One of the reasons why I enjoy
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reading and studying the Bible
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is because in it I
find purpose in life.
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It guides me, it leads me,
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it is the light unto my path
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and I thank God not
because he found me--
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for He never lost me but
I-- but because I found Him.
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The Bible says that there is
a way that seems right to a man,
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but its end is the way of death.
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In other words my opinions
without any foundation of truth
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will lead me to destruction,
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but then there is another
way and that is Jesus Christ.
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He said, "I am the way,
the truth, and the life."
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God's desire for us is
to follow the way to life
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for there are few who find it.
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My name is Deyvy
Rodriguez and I welcome you
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to this program
"Books of the Book."
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And I'm so glad you've
decided to take this time
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to join us in this Bible study.
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And today we're starting
a new series of Bible study
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focusing on the Book of
John or the Gospel of John.
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And I'm so
pleased to have with us
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a brilliant scholar of the Bible
and that is Dr. Jon Paulien.
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Dr. Jon Paulien, welcome.
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Hello, it's good to be here
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and it's good to
be with you, Deyvy.
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We're gonna try to do
something pretty exciting here
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because the reality is that
Deyvy and I have only just met
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and that was just
before we came on the set
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that we met for the first time.
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And that means, well, he
have some idea of the script.
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I'm not quite sure
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of what exactly he knows
about the Gospel of John.
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I'm not quite sure what
questions he's gonna ask.
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And I think that's gonna
create some interesting--
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a little bit of
jeopardy here even.
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So looking forward to this
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we can talk about the
Gospel of John together,
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but since we're just
getting to know each other,
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Deyvy, tell me a
little bit about yourself.
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Where are you from?
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You know, what
brought you here to 3ABN?
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Yeah, well, you know,
originally I am from Mexico
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and I grew up in New Mexico
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which is of course another
state of the United States.
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And I have to
emphasize because--
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I have to emphasize that
because some people don't know
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that New Mexico is
actually another state.
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But the way I came to
3ABN is quite interesting.
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I was at one of
the GYC sessions or--
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oh not sessions or
conference meetings.
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In Houston, Texas that
was about maybe a year ago
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and I had recently
comeback from a three year
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missionary
journey in South Korea.
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I was in Seoul for three years.
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I was a Bible
teacher there in English
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and so after the
three years I came back
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and somehow at GYC,
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I made that
connection to work at 3ABN.
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Thankfully they saw
in me some kind of--
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I don't know, gift I
suppose, but they called me
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and I thank God
that I am here today.
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Did you grow up
speaking English?
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Or were you born in--
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how long were you in
Mexico and then moved to?
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You know, I was in
Mexico for six years,
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my first six
years and after that
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we then moved to
the United States.
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So at home Spanish is spoken
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and I began to pick
up English at school
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and I'm still
learning English as I go in.
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So I have to balance, you know,
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make sure I don't
forget my Spanish,
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but my parents don't
really speak English.
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So when I come home I
have to speak Spanish.
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Well, that's interesting
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because I grew up in
an immigrant home too.
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I was actually born in the
Upper East Side of Manhattan
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when it was poor.
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Today it's some
of the most expensive
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real estate in the world.
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And it was like a
sixth floor walkup apartment
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where I was born.
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And I grew up in New York
City but my parents were German
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and they spoke German at home
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and we went to a
German speaking church.
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So I grew up
hearing this other language
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but also learning the English
from my friends and so on.
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So I kind of had a similar
background to you in that way.
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Do you speak German now, still?
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I can do pretty well.
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If I go to Germany I've got
to be there three, four days.
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You know, the vocabulary
isn't there, the complexity.
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Three, four days
in, I'll start searching
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for English words to
say what I want to say.
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So I can do okay in
Germany after a week or so,
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but I don't use it everyday
as part of the language.
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Now what do you
currently do now?
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I know that you are a--
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you told me you were a
dean because like we said--
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like you said we
just met today. Yeah.
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And as a matter of
fact, we didn't even know what
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we were going to match clothes
here, we're wearing purple.
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Yeah, you did a good job.
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But you told me
that you are dean
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at the department of Religion
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at Loma Linda University
in Loma Linda, California.
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Tell us a little more of
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what are your duties
and responsibilities there?
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How long you've been there?
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I'm in charge of
the religion faculties.
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We called a school of religion
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and while we have
a few small programs,
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most of what we do is teaching
in all the other schools.
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It's the only institution
in all of North America
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where you have religion involved
in every program at every level.
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We are teaching
in bio-chemistry,
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we're teaching religion classes.
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medicine,
dentistry, pharmacy, nursing,
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you name it, physical therapy.
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This religion
interwoven because at Loma Linda
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we believe that
healthcare should be holistic,
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that we should deal
with the whole person that,
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that patients
want to talk about God
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and have spiritual
concerns and emotional concerns
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and so on when they are
in the hospital etcetera.
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So we teach healthcare in
the larger context of faith
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and the sort of
my job as to exactly
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how that's going to
work from the religion side.
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So I don't teach a
whole lot right now,
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I more of an administrator,
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but then I get to have
fun like this every so often.
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Okay, so every
student who is graduating
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will at least have gone through
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some kind of
religious courses. That's right.
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Concerning particularly
that the wholeness concept
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as a Seventh-day
Adventist Institution.
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Loma Linda University believes
that we're whole persons,
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not body and soul separated.
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And so your spiritual
life, your emotional life,
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your mental life,
all that's gonna effect
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whether you're healthy or sick.
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You know, your body is
deeply affected by how you feel,
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what you think and so
on by integrating all that,
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we think its better healthcare
and also a wonderful witness
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just despite its
very existence to people
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who might not
otherwise know of God.
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When they see a physician
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treating them with
respect and kindness
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and being willing to
offer prayer if they want that.
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So in a sense you are
preparing missionaries? Exactly.
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To go out into
the field and-- Yes.
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You could talk about
medical missionaries.
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In that they use the contacts
that they have with people
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to engage the whole
person and not just the body.
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You know, we're not
just treating bodies,
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we're treating people.
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When we get to John
5, there's a story there
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in which Jesus
heals a guys body,
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but doesn't heal the
spiritual and emotional side.
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And that creates a
dynamic in the story that will--
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I think be instructive for us,
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but that's for
later on in the series.
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Tell us a little
more about Loma Linda?
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I know that Loma Linda has
been in the news recently a lot.
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It's received a
lot of positive views
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on this particular
university or even community.
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Tell us more about Loma Linda?
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Well, thank you for asking that.
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It has recently been designated
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one of the five
blue zones in the world.
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And this is a-- an enclave,
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a small place where would
say a few thousand people each
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where the
people just live longer
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and are healthier
than anywhere else.
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That's what the blue zone is?
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Lot's of 100 year
olds things like that.
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And national
geographic did some research
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and found Okinawa,
I think it's--is it--
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Italy? Was it Italy?
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Yeah, that's-- is it Sicily?
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No, it said other one Corsica,
I think has one of these.
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Nicaragua has one.
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Just isolated
communities that live longer,
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Loma Linda is different.
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It's not an isolated community,
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it's in the middle
of greater Los Angeles.
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And in that bustling
urban western context
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there's a community
that lives 10 years longer
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and it's healthier than
the surrounding communities
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and people are starting
to notice what's going on.
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And that's because for
100 years we've been following
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the Seventh-day
Adventist lifestyle.
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And that includes
things like vegetarianism,
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lots of exercise,
fresh air, sunshine,
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all these natural
remedies, proper diet, etcetera.
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And so Newsweek
magazine recently published.
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If you want to
live 10 years longer
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become a Seventh-day Adventist.
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Now that wasn't us saying,
but they just discovered that
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hey, if you take it seriously,
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it can change
your life in this world
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not just for the
life to come. Amen.
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So they have-- the
Seventh-day Adventist have
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like a special message
if you want to live longer.
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But, you know, our
hearts are touched right now
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because we've
come to realize that
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one of the sickest communities
in the entire country
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is right next door
to us, San Bernardino.
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And there are people
have suffered in poverty
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and lack of good health care
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and lack of good
health habits and so on.
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And so we are
hoping to establish
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centers of
healing in San Bernardino
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and see if we can share
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some of the
blessings that we have. Amen.
00:09:53.10\00:09:55.93
But, Dr. Paulien, I
opened up the program
00:09:55.96\00:09:58.00
saying the reasons why I enjoy
reading and studying the Bible.
00:09:58.03\00:10:02.21
And like I said,
because in it I find a purpose,
00:10:02.24\00:10:05.22
you know, I find
direction in life.
00:10:05.25\00:10:07.78
And the reason I said this is
00:10:07.81\00:10:10.29
because before I
became a Christian,
00:10:10.32\00:10:13.06
and I want to say
committed Christian,
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I didn't read the Bible
00:10:16.20\00:10:18.39
and when I did
began to read the Bible,
00:10:18.42\00:10:22.05
I decided to read it--
read Ecclesiastes and Proverbs.
00:10:22.08\00:10:26.40
And the reason why I
chose Ecclesiastes and Proverbs
00:10:26.43\00:10:28.77
is because I believe that
00:10:28.80\00:10:30.17
there was not really
much religion in there.
00:10:30.20\00:10:32.29
And so I thought well, you know,
00:10:32.32\00:10:33.94
I'm pretty sure that I can gain
00:10:33.97\00:10:35.68
some kind of wisdom
in these wisdom books.
00:10:35.71\00:10:39.26
So I saw some many
practical lessons there.
00:10:39.29\00:10:43.61
But then as I began
to read more and more
00:10:43.64\00:10:46.22
then I went into more
of the theological side
00:10:46.25\00:10:49.02
and who is Jesus and salvation
00:10:49.05\00:10:51.44
and that's where
eventually will led me
00:10:51.47\00:10:53.66
to make that ultimate
decision to follow Jesus Christ.
00:10:53.69\00:10:57.49
So my question to you
is, why or what would be
00:10:57.52\00:11:02.00
your reason for
studying and reading the Bible?
00:11:02.03\00:11:05.69
You're a
scholar, you've written--
00:11:05.72\00:11:08.04
you told me you've
written several books
00:11:08.07\00:11:09.67
more than 20 or 25, 30 even.
00:11:09.70\00:11:12.30
Tell me what's
your joy in reading
00:11:12.33\00:11:15.06
or even studying the Bible?
00:11:15.09\00:11:17.08
What I think is
special about the Bible
00:11:17.11\00:11:19.20
and particularly
about the four gospels
00:11:19.23\00:11:22.09
is a tremendous story.
00:11:22.12\00:11:24.96
And the story is about a God
00:11:24.99\00:11:27.41
who wants desperately
to communicate with us.
00:11:27.44\00:11:30.83
And in order to communicate
He's tried visions and dreams
00:11:30.86\00:11:35.93
and different
ways to communicate,
00:11:35.96\00:11:38.86
but in the end God is out there
00:11:38.89\00:11:41.24
no one has seen
Him or touched Him.
00:11:41.27\00:11:43.75
And so it's very
hard for human beings
00:11:43.78\00:11:45.62
to really
understand what God is like.
00:11:45.65\00:11:47.94
And so God made a decision,
00:11:47.97\00:11:50.18
I'm going to come down
Myself and become human.
00:11:50.21\00:11:56.02
And I'm gonna walk among them,
00:11:56.05\00:11:58.28
live among them and
show them what God is like.
00:11:58.31\00:12:04.02
And so the story,
the big narrative,
00:12:04.05\00:12:06.97
the big narrative of the Bible
is that God loves us so much
00:12:07.00\00:12:11.28
that He was willing to
come down and live among us,
00:12:11.31\00:12:14.50
become one of us
so that we could see
00:12:14.53\00:12:16.96
in engaging with somebody,
00:12:16.99\00:12:18.55
human being of
flesh like ourselves
00:12:18.58\00:12:21.30
that we would understand
better what God is like.
00:12:21.33\00:12:24.65
I mean, God spoke
through the thunders of Sinai.
00:12:24.68\00:12:27.45
He spoke through the prophets.
00:12:27.48\00:12:29.24
He spoke through all
kinds of different events
00:12:29.27\00:12:32.69
in the course of history,
00:12:32.72\00:12:34.11
but to have God in
person was special.
00:12:34.14\00:12:36.65
And the four
gospels are accounting
00:12:36.68\00:12:40.16
the story of when God came down.
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So that plan of salvation
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we can find it in
the Bible? That's right.
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And in the four
gospels particularly
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is perhaps the clearest place
where this narrative of the God
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who comes down
has made real to us.
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Now in this series we're
studying the Gospel of John.
00:12:58.20\00:13:02.50
We have the Gospel of
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John.
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I've heard it say that there's
really is only one gospel.
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Why another gospel?
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Why couldn't we just do
with Matthew, Mark, and Luke?
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Why did-- whoever wrote--
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and we're gonna
talk about this later
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but the author why did he had
to come up with another gospel?
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Why are there four-- yeah.
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In other words,
what's the difference
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between the Gospel of John
than the other three gospels?
00:13:26.44\00:13:30.03
Well, I think the
bottom line is this
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that there are four
gospels in the Bible
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because God knew there are
lot of different kinds of people
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that different stories
attract different people.
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And so by having four
gospels there are at least
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four different ways you
can come to the story of Jesus
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and understand it for yourself.
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And so having four turns
out to be better than one.
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Some people might
like Matthew the best
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and other might like
Luke or John the best,
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but having the four
gives us more windows
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into what God is like.
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Now these four gospels do not or
do they contradict each other?
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Well, they do not
contradict each other
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in the sense that each of them
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is telling the story
from a particular perspective.
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Just like if you
have an auto accident
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and you have four witnesses
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they may each have a
different perspective
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where they're all seeing
a part of the story together
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you have an even
stronger window into the story.
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So where the gospels don't
seem to say the same thing,
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it's like four different
testimonies to that one story.
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Okay, well, we're gonna continue
00:14:36.46\00:14:38.77
and picking up on
this Gospel of John
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after we return
from this short break.
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