(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, we're here in John chapter 14 verse 6, and the Bible says in John chapter 14 verse 6, it's our text verse for the week, it says, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. So Jesus clearly said he was the way, indicating he is the way to heaven. There is no other option. There's no secondary option where, well, Muslims can make it this way or Buddhists can make it. No, Jesus is the way for everyone. The sins of the whole world is the only way to heaven. And it says he is the truth, indicating every other religion is false. Every single one. You say, well, there's some truth in that. No, it's all false, okay, because it's teaching a different way to get to heaven, okay. And it says in the life. So in order to receive eternal life, it is through Jesus Christ. Now, what we're going to do in this sermon though is compare the Bible, the Word of God, to a book called the Tao Te Ching. And the Tao Te Ching is the second most translated book ever behind the Bible, okay. Now, this is a philosophy that came Taoism or Taoism that came out of China, and there's a few hundred million people that follow this as their primary philosophy, they're going to say, not really religion, but hundreds of millions of people that follow this. You say, Brother Stuckey, I've never heard of Taoism before. Well, I'm sure you've come in contact with it though. Think about the black and white circle with that little curved line down the middle, and on the white side there's that black dot in the white side, right. And on the black side there's that white dot within the black side. And I'm going to explain what that exactly means. That is Taoism. Or if you've seen that weird Chinese martial arts like Tai Chi, that comes from Taoism. That's actually part of their religion, okay. They believe if they follow this force it's going to help them just run away. That is Taoism. And the movie series Star Wars is based off Taoism, okay. The movie series Star Wars with the force and the dark side, it seems crazed up, but that's your Chinese martial arts. That's Taoism right there, okay. This is actually a very common philosophy, and the thing that's dangerous with philosophies like this, as opposed to false religions like Islam, is somebody can follow the philosophy partially, where they don't give their entire life to it like it's their religion, but some of that philosophy ends up creeping into their lives, okay. So these are the two most translated books, the Tao Te Ching and the Bible. Now, I started reading the Tao Te Ching one night on my phone on PDF. It was like 11 o'clock at night, you know, before I fell asleep, and I was only planning to read for 10 minutes out of curiosity, but I realized it's actually a very short book. It takes less than an hour and a half to read, so I read through it once passively, and then I read through it again and wrote down every single thing I could find that is contrary to the Bible, and as far as I've seen, I've never seen a real comparison between these two most translated books ever, so I figured, you know, it'd be appropriate to preach on that. So when it comes to Taoism, well, where do you get the name Taoism? Well, the Tao or the Tao means the way. You say, why are we using John 14, verse 6? Because the philosophy itself says this is the way. That is what the Tao is. When people say follow the Tao in your life, they're saying that is the way to live your life. That's blasphemous. Right. Jesus Christ is the way, and you know what? The Bible says I hate every false way. Right. You say, Brother Stuckey, isn't it a harmless philosophy of being nice to other people? No, it's evil. It's wicked, and it's against the Bible, and the Bible says you should hate every false way. Every false way, whether it's Islam, whether it's Buddhism, whether it's Catholicism, whether it's Taoism, whatever the religion, whatever the false philosophy, anything that stands against the Bible. And in the name itself of that book, it's saying it is the way. Okay. Here are some quotes from the Tao Te Ching. This is the way of heaven. This is the way of heaven. Well, that sounds kind of blasphemous, doesn't it? Right. Now, I will say this. With this philosophy, they don't believe in a creator God, which we'll see later on, and they tell you don't live for the afterlife. Live for your present time now. But it's saying, you know, this is the way you should live your life. It's just follow this Tao in your life. Okay. It says also in chapter 21 verse 1, the great virtue is to follow the Tao and only the Tao. So don't follow Jesus Christ. Follow the Tao. This mythological force that's out there with no creator God, that's what they're telling you to follow. In chapter 55 of the Tao Te Ching, it says, this is not the way of Tao, and that which goes against the Tao will quickly pass away. So it's very obvious in the Tao Te Ching, it is claiming to be the way to live your life. That's blasphemous. It stands against John chapter 14 verse 6. Okay. Now, turn in your Bible to Romans 1. Romans 1. And I'll go through a couple of quick things as an introduction before I get into this. But the person who wrote the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu, he wrote it thousands of years ago. This is a very old philosophy coming from China. And yet when he wrote it, he's not the originator of this philosophy, nor does he claim to be the originator. Here's some quotes from the Tao Te Ching, the ancient followers of the Tao. So thousands of years ago, he wrote the ancient indicating in the past, the ancient followers of the Tao. So out of his own mouth, he's saying, hey, this is the philosophy that's been in China since the very beginning. That's what he's basically saying. He says, why do the ancients value the Tao? The ancients who practice the Tao. And so over and over again, he talks about in the ancient times, over in China and that part of the world, he says people follow this force to guide them. Okay. And so look, this is not a new philosophy. And you know what, that makes sense as a Bible-believing Christian, because there is no new thing under the sun. All of the false religions, all of the false philosophies, all they are are the same thing with a different bow, a different color wrapper. And sometimes they're like, you know what, we're going to take this religion and this religion and combine it into a new religion. But it's not new. It's the same thing. And the Bible doesn't tell us a whole lot before the flood, but I promise you, people follow the same sort of philosophy back then as well. If 300 million people follow it today as their primary philosophy, 5% of the world, guess what? Lots of people followed it before the flood as well, because there is no new thing under the sun. And so point number one, I want to give you some links to other Eastern philosophies, because Taoism is different than Hinduism. Taoism is different than Buddhism. And yet there's also a great crossover as well. So we're going to look at a couple of things that are similar with Eastern philosophies and see how those contradict the word of God. But one of the main things in Hinduism is they say that you cannot comprehend God at all. Now there's a shred of truth to that, but the Bible actually tells us we can comprehend many things about God. It says in Romans 1 verse 19, because that which may be known of God is manifested in them, for God has showed it on them, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen. So the invisible things are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and God has stood there without excuse. The Bible says that we can understand even his eternal power and the Godhead, the very nature of God, by just looking at what God has created. It's built inside of you and you can look at what God created. And the Bible says we can know certain things about God by what he created. It's not that we're randomly here trying to guess the great mysteries of life. No, we actually have the word of God to guide us and the things that he made can actually teach us certain things, okay. But that's not what they teach in Taoism. That's not what they teach in Hinduism. They say it's so confusing we can't comprehend anything and what Hindus will say of why they worship idols is because God is so far beyond our realm that we just must make something and start worshiping it. So we're going to basically take this force and put it inside of a box and just pretend it's real, right. That's what Hindus will say why they worship idols. They admit to worshiping idols. They say, Brother Succy, why do Catholics worship idols? I have no idea. That's the reason why Hindus do it. I still haven't figured out why Catholics do it, right. The Bible says clearly don't do it. But this is similar to Taoism though they say you cannot comprehend it at all. This is what it says in the first verse of the Taoist Ching. The Tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao. So if you can know anything about this mythological force that's out there, then that's not actually the true mythological force. That's what it's basically saying. Verse two, the name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth. So basically we don't really realize why we're here. The nameless is what created everything. Just this force that just happened to create everything and here we are today. That's what Taoism has been teaching for thousands of years, okay. It says in chapter four of the Tao of Ching, and go to Philippians chapter two, Philippians two, Philippians two. It says in chapter four, it is the deep and unfathomable source of the 10,000 things. It is the unknown first mother whose gate is the roof from which grew heaven and earth. And so it's the unknown first mother, this mother nature that we're supposed to worship and that is what Taoism actually teaches. It's very similar to Hinduism because Hinduism teaches we can't understand this force. It's not really a creator, personable God that we pray to and what a friend we have in Jesus. That's not really what they believe in these eastern philosophies, okay. The other thing that's very common with Hinduism is Hinduism teaches that God is completely invisible, okay. Now here's the thing, you can't see God right now but when you die and go to heaven, guess what? You're gonna actually see God. It's not just some force that's just kind of out there in the air but it's actually three persons in the Godhead, okay, the trinity the Bible teaches. This is what it says though in the Tao Te Ching, yet hold fast to this ancient Tao and you will experience the present now moment. Know its beginnings and you can follow the path of the Tao. So they want you to experience the present now moment and if you know the beginnings then you're going to do that. Basically if you come to the realization that it's a force that created everything, you can live for today rather than living for the afterlife, okay. Well that's pretty much the opposite of the Bible, isn't it? Doesn't the Bible say well instead of worrying about the things on earth worry about the things that are in the afterlife but according to Taoism it's an atheistic philosophy, guess what? You can have the present now moment if you realize that you are created by some force that's just kind of out there, right? Nothing new under the sun. Same thing that there's always been. It also says in the Tao Te Ching, I do not know its name so I call it Tao because Tao means way. So the name of the philosophy is the way. So they're saying there is no name of this force. They don't believe in a name of a God but what does the Bible say? Philippians chapter 2 verse 9, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now that we understand that Jesus Christ is the second person of the Godhead, we also understand that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. Now one thing to realize when you're reading the Bible, there are various names given to God, right? I mean it talks about in the book of Genesis, by my name Jehovah I was not known to them but by the name God Almighty. When a new name comes like Jehovah, that does not replace God Almighty. God Almighty is still the name of God, right? Jehovah is still the name of God, okay? Jesus Christ is the name above every name the Bible says and they can say that there's no name but you know what? They're gonna actually bow down one day and beg for mercy from Jesus Christ and there is going to be no mercy. Now Attorney Bible 1st Timothy 2, 1st Timothy 2, it also says the Tao is forever nameless in chapter 32. Chapter 41, the Tao is hidden and nameless yet it is the Tao alone that supports all things and brings them to completion and so there is no name to the Tao, it's just this way but it's just this force that they believe in but the Bible says there actually is a name of the God which many names give me God. It says in 1st Timothy 2 verse 5, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in new time. So the Bible says there's one mediator between God and men. Now they don't believe this in Taoism. They don't believe in praying to a God because they don't believe that there is a creator God. They don't believe in a personable God that you pray to. This is one of the three big philosophies you have in China. You have Buddhism, you have Confucious or Confucianism and then you have Taoism. These are the three big philosophies. This is a very atheistic philosophy because if you actually believe this 100%, you don't believe in God. You just believe in this force that actually created you. Okay, turn to 1st Peter chapter 2, 1st Peter 2, 1st Peter 2. There's differences between these different Eastern philosophies. We're just looking at similarities though just in the 1st point. There's also a lot of links to Buddhism and in Buddhism one of the big things is get rid of your desires because if your desires aren't met it's going to make you unhappy. So basically if you want to be happy, get rid of your desires and then you're going to end up having happiness. That's what it teaches in Buddhism. One of the big things they say in Buddhism is that one thing you cannot know is for sure about the afterlife. So basically it's training people to not want to listen to the gospel because they're being taught well you can't know that you're going to end up creating a desire that can't be fulfilled. It's going to lead to depression so you should not want to know you're going to heaven because you're never going to be able to fulfill that desire. You can't know that for sure. It's what they teach. Same thing with Taoism as they say get rid of your desires. Okay, it says here in the Dao De Ching, send your desires away and you will see the mystery. Be filled with desire and you will see only the manifestation. And so get rid of the desires and you're going to find this hidden mystery behind the world. Actually the Bible says if you want to know the deep things of God you actually have to desire His word. You have to read His word to know the mystery. And what does it say in 1st Peter 2 verse 2? As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that He may grow their body. The Bible teaches we should desire to read God's word. We should love God's word. Look and we live in a country where we all have Bibles. Every single one of us. I mean most of us probably have multiple Bibles. You have it on your phone. You have it at home. Anyway in many parts of the world they don't have access to the word God. We need to desire God's word and you know what that is how you're going to reach the mystery. Now look you receive eternal life by just believing. However if you want to know the deep things of God and the mystery as it says in 1st Corinthians you know what you need to desire God's word. Turn to 1st Corinthians 14. 1st Corinthians 14. Here's some other verses from the Tao Te Ching. Therefore the true person governs by emptying the heart of desire and filling the belt with food, weakening ambitions and strengthening bones. It says diminished thoughts of self and restrained desires. It says this about their creator force that they believe in the Tao. The nameless uncarved block can protect against desire. That's the God so to speak they believe in this this nameless uncarved block okay. When desires are restrained there will be peace and then all under heaven will be at rest. So the secret to world peace is everybody gets rid of their desires and we're going to have world peace. Boy that sounds really intelligent and yet there's hundreds of millions of people that this is their philosophy right. What does it say in 1st Corinthians 14 verse 1? Follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts but rather that you may prophesy. And the bible speaks about desiring spiritual gifts. There are things that we should desire. Look you should have desires and goals in your life. I'm just going to wake up and let the force guide me wherever I go. You're going to destroy your life. You're going to accomplish nothing if that's your philosophy if you live in your life. You say brother Secchi what if I walk up to some high mountain and I just. You're going to be a loser. You're going to accomplish nothing. I get it. It looks beautiful. You got somebody on top of a tall mountain and everything and they're just relaxing and everything but you know what that doesn't pay the bills my friend. It's like yeah that was the secret to getting money to drop down from heaven then hey that'd be great but that's not the way it works right and you want to accomplish something you can't just sit there and meditate for hours every day like this and just everything's going to work out Mike. It doesn't work that way. Go to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians 3. Colossians 3. Here's some more quotes from the Tao Te Ching. There's no greater offense than harboring desires so worse than murder worse than pedophilia worse than rape is having desires than harboring desires. It says I am free from desires and the people themselves return to the simplicity of the uncarped walk so get rid of the desires of this world and you know you can go back to that uncarped block and just meditate on that force and just watch Star Wars all day and just be like wow this is really it's science fiction right fiction means not true okay look when I was a kid because in the U.S. everybody has seen Star Wars 20 times at least every guy has seen Star Wars 20 times I love Star Wars when I was a kid but you know what I always considered it science fiction right I didn't realize this is actually a religion it's like what in the world is that how can somebody believe that okay it says therefore the true person seeks freedom from desire so your goal should be to get rid of desires according to the Tao Te Ching but what does the Bible say in Colossians 3 verse 1 if he then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God set your affection on things above not on things on the earth look there is a shred of truth to getting rid of desires in your life but the question is what desires do you get rid of right and yes you know we should have our affection set on things above not on things of the earth now in this philosophy they say don't set your affection on things above set it on things of the earth it's literally the exact opposite of what the Bible says because they teach you cannot know what's going to happen afterwards so just worry about now and just set your affection on things on the earth let's see the Bible says the exact opposite we should get rid of worldly desires and live for the things of God turn your Bible to Genesis chapter 1 Genesis 1 Genesis chapter 1 so point number one we see links to eastern philosophies point number two let us now talk about their version of the creation of the world and nature itself so you can probably tell from the quotes earlier and what I said they don't believe in a creator God they basically believe in the big bang theory this force just created everything you say brother stuckey you're an idiot you don't know what you're talking about because the big bang theory came in the 20th century and it was a new theory no actually you're the one who's without knowledge because in Greek mythology they taught the same thing in Taoism which is thousands of years old pre-dating Jesus Christ they were teaching something very similar to the big bang theory look just because you have a different name attached to it doesn't change anything right you believe some force created everything how is that much different than the big bang theory sounds pretty similar to me all the matter just condensed into a dot and then boom and then here we are right that is what Taoism teaches it says in chapter six I read it to you earlier it is the unknown first mother whose gate is the root from which grew heaven and earth it's the unknown first mother and it is the root which grew heaven and earth meaning this force created heaven and this force created earth this is essentially atheism this is the big bang theory right what does the bible say in Genesis 1 verse 1 in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and you know what's interesting about this is whenever you look at philosophies like this they'll explain well this created heaven and earth but what created the Tao begin with right they don't have an answer to it they try to criticize us as bible believing Christians well where did God come from where did the Tao come from right and it actually makes sense that it's hard to comprehend God because we're the creation right we were created so of course we can't fully comprehend the creator so it makes sense if you believe in God then guess what God's smarter than us right he knows more than us he's outside of time he's the beginning and the end and you know what no that doesn't make sense to me because you know what we have a beginning we have an end but see God has always been here but see with Taoism they say why you know it's just this unknown force and then just that's where everything came from okay turn to first john five first john five let me read you some quotes from the Tao and Xing as they're turning to first john five it says from ancient times to the present the Tao's instructions have not been forgotten though can be perceived the beginning of the story of life how do I know how it was at the beginning of the story of life because because of what is within me so they teach that basically this force is inside of you which is pretty similar to Hinduism because if you're you're you're worshiping idols if you're doing a good job they say you'll realize that you're actually gone and he's actually within you and your goal is to be separated from this world and go back and be part of that you know force that's out there it says in the Tao of Xing it says the Tao gives birth to the one the one gives birth to two two gives birth to three and three gives birth to the ten thousand things it says the Tao gives life to all things thus the Tao gives life to all things now look they claim they don't believe in god but to me it sounds like you believe in god it's just that your god is a force because if you believe this thing is eternal it's always existed and it's what created everything that sounds like a god to me this is their version of god it's a work version but this is what their basic version is of who god is right because they believe this is eternal it had no beginning and it gave birth to everything but it's just this kind of force that's out there okay it talks also about mother nature and mother god a lot it says this in the Tao of Xing chapter 52 verse 1 all and that beginning can be considered the mother of all things when you know the mother you also know the children know the children yet hold fast to the mother okay now look this is also very similar to eastern philosophy because they really push having a mother god right right that's a very common thing to say well you know there's a mother god well where is a mother god of Biden the bible says in first John five or seven for there are three that bear record in heaven the father the word and the holy ghost and these three are one the bible speaks about a father god it doesn't speak about a mother god there's a father god it's not a mother god guess what jesus christ had short hair he was a man right okay now turn to genesis one let me show you a verse real quickly i'm going to turn there myself and if i was very clear on this there is a cult that's out there the world mission society and they teach this mother god thing and i was curious one day i just kind of went up to them and started talking to them and i was just like you know just tell me what do you tell me and i just wanted to listen to hear what they would say i had no idea and the first thing they started to talk about was mother god that was their opening now you would expect your opening to be your strongest thing right and that's the first thing they started with was that there's a mother coming if there's a father god this is what they said there's got to be a mother god right i was like no they started with this philosophical argument and they said well we can prove to you that there's a mother god in jesus chapter one i was like all right let's go though i was like i want to see this right so genesis one verse 27 genesis one verse 27 and this is the verse they turned me to okay it says so god created man in his own image in the image of god created him male and female created he death they said we'll see men and women are created in the image of god therefore there must be a father and mother god i was like well wait a minute i mean maybe maybe i read something a little bit different than you because when i read this it says so god created man in his own image in the image of god created he him not them right him right man is made in the image of god that's what the bible teaches now it says male and female were created by him right he created male and female but man is made in the image of god right that's what the bible teaches i mean that's their number one argument it's like in this verse it clearly says that men are made in the image of god not women male and female created he them but wait a minute who is in the image of god man's in the image of god right that's what the bible teaches now when you look at these philosophies like hinduism you might not realize this but with all of their gods they have a female counterpart right right if you look at shiba there's the female counterpart and and some of their stories that's their wife but then when you actually read it it's just representing something of attributes of god and they say well you can't have a man without a woman right and so that's what they'll teach that there's actually a mother god this mother forces out there there's a father there's a mother well that's not what the bible teaches the bible teaches the father god not a mother god turn to matt turn to matthew 24 matthew 24 matthew 24 and attached to this idea of creation and nature is they teach you to worship nature because they teach you to live for this present now earth don't live for the things that are eternal because you know you can't know if there's a heaven and a hell and stuff like that so live for your present now earth and they'll teach you to worship nature worship the animals worship the rivers worship the creature rather than the creator right that's what they teach now what does it say in in matthew 24 verse 35 heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away in matthew 24 verse 35 heaven and earth shall pass away and so what the bible teaches is this earth is going to be destroyed and there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth and it's going to take what's destroyed and make it new but it's a new earth because this one has been destroyed but this is what it says in the dow day ching heaven and earth last forever heaven and earth last forever well here's the problem with that philosophy if you believe that heaven and earth last forever and your men's last forever you're going to spend your life being an environmental wacko you're going to be obsessed with protecting mother nature now don't misunderstand me i don't understand people that just throw trash in the ground i'm a very weak person i can't stand having a mess or things being dirty but at the same time i do realize that god according to the book of revelation is going to destroy this place so i'm not going to spend my entire life making an issue about protecting the environment when god's going to destroy it one day and what's interesting the people that are going to destroy this planet are not us as bible believe in christians right it's the environmentalists because sin is what's going to destroy this planet god's going to destroy this because of sin what destroyed sodomy tomorrow bible believe in christians no the sodomites right right i mean that's what destroyed this world before the flood wickedness is what brought god's judgment and god's going to bring his judgment because the world is heading down a downward slope to hell of getting more and more wicked okay but in that one it teaches you worship mother nature because heaven and earth last forever okay now go to romans chapter one romans one that's why it tells you to worship the present now moment experience the present now moment you know what's holding you back in your life you're too focused on the bible you're too focused on thinking about heaven and hell you would quit thinking about the afterlife you could experience the present now moments i mean you could have fun doing drugs getting drunk and destroying your life you could experience the present moment if you just forget about the afterlife and heaven and hell you know the problem with that is that heaven and hell is real right anyway if you actually believe in heaven and hell it changes your entire philosophy and way of life there's no way around this right if i did not believe in hell i'm just being honest with you if i did not believe in hell you know what i would have no reason to be a preacher we have no reason to go soul winning right right when you believe that it's going to change the way you live your life okay and see in daoism they teach you well you can't know if there's a heaven you can't know there's a hell so you're wasting your time on something that's not sure you better just live for today but see the bible says if you put your faith in jesus christ you know that you are right and honestly they might not get it i mean they won't get it but when you get saved you have that flash of lighting that hits your head like wow okay i get it now right it's like you get saved and you realize wow all of this is real and before you're saved you might even go to church and be religious you might be a baptist or whatever but once you actually get saved then it's just like wow it's like a completely different worldview as you now understand basically the meaning of life when i got saved i realized my goal is to get other people saved i'm not saying every single person thinks that when they get saved but that's what i thought i was like man heaven and hell is real i know how to get to heaven i better try to help people get to heaven right but see in daoism you cannot know about the afterlife so just live for today just live it up now and so it says in romans 1 verse 21 because that that when they knew god they glorified him not as god neither were thankful what became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened professing themselves to be wise they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible god into an image made like a corruptible man into birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things wherefore god also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves verse 25 who changed the truth of god into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the creator who's blessed forever amen and this is exactly what daoism does they worship the creature rather than creator god they just marvel at the animal rather than marveling at the god that actually created that animal now romans 1 is very popular scripture people go to to look at atheists and that certainly is an application but this also applies to a lot of religions or philosophies out there that are teaching you to worship the creation rather than the creator right animisms consider the oldest philosophy or religion by the experts right and what animism teaches is that god is in everything god's in this god's in that and just everything just worship this i mean you can worship whatever you want because god is in everything that's what they teach you right now turn in your bible to judges 17 judges 17 judges 17 okay you might not realize this but the other one of those three big philosophies buddhism buddhism doesn't believe in a creator god either now i don't really believe that either because buddha is basically their god they worship buddha right they go to a pilgrimage to worship where buddha was born in napole it's like well it sounds like you believe that he's your god right they have buddha all throughout their house and they gather but they say that they don't even a creator god so it's two out of the three big philosophies coming out of china basically there is no creator god just these atheistic sorts of philosophies that leads to point number three which is the difference in authority and morality in the word of god versus the dow de ching the dow de ching and daoism teaches that there should be zero percent authority and no rules in any area of life any area meaning as parents zero percent authority on your children that is what they teach that you should not teach your children what to do you should not have a boss at work zero percent authority in this world and the reason why they say that is well there's this dow flowing through every single one of us and if somebody has the dow flowing through them and you try to interrupt that dow then you're getting in the way with that force that's guiding them in some direction so they teach that you know what if your four-year-old son says i want ice cream for breakfast you are wrong for not letting him have ice cream do whatever he wants now look this is just about the dumbest thing you can ever hear right but this is what they teach and you know what the thing is when i when i look at documentaries and stuff like this i fact check stuff i read their big holy book twice this is what they teach that there is no authority no more this is what it says in the dow a chain when the great dow is forgotten which is this mythological force for this way it says this benevolence and moral codes arise now benevolence is what kindness okay i'll talk about that in a second it's very bizarre but it also kindness and morality moral codes rules are going to rise if you forget about the dow if you forget that you're an uncle you came from an unmarked block and from this force okay it says in chapter 19 of the doubting chain give up benevolence give up kindness discard moral judgments and the people will rediscover natural compassion now you say brother stuckey why did they tell you to get rid of kindness why did they tell you to get rid of benevolence now this is the most bizarre part of this philosophy because i saw this documentary and i had it on in the background so i was only half paying attention and i had to stop and rewind and i'm like they they literally say don't be kind to people and that is what they teach and here's an example that they gave let's say you find somebody on the side of the road and let's say for example his life is messed let's say somebody gets a flat tire on the side of the road and he's on the side of the road raining everything you should not help that personality the reason why is the dow led them down that path so if you try to interrupt the dow then you're getting in the way of where they're supposed to be led in life is that when i you're mixing calvinism with your realistic philosophy right but it's like the dow is leading everybody down different roads in life and you don't want to get in the way of that now so if somebody decides to be a drug addict let me a drug addict somebody comes to you and says man i i feel like i should cheat on my wife and commit adultery it's like well that's where the dow is leading you this is what they teach they say get rid of benevolence and their holy scripture or unholy scripture give up benevolence give up moral judgments basically don't judge anybody and then there's going to be real compassion in this world that's what they teach now this is bizarre right what kind of philosophy or religion teaches you you know don't be kind to me it's funny because several years ago i saw this video over in china where somebody got hit by a car and then you see all these people he's on the side of the road everyone just walks by like it's no big deal now they those are probably just dowists who are just like oh that's where the dow led them they got hit by a car they need an ambulance well tough luck because i shouldn't help him i shouldn't be kind it's bizarre it's weird and so what does it say though in the bible it says in judge 17 verse 6 in those days there was no king in israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes because they say get rid of morality don't have any moral rules any moral codes whatsoever and the bible gives us an example of what the world would be like if that were the case in judges 17 verse 6 there is no king so everybody does that which is right in his own eyes go to chapter 21 chapter 21 chapter 21 chapter 21 verse 25 chapter 1 verse 21 verse 25 in those days there was no king in israel every man did that which was right in his own eyes so in my opinion judges 17 through 21 are the weirdest five chapters of the bible right and it's basically bookended by this phrase everybody does that which is right in his own eyes no authority no rules and then people are committing the worst imaginable sins and all of this wickedness you say why because there is no punishment for doing wrong right and you got the middle chapter in there which we don't have time to look at is judges 19 and it's like man it's like genesis 19 on steroids it's worse right and why is that because there was no punishment for doing those wicked sins and i want you to realize that if we had no moral codes no rules no no nothing to tell us no you know what the problem is us as bible even christians we're still not going to kill people we're still not going to rape we're still not going to steal but what about bad people right they're going to do whatever they want they're going to do what seems right in their eyes whatever they feel like doing they're going to do right so that's not going to protect us actually having rules action protects law-abiding citizens okay but they say there should be no morality whatsoever even to the level that when you have children you should let them do whatever they want it's like well good luck with that philosophy go ahead and let your children do whatever they want and never tell them no and don't have any authority or rule over that and you know what you're going to raise a bunch of reprobate children okay now turn to romans three romans three romans three now it's not hard to see why a philosophy like this can become popular because what ends up happening inevitably is that governments do not follow the exact laws of the bible and many times they can be oppressive but the reaction of daoism is say well let's go to this far extreme and say no morality no rules everybody can do what they want no rules whatsoever if you want to drive drunk you should be allowed to drive drunk i mean what would the world be like if that were the case i mean if you kidnap a child no punishment and that'd be a pretty dangerous place to live wouldn't it right i mean let's just be realistic where we live two doors down from us we've got a bunch of homos man how safe do you think me and my wife would feel if they put up a new law that said hey whatever people want to do no rules man you know we're going to add like 50 locks to that front door right right that would be a scary world for a bible believe in christian and you know why isn't genesis 19 and judges 19 happened because there is no authority that's going to punish them for that right and then the wicked people commit evil sins look i understand that governments can be oppressive and we get mad at them but you know what would be worse is no rules at all right that would be the worst world to live in an anarchist society of no rules bad rules are better than no rules you say how do you know that well the word of god because judgment 17 to 21 told us that here are some verses from the daoist shing it says when the government is unseen the people are simple and happy when the government is lively the people are cunning and discontented well there's definitely some truth to that statement but they go way too big of an extreme when they say well there should be no rules whatsoever and everybody governs themselves it says let all other heaven be governed governed in accordance with the dao and demons will not manifest their power and so basically let everybody just be guided by this force so basically everybody does that which is right in his own eyes isn't that exactly what it's saying everyone gets guided by this inner light as it calls it in the dao le ching just let this inner light guide you into whatever you feel like is right well that's pretty much the opposite of what the bible says there's a conversation in the dao le ching in chapter 74 where it's a conversation between a daoist or taoist and what they say an egoist which is someone who's arrogant self-centered life revolves around them and in this parable so to speak we are the self-centered one okay and the daoist is the person who's full of wisdom and what it says here with the daoist when the people do not fear death of what uses it to threaten them with death so basically don't threaten anyone with death no matter what they do okay basically no death penalty and that the self-centered egoist which is someone like us it says if the people were always afraid of death and if those who did wrong would always be arrested and put to death who would do wrong so basically the person that they say is wrong in this parable says hey if there's tough punishment for crime then people are not going to do wrong that's true right that is what stops people it's common sense this is what stops kids if they want to do something wrong it's like well we're going to get up the stick and then all of a sudden it's like you know what they stop you know what stops people from committing crimes they're afraid of getting arrested they're afraid they're going to get a punishment yeah you know what if the death penalty was common for every murder that was proven it would lower the murder rate quite a bit if the death penalty was for every rape and kidnap and everything the bible says all of those you know what they would go down why people would be afraid to get caught they get put to death because in our modern prison industrial complex that is around the world especially in the us you can go to jail for anything people they need caught for pedophilia they're in jail for a few years back on the streets and oftentimes their state of jail is not that bad they get two hours to work out in the weight room they basically get free food handed and they just get to sit in their cell and you know they sometimes get a cushy bed they get to work out for a couple hours that sounds nice to me right you get to work out for a couple hours like i wish i had that sort of free time right and they get all this food handed to them they don't really have to do anything and it's just like that is our modern prison industrial complex the bible teaches is if there was tough crime tough punishment it would prevent the crimes from actually taking place amen he talks about the doubted shame that people are inherently good people are not bad people are inherently good what it says is this all announced that good is good only because they also denounce what is bad and i'll explain it here in a second but good and bad are the same thing according to the doubter okay i'll explain that in a second but it also says is there a difference between yes and no that's a rhetorical question in the doubting sheet is there a difference between yes and no yeah there's a difference between those words but the answer in this it's a rhetorical question where they're saying there is no difference between yes and no how great is the distinction between good and evil pretty big but their answer to that is there is no distinction between good and evil this is why they have this circle and within the white side they have a black dot because good and bad are intermeshed together see what people are confused about with this the yin and the yang they think that the white and black are contrasting with one another no no they're complementing one another and they're the same thing according to the doubting chain so in doubt is that they teach that nothing is sin nothing nothing's wrong they would teach that no pedophilia is not wrong they would teach murder is not wrong they would teach rape is not wrong kidnap is not wrong because with all bad there's some good mixed in it with all good there's some bad mixed in it so it's the same thing is there a distinction between good and evil and what they're saying here is a rhetorical question where the answer to that is no what a bizarre philosophy what kind of world would you live in where you're teaching kids at a young age murder's not wrong kidnap's not wrong pedophilia is not wrong what will be the result of people like that and yet there's hundreds of millions of people that follow the second most translated book ever behind the bible what does the bible say romans 3 10 as it is written there is none righteous no not one and look we can spend all day looking at verses talking about the sinfulness of man and the bible says for all of sin and come short of the glory of god but there is no such thing as sin in daoism because nothing's really wrong and they believe that this magical force is going to guide things to take place so every bad thing that happened had to take place to get us at our present state so there's nothing really bad nothing really good it's just the way of the dow and that's what flowed you that direction okay now turn your bible to exodus 20 exodus 20. it also says in the dow they chain therefore the dow is great heaven is great earth is great people are also great thus people constitute one of the four great things of the universe so it puts man on a level with god basically and man is great that's not what the bible teaches and you know i don't really understand where they're not getting the common sense in that because if you have kids you realize that kids do wrong right of course i mean i guess they're only allowed one kid over in china so they don't have the experience of a boy and a girl fighting over a toy right maybe this philosophy would be gone if they let them have more than one child over there because they realize oh wow these kids are not inherently good right so point number one we looked at is the links to other eastern philosophies point two we looked at you know their version of creation and nature they don't believe in a creator god they believe in just this force we looked at authority and morality and the result of not believing in a creator god is there are no rules same with atheism right if there is no creator god you make your own rules and that is what dow is and teaches point number four a thing that is majorly pushed in the dow day chain this is the final point is this do not put forth effort in life do not work hard that is a major major point of the dow day chain okay it says this not in the bible but in the dow day chain thus the true person acts without striving and teaches without words so act without striving don't don't strive don't put forth effort you're going to accomplish more by sitting on your couch and doing nothing according to this you know what the secret is to getting really strong and getting big muscles people think it's going to the weight no no the answer is sitting down on the couch for a couple hours every day and then magically man where did these muscles come from right that's that's what they're teaching you know what the secret is to being intelligent don't read a book don't read it it's readable i mean don't even learn how to read right if you want to be successful in life don't learn how to read just let that doubt flow you in whatever direction you want to go you know that's a perfect example of the stupidity of not having authority morality to children because you know children are going to pick the path of least resistance to do the hard thing what it says in the dow day chain is you know quit trying to swim against the current just go downstream and let the the current just kind of take you where it takes you well hey that's a cute little phrase but it's really stupid right it's like working hard is not risking your life swimming into like a heavy current okay that's not the same thing at all okay and this is why these philosophies are popular because they always have these cute sayings of people like oh that sounds really nice let me put that on my fridge right but if you actually follow this philosophy to its end it is a very destructive and evil philosophy it says in exodus 20 verse 9 six days shall thou labor and do all thy work the bible says labor for six days now what does it mean to labor for six days does that mean to work for a couple hours well no because they would work from sun up to sundown you're talking 12 hours roughly in a day depending on where you live the time of year obviously during the winter time there's less sunlight things like that but you know 12 hour days and basically what the bible is saying is work 72 hours spend 10 minutes getting a lunch break but work work work work work six days shall go labor labor means hard work don't just say hi you know i want to be successful in life i started this new job let me just work a couple hours a day i don't want to i don't want to push myself that's what the doubt doubt ancient teaches that's what dallas and teaches do not work hard and that is your key to success that's pretty much the opposite of my good problems 14 problems 14 years anyway i don't know it's just people are dumb i don't know if you realize that but everybody in this world and even people that do really well on tests and stuff i mean if people don't have the bible to guide them right right they're just dumb right right i saw this video online where there's this christian apologist and i'm not into apologetics ministries and i don't even know if this guy was saved but he's doing a question and answer and somebody comes up this guy who's like 20 years old he's got long hair and everything he comes up and he says man you know i've been following the dow in my life and he said you know daoism is a good philosophy and everything the guy asked him this breaks into your house in the middle of the night and puts a gun at your head is that wrong he's like yeah that would be wrong he's like well then you're not a daoist because nothing's wrong in daoism i mean literally nothing's wrong and you're not you're supposed to discard moral judgments so if somebody breaks into your house in the middle of the night and kills your family don't judge them that is what daoism teaches it's not wrong and then the guy's like yeah i guess you're right it's like i'm not it's it's like yeah he didn't really think that one through did he it's like it it might sound cute with these cool little phrases but if you actually understand what this teaching this is this is dumb it's evil it's wicked it's going to destroy your life it says in proverbs 14 verse 4 where no oxen are the crib is clean but much increase is by strength of the ox see the bible says the strength of the ox results in much increase but the result is it's going to be dirty you say well i don't want to have the the the dirtiness i don't have the problems to clean up well then get rid of the oxen because if work's going to be accomplished things get messed up if you work at an office you you can have it as straight as possible and at the end of the day instead of being organized stuff is all over the place and your last 10 minutes of the day you're putting stuff back in its place getting stuff or you're you're wise to do that so it's a lot easier when you start the next day right but stuff just gets messed up you're working on a bunch of stuff you're you're working on microsoft excel and you save one file and then you save another version before you know you got 20 files in microsoft excel you're like i don't even remember which one's right it's like i completely forgot you know that that's what on my job was just like which one of these microsoft excel versions so practice action without striving and everything's going to be in order well you're not going to accomplish anything and the other thing is this if you want to look at people that are very disorganized look at homeless people they leave quite a mess and they are practicing action without striving and yet they make the biggest mess in the world right and so this idea will practice action without striving there won't be any problems now actually if you work hard that's when you're going to clean things up and fix things it says this also in the dao de ching the highest good is like water for water benefits to 10 000 things without striving and they talk about how amazing water is because you can just dump it anywhere and it just kind of flows everywhere without any problems hey that's really cute but that's not the way life works god says you got to work hard if you want to accomplish something another thing they teach in the dao de ching associated to lack of effort they teach that wisdom is a bad thing wisdom is a bad thing like i said don't learn how to read okay you're going to be the most bobo person in the world do not learn how to read okay it says stop being learned in your troubles wind give up wisdom discard cleverness and the people will benefit a hundred fold you're gonna be a much better person if you have no wisdom i mean look if you want to read the dao de ching in your free time and look at the context of all this stuff i'm not trying to take anything out of context i i just have to stop at some of these i'm like what in the world right i can't believe there's this much material for a sermon on a less than an hour and a half hours and a half to read the book right what does the bible say though in proverbs 4 verse 5 get wisdom get understanding forget it not neither decline from the words of my mouth forsake her not and she shall preserve thee love her and she shall keep thee wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting get understanding the bible says if you want to be successful in life you need to get wisdom look we want our kids at a young age to get wisdom we want them to understand the way world works we want them to understand what the bible teaches and you want if you have the wisdom from god's word it will change your life it's going to make you a better husband it's going to make you a better wife a better mom better father going to make you better employee it's going to make you successful if you get wisdom but you know what in this video game generation just play video games all day these first person shooters or whatever no wisdom whatsoever you know it's going to raise a bunch of idiots that just believe every single thing they hear and that's the world that we live in today this tv and video game generation go to proverbs 14 proverbs 14 proverbs 14 we'll look at just a few more places another thing they teach is that darkness is good darkness is good it says darkness within darkness the gateway to all mystery you say they teach darkness is good and light is bad no remember the black and the white are the same thing darkness is good and so is light okay because it says this is called following the inner light so it says you should follow the inner light in your life darkness is good light is good well that's very easy to disprove just look at all the dark places in the world you go to a bar or wherever it's going to be dark you go to sinful places it's dark people commit sins when it's dark okay they that are drunk and be drunken in the night the bible says okay unless i i do know this some people that that work at a call center they wake up at seven in the morning and it's like they're getting drunk during the daytime but in general the bible says drunkenness happens in the night but seeing the Tao Te Ching both light and darkness are good things and it says follow the inner light but what does it say in Proverbs 14 verse 12 there is a way which seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death see there's a way that seems right but the end result is destruction in your life the worst advice you could give someone is follow your inner light just follow what seems right to you follow where your conscience guides you go with your emotions and everything's going to work out you actually don't follow the inner light because your inner light is going to be wrong it's going to deceive you it's going to trick you the bible says there is a way which seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death say well how do i know what's right and what's wrong and what to do what does the bible say don't follow your inner light follow what the Word of God actually says good Exodus chapter 20 Exodus 20 and we'll close up in Exodus 20 but the last thing that's associated with this is they teach that a higher power or any sort of authority should not demand worship they should not demand worship and they associate it to religion as well but also as a parent you should not demand worship from your kids you should not be harsh with your authority if those that are underneath you do not want to obey just let them disobey that's what it teaches it says in the Tao Te Ching chapter 2 verse 11 nourish them without claiming authority benefit them without demanding gratitude do the work then move on so nurse your kids don't claim authority don't tell your kids no the word no your kids should learn when they're like 15 years old because you should never teach them the word no because that would be basically demanding authority right I've benefit them without demanding gratitude so basically if you give your kid something don't ask them to say thank you right don't demand gratitude what kind of a philosophy is this it's like whenever we give something to our son it's like if he doesn't say thank you it's like Zeph you better say thank you so he doesn't say thank you then that's coming back right you should teach your kids hey sorry please thank you basic words but seeing the Tao Te Ching it says benefit them without demanding gratitude never ask them to say thank you ever is what the Tao Te Ching is teaching do the work then move on it says it also says giving life without claiming authority benefiting without demanding gratitude guiding without control this is called hidden virtue guiding without control anyway it would be great if your kids always obeyed you and everybody underneath you will always obey the authority but that's not the way it works and if people test the authority then the authority has to stand up that's the way it works and see what does the Bible say in Exodus chapter 20 it says in verse 1 and God spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage thou shalt have no other gods before me sounds like God is demanding worship thou shalt not make on in the any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God you say brother Stuckey God's a jealous God I thought jealousy was a bad thing well you haven't been reading your Bible enough jealousy is not a bad thing now the way we use that word in our modern day we consider jealousy and envy are considered the exact same thing but see jealousy is when it's something that belongs to you and God says you know what you bring to me I am a jealous God I demand you to worship me it'd be like for example a husband you say I don't want to be a jealous husband well you haven't been reading the Bible so I don't want to be a jealous husband my wife can go out and date other men and do whatever it's like well you're a fool you're following the Dow a little bit too much in your life my friend right jealousy is not a bad thing according to Bible and see God demands our God God demands us to worship him he proclaims his authority it is foolish to sit here and say well you know authority doesn't have to do anything just you know benefit them don't ask them to say thanks or anything like that it's foolish look I'll be this is probably the dumbest religion or philosophy I've ever heard when you actually look at it you know what I believe the reason why it's popular is is for one because people don't want to have any rules or authority because this is an atheistic sort of religion so people think it sounds great nobody should tell me what to do right so people love that nobody should tell me what to do and hey I don't have to work hard in life if I just follow that Dow I'll be successful that sounds great it doesn't work that way would be successful in life you got to work hard this is probably the dumbest philosophy that you could fall with your life you know it's gonna destroy your life there's a way would seem it's right under a man but the end there are the ways of death let's close in word of prayer your Heavenly Father thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see your word in comparison of this this other religious or sacred text God and help us to realize that there is no comparison between the Bible and any other so-called holy book there's no comparison between you and any other false god that is out there