Ep 016 || Something You Can Build Your Life On

All right y'all what's up pando family excited to be here with you today again happy new year was this our second year excited to be on here with you today truly my name is Derek this is Brandon we are on our online ministry team our SE online team here at Southeast Christian Church and today we are going to be talking about week one of a sermon series we're calling here at Southeast called planted and so Brandon people that are watching this right now on pando they would have heard from Pastor Kyle, Kyle Iman on the pando app watching the worship service and kind of this this two-week sermon series it's called planted and the first week is called deep roots and around this idea of you know can the Bible be trusted which is a fair question yeah it's important question it's an important question right I think for a lot of us maybe for the first time maybe you're considering that question of like hey can the Bible be trusted and so I'm excited about this podcast today because I think we're gonna get into a lot of questions that maybe people have and I know that you know I've had questions like this at different points where I've gone and done some research of you know what what do these things mean and what what are the answers to them and so we're gonna navigate through that but Brandon when we think about the Bible a question someone might be asking is what do we consider to be the Bible what is it yeah so I think Kyle really hit it this well towards the beginning of his message on on Sunday is you know we often refer to the Bible as a book and and that's fair because for us it comes as as a complete book as as one unit but in reality the Bible is really a collection of 66 books there are 39 books in the Old Testament 27 books in the New Testament and I think my math is right there I took Bible college math I don't know uh but you know 66 books uh individual books in the Bible and it is this collection of you know what I think we would refer to as as sacred holy literature like these are this is the the record and the story of you know God's interaction uh with humankind kind of the the core of what we need to know in terms of this is how God sees us this is what God has done for us this is how he has acted within our history uh to bring us back to himself as as we understand you know the the Christian story so it is a a collection of books of of literature some of it is history uh there's a lot of that in the in the Old Testament and one book of history in the the New Testament the book of Acts as as we see the you know the story of the early church so we read uh historical records of things that have happened there are books of prophecy uh in the Old Testament books that tell us you know these are some of uh the prophetic things that that you

know they could look forward to when they were writing them some of the things we can look forward to in our day you know if you open up you know the book of Daniel or even the book of Revelation you see there's there's prophetic literature about things that are to come there are gospels the first four books of the New Testament tell us specifically uh the stories of Jesus uh there's poetry in the Old Testament uh the book of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs are very uh thick and dense in Hebrew poetry even some of the prophets uh have poetry in them like Isaiah and Jeremiah I believe in particular are filled with with poetry uh and then you have in the New Testament a collection of letters uh you know the letters that Paul wrote uh the letters of you know Jude, 1st, 2nd Peter, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, Hebrews, James these these epistles written to the early church that were setting up how they're supposed to practice their faith what they're supposed to believe about who Jesus is and what he has done so you know the the Bible is I mean it's a little bit unfair really to refer to it as one book because it is so varied there's so many things going on within it there's so many types of literature within it so many different authors represented on its pages it's it's written I think it's somewhere within the range of about it's written over the course of 2,000 years basically okay uh you know the latest uh the latest New Testament book we have is probably the book of Revelation which was uh I think scholars date around 90 uh AD and uh some of the books of the Old Testament date back to you know like a thousand uh BC so there's there's a very large range of um of time that's covered over the course of these stories so um you know it's it's an incredible book when you start to I mean it's incredible just to look at as one piece but once you start to really break down the pieces and Understand this is what comprises what we know is the Bible. It's it's it's incredible. So you'd mentioned a little bit about Like some parts of the Bible are historical like some are prophecy like why? You know because as I've read through the Bible like you can tell like some of it's a little bit different you read through Psalms like even just the way that it's formatted on the page is different than if like you're reading the Gospel of John Like why is it important for us to know like what type of? Like the different types of writing that's in there. Yeah, I think that's important because you know, we recognize that Different sorts of literature get handled in a different way, right? Like even in in how we teach it and how we teach children to interact with it You know you think about going back to school thinking about some of those things when when you studied poetry

It's way different than when you study like prose when you study a nonfiction book versus a fictional book It's like you don't read my kids have in the past year They really been reading the Hunger Games books like you don't read a book like that and be like, oh, well This is history this happened. Like, you know, I don't know. This is this is fictional. This is a Story that may have lessons for us, but it's not something that really happened and and when we look at The different sorts of literature in the Bible. I think it helps us to know exactly Knowing the type of literature helps us know exactly how we ought to read it You know, like when we read the Psalms, we should understand like hey, there's some poetic language in there There are some things that we need to look at and see Not just what it says But like what is the emotion being conveyed or what is the the feeling or the connection with God that's being said? Being made there when we read something like, you know, first second Samuel for a second Kings first second Chronicles We should look at that as history and be like, okay, this is a reliable indicator. So talk about like King David Samuel Yeah, yeah like you get you get an idea of okay, this is what the kingdom of Israel was like this is how history actually happened in those moments when we read things like Revelation we should look at it and recognize like hey These are these this does describe events that are going to happen But it's written in a more poetic prophetic form in the idea that hey, maybe this, you know This great beast that rises up from the sea. Well, it's probably not Something like Godzilla, you know coming about of the sea It's something like an imagery of this is this sort of evil that we can expect in the end times So I think we want to know and unpack those different sorts of literature So we understand not only what we're reading but understand what we're supposed to take away from it for sure Yeah, cuz there's so much context. Yes, like that's part of the context right whether you're reading historical You know literary form of that where like, you know, you're wanting to understand like what are some of the things going on in that culture? Yeah, and and it even you know There's a little bit of a of a variation even between some of the specific Types because as you read I'm thinking right now of the Gospels, right? Like if you read the Gospel of Mark, well Mark is very concerned with what happened These are the things Jesus did Jesus did this and Jesus did this and Jesus did this and the Gospel of John is more

Concerned with what it means like he describes some of the things that Jesus does But he he often describes the ministry of Jesus more in terms of conversation and more in terms of hey This is this is Jesus teaching and talking to his disciples. So so even um, even in some of those, you know Broad categories we can look and see well the writers had different concerns like mark mark just wants to record Hey, these are the things that Jesus did so, you know, and John wants to step back and say hey when Jesus said He was the light of the world. This is what he was talking about. That's good So I want to since you brought up the Gospels You know and some of those guys are there's Matthew Mark Luke or John Leads us in a little bit to the next question that I feel like people have a lot is you know I think a common question I hear is that Who wrote this, you know, like they're like, okay, like, you know what? It's it's 66 books put together and there's different names, right? Some people think you know, they wrote this thing another person thinks they wrote that thing But I also heard that God wrote it like trying to put all that together. Yeah, who wrote it who wrote the Bible? Yeah, so there there are two levels on which we can answer this question. So let's let's start with the actual Kind of physical writers of it like who wrote this text? Well, you know the Old Testament is a little bit harder to get into just because it is so much more varied I think than the New Testament. So this kind of a broad statement with the Old Testament is a lot of times the the Authors of the Old Testament were handed down to us more by tradition like, you know We we believe Moses wrote the first five books of the Old Testament the Pentateuch and that's kind of what was that word? Pentateuch the five books the first five. Yeah, and then you know But obviously, he didn't write continuing past that because at the end of Deuteronomy, Moses dies. So along the way, different people kind of picked up the pen to tell the story. And we don't always have a firm view on some of who wrote the book, but a lot of times, especially with the prophets, you can look at the prophets and think,

okay, well, the prophet whose name is on this is the one who wrote it. He had the record of what he received from God. Now, in terms of the New Testament, one of the criteria for including something in the canon of the Bible, including it in the Bible, was, is this book written by an apostle? Does it have apostolic authority? And what that question is about is, was it written by someone who was an eyewitness of Jesus? Was it written by someone who was there when it happened? Was it written by someone who knew what they were talking about? And a little more broadly, the question is, is it written by an apostle, or is it written by a known associate of an apostle? Like, is this someone we know from historical documents that we know from the history of the church interacted with that disciple? So, for example, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew was an apostle. He was, you know, Matthew the tax collector, also known as Levi, one of the 12. Mark was not one of the 12. It's written by a guy by the name of John Mark. But what we believe about John Mark, and what church history tells us, is that John Mark was a traveling companion of Paul, but also a traveling companion of Peter. Okay.

And it's largely- So a lot of connections. Yeah, a lot of connections there. And it's largely believed, actually, that Mark is Peter's recollection of the gospel. And if you read the gospel of Mark through that lens, it makes a whole lot of sense. Because what we know about Peter is that he was very impetuous. He was very to the point. He was very direct. And the gospel of Mark is all about, well, then this, and then this, and then this. And it's like, well, that sounds a lot, like what we know about him. Luke, not an apostle, but he was a known traveling companion for the book of Acts. He was a known traveling companion of Paul. And so his gospel is a little bit different in that it's the gospel kind of interpreted through Paul's preaching. But also, Luke makes the qualification at the beginning of his gospel, I went and investigated these things. Like I talked to eyewitnesses. I wanted to make an orderly account of the gospel. So Luke has talked to the eyewitnesses. The gospel of John is written by the apostle John, one of the 12. He refers to himself throughout the gospel

as Jesus's beloved disciple. How kind of him. Throw in shade. I get like, well, he loves me, guys. I wanna make sure we had record of that. Yes, yeah, yeah. So, and he's also, oddly enough, I think he's the one who, when Peter and John are racing to the tomb on Easter morning, he's like, well, John got there first. Like he was way quicker. At any rate, so John wrote that as a record. He also, to look at the apostle John too, he wrote first, second, third John, these letters towards the end of the New Testament. He also is considered to be the author of the revelation of John that's written at the end of the Bible. So you have the gospel witness of these men, these apostolic authority. You get to the letters of Paul, he's considered an apostle because not only his Damascus Road conversion in Acts chapter nine, but he was a member of kind of the Jewish ruling authority. He would have been in Jerusalem during Jesus's ministry. So, I mean, he definitely would have known of these things. So he writes a bulk of the letters in the New Testament. Then you get to like James and Jude who were both half brothers of Jesus.

So they have the authority to write about the things they write about. You have the letters of first, second Peter, written by Peter. The only kind of question mark in the New Testament is Hebrews, like who exactly wrote that. And it's traditionally held to be, you know, Paul, I don't know that Paul necessarily wrote the words down. If anything, it could reflect like a Pauline sermon. Like, you know, this is a record of Paul's preaching because Hebrews is very sermon-like, but regardless, regardless of what it is, who wrote it, like all of the books we looked at and said, are these things that are written by apostles or people who were known to be associates of apostles? Do they have the authority of people who would have seen what happened and know what it meant? And that's, you know, that's the physical side of that. Going back to the spiritual side of it. Right, yeah, so you said, I noticed that you said like these are maybe the physical writers. Okay, so what's the second side of this? So one of the claims that scripture makes for itself is that it is not just of human origin, that it is written and inspired by what God wants us to know, what he wants us to hear. Second Timothy 3, 16 tells us all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness.

That it is the very breath and words of God is what we're hearing when we look at an open scripture. In 2 Peter 20-21, Peter says, above all, you must realize that no prophecy in scripture ever came from the prophet's own understanding or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit and they spoke from God. And so, what's interesting about that is when Peter writes that specifically, he's not talking about the New Testament because it doesn't exist yet as we know it. The letters are all there. He's looking back at the Old Testament and saying like, no, all these things were written not of the prophet's initiative, but by God's initiative. These are the things he wants us to know. And so, I think both of these passages apply to both New and Old Testament alike is telling us like, hey, these things can be trusted. These things are inspired. These things are the very breath and the words and the knowledge of God, of what he wants us to know, who he would have us to be. And we should listen to them, not just because we know that, I mean, the eyewitness testimony is good enough on its own, but to look and say, no, this is God was working through the pens as these people put pen to parchment and wrote the letters down. Sure, so when we hear that phrase

that scripture is God-inspired, that when we talk, literally think of that phrase, the word in God's word, right? That's what we mean by that, is that even though people wrote this, we believe that God is in control fully of what we have in those 66 books. Yes. So you've talked about a lot of times, especially in the New Testament, it needed to be somebody that was an apostle themselves or someone that was a close associate or eyewitness of what was happening at that time. And I think that's really important, right? Like we see that a lot. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of that word eyewitness is I think of like cases you hear about on TV of making sure like, hey, I was an eyewitness to this or the police asked for an eyewitness to that because that's credible in court because they saw it with their own eye. So that makes sense to me. But who were the people that were the ones responsible for saying, no, like it makes sense that this person was an eyewitness and it makes sense that like this book or this letter should be in what we would call the Bible. Like who were those people that decided that? Yeah, so that is a multi-layered question.

And again, there's kind of a two-part answer to it because there is a very specific historical moment where we look and say, well, this is the canon. But the story of that starts even before there. So we'll start with a short answer and then kind of work backwards. So the canonization of the New Testament, and this largely goes for the Old Testament. It happened years and years before. It's the same sort of process. So just kind of hang with me here. Is the canonization, assigning the books in the New Testament, that happened actually in 393 AD. So just around 400 AD, it's called the Council of, I'm sorry, the Synod of Hippo, the Synod of Hippo. The church leaders gather together and they try to formalize what books are going to be considered canon, which books are going to be decided, authoritative. And the first question they ask themselves when they do that is what we've talked about, is does it have apostolic authority? Has it been written by an apostle or an associate of an apostle? But the second thing they ask themselves is does it conform to the rule of faith? Like, does this make sense with the faith as we practice it? Like, does this, and you think you've had 300 years of doctrine, of theology buildup.

Like, does this work with what we've understood, the faith that's been handed down to us? But, and you could look at that and say, well, that could be a troublesome question, right? Like, okay, maybe you're just interpreting it through your own lens then. Maybe you're looking at it through that lens. The third question they ask to kind of back that up is does this have continuous usage and acceptance? Is this a book that the church has looked at and accepted from its very earliest days? Like, if we go back and we look at the writings of the first church fathers, do they see this book as authoritative? And so, can I pause you there for a second? Yeah. Like, where are we at geography-wise in the world? Like, where is this going on that people, like, just generally that this is happening at? I think in this point in time, we're still, I'm trying to think where, that's a good question. That's okay. No, I think we're still, like, the church is very, still towards the Middle East and Africa. Okay. If I believe, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So this, okay, so Christianity is growing. Yeah, it's growing. But it's still kind of located in that part of the world. Yeah, you still have some, like, Greek and Roman influence

because the church is growing. Like, at this point in time, the Emperor Constantinople, he converted to Christianity about a century before. So, like, the church is still kind of spread throughout the Greek Empire. Right. So, at any rate. So they look back and they start thinking about, well, what, you know, are these books, do they have continuous acceptance? Has the church always looked at these books as being valid records of, you know, the story of Jesus, the story of the church? And that's a good question because in the 300 years, you know, since Jesus walked the earth, other books had started to creep up. Like, you know, books had started to be written in like the 100 and 200 ADs of trying to be this alternate record of the gospel. Like you get things like the gospel of Thomas and things like that, that show up. So they try to go back and be like, well, what is the earliest record of this? When did this book actually come into fruition? When can we quote it? And the remarkable thing about this test is how right they got it. When you look at it, you look back and you think, well, there's no way they could have known, but they knew because they kept all the writings of the apostolic fathers. They knew all of this. So one of the things that I always think is so interesting, and I wrote this quote down, is that when they look back to see if the early church fathers quoted these books, the early church fathers quoted the 27 books of the New Testament so much. They quoted them so much that all but 11 verses of the New Testament can be found in their writings. So if we lost the New Testament and only had the early church fathers, we could piece together the New Testament as it is. And this was only 300 years later. So they look at all of these books and they see these are the ones that were the most often used by the earliest Christians and they're able to put them together. And again, like I said, the latest dated book of the New Testament by most scholars, they'll date the book of Revelation to about 90 AD. And you think about Jesus was crucified in either like 31 to 33 AD. So within 60 years of the events actually happening, these letters, they were all written, they were all together, they were all there. And some would even date Revelation around 70 AD. So we're talking about within the first generation, these were the stories, these were the records, these were the books that the church considered

to be genuine, and they exist for us today. Well, I find that unbelievable because even as a country, you know, we're what, 250 some years old, something like that, like, and still the amount of influence that is still tangibly here from even the founding fathers of our country, right? Not to relate, you know, America to Christianity, but just thinking about like, even the documents that we still have, like from, gosh, the birth of our nation, I can only imagine like just how much influence in that culture that all of those stories and writings would have had and how much people then in the church would have held those in high regard. Yeah, absolutely. So, and that's what I mean when I say that it's a, you know, it's a multifaceted answer there, because it is true that the canon was not formalized until 393, but it's also true that these were the 27 books that we always looked at as valid, right, that were always viewed by the church as being valuable and essential to the theology and the doctrine of the Jesus movement. I love that. And so I've kind of talked through like, what is the Bible? Who wrote it? Who were those people? What does that mean that it was... Like, what does it mean for it to be God's word? We talked about like, who decided why the book... So you use that word, was it canonized? Yeah, canonized. Canonized to put it into a canon to put it into... It sounds like you're going to war. You put it together, like we talked about that. You know, but one of the phrases that I've heard a lot when studying this is that this phrase of like, copies of copies of copies of copies, right? And so that brings up my next question is, how do we know, like what we... It's like, you have your Bible right there. Like, how do we know that what is exactly written there is the same thing that those people would have read within 60 years of Jesus' death, all the way to now? Like, how do we know? Well, actually I'll... So you just make me think, well, we don't because this is English, and they would have looked at it and been like, I don't know what this says, man. Yes, that's a good point. I know what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they did not speak English back then. Yeah, but that's a good question. So we'll get into that as we talk about it. So

the copies upon copies upon copies thing sounds like, oh, that should be really detrimental, right, to our case. But that's actually the strongest evidence we have, is because we have so many copies of it. We can look at it and be like, hey, did this change? Did people alter anything? Did they change things as it went along? You know, Kyle used the imagery that's often used, like a game of telephone. Well, like you know how you know how the thing changes? You go back and you look at the piece of paper that the message... was written on. Now, we don't have any of the originals. The originals are called autographs. Like we, as far as we know, we don't have any of those autographs. We don't have, as Paul actually wrote it. But there are so many copies in so many different places across the globe that we look at that and we can see, oh, this did not change. Like if you find a manuscript in the Middle East and then you find a manuscript, you know, in ancient Greece or ancient, you know, Rome, Italy, and they're the same thing, you're like, oh, well, this comes from a manuscript tradition. They are reflecting the same thing. And there are variations in the manuscript. That's absolutely true. But so many of the variations in the manuscripts are because of copyist errors. And we know this. Like if you're copying a quote, if you've ever been typing something on your computer, sometimes you write a word twice.

Sometimes you have a typo. But the fact that we have copies upon copies upon copies allows us to go back and see like, oh, well, that's the typo. That's the mistake. That's a double word. That shouldn't be there. And, you know, there are some variations in the text, but most, I shouldn't say most, none of those have anything to do with anything, like no doctrine of Christianity is at risk because of any of the variations. Like they're all there. Why is that important, what you just said? Yeah, well, because- So you said basically the doctrine of Christianity as it pertains to copies is not in question. Right, right. Why is that important? Because even with the variations in manuscript, the message still stays the same, right? The meaning still is the same, you know? Yeah, it'd be like getting a note from your spouse or whatever. Like, you know, the first one says, I love you. And the second one says, I, I love, love you, you. And you're like, well, this doesn't say the same thing. Yeah, it does. Like you can figure it out, right? And that's kind of what I'm saying there

is that there are manuscript differences, but they don't change anything. The meaning is always in the same. And in those rare occasions, there are a couple, like John 8 comes to mind, there are a couple where one manuscript tradition doesn't have something and another manuscript tradition does. Our translations are so good now that they notate those things for us. That if you, you know, you'll see the footnotes there at the bottom. If you're looking at your Bible, you'll see the footnote there and it'll say, hey, manuscripts differ on this. It'll let you know. And so, you know, the process of translating those manuscripts into our language and making them understandable for us is so transparent that they just show us like, hey, this is something that could make a difference or maybe a sentence that isn't there. But yeah, of all of the discrepancies, of all of the, excuse me, different copyist errors, there is no doctrine of Christianity that is changed. It's all largely, you know, just copyist errors, repeated words, misspellings, things like that. And the fact of the matter is, Kyle talked about this on Sunday too, that if you go back and you compare

the number of manuscripts we have of the Bible to the number of manuscripts we have of other ancient literature, it's not even close. You know, like Kyle talked about the Iliad, Homer's Iliad. We have 643, I think, manuscript copies of that that we can look at. When you get to the New Testament, there are over 24,000. Whoa! Yeah, so like it's not even close. There are so many fragments and copies and manuscripts of these texts that we are, like we can be certain that there's nothing that's been changed, that what we have is what the church has always had. That's good. And so, you know, I think any of us, you know, it doesn't matter whether you're watching on Pando right now or Brandon, we're sitting here at the desk, like at the end of the day, we all have a choice to make of like, okay, you guys are saying this is God's word, you're saying that there's a ton of historical evidence, even more, you know, apparently than, you know, some other historical figures that we would say is fact. Like, you know, we see these things, we believe these things, but why is it important that someone should spend their time in their entire lives reading and trying to understand scripture, especially when there are sermons, like for example, like people can watch sermons on Pando, people can watch our worship service, our sermons on Pando, they can listen to this podcast,

there's a lot of other resources. But why does scripture stand out above any of those other things? That's a good question. And I'm gonna use an image that's maybe a little bit disgusting. Okay. But I think it's so important for us to go back to scripture and not like sermons and podcasts and stuff. Like I love those things, I listen to them all the time. But I think it's so important for us to go back to scripture so that we're chewing our own food. Sure, yeah. Right? Like I don't. Like if I get a steak, I'm not like, hey, I want somebody to chew this up and then spit it out so I can eat it, make it easier to swallow. Like when we go back to scripture, we're going back and getting the meal for ourself. Like we're going back to see like, this is what God has for me in this text. This is what he does for me. Now listen, like scriptures and podcasts, they're absolutely invaluable in terms of helping us understand things, right? Because there's sometimes you'll get in this book and you'll be like, man, I don't understand the context. I don't understand the culture. I don't know what's going on.

Because I mean, think about it. This book was not only written, you know, 2000 years ago, which is completely different culture. It was written on the other side of the world for most of us. So like cultural, temporal differences, they're a thing. So sermons and podcasts are important, but I think there's an element of like, we have to go and we have to chew the food for ourself. We have to get in there and we have to find the milk or the meat as scripture calls itself. We have to find that for ourselves. I think there's also a difference in maybe a less gross image. We would all recognize, I think, that there's a difference between getting like a letter from a loved one and seeing that person face to face. Gotcha. Right? We would all recognize that. And like letters are good and they let you know someone's thinking about you and they made an effort, but seeing that person face to face, there is no competition for that. And I think sermons and podcasts are like a good letter. They remind us of the truth. And getting back into the word is face to face. Like I'm gonna go meet God there in his pages. I'm gonna see what he has for me. And I'm gonna let the spirit do that work in my heart.

That's allowing me to see what he has for me today. I love that. And so Brandon, as we kind of go towards concluding this today, any final thoughts on things that maybe it's a fact, maybe it's something that you're like, man, here's one or two, maybe even three things that you're like, this is something that I have to say about scripture that I feel like is important to note before we walk out of here. I mean, I think that, you know, the testimony of what scripture has done over the years is probably the most incredible piece of evidence for its truth, right? You think about the lives that have been changed because of the truths of this book. You think about like the cultures that have been changed. I mean, we take for granted so much, I think, how much the Bible has influenced our culture. Like if we could time travel back to pre-Christian Rome, we wouldn't understand it. We wouldn't understand the culture. I mean, not just talking about language, we wouldn't understand the things that they held up in esteem. We wouldn't understand some of the morality they had. You know, in that culture in early or in pre-Christian Rome, like humility was not seen as a virtue. Like, you know, you didn't practice that. It wasn't a good thing to be humble or to be meek.

And Jesus turned that all around, right? He changed it. He changed all of it. And suddenly, you know, we talk, Jesus talks repeatedly in the gospels about the inversion of his kingdom, how the first become last and the last become first. That is not a Roman virtue. Gotcha. But in our culture, we understand it, right? Like we understand underdog stories and we understand- Yeah, we love that stuff. We understand David versus Goliath. We love that, yeah. And that's because of the impact this book has had. Like it has transformed culture. It has even transformed the way we understand life. And our culture, our lives are so defined by it in ways that we don't understand because of how thoroughly it has transformed our world. And I think, you know, if we wanna talk about how can I trust the Bible, it's because it's proven itself trustworthy. Over the course of 2000 years, it has proved that it can be trusted. It's a good rule for life. It's a good rule for culture. It explains everything about who we are, what we want and what we're after. It explains the human condition

and tells us how we get back to God and what Jesus has done for us. And there's not a book like it. There's no other book that has changed things like that. That is so good. And yeah, for those of you that are watching Pando today and are listening to this podcast, watching us discuss, you know, why is the Bible trustworthy? One of the, that image that Brandon just talked about, I think it is so applicable because you are going to see, you can scroll through your tablet on Pando and you're gonna see a lot of different churches and I'm super grateful for that. You're gonna see a lot of different teachers, a lot of different preachers and say that you have an opportunity to walk out of those prison doors one day and you walk into five different churches. Well, the best thing you can do as a Christian is to know exactly what Scripture says. It's not to just blindly trust, even for what we're saying, like don't blindly trust it. You need, no matter what pastor you're listening to, to dive into your own Bible and read it for yourself, because that—like, again, the Bible's important, but we don't worship the Bible. Who we worship is God. But God has given us His Word to communicate with us, to share the story that we're all a part of. And Brandon, I think that's one of the reasons why I am so grateful that we have the Bible, because, man, without that, we could just be kind of left to our own devices

trying to understand this whole world that we're living in. Why do things happen? Why is this person that way? Why do I feel this way? But not only does it give us a new worldview to think about life through, it gives us the story of Jesus, right? And how He has intersected into our life, and how we can walk into an eternity of salvation with Him, not because of anything we've done, y'all. That has nothing to do with what we've done, but it's because of what Christ has done. And we didn't learn that because of any other reason, but that it is there in Scripture. And so Brandon, any kind of final word before we head out for today? I mean, no, I think you summed that up perfectly. Just to remember, God... The Bible is proof that God wants us to know Him, right? That He doesn't have to say anything to us. He doesn't have to reveal Himself to us, but He shows us who He is. He shows us what He wants to do. And we are not making the first move towards Him. He's made the first move towards us. And part of the reason we know that is because we have this, and we can study it when you look at it, and we can know. We can know that God wants us to know Him. Absolutely. And y'all, as we head out, one of the encouragements that I would have for you that we have every week is, do not forget that your friends and family can download the Pando app and go through these podcasts. They can watch the same thing you're watching every single week here at Southeast Christian Church and other churches. But as you're journeying here with us, we'd encourage you to write our team. You can address it to myself or to Brandon. And if you have a question about something in the Bible, we would love to be able to read those, process through it, and send you a response, because we would love to help you in your walk with Jesus. Y'all, but for Brandon, for myself, for our team behind the cameras here, we're so thankful to be in community with you. We'll see you next time.