1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:18,860 Greetings, friends, family, and partners. This is Joe Watson, and you're listening to the 2 00:00:18,860 --> 00:00:27,140 podcast Choices We Believe. We all make choices every day, and the choices that we make often 3 00:00:27,140 --> 00:00:34,640 times will impact our lives, our eternities, our careers, our families, and these are the 4 00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:40,480 choices that I want to look at. In this podcast, I want to discuss the existence of whether 5 00:00:40,480 --> 00:00:47,240 or not there is God and His Word that He sends to us called the Holy Bible. That's His instruction 6 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:54,600 manual to us. So let's get started. As you probably know, every choice we make springs 7 00:00:54,600 --> 00:01:02,160 forth from an influence in our lives, whether it be circumstances, people, spirits, something 8 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:08,960 we read or heard or felt, it all comes down to input into our six senses. Yeah, I'm 9 00:01:08,960 --> 00:01:15,000 saying six. We have our five natural senses, but we also have a spiritual sense. Spirit 10 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:23,920 influences, introduce thoughts, causes to have questions. As far as God goes, the evidence 11 00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:31,560 is all around us. But sometimes we don't believe it. Some people do. Some people don't. How 12 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:37,160 interesting, do you find it fascinating that you can have two people observe the same 13 00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:43,920 evidence and come away with different conclusions. One person looks at the evidence says this 14 00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:49,280 proves there's a God. Another person looks at the same evidence and says this proved 15 00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:56,320 there is no God. So what does it mean? It means that we have a paradigm. From the time we 16 00:01:56,320 --> 00:02:04,320 are born, we are influenced and we develop a paradigm, a deep seated belief system about 17 00:02:04,320 --> 00:02:10,720 the existence of where we came from, where we're going, who we are, why we're here. 18 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:17,320 And so with this paradigm, we seek the evidence that will confirm what we already believe. 19 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:22,440 It is very seldom that you find somebody who's completely blank and looks at the evidence 20 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:32,000 strictly to draw conclusion from a neutral perspective. So think of it this way, as long 21 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:40,280 as God is a scientific debate, he will remain a scientific debate. You see, the thing is 22 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:48,600 God is a spirit that lives outside of linear time. While we humans exist within time, we 23 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:56,720 always have a beginning, a middle and an end. Everything in our lives has a start, has a 24 00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:04,800 middle and then comes to an end. Our lives, our marriages, our careers, holidays, you know, 25 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:09,600 vacation comes and goes, it has the beginning, we enjoy it and then it has an end. We have 26 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:19,040 to go back to work. My goodness. If we humans continue to believe we are the authority in 27 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:26,120 the universe, we will not see God. When we realize that there is a higher authority, 28 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:36,120 who is a person with all power, all presence, omniscient, then we will become believers 29 00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:44,280 of faith in God, not arguments about something, nothing that becomes something. God is the 30 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:51,640 uncaused cause. We all have choices to make and it will take faith to decide God or no 31 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:58,000 God. You know, it's called a leap of faith. You ever notice that people accuse those believing in 32 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:06,600 God, of having blind faith, but then again, they have a blind faith in believing that 33 00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:13,880 something came from nothing. That takes a bigger leap to me. Anyway, I believe in a 34 00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:22,400 person, a spirit called God, who knows everything, that he exists in my life because he changed 35 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:28,640 it. You know, some people say, is that reasonable? Well, I think so because of the influence 36 00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:35,360 he's had on me. You call it happenstance or circumstance, but my God has changed events 37 00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:44,560 in my life that would have been doom and destruction had he not put his hand in and made changes. 38 00:04:44,560 --> 00:04:51,880 One snowy winter day I was on a hill, snow covered street, I was trying to stop. The car was 39 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:57,680 skidding. I couldn't make that car stop for anything. We were going downhill headed for 40 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:03,280 a light pole. Car stopped two feet from the pole. Came to the stop. I had to thank 41 00:05:03,280 --> 00:05:11,840 God for stopping my car because I couldn't do anything to make it quit. Or a forest fire 42 00:05:11,840 --> 00:05:17,040 that threatened the neighborhood I was in. And it was burning hot. We got pictures of 43 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:23,200 it. It was coming. The fire department had given us a reverse 911 to evacuate. Everybody 44 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:29,560 was taken out of the neighborhood. They were, for sure, it was going to burn down. And suddenly 45 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:35,480 the wind changed. The meteorologists couldn't understand it. They tried to explain it using 46 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:41,920 their science. But I know that God sent angels to change that wind who blew the fire away 47 00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:48,920 from us. Our house didn't even smell like smoke. And the whole neighborhood was saved. 48 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:59,600 Circumstance, weather, whatever. I still think it was God. So, what does that mean? 49 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:05,640 It means that I believe in God. And I have seen things change in my life. He's affected 50 00:06:05,640 --> 00:06:12,320 my heart. He's affected my mind, the way I think. And by His word, He continues to enlighten 51 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:19,320 me. And you say, well, what is His word? Well, we call it the Holy Bible. It's fascinating 52 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:26,440 that 66 writings by 40 different penmen or writers from three different continents over 53 00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:33,280 a period of 1400 to 1500 years produced this book that has been tested and confirmed more 54 00:06:33,280 --> 00:06:40,640 than any book ever written. Is it God inspired? Is it God preserved? The 39 Old Testament 55 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:48,160 writings were accepted long before Christ as Scripture. Long many thousands of years 56 00:06:48,160 --> 00:06:57,080 ago, those 39 writings were accepted. Then after Christ, the New Testament was written 57 00:06:57,080 --> 00:07:07,480 by several different men. And it took about 500 years for their debates over it to decide 58 00:07:07,480 --> 00:07:14,480 on which ones to include and which ones to leave out. For those that were left out from 59 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:22,360 the beginning were settled. I understand that the book of Enoch and Maccabees and other 60 00:07:22,360 --> 00:07:29,120 such writings are very valuable. They're a point towards God. They're very sound and 61 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:36,960 good writings to listen to and read. But I also believe that God who inspired the first 62 00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:43,680 writings also guided those who were canonizing the final book and that it was His influence 63 00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:51,120 and His calling that caused them to produce the Holy Bible. 64 00:07:51,120 --> 00:07:57,360 Today we have many versions and those versions are good. I don't even know all the ones. 65 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:03,640 I have King James, the New King James, the New American Standard, a New Living Translation, 66 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:11,560 a New International Version. I have several of those and then there's the newest ones 67 00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:18,960 called the Message and the Passion Translation. But why do we have all these different ones? 68 00:08:18,960 --> 00:08:24,480 And which ones do you decide to read? Well actually I read multiple in order to get a 69 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:31,320 better understanding. But regardless of the one you read, I believe that Almighty God 70 00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:38,480 can get His message to you through your reading and your understanding that He helps to reveal 71 00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:43,920 Himself. You get revelation as you sit and you study this Bible. Because I believe it's 72 00:08:43,920 --> 00:08:51,760 true. It's been confirmed. In fact, you know, in 1948 over in Israel there was a kid playing 73 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:57,960 with a ball that fell in a hole and he decided to go get it. And in doing so, he discovered 74 00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:04,600 a small cave and a large clay jar was inside the cave and it's called the Dead Sea Scrolls 75 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:13,320 were discovered. And the people, the adults that assisted the young boy, determined that 76 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:21,280 all of the books of the Old Testament except for Esther were found in caves in that region. 77 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:26,040 I've been to that region and someone showed to me and pointed out the places where they 78 00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:33,200 discovered these clay jars that had scrolls of the Old Testament in Hebrew, ancient Hebrew. 79 00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:40,080 And as they were discovered, they found that the interpretation of the ancient Hebrew was 80 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:47,320 very, very close to what we have in our Old Testament today, which tells us that God preserves 81 00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:54,400 His Word and instructs us through it so that we can learn who God is, what kind of a person 82 00:09:54,400 --> 00:10:01,160 He is, His thoughts, His ways, and His desire to have a relationship with us, which is what 83 00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:08,000 it all comes down to the Holy Magnificent Almighty God that gives life to people and 84 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:13,880 wants a relationship. He cares about us. He loves us. And we will explore this even more 85 00:10:13,880 --> 00:10:20,560 in what choices we believe in future episodes. Thank you for listening. This is Joe Watson 86 00:10:20,560 --> 00:10:41,120 on Choices We Believe.