Transcript
A (0:00)
Where do you think the line is between Christians being simple concerning evil and not, you know, delving into, I guess, dark knowledge, for lack of a better word, and defiling themselves. And then the line where, you know, we're not sticking our head in the sand and we're not unaware of what's going on and we're setting ourselves up for deception, you know, specifically with the UFO phenomena. Where do you think that line is?
B (0:22)
Well, that, yeah, that's, that, that's, that's an interesting question. The man in the sense of a line. I think what, let me just say this here. You got, you know, you know, many people know I was a pastor for, you know, 16 years and really pastoring longer than that. But what I found throughout the years is the goal always in any field, no matter what, no matter what topic we might get into, is to be as biblical and as biblically literate as possible. And so the line comes, is in that I remember Dr. Mike Heiser used to say that we shouldn't be scared of certain parts of the Bible. And, and, and I appreciated he said that because, you know, to be fair, I really didn't, didn't really care for his eschatology. But I've read all of his books and so he certainly provided a lot of great information for the Christian community, no doubt, and the scholarly community. He was a great scholar. But he used to say that Christians too often are scared of certain parts of the Bible and that's not the way it should be. And so I do understand the, the value and the limits of tradition. I like to push on tradition a little bit. Certainly not, not biblical tradition, but certainly tradition you have in the church or even interpretation, certain historical interpretations. So where's the line at in all this? Well, the line is we should always be as knowledgeable as we can with scripture. But the fact of the matter is when you get to the UFO phenomenon going, you know, all the way back to the 1940s, it's a whole field. It really is. Ufology is a whole field. But I think that, I don't think necessarily that every Christian is required to be an expert on ufology. That is not what I'm saying. So that maybe that's a line is, you know, even in eschatology. I don't think every Christian is required to be an expert in eschatology. They need to understand, you know, what, what, what the gospel is, what, what atonement, know, the person of God, the Trinity, salvation, the Holy Spirit, etc, so those are certainly more priority to be More of a priority. However, I would say that once a person can get those things nailed down, not that you have to be an expert at all of them, but you should understand sanctification and other things like that. Eschatology is important. Even in the midst of all of that, a person needs to be watching and to be ready at all times, even as a, as a brand new Christian. So those are simple. No matter what your eschatology is, Jesus said that to be watching and to be ready. So in that regard, when it comes to the UFO phenomenon, it is, it is coming full force. No doubt the disclosure movement has been on for a while, but it's heating up and it's coming potentially to a head this year. It'll be interesting. So all I would say is first Peter 3:15 tells us, always be ready. I mean that's the phrase, always be ready to give a defense for the hope and the reason for that hope that you have. And so in that regard, I think, I wonder whether the church is, is ready that the typical church person, the typical Christian who's just living life, which is fine. What would happen if, you know, the president or somebody came out and said, yep, we're not alone, there they are. What would their faith, how would that impact their faith? So I think in that regard it's important as topics come up, Christians should at least be somewhat introduced to the topic and what it means and what it doesn't mean. Especially in an era, I'll just, last thing I'll say is especially an era where we know that Jesus said that as we approach the end of the age, there's going to be massive deception. And so the key is always to take whatever is being spoken to us from the world and, and, and bring it through the lens of scripture.
