Episode 7 – Grace in Action

Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Script/Notes:

All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal.

Psalm 119 verse 160, New International Version

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

Psalm 145 verses 17 and 18, New International Version

You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. The Gospel of John, chapter 18 verse 37, New International Version

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VK: Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m Victoria K here in the studio today with RD Fierro, author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. Today we’re going to listen to another humor piece from Life Lesson with a Laugh brought to you by Crystal Sea. What is keyed up for today, RD?

RD: Today we’re going to hear the second episode from the story of Noah and the Ark. Again, the story is very well known but I think today’s episode may point out a couple details people sometimes gloss over but are really important.

VK: Sounds intriguing. Let’s get started.

---- NOAH 2 – The Importance of Families – Dry Land Has Me Dreamin’

VK: So, you’re still coming up with new names for Jerry. But they do seem to fit the points under discussion. I kind of liked Jerricane. But I’m sure the weather that accompanied the arrival of the flood isn’t what you were referring to when you said there were details about the story you wanted the listeners to reexamine.

RD: Thankfully, Jerry is a really good sport about my challenges with names. But you’re right that’s not what I want to focus on today. There are two principles that I wanted to bring to the listeners’ attention today. First, obviously, is the importance of families to God’s overall plans for redemption. The second is that the story of Noah, like all the stories in the Bible, would lose any significance to God’s grand plan of redemption if it were not true – and I mean true literally – as an event that actually occurred in history. Just as real as someone going to the store yesterday to buy milk. If they didn’t actually go to the store, there’s no milk in the fridge. So, today, I want to begin what will be a continuing discussion on our shows – a discussion of the truth of the Bible and how it pertains to our lives and salvation.

VK: Well, in a culture where we’re confronted by relativism on every corner, a discussion about the truth of the Bible sounds like it will be very challenging. Where do you want to begin?

RD: Let’s start by talking about how the story of Noah is linked to the grand saga of redemption.

VK: You mean beyond just the fact that if Noah hadn’t built the ark all humanity would have perished so that would have ended the story of redemption fairly quickly?

RD: Yes, but beyond that Jesus compared the situation that will exist on earth just before His return to the situation that was on earth just before the flood. Let’s listen to that part out of the Gospel of Matthew:

But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24, verses 36 through 39, New International Version

In doing so Jesus removed any doubt about whether the Genesis 6 flood was a historical event as opposed to just being an allegorical tale designed to teach some lessons on ethics and morality. Jesus referred to Noah as a real person who lived in a real culture living real lives – having parties and banquets and going to weddings. And Jesus also refers to the lack of awareness on the part of the people of the danger they were in. So, if we believe that Jesus will really return at some point in the future – that that will be a literal historical event – we are compelled to believe that the historical parallel He cited was also historically literal. Even more than that, if Jesus were mistaken about the historical accuracy of the flood and Noah, then that would mean that Jesus was capable of error – and this would directly contradict the Christian claim that Jesus was God, because as God He must be perfect.

VK: So that’s one of the reasons you wanted to use the Life Lessons series on Noah as part of Anchored by Truth. Because besides being well known and entertaining, the story of Noah has implications for many of the larger issues we want to discuss.

RD: Exactly. If the story of Noah isn’t true then Jesus would be disqualified from being our savior.

VK: But of course today you hear people say things like “that may be true for you, but it’s not true for me.”

RD: Yes, and when they do they’re subtly transforming the meaning of the word truth than the way it has been classically understood. They’re using “my truth” not to mean truth so much as to mean their opinion or their preference. That’s not what people have historically meant when they talked about something being the truth.

• Ok. So, what is truth?

◦ Truth is that which corresponds to reality. And it’s really no more complicated than that, but in John 14:6 Pilate illustrated the human tendency to think that in some situations we can either negotiate with reality or at least that it is very difficult to know what a particular reality – or truth – actually is.

• I think that’s an important observation. Sometimes it is hard to determine the truth in certain specific instances. I’m thinking about criminal trials as being a prime example. The police officer may say one thing, but the defendant on trial says another. Obviously, in criminal trials or questions about health or similar situations it’s important to know the truth. But why is it important to know the truth with respect to God and the Bible?

◦ The most basic law of logic is the law of Non-contradiction. “A cannot be A and non-A at the same time and in the same relationship.” We live our lives in accordance with this maxim regardless of whether we take the time to recognize it or not. Life without truth would be utterly chaotic. All people live their lives depending on their ability, and that of the people around them, to differentiate truth from lies or error. Despite this daily dependence on truth, however, when it comes to what is sometimes referred to as absolute truth, many people, especially in this day and age, deny that absolute truth exists.

• Is there such a thing as absolute truth?

◦ Despite that the fact that many people deny that absolute truth exists, it does. One way to demonstrate this is by considering the statement, “there is no such thing as absolute truth.” If someone were to answer yes to that statement then the next question would be, “Is the statement that there is no such thing as absolute truth, absolutely true?” All truths are absolute in the sense that each statement of individual truth is separated from all the other possibilities about that particular item. There are a nearly infinite number of individual truths but all of the individual truth statements are absolute. Conversely there are multiple possibilities of error for each individual truth. Of course, I recognize that most people when they think about absolute truth aren’t thinking about whether a particular glass jar in the kitchen contains salt or sugar, they’re referring to God, or spiritual knowledge, or the secret to the universe.

• Can the truth about God be known? After all, there are a huge number of different ideas about God and even about whether God, or any god, exists at all.

◦ Yes, I believe we can know some true things about God but first we must distinguish between our ideas and preferences about God from the reality of God as he is. If God doesn’t exist, a preference for Him to exist won’t create him. If God does exist, a preference that he didn’t won’t extinguish Him. If I would prefer a God who never judges me or anyone, or holds anyone accountable, but in His nature God is a God of holiness and righteousness then my preference doesn’t change Him. It is also important to state that we cannot know God exhaustively. God is infinite. Man is finite. A finite being cannot comprehensively or exhaustively know everything about an infinite being. This does not mean, however, that we cannot know things about God that are absolutely true. We can have a true, albeit non-comprehensive knowledge of God.

• How can we know true things about God?

◦ Before we start, I want to emphasize that the rationale I will be presenting here today, and in fact throughout all the episodes of Anchored by Truth, is about the God of the Bible. I am not trying to discuss other concepts about God generally or how other faiths might think about God. I am well aware of the some of the differences in the various religious viewpoints, but we don’t have the time in our episodes, at least at this point, to get into the many varying concepts. We may at some point in the future, but for right now when I talk about God I am only using that term as it refers to the God revealed by the historic Christian Bible.

◦ Also, here it is also important to distinguish between subjective and objective awareness. Put simplistically, it is the difference between the internal and external perspectives.

• So, what you’re getting at is that some people assert that we can only know God through subjective means – through our feelings and experiences – but you don’t believe this is true. At a minimum, we can know the God of the Bible through His work and His word. It’s tempting to say that since God is unseen and unheard in our day that we can’t be certain that He is actually there, but you don’t agree with that?

◦ No, I don’t. If you ask a husband or wife whether they love their spouse they may say yes, but how would they answer the question if they were told to “prove it.” Well, if all they had were their feelings, they would be hard pressed to prove their love. But generally, there would be evidence. Gestures, notes, expressions of concern, etc. would all help to demonstrate their affection. Those external expressions would be objectively visible and would demonstrate the validity of the subjective assertion.

◦ God can be known through his work and His word. Or said a little differently God who is the ultimate cause can be known by His effects – in His creation and though His activity during the history of that creation. God can also be known through His word – the Bible and through His living expression of the Word, Jesus. Or as we refer to him – the Boss. Those are things we are going to focus on as we meander through the series of Life Lessons with a Laugh about Noah as well as others we’ll introduce later.

VK: That’s the same point that Paul made to the church in Corinth. Let’s listen to a selection from Chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, verses 12 through 19. All of today’s readings are from the New International Version:

“But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith… If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

RD: Precisely. In that brief paragraph the apostle Paul is saying something of eternal importance, something that seems to be vanishing in our current culture at an astonishingly fast rate. Paul is stating that the Christian faith is dependent upon specific truth and facts – in this particular case the fact of the resurrection of Jesus. Strangely enough, there is also a direct link between the flood account in Genesis 6 and Jesus’s qualifications to be our Savior.

VK: That seems pretty amazing. There’s at least 3,000 years between the actual flood and the time Jesus lived. And there’s probably 1,500 years between the time Moses wrote Genesis and Jesus’ lifetime. How does the account of Noah and the ark have any impact on Jesus’s qualifications as the Savior?

VK: Sounds to me like a good time for a prayer. Today's prayer comes from the book Purposeful Prayers: Seeking to Pray Like Jesus. It’s a prayer of adoration for the Holy Spirit who the Bible says is the One who leads us to the truth.

---- Prayer for Fathers, radio version.

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(Bible Quotes from the New International Version)

Psalm 119 verse 160

Psalm 145 verses 17 and 18

The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24 verse 36 through 39

The Gospel of John, chapter 14 verse 6

The Gospel of John, chapter 18 verse 37

1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 12 through 19