understand
00:15:25.49\00:15:27.22
what those moral
commandments might mean
00:15:27.22\00:15:29.19
for your personal life.
00:15:29.19\00:15:31.33
The God that Hitchens describes
00:15:31.33\00:15:33.40
is some kind of
schoolyard bully who says,
00:15:33.40\00:15:35.60
look, you do
things my way or else.
00:15:35.60\00:15:38.00
But the thoughtful
people who have actually studied
00:15:39.47\00:15:41.27
the Bible for
thousands of years now
00:15:41.27\00:15:43.14
don't seem to come
to that same conclusion.
00:15:43.14\00:15:45.97
What they find is
that the Ten Commandments
00:15:45.97\00:15:48.88
and the moral
principles they describe
00:15:48.88\00:15:51.51
make absolute perfect sense.
00:15:51.51\00:15:54.78
Now, I understand that some
of you don't believe the Bible
00:15:54.78\00:15:57.69
as anything more than
another ancient document
00:15:57.69\00:16:00.06
full of fairy tales,
kind of like Hitchens did,
00:16:00.06\00:16:02.39
but at least if
you're gonna refute it,
00:16:03.49\00:16:05.23
be honest about it, and
deal with the entire text.
00:16:05.23\00:16:09.66
Either Mr. Hitchens had
serious lapses in memory
00:16:09.66\00:16:12.93
or he wasn't entirely honest.
00:16:12.93\00:16:16.64
Lemme give you an
example of his dishonesty.
00:16:16.64\00:16:19.64
At one point in
his book he goes after
00:16:19.64\00:16:21.54
the famous media
personality, Dennis Prager,
00:16:21.54\00:16:24.18
a practicing Jew
who apparently consented
00:16:24.18\00:16:26.85
to join Hitchens in a
debate just before 9/11.
00:16:26.85\00:16:30.45
And at one point
in their discussion,
00:16:30.45\00:16:32.32
Mr. Prager asked Hitchens a
really interesting question.
00:16:32.32\00:16:35.16
He said,
00:16:35.16\00:16:36.39
"Imagine that
you're in a strange city
00:16:36.39\00:16:37.83
"and it's getting dark outside,
00:16:37.83\00:16:39.56
"and you see a large
group of men approaching you."
00:16:39.56\00:16:42.53
The question Prager asked is,
00:16:42.53\00:16:44.73
"Would you feel
safer or less safe
00:16:44.73\00:16:47.34
"to learn that they were
coming from a Bible study?"
00:16:47.34\00:16:50.77
Now that was a decent
question because of course
00:16:50.77\00:16:53.78
most of us would probably
relax a bit knowing that
00:16:53.78\00:16:56.88
we were facing a Bible
study group in a dark alley.
00:16:56.88\00:17:00.58
And the reason this is an
important question is because
00:17:00.58\00:17:03.85
the effect that
belief has on people
00:17:03.85\00:17:06.65
and society is important.
00:17:06.65\00:17:09.06
It's one thing to
call religion poison
00:17:09.06\00:17:11.53
and condemn it like
Hitchens did suggesting
00:17:11.53\00:17:13.86
that the Bible has done
nothing but make society worse,
00:17:13.86\00:17:17.50
but it's quite
another thing to realize
00:17:17.50\00:17:19.33
that most of us
instinctively realize
00:17:19.33\00:17:21.34
that the opposite is true.
00:17:21.34\00:17:23.14
Of course, it's
good news to find out
00:17:23.14\00:17:25.54
that a menacing mob is
actually a Bible study group.
00:17:25.54\00:17:29.74
But what Hitchens did
when he wrote his book
00:17:29.74\00:17:33.21
was either
forgetful or dishonest.
00:17:33.21\00:17:35.35
He said, the
question he was asked was,
00:17:35.35\00:17:37.25
would you feel safer or
less safe if you were to learn
00:17:37.25\00:17:40.19
that they were just
coming from a prayer meeting?
00:17:40.19\00:17:43.53
That was not the question.
00:17:43.53\00:17:45.43
The question was Bible study.
00:17:45.43\00:17:47.13
And of course by
changing it into something else,
00:17:47.13\00:17:49.20
Hitchens managed to
dodge the question because,
00:17:49.20\00:17:51.80
of course, there are people
who pray to all kinds of gods
00:17:51.80\00:17:54.90
and then go out and
perform horrible deeds.
00:17:54.90\00:17:57.24
I mean, the group in
the alley could have been
00:17:57.24\00:17:59.71
a terrorist cell who had
just prayed to their vengeful
00:17:59.71\00:18:02.48
and violent god
which would be bad news.
00:18:02.48\00:18:06.72
Honestly, you find so much
of that kind of disingenuity
00:18:06.72\00:18:10.99
in Hitchens book
that it becomes hard
00:18:10.99\00:18:12.65
to take any of his
argument seriously.
00:18:12.65\00:18:15.22
But would you look at that,
the clock is running out on me,
00:18:15.22\00:18:17.79
and I gotta take
a break right now.
00:18:17.79\00:18:19.13
So hang in there
because in a moment
00:18:19.13\00:18:21.06
I'm gonna show you
why Christopher Hitchens
00:18:21.06\00:18:22.76
really, really doesn't
understand the subject.
00:18:22.76\00:18:26.43
[light music]
00:18:27.44\00:18:28.70
- [Announcer] Here at
the Voice of Prophecy,
00:18:28.70\00:18:30.17
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- So let's go back to
the Ten Commandments again
00:18:58.07\00:19:00.04
and see if they don't
make really good sense.
00:19:00.04\00:19:03.87
Remember George Hitchens,
00:19:03.87\00:19:05.57
oh, Christopher
Hitchens, not that names matter
00:19:05.57\00:19:08.61
referred to the
first three commandments
00:19:08.61\00:19:10.45
as prolonged
throat clearing by God
00:19:10.45\00:19:12.78
in order to make His
audience skip over them quickly.
00:19:12.78\00:19:15.82
It's not unlike
what a magician does
00:19:15.82\00:19:18.29
when he is trying to keep you
00:19:18.29\00:19:19.52
from seeing how
he does his trick.
00:19:19.52\00:19:21.36
He shows you
something shiny with one hand
00:19:21.36\00:19:23.66
while the other hand is
quietly making stuff disappear.
00:19:23.66\00:19:26.53
It's distraction.
00:19:26.53\00:19:28.06
So let's suppose for a moment
00:19:28.06\00:19:30.23
that the Creator God
of the Bible is real.
00:19:30.23\00:19:33.07
Now in the interest of full
disclosure I do believe that.
00:19:33.07\00:19:36.84
I think He's real,
00:19:36.84\00:19:38.11
which should be
pretty obvious to all of you.
00:19:38.11\00:19:40.24
And if you aren't a believer
00:19:40.24\00:19:41.51
just work with
me here for a moment
00:19:41.51\00:19:42.81
and let's
suppose that it's true.
00:19:42.81\00:19:45.28
The God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob is real,
00:19:45.28\00:19:47.58
and there is only one God.
00:19:47.58\00:19:50.05
Now let's
suppose that that Creator
00:19:50.05\00:19:52.49
is the source of all life,
00:19:52.49\00:19:53.89
the one who made the
universe in the first place
00:19:53.89\00:19:55.86
and the one who
continues to sustain it,
00:19:55.86\00:19:58.99
which is the
teaching of the Bible.
00:19:58.99\00:20:01.70
Now let's read those
first three commandments
00:20:01.70\00:20:04.03
from that perspective,
assuming those things.
00:20:04.03\00:20:07.00
You'll find them in
Exodus 20, where it says,
00:20:07.00\00:20:09.90
"And God spoke all
these words, saying,
00:20:09.90\00:20:12.44
"'I am the Lord you God,
00:20:12.44\00:20:13.94
"'who brought you
out of the land of Egypt,
00:20:13.94\00:20:15.64
"'out of the house of bondage.
00:20:15.64\00:20:17.58
"'You shall have no
other gods before me.
00:20:17.58\00:20:19.15
"'You shall not make
for yourself a carved image,
00:20:19.15\00:20:22.35
"'any likeness of anything
that is in heaven above,
00:20:22.35\00:20:24.95
"'or that is in
the earth beneath,
00:20:24.95\00:20:26.45
"'or that is in the
water under the earth;
00:20:26.45\00:20:28.82
"'you shall not bow
down to them nor serve them.
00:20:28.82\00:20:31.63
"'For I, the Lord your God,
00:20:31.63\00:20:33.29
"'am a jealous God visiting
the inequity of the fathers
00:20:33.29\00:20:36.63
"'upon the children to the
third and fourth generations
00:20:36.63\00:20:40.10
"'of those who hate me,
but showing mercy to thousands,
00:20:40.10\00:20:43.91
"'to those who love me
and keep my commandments.
00:20:43.91\00:20:46.41
"'You shall not take the name
of the Lord your God in vain,
00:20:47.91\00:20:49.78
"'for the Lord will
not hold him guiltless
00:20:49.78\00:20:52.11
"'who takes His name in vain.'"
00:20:52.11\00:20:55.15
Well, there you have them,
the first three commandments.
00:20:55.15\00:20:57.85
Number one, you shall
have no other gods before me.
00:20:57.85\00:21:01.56
Number two, you shall not make
for yourself a graven image.
00:21:01.56\00:21:05.09
And number three,
00:21:05.09\00:21:06.59
you shall not take the name
of the Lord your God in vain.
00:21:06.59\00:21:09.46
The question is this,
00:21:09.46\00:21:11.37
are those the
rantings of a petty deity
00:21:11.37\00:21:13.67
from Mount Olympus who has
to have things His own way,
00:21:13.67\00:21:17.17
or do they make good sense
00:21:17.17\00:21:18.67
when you place them in the
context of the entire Bible?
00:21:18.67\00:21:21.74
I mean, think about this,
00:21:22.91\00:21:24.71
let's suppose there
really is only one God
00:21:24.71\00:21:27.12
the way the Bible says,
00:21:27.12\00:21:28.92
that would mean
there are no other gods
00:21:28.92\00:21:31.02
and you're
completely wasting your time
00:21:31.02\00:21:32.82
by worshiping something else.
00:21:32.82\00:21:35.06
Nothing else in the universe
00:21:35.06\00:21:36.56
is the origin of your existence,
00:21:36.56\00:21:38.16
and you're going to be causing
yourself irreparable harm
00:21:38.16\00:21:40.90
by placing your
affections elsewhere.
00:21:40.90\00:21:43.70
The prophet Jeremiah expanded
on that thought by saying,
00:21:43.70\00:21:46.84
"The gods that have not
made the heavens and the earth
00:21:46.84\00:21:49.10
"shall perish from the earth
and from under these heavens."
00:21:49.10\00:21:52.84
If there is a loving God,
00:21:52.84\00:21:54.48
and He sees you placing your
hopes in all the wrong places,
00:21:54.48\00:21:57.88
what kind of God would He be
00:21:57.88\00:21:59.61
to not steer you back to
your best and highest good?
00:21:59.61\00:22:03.25
What kind of God
would let you harm yourself
00:22:03.25\00:22:06.05
and not say anything about it?
00:22:06.05\00:22:07.79
Let's take a look at
what the Bible actually says
00:22:09.22\00:22:10.69
about this one true
creator God and what He's like.
00:22:10.69\00:22:14.13
When Solomon dedicated
the second temple, he said,
00:22:14.13\00:22:17.63
"But will God
indeed dwell on the earth?
00:22:17.63\00:22:20.94
"Behold, heaven and
the heaven of heavens
00:22:20.94\00:22:22.64
"cannot contain you.
00:22:22.64\00:22:24.11
"How much less this
temple which I have built?"
00:22:24.11\00:22:27.54
In other words,
God is bigger than
00:22:27.54\00:22:29.31
we can possibly comprehend
with our finite human brains.
00:22:29.31\00:22:33.01
"For as the heavens
are higher than the earth,"
00:22:33.01\00:22:35.02
the Bible says,
00:22:35.02\00:22:36.18
"so are my ways
higher than your ways,
00:22:36.18\00:22:38.45
"and my thoughts
than your thoughts."
00:22:38.45\00:22:41.72
The Book of Genesis states
00:22:41.72\00:22:43.19
that you and I were
made in God's image,
00:22:43.19\00:22:45.83
but when we worship mere idols,
we remake in our own image.
00:22:45.83\00:22:50.83
We make God what
we want Him to be,
00:22:50.83\00:22:53.34
and we reduce Him to
something much smaller
00:22:53.34\00:22:56.10
than He really
is, which to be honest
00:22:56.10\00:22:58.74
is something else I find all
the way through Hitchens book.
00:22:58.74\00:23:01.44
He's forever setting up what
he thinks God should be like,
00:23:01.44\00:23:04.78
and then he condemns
God for not being that way.
00:23:04.78\00:23:08.38
If God is real and He's
as big as the Bible suggests,
00:23:08.38\00:23:12.32
it only makes sense that
we don't lose sight of that
00:23:12.32\00:23:15.19
and start boiling Him down
00:23:15.19\00:23:16.46
to some kind of
ridiculous caricature.
00:23:16.46\00:23:18.89
So the second
commandment makes sense too.
00:23:20.20\00:23:22.66
What about this idea
00:23:22.66\00:23:24.17
that we shouldn't be
taking God's name in vain?
00:23:24.17\00:23:26.87
Some people say this refers
00:23:26.87\00:23:28.14
to rough
language you're cussing,
00:23:28.14\00:23:30.01
and I guess in some
ways they might be right,
00:23:30.01\00:23:32.31
but the concept runs a
whole lot deeper than that.
00:23:32.31\00:23:35.64
In the biblical world
your name was significant,
00:23:35.64\00:23:38.05
it stood for your character,
00:23:38.05\00:23:40.28
and when it
talks about God's name,
00:23:40.28\00:23:42.28
it's talking about His essence,
His essential character.
00:23:42.28\00:23:46.49
What God does in the biblical
narrative is invite people
00:23:46.49\00:23:49.29
to take His name, to
enter into a covenant with Him,
00:23:49.29\00:23:52.99
almost like a bride
taking her husband's name.
00:23:52.99\00:23:56.33
But it's not
just an empty label,
00:23:56.33\00:23:58.87
what God is doing in
this covenant relationship
00:23:58.87\00:24:01.37
is asking us to reflect His
perfect character to the world.
00:24:01.37\00:24:05.71
So taking God's name in vain
00:24:05.71\00:24:07.78
means treating that
responsibility very lightly,
00:24:07.78\00:24:10.91
something that
Hitchens also complains about
00:24:10.91\00:24:13.48
when he points out
that Christians have behaved
00:24:13.48\00:24:15.78
abysmally over the centuries.
00:24:15.78\00:24:18.02
And he's right about that,
00:24:18.02\00:24:19.35
Christians have
been guilty of violence.
00:24:19.35\00:24:21.26
We have run torture chambers,
00:24:21.26\00:24:23.12
we've been involved
in countless financial
00:24:23.12\00:24:25.29
and sexual scandals and
the list goes on and on and on.
00:24:25.29\00:24:29.20
All of those would be examples
of taking God's name in vain.
00:24:29.20\00:24:33.17
We say we represent God,
00:24:33.17\00:24:34.77
and then we betray
God through our behavior.
00:24:34.77\00:24:37.64
And I guess what's ironic
about Hitchens complaining
00:24:37.64\00:24:40.24
about Christian bad behavior
00:24:40.24\00:24:42.31
is that he's
proving there's such a thing
00:24:42.31\00:24:43.95
as a violation of
the third commandment,
00:24:43.95\00:24:45.98
people who make a train
wreck out of God's reputation.
00:24:45.98\00:24:49.88
If God is a God of
love and He's perfectly just
00:24:51.09\00:24:54.16
and perfectly merciful
the way the Bible describes,
00:24:54.16\00:24:57.36
then it's
important for His followers
00:24:57.36\00:24:59.39
to show that to the world.
00:24:59.39\00:25:01.50
This commandment
makes absolute sense.
00:25:01.50\00:25:06.03
All right, I gotta
take one last break
00:25:06.03\00:25:08.57
and then I'll be
right back after this.
00:25:08.57\00:25:10.51
[light music]
00:25:13.24\00:25:14.64
- [Announcer] Are
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00:25:17.98\00:25:19.78
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Or is there any hope
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The Discover Bible
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[light music]
00:26:08.96\00:26:11.57
- Well, I'm out of time again,
00:26:13.57\00:26:14.80
but lemme just say
this one last thing,
00:26:14.80\00:26:16.50
because Hitchens attacks
the idea that sin can be visited
00:26:16.50\00:26:20.08
on the third and
fourth generation,
00:26:20.08\00:26:21.98
which is what the Bible says.
00:26:21.98\00:26:23.78
Hitchens
rightfully says that the idea
00:26:23.78\00:26:26.08
that I can be held accountable
for my father sins is wrong,
00:26:26.08\00:26:29.92
but what he never meant is
that the Bible agrees with him.
00:26:29.92\00:26:32.99
He just attacks the statement
in the Ten Commandments
00:26:32.99\00:26:35.26
and leaves you there,
00:26:35.26\00:26:36.66
but the Book of
Ezekiel plainly states,
00:26:36.66\00:26:38.76
"The son shall not bear
the guilt of the father."
00:26:38.76\00:26:43.03
So maybe Mr.
Hitchens, maybe context matters.
00:26:43.03\00:26:46.63
I think that most
of us can recognize
00:26:46.63\00:26:48.37
that our own bad choices,
00:26:48.37\00:26:49.97
even though we're
responsible for them
00:26:49.97\00:26:51.91
can have an
impact on our children.
00:26:51.91\00:26:54.74
I can see firsthand
how my own weaknesses
00:26:54.74\00:26:57.68
have added unnecessary
burdens to my children's lives.
00:26:57.68\00:27:02.05
I mean, look at the
train wreck of humanity
00:27:02.05\00:27:04.15
and tell me it isn't true.
00:27:04.15\00:27:05.55
If someone has a temper
00:27:05.55\00:27:06.96
or a substance abuse
problem, or an abusive home,
00:27:06.96\00:27:09.69
tell me that doesn't ripple down
00:27:09.69\00:27:11.23
through several generations.
00:27:11.23\00:27:13.26
Tell me that the
children of alcoholics
00:27:13.26\00:27:15.00
don't suffer because of
somebody else's choices.
00:27:15.00\00:27:17.77
Tell me that people
who were sexually abused
00:27:17.77\00:27:20.10
don't sometimes
develop a propensity
00:27:20.10\00:27:22.04
for doing it to somebody else.
00:27:22.04\00:27:23.94
You know, it's too bad that
Mr. Hitchens is gone because
00:27:23.94\00:27:27.31
I'd love to give him
the benefit of the doubt,
00:27:27.31\00:27:29.68
but from where I sit right now,
00:27:29.68\00:27:31.65
I'm giving him an F for honesty,
00:27:31.65\00:27:34.25
or I'd have to
assume given his claim
00:27:34.25\00:27:35.88
that he was some great
student of the Scriptures
00:27:35.88\00:27:38.35
that he was willfully blind.
00:27:38.35\00:27:41.26
So maybe another day we'll look
00:27:41.26\00:27:42.72
at the rest of the Ten
Commandments because honestly,
00:27:42.72\00:27:45.16
if God exists, then they
really do make perfect sense.
00:27:45.16\00:27:49.00
Meanwhile, I'd like you to
read the Bible for yourself
00:27:49.00\00:27:51.73
instead of going to
sloppy books that seem
00:27:51.73\00:27:53.70
to ignore absolutely everything.
00:27:53.70\00:27:56.24
This is where you'll find
out what the book really says.
00:27:56.24\00:27:59.41
Thanks for joining
me again this week.
00:27:59.41\00:28:01.38
I'm Shawn Boonstra and
this has been Authentic.
00:28:01.38\00:28:04.95
[uplifting music]
00:28:04.95\00:28:07.88