Now, let me give you some of the elements of this sci-fi
religion, this science fiction religion.
It has the elements that you'd expect to find in a religion.
What would you expect to find in a religion?
Well, you'd expect to find preachers or apostles of that
religion.
You'd expect to find evangelists and teachers of
that religion, wouldn't you?
You'd also expect to find certain rules governing
morality, certain ideas about right and wrong that come from
that religion.
So whether we were talking about Hinduism, Islam, whatever,
these are the type of things you'd expect to find.
Usually, you'd expect to find a creation story in a
religion, right?
All the different religions of the world have a belief about
how it all started, the creation story.
And another element that you'd expect to find in a religion
is an end times teaching, what's called eschatology, the
study of final things.
The religions of this world will point to some kind of a
future apocalypse, whatever they see that as.
Obviously, the Bible is no exception.
We have the book of Revelation telling us how it all ends.
So I'm going to go through these elements.
Let's start with, first of all, the preachers of this
sci-fi religion.
Oh, this science fiction religion definitely has some
preachers.
Here are some of the big name preachers of this science
religion--
Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku, Neil
deGrasse Tyson, Christopher Hitchens, Bill Nye, the
science guy.
These are the apostles of this false religion.
These are the false teachers and false prophets.
Now, the Bible says-- and if you would, turn over to 1
Timothy 6--
the Bible says in Psalm 62, verse 9, "Surely men of low
degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie.
To be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter
than vanity."
So God is saying here that men of low degree are nothing in
God's sight.
God doesn't respect any man's person, but that men of high
degree are actually less than nothing in his sight, lighter
than vanity, because they're a lie.
What does it mean, men of high degree are a lie?
That they're a fraud, that they're not really as smart as
they think they are, that they're not really as great as
people are making them out to be.
And of course, these preachers in this sci-fi religion, they
love to glorify themselves through their degree.
They've reached the degree of bachelor.
I was glad to get out of the degree of bachelor when I got
married.
But you know, oh, I reached the associate's degree, the
bachelor's degree, the master's degree.
That comes back to He-Man, masters of the universe.
So the master's degree, the doctorate, the PhD, and in
their world, this is what exalts them amongst their
peers, well, he is a PhD.
But God says that men of high degree are a lie.
They're lighter than vanity.
They're worth less than the guidance of low degree, the
Bible says.
But God doesn't respect any man's person.
So the first one of these apostles--
well, before I do that, let me just show you something in 1
Timothy 6.
This kind of jumped out at me while the
scripture was being read.
I love reading the Bible in church.
Have you ever noticed that when the Bible's read in
church, things jump out at you that you don't always get when
you're reading the Bible at home?
Because we're gathered here together, and God's spirit is
in the midst of us.
And when we read the Bible as a church, it seems like God
really speaks to us.
That's why we read the whole chapter before the sermon.
That's actually a profitable time in the
service to listen and learn.
But one of the things that jumped out at me, because
we're in this chapter that's talking about science falsely
so-called and people erring from the faith, I like this
verse 3.
"If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome
words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ into the
doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud
knowing nothing."
You see, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
The Bible says.
So it would make sense that God's saying, well, if anybody is rejecting the words of
Jesus Christ, he's proud and he's knowing nothing.
So these people that think they're so smart, the Bible says the wisdom of this world is
foolishness with God and that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.