Let me just give you a great tip on Bible interpretation and just on reading and understanding
the Bible.
Okay?
Here is a tip in understanding the Bible.
Is that number one, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
God never changes.
The same God you're reading about in Genesis is the same God you're reading about in Revelation,
and there's not even a shadow of turning in him.
I mean, he is exactly the same.
He is eternal.
He doesn't change at all.
Does everybody understand that?
I mean, it's real clear in the Bible.
He doesn't change who he is.
He was perfect in the beginning.
He's going to be perfect at the end.
There's no need to change.
And number two, there's no new thing under the sun.
Is there anything whereof it may be said, "See, this is new.
It has been already of old time, which was before us."
That's what the Bible says.
There's nothing new under the sun.
And so, God's the same, people are the same, human nature is the same.
The world is the same.
Now, these are biblical truths that can be proven by many scriptures in the Bible, these
two things, that God doesn't change and that the world we live in is filled with the same
type of things today as it's always been filled with.
Just because there's some new technology, that doesn't really change anything.
People are people.
The human experience is the same as it has always been.
There is no new thing under the sun, the Bible says.
Okay, why is that important?
Because when you try to show people things from the Bible, they always have this attitude
of, "Oh well, that was back then."
You know, sort of like when I was on that radio interview in Botswana, it's like, "Oh,
the content.
You must contextualize."
He even said, he literally said, because I went back and listened to the first 20 minutes
of it, because I hadn't listened to it yet.
I lived it, but I decided to go back and listen to it.
I got like 20 minutes in, and he said in there, "You can't expect us," he literally said these
words, "You can't expect us to preach the same gospel that they preached 2,000 years
ago."
He wants to even change the gospel itself.
You can't preach the same way the Bible does, you got to get the -- and look, this is what
every Bible college and every -- look, Garrett, you went to Fuller Seminary.
Did they tell you, "Hey, you need to understand the culture"?
Did they cover that?
"Oh, you need to understand when the Bible's written, the culture, and the places, and
the time."
No, no, no.
You know what?
The culture of when the Bible was written was in the beginning was the Word.
So when it was written, there was no country.
There was no human being.
There was no language.
There was no custom.
There were no foods.
It was in the beginning with God.
And it was God.
Look, in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world
began.
God spake the Word before the world even began.
So don't give me this context of...
Now look, the important context, if we look at the word context, "con" means with, right,
in Spanish.
Obviously, from the Latin, the word context is a Latin-based word.
Con-text, right, meaning the text that's with it, you know, the text around it.
So the context should be the verse before and the verse after.
I'm all for getting that context.
Like reading the whole chapter, reading the whole book, yeah, let's get the context.
But when they say context, that's not what they mean, folks.
This is a code word for false teaching.
Instead of, when we say context, we mean something good, like reading the whole page, figuring
out where, you know, this scripture fits in.
When they say context, they don't mean where the verse is on the page or in the chapter
or in the book.
They mean, well, what was the context meaning?
You know, what were the customs like in those days?
And what, you know, what were people like?
And here's what they say.
Well, it changes with the times as the customs change.
Well, you know, women had to keep silent in the church back then because back then, you
know, it was just this really patriarchal, misogynistic society.
And so, you know, the women were in subjugation.
They weren't as liberated, you know, but now we need women preachers.
No, no.
If we didn't need women preachers, then we don't need them now.
Okay?
If it was wrong then, it's wrong now.
And God is the same.
Look, if God is saying in Jeremiah 29, "Hey, if you seek me with your whole heart, you're
going to find me and I'm going to bless you," you know, that's still true today.
And if he says, "Hey, if you disregard my word, even if you are the chosen people,"
so-called, because in the New Testament they're not even the chosen people any longer, but
even when they were the chosen people in the Old Testament, he said, "Hey, if you turn
away from me, I'm going to persecute you.
I'm going to come after you with sword, famine, pestilence, and you're going to be a curse
everywhere you go," that's still true.