Participants: Chris Holland
Series Code: IIWC
Program Code: IIWC201505A
|
00:01 Philosophy's Achilles Heel A king's dream and the future
00:08 Philosophy's Achilles Heel A king's dream and the future 00:14 Philosophy's Achilles Heel A king's dream and the future 00:20 Philosophy's Achilles Heel A king's dream and the future 00:25 Philosophy's Achilles Heel A king's dream and the future 00:31 Philosophy's Achilles Heel A king's dream and the future 00:36 Philosophy's Achilles Heel A king's dream and the future 00:42 Philosophy's Achilles Heel A king's dream and the future 01:31 >>Announcer: It has stood the test of time. 01:35 God's book, The Bible 01:38 Still relevant in today's complex world 01:44 It Is Written 01:46 Sharing messages of hope around the world! 01:59 >>Chris: Each of the major world religions claims that their way is the only way. In 02:05 Canada, according to the 2011 national household survey, 39% identified themselves as Roman 02:12 Catholic, 27% as Protestant, 24% as claiming no religious affiliation, and the remaining 02:20 11% include Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Judaism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. 02:30 However, as we saw in a previous show, it's only the Old and New Testament 02:37 Scriptures that invite us to test the validity of their claim of authority and 02:43 inspiration. Isa 46:9-10 declares, 03:12 In addition in John14:29, Jesus states 03:29 Today we will continue our journey through the book of Daniel. We will continue to 03:35 test the Bible with the invitation to look at predictive prophecy and see if 03:40 this book really is what it claims to be. We will look at an ancient king's dream. That 03:47 ancient king was Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom Babylon all recorded in Daniel 03:54 chapter 2. However, before we launch into our study, there is a very important principle 04:01 we need to understand, that Nebuchadnezzar instinctively understood. As we come to 04:07 understand this principle, it will become much easier to distinguish whether religious 04:14 claims to authority and inspiration have a source higher than the imagination, 04:20 creativity and tradition of those who make the claims. 04:26 Nebuchadnezzar faced a problem. He had a dream, knew it was important, but couldn't 04:32 remember the dream and did not know what it meant. So, at one point in the story the king 04:38 expressed full confidence in the ability of his wise men, magicians, astrologers, 04:44 statesmen, and religious leaders. However, they were not able to help him and 04:51 miserably failed. But if we now fast forward to the end of the story of Daniel 2 before 04:58 we study the rest of the story, we will see this all important principle emerge in 05:06 verses 46 and 47 05:38 Remember, Nebuchadnezzar was Babylonian, he was not a Jew, yet in defiance of all 05:45 probability this pagan king acknowledges the God of heaven. Obviously, the king 05:54 had become convinced that Daniel's God is the true God After all of his Babylonian 06:02 cultural, scientific, and religious training, what could possibly have changed the 06:09 king's mind? As we study this chapter we will see how it is possible that Nebuchadnezzar's 06:17 mind was changed. In fact, our study today has two major objectives:The first is to 06:26 introduce the principle that convinced Nebuchadnezzar of the true God and the second is 06:34 to use that principle in order to provide definitive answers to the questions that many 06:41 have today about God. How does God choose to reveal Himself in a context where those who 06:48 worship Him claim contradictory things about Him? In other words, are these 06:53 contradictions just different paths to the true God or is one of them right and the 06:58 others wrong? How can the issue of the true God be settled? Similarly, postmodern 07:05 philosophy teaches that there is no absolute Truth, meaning that truth is subjective and 07:12 culturally derived. Thus, if there is such a thing as objective absolute Truth, then 07:21 is it possible to know it? 07:26 Some say that since men wrote the Bible, its contents are simply the productions of the 07:34 human beings who wrote it. However, the Bible actually teaches that God is the author 07:40 and the men who wrote it are His penmen. In light of this, how can we know that the 07:47 information that is in the Bible actually comes from a supernatural, rather than a 07:54 man-made source? There are many theories about a philosophy of history: 07:59 Marxist, evolutionary, Western Greek philosophy, Eastern philosophy, and Biblical. 08:08 Which one is correct and how do we know? 08:13 And finally, probably the most important question that can be asked,is God a personal being 08:19 that is deeply involved in the affairs of men or is He impersonal and disconnected? 08:28 So, in order to discover the principle that so mightily convinced king Nebuchadnezzar, 08:34 we need to first take a look at the dream, its interpretation, and its 08:38 fulfillment in history before we answer some of the questions that I just posed. 08:45 Let's now take a closer look at the king's dream and read the passage from Daniel 08:52 2:1-13. Let's read. 11:29 What a fascinating event! Truly amazing, in fact. I would like to make some 11:34 observations about this encounter between the king and the wise men before we get to 11:39 the dream itself. Now I suppose, for the sake of argument, that it might be 11:44 possible for someone to guess the entire contents of the dream. Yet, the probability of 11:52 that happening is beyond futile and absurd. Thus, any chance really becomes 11:59 impossible. So, if chance is ruled out, then there is no human solution to this enigma. 12:08 This contest would once and for all either vindicate or expose the claims of the 12:15 Babylonian wise men to be in touch with the gods and thus be superior to all other 12:21 religions. This test for all practical purposes would settle the question of whether 12:28 there was indeed a supernatural source to the claims made by the wise men of 12:36 Babylon. 12:40 What was the most important thing for the king to know? The most important thing that 12:46 the king needs to know, of course, is the interpretation of the dream. Yet, he realized 12:52 several things: Number one, the only way to get to the interpretation.is to know the 12:59 content of the actual dream. But he has a real problem here, he cannot recall the 13:04 dream. Second, which may seem overly obvious.he knows that the interpretation is based on 13:12 the content of the dream.So, quite simply put, no content, no interpretation. Third, just 13:21 because someone has the content, it doesn't mean that they have the correct 13:27 interpretation of the content. Later in Daniel chapter 4, king Nebuchadnezzar has 13:33 another dream, there he was able to recall the dream, howeverthe wise men could not 13:42 formulate an adequate interpretation. So here in Daniel 2, because he cannot 13:50 recall the dream, the only way in which he can make sure that he has the correct 13:54 interpretation of the dream is if the wise men are able to reveal to him the contents of 14:00 the dream and then the interpretation. By the wise men revealing the contents of 14:07 the dream to the king, it would be a confirmation that the Babylonian system of 14:11 religion is not just based on empty claims, but has truth to it. It would communicate that 14:19 the true God is revealed among them through the Babylonian system of religion. In 14:26 addition, the king based his decision on the fact of the highly improbable nature of 14:33 guessing the contents of the dream. The king knew that anyone who could accurately 14:38 tell him what he dreamed could also ensure that the interpretation is correct. 14:46 When the wise men complained about how difficult the king's request was, they were 14:53 actually confessing that they what they worshipped was a powerless and impotent god. 15:02 In this case, by giving the king a dream that no one could discover through any of the 15:10 ways in which human beings gain knowledge, God was seeking to make Himself known 15:17 to all in Babylon, most particularly King Nebuchadnezzar. 15:26 This brings us to the principle that God introduced and which the king applied to 15:32 the wise men of Babylon, and that is this: Events that have a high probability of 15:39 fulfillment strongly point to chance, guesswork and human ingenuity. However, on the 15:46 other hand, events that have an extremely low probability of fulfillment (such as trying 15:55 to guess the contents of the king's dream) strongly point to information that comes from 16:01 a divine source. This is the method that God used to introduce Himself in an 16:07 environment where many different kinds of people believed contradictory things 16:12 about Him. Let's now turn to the dream itself: After the wise men complained about the 16:19 difficulty of the test, the king gave the command to destroy all of the wise men of 16:24 the land. Daniel and his three friends were considered to be part of the group of wise men, 16:32 although they weren't a part of this initial interaction with the king. As the soldiers 16:39 carried out the king's command, they came to the home of Daniel. And he asked why 16:47 this was all happening so hastily. He requested audience with the king. There he 16:53 requested time to come up with the dream and it's interpretation. Next, Daniel 17:03 does something that might seem unnecessary. This is recorded in verses 17-19. 17:43 Daniel prayed. Here Daniel makes it very clear that he understood that understanding 17:52 this dream was not a matter of human devising or studying in some library. He understood 17:59 that there was only One source from which he could attain this information. So he 18:05 prayed, simply speaking, he spoke to God and asked for help. God did help. As a 18:15 matter of fact, when Daniel is ultimately ushered into the presence of the king, 18:22 Nebuchadnezzar asks him if he is able to make known to him the dream and its 18:28 interpretation. Verses 27-28 tell us what Daniel answered. 19:04 Notice what Daniel does here. Daniel did not attribute this knowledge to his own 19:09 brilliance attempting to attain to some higher position in Babylon. Daniel did not 19:16 bargain with the king because he had information the king wanted. No. Daniel attributes 19:23 the knowledge of the dream and it's interpretation to God alone. Daniel received a 19:32 divine revelation of God and now he was going to share that information with 19:38 Nebuchadnezzar. And although Daniel was about to unravel the mystery of the dream and 19:45 its interpretation to the king for his time, I want you to notice that just as Daniel 19:52 spoke to the king some 2600 years ago, he is also speaking directly to us in the 21st 20:02 century. Why do I say that? Because the focal point of the dream is, as it states, that 20:09 it is concerned with what will happen in the latter days. The latter days.time after Daniel 20:19 and Nebuchadnezzar. It has significance for us. For you and for me because we are 20:28 living in the latter days. In addition, this dream has significance for us because 20:35 the method that the Lord used to reveal Himself in an environment in which people 20:42 believed contradictory things about Him. That method works, not only in ancient Babylon 20:49 but also now in the 21st century. And so, Daniel began to describe the contents of 21:00 the dream to the king in verse 31-35, 22:06 A metal man of varying values and strengths, a stone cut without hands.what does it all 22:13 mean? Well, we are out of time this week. Next week we will look at the interpretation of 22:21 the dream and and its remarkable fulfillment in history. My dear friend you 22:28 won't want to miss next week's show, we will see in this remarkable turn of events the 22:35 principle emerge and be confirmed that those things that have an extremely low 22:43 probability of fulfillment strongly points to the information coming from a 22:48 divine source. And as we study, we will see the fulfillment of Isaiah 46:9-10 22:56 and God passing the test. And with each passed test, we will be able to answer those all 23:06 important questions about the meaning of life. 23:14 Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Bible, we thank you for king Nebuchadnezzar's 23:18 dream and we thank you that you want us to know that you are God. We pray this in Jesus 23:26 name, Amen. 23:58 >>Bev: Hi, everyone. If you're like me, you like a nice, hot soup sometimes. It's soothing, 24:03 it's comforting, it's yummy. Well, usually, we boil our soups on the stove. But how 24:10 about a raw, living soup? I've got a really great recipe for you adapted from one that I 24:17 learned at the Living Lights Culinary Institute where I was at school to learn to become a 24:23 raw chef. And this one is really, really good for you. Let me tell you all about it. 24:28 Starting off with some kale. Kale is fantastic for you. It's a dark, leafy green just 24:35 full of all kinds of good nutrition. So I'm putting in about a cup and a half of kale 24:41 into my Vitamix blender here. And I'm using the Vitamix blender today because it's a 24:47 high-speed blender. It's going to get this all nice and smooth. If you don't have one 24:52 of these, though, you can use your regular blender and just make sure you blend it a 24:56 little bit longer to make sure that you're getting a nice, smooth soup, unless you want 25:01 it chunky, that's okay too. But today, we're using the Vitamix. So we've got the 25:05 kale in there. I'm going to add apple, about half of an apple. It's cored, the seed is 25:13 out there. And that's just going to add a nice little bit of texture as well as a little 25:18 bit of sweetness. Then I'm going to add half of an orange. This is also for some 25:23 sweetness. It's going to take the edge off the kale because kale is bitter. Adding about 25:29 three-quarters of a cup of water into this. We'll let that get to the bottom there 25:34 to make it easier for everything to blend up together. Cilantro. A lot of 25:40 people don't like cilantro, but it is so good for you. And one of its properties is that 25:45 it will bind with heavy metals in your body and just kind of usher them out of your system. 25:51 So cilantro is a really good thing to have in your diet. Just a little bit of salt 25:56 here. You could use something like a light miso in that soup, and that would give it a 26:02 nice kind of, mm, the word is umami, and that means an earthy kind of feel or taste 26:08 to the soup. But today, we're just going to use a little bit of salt. We're going to use a 26:13 little bit of lemon juice because that's going to just give it a little bit of a tang 26:17 and brighten it. So just about a tablespoon there, a half a tablespoon. Next, jalapeño. 26:27 We're going to kick this up a notch. So just about a half of a small jalapeño. And we've 26:32 got some garlic. Garlic is fantastic for your health. Now, we're going to blend all 26:38 of this together. I do have one more ingredient which is avocado, but we don't want to 26:45 add that too soon because it's going to turn frothy. So we're going to blend everything 26:47 else, then we're going to add the avocado at the end. And we're going to have a lovely 26:52 garden blend soup. Here we go. Beautiful. So now I'm going to add the avocado. And you 27:17 saw me kind of feel the vessel there for a minute. I wanted to make sure that it wasn't 27:21 heating up because we don't want to heat this soup. This is a raw, living soup. So we 27:25 don't want it to get hot. So now I'm going to add the avocado. This is going to add 27:30 a nice, silky creaminess to it along with some good fats. And we're going to blend it just a 27:36 little bit. And then we'll have our beautiful garden soup. And that's all we need 27:55 to do. It's a gorgeous green colour. And I'm going to just put it in this nice little 28:02 bowl here. Ooh, look at that green. There you go. A garden blend soup. If you wanted to 28:14 warm this up a little bit, you could put it on the stove and just warm it very slightly. 28:18 You don't want to heat this because you don't want to kill all the natural enzymes that 28:23 are in these natural ingredients. So you want to just keep it to a nice little 28:27 warmth, not any kind of heat. And there you have it: nutritious, yummy, totally 28:34 good for you. I'll see you next time. 28:43 >>Chris: Dear friends I want to offer you today the "Focus on Prophecy" lessons which 28:47 will give you the opportunity to study more of predictive prophecy. Here is the 28:52 information you need for today's offer. 29:46 >>Chris: Friends, thank you so much for watching. Make sure you plan to join us next week 29:50 for the interpretation of the dream. Until then remember, It Is Written, man shall not live 29:57 by bread alone, but be every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. 30:04 $$$$$$$$$$$$$ |
Revised 2015-10-30