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By whose “definition”? By the biased “definition” that will not “allow a Divine Foot in the door”? This is nonsense. Dawkins is adding another unnecessary step to the natural selection process. He doesn’t have to “breed” stable forms of chemicals by natural selection. They form automatically by the laws of chemistry. Stable molecules have existed from the very beginning, and the universe is filled with them, yet we have never observed any of them taking on life and forming living cells—not once, anywhere!

A Catholic church in Buffalo, New York, is being converted into a mosque after a Muslim group purchased the property.

The St. Ann Church complex was sold for $250,000 after having been largely out of use since 2012 due to structural damage issues posing a safety threat, according to the Buffalo News. The property was sold to Buffalo Crescent Holdings, which is affiliated with the Downtown Islamic Center, according to the outlet.

A well-known Catholic priest, Father Ronald Vierling, drew attention to the sale. "St. Anne's Church, Buffalo, NY. Permanently closed. Sold to the Islamic community for $250,000 who are converting the historic church into a mosque,."

Some critics took issue with the fact that it was being converted into a mosque, while others were surprised at the low sale price.

"Terrible. I know a dozen Catholics who would have pulled together to buy the building instead of letting it get sold off..." one user wrote…

"Selling off Catholic Churches to Islam to convert it into a Mosque borders Blasphemy and Stupidity!" another account wrote.

"Muslims get a church for $250k but I can't buy a house in a decent neighborhood for less than $500k," another X user wrote.

The Downtown Islamic Center said it plans to spend millions of dollars to renovate the church complex.

"We're looking to put several million dollars into this in the next year, in the church alone," Talha Bakth, the president of the Downtown Islamic Center, told the Buffalo News.

Buffalo Crescent Holdings is also purchasing a former rectory at the complex that had been converted to apartments in a separate transaction, the Buffalo News reported, citing a diocese statement.

The space will be able to be used for worship within a year or two, Bakth said.

https://www.newsweek.com/new-york-church-mosque-buffalo-1937906

Richard Dawkins, ignoring the established and irrefutable natural law of biogenesis in order to cling to his atheism, writes, “Before the coming of life on earth, some rudimentary evolution of molecules could have occurred by ordinary processes of physics and chemistry. There is no need to think of design or purpose or directedness. If a group of atoms in the presence of energy falls into a stable pattern it will tend to stay that way. The earliest form of natural selection was simply a selection of stable forms and a rejection of unstable ones. There is no mystery about this. It had to happen by definition.”

Obviously, since life is not inherent in any form of matter, it must be nonphysical and have a nonphysical source. This is the only logical conclusion that the facts support. So how do atheists react? They simply deny, or ignore, and, in contradiction of the law of biogenesis, they invent the law of abiogenesis—life out of death, i.e., spontaneous generation. Such a process, however, has never been observed, contradicts a known law, and would not have been invented except for the fact that this fiction is the only way to salvage atheism. This is clearly not a scientific approach.

We’ve all been taught that fish are cold-blooded. In many people’s thinking, perhaps the most cold-blooded of all is the shark. However, scientists have discovered that four types of sharks can raise their internal body temperatures. Why and how they do this offers a powerful witness to the love and provision of the Creator.

There is good reason for sharks to be hungry nearly all the time. They seldom catch a large tuna or other creature to meet their needs. For this reason, a shark can live for weeks on the fat reserves stored in its liver. Amazingly, the shark’s liver can account for up to 20 percent of its body weight. So, when feeding is good, the faster a shark can digest, the more food it can store for lean times.

The shark increases its body temperature to speed digestion. When food is plentiful, a great white shark can increase its body temperature above that of the surrounding water by over 13 degrees Fahrenheit. Normally, the heat generated by the shark’s muscles is lost mainly through the gills. However, when the heat is needed to speed digestion, a complex radiator called a “miraculous web” moves into action. The “miraculous web” transfers the heat from the blood going to the gills to the blood coming from the gills. As a result, the shark can more efficiently digest and store food.

The shark seems unlovable to us. However, its Creator lovingly designed special features such as the “miraculous web” into the shark because He loves the creatures He made. Most of all, He loved us and sent His Son to die for our salvation when we were unlovable.

“We love Him, because he first loved us” (1 John:4:19We love him, because he first loved us.
See All...).

https://creationmoments.com/sermons/hot-sharks/

The Presbyterian Church (USA), not to be confused with the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) has now embraced Anti-Semitism. I am not overly surprised. They made quite an impact in 1993 with their "Reimaging" conference. Feminist theologians were unhappy that God self-identified with the pronoun "He," and they insisted they had a right to name God whatever they chose. They included Goddess worship, blessed Sophia, and invoked Goddess wisdom. They also went on to reimagine Jesus. In 2011, PCUSA Votes to Allow Openly Gay Clergy. Well, why not? Once you reimagine God, why not reimagine the morality He handed down? As long as the creation dictates to the Creator, you can do pretty much what you like. Since they have pretty much divested themselves from anything approaching biblical orthodoxy, why even call themselves Christian any longer? Perhaps the identification acts as sort of a heavenly insurance card. On Monday July 1, 2024, the one million member Presbyterian Church (USA) voted to embrace anti-Semitism. Presbyterian Church (USA) votes to divest from Israel bonds :

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted Monday (July 1) to divest from Israel bonds and begin the process of encouraging two companies it believes are contributing to human rights abuses against Palestinians in the occupied territories to quit their practices.

In 2022, they declared Israel an apartheid state, so this seems to follow their anti-Semitic path. They also made another decree:

[In 2024], the denomination also passed a resolution denouncing Christian Zionism, an ideological vision that it says links the State of Israel with biblical views of the “promised land,” and therefore justifies taking land away from Palestinians.

In addition to not knowing much about the word of God, they have demonstrated how little they know about how the how Nation of Israel acquired their land. 

https://mailchi.mp/5ebfb530c0a4/freedom?e=169825fd77

Question: My husband and I just finished watching the video that you appeared in with Chuck Missler and Chuck Smith called “Countdown to Eternity” (see—https://bit.ly/3yvMrmb). I do have a question about a scripture you all quoted and expounded upon: “Many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase” (Dn 12:4b). You presented the view of travel and human knowledge exploding in the last days. But when I studied it, I find that is not what that verse is saying at all! It appears that Daniel is saying that many will go back and forth through the prophets (the books of the Bible, especially the prophetic passages), and knowledge of prophetic events and things to come will increase. This apparently wrong interpretation of Daniel:12:4But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
See All...b reminds me of the days when “everyone” seemed to be teaching that Matthew:24:40-41 [40] Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. [41] Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
See All... referred to people “taken” in the Rapture, but further study shows this is about Tribulation times and they are “taken” in judgment, not in the Rapture. Thanks for your comments about this matter.

For these and many other reasons, materialism is a dead philosophy. Paul Davies and John Gribbon point out that “Quantum physics undermines materialism because it reveals that matter has far less ‘substance’ than we might believe. They go on to assert: “Many people have rejected scientific values because they regard materialism as a sterile and bleak philosophy, which reduces human beings to automatons and leaves no room for free will and creativity. These people can take heart: materialism is dead.”

Marxism is ultimately about material things; Christianity is ultimately about spiritual things. Frederick Engels, a close associate of Karl Marx, said that Marx’s greatest insight was that “men must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing before they can pursue politics, science, art, religion and the like” (“Speech at the Grave of Karl Marx,” Highgate Cemetery, London. March 17, 1883, transcribed by Mike Lepore). In other words, Marxism seeks to meet the physical needs of man and posits that, until those needs are met, man is incapable of any aspirations higher than an animal-like existence. Jesus taught, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? . . . Seek first [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness” (Matthew:6:26Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
See All..., 33). Marx taught, “Seek first man’s kingdom and the stuff of this world.” Jesus’ words are the antithesis of communism and Marxism, and it’s one reason why Karl Marx reviled Christianity.

The utopia that Marxism seeks to develop is earthly and man-made; Christians look to the Lord Jesus to establish a heavenly, perfect kingdom some day. Believers understand that, given man’s sinful nature, there is no perfect system in this world. Greed and abuse of power and selfishness and laziness will taint even the purest motives.

Some people attempt to combine Christianity with Marxist philosophy. Their attempts may be well-meaning, but they are impractical. The Puritans in the New World tried communal living for a while. When the Plymouth Colony was founded, there was no private property, and all food was distributed equally amongst all, regardless of one’s job (or work ethic). But that system, lacking any incentive to hard work, was soon abandoned as a complete failure. See “Of Plymouth Plantation” by Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford for the full story.

Attempting to combine Christianity with Marxism also ignores their widely divergent views on sin, God, equality, responsibility, and the value of human life. Of course, some people point to Acts:2:44And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
See All...–45 as proof that Christianity is compatible with communism: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” Two things must be said here: first, this passage, as with much of Acts, is descriptive, not prescriptive; that is, this passage contains no command for the church to function this way; it is simply a description of what the early church in Jerusalem did to meet some unique and urgent needs. There is no indication that such extensive sharing was ever copied by other New Testament churches. Second, the communal arrangements in Acts were completely voluntary and motivated by the love of Christ. Any attempt to apply this to involuntary, secular (godless) communism really makes no sense.

When Frederick Engels heard that some Christians were using Acts 2 to promote socialism, he wrote against melding his philosophy with Christianity: “These good people are not the best Christians, although they style themselves so; because if they were, they would know the bible better, and find that, if some few passages of the bible may be favourable to Communism, the general spirit of its doctrines is, nevertheless, totally opposed to it” (“Progress of Social Reform on the Continent,” in The New Moral World, 3rd Series, Nos. 19, Nov. 4, 1843, transcribed by Andy Blunden). According to Engles, the Bible and Marxism are “totally opposed.”

—S. Michael Houdmann (Founder, President, and CEO of Got Questions Ministries).

The phylum Arthropoda is the largest animal phylum on the planet. These animals are designed with paired, jointed appendages and a chitinous exoskeleton. ICR’s Dr. Tim Clarey stated,

Arthropods represent a major part of the great evolutionary mystery called the Cambrian Explosion. In fact, they are one of the most common fossils in Cambrian system strata. They appear in the rock layers fully formed—without ancestors. Evolutionist Richard Fortey writes, “And yet how can it be that all this variety [the trilobite fossils] arose apparently instantly at the base of the Cambrian?” He continues, “Where then were these ancestors? Why were they apparently invisible?” These questions are easily answered by creationists, who explain the sudden appearance of fossils in the Cambrian system as part of the initial sediments deposited by the Flood. It seems likely that shallow marine organisms would be the first types of animals buried and preserved by advancing floodwaters.1

One cannot discuss the Cambrian biota without mentioning the amazing trilobite. There are at least 150 families of these marine arthropods composed of over 20,000 species, which make up about 70% of the known Cambrian species of metazoans (multicellular animals). Their size normally ranges from one to four inches, but some fossils are as much as 39 inches long. But large or small, they suddenly appear as 100% trilobites, and just like other arthropods such as the insects and crustaceans (e.g., lobsters and crabs), there is no indication of gradual evolution. Trilobites have always been trilobites since their creation thousands of years ago.

Recently, the University of Bristol in England reports that the “most pristine trilobite fossils ever found” are shaking up scientific understanding of these creatures.2 They said, “The fossils, which are more than 500 million years old, were collected in the High Atlas of Morocco and are being referred to by scientists as ‘Pompeii’ trilobites due to their remarkable preservation in ash.”2

In other words, they were suddenly and catastrophically buried and preserved. One would expect this during the Flood year 4,400 years ago since there was great volcanism as the fountains of the great deep erupted.

Indeed, the report in Science stated, “El Albani et al. describe several trilobite fossils created by rapid death and preservation due to an underwater pyroclastic flow. This preservation created three-dimensional fossils with a remarkably well-preserved anatomy.”3 Many of these underwater pyroclastic flows (and turbidity currents) occurred during the Flood. The illustration on the cover of Science “shows trilobites being rapidly engulfed by volcanic ash from an eruption...”3 The picture could easily be interpreted as the initial stage of the Genesis Flood.

The Bristol University report went on to say,

The ash molds preserved each segment of their bodies, their legs and even the hair-like structures that ran along the appendages. The trilobites’ digestive tract was also preserved after it filled with ash. Even small ‘lamp shells’[4] attached to the trilobites’ exoskeleton remained attached by fleshy stalks as they were in life.2

Only rapid burial could produce such results. And speaking of the digestive tract, in 2017 scientists discovered the earliest trilobites had stomachs: “paleontological research unearthed more trilobite complexity: a unique digestive anatomy found in some 270 specimens in the Wulongqing Formation (Guanshan Biota) in China. Some of these fossils ‘contradict previous assumptions about trilobite digestive systems.’”5

One thing is for certain, the amazing discovery of these “Pompeii” trilobites—however fascinating and disconcerting to evolutionists—does not begin to address the origin of trilobites. They were created as trilobites thousands of years ago.

References

1. Timothy Clarey, “Trilobites: Sudden Appearance and Rapid Burial,” Acts & Facts, February 2014, 13.
2. University of Bristol, “Most Pristine Trilobite Fossils Ever Found Shake Up Scientific Understanding of the Long Extinct Group,” Phys.org, June 27, 2024, https://phys.org/news/2024-06-pristine-t
   rilobite-fossils-scientific-extinct.html.
3. Abderrazak el Albani et al., “Rapid Volcanic Ash Entombment Reveals the 3D Anatomy of Cambrian Trilobites,” Science 384, no. 6703 (2024), 1429–1435.
4. Lamp shells are brachiopods, solitary bivalves that live on the seabed or are attached to other animals. Like the trilobites, they suddenly appear in the Early Cambrian as lamp shells.
5. Frank Sherwin, “Trilobites Can’t Stomach Darwinism,” Creation Science Update, October 5, 2017, https://www.icr.org/article/trilobites-c

https://www.icr.org/article/trilobite-troubles-in-2024

For more than a century, the law of biogenesis was accepted as established fact. If the universe had been sterilized by the Big Bang—to a degree beyond our imagination—then life could not have come from within the universe, but only by a supernatural act on the part of a Creator who exists independently of and outside the cosmos. Though Dawkins repeatedly says that Darwinism explains life, it has nothing to say about the origin of the universe or of the energy of which everything is made. However it came into existence, we know that life and consciousness are not qualities of matter. That simple fact alone removes all hope that natural selection could bring life to inanimate objects. The attempts to explain the origin of life no more do so than did Darwin’s Origin of Species explain the origin of even one species!

[Carl is a researcher, writer, and lecturer focusing on the paradigm shift sweeping the Western world, including the challenges and opportunities faced by Christians. He has been a frequent guest speaker at TBC conferences, and his talks can be found on our website: https://bit.ly/3LRrmpw]

Best remembered for its remarkable tower, Genesis 11 tells us this was more than just an upright structure; it was a city assembled with a cause. 

“Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens,” reads the famous chapter. “Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” 

How large was the community and how tall was the tower are moot points. It is the intention that is remarkable: a human agenda of collective aggrandizement, to engage in an act of idolatry that would elevate mankind into the heavens—“let us.” 

A parallel can be found in Isaiah’s proverb against Babylon’s king: “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah:14:14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
See All...). 

Indeed, the roots of Babel are planted in the lie presented within Genesis:3:5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
See All...—that in the act of transgressing God, you can be as God. In other words, Babel was an affront against the Lord Most High, an act of unified deception wrapped-up in the greatest of hubris, an unabashed cockiness that goes beyond mere arrogance. It can be stated this way: we are the masters of our destiny, irrespective of what God desires, and we will prove this absolutely. Here is where we raise our pride, here is where we make our stand, here is where we affirm our power. Spiritually, it is collective foolishness, a broad road to destruction.

We know the outcome. Sometime during the building phase, as the people were attempting to ascend, God came down and invoked judgment, confusing their speech, “and they ceased building the city” (Genesis:11:8So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
See All...). But at the same time God issued His judgment and brought their action to an end, He also demonstrated grace, saving them from the consequence of greater rebellion. Implied in verse 6 is that, if left to succeed, this endeavor would set in motion other acts of rebellion: “Indeed, the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do: now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.”

A wealth of meaning emerges from Genesis 11. It provides an example of solidarity in naming, for in the group we define our purpose and boast in it. It is a proclaimed independence from God, as we now pursue our common design apart from His order. We assert our own security, achieved through power-in-unity. Faith is found in the works of our hands; it is discovered within us instead of relying upon the Lord. In other words, cooperativelywe participate in our own salvation—we act as our own messiah. 

Who needs God when we can be as God? 

Two points emerge. First, God Himself steps in as man ultimately oversteps. There is a limit to humanity’s unholy action, and the timing of God’s judgment is—and will be—right and just. Second, we are incapable of letting Babel fade away; it is a tantalizing illusion of human progress, and mankind is drawn to its variants as a moth-to-the-flame. Babel, synonymous with collective idolatry, is a blueprint of humanity’s delusion. 

Hence, when considering our contemporary era, we are inescapably faced with a multitude of Babel imprints, this quest to be our own masters apart from God—to build “heaven on Earth” in our own image.

The transhumanist movement fits this design. The desire to use technology in order to become “more than human” and therefore birth a planetary civilization—even to enter the heavens as cosmic beings—is a dream that has jumped past the pages and scripts of science fiction and entered the conversations of Silicon Valley titans, bioethicists, neuroscientists, futuristic philosophers, and even religious figures. 

Many years ago, in June 2013, I attended the Global Future 2045 International Congress in New York City as a researcher. There I witnessed the heady excitement as technicians and scientists gushed over the works-of-their-hands, pointing to the year 2045 as our “date with destiny”—the hope of immortality and God-like capabilities. We would take hold of evolution and transform ourselves into something greater, so the narrative was repeated. We were “on the path to a new evolutionary strategy.” 

Space entrepreneur Peter Diamandis talked about humanity’s convergence into a “meta-intelligence”: that as everyone on the planet becomes deeply connected through information technologies, we emerge as a “new organism.” Our collective information experience, he explained, will usher in the “ultimate form of our evolution” and we become “conscious on a cosmic level.” In other words, we ascendthrough our technology.

Those infamous words from millennia ago come rushing back: “Come, let us build.”

One of the 2045 Congress speakers, a religious leader delighted by the unifying promise of technical transcendence, pieced together a boast with words that were not his own: “You are the light, you are the truth, you are the beginning, you are the end.”

Bold? It’s more than that. 

Here’s another example from Mark Pesce, a pioneer in web interfacing, as excerpted from his documentary, Becoming Transhuman:

“We seek, therefore, to bless ourselves with perfect knowledge and perfect will, to become as gods, take the universe in hand, and transform it in our own image, for our own delight. As it is on Earth, so it shall be in the heavens, the inevitable result of incredible improbability, the arrow of evolution lifting us into the Transhuman, an apotheosis through reason, salvation attained by good works.”

This is hubris…and it isn’t going to work.

The Babel model also dovetails with the rallying cry for global order. From United Nations summits to World Federalist events to the scheming of the World Economic Forum, in political unity we save ourselves and remake Paradise, becoming the planet’s self-proclaimed messiahs. 

This line of thinking has been circulating for decades. Consider what American Peace Society member, Raymond Bridgman, wrote in 1905—his was an intoxicating vision of human empowerment, a “political unity of the world”:

“The world, unified and intelligent, would for the first time in human history come to the grandeur of its existence as one, and would feel the thrill of intelligent unity…knowing its unlimited powers, looking over the earth and recognizing its directorship amid all the forces of nature and man, feeling its strength and realizing its boundless opportunity, will say ‘I will.’ Thus and then would be accomplished the grandest revolution in human history. The world would have found itself, would have come into self-consciousness, realized its true supremacy, and declared its opportunity.”

Such a boast! 

Fast forward to the late 1990s and actress Jean Stapleton. Like other luminaries of that era, such as news anchor Walter Cronkite, Stapleton believed in the potential of world government. Her endorsement of the World Federalist Association—now renamed Citizens for Global Solutions—the longest-running world government lobbying group in the United States, is telling. Notice the messianic tone: “The goal of the World Federalists is peace through unity of government. We must support their vision of oneness in diversity for it is the salvation of humanity.”

This hope in cooperative human salvation can be found in the Parliament of the World’s Religions, the mother ship of the interfaith movement. While at the 2018 Parliament in Toronto, I listened as Swami Agnivesh expressed his vision for one planet: “We, the peoples of the world, need to unite and demand a world government, and a world parliament, based on an Earth constitution.” 

After six days of sessions where religious leaders and political figures held hands, the closing plenary offered gratitude for the work done during the Parliament: “Thanks to all of those who are committed to the salvation of the Earth.” 

This kind of salvation-in-unity rhetoric is prevalent within the global interfaith community. Consider this montage of quotes, as taken from my notes during the 2023 Parliament in Chicago: “It’s the world’s religious leaders who ultimately bring the world together…. We’re building Heaven on Earth, we birth Heaven right here…. [It’s the] end of the old world order; the start of the new world order—one humanity, one earth…. Salvation is not individual but is collective, and only in the community are we saved…. We are the resurrection who leads to the Promised Land.”

The gospel of Babel is being openly preached. 

Glimpses of this ancient-future structure can likewise be seen at transformational events like Burning Man, which had a 60-foot tall “Chapel of Babel” in 2023. Plastered over its walls were thousands of photographs of animals and people, and inside was a confessional booth where you could unload your soul. It was an appropriate edifice, for Burning Man is a place where the world comes together—a place that bridges spirituality with secularism, materialism with mysticism, and where the individual finds purpose in the collective hive.

So what might Babel 2.0 entail? 

I am reminded of a workshop I attended at Burning Man in 2018. The subject was Artificial Intelligence (AI) and spirituality, and the discussion was led by a major personality in the field of digital currencies. A new paradigm will be necessary to birth a new civilization, so went the narrative. And with this in mind, our real-time information becomes the energy that enables AI to participate in this global civilization. But as we are spiritual beings, how will AI understand this? Is it possible to “make AI spiritual”? In seeking to build the “pure information community,” we were told, Artificial Intelligence will need the capacity to “read people” and respond in ways that reflect our spiritual evolution. Over the course of the workshop, it was evident that this version of Babel would require four building blocks to complete its tower. 

First, a new spirituality: out with the Christian worldview and in with the mystical and shamanistic. Second, a new social contract or ethos: a re-fashioned culture geared to radical tolerance and the exploration of identity, all painted in environmental green. Third, a new means of exchange and validation: with everything digitalized, economic behaviors could be monitored and adjusted to fit the acceptable standards of blocks one and two. Finally, global management: Artificial Intelligence will need to be integrated into our daily lives, knowing us individually and guiding each person towards our collective social and spiritual development.

Delusional? Yes, and not without its consequences and dangers. Nevertheless, the bottom line is that this workshop demonstrated the persistence of Babel. 

Pages could be filled with similar plans and schemes. There is nothing new under the Sun….And an echo from the original prototype comes to mind: “...now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them” (Genesis:11:6And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
See All...). 

Options For Christians

Professing Christians have three primary options in response to the growing shadows of Babel. 

First, we can ignore it, naively thinking we are somehow unaffected. But an indifferent approach will only last so long. As the ballooning size of Babel encroaches, we will inevitably find ourselves in a situation hostile to the Christian message of absolutes, of sin and salvation, and of the need for an exclusive Redeemer, Jesus Christ. We will become increasingly marginalized as the dangerous other, and wondering how we arrived in this difficult situation.

The second option is deeply troubling: To find shelter under the shadow of Babel, and attribute this to something Christian. As the world becomes syncretistic, many churches likewise blend with the spiritual and secular flavors of the day—from accepting and amalgamating mystical practices, to “greening the faith,” to participating in woke ideologies. To mirror the world and call it Christian is thus our second option. Sadly, it’s a road too often chosen. 

Option three is to be in the world but not of the world, and in so doing, to take seriously our Biblical call to be Ambassadors for Christ. Paul said the following to the church in Corinth, 

“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians:5:20-21 [20] Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. [21] For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
See All...)

What does this entail? 

Upfront, an ambassador is the official and legal representative of one’s government to a foreign country, wherever you may be; increasingly in our case that land happens to be blanketed in the dimness of neo-Babel, and so we must let our light shine—the light of Jesus Christ—as a beacon on a hill. I cannot think of a higher calling than being His ambassador. 

Being an ambassador also means we know the power and position of our King. We represent His interests and have aligned our priorities with His mission. We are trained in His ways, and we are cognitive as to how our actions reflect God’s character. 

Moreover, as per any other ambassadorship, we too need to be aware of the cultures and traditions of the place we find ourselves positioned in. Yes, we are set apart from ungodly customs, and at the same time we are not uninformed regarding the character of our surroundings. Like the Apostle Paul in Athens (Acts:17:16-34 [16] Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. [17] Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. [18] Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. [19] And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? [20] For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. [21] (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.) [22] Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. [23] For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. [24] God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; [25] Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; [26] And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; [27] That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: [28] For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. [29] Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. [30] And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: [31] Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. [32] And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. [33] So Paul departed from among them. [34] Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
See All...), we should know the settings and beliefs well enough to engage with a level of knowledge, discernment, and discretion. 

As part of the royal diplomatic office, our task is twofold. First, we must effectively communicate the King’s message, regardless if the land is hostile or friendly. Second, we are to be vigilant as to the deceiving schemes of antagonistic powers, recognizing challenges to the King’s message. Then, as an ambassador should, we petition for intervention while alerting others in His service to areas of concern, seeking to build up one another in sound doctrine, knowledge and love and faith. The work of The Berean Call is part of this mission. 

Being an emissary is a serious undertaking: “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”

It is time we take this calling to heart, looking to our savior Jesus Christ, even as the “temple of man,” neo-Babel, is being built around us. 

TBC

• Question: I think your interpretation of Daniel 12:4 is incorrect...
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• In Defense of the Faith

*Our Q&A section is primarily pulled from the Dave Hunt archives. Although some references may be dated, we believe that there is timeless value within the messages.

Question: My husband and I just finished watching the video that you appeared in with Chuck Missler and Chuck Smith called “Countdown to Eternity” (see—https://bit.ly/3yvMrmb). I do have a question about a scripture you all quoted and expounded upon: “Many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase” (Dn 12:4b). You presented the view of travel and human knowledge exploding in the last days. But when I studied it, I find that is not what that verse is saying at all! It appears that Daniel is saying that many will go back and forth through the prophets (the books of the Bible, especially the prophetic passages), and knowledge of prophetic events and things to come will increase. This apparently wrong interpretation of Daniel:12:4But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
See All...b reminds me of the days when “everyone” seemed to be teaching that Matthew:24:40-41 [40] Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. [41] Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
See All... referred to people “taken” in the Rapture, but further study shows this is about Tribulation times and they are “taken” in judgment, not in the Rapture. Thanks for your comments about this matter.

Response: I am not a Greek or Hebrew scholar, nor are most of those who claim to be. A few years of academic language study doesn’t make one an expert. But all of us can look up words in our Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and (of most importance) compare scripture with scripture. When I do that with Daniel:12:4But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
See All..., I can’t find any basis for your interpretation, though I have scholarly friends who have suggested the same. The entire phrase “run to and fro” comes from the Hebrew word shuwt, which could mean the going back and forth of oars to move a boat and, by implication, to travel. How is the same word used elsewhere? Here are a few examples: “the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth” (2 Chr:16:9For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.
See All...); “Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem...and seek...if ye can find a man” (Jer:5:1Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.
See All...); “run to and fro by the hedges” (49:3), etc. That sounds like travel.

Yes, you could find a verse such as Amos:8:12And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
See All... where there is a running to and fro “to seek the word of the LORD.” Yet even here it is not the running of the eyes over pages of Scripture but “from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD….” It seems fully justified to understand Daniel:12:4But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
See All... as meaning that travel and knowledge will be greatly increased in the last days; and we are surely seeing that!

The word “knowledge” is translated from the Hebrew da’ath. Yes, it is used most often for the knowledge of the Lord and His truth; but that is to be expected because that is the main topic of Scripture. However, it is also used for general knowledge and even for the vain or evil knowledge of this world and Satan: “tree of knowledge of good and evil” (Gn 2:9); “Should a wise man utter vain knowledge?” (Job:15:2Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
See All...); “thy knowledge [referring to occult knowledge of Babylon], it hath perverted thee” (Is 47:10); “Every man [referring to idolaters] is brutish by his knowledge” (Jer:51:17Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
See All...), etc.

What about the context? I find nothing in it to specifically support either view. However, the rest of Scripture opposes the idea of increasing knowledge of Bible prophecy. We are told that the last days will be characterized by apostasy and a refusal to endure sound doctrine; Christ raises the question of whether He will even find faith on the earth at His return; the wise virgins as well as the foolish are sleeping, etc. This passage would be out of harmony with the whole tenor of Scripture if it suggested a great interest in studying God’s Word and an increase of the knowledge of God and His Word in the last days. Therefore, I will stick with the interpretation we presented in the video and which I believe makes sense in every way.

As for Matthew:24:40-41 [40] Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. [41] Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
See All..., if there was a day when “everyone” looked upon these verses as referring to the Rapture, that day has passed and the majority view today is that these are “taken” from bed, field, and mill to judgment. This is the view of some of my best friends. I gave an entire address on this subject at the Pre-Trib Rapture Seminar in Texas last December—so I won’t go into details (see—https://bit.ly/4fHJnEn).

If these are taken to judgment, then I don’t know where any such judgment is mentioned. It can hardly be that described in Matthew:25:31-46 [31] When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: [32] And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: [33] And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. [34] Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: [35] For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: [36] Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. [37] Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? [38] When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? [39] Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? [40] And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. [41] Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: [42] For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: [43] I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. [44] Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? [45] Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. [46] And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
See All..., for at that time “before him shall be gathered all nations.” In fact, there is no judgment mentioned in Scripture where people are snatched out of beds and from fields to be taken there. Furthermore, the conditions at the time of “snatching” are like the days of Noah and Lot, prosperity and partying and no thought of judgment, which can only exist prior to the Great Tribulation, not at the end of it, nor at the end of the millennial reign of Christ. Therefore, this being “taken” can only be referring to a pre-Trib Rapture.

That fact is further confirmed by the Greek. The word for “taken” (“one shall be taken, the other left”) is paralambano, whereas the word airo is used in Matthew:24:39And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
See All... (“the flood came, and took them all away [in judgment]”). That Christ used two different words must be significant. Airo simply means to remove from a place. Paralambano, however, means to receive to oneself in an intimate manner. Yes, it is used twice in taking Jesus away to judgment (Mt 27:27; Jn:19:16Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.
See All...). However, it is used multiple times in a comforting way: when Joseph takes Mary as his wife (Mt 1:20, 24), takes her and the child Jesus to safety in Egypt, then back to Israel (2:14, 21); Jesus takes His disciples here or there for intimate lessons (20:17; 26:37; Mk 10:32; 14:33; Lk 9:10, 28; 18:31), Barnabas takes Mark with him (Acts:15:39And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus;
See All...); the jailor took Paul and Silas and “washed their stripes” (16:33), etc. Furthermore, paralambano is the very same word our Lord uses in John:14:3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
See All... when He says, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself.” Is He not referring to the Rapture there? Then why would He use the same word in His Olivet discourse if He meant “taken to judgment”? He wouldn’t.

*Our purpose in this section is to simply show what kind of feedback we receive. We may respond to some of them in private whether or not we agree with their views. 

Dear TBC,

Jonathan Roumie isn't leading people to Christ, he's leading people to himself. It's a contradiction to say all these faiths believe the same. They don't all teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to scripture. They are different faiths because they have different beliefs. Biblical Christianity is the truth. Jesus is the Word and the Scriptures are the Word of God. The Scriptures, the Word of God, is God-breathed. No other book, document, person nor any other thing, is God-breathed. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man comes to the Father but by Him, this is Biblical Christianity.

As far as Rick Warren goes, Jesus teaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we are to go into the world making disciples. It doesn't teach about coming together and getting along. Getting along is nice, but without trusting in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, being born again, we are not saved. PD (email)

Dear TBC,

Take a brief moment to seriously consider a gospel-of-works mentality. Try to imagine being able to say, for an eternity…"I did more than so-and-so to get here" (pride) or…"I put more effort into getting here than so-and-so" (pride).

If heaven is like that, it would be no different than this earth and why would we want that?! When Christians say that there is no sin in heaven, guess what's missing? That's right..pride!

I often wonder, do Christians truly understand the meaning of what Jesus did on that cross? Who else loves that old hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross?” DD (email)

Dear TBC,

Did not want to "no reply" so you would no longer mail The Berean Call to [us]. We enjoyed your publication for many years but there is a season for everything and this season is over. I am 95 years old and still read The Berean Call occasionally but the back issues. Dave and Tom have been real warriors for Christ and I set great store by their wisdom. I actually met Dave at a Christian Conference in Buffalo, NY (I think that is where it was) many years ago, shook his hand, praised him and he said, "Pray for me." He was fearless and a huge role model in his Christian wisdom. RD (email)

Dear TBC,

I had heard about The Chosen and originally planned to watch it. With what I've seen and learned here I will never watch it. If God wanted us to know what Jesus looked like He could have inspired one of the Bible writers to describe Him. We are called the people of the book, not of the painting. I will pray for those who do indeed adore these people on the show. I have watched a number of videos of Catholic teachers talking about Mary and the saints and other subjects. They start off saying they aren't worshiping any person or thing and spend the rest of the video proving they are. These producers and actors are distorting the Word of God and calling it truth. PMC (email)

“Suffer [Let] the Little Children to Come unto Me”

Those words by Jesus in Mark:10:14But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
See All... were twofold. They were a reprimand toward His disciples who reacted by rebuking "those that brought" the little ones to Jesus. Jesus told them they were to "forbid them not" to keep them from Himself, the One whose love for them knows no bounds. He adds, "...for of such is the kingdom of God." How so? An important quality of a little child is his humble dependence on others. 

 Jesus underscores that characteristic in Matthew 18: “At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted [repent of your self-reliance], and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (vv 1-4).

As Christ had previously stated in Mark 10, "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put hishands upon them, and blessed them” (vv 15-16).

T. A. McMahon

Executive Director

When the church stoops so low as to acknowledge the wisdom of this world, who will observe any distinct testimony for God? All sinks down to one common level, and the enemy will have his own way. In this way the voice of truth is hushed and God is forgotten. The attempt to accommodate truth to those who are of the world can only end in complete failure. Let truth stand upon its own heavenly height; let saints stand fully and firmly with it; let them invite sinners up to it; but let them not descend to the low and groveling pursuits and habits of the world, and thus rob truth of all of its edge and power. It is far better to allow the contrast between God’s truth and the world’s ways to be fully seen, than to identify with them, when they really do not agree. We may think to commend truth to the minds of worldly people by an effort to conform to their ways; but, so far from commending it, we in reality expose it to secret contempt and scorn. The man who conforms to the world will be the enemy of Christ, and the enemy of Christ’s people. Let us shake off the world’s influence, and purge ourselves from its ways.

We have no idea how insidiously it creeps in upon us. The enemy at first weans from really simple and Christian habits, and by degrees we drop into the current of the world’s thoughts. What is needed is the single-minded devotion of people to whom the Lord is everything and the world is nothing. May we, with holy jealousy and tenderness of conscience, watch against every approach of evil.

—C. H. Mackintosh
, Cited in Uplook, October 2000, pp. 18-19

Engineering Joint Lubrication

CreationMoments.com, 6/13/24, “Engineering Joint Lubrication” [Excerpts]: In our rapidly modernizing world, engineers are kept busy solving problems. Take, for example, all of the various kinds of transportation. There are millions of problems in this area alone that keep engineers busy inventing better solutions.

Freight trains carry enormous loads in huge freight cars, each one capable of carrying the weight of the average home and everything in it, plus an automobile. Yet the axles must be able to swivel easily beneath the car as the train moves along tracks that swerve left and right. Consider the problem of setting 100 tons or more on a swivel without hindering the free movement of the swivel. Engineers at Shell Oil finally designed a disc that is placed beneath the body of the car to lubricate the axles for swiveling. Whenever the disc is squeezed by the weight of the load above or from too much friction in swiveling, lubrication automatically squirts out of the disc.

It is this same ingenious system that lubricates certain joints in your body. When additional lubrication is needed in a joint, tiny discs release lubricant into the joint. These discs are called bursae. And if you have ever had bursitis, you know what happens when the discs aren’t working properly.

It’s not science but faith in evolution that leads people to believe that this well-engineered system could be the result of accidental mutations.

https://bit.ly/4chf0l4

San Francisco Declares Itself a Transgender “Sanctuary City”

Breitbart.com, 6/13/24, “San Francisco Declares Itself a ‘Sanctuary City’ for ‘Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, Non-Binary, and Two-Spirit People’” [Excerpts]: The Board of Supervisors for the City of San Francisco declared the city a transgender “sanctuary city” on Tuesday—or, officially, a “Sanctuary City for Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, Non-Binary, and Two-Spirit People.”

The resolution, which applies to both the city and county of San Francisco, says it is a response to laws passed in conservative states that limit access to transgender surgery and drugs, especially for children.

There are growing warnings from medical authorities around the world about the negative effects of transgender surgery and drugs on minors.

The vote in favor of the resolution was unanimous, the UK Independent reported.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who opposes parents’ right to be notified about children’s gender transitions at school, could not defend that policy when confronted by Breitbart News during a press appearance at a Republican debate last year.

https://bit.ly/46yHRA6

You Can’t Defend Israel Unless You Talk about Islam

JihadWatch.org, 8/13/24, “You Can’t Defend Israel Unless You Talk about Islam” [Excerpts]:What do the stabbings in Israel, the assaults on Hindus in Bangladesh, the Muslim mobs roaming English cities and the massacres of Christians in Nigeria all have in common? The politically correct answer is nothing.

And that’s why the politically correct answer condones, justifies or ignores the violence.

Islamic attacks on non-Muslim majorities in India, Europe, America or Israel are justified as resistance by the oppressed, but violence by Muslim majorities against non-Muslim minorities in Indonesia, Nigeria and Bangladesh were justified by claims that the Muslim majority was economically disenfranchised. Muslim violence is always excused by false claims of victimhood. Muslims see them as Islamic wars, non-Muslims are told that they’re everything else but.

Patterns define how we react to things. The question is what is the pattern? Is the pattern that disparate groups of violent men shouting “Allahu Akbar” are killing people around the world for socioeconomic and political reasons having nothing to do with Islam? Or is this a religious war?

The big lie that Islamic violence is socioeconomic and not religious, local not global, only works when no one talks about Islam or recognizes the larger pattern of Islamic violence for a thousand years that is being perpetrated on nearly every continent and against every culture.

Are Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and Atheists all the problem? Or is Islam the issue? When we fail to ask this fundamental question, we lose the argument.

https://bit.ly/3yElgWA

Energy, what art thou? According to prevailing scientific opinion, though we don’t know what energy is or why it exists and obeys certain laws, it suddenly appeared out of nothing—and then exploded in the Big Bang. This is a “once-upon-a-time” fairy tale that says that energy cane into existence compacted into an infinitely small mass, which, for unknown reasons, suddenly expanded some 13-15 billion years ago. There was a huge explosion, generally described as a “colossal fireball.” If that was indeed the case, this universe began as completely sterilized matter. Louis Pasteur proved that life cannot arise after sterilization has taken place.

Cambridge professor Sir Arthur Eddington described one of his lectures as an attempt to “dispel the feeling that in using the eye . . . of the soul [for] our conception of reality, we are doing something irrational and disobeying the leading of truth which as scientists we are pledged to serve.” Among his many brilliant and insightful statements, which, by the way, today’s new aggressive materialist atheists would do well to ponder, is the following:

“That consciousness is ruled by laws of physics and chemistry is as preposterous as the suggestion that a nation could be ruled by laws like the laws of grammar. In human affairs [law] means a rule . . . which may be kept or broken. In science it means a rule which is never broken. . . . Thus in the physical world what a body does and what a body ought to do are equivalent; but we are well aware of another domain where they are anything but equivalent. We cannot get away from this distinction. . . . The laws of logic do not prescribe the way our minds think; they prescribe the way our minds ought to think. . . . However closely we may associate thought with the physical machinery of the brain, the connection is dropped as irrelevant as soon as we consider the fundamental property of thought—that it may be correct or incorrect. . . . [Truth] involves recognizing a domain . . . of laws which ought to be kept but may be broken. Dismiss the idea that natural law may swallow religion; it can’t even tackle the multiplication table single-handed.”

In Matthew:22:23The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,
See All... — 33, we read of a group of Jewish religious leaders, the Sadducees, whose theology informed their understanding of Scripture rather than allowing Scripture to shed real light on their faulty theology. John D. Barry comments, “This Jewish group apparently based its doctrine on the Pentateuch [the first five books of the Bible] alone”1

So, when appealing to what Moses wrote in Deuteronomy:25:5-10 [5] If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her. [6] And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel. [7] And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. [8] Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her; [9] Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house. [10] And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed.
See All..., they attempted to trip Jesus up, formulating a hypothetical case of a woman that had married seven brothers, one at a time, from the eldest to the youngest as each one died. The Sadducees, though a prominent religious sect of Judaism, were skeptics who didn’t believe in the bodily resurrection, along with denial of the immortality of the soul, afterlife, and therefore, no rewards or penalties after death. They sought to discredit Jesus, Who, of course, taught the resurrection, so they used this question to make belief in the resurrection seem ridiculous. So, they asked Jesus, “At the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?” Jesus turned their ploy back on them in Matthew:22:28Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.
See All... when He replied from the Pentateuch, Exodus:3:6Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
See All..., to do so:

Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. (Matthew:22:29-32 [29] Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. [30] For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. [31] But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, [32] I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
See All... KJV)

“Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” Ignorance of the scriptures doesn’t seem to prevent people from appealing to them out of context, resulting in misusing them, which is very widespread today in many groups. Some do so intentionally (cults, for example), and others unknowingly. Many miss, as did the Sadducees, the importance of the main character and theme in the story, God and His power. Like the Sadducees, people often reject the true teachings in the Bible because of their natural bias against the supernatural. In their thinking, God cannot do things that they deem impossible or that conflict with a belief they want to hold. For example, progressive Christian deconstructor “Kissing Fish Book”2 this week posted:

Fundamentalist Christians believe in supernatural theism and progressive Christians often embrace panentheism (acknowledging that God is fully immanent within our creation as well as being fully transcendent from it).

Fundamentalist Christians tend to subscribe to the substitutionary or penal theory of the atonement while progressive Christians tend to embrace the moral example theory of the atonement.

Similar to the Sadducees of old, progressive Christians pick through the Scriptures and redefine, reinterpret, or outright reject what doesn’t fit their “normalcy bias.” To this, Jesus would say, as he did the progressive Christians’ forebears, “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”

In 1923, J. Gresham Machen’s book Christianity and Liberalism was published. Liberals of Machen’s day were very much like the progressives of today. His criticism wasn’t that the Liberals of his era did not claim to be Christian or that they had overtly abandoned the Scriptures. They claimed to be Christian and used the skeptical methodology of the Sadducees to deny what seemed impossible in their human eyes or to explain away whatever was not to their liking. They held a cynical view of Scripture and created a “theology” that placed their unbelief and their feelings squarely on top of Scripture, vehemently denying what their biased minds could not and, therefore, did not believe.

Many of the things Machen said in 1923 can be applied with equal validity to Progressives today. Like the Liberals in Machen’s day, Progressives do use “traditional phraseology” and may quote Scripture, but context is missing, and new definitions are applied.

The result of imposing their personal feelings upon scripture is their embrace of a different Jesus and a different gospel. (2 Corinthians:11:4For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
See All...) They love the Jesus Who said to the woman accused of adultery in John 8, “Neither do I condemn you,” but their thinking excludes His next words to her, “go, and from now on sin no more.” Jesus says and does many compassionate things, and so should we, but Jesus also says things that are a bit harder to hear. Or maybe a LOT harder to hear. Jesus did not hold to a view that God had dropped His prohibitions on sexual immorality and never cheers those on who take pride in and celebrate sexual immorality. Jesus IS God, and as God, He both hates immorality and LOVES and wants to forgive and redeem those who have committed immoral acts.

https://midwestoutreach.org/2024/08/01/you-do-err/