Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker 1

Greetings friends, and welcome to this edition of the chaplains chair. I'm going to dive right in and ask a serious question.

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And it's a question.

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Whose answer requires serious contemplation. When we do answer it.

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And some serious considerations when we do answer it.

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Who is God?

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Is he real?

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Was he just a creation out of our imagination? Is he someone that that mankind?

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After a few million years after crawling the primordial slime and decided to stand up on 2 feet, gave life to so he could answer the question. Why am I here?

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You know, when I talk compared to religions at a local college, I put this.

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Question to my.

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Students and I get a variety of answers of course, depending on their their worldview. I also got nearly universal acceptance of any and all gods from them too, and also universal acceptance of of what is clearly a conflict of viewpoints.

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God could be everything. Everyone thought he was, even if those beliefs contradicted one another. God was whoever an individual to find him to be in his own mind. And if that was what the case was that he was right, and if another student had a different opinion that he was also right, I posed a a couple of well, I I posted across some simple questions.

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Based on some basic laws now the first one being the law of identity.

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Which means in this particular case, God identifies himself as something I am God.

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And thus could not also be something else outside of who he identifies himself to be.

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And then we.

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Spoke to the law of non contradiction.

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Which can be described as God identifying himself as as someone else besides God.

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Or us equating God to be something other than what he has defined himself to be is a contradiction and not logically sound. God is what he identifies himself to be, or he is not. He cannot be both God and not God. And then he went on to the law of the excluded middle.

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The argument that God is God is either true or it's false.

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It can't be true for one and false for another. God is either God or excuse me. God is God is either true or false. If you affirm that God is God.

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You must logically deny that God is not God.

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OK, now that's the simple way to go about the discussion and that will suffice, I think, for the sake of the information in this podcast and the depths to which we're going to go.

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Now, this podcast is going to look at the question who is God and some other questions too. And you know, can we know or is it just a big guess? Is there a Council of beauties in the heavens somewhere playing some big cosmic joke? You know, a shell game?

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Will find the.

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Right. God, a big cosmic game show of will the real God please stand up.

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Each God leading a a trail of evidence, if you will, Brent crumbs to the real thing. Are there reasons and evidences to believe in God? Now the short answer is yes, there are.

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The long answer is, let's take a seat and let's see what they are. I want to start out with some definitions first, so we have a foundation of discussion. It says in John 4, verse 24.

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Jesus speaking said God is a spirit. What does that mean? Well, the Westminster Shorter Catechism offers a really good definition. I'm going to use and it says God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.

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John Milly theologian wrote in his systematic theology God is an eternal personal being of absolute knowledge, power and goodness.

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The system of Christian theology, often the definition of God, is a spirit absolute, personal and holy, infinite and eternal, in his being and attributes the ground and cause of the universe.

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And strong and his systematic theology and the theologian Charles Hodge thought this was probably the best definition ever. It's certainly all-encompassing. It says God is the infinite and perfect spirit in whom all things have their source support and end.

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So the greatest knowledge of mankind.

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Is the knowledge of God.

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It is very, very important. So what does this give us if we have this knowledge of God, what does this give us? You're going to look at later versus today. You're probably going to hear me, you know, flip some pages. But if we want to look at a really, really good example, we can go to the Book of Daniel in Chapter 3. And we have Daniel and his and his friends being being told.

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By Nebuchadnezzar that they need to bow down and and worship his image. It's a story I invite you to go back and read.

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But they're, you know, good, good Jewish boys and and they refuse idolatry is a sin and he has threatened them with, with, with death. If they don't do it.

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And it goes on and it says in Daniel Chapter 3 and verse 16 through verse 18, it says Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer you in this manner.

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If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up.

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This kind of upset the king, he said. If you don't do this, I'm it's raining in the furnace and these Jewish boy stood there and said, you know what our God is able to deliver us. And even if he doesn't, we're still not going to do it. There was a a contentment not in God, in in, in this case, you know this, this knowledge of God that you know gives you great.

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Illness and again we we find a very good example in Daniel Chapter one. The whole chapter really.

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We'll look at a couple of verses here. We'll look at Daniel chapter one and verse three says the King spoke under Ashton as the master of the Unix that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, of the King's seed, and of the Princess.

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And it goes down to row six and it says.

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These were now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hannah, Michelle, and Azariah. Now the whole chapter talks about how their loyalty to God and and is specifically the dietary laws revealed, you know the superiority of of their God and their strength and and faith in that God. It also will give us.

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You know some great thoughts.

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Of God, if we look in again, we'll go to Daniel Daniel, Chapter 4 and verse 17. It says this matter is by the decree of the Watchers and the demand by the will of the Holy Ones.

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To the intent that.

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The living may know that the most high.

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Will within the.

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Kingdom of men and gives it to whomever, whosoever he will.

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And setteth up over it, the basis of men reveals the power and sovereignty of God gives us some peace to know that God is in control of not just men, but of nations.

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And it gives us great energy for God and and again in the book of Daniel. It's a great book for that. It says in the chapter the Chapter 11, verse 32, it says. But the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits do great things. So we see that this is some of the fruit.

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Of the right knowledge of God that were content in life that were boldest to do or or bold to do what?

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Is right that we have great thoughts about the sovereignty of God, the things that God is able to do, the things that God does not do, and that it gives us the energy to be strong and do great things well. How can we know? God? Of course we have the Bible here and we know God through the Bible. But let's take a look at some of the means of knowing.

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As it's as it's outlined in the scriptures for us now, the first one we want to discuss, I'm going to talk about is what we call General Revelation General Revelation.

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And I want to.

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Point out it's sufficient to inform man to his need of God.

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God and to condemn him. If if he rejects what he can learn through nature, but you know really only faith in Christ is is able to say, if we look at the book of Acts Chapter 4 and verse 12.

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It says neither is there salvation in any other. They're talking about Jesus here, for there is none of the name given. Excuse me. Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we.

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Must be saved. If we look at Romans chapter 2 in verse 12, it says for as many as have sinned without the Marshall also perish without the law and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.

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So let's look at some of that general revelation. Let's start first in nature, there is general revelation in nature. I want to touch on some some false views first.

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One of them being.

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Well, since this comes from from Carl Bart, and we'll probably bring him up again in podcast in the future. But since man is.

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So completely lost.

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The image or the original image of God, he can have no knowledge of God at all. That's a false view. We can have a knowledge of God.

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And Booner said since man has not lost the form of God's image, he perceives something of God in nature. Also a false view. Or this one here. Nature is all sufficient as an all sufficient revelation of God, thus making special revelation unnecessary. You will probably find most deists that would espouse, excuse me, a.

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Spouse of you.

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Something like that. And what's the correct view of general revelation?

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Well, it's a general call of God A2 man, to turn to him and he uses nature to do that and we have some scriptural support for that. If we won't turn to Psalm.

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Chapter 8, we'll.

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We'll look at verses one through three, it says here Psalm of David O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth? Who has set the glory above the heavens out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained?

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Right. Because of thine enemies that thou mind is still the enemy and the Avenger. Here's the key part when I consider the heavens and the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained. So David looked into the heavens, and he could see God.

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If we look at Psalm 19.

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Verses one and two son of David again, it says the heavens declare the glory of God and the firm with showeth his handiwork. We want to know that our universe was created. Take a look at it. Take a look at some of the detail.

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If we look at Isaiah.

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Lakoff and Isaiah, in Chapter 40, he also wrote on this particular issue.

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Versus 12 through 14, who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out heaven with the span and comprehended the dust of the Earth. Even measure and waved the mountains in scales and the hills in the balance. Who has directed the spirit of Lord, or being his counselors, taught him with whom took he counsel and instructed him, and taught him of the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge and showed him.

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The way of understanding and it goes beyond the creation Isaiah wrote. It goes beyond our entire scope of thinking, conscience perceiving right and wrong is also involved, and the and the way that we think.

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If we look at in verse 26 of that same chapter, Isaiah says look up your eyes on high and behold, who has created these things that bringeth out their host.

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By number, he calls them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for he is strong in power, not one faileth.

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You know, jumping into the New Testament to acts chapter 14.

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In verses 15 through 17.

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Paul Paul speaking and saying service, why do you do these things? Where have men of like, passions with you and preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God? Keep out which made heaven and earth, and the sea and all things that are therein.

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And he goes on and says in verse 17. Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, and that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness. The probably the best.

00:12:09 Speaker 1

Explanation or description of where we find God in nature is in Romans chapter one.

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In verses 19 and 20 it says because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. For God has showed it unto them for the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead, so that they are without excuse. God says you want to see proof.

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That I exist.

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Take a look at what I've created and I think that's a good place for us to.

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But we can go beyond that and we can look at, we can look at our conscience too. This sense that we get here when you go in and you know you pick up that candy bar you didn't pay for and you put it in your your pocket. But before you do, you kind of look around and you get that feeling in the pit of your stomach that that says, hey, I just did something wrong. Well, that's covered in Romans 2.

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Verses 14 through 16, it says poll rights for when the Gentiles, which have not the law due by nature of the things contained in the law. These having not the law, are a law unto themselves. The his here's the key part here which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness.

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Conscience bearing witness to the law of God. So the scriptures teach us that the conscience reveals the absolute law of of right and wrong in the universe, and that there is a supreme law giver.

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Who embodies this law?

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In his own person and conduct now do we see the evidence of God anywhere else? When we do, we see it in history.

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What do you mean by that, you say? Well, let's take a look at Psalm 75, verses 6 and seven. The Psalms rights for promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the West, nor from the South. But God is the judge. He puts down one and sets up another.

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God is in control of what stands and God is in control of what comes down, and he's talking about nations here. If we go to acts, Chapter 17 acts Chapter 17, we are going to see something very, very similar to that. It says in Acts 17.

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Verses 26 and 27, God 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.

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That they should seek the Lord if happy they might feel after him and find him though, will be not far from.

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Every one of us.

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So God controls history.

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And sets history up and plans history that we see.

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Says in Romans chapter 13, verse one, let every soul be subject under the high powers. For there is one. There is no power but of God. The powers that be ordained of God. Whosoever resists the power, resist the ordinance of God, and they shall. And they that resist shall receive themselves damnation of the.

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There's a.

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This little part a lot of people don't like to read because this this person really comes into a lot of our political discussions and I'm not going to pick a party here, not even going to mention, I don't care if you don't like the president, whoever he happens to be. God put in there. I don't care what you think of world leaders. I don't care what you think about the influences.

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In society, pop culture, social structures, etc. Every soul is to be subject under the higher powers there.

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Is no power.

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But of God, the powers that be are ordained of God. Whoever is in charge.

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God put them there. We'll find this if we go through the Old Testament and we study it even.

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On a surface.

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Level that even.

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The Bad Kings God put in place and even says so for various different reasons, so we have to understand.

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There is a presence of God in history, and it's in it's meant to teach us things he wants us to see him in history and he wants us to understand things. I'm going to give you some examples.

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For that, let's go all the way back to Exodus Chapter 9, Exodus Chapter 9. If anybody listening saw the Prince of Egypt or they know anything about the parting of the Red Sea story. And I know some of my more advanced listeners know what I'm talking about for, but for the benefit of those who may not, this is when the Jews were enslaved in Egypt and.

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Escaped with the help of God. So let's let's start Nexus Chapter 9, verse 13. We're going to go through 17. It said. The Lord said unto Moses, rise up.

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Early in the.

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Morning and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, let my people go, that they may serve.

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And this is what God says, for I will at this.

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Time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants and upon thy people, that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.

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Now, these judgments he sent to Pharaoh God says I'm doing this to show you something, but there is none like me in all the earth. For now, I will stretch out my hand that I, my smite thee and my people with pestilence, and thou shalt be cut off from the earth and and in very deed, for this cause have I raised.

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Putting up for the showing me my power that my name may be declared throughout all the earth as yet exalteth thou thyself against my people, but thou wilt not let them go.

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So God has said look, I am making things happen in history and the purpose of these things happening in history is to let you know who I am now. That is probably the best example that we are going to find of God in history, that it's a story that we all know about. But if we go back through history.

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We can see the hand of God in a lot of things if we look close enough and I don't have time in this podcast to get into all of that. If we wanted a a modern example of how this is true, I I heard a a preacher one time he was arguing with somebody that said prove to me that.

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There was a God.

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And his simple answer was Israel.

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The Nation of Israel proves there's a God.

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You won't find a nation on Earth that has been persecuted as much as the Jew and Israel, and I think that you will find that that God has kept his promises to that nation and his people, and that is a an excellent example of God working through history that that we can look at.

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And say, OK, that's something I can relate to. This happened while I was alive.

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You know, so take a good look at some of that, but well, you know, we find out if we deal with ancient Assyria, we find that that that God dealt with them, we find that in ancient Babylon, just to give you, I'll point this out where you can find in the scriptures, if you read Isaiah Chapter 10, you'll see done dealing with the nation of Assyria. If you go to Jeremiah Chapters 1551, you'll see.

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God dealing with Babylon. If you go to Isaiah Chapters 4445, you're going to see how God dealt with the the the Middle Persian Empire. Daniel 7 talks about how God dealt with Greece and the Roman empires. So you will see all through the Old Testament how God dealt with Gentile nations.

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Just to give you a sense of how God deals in these in these special areas, but that is going to conclude our study for today. The next podcast we're going to look at special revelation, some of the special things that God did in history and we're going to be dealing with miracles and prophecy and looking at a bunch of verses for that.

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So I invite you to come back for that.

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And I want to thank you for stopping by this morning and I thank you for your support.