Conspiracy!

Wow! Thank you so much for such a beautiful and meaningful piece of special music. So well arranged. Thank you to Mr. Morrigan for doing that. Mark Graham has such amazing abilities, so well arranged, and really a message in itself. Last week we were really treated to a wonderful piece as well. We've just been, week after week, it's a blessing to have special music.

You know, I wanted to mention about the potluck. We have a kitchen crew and they do a great job, but if guys you want to help out a little bit to put some things in the trash, they would love for your help. So I wanted to mention that. I meant to mention that in the announcements.

You are being lied to. You're not being told the whole story. They don't want you to know the truth. These and other statements are frequently used by conspiracy theorists to lure people into an alternative set of facts contrary to established thinking. And similar to fake news and these discussions we hear about media bias, conspiracy theories go well beyond that. Into the realm of casting doubt and creating fear about basic government institutions that we rely upon, and fundamental premises of how we live our lives.

And this fear, uncertainty, and doubt, which is a call FUD, fear, uncertainty, and doubt, can lead people to become upset, obsessed, and even in some cases become hostile towards others around them who they consider to be a threat. And it can fundamentally lead people to make very bad decisions. And we see this going on in our society today. We see packages being sent to former presidents, news outlets. We see people getting all riled up and attacking pizza parlors because they think things are going on because of these conspiracy theories.

And there's a wide range of conspiracy theories out there, from the harmless, relatively harmless, to the very, very dangerous. Did you know that Paul McCartney is dead? And Elvis is alive? Yeah. Did you know that Coca-Cola invented the new Coke because they wanted to sell more of the original formula? That was their plan all along, right? Now, these conspiracy theories are fairly harmless, right? Whether Paul McCartney is dead or not, you know, I think he's still alive last time I checked, and Elvis has been dead a long time.

But, you know, these are fairly harmless conspiracy theories. On the other hand, there's some very dangerous conspiracy theories out there. AIDS was created by the CIA to kill black people and homosexuals. That is a conspiracy theory. FEMA has set up concentration camps around the United States in anticipation of martial law and widespread genocide. Again, a conspiracy theory. And school shootings aren't real, but they are staged by the government as a means of promoting gun control. And no children were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary, and all their parents are paid actors by the government.

That's this conspiracy theory. Now, these conspiracy theories can lead people to dangerous and harmful behavior. For example, it is common now for parents of shooting victims to receive death threats because people think that they're just paid actors.

And their lives are threatened because people think that those people should come clean, that they're actually actors and their children were actually not killed. That's very dangerous behavior, but that is going on regularly in society today. But that wouldn't impact us in the church, would it?

Let's go over to Genesis 3, verse 1. Genesis 3, verse 1. And let's look at the very first conspiracy theory ever perpetrated on a human being. Genesis 3, verse 1. Genesis 3, verse 1 says, Now, verse 4 is the first conspiracy theory ever. And the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die. You're not being told the whole story here. God doesn't want you to know the truth, the real truth about this.

Let me tell you how it really is. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

See? That's an alternative set of facts. That's another way of thinking about something. But it's a lie. And it was intended to deceive. It was intended for a purpose. Eve was deceived. Adam was lured into this conspiracy. And it cost them and us dearly. From a USA Today article on conspiracy theories, what drives people to them, and no matter how wacky they are. This is dated December 23, 2017. According to the University of Chicago political science professor Eric Oliver and Thomas Wood, in any given year, roughly half of Americans believe in at least one conspiracy theory.

Okay, so that means there's half of us probably believe in one. Now, when I was going through this with my wife, she was like, well, I don't know if JFK was really shot by one person. I mean, you know, I mean, it's real, isn't it? We all have kind of things that we kind of walk around with in our head that might be contrary to established thinking. In their 2014 study, they found that 19% of Americans believe the US government planned the 9-11 attacks to start a war in the Middle East. 24% believe that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

And 25% believed Wall Street bankers conspired to cause the financial crisis that began in 2008. Those are high numbers considering there is zero evidence to support any of those theories. And a whopping 61% said that they do not believe the official conclusion of the Warren Commission that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy, according to a 2013 Gallup poll. So chances are most of us in this room, maybe half according to polls, have some alternative view that might be considered a conspiracy theory.

By the way, in the case of President John F. Kennedy, there were 2,900 documents recently released that still don't contradict the Warren Commission report. The Warren Commission report is 888 pages. Anybody read the Warren Commission report? Yeah, not many people have read the Warren Commission report. It's 888 pages, but let me tell you, a lot of people disagree with it.

Given this environment in which we live today, I think it's important that we take a few moments to examine what the Bible says about conspiracy theories and the challenges that we live with in the society dealing with all of these theories coming at us.

Fundamentally, we need to think critically, and I hope today that I can share with you certain things about thinking critically, asking hard questions about the motivations and intentions of the people who espouse these theories.

We will examine a key scripture in Isaiah that shows how God wants us to think about conspiracy theories, because believe it or not, it's in the Bible!

It really is. Conspiracy theories are in the Bible. And then we're going to look at the connection between the heresy of Gnosticism, which plagued our spiritual ancestors, and how conspiracy theories today are really just a modern form of Gnosticism.

And finally, we're going to look at what the Bible tells us about what to believe and the processes we should go about when we evaluate these types of things.

The title of today's message is, The Truth Shall Set You Free, from John 8, 32.

Let's start with, how does God want us to think about conspiracy theories or conspiracies?

Let's look over in Isaiah 8, verse 12, where conspiracies are discussed. In this case, it was a conspiracy with Syria.

It was a confederacy, and we'll get to that definition here in a moment, because the word conspiracy is translated different ways. Or the Hebrew word for conspiracy is translated different ways, I should say. Hebrews 8, and starting in verse 11, actually we'll go to verse 12.

Isaiah 8 and verse 12. Do not say a conspiracy concerning all that this people call a conspiracy.

Now, the word conspiracy here is the Hebrew word keshir. Keshir. Keshir. And it means confederacy, conspiracy, or treason.

It can mean all of those. It's typically translated conspiracy or treason.

And it's the same word that's used in 2 Samuel 15 to describe the plot against David by Absalom.

So conspiracies exist. There's a reason the word conspiracy exists, because there are conspiracies. So the Bible's not saying there are no conspiracies. It's just saying don't say conspiracy about all the things that people think are conspiracies.

Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines conspire as to join in a secret agreement to do an unlawful or a wrongful act. So you conspire.

So a conspiracy is an act of conspiring together. That's why sometimes it's referred to as confederacy. You're conspiring together.

So, for example, it is a well-documented fact that the Russian intelligence service, during the Cold War, conspired to discredit the United States by promoting disinformation about the origins of AIDS.

So this conspiracy theory about how the CIA created AIDS was actually created by the Russian intelligence services. That's well-documented as a way of discrediting the United States.

That was a conspiracy.

The Nixon administration conspired to cover up its break-in into the Democratic headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. That was a conspiracy. So conspiracies do exist.

We have to begin with that understanding, and that's why it's described here.

But Isaiah is warning the people here to be careful about what they call a conspiracy and how they react to that conspiracy.

The lesson for us today in the Church is a powerful lesson, because what he says here is, do not say a conspiracy concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.

This is the lesson that Isaiah is sharing with the people. Don't be troubled by what people call a conspiracy. He says here, the Lord of hosts, him you shall hollow.

Him you shall hollow. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

So the lesson here is, don't be afraid of the stories of conspiracy that you're hearing.

Don't think that everything is a conspiracy here, and don't be afraid of it.

Be afraid of God, because God is the one that's going to protect you from the real conspiracies that are taking place. God is going to protect you from those things. He will be, verse 14, a sanctuary. He will be a sanctuary for us.

So there are real conspiracies going on right now as we speak, no doubt.

But we don't have to be afraid of those conspiracies. We have to be afraid of God. And it's an interesting play on words, because we're not afraid of God in the same way that we might be afraid of a conspiracy.

We fear God, because that's the beginning of knowledge and understanding.

Fear, in that sense, is a much different kind of fear. Go over to Deuteronomy 10. Keep your place there. We'll come back to Isaiah 8. Go over to Deuteronomy 10 in verse 12.

Deuteronomy 10 and verse 12, and we'll see that Moses commanded the people to fear God in a right and proper way. Deuteronomy 10 and verse 12, Moses says, And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you?

Deuteronomy 10 and verse 12, But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

So that's the kind of fear that's being discussed here. Don't worry about the fear of those conspiracies. Fear God and trust in God. He will take care of you. He will be a sanctuary for you.

So, as I said, conspiracies exist. They are literal things. They are valid.

Now, theologically, the Church of God teaches that this world has been given over to the adversary for a period of time.

That is our theological construct. And we base that on Matthew 4, when Jesus Christ was tempted. He was tempted. And one of the ways he was tempted, as we know, was that he was taken into a very high mountain, and he was shown all the kingdoms of the earth. And Satan said, I will give all these to you if you just bow down to me.

And Jesus didn't say, Satan, you're a liar. You have no right to give these to me because I'm already in charge of them. No. He said, no, I will only serve the Lord God.

So, Satan had that right.

And, you know, we've talked about that before. You know, we've all dealt with a bad boss, right? I mean, Jesus might have said, well, you know, he's kind of a bad boss, but I deal with him. You know, I can take control of the world now. I can put all, end all the suffering now. I don't have to wait for my father's plan to come to place. I could go ahead and do this now, deal with a bad boss. I'm sure I could manage him. You know, I mean, you know, we've talked about those kinds of scenarios, right? He didn't succumb to that temptation.

See, it had to be a temptation. We call it the temptation of Christ there. It had to be a temptation. If he knew it wasn't Satan's world to give, then he would have not been tempted, right?

So, we know that Satan has control of this earth for this period of time, and he is in charge of these things. So, it is no doubt that he is working in the hearts of men to have them conspire to do bad things. Bad things against us, bad things against the government, bad things against the advancement of good in the world. That is no doubt. But that is just for a time.

And eventually, Satan will be removed as the God of this world, as it says in 2 Corinthians 4.4.

And Christ will return and establish his kingdom.

And that is the fundamental sort of understanding that should guide all of our thinking around conspiracy theories. Let's go back to Isaiah 8 again.

Let's go back to Isaiah 8, and let's finish the thought here, because what's interesting is that a lot of times people forget this.

They forget these fundamental principles, and they want to know more.

They want to find, I need to know. I need to know what's going on. Well, why do you need to know? Well, because I need to.

And so they go and they get more information. What's interesting here in Isaiah 8, if we skip down to verse 19, he says, When they say to you, seek those who are mediums and wizards. Now, why would you go to a medium and a wizard?

Because they know something special, right? They have secret insights, secret knowledge. They can tell you things that other people can't tell you.

When they tell you to go to mediums and wizards who whisper and mutter, should not a people seek their God? Why would you go over to these mediums and wizards to find out what's going on?

Because you're not sure you get the whole story, so you're going to go to them to get the whole story. Why don't you go to God?

Why don't you go to God to get the whole story? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? This makes no sense.

Verse 20, To the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. And that should sound very reminiscent, because that comes out in the book of John.

That's a very well-known citation that's discussed in the New Testament.

So, this is how we evaluate these things. This is how we understand these things. Godly wisdom tells us to seek counsel from God, to seek counsel from godly men and women, to meditate, and to evaluate what people are saying in the light of His Word.

That's the instruction from Isaiah. That's the biblical instruction from Isaiah. That's the test.

I want to read you a quote.

This is a book entitled, Selling Fear, Conspiracy Theories and End Times Paranoia by Dr. Gregory Camp. It was written over 20 years ago, and it's a summary of conspiracy theories in the United States over the last 200 years. He actually goes into Europe prior to the Illuminati, the Illuminati and so forth. It's a really interesting summary of conspiracy theories, and I got it about a year and a half ago because I've been thinking about conspiracy theories a lot, and the impact of conspiracy theories on God's people.

I want to read from the preface just a short quote that I think is really important for us.

This is from page 9. Too many Christians are possessed with the idea that secret societies control the world.

If you don't believe that, this book sold really well because it actually is a challenge and an issue.

The Illuminati, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Masons, the Trilateral Commission, and the international bankers are some of those who in the minds of many seek the abolition of private property, family structure, organized religion, national governments, inheritance rights, and capitalism.

The facts demonstrate that Christian people who believe and embrace these kinds of theories are in the same boat as atheists, agnostics, and evolutionists.

They have thrown God out of the picture as one who has lost control of this world. And I think that's a really poignant quote because that is where all this leads.

When we start to embrace these conspiracy theories, we start saying, God must have lost control. His plan must be off track. What can I do to help? And there's no logic to this thinking of how we would embrace that.

God is in charge. God has a plan. And nothing is going to interfere with that plan. And nothing, certainly, we can do or would do is going to change that. There is nothing to fear in these conspiracies except God Himself and to follow what God would say.

So that's the first point here about how we think about what the Scripture says, fear God and not conspiracy theories. Point number two, we'll talk about the connection between Gnosticism, anciently, and modern Gnosticism, which is this conspiracy theory, a set of theories we have today. Now, when someone says, you're not being told the whole story, by definition, they're saying they have special knowledge. See, they know something that you don't, and they're going to tell you about it. That's special knowledge. That's essentially Gnosticism. That's what Gnosticism is. It's about special knowledge.

The September 11th attacks on New York weren't done by airplanes, as some people think.

That's what some people think. They say, well, you know, it was actually controlled demolition that brought down the towers. Nineteen percent of the U.S. population believes this.

They weren't airplanes. I have heard some people in God's Church say that the airplanes were holographic images. They were not airplanes. They were holographic images projected into the sky that mimicked the impact, and then controlled demolition occurred in multiple places, causing the issue, ultimately causing the collapse. Now, I raised the 9-11 attacks because it's probably one of the most well-known conspiracy theories after JFK's assassination. Those are probably the two biggest ones today.

Now, so what does that mean? What does that mean? What it means is that there's a special knowledge theory out there that somebody is going to tell you about those holographic images and how those things got there. Somebody's going to tell you about the type of explosive that was used to bring down the tower. Somebody's going to tell you that they did this research or that research, somebody's going to go through all these things with you, and then you're going to have special knowledge. You're going to be special because you're going to know that. It makes you special.

I think, unfortunately, those of us in God's church are susceptible to this. Why are we susceptible to this? Because we have gone against the grain already. We're not afraid to say, yep, everybody's wrong about Sunday, and the Sabbath is the true day of worship. We're not afraid to say that. We're not afraid to say, all you guys out there, you're wrong and I'm right.

That's a good thing. We're willing to swim upstream. We're willing to buck the current. We're willing to call a spade a spade and say, look, it's in the Bible. Look at the book. That's good, but unfortunately that can lead to this sort of special knowledge desire. Oh, did you hear about this? Did you hear about that? Oh, let me go look at this. Let me go look at that.

We're kind of already in that space. What's interesting is that God's people in the first century weren't any different. Our spiritual ancestors weren't any different about this. They also had to buck the trend. In the Roman Empire, there were gods everywhere. They borrowed them from the Greeks, and the Christians came along and said, no, there's one God.

Like the Jews said, and the Jews were kind of weird, and they were like, we get that, but now there's Jesus Christ and he's God. They were totally bucking the trends of all the Roman Empire. It was even worse because they said, you can't worship those other gods. The Romans were fine. You want to have Jesus Christ as a God? We are fine with that. Go worship him all day long.

But the Christians weren't content with that. They said, no, I won't worship all those Greek gods and Roman gods. I will only worship one God. That's where the Romans were like, oh, you people.

The first century Christians were no different than we were in the sense that they were sort of bucking the trend. Let's go over to 1 Timothy 6, verse 20. We'll see that this combating of Gnosticism shows up in many places in the New Testament where Paul could see its creeping influence and warned early Christians about it. 1 Timothy 6, verse 20. Paul finishes his first letter here to Timothy that we have by saying, oh, Timothy, 1 Timothy 6, verse 20, guard what was committed to your trust. So I taught you things, Timothy. I shared the gospel message with you.

I have been with you. So guard these things. Avoid the profane and vain babblings and contradictions.

So all of these other things you're hearing, which I'm going to call vain and babblings and profane and contradictions, of what is falsely called knowledge. And this is universally understood by scholars to describe a reference to Gnosticism because knowledge here is the word gnosis.

Gnosis is this Greek word for knowledge, and that's what the Gnostics were all about. They had special knowledge. They had things that they knew about that other people didn't know about.

And Paul says, don't go down that path. Avoid those vain babblings and profane things of things they call knowledge. It's not knowledge at all. By professing it, some have strayed concerning the faith. Some were leaving the church over Gnosticism. And he was saying, guard against that. Don't let that influence your thinking. Now, if we go back to the beginning of Timothy, we'll see that it was on his mind as well in verse 4. So he basically begins and ends the book of Timothy with a reference to Gnosticism. 1 Timothy 1 verse 4, 1 Timothy 1 verse 4, 2 Timothy 1 verse 4, 1 Timothy 1 verse 4, 1 Timothy 1 verse 4, 1 Timothy 1 verse 4, rather than godly edification which is in the faith. And what are conspiracy theories but disputes? Right? It's all about disputing. Now, this word fables, if you've got an NIV, that's what's being described here. I don't have the time here in this message to go through a really in-depth discussion of Gnosticism. I would encourage you, if you want to study more about Gnosticism, there's plenty of things out there. The definitive sort of internet resource where the Gnostics describe modern Gnosticism today is Gnosis.org. That's where the Gnostics talk about themselves. Okay? So nobody's talking about the Gnos- because Gnosticism exists today. So modern Gnostics describe themselves on their website called Gnosis.org. It's about knowledge. And I'll just read you one quote. This is off a brief summary of Gnosticism off the Gnosis.org website. So I'm quoting now. Okay, now stay with me because this is complicated. Okay.

Most Gnostic scriptures take the form of myths.

The term myth- I'm reading- I don't believe this, okay? I'm just telling you what they say.

The term myth should not here be taken to mean stories that are not true, but rather the truths embodied in these myths are of a different order from the dogmas of theology or the statements of philosophy. Hope you got that. Okay, so what he's saying is that even though the facts themselves may not be true because they're myths, these myths tell larger truths. So, for example, the Gnostics believe that the story of Adam and Eve is a myth.

They believe that Adam and Eve did not exist. There was not a garden. Okay, it's a myth, according to Gnostic teaching. It's a myth, but it's a myth that tells a larger truth about the world. So even though the facts are not true, and it's a myth, there are true statements conveyed through the myth. And this is what the Gnostics taught then, and this is what the Gnostics teach now. And so when Paul says in 1 Timothy 1 verse 4, don't give heed to myths, he's talking about Gnosticism. He's like, don't go down that path of the Gnostics of like, well, did you hear the myth about this, or did you hear a myth about that?

Right? Don't go down those paths, because those things are endless genealogies. Now, endless genealogies is sometimes considered to refer to this understanding of what are called the Aeons, which are the patterns, or excuse me, the gradations of difference between the true God essence, which is like, you know, out there, sort of unseen and unknown, to down to us. And all these Aeons make up the difference between us and the God essence. And there's genealogy, and you have to understand, you know, what Aeon did what, and what Aeon created the world, and you know, what Aeon is around today. And Paul says, don't go down this path. They cause disputes rather than godly edification, which is in faith. So the the ancient, our ancestors, right, the ancient Christians here 2000 years ago, they were combating these people coming along, giving them this sort of special knowledge about what Christians should be doing. Let's go over to Colossians 2. We'll see one other example of this. Colossians 2 in verse 18. Colossians is also written to combat some of this Gnostic thinking. Colossians 2 verse 18, let no one defraud you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels. And this, again, this worship of angels is a reference back to this Gnosticism, where you had this spirit world with all these various gradations. And one of the sort of, you know, sort of offshoots of this Gnosticism was that these angels have a very important role. In fact, you know, certain people believe that Jesus was an angel, and that there's other angels out there, and you should worship these angels. Intruding into those things which he has not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. That is, this knowledge. You're getting these special things. And not holding fast to the head from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase which is from God. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, these sort of things that are out there that you might have heard about, why as though living in the world do you subject yourself to regulations? Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle. So this particular form of Gnosticism at that time was asceticism. People were saying that the body is evil. That's the lowest sort of form of these emanations, and the highest form is the God essence. And so what we do is we deny the body, right? We live ascetically, you know, we don't drink wine, and of course we've been through this before, right? You can't enjoy a feast, and you can't enjoy the Sabbath and all these kinds of things. And so you've got to deny yourself, and that's how you become godly. And Paul says, no, you know, reject all of that. Reject all of those things. And so the anecdote for this, this false humility and so forth, is to hold on to Jesus Christ. So when someone comes along, someone came along at that time, and they started espousing a theory about special knowledge, Paul says, hang on to Jesus Christ, right? Hang on to Jesus Christ, focus on His message and the body of believers as the anecdote. And by the same token, when someone comes along and starts arguing that the Illuminati control the world, and they want to put all the nations under their control in a one-world government, the first response that we should have as God's people is to consider what this means in the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what Paul's instruction were to the Colossians, right? So the question that should come to our mind is, hmm, what does Bible prophecy say? What does Bible prophecy say?

All right? Now this is important. I'll give you an example. Someone comes along and says, do you know that the United States is the beast power? The United States is going to be used to create a one-world government, and the beast is going to rule from the United States. Now you might say, hmm, okay, well what does Bible prophecy say? Well, Bible prophecy says that there's going to be a beast power at the end time. Okay, check, got that. But doesn't the Bible prophecy talk about a beast coming out of Europe? How would it happen in the United States if it's a resurrection of the Roman Empire? But there's a lot of mainstream Christians out there who believe the United States will be the beast power in the future. And yet, how can the United States in North America be a resurrection of the Roman Empire? Right? People are going to come along and say, do you know that the Islam is the beast? And Islam is going to take over the world, and it's going to be the beast power. Well, you know, if Islam conquers Rome and resurrects a Roman Empire in Europe, maybe.

But other than that, you know, you can't have a resurrection of the Roman Empire over here in the Levant and Syria. You know, Bible prophecy doesn't support that. So we have to go back to Bible prophecy and how that ties in with prophetic teaching and what Jesus Christ came to preach about the kingdom of God. If the Illuminati exists and they're going to create a United Nations and we're all going to get, you know, tattooed and so forth, right? 666 or, you know, these types of things. Does this mean Christ won't return?

Does that mean he won't protect his people? Does that mean we won't be protected?

How can we know? Well, we have this advice right here from the Apostle Paul. We go back to the Gospel mess of Jesus Christ and we evaluate, just like Isaiah said, everything we're hearing in light of the Word. What is the intention? Where is this going? Is this meant to divide? Is this meant to put people in fear? Is this meant to harm? Is this meant to take me in some other direction away from God? We have to ask those questions about these conspiracy theories.

And finally, the question is what to believe? What to believe? Right? Maybe JFK was shot by multiple people and it was a CIA plot and, you know, he was murdered. Right? What to believe? How do we think about these things? Look over in 1 Corinthians 2. 1 Corinthians 2. What to believe and how do we evaluate properly what we hear? Because we're going to hear a lot of things and it's only going to get worse. It's only going to get worse. And, you know, we see it day in and day out with this fake news, media bias, accusations on both sides. Right? Some people say, oh yeah, you know, the press are just not giving our president a break. Right? And other people are like, boy, you know, if the president would just quit tweeting, the media would quit. And, you know, there's division, right, within the country on who's right and who's wrong. And it's going to just get worse and worse and worse. And we've got to be prepared for what's going to happen in the future in the sense of we've got to hang onto the trunk of the tree and not be deceived as we proceed. So what did Paul say to the Corinthians? Corinth is just such a great example of a large, sophisticated city like many of the cities that we live in today. These people here were used to hearing all sorts of sophisticated things from people. And he says here, Paul, in 1 Corinthians 2, he says, and I, brethren, when I come to you, did not come with excellence of speech or with wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. He told them, look, I didn't have all these sort of, you know, highly persuasive, articulate things to share with you.

For I determined to not know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's what Paul said was important to him. I'm not going to start telling you about all this philosophy over here. I mean, the Greeks had a lot of philosophy. We quote a lot of it today.

But I'm not going to tell you all about that. I'm going to tell you about Jesus Christ and him crucified. He was going to focus on the big picture. And then in verse 3, he says, I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And that is an example for us. Does that mean he was like up here frail? And no, what it means is that to know Christ and him crucified, and that only, and to only preach that, that scared him. That made him tremble because he couldn't get up here. He was a rabbi. He had been trained at the feet of Gamali. He knew all this stuff. He could speak. He could go toe to toe with the Greeks and Athens. He had this stuff. He didn't want any of that filtering out. He wanted to talk about Jesus Christ and him crucified. And he didn't want to have anything else creep in. And he was concerned about that. He wanted to make sure that he did it right. In my speech, verse 4, in my preaching, we're not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. That is where we go in our decision-making. We are not putting our faith in the wisdom of men.

Oh yeah, but you know, there's a lot of evidence to support this. And then, you know, I'll pick this one. You know, the New World Order has established their world headquarters underneath the Denver Airport. You might know that, because the Denver Airport is massive. It's one of the largest airports in the United States, and it's way far away from Denver. Why would they do that? That's a conspiracy theory, right? That's the wisdom of men. That's the wisdom of men. That's where they've put that. No, we don't put our faith in the wisdom of men. We put it in the power of God. And so, if somebody comes with persuasive words, right, and human wisdom, and they're preaching all these things, Paul said, I stick to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And that's what we should do. I stick to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What's the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Right? Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. The literal Kingdom is coming, and He is going to rule in that Kingdom, and He is doing a saving work today to bring us into that Kingdom so that we might rule with Him through God living in us, developing godly character. Right? This is what the Gospel is. So we go back to that over and over again. Is there an elite group of individuals directing us towards a one-world government? Right. Yes or no? Some people say yes. My question is to those people who say yes is, does it matter? Really? Does it matter? Let's say you're right. Does it really matter?

Does that mean God isn't going to protect me? I don't understand Bible prophecy. Yes, there is going to be a one-world government. It's going to be led by the beast from Europe. I know that. Can we move on now? Right? Other than that, all I need to know is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I mean, okay, that's interesting. You know, it's interesting what the weather is tomorrow. It's going to be hot. Better wear a short-sleeved shirt. I mean, you know, I mean that's about the usefulness of that. God will work these things out in His time, and there's nothing that we can do regarding that. Look over in John 4, verse 1. First John 4, verse 1. We'll see here again how John told the church to think about men who would come in telling them things that might be contradictory or, again, they might sound good at the outset. He says, 1 John 4, verse 1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

But this you know the Spirit, but by this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the Spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. This is another anti-nostic scripture, because people were coming and saying Jesus Christ didn't actually come, or He wasn't a human, or He was an angel, or He was this idea. And John's like, no, you have to confess that He came and that He is God. And that's how we know these things. So our focus, once again, is on evaluating the message against the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you know someone who was in a mass shooting, and I hope that never happens to any of us here, you know, it's time to listen and comfort and support them.

Right? It's not time to think about gun control, or government conspiracies around gun control.

It's not time to sort of start going down that path. Some think we should have fewer guns, and some think we should have more guns to combat gun violence, and we're each entitled to our opinion on this. Right? Each of us have our opinion on these matters. But the point is, do we want to be associated with people who would argue that these are just conspiracies created by the government? Would we want to have anything to do with people who would espouse those things?

We don't need to turn there, but Matthew 5 verse 37 says, let your yes be yes, and your no be no. Right? Which we know is talking about swearing and taking oaths. But it's also at its base, it's talking about truth. When we say something, right, when I say something up here, I have to make sure it's right, I have to make sure it's true. And if it's not, then I've, you know, I have to admit my error. Right? But I don't want to even like, just start down that path. I just want to say the truth, right? If we listen to some thing that we've heard, and we pass that thing along, we're lying. That's what we're doing. We're lying. Somebody says, well, you know, actually there were two gunmen for JFK, or there was more than one. You know, we say that. If we haven't done our research, right, most people who go along with conspiracy theories are going along with somebody else's research, right? They're believing somebody else, because they haven't taken the time to read the 9-11 Commission Report. By the way, that's 500 pages, over 500 pages. Anybody read the 9-11 Commission Report? No. Nobody's read the 500 pages of the 9-11 Commission Report, right? But it was controlled demolition. If we say that, we're lying, right? We sincerely think we're telling the truth, but is our yes-yes really in that case? You know, the problem with conspiracy theories as well is some of the dynamics with conspiracy theories affect divisions in the church, because the same principles at work with conspiracy theories have plagued us in the church as well. People come along and say, did you hear what happened over in Name the City? I heard that the minister said this, right? Pick your place. Oh, really? And then we're right, we're into gossip, right? And we're into these things. And then there's division that comes about from that. And then people start taking sides, right? Are people stepping back? Are they listening? Are they doing their research? Are they asking questions? Are they giving people the benefit of the doubt? I like the pretension, right? We just sort of, well, that must be the case. It divides the church. It's an attitude that goes along with this belief in conspiracy theories. Again, I don't have the time to go into all sorts of analysis around why we believe conspiracy theories. I'm the same way. I, you know, I wonder who shot JFK. I really do. I really do, honestly, in my heart of heart. How that bullet went in and out and around. And, you know, I've seen Oliver Stone's movie. I'm like, yeah! Nailed it!

Right? But honestly, that's just me getting sucked into something, right? If I'm really going to say something contrary to what has been thoroughly researched, I better have a really good reason for doing that. And that's just me kind of getting sucked in and lured into all of that. These conspiracy theories are filled with tons of logical fallacies, which is a whole another thing we can talk about, right? Logical fallacies are, well, a famous person believes it, so I should, right? A lot of people believe it, so I should. And these also go to divide the church as well. We tend to do that. Oh, well, you know, this minister, you know, thinks that something's wrong, so, you know, there must be something going on. This attitude of conspiracy theories is poisonous. It's poisonous to a church. It's poisonous to what we do. I hope this discussion has been helpful. I hope you've written down some questions as we go through afterwards. Conspiracy theories. Isaiah tells us, fear God and not the conspiracy, right? Conspiracy theories. It's a modern form of Gnosticism. That's all it is. I have special knowledge, therefore I'm special. And how do we think about what we should believe? I know Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what Paul said. I hope we can hang on to these principles as we go and we deal with all of the things coming at us every day.