Christianity and Christians are taking a lot
of criticism in our day. Some to be sure is deserved.
We failed to live out our faith. But our ignorance
concerning the bedrock values and the impact
of faithful Christians is far more dangerous.
We have to go back to our roots. We have to know
what we believe and how those who came before
us have lived out the faith to change the world.
That's today. Stick around. Thanks for being
with us for this edition of Living on the Edge
with Chip Ingram. We are a global teaching and
discipleship ministry helping Christians develop
an authentic faith. As many of you know, Chip's
our regular Bible teacher, but for this series,
Dealing with Doubts, he's asked his friend John
Dickerson to teach a few messages and share his
unique insight. We pray you've learned a lot
through their joint approach to such a meaningful
topic. And to help others absorb the truths and
application of this series, take a minute after
the message and share it. You can do that through
the Chippengram app or by downloading the free
MP3s that you'll find at livingontheedge .org.
Well, with that, let's join John for the second
half of his talk, Jesus and Freedom for the People
You Love. Just imagine if right now there were
no universities in the United States, the roads
that you drove on today to get here, wouldn't
be like that because there wouldn't be engineers
trained to grade and design the road like that.
The vehicle you have wouldn't exist. The electricity
you had that you can turn on the lights, it wouldn't
be there. Without the university, you remove
that one thing from the last 1 ,000 years, and
we're back in the dark ages. So where did the
university system come from? Well, we don't have
to have an opinion about this or guess because
it's documented. The university system as we
know it started about 1 ,000 years ago in Europe,
and it started in Christian cathedrals. I'll
show you here the crest of Oxford University,
which is still ranked the number one university
in the world. Oxford was founded in 1096 AD,
so it is almost 1 ,000 years old. This crest
has three crowns on it, which are symbolic of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This
crest in the middle has some Latin words. What
do those Latin words say? They say this. The
Lord is my light. Education was called the light
of learning. And the whole idea was that the
light of learning would enlighten society so
that people could treat each other the way Jesus
said. Now, the church that Oxford grew out of,
was it a perfect church? No. Churches tend to
get corrupted throughout history. They get a
lot of power and money, and they tend to get
corrupted. But every time that happens, there's
a band of sincere followers of Jesus who say,
hey, this isn't about Jesus anymore. We're going
to break off, and we're going to get back to
following Jesus. And that happens all throughout
history. Oxford is not unique in being founded
as a Christian university. The word university
actually comes from a Latin word for all things,
universita. And these were cathedral schools
that were at the largest Christian cathedrals
throughout Europe. And they said, we're going
to start to teach all things, universita. So
if you trace the first seed universities like
Oxford, you'll find about a dozen of them throughout
Europe. All of them grew out of Christian cathedrals.
All of them have overtly Christian foundings
like this. Those universities would then train
up people like Isaac Newton. Now, if you were
to ask who's the most influential scientist in
all of history, who has transformed society so
that we now live in the modern era? You know
who I'd like to ask that question to? Albert
Einstein. Albert Einstein, who would you say
is the most influential scientist ever? And he
answered that question, and he said, it's Isaac
Newton. You know, you were taught about him with
the apple and gravity, that guy. Isaac Newton
unlocked the cabinets of science for all of humanity.
And soon after that would be the Industrial Revolution
and the modern era because of Isaac Newton's
learnings. Behind me here is a picture of one
of the pages of Isaac Newton's journals. He was
prolific. There are tens of thousands of pages.
Now, if you know anything about ancient languages,
you see at the top there Hebrew on the third
line. That's the Hebrew language, the Jewish
language. It's what the Old Testament is written
in. See, Isaac Newton started as a theology student.
He learned ancient Hebrew and ancient Greek and
ancient Aramaic. He would go into the libraries
at Cambridge and Oxford, and he would pull out
ancient manuscripts of the Bible. And all of
this is documented. He would do these mathematical
calculations from the Old Testament. He made
predictions based on those. And for Isaac Newton,
if you read his works like Principia, one of
his most seminal works, you'll find that his
theology and his science were hand in hand. He
was a devoted follower of Jesus. And we don't
know that from people's opinions. We know that
because we can read his own writings. You might
think, well, is Isaac Newton some weird anomaly
or exception? Here's the bottom line. Johannes
Kepler, who gave you your eyeglasses. Blaise
Pascal. Robert Boyle, who gave us Boyle's Law,
the father of modern chemistry. And the list
goes on. If you take a secular atheist list of
the most influential scientists in the scientific
revolution. And then you look at their own primary
writings, you'll find that over 90 % of them
were Christians and that over 70 % of them wrote
passionate things like Kepler and Pascal and
Isaac Newton about their faith in God. Here's
an excerpt from one of those journals of Isaac
Newton. He wrote, this is life eternal, that
they might know the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou has sent. Now, here's my point. I'm
not saying that Isaac Newton was perfect or that
any Christian was perfect. The only perfect person
is Jesus. But when people form a whole group
and say, we're going to try to obey the word
of God, it leads the people around them up into
more freedom, more dignity for the people around
them. And this would be my assessment based on
the hundreds of ancient documents that I compile
in the book, Jesus Skeptic. that we live in a
society that is the result of a pursuit of truth.
It's almost like climbing a mountain. Graduates
of Cambridge would cross the Atlantic and start
Harvard University, started by the Reverend John
Harvard, a pastor. And its seminary graduates
would go start Yale and Princeton. Their graduates
would start the University of Michigan and IU
and Butler. And literally the entire university
system that we know today can all be traced back
here in the US to Harvard, which traces back
to Cambridge and Oxford. And all of them were
overtly founded to teach the Bible. Clearly,
that's not their main thing anymore. But they
and their graduates have brought more light to
the world than perhaps any other movement in
history. Now, if you want to get nerdy like me
in the late 1800s, if you wonder why doesn't
Harvard and Yale, why don't they? teach all about
Jesus anymore. In the late 1800s, as many of
those nations that had been predominantly Christian
experienced prosperity and wealth and freedom,
unlike any other in the world, any other in history,
people thought, we're smart enough. We don't
need God anymore. This God stuff is kind of antiquated.
I mean, could a guy really raise people from
the dead? You're telling me that God came to
earth and died on a cross and rose from the dead?
And the smartest people at the smartest universities
decided we could build a better society without
God. Why do we need God? And this is very clearly
traced through academia and philosophy in the
late 1800s. You get at German universities that
had been founded by Martin Luther, a Protestant
Christian. You get this philosophic turn that
says we don't need God anymore. Perhaps you've
heard of Friedrich Nietzsche, who said around
that time, God is dead. We can build a better
society without God. Let's keep the progress
and the success and the technology, but get rid
of the Bible. And it wasn't long after that that
the world started to spin into chaos. Two world
wars would follow. And we now live at a time
where there's still a lot of Christian values
in our land assumed, but the overtness of Christianity
is pretty much not allowed. To the point that
in 2016, Oxford University, They pick a word
of the year every year to describe society. They
said the word to describe society now is post
-truth. Academics used to be about what's the
truth, but we've moved beyond truth. And it's
from that move beyond truth that some of the
greatest atrocities in human history have happened.
For example, if you think of the Soviet Union,
we all know that tens of millions of people starved
to death, that many educated people were arrested.
and thrown into prison camps called gulags, often
up in the Siberian wilderness in the snow. I
want to show you two paintings that demonstrate
this, not from my opinion, but from the Russian
people. This is a painting by a famous Russian
artist named Mikhail Nesterov. This was before
the Bolshevik Revolution or before communism
took over. What was communism? It was the philosophy
of Friedrich Nietzsche. And his peers, Karl Marx
and others, who said, we don't need God. We can
make a better society without God. And in this
painting, what you see is Jesus on the left.
And you can see all the different classes of
Russian people looking to Jesus. Because that
was the Russian norm. Was it a perfect church?
It was the Orthodox church. It was far from perfect.
It was pretty corrupted. It was pretty broken.
And yet. People of every class knew about Jesus
and worshiped him to some degree. Russia was
known in the late 1800s as the Holy Rus or the
land of a thousand domes because the Orthodox
churches would have these domes on them. Well,
as Lenin and other young Russian revolutionaries
read the post -God ideas from the German seminaries,
they led the country to completely turn away.
Clergy would be arrested. church bells would
be melted down. And at that time, this same artist,
Mikhail Nesterov, painted a second painting.
If you look closely at the middle of this painting
to the right, you'll see clergy and others holding
what looks like a portrait. And if you study
it closely, it's the face of Jesus. And then
Nesterov painted over the face of Jesus with
dark paint. And the whole point is he's symbolizing
that my nation has said we're no longer going
to follow Jesus. We're going to follow a new
young ideal. And if you study it closely, you'll
actually see a kind of John the Baptist prophet
who looks half naked and he's trying to warn
them. Don't do this. Don't try to make a better
society without God. It won't work. Well, we
know from the last 100 years how it worked. Massive
decreases in human rights. starvation, loss of
private property. If you want to know, well,
John, was it getting rid of God that really made
all this happen? How about instead of me answering
that, how about we ask the best, one of the top
academics from the USSR, who once he disagreed
with the government, got arrested and taken to
a prison camp in the snow, survived. His name
is Alexander Solzhenitsyn. And after the fall
of the Soviet Union, Solzhenitsyn went around
the world trying to warn people. Here's what
he said. If I were asked today to formulate as
concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous
revolution that swallowed up some 60 million
of our people, I could not put it more accurately
than to repeat, men have forgotten God. That's
why all this happened. That's the opinion of
an academic who survived the gulags. You can
read more about it in the book, Jesus Skeptic.
I'm not going to unpack it anymore today, but
my point is this. What people believe affects
the way they treat the people around them. You
multiply that out by millions of people, you
get radically different societies. Jesus said,
if you hold to my teachings, what did he say?
Love your neighbor as yourself. If you give a
cup of cold water to someone who's thirsty, you've
done it as unto Almighty God. When societies
follow the words of Jesus, those societies lead
the way in freedom. And when societies discard
the words of Jesus, they lose those freedoms.
Now, we can't control entire societies, but we
can control ourselves and our families and our
movement. And we can be people who say, we will
hold to the teachings of Jesus no matter the
cost. Because that's the best way to guarantee
freedom and prosperity for our kids. And it's
the best way to guarantee for ourselves freedom
from addiction, freedom from greed, freedom from
unforgiveness. If you hold to my teachings, you're
really my disciples. Then you'll know the truth.
And the truth will set you free. You're listening
to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. And we'll
get back to our guest teacher, John Dickerson,
in just a minute. But let me quickly ask, do
you know someone who's a skeptic? Maybe it's
that close friend or family member who genuinely
doubts the truth of the Bible or the existence
of Jesus. Well, stick around after the teaching
to hear about a resource bundle we've put together
that'll provide answers and direction for that
doubter in your life. But for now, here again
is John. I'm actually a pastor's kid. Some of
you probably didn't know that. Pushed away from
it for a season. And then God brought me full
circle. Part of how God brought me full circle
is that when I pushed away and I was skeptical
and I was working as a journalist and a reporter
with the values of I want to speak the truth.
I want to expose corruption. I want to help the
weak. I want to bring justice and accountability.
I realized as I looked around the world, those
are actually Christian values. And even if I
think I'm too smart to be a Christian, when I
go out and do work along those lines, I'm actually
doing work along the lines of Christian values.
And then as I looked more into my family of origin,
I'm one of four boys. By statistics in the US,
if all four of us are married, two should be
divorced, right? That's about the divorce rate.
All four of us are happily married. All four
of us are free from addictions. All four of us
are excelling in our respective fields. One's
an educator. One's a businessman. One's a varsity
basketball coach. And I looked back through my
family, and this wasn't always the case for my
family. It was when my grandpa trusted in Jesus
in the 1940s that he had a radical conversion,
and he broke the patterns of the Dickerson family
going back hundreds of years. He broke patterns
of abuse and of depression. That all changed
when my grandpa was transformed by Jesus. And
then he passed that freedom on to my dad. And
my dad wasn't perfect, but he raised me with
one thing. He said, John, I don't care how much
money you make. I don't have any money for you
for college. I don't care if you're successful
in this world, but you have to know the word
of God. And he just filled my mind with the word
of God to the point that even when I pushed away
from it. And went off and made the money and
got successful. The word of God was still in
there. The greatest inheritance that any child
can have. And the word of God continued to speak
to me. And then as I did the research, I saw
that this claim, if you hold to my teachings,
the truth will set you free. That it's proven
in families, in individuals, even in societies.
God's truth obeyed sets families free. I wonder
today, what if the best thing that you could
do for your family is to believe Jesus more and
obey him more? I found that to be true for me.
What if the best gift that you could give to
your family is to make sure that every week they're
gathered with other believers so that their minds
are being filled with God's truth? I want to
show you the story of a mom here in our church
family who in some ways similar to me was raised
in a branch of Christianity, but kind of turned
away. Go ahead and have a look. I loved growing
up in the church that we had that faith. My parents
instilled that faith and I went and changed that.
I just, for my family, I wanted. I wanted something
a little bit different. I wanted them to have
the faith, but I wanted there to be a better
understanding of what it is, what it means, and
why it's important. And I think that's why I
stepped away for as long as I did, because I
didn't know what I wanted that to look like.
I grew up in the Catholic Church, family of five,
so very faithfully went to church every Sunday.
As a little kid, you don't really understand
anything that's happening. You're listening to
the priest talk, and you don't really know what
that means. So in college, I started questioning
what I personally believed. Like, the Catholic
faith was my family's faith. And again, I love
that I was raised in the church, but I just wanted
to try to better understand what my own faith
was. My husband and I got married. He was not
raised in the church, and so didn't really have
that interest or desire. And then kids came along,
and I really had a strong desire to get back
into the church. But I still didn't know what
church, what kind of church. So I did some church
shopping with the kids. And then my husband would
come for your major holidays because it was always
a great family photo opportunity. But just nothing
really sank in for him. But then the Easter before
the Greater Things campaign, he, on his own,
came down. Just started the message with John,
just hit him just right. So he started attending
with us. Me coming consistently, the kids coming
and getting more involved in their baptisms.
You know, because as a young adult, I really
had a firm belief that, well, I was already baptized.
And my parents did that for me. I don't need
to do that again. And I was very adamant that
I didn't need to do it again. But then, again,
just after seeing everything, the kids being
baptized, my husband coming to church, which...
is something I prayed about for about 14 years
and really never thought it would happen. I just,
I made that decision for myself. So I did a believer's
baptism this past January. And then the August
came up and he was like, I think I'm ready to
do this. I was like, okay. And then it was also
really funny because we had a lot of conversations
about who was going to do the baptism. And I
told him it's usually... whoever brings you to
the church, what that looks like. I said, so
that's something I can do, or if you'd feel more
comfortable with some of the other guys that
you've gotten to know. And so then he finally
just said, well, I'm going to let whoever's there
do it. Well, then he filled out the registration
and read more into it. And the night before,
he's like, well, this is what the registration
says. So I really think that should be you. So
I actually got to do his baptism, which was amazing.
I don't even know how to put it into words. It
was just the most amazing, joyful, exhilarating.
Like, I really never, ever imagined that that's
something he would choose to do, let alone being
the one to get to do it for him. And the kids
were watching, so that was really cool, too.
of our moments. What family doesn't? But the
type of music that we listen to has changed.
Both of the boys have been praying before like
their marching band. They pray before their performances.
A couple years ago, that's not something they
would have done. Really, a church -like connection
point, it's as big or as little as you want it
to be. If you come and you just come and sit
through service, it's probably going to feel
really big and you're probably going to feel
lonely. But if you come and you plug in, then
it's the smallest church in the world. Isn't
that a great story? I love seeing God set people
free. God's truth is always available to set
you free in your life, but whether it will or
not depends on will you obey it. And I hope you've
heard from me, you don't have to obey it perfectly.
You just have to obey it willfully, intentionally,
with some consistency. We all still stumble and
fall down. We're a group of imperfect people.
But what we have in common is when we fall down,
we've got people around us who pick us up and
dust us off and say, keep following Jesus. He's
the path to freedom. You're listening to Living
on the Edge with Chip and Greg. John Dickerson
has been our guest teacher for this program,
Jesus and Freedom for the People You Love, from
our series, Dealing with Doubts. He and Chip
will be back in studio shortly to share their
application for this message. If someone were
to ask you, how do you know Jesus actually lived?
Or can we really trust the Bible? What would
you say? Join pastor and award -winning journalist
John Dickerson as he explores these complex topics.
Drawing on evidence from various credible sources
and the impact Christians have had throughout
history, John builds a credible case for believing
in Jesus. Our hope is that as you listen, you'll
be able to confidently say, Jesus is real, the
Bible is true, and I can prove it. In fact, we
have some valuable tools to back you up. Anytime
John or Chip mention a book, podcast, or article
in this series, you can easily find it on our
resources page at livingontheedge .org. We want
to equip you with practical Bible -centered materials
to use personally or share with others. So check
out the resources page at livingontheedge .org
today. Well, I'm joined in studio now by Chip.
And we're in the middle of this series that you
and John Dickerson are teaching together. And
I was hoping you'd take a minute and talk to
those who are thinking, John has spent a lot
of time talking about history. Why is that so
important? I mean, what can we really learn from
it? Well, I'd be glad to, Dave. And what I would
remind them is much of the entire Old Testament
is history, and history matters. The book of
Acts is basically history. And the facts that
John is digging in talk about how we got our
biblical worldview, why we can trust the scriptures,
what foundational things have happened. You know,
we live in a culture where people talk about
how prejudice is wrong and social justice is
important. And we want medical coverage and opportunity
for all people everywhere. What many of them
don't understand. All those grew out of a history
of Christians that were faithful to the text,
faithful to God, and used their gifts because
they had a worldview that said, Jesus cares.
All people matter. In fact, social justice, racial
equality, education for all, medicine that's
available, scientific discovery, and literacy
for the masses have all grown because of a Christian
worldview and context. And I will tell you what,
it's just so encouraging to me for someone. who's
an academic but speaks our language to set the
record straight. I was a skeptic myself, and
I so appreciate John's work because I went through
the same process. I just really wondered, can
I really believe any of this? In fact, I rejected
it early, and it was my firsthand journey that
helped me come to realize I can trust the Bible.
I can trust the claims of Christ. The impact
of Christianity, despite our flaws, has shaped
the world for good. So if you're in the middle
of that journey or watching one of your kids
or grandkids wrestle with what they believe,
we have some resources that can help. During
this series, we've bundled two of our more popular
books, Jesus Skeptic and Why I Believe. We pray
that as you read these books from John and Chip,
you'll uncover the evidence for Jesus' existence
and the accuracy of the Bible and how Christianity
has positively shaped our world. So if you want
answers to some of these big faith questions,
check out this bundle today. Visit livingontheedge
.org or call us at 888 -333 -6003. App listeners
tap special offers. Well, before we go, here
again are Chip and John. Thanks, Dave. Well,
John, this is our last opportunity to talk together
in this series. And I just want to say I really
appreciate your perspective and the blend that
you brought of historical narratives, your research,
and actually tied it into what we're experiencing
today. I think we've got so much information.
actually misinformation about our past, about
our history, and about what Christianity is and
what it is not. And so, John, could you address
what you really hit on, this idea of legacy?
You shared the biblical foundations that were
laid in your family. What do you say to that
mom or dad or, you know, grandparent who says,
I really want to see a biblical legacy in our
family? Oh, man, Chip, you know, the first thing
I'd say is, I'm so proud of you. Way to go for
wanting to leave that kind of legacy. And I just
cannot encourage you enough to pour fuel on that
fire of the desire to leave a godly legacy. You
know, God says that as we commit our desires
to him, he makes our path straight. So I would
encourage you, if that's a desire of yours as
a parent, grandparent, an aunt, an uncle, Pray
that to God regularly. Let him know you want
a godly legacy. And, you know, the next thing
I'd say is this. The word of God has a power
to speak to your kids, to your grandkids. And
this might sound a little silly, but, Chip, I'll
share with you one of the ways that I encourage
my 12 -year -old son to read the word of God.
Maybe some listeners will take this. I actually
pay him, and I know that sounds really unspiritual.
but he loves reading. And I started him when
he was about nine on the proverb for the day.
And now he also reads a New Testament chapter.
And the way this works is every night before
bed, he reads now two chapters of the Bible.
He's got a journal. He writes down his favorite
verse and a prayer. And that it's true, if he
gets 30 days in a row, I actually pay him a little
bit for that. I think it's one of the greatest
investments I can make. And so whether you're
bribed I mean, your kids and grandkids are not.
I would say getting the word of God into their
minds. And then equally important is making sure
they're part of a body of believers. You know,
nationwide right now, two out of three young
people raised in Christian homes. will reject
or drift away from Christianity between their
18th birthday and their 29th. So two out of three
is the national average right now. One of the
biggest consistencies of those one out of three
who stay... they had parents who were in church
every weekend. They weren't missing church for
sporting events. They weren't in and out of church.
And by the way, those one out of three typically
had parents or a grandparent taking them to church
who was active, not only attending, but serving
and giving. Parents and grandparents who then,
behind the scenes, when no one else is looking,
when they're driving in the car, they're talking
positively about the church and how God is at
work. When a son or a daughter, a grandson or
a granddaughter, grows up in that kind of home
and environment, and when they're reading the
Bible for themselves, they're far more likely
to be that one out of three who also really absorbs
Christianity and then passes it on to the next
generation. So hey, if you're listening and that's
on your heart, I cannot cheer you on enough.
That is a godly desire. Pray that desire to God.
Get the word of God into the heart and mind of
your kids and your grandkids. Take them to church.
Speak positively about church. Let them see how
God is transforming your life and then pray that
God will do the same in theirs. Encouraging word,
guys. Thanks. Well, just before we close, I quickly
want to thank those of you who regularly give
to Living on the Edge. You're making a big difference
in helping Christians live like Christians. But
if you're benefiting from our ministry and haven't
started giving yet, let me encourage you to join
the Living on the Edge team. You can do that
by setting up a recurring donation at livingontheedge
.org or by calling us at 888 -333 -6003. That's
888 -333 -6003 or visit livingontheedge .org.
App listeners, tap donate. And thanks for doing
whatever the Lord leads you to do. Well, thanks
for listening to this edition of Living on the
Edge with Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Drewy, and I
hope you'll join us again next time.