Give Me an Answer - Do We Decide What Is Moral?

I'm saying what Christ said I'm not making the Judgment call I'm the mailman delivering Christ's message I'm not God I'm not Christ I'm not the Bible I'm just giving you Christ's message if something in my life is fulfilling and moral why would he condemn or reject it okay ma'am I played collagen I played basketball in college and I can promise you when we went on the road and played some of the Campus College as we did there were women out there who my teammates really enjoyed having sex with and I can promise you after having

sex with them they didn't come back to our team plane and say oh man that was a bummer that was not good that was really horrible no they came back saying wow she was hot and boy you should have seen her in bed wow okay so now you got to start thinking it through is there a purpose to life or is there no purpose to life is there a purpose to sexuality or is there no purpose of sexuality and according to Christ there is a purpose to life there's a purpose to sexuality there's a purpose

the power there's a purpose to money there's a purpose to education find out what that purpose is from The God Who created you who loves you who gave you the beautiful body that you have the Beautiful Mind you have the beautiful all the gifts he's given you I am here to introduce people not to me I am here to introduce people to Jesus Christ and according to Christ racism is wrong what my teammates in college did the fellow basketball teammates I had when they went out and womanized that was wrong that doesn't mean you're less

valuable than my basketball Buddies than my racist Buddies we're all human beings created an image of God and God loves all of us you said you had racist buddies yes I have racist friends and what do you think I say to my racist friends guys shouldn't be friends with them oh I see so because you're racist we can't be friends yeah absolutely yeah yeah you guys are part of a cancel culture that doesn't understand Grace and forgiveness I have friends who have been sexist who are racist who are homophobic I have skinhead friends I have

atheist friends I have agnostic friends I have friends who have date raped I have friends who've done all types of evil and I plead with them I love you I'm concerned about you please come to Christ and allow Christ to change your life and I don't look into the face of a white racist and say you're a piece of dirt and I don't want to be with you no I plead with them no I shouldn't Jesus never treated anybody that way that that's contradictory no it's not God would not forgive that no it's not contradictory

let me explain it's a great question man do you think I've ever good you're right you made a great point do you think I've ever sinned do you think I've ever done evil yeah yeah well then why should Joshua be my friend if I've done evil why should Joshua be my friend in your cancel culture because I've done evil you see Jesus Christ contradicts cancel culture Jesus Christ says you're all Sinners and now you better learn to love each other you better learn to forgive each other you better learn to accept each other and so

I love you and you ma'am you don't think that I look my racist friend in the face and say keep being racist buddy because I like it no when I am with my racist friends I say buddy will you please think harder why are you racist I just don't understand I'm gonna pray for you Noah I hope you find your way like this very positive you know Outlook but yet you can accept people for being racist for having these sinful Natures like it's almost like you're only fitting these standards to what you want to agree

with and not having an actual like Baseline rule for yourself here's the Baseline rule he is a sinner and I love this sinner I hate a sin but I love him a sinner which is the same we have you myself I am a sinner I hate my sin I hate my sin but I affirm my value as a human being struggle like okay that's something that I don't like about myself that I want to change put that outward towards another human being to show that hatred towards someone else and the fact that you can accept

that because it's like oh it's something they need to work on like no that's totally okay working on yourself but as soon as you exude that hatred towards other people that's when it becomes not okay what are you doing right now to me I'm not being hateful at all towards you no but you're correcting me you're saying you're right and I'm wrong and guess what I respect you that's fine but don't you see how you're contradicting yourself you're telling me not to hate his lust and anger you're telling me that to accept the man means

I gotta say Your Lust is cool your hatred is your anger is cool I think I think that is not love to love the man means I want his best and I'm convinced that if he lives a life of lust and anger it's going to hurt him therefore I'm going to plead with him please follow Christ and change by the grace of God and guess what he's going to say the same thing to me and we're going to be brothers who really care about each other we're not going to be some superficial quits who go

around saying oh you want to lust that the women go after man because we know that that's dishonoring to Christ and we both want to follow Christ I'm sorry do you mind no go ahead I think that it is absolutely beautiful to support your friends when they are working through something I think that's great thank you but when it gets to the point that what your friend is going through is being harmful to the other people around them yeah there's a certain threshold that gets crossed where you can no longer support that person and you

need to pull back exactly to be friends with someone who is yeah because they can't think that that's okay to be friends with someone who's outwardly racist or homophobic outwardly and you're claiming to have friends who have committed date rape and you're chill with it like you're just still their friends are not listening you're blinded by your emotions I said that if he lusts if he's a date Raper I'm not going to look him in the face and say oh Joshua that's really cool that you date rape I'm chill about that no I'm gonna say

Joshua I love you and you're a friend of mine and I'm pleading with you because I love you refrain from date rape it's evil it's sinful it's wrong but Joshua you got to understand that I'm not better than you because I'm a sinner also and I need you to hold me accountable and when I blow it because you're my friend I want you to tell me what it's that I'm blowing it I don't want you to say oh chill chill everything's chill no everything's not chill I would never say that either I would say okay

you date raped sorry we're not friends anymore I can't I can't be a person in your life if you're gonna do that if you have done that if you come back to me and say that you corrected that you've turned yourself in you've made amends years later maybe but what you define as wrong and sinful that's what we're arguing that's right we can't you can't see people on that you can't support that kind of person and that's your problem with Jesus I understand because Jesus had the audacity to say you've heard that it was said

do not commit adultery but I tell you that if you're lust after a woman you've committed adultery with her in his heart and both Joshua and I have lusted which means although we've neither one of us have bait raped we have sinned which means not only does it bait rape need forgiveness but Joshua and I Cliff need forgiveness because we both have lust it no Joshua I don't think you've ever date raped have you no neither have I okay so but we both have lusted now here's the challenge the challenge is for Joshua and me

not to say well you know we really are superior moral beings because we've never date raped no we're not Superior we have lusted which is dehumanizing a woman and it's wrong it's not as bad as date rape but it is wrong therefore Joshua and I need Christ we need his forgiveness we need his help to change and I hope you find him good I hope you find him also we actually have have some kind of like like this disconnect with with how we view our lust actually good so we get to define the words to

lust does not mean that I say wow she's gorgeous that's not lust that's appreciating her beauty to lust is to use a woman in my head to get a vicarious thrill that is to use a woman as a sex object in my imagination to get a vicarious thrill that's lust lust is not wow she's gorgeous that's an appreciation of beauty now Jesus points out if you use a person in your head in your fantasy as a sex object that's dehumanizing it's trivializing that woman it's wrong how is it dehumanizing her if she doesn't know about

it very good that's between you and God right who else is in your dreams good point Jesus Christ points out it's very important the way I think about Trey because the way I think about him is going to profoundly affect in some way sometime how I treat him and that is why racist jokes are unacceptable because a racist joke is teaching me to devalue someone of A different race what an idiot what a low life and that's why there better be no racist jokes coming into my head and out of my mouth I need to

love and respect all people does that make sense yes sir uh I I would rather place that with with being a fool and the Bible says to be you know to to actually be be a wary be cautious around people who are foolish and that's a foolish thought lust is actually something that's a base attraction just like you have you lost to eat food you lust for shelter you lust to mate this is that such that's that's not really in the same category okay I I'm not I'm I'm that's that's not like you're you're a

primal nature as as you would say okay that's that's your you know uh Choice actually and I'm telling you that my final nature is like that maybe your parents taught you you're right my Primal nature is Twisted at times my Primal nature does good but at other times my Primal nature does evil that makes sense that's what Jesus taught we're created in the image of God we all have value for we all are corrupt does that make sense yeah yeah good somebody else yes ma'am how does God Define human life like what what is what

is the definition of human life what is the definition of human life yeah first point life has the ability to change be it plant life animal life or human life secondly life has the ability to reproduce be it plant life animal life or human life thirdly human life has the potential to die which means human life is animate that concrete is inanimate that concrete cannot reproduce it cannot change it cannot die life has DNA that has no DNA now not only are you and I valuable because we have life but you and I are valuable

because we are created in the image of God what does that mean it means God has a character that is good God's character defines goodness and he created you and me to reflect that goodness not relative goodness not subjective goodness not cultural goodness not elitist goodness the character of God which is good I am created to reflect that goodness that Justice that compassion that Mercy that's what it means to be human so how can how can Jesus like how can he make life for me or for any of us like happy and good like because

right now like my life is it's not great but like it's good like relationships and school and everything like how can Jesus coming into my life make everything good like what does he have to offer me all right what do you guys have to offer you is first of all he offers you an understanding of your value you're not an accident if you're a human being created the image of God I'm the greatest I'm the greatest I'm the greatest I'm the greatest why Cliff do you say you're the greatest well because I choose to Cliff

that's fantasy you're living in an illusion because in reality Cliff you're not the greatest oh but I really think I'm good and I can do this all day long it means nothing cliff if in reality you are a monkey evolved to a higher order if you're a single cell amoeba evolve to a higher order to talk about human value is meaningless it doesn't mean anything but if you're creating the image of God for a purpose to love God with your heart soul mind and strength and to love your neighbors yourself then yeah you have value

it's been given you by your creator because if you don't have a Creator you create your own value which is I'm the greatest taking things and saying oh this is what God makes me God makes me not racist God makes me good what are you doing here are you here to convert people to Christianity I am here to introduce people to my closest friend Jesus Christ yes sir you don't be disrespect we're having conversations that's really stupid you're just coming over here saying like oh this is I do this because God Jesus makes me think

that way you can do all that on your own without believing in God that was not my point you totally misunderstood I heard it all yeah you misunderstood you you if you're just a normal person that just evolved from monkeys they're then it's meaningless but if you're there believing in God you're an accident neighbors and everything then it's then it means something if God created you for a purpose it means you can have purpose if there is no God who created you for a purpose then there is no ultimate purpose to life you're a cosmic

accident so am I it's that simple if you don't like it for me take it from Albert Camus Jean Paul Charter Friedrich Nietzsche any of the great atheist philosophers and thinkers do we need forgiveness good question why do we need forgiveness because our consciences and our rational Minds convict us that we've done wrong so the question is how do you deal with guilt you can blame others I've done that before you can get self-righteous which I've done that before that I'm just better than everybody and everybody who makes mistakes so that's the way I assuage

my guilt so I can blame others I can play the self-righteous game or I can take responsibility for the way I've exercised my free will and I can ask Christ for forgiveness and that's why Christ is so relevant because he wants to forgive us Stuart why do you need forgiveness need forgiveness well that's the biggest Christian defense I believe in our culture today of its its world view because today a cancel culture came up here a lot I believe there are parts of whether it's certain statues or certain actions by a certain football coach that

need to be handled with discipline so I don't believe in cheap Grace at the same time though we are all sinners and all broken a big issue for atheists out here right now is we do not need any type of saving and we are good people come straight out of the Enlightenment we obviously have a type of sin a type of Brokenness about us and if we don't come together in a way where we are willing to forgive each other for different types of wrongs that we have committed then Society falls apart then you have

54 of marriages end in divorce then you have so many different social institutions breaking down then you have the family unit breaking down quicker than it ever has in our culture before then you have things like depression because there's no relational connection forgiveness we all need it and we all need to offer it and you only get it in the Christian worldview none others give it as clear as Christ especially through the cross how do you know that your interpretation is the right one use the same principles of interpretation to read the Bible that you're

taught here at Texas State University read in context respect literary Style you don't rip one line out of Macbeth and say that is Shakespeare's world view instead you read the whole play from beginning to end and then within context you interpret secondly you respect literary Style if it's a biology textbook you read it as biology if it's history you read it as history if it's mythology you read it as mythology you've got to learn to distinguish different literary Styles different literary genres so in the Bible you have apocalyptic literature The Book of Revelation highly symbolic

not history definitely not science and you've got the gospels of Matthew Mark Luke and John definitely not apocalyptic but Jesus uses Parable metaphor hyperbole to make points so you've got to respect literary style and you've got to read in context that's the way you read the Bible That's the read same way you read any book here at this fine University does that make sense yes thank you for raising that yes sir okay um are you committed to a position of literal Resurrection or mind-body dualism or like complete dualism and think that if you transcend your

soul into heaven which one do you believe in I am convinced that if you read First Corinthians 15. okay the Apostle Paul is arguing for a spiritual body okay Immortal body imperishable body like do you when you say body though do you mean like metaphysical body you know if it's like a little literal body okay yeah literal body here's my question to you yeah are you familiar with the transmitter argument no okay so say this okay if we had a body yeah and that body was transmitted into space here we are and like you know

in storage when they beam you up yep so do you know Derek parfit is Derek parfitt argues that if you were to do this and like destroy the body the body became like material or whatever and reformed would that person be the same person if you annihilated one body and created a new body that was exactly the same but that pushing me the same person do you understand the theoretical nature of that issue Excuse me yes or no but that wasn't the same no I need a trigger I'm telling you I don't dabble in that

kind of theory okay so what I'm saying if I had if you had been born in Iran no no would you be Muslim I don't know you don't know because guess what actually we were not born in Iran we have rhetorical arguments though so I would say something like this I would say that if you were to annihilate the body and create an exact replica of it that would not be the same person and here's why because you could have two exact replica Cuts so let's say we had the same transmitter experiment and that person

existed for 24 hours after the exact duplicate got made we'd have two the same person can two people exist at once no that would be ridiculous so what I'm saying is you're committed to a position of literal Resurrection in which the body is annihilated and comes back by God you'd have to concede that it doesn't make sense that two people could exist at the same time does that make sense though no you need something it doesn't make sense no I have this body this body's gonna die and decompose okay when Christ return he's going to

raise my body to life making it a new body reuniting you with my soul and I'm gonna have eternal how do you know the same person though God knows I don't God knows do you don't know the same person what if you I've never experience the resurrection body so why would I desire something that I don't know if I'm actually going to experience if someone else is going to experience it you should celebrate and ex and enjoy your life so much and enjoy your body so much that the thought of becoming fertilizer is not attractive

it's very unattractive well if you don't enjoy life if you don't enjoy your body then we have another thing to talk about but I'm aware why is life I'm worried that even if I wanted to live again in the afterlife and I was going to be a material body that material body wouldn't be me I'm very concerned about this and I think that like it just wouldn't be me it doesn't make any sense sure every seven years you have a different body so do I so does every one of us okay do you think atoms

are continuously dying and new ones are coming about so please don't try and act like my granddaughter who's three years old is going to have the same body that she has now 21 years from now I'm saying so yeah bodies change no doubt about it but my granddaughter will still be my granddaughter Liv no I think we're talking past each other though because like if I was saying that the body was in once annihilated and then God's gonna bring it back as the same body right he's not like evolving over time I'm not shedding this

on a period of time where I my phenomenological conscience is saying the same I'm saying that if I were to die you know God right now but God could bring me back as the same person I'm not sure I would be experiencing this body again in fact I had good reason I think I think I'd be experiencing a new body as a new person a new instance of me perhaps did that make sense all right so basically the resurrection body is your body no more entropy no more decay no more destruction No More Death it's

going to be an eternal body that you're going to enjoy for our eternity but do you think that's gonna be the same person like how I don't know the physical composition of the Resurrection by the same person I don't know but I do know that when Jesus Christ rose from the dead people could grab hold of him he ate food I'm not worried about people could see the nail prints in his hands but what if so when you die and come back to life are you going to be how would you know you're the same

person how would you know that what you experienced on this life would be the same as this life in heaven or is this a new you created completely different the Bible Jesus promises that the real you is offered eternal life with a new body the real you which means you have a soul you have personhood you have unique individuality and that unique personhood that unique individuality will have a new body that will not decay entropy will no longer happen you'll have eternal life in the presence of God so it keeps us the same is that

the soul continues that's what the same thing is your personhood continues is that slow metaphysical what does that mean is that so like not made of material it's now made of the physical matter we reside in all right the reason that's a difficult question is because the soul as the Bible uses the term includes the will the mind the emotions the feelings but also some of the appetites that my physical body has foreign so that is why the question that you ask is very difficult to answer can you give me like the spark notes nope

why why a good question why because I can't make it up I am Limited in my knowledge of the Resurrection body to what Jesus Christ has revealed for you don't know why what consists of the Soul then you know I told you what a soul is in includes but I have not given you a total explanation yeah that's fine but like do you think it's reasonable then to assume on my part that the duplicate body if I don't agree with a soul analogy I don't think then that my body would even be the same so

I have nothing to desire in eternal life do you think it's reasonable of me to think this based on my arguments no I do not based on what based on your appreciation of Life today but I appreciate life I like life but I don't understand eternal life but I want but I'm not gonna be the same person because we're going to be the same person you're just saying that you have no reason to think that that's not true at all I gave you a partial answer and then when you got specifics about the exact composition

of the Soul is it the soul what about I believe in Souls I gave you a partial answer and I described the soul in a way that you can understand Free Will okay rational thought okay conscience the ability to distinguish between right and wrong but you understand that because you experienced all of those were materials I know that was just a function of the brain that's where we disagree then boom so we disagree right yeah am I reasonable for thinking what I think no I think that you're making a big mistake rationally when you reduce

this man's brain and rational thinking and free will to a chemical reaction and I think you're making a big mistake when you say that it's metaphysical in a soul like I really appreciate your friends isn't that crazy that you have all these Consciousness and you can do all these things with just the brain it's so dense and awesome brain's working too hard for this but isn't that like the I just fundamentally disagree I think you're assuming there's a soul based on biblical evidence that I don't agree with so I think we can rationally both say

we have a reason for believing disagree but my position is rational I disagree I think you're being irrational why because any atheist okay who tries to argue that we have a free will is not being intellectually consistent because if there is no God your chemicals okay and I'm chemicals which there is there's no you that makes a decision your chemical reactions produce a decision it's not you making a decision okay free will determine if scanner exactly but is that fine what do you do then are you still the same problem with immortality no you don't

but you do you live a contradiction my atheist friends who believe in Free Will are living a contradiction what's the contradiction we conceited that so then what's the problem with my belief that you can't have an after body and this body be the same the terminalism has nothing to do with that I don't believe in eternalism but if I did that would have nothing to do with his arguments this argument is consistent if there is no God reality is matter and energy evolved to a higher order which means all you are is all I am

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