Welcome to the MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my twenty sixth episode. Tonight I’m going to present to you a call to discussion that I gave at my church as the preamble to our new ministry. For the next six weeks, we will be meeting Wednesday nights to discuss ideas and biblical principles. I will be publishing my talks from those meetings to the podcast after giving them live.
You know I’ve always been the enlightenment type. I didn’t march out into the world hoping to find answers in the church. I transitioned from the strange mindset of a teenager who thought he knew everything into an adult who was given the privilege of watching his worldview collapse. I call this a privilege because many men do not survive their own misbehavior long enough to witness it. It is the absolute providence of God. Not only did he surround me with the right people at the right time, he graced me with a glimpse of just exactly how evil human beings could be. Furthermore, he revealed to me that evil is the natural mode of being for a soul that is apart from him. All of that was given to me as pure experience. I had never opened a Bible.
When I arrived at the Chapel of Hope I began to see a man take those intimations of truth (those feelings of truth) and put them into words – all without me saying anything to him. Then I saw him point to Jesus. And this intrigued me. It was the spark that lit the fire that has burned inside me since. I have tirelessly hunted down the truth. I can’t stop. I don’t want to stop. There is nothing else like it in the world. That passion is the universal consequence of finding meaning in your life. Some people remember the best moments in their life as the happiest – I believe it’s better to describe them as the most meaningful.
There is a serpent making its way through the western world right now. It has infected our highest orders of society and has made its way down to the doorstep of each and every one of us. This serpent dares us to stand on principle when what he offers us is power. A nation, an entire culture that was founded on principle has chosen to take the apple and the race to the bottom has begun. When enough individuals exchange honesty for power, we pull back from God’s Spirit and it becomes impossible for us to know what is true. Everything becomes chaos.
How can we see this happening? Since the serpent has no real power against truth, he hides behind three masks. The first mask is equality of outcome. He leverages our Godly compassion for the unfortunate and the weak. In this initial phase, he’s something as innocent and well-meaning as participation trophies. But in his final form, he is the mob raiding their own neighbors houses and murdering entire families because the homeowner had the gall to show the slightest bit of material success over others.
The second mask is group identity. He takes advantage of our Godly desire to fellowship and perverts it into violent tribalism. At first, he makes it feel good to be part of a movement – you feel a sense of meaning and purpose. But as each individual within the group continues to trade principle for power – the entire collective loses sight of God. What starts out as a movement becomes a mob. When he’s finished, you have lost all value as an individual made in the divine likeness. The value of your life extends only to how powerful your group is. You’ve lost all capability of recognizing truth because your hatred for the opposing faction forces you to view every single interaction as their attempt to oppress you.
The third mask – the most deadly of all – is censorship. He exploits our Godly desire to respect our brothers and sisters and warps it into hatred for the truth itself. Individuals who have abandoned principle become quick to label any words that stand in the way of their quest for power as hate speech. Fear of saying the wrong thing causes the entire population to fall silent in the face of evil. And with individuals all across the world unwilling to pay the sacrifice of speaking the truth – the serpent removes his mask and dances on the bodies of millions.
Now, you might think I’m being alarmist by describing something that hasn’t happened. But the truth is, this process has happened over and over since the dawn of humanity. It took place four times in the 20th century – Germany, Russia, China, Korea. The serpent does not need a particular political ideology, he doesn’t need a specific race or ethnicity, he doesn’t need a corrupt government or a propaganda machine. All he needs is an individual who will surrender principle for the reward of power.
We know that things are supposed to get bad near the end. We also know that this serpent will not have the final victory. But I say, let’s not even give him victory in the west. Let’s be the people who break this cycle. Let’s be the people who God can look upon and say, “Well done, my good and faithful servants.” We’ve been given everything we need to do it.
So I propose that we counter these issues in three ways. First, let’s open a forum for discussion where we can sharpen ideas. The best way to uncover the truth is to have many minds working to that end. Second, let’s build an environment where we grow in our understanding of ourselves and of God. Every one of us has a calling. If you’re alive in this room today, your watch is not over. The fact is, the world will become a worse place if you are not in it. Third, let’s develop tools that we can use to share our faith openly and competently. I’m standing up here because I believe this is true. The best philosophers this world has ever known have given us very, very good reasons to support it.
I’ll just close by saying this: we have an opportunity to save what we love about our world. Jesus commands us to do it. It’s not about knowing the time of His return, it’s about preserving what is good and lighting up the darkness until He gets here. Every evil that has ever taken place on the world stage has begun in the heart of one individual. And so the hearts of individuals is where we will go to work.
If you find this content valuable, feel free to share it and to use it in your own studies. If you’d like to support this podcast, you can do so at www.patreon.com/michaelhbaun. There is a link in the description. Your generosity goes a long way to promoting the growth of this enterprise and the cause of free speech. Thank you all for joining me this evening, and I will see you in the next episode.
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