I explain the gospel to Julian Dorey

what do you think the biggest misconception about Christianity is the biggest misconception about Christianity um I think Christianity is probably more simple and more complex than a lot of people realize okay I think it's more simple in the sense that scripture is clear on what it's meant to be clear on that we are sinners that we need a savior that we cannot save ourselves and that God himself steps out of Eternity and into Humanity into depravity and the second person of the trinity in Jesus and takes the penalty for our wrongdoing for the evil that

exists here we're very concerned with the evil out there but there's a lot of evil in here and Jesus Takes that upon himself on the cross and I think when I study world religions what I find interesting is that all world religions amount to either an aspect of Mercy or Justice so I would say if you look at something like a lot of the Eastern philosophies that uh have Karma Incorporated within them it is wh just right Buddhists are trying to break the cycle of samsara they're trying so samsara is the cycle of uh birth

life death and rebirth okay so the purpose of Buddhism is to seek Enlightenment in things like the seven noble truths the aold path in realizing that it's your attachment to desire in the physical IAL world that is that is rooting you in that system and that when you realize that you can release desire then you can become one with the universe right so they're they're seeking to destroy the self in that sense that's but the system that operates on that in karma is just same thing in in terms of uh it's iteration within Hinduism it's

just you do get your just punishment what you do in this life either good or bad reflects in the next life whereas I would look at Islam as one that is merciful in the sense that every chapter of the Quran except for one starts off with this phrase bismah God the most benevolent the most merciful however I think when you study world religions one thing you see is that the justice of karma is at the expense of mercy and the mercy of Islam is at the expense of Justice wait wait the justice of karma is

at the expense of mercy so Mercy is not getting what you do deserve so karma doesn't allow for Mercy you will always get what you deserve ah Islam the god of Islam forgives but I would argue that he forgives arbitrarily in that his law is not accounted for there is no justice for when the law is broken he just forgives it but what about the Justice in that situation what about the person who's been wronged what about on Christianity though you have an all forgiving God that's what I'm getting at so I think this is

the one of the things that people don't often realize about Christianity is Mercy and Justice are perfectly are perfectly measured in that when Christ takes the penalty that we deserve the full wrath of God is put on Jesus on the cross so it's not just the physical that Jesus experiences with the crucifiction which is pretty terrible but he actually experiences all of the sin that we commit on himself and in that sense God's law is fulfilled in its Justice and because it's fulfilled now because Christ gets the punishment we deserve now we get what we

don't deserve in Mercy but God's law is not broken he doesn't just forgive it right because God is a holy God and he cannot just forgive at random because forgiveness is costly but forgiveness is not costly for the god of Islam he can just do it but if I you know knock over all these cameras and break them and you say Wes that sucks but you know what it's okay you didn't mean to do it no I'm going to go beat the out of you right but but for this hypothetical situation there's still a cost

it's just not on me it's on you right but you have been merciful to me but that that forgiveness is very costly to you and so what we see in Christianity is that the cost of the punishment of sin is fulfilled Christ takes that upon himself knowing that we cannot do it and then mercy is given out and not just Mercy but Grace So Mercy is not getting what you do deserve Grace is getting what you don't deserve so Mercy is you deserve sin in hell you don't get it any longer but now not only

are you forgiven but God then adopts you as a child you don't deserve that so you're not just forgiven you are adopted into his family and given eternal life maybe it's getting late and I'm getting twisted in my head now sure but like the concept of Grace in Christianity doesn't that tie back to the early concept you were talking there about the just forgiving God in in the Quran in Islam no because Grace is a gift so inherently to what it is is because God's law has been fulfilled and it doesn't just go unjustly punished

right so if you committed a heinous crime and you stood at the seat of the judge and the judge said Julian you're a good guy you got no priors I'm just going to let you go go right that would be merciful but everybody would be like dude like what what about the what about Justice right or if he said I know you have no priors but you're a pretty terrible I'm gonna throw the book at you right life in prison we're going to there's no death penalty but we're going to try to reform the system

in order to get the death penalty right that would be Justice to the extreme but it would not be merciful I for an ey so now if the judge not only says okay you're forgiven but I'm going to pay the penalty I'm going to pay the fine I'm going to go to prison for whatever the the um conviction is and then you're going to be able to stay in my house as one of my own children right that's Grace you're not just being let off the hook you're being given something you're being giving something you

don't deserve and So within Christianity I I you have something that's inherently unique in that in all other systems of religiosity it's some form of survival of the fittest right it's some form of do this and you're accepted feel this and you're accepted or think this and you're accepted right intellectualism emotionalism and um what was the third one I had experientialism right it's one of those three things however Christianity says you can't feel do or think enough it's not going to work you're not going to live up to the the standard of a holy God

and so it's not survival of the fittest it's not the most intelligent or the most spiritual or the most the people who have the the greatest Revelations instead the fittest steps down and sacrifices himself for the survival of the weakest that's what we call the gospel that's the good news is that it's subverting the system and I would argue Christianity in what a lot of people might not understand in the gospel is that it's a combin of all those things it marries mercy and Justice it has this component of Grace that's very unique and then

it reverses The Works based system of all the other religions where it's up to you just do just think just feel enough and you'll be accepted whereas the Bible says no you're accepted now do now feel now think it's a very different Paradigm I've never heard that interpretation before that's fascinating there's a lot there that's that that can get your head tied for sure just like trying to think of the definitions