Podcasts about Beelzebub

You see a lot of things driving up and down I-65 in Alabama. Broken-down cars,  the odd mattress, the remains of every conceivable animal, and the devil, Beelzebub himself. Yes, you read that right; the devil is holding court on I-65. Learn about the sign that implores you to “Go To Church, or the devil will get you!" Support the showSupport the Podcast The podcast is free, but it's not cheap. If you enjoy Alabama Short Stories, there are a few ways you can support us. Tell a friend about the podcast. Rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts Buy the book Alabama Short Stories, Volume 1. Buy some merchandise from the Art Done Wright store at TeePublic.com. Make a donation to the podcast. You can find links in the footer at AlabamaShortStories.com.

The Stories: 0:00 Shonen Jump's New Competition 7:41 Demon Slayer Season 3 Eleven Episodes 14:00 Naruto X Boruto Storm Connections & Borutage News 19:06 Shaman king flowers anime 21:50 New Nura Rise of the Yokai Clan manga 25:15 Beelzebub creators next work 27:20 Black Clover Anniversary 8th 30:35 The Elusive Samurai Gets an Anime 31:59 Hunters Guild Red Hood Author IS BACK 33:58 New Shueshia Platform For Manga "JumpToon" 35:48 One Piece Odyssey Gets Novel 37:11 To Your Eternity Season 3 Announced 38:19 New Dragon Quest Adventures of Da Anime Project 40:21 Buffalo Wild Wings Boneless Wings ARE FAKE 40:49 New Ultimate Muscle Anime 41:50 Datpiff After 18 Years Shuts Down 43:38 Pokemon Japan Takeover 44:44 Slam Dunk Top 30 Selling Movie of ALL TIME in Japan 46:12 Shonen Jump & Wsm Author Comments 51:55 Top 50 best selling manga of the week --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/forneverworld/support

14 And he was casting out a devil, and the same was dumb: and when he had cast out the devil, the dumb spoke: and the multitudes were in admiration at it:  15 But some of them said: He casteth out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils.  16 And others tempting, asked of him a sign from heaven.  17 But he seeing their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself, shall be brought to desolation, and house upon house shall fall.  18 And if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because you say, that through Beelzebub I cast out devils.  19 Now if I cast out devils by Beelzebub; by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.  20 But if I by the finger of God cast out devils; doubtless the kingdom of God is come upon you.  21 When a strong man armed keepeth his court, those things are in peace which he possesseth.  22 But if a stronger than he come upon him, and overcome him; he will take away all his armour wherein he trusted, and will distribute his spoils.  23 He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth.  24 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through places without water, seeking rest; and not finding, he saith: I will return into my house whence I came out.  25 And when he is come, he findeth it swept and garnished.  26 Then he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering in they dwell there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.  27 And it came to pass, as he spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck.  28 But he said: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it.

We descend to the depths of Hell to talk Satan's Ambassador, the ORIGINAL Black Widow, CLAIRE VOYANT!  Issue 170 - Claire Voyant Intro Mention Quantumania recap episode  Background (2:15) Claire Voyant, the original Black Widow, created by George Kapitan & Harry Sahle in Mystic Comics #4 (August 1940) Not only is she the first Black Widow, decades before Natasha Romanoff, but she is the first costumed female superheroine in comic books Claire Voyant is a spirit who can communicate with the dead She is possessed by Satan to curse a family she is working with, but the husband survives the spell and kills her When she arrives in Hell, she is resurrected by Satan and sent back to Earth with the ability to kill evildoers with a single touch, so he can harvest their souls She also has the ability to fly and generate fire, she is superhumanly strong, and she has various psychic abilities Only makes five appearances between 1940-1943 Brought back in The Twelve by J. Michael Straczynski, alongside 11 other obscure Timely Comics characters Retconned history has her become the Black Widow in 1928 after her sister was murdered by her husband – as she stands over the grave, she wishes for the power to avenge her death, and Satan answers She and the other characters are knocked unconscious and put in suspended animation during WWII – awoken in 2008, she resumes serving Satan, while falling in love with the Phantom Reporter, Dick Jones Issues (8:24) Deal with Devil Distances herself from people because of her abilities Seems to have less difficulty adapting to modern culture, but only because she seeks out specific subgroups (goths) (19:54) Break (29:38) Plugs for Comic Book Keepers, Into the Knight, and Chris Claremont Treatment (31:26) In-universe - Connect her with souls she's impacted Out of universe (34:20) Skit (feat. Theo Kitsinger as Claire) (39:04) DOC: Hello Claire, I'm Doctor Issues. CLAIRE: Hello Doctor. DOC: I just want to let you know this is a judgment-free zone, and you can feel free to speak your mind. This is a safe space. CLAIRE: I appreciate your intention, Doctor, but unfortunately for me there is no such thing as a safe space. DOC: Oh, I am constantly updating various defenses and technology to help protect- CLAIRE: What I mean is there is nowhere I can go where my dark master cannot find me. No hole I can hide in to avoid him or his call. DOC: Oh, I see. And which dark master is that? CLAIRE: He goes by many names, but I believe you'd recognize the name Satan? DOC: Just so we're clear, your master is… the literal Devil? CLAIRE: Lucifer, Shaitan, the Fallen Angel, Beelzebub… again, many names. DOC: I see. And you serve him because… CLAIRE: I sold my soul in exchange for the ability to avenge my sister's killer. As decisions go, it was not my finest moment, but I am beholden nonetheless. DOC: OK. Is he in here with us now…? CLAIRE: Are you an agent of evil? DOC: Certainly hope not. CLAIRE: Then you have nothing to fear. DOC: So says YOU. CLAIRE: If you like, I can enter your mind and assuage your fears in another way. DOC: Thanks, but I don't care for anyone poking around upstairs. Plus it'd violate patient-client confidentiality in ways I don't even want to imagine. So let's just stick to chatting, and I'll do my best to ignore the presence of the literal devil. CLAIRE: So that's your solution? Pay no mind to the evil that surrounds us at all times?  DOC: I never said that. Trust me, every day I go to work I'm confronted with the evils humanity is capable of. But one of the benefits of this job is the ability to do something about it, and to help people address some of their… less beneficial tendencies. CLAIRE: Interesting outlook. Do you fancy yourself a superhero? DOC: Goodness no. I simply try my best to be a net positive for good in the world. CLAIRE: Do you have any powers? DOC: I think that's enough questions about me for now. Let's refocus the discussion a bit. Do you struggle with having to serve the Devil? CLAIRE: *hesitates* No. DOC: Forgive me for not believing you entirely. CLAIRE: It's just… I was frozen in time for sixty years. When I awoke, I thought maybe… I would be free of my burden. But it seems that I will have to do this forever. DOC: And, at the risk of sounding cliché, how does that make you feel? CLAIRE: It's… complicated. I can rid the world of evil. I've avenged my sister's killer, and so many others who would do harm to the innocent. I have powers most would only dream of. My looks will never fade nor tarnish. And still… DOC: You question whether it was worth it. CLAIRE: Every day. DOC: What do you dream about? CLAIRE: I don't sleep. At least… not in the way normal people do. It's more of a recharge after using my abilities. DOC: On one hand, I'm tempted to go down the rabbit hole of how your lack of full sleep cycles can destroy you as a functioning person, but you're probably immortal so…um…I won't. Forget the literal. What are your wishes? What's your next goal? CLAIRE: I don't think I have any. There's not much room for that sort of thing. The next soul, I guess. DOC: And how do you build your life around that? CLAIRE: I kill them. *awkward pause* Is there supposed to be something else? DOC: *exasperated* ANYTHING else. Does your boss have a quota or something? CLAIRE: He keeps track, but I don't…not really, I had a gap of decades. DOC: Then there are no excuses. You're the ultimate freelance worker. Cater your time to your whims. Relationships, hobbies, I don't care. Experiment. CLAIRE: You can sit there with a straight face and tell a psychic succubus to get a life? DOC: *gulp* Well, I…um… CLAIRE: As if I could randomly find meaning in unimportant human things anymore. What, you're going to try and be a matchmaker, too? Tinder takes on a whole new meaning around me. DOC: I don't know about any of that, but is there anyone you're the least interested in? CLAIRE: No… maybe. It's complicated. DOC: You don't want that person to get hurt in the end. CLAIRE: *pause* So it's not so complicated. Stop shutting down everything I say! DOC: I'm not shutting anything down. You put barriers up the moment you sacrificed everything so long ago. That was a temporary view you decided to make permanent for whatever your reason, and I'm sure it was good at that point. You're beyond that now, but you're still trying to make everything in the world fit inside some tiny dark space in your mind. I can flip it around so your powerful mind can master what the world can offer. CLAIRE: So you'll turn me into the greatest supervillain ever… I think my boss already has that title.  DOC: OF COURSE NOT! I'm saying…think Goth Influencer, or Demonic Consultant. You have so much to offer to society besides knocking off the next pedophile or mass murderer or whoever.  CLAIRE: But what if I don't want that attention? I don't necessarily want to be publicly known as an agent of Satan. The internal pressure is bad enough. DOC: Then be in the background; just don't bury your talent because it's based in darkness instead of light. I don't have all of the answers, but I refuse to let you wither away like a soulless husk. Plus if I'm honest, you scare me. The patients I've had who didn't try something new, just…well, it wasn't good. CLAIRE: This whole time, I've been studying your mind. Your soul, even. I can't find a bit of insincerity in anything you say. I find your view to be naive…but I can work with that. DOC: Thanks…? So does this mean you're not going to send me to your boss? CLAIRE: You're safe. For the time being, anyway. Thank you Doctor, I look forward to a future discussion.  DOC: Excellent. You can talk to my assistant and schedule your next session. CLAIRE: I think I'll just come find you if and when that moment arrives. Shall we shake on it? DOC: Y'know what, let's just wave and call it a day.  Ending (46:48) Recommended reading: The Twelve Next episodes: Penguin, Shazam, Arcade Plugs for social & GonnaGeek Network References: Ghost Trick - Doc (33:48) Apple Podcasts: here Google Play: here Stitcher: here TuneIn: here iHeartRadio: here Twitter Facebook TikTok  Patreon TeePublic Discord

Pastor Andy Davis expounds on three themes woven together in Mark 9:14-32: the vicious demon, the various degrees of people's unbelief, and the glory of Christ. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 9. I know some of you can scarcely believe we're going to do 14 through 32 today. You're like, I thought we were the church that spent whole sermons on one verse. But not today. We're going to move faster. But it's a marvelous narrative and account we're going to move through. One of the most remarkable pictures of Jesus in the Bible is in Revelation 1, where the beloved and aged apostle John saw the glorified resurrected Christ with eyes of blazing fire and feet of burn bronze, and it says, "with a sharp, double-edged sword coming out of His mouth." Now that phrase double-edged sword should bring to our mind another text, Hebrews 4:12 which says, "The word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword." It divides, it penetrates, it divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow judges the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts. We have this concept of a double-edged sword coming out of Jesus' mouth. Swords are designed to sever, to separate. It's what they do. This double-edged sword comes out and in our text today, we're going to see Jesus wielding the double-edged sword of rebuke. He rebukes the demon clearly in verse 25, the text says, “He rebuked the demon and he left.” So in that way, the double-edged sword comes out of Jesus' mouth, severing the connection between the demon and the young man. But the text does not speak of the other rebuke that He gives so very powerfully to His disciples. The text doesn't call it a rebuke, but that's what it is. In Matthew’s account, "Oh, unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?" It’s very heavy what He speaks to His apostles. We're told in 2 Timothy 2, the word of God is God-breathed. All scriptures God-breathed and useful. Useful for what? For teaching. What's next? Rebuking? Correcting, training and righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good word. So the conception I have of that double-edged sword coming out of Jesus' mouth is a sword to destroy His enemies as He is the king of the kingdom of heaven. He is the mighty ruling conquering king of Revelation 19 who comes back, and the sword comes out of His mouth and He kills people. He just destroys His enemies and destroys demonic power. The sword coming out of His mouth is like a weapon against His enemies. But Jesus is also portrayed and again and again, we see this in His healings, as a great physician. In that sense, the sword comes out of His mouth as a scalpel to heal His people of the tumors that are besetting their souls, or we could say severing the invisible chains that are wrapped around our souls. All of you came in here, I came in here today, with invisible bonds wrapped around our souls that Satan has in his deceptiveness, woven around our souls and manifesting themselves in our lives, and those need to be severed. We need to be set free from indwelling sin and Jesus, the great physician can do it, but it's not a painless process. Sometimes He has to hurt us in order to heal us. The image I have today is all of us just need to lay on the operating table under His sharp double-edged scalpel and be rebuked by Him. Rebuked from what? Fundamentally in the text, it's going to be unbelief, our unbelief, which in Matthew’s Gospel He calls perverse. I never thought of myself as a perverse person, but there is something fundamentally perverse about not believing in Jesus. We're going to find in our text, Jesus does not coddle or isn't comfortable with unbelief ever. He's never nice to it. He doesn't speak gently to unbelief. He always rebukes it. He deals with it very forcefully and directly. But in the middle of that, we have this father, one of the most pitiable characters in the Bible along with his son, his oppressed son, saying on behalf of all of us, thank God for it, "Lord, I do believe, help my unbelief." How many of you feel you could say that to him today? I feel all of us could. I think it's a prayer we could pray all the time to Jesus. So that's the text that's in front of us today. “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” I. One Main Goal, Three Themes, and a Perfect Narrative In this text today, this account, we have one main goal. We're going to see one main goal that should not be a surprise to us. There'll be three themes serving that one main goal. And to that end, those three themes woven together in a perfect narrative that I want to honor. I want to honor the narrative. I want to walk through the narrative, but then I want to unravel the themes to achieve that one main goal. This is not just another exorcism, it's not just another healing account. First of all, how could there be just another exorcism? How are the exorcisms you saw this week? Were they amazing? I mean this is not... There is no such thing as just another exorcism. This is a miracle, a mighty miracle. But even in the four Gospels, this has unique elements and it's worthy of our careful study. Now in this account, Jesus is going to be confronting two basic enemies, a demon who is revealed as uniquely vicious, and then varying levels of unbelief on the part of different people in the account. He's against the demon, He's going to fight the demon, and He is against the unbelief in the various people He's addressing. The one main goal is the same in all four Gospels, is indeed the same every week as I get up to preach, there is one main overarching goal of the four gospels, I would argue of the entire Bible, 66 books of the Bible, but specifically the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. For us specifically in the Gospel of Mark, that account, it is to bring us to a living faith in Jesus for the salvation of our souls from sin. That's the point of the Bible. That's the point of all four Gospels. The theme of Mark's Gospel is asserted right from the very first verse, Mark 1:1, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God,” that you would come to the faith that Jesus is the son of God and you would have a greater, more detailed, more majestic understanding of what that means. Then at the end of the Gospel of Mark, as Jesus has just died, and the centurion speaks in a summary sort of way for all of us, "Truly this man was the son of God." That brackets the entire 15 chapters up to that point in the Gospel of Mark or as Peter confessed as recorded in Matthew's gospel, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God,” that we would be able to make that confession from our hearts." You Jesus are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And again, the purpose statement in John's gospel, John 20:31, "These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God and that by believing may have life in His name." That's the point of the whole Bible, I think. So every account in every Gospel is written to serve this one main goal to produce faith in Jesus Christ. How does it do that? It does it by giving us Jesus' credentials for such a lofty claim. His mighty words, His mighty works, His perfect character. Every statement serves that end, it's going to give us His credentials, His power, His nature, His compassion, His love, His unique identity as the incarnate God man, credentials, as the basis of our faith in Jesus. Second, it's also going to address the readers. It's going to reach out to us as the readers where we're at and address our condition and seek to win us from varying levels of unbelief into belief in Christ. The gospels then frequently exemplify unbelief. They put unbelief on display so we can see ourselves in it, so that the word of God becomes a mirror. This is what unbelief looks like. Just to tell you where we're going, we're going to see unbelief in this account expressed in prayerlessness. If I were to ask any of you to say how many of you could be convicted on that count, that you show self-reliance through prayerlessness. That's a form of perverse unbelief. You're like, wait a minute, I didn't know it was perverse. It is. Jesus thinks it is. For you to be self-reliant and therefore think, I got this, I got this and don't need to pray about it. Is that you, it's me. We need to be weened off of that and learn to pray without ceasing, to not think that anything is too little to bring the God in prayer. That's where this sermon is going. Does that make sense? "The gospels then frequently exemplify unbelief. They put unbelief on display so we can see ourselves in it, so that the word of God becomes a mirror." That's what the apostles did. The demon possessed young man came and they thought, “We got this”, and they relied on themselves and their technique and their experience. I believe, and I'm going to argue this, that God the Father threw them under the bus for their own good. He knew what they wanted. He knew what they were trying to do. He would not do it. Jesus was not there. He is up on the Mount of Transfiguration and God the Father let them twist in the breeze. Why? Because we needed the help. They needed it. That what is going on. The idea here is that we would be won to a greater, more mature, more developed faith in Christ, and faith is the eyesight of the soul. We're going to see Jesus as He really is. That's what's going to happen in this narrative. The three themes are the demon, the faith of the people and the glory of Christ, His attributes, how He behaves here, what He shows about himself here. Those are the three themes. So first theme, number one, is the demon; it’s vicious nature and it's chronic reign of terror over this young man and his loving father. That's theme number one. Theme number two is the faith of the people surrounding this case. Actually their unbelief, their varying levels of unbelief. There is no person in this account whose faith is exemplary. No one displays exemplary faith here. Rather, there are varying levels of unbelief. First the crowd, we have the crowd, they come in at the beginning. It's the group of people who are not defined or described here at all. They're just there. They're always there, the crowd. They are the ones from whom Jesus is trying to win His elect sheep. Out of that crowd, people who will cross over from death to light. They're at the level of unbelief. Some of them may be already believers, but that's the crowd. Their spiritual condition is not described, but they're mentioned. They're mentioned at the beginning of the account, and then they come flooding in right before the miracle. When Jesus sees them coming, He does the miracle. Second, you've got Jesus' enemies, teachers of the laws, one translation “of the scribes”. We already know what they think. They've told us what they think. They think that Jesus does exorcisms by Beelzebub above the prince of demons. That's their official judgment. Remember how Jesus warn them about blasphemy against the Spirit that would never be forgiven, not in this age or in the age to come. They've already decided that Jesus does miracles by the power of Satan. In John 9, they've already decided that anyone who said that Jesus is the Messiah will be thrown out of the synagogue. They're the enemies. Third, you got Jesus' nine apostles that were down below while the three apostles, Peter, James, and John were up on the Mount of Transfiguration, the nine apostles. Jesus is utterly exasperated with them and rebukes them as we'll see in this account. Then you've got the father of this young man who has enough faith to be there for the healing, but his faith has taken a major hit because of the apostle's failure. He's at the point now where he doesn't know what to think about Jesus. Those are the individuals we're going to look at. Then theme number three, the great theme is the glory, the glories of Christ, His character, His words, His actions, His response to unbelief, rebuking it to heal it, His compassion on the father and the young man, His infinite power, especially in His openly claiming omnipotence, all things are possible for him who believes. It’s an incredible claim. A small display of that power effortlessly driving out this demon instantly and effortlessly. Dealing also with the wisdom of Christ and dealing with His apostles' unbelief as they come to Him privately later and say, what happened? How did we fail? Then dealing with them. Then at the end, the extra paragraph that I added on, the Christ glory, which He's getting them ready again and again for, His death on the cross and His resurrection. He's getting them ready for what they are not ready for, how Peter keeps pushing against it. That's the whole account. Now, these themes, the demon, the people's unbelief and the glories of Christ are woven together through this account. They're woven together like a tapestry. What I want to do is I want to honor the account as the Holy Spirit has given it to us and just walk from A to Z , first making comments along the way. Secondly, I'm going to pull out these themes and talk about them and then apply it. So that's what we're doing in the sermon. The account starts. They're coming down off the perfect mountaintop experience, the Mount of Transfiguration. Wouldn't you love to have been there? A foresight of Jesus' heavenly glory, the radiance, the brilliant light, all of that, but now it's time to get back to work. He's got to come down off that mountaintop. “No Peter, we're not building three shelters, we're not staying up there. We have work to do.” He has to come down off that mountain and He comes down into this big argument going on. Jesus come down off that Mountain of Transfiguration to continue His journey to the cross. That's where He's going. He sees the nine apostles that He left behind arguing with the teachers of the law while the crowds listening to the argument. The crowd sees Jesus and are said to be overwhelmed with wonder. It's a very strong expression. They're stunned to see him. We don't know why, it doesn't say, but it's likely they have been desperately searching for Jesus and He's not around. They're wondering where He is. Here are the nine apostles. Where's Jesus? Now they see Him, and they run to Him. Jesus begins by asking the apostles that He left behind, “What were you arguing with them about?” They're arguing with these scribes, the teachers of the law, and the father speaks up and we get the first part of this tragic story ,and it is really tragic. Verse 17, “Teacher, ‘I brought you my son who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech." Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, mashes his teeth and becomes rigid.” It's like he has epileptic seizures or something like that. But you can see the physical effects of this. "I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not." The father gives this narrative in verse 17 and 18. The demons overpowering viciousness is first opened up here. More on that in a moment. Jesus doesn't focus on that enemy, the demon, but He zeroes in on a far more significant enemy and that is the unbelief on the part of His apostles. That's the greater danger here. Why is that? Why is unbelief such a great concern for him? Because everything that Jesus does is to produce faith in the hearts of His people so that they can be saved from their sins.“For it is by grace, you have been saved, through faith and this not of yourselves, it's the gift of God.” He wants to give us salvation from our sins through our faith in Jesus and no other way. Unbelief is the enemy. Jesus reacts with a powerful rebuke concerning His apostles who failed to drive out the demon, and thus severely wound the faith of this man and almost certainly many in the onlooking crowd. Verse 19, "Oh, unbelieving generation." Jesus replied, "How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?" I think this is definitely the sharpest rebuke Jesus ever gave to the twelve. As I think about Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, I think this is the sharpest rebuke. He's generally very gentle with them, dealing with them, but this is... It's very strong, this rebuke. Then Jesus ordered, “bring the boy here to me.” Behind that you get absolute certainty that Jesus will be able to handle this situation. Don't you? Absolute certainty. “Bring him here.” There is no problem with the demon at all. He'll handle that. They brought the demon-possessed boy to Jesus, and immediately the demon threw the boy down in the ground in a convulsion. He is dominating this tragic young man and his helplessly grieving father. The young man rolls around on the ground, foaming at the mouth. Then Jesus does something unusual. He asks for the medical history of this young man. How long has he been like this? It's fascinating because Jesus doesn't usually do that. He just heals people. He didn't ask the leper, how long has he been leprous? He just heals them. He doesn't need that information. He doesn't need... He knows everything, everything He needs to know and He knows all things and so He doesn't need that. So why does He ask? I think He asks so that we might have a sense of the greatness of the tragedy that's been going on, the magnitude of the emotion that Jesus is stepping into, and also therefore the greatness of the miracle He's about to do. We're not very naturally compassionate. We don't generally care. We're like the priest and Levi in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, walking right by people, bleeding by the side of the road. We generally don't care, but the Holy Spirit wants us to care and He brings us into the situation. Do you understand what this has been like? So He asked for the history. The father answers, "From childhood." Now you have to walk into that and try to understand what that answer means, from childhood. It means that this young man's not a boy anymore. He's not a child anymore, he’s a young man. That means this has been going on for years, for years and years. I can scarcely imagine. Then He asks if the demon has often thrown the boy into the fire or the water to kill him. Often. So we're going to walk back through this to understand the viciousness of the demon, but I'm just going through the account right now. Then the father exposes his own level of unbelief. “But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” Have compassion and help us. See how this poor man's faith has been wounded by the failure of the apostles. It's not a minor deal when we mess up. He had come there expecting Jesus could help. Now he's not so sure. Jesus then uses, I think, a gentler rebuke on the Father. He's just a great physician. He knows what each person needs. So He repeats it, “If you can?” I think that's the right way to read it. "If you can? Everything is possible for him who believes." Do you realize the significance of that statement? It's incredible and we're going to dive into that in due time. But it's amazing. Then the father gives what I've already said is a timeless answer. You want to hold onto it for the future, like tomorrow's quiet time or maybe later today. "Lord, I do believe, help my unbelief." Jesus then sees the crowd coming together, running to the scene. There's already a crowd. Now there's lots more people coming because Jesus is back from the Mount of Transfiguration, and they're running there. From that crowd Jesus is going to seek to gather His sheep through faith. It is for their sake and for the countless millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions crowding around this scene through the scripture in the centuries that would follow. It's for our benefit that Jesus does this miracle. When He sees the crowd, verse 25, He rebuked the evil spirit. That's the one use of the word “rebuke” in the account. "He rebuked the evil spirit, ‘You deaf and mute spirit.’" Now we understand it's not just mute, but he's made this young man deaf. "You deaf and mute spirit." He said, ‘I command you come out of him and never enter him again.'" The latter part of that command I find to be unique. There's no other restraint like it in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I'm going to talk more about that in a minute or so. But that particular demon is forbidden from ever tormenting this young man in that manner again, as though that young man and his father and that family have suffered enough from this. It's enough. That part of the account ends with the disciples asking Jesus privately why they had failed. You can understand why they did it privately. They didn't want to do it in front of the crowd. They go to him later, like in the house or something like that. Say, what happened? Why couldn't we drive it out? Keep in mind that Jesus specifically earlier had given the twelve apostles this power over demons. That's key to understanding the rebuke. Mark 3:14-15, “He appointed twelve, designating them apostles that they might be with him and that He might send them out to preach and have authority to drive out demons.” There it is. He gave them that authority and they did. They went out and did it. Mark 6:13, “They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” So Jesus answers their query, why couldn't we drive it out? In Mark's Gospel, it says, "This kind can only come out by prayer." What does that tell you? It means they didn't pray. Is that significant? Oh, yes, it is. God found it significant. What was going on there as they tried to do the exorcism? They were relying on themselves. This is the “We got this” thing. “All right, I got this. I know what to do.” They were relying on their own experience, their own knowledge, their own strength, their own expertise. Could I say their own technique, and the demon refused to come out. God, the Father did not do anything on their behalf. Then the final section of today's sermon is that paragraph that I've added in which Jesus warns them again, what's about to happen and tells them not to tell anyone. He warns them because He's training them, specifically the apostles, getting them ready for the cross. He's going to be betrayed, He's going to suffer, He's going to die and He's going to rise again. But they didn't understand. II. Jesus Rebukes A Vicious Demon Now we have honored the account as the Holy Spirit gave us in Mark's Gospel. Let's walk through it. I want to pull out the themes. Let's talk first about this demon. Jesus rebukes this vicious demon who is stunningly vicious. They all are, but this is a vicious demon. This demon's oppression of this young man gives us an insight into the coldness and evil of Satan's heart toward the human race. Jesus said in John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy." You see that with the demon. The demon was constantly seeking to kill this young man, but it also stole from him. It stole from his hearing and his speech. Jesus called him a deaf and mute spirit. The father said it robbed him of his speech. But later we learn of hearing and later in the text we get insight into the idea of types of demons. "This kind of demon can only come out by prayer", He says. So there are different levels, I guess, of demons. There are different categories of demons and other scriptures give us indications that this is true. And positively, the holy angels are at least divided into two categories: arc-angels and angels. An arc-angel in the Greek is just a ruler angel. Ruler angels have authority over other angels, but that gives us a glimpse into the whole way that angels are organized into levels of power and authority and responsibility. Paul says in Ephesians 6, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers." Plural. "Against the authorities." Plural. "Against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." It's layer upon layer of authority, and they're evil. We have a glimpse with the phrase, “this kind”, et cetera. This demon focused in a kind of specialty sort of way on two functions in the young man beyond the epileptic-like seizure that he produced on him. Jesus calls him a deaf and mute spirit. We know the spirit isn't deaf, the spirit isn't mute. That's not the issue. That's the effect he’s having on the young man. It may well be that demons are responsible for specific physiological effects on people, and we openly have it said in the Book of Job how Satan afflicted Job with sores from the head of his top of his head to the bottom of his feet. He is able to do that kind of affliction, physical affliction on human bodies. We'll find out in heaven how responsible they may or may not have been for pandemics, for AIDS, for tumors, for any of the above, but it's Biblical at least to think that these physiological effects can be demon- produced. It is not something our medical scientific world thinks about much, but we Christians ought to. The demons didn't go out of business when Jesus ascended to heaven. Quite the opposite. I want you to think about what life must have been like for this young man and his father. The demon had often it says, sought to kill him by throwing him into the fire of the water. If you were this young man's father, what would your life be like? The word often implies periodic attacks, right? Periodic. You don't know when the next one's going to come. So how can you live your life and think of these specific attacks on this young man's life thrown into the fire. What do you have to do? Grab him out of the fire, roll him on the ground, put a carpet on him, beat the flames out of his clothing. Into the water, you dive in and rescue him. Is he catatonic? Is he stiff? Is he fighting you, beating you up as you're pulling him to shore? And when's the next attack going to happen? Is it middle of the night? Is it three weeks from now? Is it at a family gathering? Is it at the synagogue? Is it on the Sabbath? Do you think the demon cares about what's best for you? It's been going on since he was a boy from childhood. That's years of this abuse. Years. I'm telling you, as a father of five children, I can scarcely go over these details without tears sitting in my eyes. It's true. I'm like, what would it have been like? The demon is vastly more powerful than this young man or his father or any of the scribes that were standing there or the nine apostles that tried to drive him out. This demon is a tyrant. He is a bully. He is vicious. No compassion. Picture a powerful warrior kicking a little boy around physically on the ground like on a playground. I mean just rage would rise up inside you at that kind of bullying. But that's what's going on here. By contrast, let's see Jesus. Jesus' glory, light versus darkness. Light versus darkness. In verse 22, the father said, "If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." The father has gone to the fountain of compassion. The source, the most compassionate man there has ever been is Jesus. He's compassion incarnate. No one cared like Jesus, and He's also omnipotence incarnate. He doesn't understand the level of power that Jesus has. “If you can do anything, please have compassion on us and help us, if you can.” Everything is possible for him who believes. Jesus is infinitely above the demon in power. You notice again and again, we don't get any reaction of the demon to Jesus here. I guess in one sense you do, but in other accounts it's pretty obvious the demons are afraid of Jesus. Remember the legion of demons, they're terrified of Jesus and there's an army of them inside a man, so they're afraid. Jesus is infinitely above the demons, totally different than the demon. The demon has absolutely no mercy, no pity, no compassion. But Jesus' heart is deeply moved and tender toward this boy and his father. So then He rebukes the demon, verse 25, “'You deaf and mute spirit,’” He said, “'I command you to come out of him and never enter him again.’" That rebuke is the foretaste of a final sentence that He's going to give, a final sentence to the devil, and his angels, “Depart from me.” He says this to people, but we get a sense of what He's going to do to Satan and the demons. "Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” That's what hell is all about, punishment for Satan and for the demons. The demon makes the boy thrash around one more time, foaming at the mouth. When Jesus drives him out, He leaves the boy completely still as if he's dead. Verse 26, 27, “The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looks so much like a corpse that many said he's dead, but Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.” This is the demon's last temper tantrum. He has no desire to come out of this young man, but he's overpowered by Jesus. It reminds me of Revelation 12:12 where it says of Satan, "he is filled with fury because he knows his time is short." He's up against infinitely greater power and that power, power is now brought to bear upon his kingdom and he can't do anything to stop it, but he's angry about it. So let's celebrate Jesus's effortless power over demons again. And note again, this unique element, the demon is forbidden from ever entering this young man. Again, I don't find any other such prohibition in the Bible. It's unique. Why is it unique and why is it important? Because Jesus actually said this is exactly contrary to demonic behavior. In Matthew chapter 12:43-45 Jesus says this, "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and doesn't find it. Then it says, I'll return to the house I left. When it comes back, it finds a house unoccupied,” that's a keyword, "swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits, more evil or more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there and the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how I'll be with this generation." It's a complex statement, but basically it’s saying the demons are roaming around, restless, looking for a place to occupy, to inhabit. Jesus talks about a man, a house, a generation. So basically, you know, put your fists in the water and pull them out and there's no hole left. Why? Because the water rushes in to fill it. That's what the demons do. They're coming back. That's what they do. But in this case, He will not let this demon come back on this family again. Jesus doesn't throw away words. Do you think He's serious about this? Jesus is always serious about everything He says. How's He going to do it? Two things - constant vigilance and omnipotence. God the Father, will He honor His Son's judgment? Of course He will. He's entrusted all judgment to the Son, and so He will watch this demon. Think of it like restraining order, like a demonic restraining order or one of those ankle bracelets that's put on somebody that's on parole or something like that. It's like I'm watching and he cannot come back in. I'm not saying that this family never suffered anything again, didn't have any other diseases. I'm not saying that. Just that this cannot happen again. By the way, it's also a picture of the thing Satan complained about in the Book of Job saying you have put a hedge around him and everything he has, called often the “hedge of protection.” Demons are constantly bumping into restraints that God puts up. Then He lets open a door and the demon flood in a certain direction. He shuts it down again. He's doing this every day, but this is a glimpse into that. III. Jesus Rebukes Various Levels of Unbelief Then Jesus addresses unbelief. Having dealt with the vicious demon, He now addresses unbelief. As I said, no one has exemplary faith in this account. Sometimes, in some accounts, He will comment on the exemplary faith of a person like the Syrophoenician woman. “Woman, you have great faith. Your request is granted, the demon's gone.” Or the Roman centurion who said, “Lord, I don't deserve to have you come under my roof. Just say the word.” Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, I've not found anyone in Israel with such great faith." So, occasional comment. Here, no one. No one's faith is exemplary here. Everyone needs some help. The crowd, they're the harvest field. He is reaching out to them that some may cross over from death to life watching this miracle. Then you have the Scribes, they are the enemies that Jesus has fought against who may have already or are committing the blasphemy against the Spirit ascribing to Satan the works of the Holy Spirit. They were arguing with the apostles at the beginning, almost certainly making much of their failure saying, "Aha, Jesus is a fraud. The very thing we've been saying.” But the real issue here are the apostles, the nine apostles. They are the focus. Jesus says in verse 19, "Oh, unbelieving generation." He says, more sharply in Matthew 17:17, "Oh, unbelieving and perverse generation." We need to lay under that word and hear it. It is perverse for us to not believe in Jesus. It's twisted. There's a sickness to it, and we can see it, like with the Jews when they had seen the ten plagues in Egypt, the Red Sea crossing, the manna, the water from the rock, all of that, Sinai, and they get to the border of the promised land and they don't believe God is strong enough to take on the Amalekites and the Anakites and all that. It's like, how could you possibly come to that conclusion? That's perverse. It's even more the case with Jesus. How many miracles does he need to do? How many amazing teachings like the Sermon of the Mount, does he have to give for you to be persuaded? What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? It's perverse not to believe in Jesus. It's twisted, it's sick. He uses that word. In Luke's account of the storm on the sea, the disciples cried out in fear, “Master, master, we're going to drown." In Luke 8, "He got up and rebuked the wind and the waves and the raging waters and the storm subsided. Then He turns to His disciples, saying, ‘where is your faith?’" Their unbelief is specifically in that Jesus had given them power over demons and they had driven out demons, but they failed to pray, so they're displaying faithless self-reliance. Verse 28, 29 in our account, "After Jesus had gone indoors His disciples, asked him privately, ‘Why couldn't we drive it out?’” Verse 29, “He replied, ‘This kind can only come out by prayer.’" "Their unbelief is specifically in that Jesus had given them power over demons and they had driven out demons, but they failed to pray, so they're displaying faithless self-reliance" Some of you may have a King James version or some other that adds an extra phrase, "and fasting." Huh? Where'd that come from? I don't know. I don't think it's original. We have to bump into text issues from time to time. We don't have the original Gospel of Mark. We just have copies. The science of text criticism is to look at all those copies and figure out as best we can what the original was that Mark wrote. I think some overzealous monk copying Mark's gospel centuries ago thought the account needed a little help and kind of juiced it in with a major element of their monastic life, fasting. Think, “Oh, I get it. Can't just be prayer. It's got to be prayer and fasting.” But all right, first of all, it's not in all the oldest manuscripts and best manuscripts. It seems to be pretty obviously a later edition. It also seems to be obvious why they would do it. It just seems like this kind of healing can only come out by prayers. A strange answer. What? The disciples didn't pray. Surely they must have prayed. No, they didn't. But they thought, I'm having a practical problem with it. How does it work practically? The father brings the demon possessed young man, and they're like, we need to fast. How long is a fast? A minute? I'm fasting right now. All of you are too. And you're like, when is this sermon going to end? So you're already thinking about your stomach. I wouldn't call that fasting. Fasting is a length of time. It's like, “Bring him back tomorrow. We got to get fasted up.” It doesn't work. So it's added in. No, no, no. It's much more powerful if it just says this kind can only come out by prayer. Let me ask you a question. “What kind of demon can come out any other way? Oh, like this kind. You don't need to pray. You can do that one on your own.” There's no such thing. He is definitely rebuking. They're self-reliant, faithlessness, and that's the essence of our unbelief. We got this. We can save ourselves. We can solve our own problems. We got this financial problem or this medical problem. Medical science has it. Those are all idols. If they're not focused on God, I'm not saying we don't go to hospitals or get treatments and all that, but trust God in it, that God can use it. Make it God-centered and anything you rely on, that God is an idol. And the number one idol we rely on is ourselves. Jesus made it plain in John 15, "I am the vine. You're the branches. Apart from me, you can do nothing." Don’t you think it would be good to tell him, “Lord, I can't do anything apart from your help. I need you. Be with me in this situation. Help me through this.” So you're saying, “What pastor? Like when I get behind the wheel,” maybe especially then. It's like, No, no, no. I got the driving thing. I'm good at driving. Any area where you think you don't need God's help, ask him for it. The boy’s father had enough faith to bring the boy, the young man, to Jesus initially. That's why he was there. But by this time, he's not certain. And He says, "If you can do anything, take pity and help us." "If you can?” said Jesus, "Everything is possible for him who believes.” As Job said to God in Job 40:22, "I know that you can do all things. No plan of yours can be thwarted." This is the doctrine of omnipotence. Anything that can be done by power, God can do. Faith is tapping into that and saying, “I know God, you can do anything in this situation. All things are possible.” But Jesus adds, “for him who believes.” He makes His power available for believers. It's not a faith promise kind of thing, not at all. Our faith doesn't create the will of God. Our faith fits into and yields to the will of God, but it's by faith that these works are done. Then the boy’s father gives this timeless statement, which I've already highlighted, "I do believe, help my unbelief." So I would just commend that to you for the rest of your lives. Say,” Lord, I'm a believer. I believe in you. I believe you're the son of God, that you died for my sins, that you rose again. But I have pockets of unbelief, especially manifested in self-reliance. Help me with my unbelief.” IV. Jesus Predicts His Death and Resurrection Jesus again predicted His death and resurrection. Verse 30-32, “They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were because He was teaching the disciples. He said to them, ‘The son of man is going to be betrayed and the hands of man, they will kill him, and after three days he'll arise.’ But they did not understand what He meant, and they were afraid to ask him about it.” We're going to have a chance again in Mark 10 to circle back on this, so I didn't want to preach a whole sermon on it, but I'm bringing it in now just to say, look, get ready. The disciples needed to get ready because they weren't understand the necessity of the death of Jesus. V. Lessons Timeless lessons as we close. First, above all, as I've been pleading with you throughout the whole sermon, trust in Jesus, come to Jesus, trust in him. Let the evidence in Mark's Gospel, and the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, John, let the evidence be enough for you. Read it. You could read this afternoon, enough accounts to give you enough to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. Trust in him. And if you are a Christian, lay under Jesus's sharp scalpel. Let him expose your unbelief. Where there's smoke, there's fire. Look for prayerlessness in your life and trace that down, you're going to find self-reliance at the heart of it generally. So if your prayer life needs to grow and develop, let it grow and develop. Pray about more things, more categories of things than you've ever prayed for before. Ask the Lord through the Holy Spirit to show you areas of self-reliance and prayerlessness. Then meditate on Jesus's stunning words, "Everything is possible for him who believes." God can do exceedingly abundantly beyond anything you could ask or imagine, think, and then finally, pray this man's prayer, “ I do believe, help my unbelief.” Allow him to show you your unbelief and to heal you from it. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time we've had to walk through this powerful account. We thank you for the things that we have learned as we have done so. Lord, I pray that you would be speaking to our souls, the words of the Gospel, speak to our souls and help us to believe in Jesus in ways and in dimensions, and in a breadth and depth and height in ways that we've never seen before. In Jesus' name, Amen.

What would you do if a baby wouldnt stop urinating

Short hand outline - The Believer's Battle Against Beelzebub1. The Disposition of the Devil (8)His disposition is of a. Deception - he is a liarb. Division - he divides churches, families, etc.c. Destruction -  he came to steal, kill, and destroy2. Defending Against the Devil (9)a. by prayerb. by the Word of God3. The Devil's Defeat Under God's Dominion (11)Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show

Satan? Beelzebub? Lucifer? Dana? Get your Morality Doesn't Go Out of Style pin!!! https://store.dftba.com/collections/beach-too-sandy-water-too-wet Support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/beachtoosandy Xtine's Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/hauntedtofu Xandy's Stream: twitch.tv/xandyschiefer Check out our Instagram: instagram.com/beachtoosandy Logo by Courtney Aventura. Theme by Mavus White. Music by PSOVOD and tyops. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode, Paul White talks about the accusation that Jesus drove out demons by the power of Beelzebub. Accompanying scripture: Mark 3:22. 

Wasn't there an Extra Terrestrial movie called E.T. something? Brush Up on Your Bogart. They Had DNA In 1982. Your Father Fought in the Star Wars. Lemon Entry my dear Watson. Nobody puts million dollar baby in the corner. Screwed by Cherries. Proves What, Ya Dumbasses? Pull Up a Potato, We're Having Chair! The Happiest Virus Factory On Earth. I'll Keep Tweaking. Protected by a chunk of cotton. Doing it With Sheep. Bowling with Bill. Beelzebub has a Dodo put aside for me, with Bobbyyyyyy and more on this episode of The Morning Stream. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wasn't there an Extra Terrestrial movie called E.T. something? Brush Up on Your Bogart. They Had DNA In 1982. Your Father Fought in the Star Wars. Lemon Entry my dear Watson. Nobody puts million dollar baby in the corner. Screwed by Cherries. Proves What, Ya Dumbasses? Pull Up a Potato, We're Having Chair! The Happiest Virus Factory On Earth. I'll Keep Tweaking. Protected by a chunk of cotton. Doing it With Sheep. Bowling with Bill. Beelzebub has a Dodo put aside for me, with Bobbyyyyyy and more on this episode of The Morning Stream. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Satan's Defences Are Breached (Matthew 12:22-30)It is important to understand that in the 1st century eastern world it was not only mental and psychological illness which was ascribed to the influence of demons and devils; all illness was attributed to these malignant powers. Exorcism was very commonly practised; and was in many cases records show was seen to be effective.There is nothing in that to be surprised at. I personally believe, even today, that sometimes physical illness can issue can still be entirely spiritual in nature, even amongst ourselves today anyone can stress themselves into having a headache, or can convince themselves that they have symptoms of an illness which then can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. When a person under such a belief is confronted with an exorcist in whom they had confidence, often the sickness can be dispelled, and a cure is the result. In such cases if a person who is convinced they was cured, they are cured in deed.But what about Jesus, what did he do when there were demonic forces at play, how did Jesus deal with them, and was it any different that the practice of the Jewish exorcist his day. Let's pick up the text in verse 22.22 Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23 All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.” 25 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? 27 And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.  (Matthew 12: 22-29)In this instance Jesus is seen to cure a man who was blind, deaf and dumb and whose infirmity was attributed to demon-possession, and he heals him. The people were amazed. They began to wonder if this Jesus could be the Son of David, the long promised and long expected great Saviour and liberator. Any doubt or questions they had was due to the fact that Jesus was so unlike the picture of the Son of David in which they had been brought up to believe. /Here was no glorious prince with pomp and circumstance; there was no great warrior here rattling his swords and he had no conquering army with him. He did not call upon them to rise up against their Roman oppressors. Here was a simple carpenter from Galilee, who spoke words of gentle wisdom who say things with a compassionate eye, and in hands ministers a gentle healing power. All the time the Scribes and Pharisees were looking critically on. They had already arrived at their own solution to the dilemma Jesus had presented them with.We heard in yesterday's episode who they had concluded that Jesus muswww.youtube.com/@JeremyRMcCandlessThe LIFE Podcast - The Bible Project | FacebookJeremy McCandless is creating podcasts and devotional resources | Patreonlinkedin.com/in/jeremy-mccandless-68353b16soundcloud.com/bonadventurebonadventure.bandcamp.com

A two-step miracle of healing by Jesus gives us a picture of how our salvation also happens in stages. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - I. An Unusual Miracle Turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 8. As we resume our study in this incredible and glorious Gospel of Mark, we come this morning to a truly unusual miracle, a remarkable miracle. All of the miracles are remarkable, but this one's unique in some incredible ways. In this miracle account, Jesus's power seems to flicker a bit, I guess, I don't know how we would say it —that it seemed like it didn't work the first time. Do you think that Jesus is just giving us an example of perseverance? “If at first you don't succeed, try again.” That is not what's going on here, but it's strange for Jesus to have to circle back and to heal this man, it seems a second time, like somehow Jesus' power had been inadequate or somehow seemed to fail. This is especially acute when we remember the instantaneous nature of all of Jesus' other miracles. Just walk through it. As we've seen in the Gospel of Mark. In Mark chapter 1, Jesus touched a leper and he was instantly cured of his leprosy. There's no healing process, no therapy that he had to go through. He was just healed. His flesh was restored and renewed. Mark chapter 2, the paralyzed man just got up and walked out in full view of them all. No therapy needed for him. When Jesus in Mark 4 said, "Peace be still," the wind and the waves were instantly silent, instantly quiet. The quelling of the turbulent waves was just astonishing power. It might usually have taken hours for them to settle down, but instantly quiet. In Mark 5, when He commanded the legion of demons to leave the tragic demoniac of the gatherings, thousands of demons instantly left and went into the pigs. There was no hesitation. In that same chapter, the woman with the bleeding problem for twelve years touched the hem of his garment and immediately felt within her body that she was freed from her suffering. Again, no therapy, no pattern of healing, it was just done. Again in that same chapter, Mark 5, when Jesus visited Jairus' house, He touched that little girl, and she was instantly raised from the dead. Whatever fever or illness had brought her to death was gone. All she needed was a good meal at that point. Best of all, I think Mark 7, the Syrophenician woman, the mother answered Jesus humbly and with faith, "Yes Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table." And Jesus said, "For such a reply, you may go, the demon is gone." Well, that's instantaneous. What's so remarkable in Mark 7 and that healing is that Jesus didn't say anything, do anything or go anywhere. It just was in his mind, it's done, instant healing. Remember the worship that came at the end of that chapter, Mark 7, with the healing of the deaf-mute and the people said about Jesus, they're overwhelmed with amazement and said, "He's done everything well until this.” This didn't seem to go so well. There must have been some intentionality here, and I think there was. II. A Man Healed in Stages There's intentional healing in stages, but why? Why a healing in stages? Look again at the account. Verse 22 -25, “They came to Bethsaida and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, ‘Do you see anything?’ He looked up and said, ‘I see people, but they looked like trees walking around.’ Once more, Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes, then his eyes were opened and his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly.” The location is Bethsaida, which we know from other scriptures was the hometown of Peter, Andrew, and Philip and probably Nathaniel. It's near where Jesus fed the 5,000. Almost certainly many of the people there had been miraculously fed by Jesus that day. So what happened? The issue is blindness. Blindness was tragically common back then. Jesus healed many blind people throughout his ministry. Blind people are obviously in great distress, many of them ultimately had to resort to begging just to survive. In this case, this blind man has friends that care about him. Some friends brought the blind man to Jesus and begged him on his behalf for him to heal him. It's a beautiful picture I think of intercession. Similar to the four friends, you remember, that dug through the roof and lowered the paralyzed man down and lay them in front of Jesus, they cared about this man. These friends didn't have to work so hard as those friends did, but they had the same level of compassion and care for their friend. Stop for a moment and let's just do an application right here. This to me is a picture of intercessory prayer for lost people, that we would be bringing spiritually blind people to Jesus, for him to heal them spiritually. That's where we're going in the sermon, and I think it's just a teachable moment here. Who is like that for you? Are you praying for someone by name? Do you have a lost friend or coworker or neighbor or relative that you know by name and you are bringing this person to Jesus and saying, "Lord, please open his eyes, open her eyes.”? It's this teachable moment of intercessory prayer. Now, back to the account, we see the healing. Jesus takes this blind man by the hand, similar to the healing of the deaf-mute, the personal touch. He loves to do this, touching people, but in this case with him being blind, He's got to lead him and He leads him outside the village. Then He spits, He uses his saliva to heal the blind eyes of this man. Similar to John chapter 9, which we'll discuss later in the sermon, the man born blind. In that case, He spat on the ground and made some mud with the spit and smeared it on the man's eyes and sent him away and he went to the pool at Siloam and washed and his eyes were open, he could see. But the same thing in this case is the spitting. In this case, Jesus spat directly on the man's eyes, something that ordinarily would be a great insult. When Jesus was being mocked, they spat on him. But in this case it's not that at all. It's just the applying of moisture of water from Jesus' mouth for his healing. Having done this the first time, He asked him what he can see. Jesus knows everything. He knows what he can see, but He wants him to speak his experience and so he does, in verse 24, "I see people, but they look like trees walking around." Some sight has been restored, but it's not clear. People don't look like trees. His vision's working, but it's not clear, it's fuzzy, it’s not distinct. It's not reality, but it's better than it was. This is directly contrast with the final outcome, verse 25. Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes, then his eyes were open, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. It's just beautiful, I love that word “clearly.” He saw things as they really were. The same word is used of the deaf-mute. He can speak clearly at the end of Mark 7. It’s the same thing. So seeing things as they actually are, they're not fuzzy, they're not blurry, that's reality. The account ends with this command about the village. He had pulled the man outside the village to heal him. After the healing, He commands him not to return to the village. Verse 26, “He sent him home to his home saying, 'Do not even enter the village.’" This may be like all the other commands to silence in these accounts where Jesus warned the healed person not to tell anyone. My usual go-to on that, has been crowd control. It's very clear that the Holy Spirit does not ultimately want this healing a secret because it's clearly been published around the world a billion times and twenty centuries of making this healing known to everybody. This is temporary injunction to not tell anyone, crowd control. As you see in John 6, the crowds got unruly, wanted to take Jesus by force and make him king. That seems to be why He does that. Some scholars, however, believe that it's an act of judgment on the City of Bethsaida. I think it's possible because Bethsaida had been the site, as I said, of the feeding of the 5,000 and many miracles, and Jesus specifically takes Bethsaida to task in Matthew 11 and cries down a prophetic judgment on Bethsaida. Matthew 11:21-22, "Woe to you Chorazin! Woe to you Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would've repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you it'll be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment, than for you Bethsaida." So it could be we're at the point where Jesus does not want to give any more evidence of his deity and his wonder-working power to Bethsaida, possibly. I don't know exactly when the sequence was, but that's possible. So that's the account, just walking through it of what happened. III. The Salvation Analogy: Physical and Spiritual Healing Now let's talk about the spiritual analogy, the salvation analogy, physical and spiritual healings. Why this two-step? We can reject any failure or fault on Jesus' part. Jesus was not having a bad day. We all have bad days. Sometimes you have to kind of circle back, do something a second time. “Don't give up, don't get discouraged, look at Jesus, He never gave up. Don't do that.” That's not what's going on here. There's got to be some intentionality. Mark 7 still holds, “He has done everything well,” including this. Everything He does is for a purpose. My idea here is Jesus was picturing that our spiritual healing comes to us in stages. That's my thesis, my idea. Whether that's his intentionality in this miracle or not, our salvation does comes in stages. But I think it's not hard to prove that Jesus' miracles were meant to be more than just physical, they're also to teach us things spiritually. I do believe that Scripture gives us permission to link the physical healings done by Jesus to the spiritual healing we need so much. Isaiah 53 starts that link. Isaiah 53:5 says, of Jesus, "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities: the punishment that brought us peace was upon him; and by his wounds we are healed of our transgressions and our iniquities.” "Scripture gives us permission to link the physical healings done by Jesus to the spiritual healing we need so much" Again, Luke 5, as we quoted many times, 31-32, “Jesus said, ‘It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’" There it is a clear link of our repenting from sin being likened to healing by a doctor. We need therapy, we need spiritual healing. We are sick with sin. That's the real sickness Jesus came to cure through repentance. Then the clincher for me with this whole blindness issue is in John chapter 9. In John chapter 9, Jesus heals a man born blind. It's a marvelous chapter. This man is healed, Jesus isn't around when he's healed, he'd gone away to the pool at Siloam. And then the spiritual police— Scribes, Pharisees, teachers, law, high priests, haul him in before the tribunal. They're grilling this guy as if he has done something wrong. It's a remarkable account, really is. It’s got some interesting moments like when the parents get hauled in and they say, "Is this your son? The one you claim was born blind?" Stop right there. “What would our motive be of faking his blindness? It's been nothing but hard for us.” It's just amazing how obtuse these people are, and they're trying to force this man into their narrative of Jesus's life as an evildoer, as a messenger of Beelzebub. They're trying to force him, but this guy won't have anything to, he has none of it. He is just simple and is like, "You want to know what happened? I was blind, he put mud on my eyes, I washed and now I can see. What else you want to know?" "Well, we want to know who you think he was." "I think he was a prophet.” They start to curse at him and yell at him and said, "We don't even know from where this man comes." He said, "You don't know where he came from and he opened my eyes. Kind of obvious to me. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. How is it you can't see where he is from?" Then they end up cursing him out and basically excommunicating him, kick him out of the synagogue because they'd already decided that if anybody said that Jesus was the Christ, they'd be put out of the synagogue, so they throw him out. Jesus goes and finds him, and it's not accidental. The next chapter, John 10, is the good shepherd that goes and looks for the sheep. He goes and finds this man, but the enemies come out and they're surrounding him and they're still right there. And Jesus says these words, John 9:39-41, "For judgment, I have come into the world so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind." Now that's a key verse in my mind of Jesus here. Some Pharisees who are with him heard him say this and asked, "What are we blind to? So tell us what you mean by that statement." John 9:41, Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin. But now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains." In other words, you are blind. But they're physically fine. He's definitely talking about spiritual blindness. That gives me exegetical permission to see Jesus's healing of people physically blind as a picture of our spiritual healing from spiritual blindness. Jesus openly makes that connection here in John 9. The man born blind, his eyes were opened. He knew who Jesus was because he had said when Jesus went to him and said, "Do you believe in the son of man?” "Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I can believe in him." Jesus said, "You have now seen him. In fact, he is the one speaking with you." Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him. He didn't receive just physical sight that day, he received spiritual sight, the ability to see Jesus as savior. So we have every right to see all these physical healings as pictures of our spiritual healing, our salvation. There are many such verses that speak about this. One very clear one is in Acts 26:18, and that's the third time, in the book of Acts we have the account of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. The Lord said to him as He converted Saul, Paul, says, "I'm sending you to the Gentiles," listen to these words, "to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light." Well, there it is. Our salvation, therefore, is likened to the giving of spiritual sight, moving us from darkness to light, "To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God so that they may receive forgiveness of sins in a place among those who are sanctified through faith in me." So that openly tells us our salvation is like we were blind and now we see. IV. Saved in Stages Therefore, I believe that Jesus saved this blind man in stages to picture our salvation coming to us in stages. What does that mean? The time orientation of our salvation is taught in the Bible. We have been saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved. Now we Baptists are used to, "So when were you saved?" Or, "Are you saved?" and all that. We tend to kind of boil “saved” down to the moment of being born again. That's okay at one level, but it's not okay if we think that's all salvation is. Salvation's bigger than that, but it is that. We have been saved in the past, that being born again, justified if we came to faith in Christ. Ephesians 2:8-9, uses that language, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not by work so that no one can boast.” The moment you trust in Christ and repent of your sins, at that moment you're saved. Ephesians 2:8 tells you, "Saved from the wrath of God," but we're being saved as well.vA number of verses use this, but most plainly, 1 Corinthians 1:18, "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." So we are being saved by the ongoing power of the cross. The gospel keeps ministering to us, "We are being saved." Then salvation's future, “We will be saved." Romans 5:9 uses that language, "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him.” There is a yet future salvation, it hasn't come to us yet, and we will be saved. So that's the time orientation. It's a process. Theologically, the process comes in these three stages, justification, sanctification, glorification. Justification is the beginning of the Christian life. What is justification? It's the instantaneous declaration by God that we, who are sinners, are righteous in his sight. We are declared not guilty of our sins. The simple language is, we're forgiven of all sins, past, present, and future. But more theologically, we are declared righteous in his sight. How is that? How are sinners like us declared righteous? “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” That's how we are justified, we are forgiven, we are made righteous by faith in Jesus. It happens by a double imputation or crediting our sins to Jesus and He dies under the wrath of God on the cross. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." That's the second imputation. His righteousness credited us and on that basis, God declares us righteous. He counts our faith in Christ as righteousness and He declares us not guilty, acquitted, totally forgiven of all of our sins. That's justification. But that's not the end of salvation. There’s a process and the next is sanctification. That gradual process of transformation where little by little, we are made more and more conform to Christ. We more and more think like Christ, love like Christ, act like Christ. Progressively, gradually. Many verses speak of this. Ephesians 4: 22-24 says, "You were taught with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." You're putting off wickedness, you're putting off sin and corruption and putting on purity and righteousness. The key text in the entire Bible on sanctification is Romans 6, 7, and 8. Those three chapters, by the way, we are walking through those chapters carefully on Wednesday evenings. The next two weeks will be on creation/evolution, but then when we resume on Wednesday evenings, the adult Bible study will be walking through those chapters. I invite you to come. But Romans 6 teaches sanctification most plainly. Romans 6:3-8 says, "All of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him, dead once for all, the old self, so that the body of sin might be rendered increasingly powerless, weaken gradually. Romans 6:6, "So that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been freed from sin." Now if we died with Christ, we believe we'll also live with him, we'll walk with him, that kind of new life. Spiritual union with Christ means positionally, died to sin, at the instant of justification, we're dead to sin forever and then progressively, through new habits, through the transformation of the mind and the heart, by obedience to God's word, little by little becoming more and more like Christ. The progressive nature of sanctification is plain in Roman 6:19, "Just as you used to offer the parts of your body and slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness, leading to holiness." That ever-increasing language that's progressive. We are to become more and more holy, more and more conform to Christ. That's salvation, that's sanctification, progressive. Paul commands the Philippians, "Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." We have work to do, brothers and sisters. We have work to do in our salvation. We're not done being saved. It comes to us in stages. We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling. But we're not on our own, God is working in us. Every good thing we do in sanctification, God worked it in us by His spirit. We are commanded to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ [2 Peter 3:18]. That's the second stage. The third stage is glorification, the final stage of salvation. This occurs also in two stages unless we're the final generation. If we are still in the mortal body, when Jesus returns in the clouds, we get to skip the whole death thing. You have to go through a lot of other things, read about it in Revelation. But if we're not, we're going to die. If you're a Christian, you die in the Lord. The instant that you die, your spirit will be separated from your mortal body and the mortal body will go to corruption, but your spirit will go to perfection, instant perfection. That's step one of glorification. At that moment, your disembodied spirit will be present with the Lord, absent from the body, but present with the Lord, and you will be done sinning forever. How many of you are looking forward to that? Don't raise your hand, just smile. I'm looking forward to that. Free at last from sin, free at last. Then the final stage of our salvation is the resurrection of the body conformed to Christ's glorious body. Philippians 3:21 speaks of this, "By the power that enables him, Jesus to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they'll be like His glorious body." We're going to get a resurrection body. Now all three of these stages are essential to our salvation. The Bible's very clear, we do not get it all at once. Therefore, I believe the healing of this blind man in stages, pictures our salvation in stages, but especially for me, our sanctification. Now I'm going to go back to that middle stage and say especially that I want to talk about the improvement of your spiritual sight for the rest of this sermon. That your eyesight, spiritual eyesight, will get better and better. I'm arguing here that faith is the eyesight of the soul. I’ve said that many times before, I think it's a good analogy. The Bible likens faith to sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7, "We walk by faith, not by sight." They're very similar, faith and sight. Hebrews 11 does the same thing, "Faith is the assurance of things, hope for the conviction of things what, not seen." Later in that same chapter, Hebrews 11:27, it speaks of Moses, "By faith Moses left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger, he endured as seeing Him who is invisible." Let me say that again. "As seeing Him who is invisible." How do you do that? It's in the faith chapter — by faith you see Him who is invisible. Ephesians 1:18 speaks of the eyes of the heart being enlightened. What is that? What are the eyes of the heart if not faith? The ability to see invisible spiritual realities, past, present, and future. That's the eyes of the heart being enlightened. Physical eyesight is vital to our lives. Jesus said in the Sermon of the Mount, "The eyes are the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is dark, how great is that darkness?" Do you have a sense Jesus was speaking about spiritual eyesight there? I do. But He's using the physical analogy. You know how important eyesight is to you? Why is it important? Because it means your whole body's full of light, it means you can see reality, you can see the world around you as it really is —the lay of the land, the rising and falling and undulation of the earth. The road curving left, going straight, then curving right, you can see it. The ditch on the right-hand side of the road. Luke 6:39, "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?" Because your eyes tell you the pit is there, but if you're blind you can't see it. Eyesight has to do with reality, what is. Is a pit there or not? Have you guys ever walked into a darkened room you've never been in before? You're staying as a guest in somebody's house. You get up in the middle of the night, for whatever reason, and you walk through the room and yep, there was a coffee table there about shin high. Do you know what I'm talking about? You discovered it, but not by sight, because the room was dark. Now you can go eastern mystic there and say, it isn't really there. Oh no, it's there. Your shin's telling you it's there. We're talking truth. We're talking reality. The coffee table is there and the eyes tell you. Jesus used this analogy in John 11, when he says, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble for he sees by this world's light. It is when he walks at night that he stumbles for he has no light." The light and the eyesight tell you what is. They tell you what's around. Moving into the spiritual realm, the spiritual reality, spiritual eyesight, faith tells you what really is in the spiritual realm, what the truth is. Now, biblically, our faith can be weak or strong. It could be non-existent, you have no faith, in that case you're dead in your transgressions and sin. You have no faith. But if you are a Christian, your faith can be weak or strong. Jesus frequently commented on the level of people's faith. For example, the Roman centurion in Matthew 8, “When Jesus heard what he said, He was amazed and said, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith." Or again, to that Syrophenician woman, He said, "Woman, you have great faith. Your request is granted." So you can have great faith, meaning great in quantity. It's a dimmer-switch kind of thing. It's like you can have a little faith, more faith, great faith. You know the disciples, how often did Jesus complain about them? "Oh you of little faith." Remember when Peter began to sink? He said to Peter, Matthew 14:31, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" "Little faith," that was like his number one nickname for his apostles, "You of little faith." Therefore, it seems vital for us to increase our faith. Faith can increase. Biblically, it is possible for you to have more faith a year from now than you do now. 2 Thessalonians 1:3, "We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more." What does that mean? You have more faith than you did a year ago. And the love you have for each other is increasing. Again, 2 Corinthians 10:15, "Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our area of activity among you will greatly expand." You can have more faith a year from now than you do now. Therefore, in the analogy I'm using today based on this miracle, it means clearer and clearer spiritual vision. You see things more and more clearly as you progress. Spiritual things, you see them more clearly than you used to. How does that happen? "Faith can increase. " It happens first with Bible intake. Good, sound, biblical instruction, feeding on God's Word. Get in God's Word. I would commend in the analogy we're using today, Psalm 119:18, where the psalmist says, "Open my eyes, that I may see wonderful things in your law." “Open my eyes”, what does that mean? “I'm reading the Bible. I might miss something. Give me clearer spiritual vision on the text.” From that, everything flows. Like what? As you take in God's Word and as you obey it, obedience is essential. Don't be merely a hearer of the word but a doer of it also. John 14:21 is the key on this, "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me and whoever loves me will be loved by my father and I too will love him and manifest or disclose or show myself to him.” V. Ever-Increasing Spiritual Sight The double combination is: have his commands and obey them. Then what'll happen, more and more, God will manifest himself to you. You'll see him. What will you see? There's some different things I've looked through in the Bible that link spiritual reality to vision, seeing things. What are you supposed to see if you get clearer and clearer vision? If you started with men like trees walking around, but then your vision gets clearer, what are you seeing more clearly? First, let’s start with Christ crucified, the agonies, the agonies of Christ's death. Do you see it? Galatians 3:1, "Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before your very eyes?" Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. How do you do that? Preaching. Paul preached Christ crucified. Then, like Isaac Watts said, “when I survey the wondrous cross,” you're supposed to survey it. Look at him. Look at Jesus bleeding out on the cross. What are you supposed to see when you see that? You see all the attributes of God if you know what to look for. You see his love, you see his power, you see his compassion. There's not an attribute of God that you cannot see in the cross. Just surveying it, how long can I look? It's beautiful, powerful, terrifying. By faith you should look at the cross daily, I Corinthians 1:18, "By the cross we are being saved." Secondly, you see the glories of Christ's resurrection. You can see his resurrected glory, the radiance that comes from his resurrected body. 2 Corinthians 3:18, "We all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord." How do we do that? By faith. You can see the glory of the resurrected Christ as Saul of Tarsus saw on the road to Damascus, a light brighter than the sun. You can see the resurrected glory of Christ. "We all with unveiled faces beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to the next." The more you see that glory, the more you will shine like Moses, that's the analogy he's making there. You are going to shine with the glory of God. As I said earlier, what's your goal for 2023? I'd like to be more glorious. I'd like to shine more and more with the glory of the Lord. Then behold, with unveiled faith, his resurrected glory. Thirdly, see the greatness of Christ's kingly power at work in you. Ephesians 1:18, “The eyes of your heart, your faith. The eyes of your heart may be enlightened." They're enlightened. What am I going to see? In that chapter, Ephesians 1, what you'll see is, "Pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you. The riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power at work in you who believe." That power, by the way, of the three, that's the only one He zeroes in on. “That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion in every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.” Wow. What's all that about? Power. Do you understand how great is Christ's kingly power? All authority of Heaven and earth has been given to him, but to what end? For you. To benefit you, to finish your salvation in this dangerous world. To protect you and get you there, to get you to Heaven. He's never going to fail. He wants you to see the eyes of your heart, be enlightened, to see that kind of power. Nothing can snatch you from his hands. Fourthly, to see the vileness and the details of your own sin. What? You're supposed to see that? How can you be sanctified without it? That's the journey ahead of you. The reason you need sanctification is because you're a sinner, a habitual sinner. You're in a mortal body of sin. You have habits of sin. Do you see it? You don’t, not like you should. “Oh Lord, show me my sin." Hebrews 11:1, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for." That sounds good to me, but it's also the conviction. Conviction, conviction of things not seen. Conviction? What does that mean? Like a convict like in a court of law, you've been convicted of crime. By faith you see your sin and you need to and you need to see how violent it is. When you see Jesus bleeding on the cross, you know it's because you sinned. And what will it make you do?If you see it for what it is, it'll make you hate it like He does. You have to see it as it really is so that you can hate it like He does. Fifth, to see the lostness of people around you. We don't. That's why we don't witness. We don't see them by faith. We don't see what it's going to be like for them on judgment day when they don't have a mediator, when they don't have anyone answering for them, they will hear those dreadful words, "Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." They don't fear that. You're supposed to fear on their behalf because they don't fear like they should. Remember those disciples in John chapter 4? They go into the Samaritan village and buy lunch, to-go. Not eating with these people. For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. What are they doing there, they asked. It's got to be one of the times the apostles questioned Jesus, like, "Jesus, why are we here? This is weird." There was another way to get up to Judea, but no, the text said they had to go through Samaria. Why? Because this woman and the village was there. They came back with lunch, but without a single Samaritan inquiring about Jesus. Not one. Jesus said to them, "I have food to eat that you apparently know nothing about." What is that food? Could somebody have brought him lunch? “My food is to the will of him who sent me and finished his work. That's what my food is. What about you? Lift up your eyes and look at the fields. They're white for harvest. Don't you see these lost people? Don't you see them?” Listen, brothers and sisters, I'm speaking to myself as much as to you. I don't see lost people the way I should. I don't have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart like Paul does in Romans 9. But I want to. Couldn't you ask the Lord to help you see lost people, not like trees walking around, but as they really are under the wrath of God and in great danger? Six, see needy people around you. This is similar to the last one where it just has to do with physical miseries, poverty, sickness, brokenness, sadness. Remember the parable of the good Samaritan. Let me just read it so we don't miss the detail. “A priest happened to be going down the same road and,” listen to these words, "when he saw the man he passed by on the other side." He saw him physically, he didn't seem him spiritually. To the Levite, when he came to the place and saw him he passed by on the other side. He saw him physically, but he didn't seem him spiritually. “But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came to where the man was. When he saw him, he took pity on him.” He saw him physically and spiritually and was a good neighbor to him. We don't tend to do that. We, like the priest and Levite, see physically, but not spiritually and go by on the other side. We don't alleviate suffering like we could. Seventh, see the brevity of your life. See your coming death. It's coming soon, sooner than you think. Psalm 90 teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Where's the seeing verse? All of these, by the way, had seeing in them. That's how I found them in the Bible, I was searching. “God, show me seeing verses.” So here it is, Psalm 39:4, "Show me, oh Lord, my life's end and the number of my days. Let me know how fleeting is my life." “Show it to me. Let me see my own death. Let me see myself in the ICU, let me see me with my relatives, my grandchildren around my bed weeping for you. Let me realize like Ecclesiastes tells you to do, to be very aware that you're going to die. Show it to me.” Along with that, with Ecclesiastes, see the vanity of this world, the temporary nature of it. The ordering, the physical ordering of all the stuff in the world is temporary. In Matthew 24:2, when his disciples came and said, "Lord, look at these incredible stones, these amazing buildings," [talking about the temple]. "Do you see all these things?" Jesus said, "Not one stone here will be left on another. Everyone thrown down." Same is true of the whole world. All of it is destined for fire. It's all temporary. Therefore, see the reality of the coming Judgment Day. 2 Peter 3, "The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live godly and holy lives, as you look forward to the day of God, and speed it's coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire and the elements will melt in the heat. Look forward to that coming day. See it coming and speed it's coming. Finally, 10th, "See the glories of heaven." In the same chapter 2 Peter 3:13, "In keeping with this promise, we are looking forward to a new Heaven and a new earth. The home of righteousness." That's ten things you can see more clearly in scripture if you ask the Lord to open your eyes. At present, how many of those do you see men like trees walking around? VI. Our Eternal Destination: Perfect Heavenly Vision Our eternal destination is perfect vision. We're going to see everything clearly in heaven. How do I know that? 1 Corinthians 13:12 talks about this healing, very similar to the miracle we talked about today. We see but a poor reflection as in a mirror. That's, “I see people like trees.” Now we see, but a poor reflection as in a mirror, “then we shall see face-to-face. Now I know in part then I shall know fully even as I am fully known.” We're going to see everything clearly and we're going to see God face-to-face. 1 John 3 says that, "Dear friends, now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Then Revelation 22:3-4, "The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city. His servants will serve him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads." In heaven, we'll have perfect clear vision, something to look forward to. Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for this miracle. Thank you for the way it taught us about spiritual vision. I pray, oh Lord, that you would sharpen our vision in these ten areas and other areas beside help us to start with Scripture, to see things in your Word that we have not seen before. And then to obey the things you tell us to do and not be mere hearers. And we know that if we have your commands and obey them, you're going to manifest yourself to us. Reveal yourself. So please, oh Lord, do that. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

1 And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. 2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. 5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: 6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. 9 Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, 10 Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat. 11 And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence. 12 And when ye come into an house, salute it. 13 And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. 15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. 16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. 17 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; 18 And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. 19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. 20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. 21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. 22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. 23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. 24 The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. 25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? 26 Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. 27 What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. 28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. 32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. 34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. 37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. 40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. 41 He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. 42 And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.

People don't really hate the Catholic Church. They hate what they've been taught is the Church, most of which is untrue. This quote from Fulton “the quote machine” Sheen sums it up:There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church — which is, of course, quite a different thing. These millions can hardly be blamed for hating Catholics because Catholics “adore statues”; because they “put the Blessed Mother on the same level with God”; because they say “indulgence is a permission to commit sin”; because the Pope “is a Fascist”; because the “Church is the defender of Capitalism.” If the Church taught or believed any one of these things it should be hated, but the fact is that the Church does not believe nor teach any one of them. It follows then that the hatred of the millions is directed against error and not against truth. As a matter of fact, if we Catholics believed all of the untruths and lies which were said against the Church, we probably would hate the Church a thousand times more than they do. If I were not a Catholic, and were looking for the true Church in the world today, I would look for the one Church which did not get along well with the world; in other words, I would look for the Church which the world hates… Look for the Church that is hated by the world, as Christ was hated by the world. Look for the Church which is accused of being behind the times, as Our Lord was accused of being ignorant and never having learned. Look for the Church which men sneer at as socially inferior, as they sneered at Our Lord because He came from Nazareth. Look for the Church which is accused of having a devil, as Our Lord was accused of being possessed by Beelzebub, the Prince of Devils. Look for the Church which, in seasons of bigotry, men say must be destroyed in the name of God as men crucified Christ and thought they had done a service to God. Look for the Church which the world rejects because it claims it is infallible, as Pilate rejected Christ because He called Himself the Truth. Look for the Church which is rejected by the world as Our Lord was rejected by men… If then, the hatred of the Church is founded on erroneous beliefs, it follows that basic need of the day is instruction. Love depends on knowledge for we cannot aspire nor desire the unknown. (Fulton Sheen on Radio Replies)The Church that is rejected by men is a Church they rarely know or understand. The attackers have not read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is clear because most of the attacks don't even make sense once you crack the cover of that book. Thus, it's useless for me to feel offended by atheist attacks any more that it is to feel offended by Protestant attacks. Yet I do feel offended sometimes. Why? Because I fail to fully surrender to God and his Church, hence the need for daily conversion, to fight the spiritual fight, and to submit my will and intellect completely to the care of God's grace. His will, not mine, will be done. This blog is just a journal of my reasons for believing, and if I didn't feel such a need to express these words, I wouldn't do it. Jesus commanded us to tell the story of the Gospel, and that his sheep would hear his voice. Seems like a small task for me to at least tell of my reasons for faith, with the hopes that perhaps someone else will undo their own Herschel Walker trade. Now, Protestants did not make the full trade, abandoning God, but they did abandon the Mother Church, the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the barque of Peter (and any other pseudonyms you like). In Luther's defense, he was living in and around a period of time when frauds like the Donation of Constantine came to light, which called for questioning, correction, and improvement, and the Church was under heavy attack from all sides. It is also under attack today, from all sides. In Luther's time, the New World had been discovered, science was advancing, and there were three concurrent Popes at one time not long before. Add a few greedy clergy using “salvation for money” schemes that would make Bernie Madoff blush, and only a match it need to start a conflagration. It's just too bad Luther's exit ended up watering down the doctrines instead of shoring it up, because he really wanted to protect doctrine in the beginning - even the Eucharist. After all, he was an Augustinian monk, and the most “Catholic” Protestant there ever was, at least in the beginning, until Zwingli and the hoards came after him. I haven't come to bash Luther as much as I have come to bash Voltaire and Jefferson and the fruit of their legacy of unbelief. I routinely bash the 19th century German scholarship that tried to elevate Biblical scholarship and instead cut the trunk out from the tree. Even though things look bleak, I have to think of Joseph, Jacob's son, in Egypt. After getting tossed in a well, then sold into slavery, then living in prison after being falsely accused of seducing a powerful man's wife, Joseph had a winning streak. When he met his brothers again, many years later, he said, “As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.” (Gen 50:20) All of this, all that has happened in the past 500 years is part of God's plan, even the awful parts. We just don't know how yet, but we do know that the name of the game is adhering to Christ, his words, his commandments, and imitating him, which means sticking to the doctrines and not affirming every sin that feels good or sounds good. It means saying, “No,” to the culture, to popular opinion. Slavery was once popular opinion thanks to sola scriptura. Why? Because you can make the Bible be whatever you want it to be with “scripture alone.” The Church put out anti-slavery documents and statements early on. Just like today, that doesn't mean every person adhered to the teaching. Consider how poorly the laity adhere to birth control and admonitions of greed. There were hardly any Catholics in America until the Irish came, which was around the Civil War, and guess what? They were hated, too. It's almost a guarantee. Catholicism is the punk rock of all ages, because it is always a counter-culture. But unlike punk rock, Catholicism has a shelf-life that lasts longer than a decade. All of the fad counter-cultures disappear like smoke, like figdet-spinners and rolled jeans and pet rocks, they are passing fashions that mean nothing to the next generation. But Mary and Joseph do not fade. The impact of the saints and martyrs carries on. The Gospel does not fade, even if the books and scrolls wear out over time. The printing press was not necessary for Christianity any more than the internet is now. Only Jesus and a community of believers was required: Jesus and the Mystical Body of Christ was needed. It's also quite nice that the Church has a way to settle disputes with the Bishops as time and history introduce new issues regarding faith and morals. No other Church has that capability but the one that Jesus founded on a rock named Peter, who happened to setup shop in Rome. Somehow the faith starts a new fire every few years. And the fire always irritates the culture, and oddly enough, what irritates American culture is not the same as what irritates African culture, where in America the Church is hated for it's sexual teaching on chastity, and in Africa it's appreciated for it's sexual teaching on chastity. Americans, in classic form, just assume Africans are childlike. This has not changed, folks. Progressives in America preach sermons that treat Africa as less advanced because they adhere to traditional marriage and family arrangements. The condescension toward Africa today is as bad, if not worse, than it was from the 1500s through the Enlightenment. So which nation is more lost? Is it Nigeria or Uganda? Is it America? The answer is: all of them. America is a sheep that's fallen into a gorge in need of being found. But it's not special in that sense; every nation has its sins, just like every person does. If anything feels good, it is to be counter-cultural. What teenager doesn't want to rebel? But what is odd is that obedience to God is the ultimate rebellion, but it's against sin and the world. Rebellion against God is easy, undemanding, cliche. Rebellion against the flesh and the devil? That's freedom. That is timeless. To remain fully alive, body and soul, and seek union with the Creator is a fad that never dies because at the root, we desire God like we desire food. Jesus and his Church have been the unlikely underdog from the beginning and these two still are today. God has set things up this way. Why? I don't know, but what a joy to be a part of the team that calls itself sinners, who eat and give thanks together, who receive the Eucharist, the Body of Christ. The Reformation, the Enlightenment, the German anti-Catholic culture war, French existentialism, Americanism, Marxist atheism, Postmodernism, and technocratic utopianism - these are all different versions, different ways, of rejecting God. Our desire to eat from the tree of knowledge manifests in many ways, with each generation in competition with the prior one. They are various sides of the same set of dice. In my own confused journey through the chaff of modern ideas, of all these, I find that the Enlightenment did more permanent damage than anything else. Why? Because that is what killed our idea of the soul and all things mysterious. It denies the supernatural. At the very least, the Reformation still held on to the soul and God, but the unbelievers told us there was no soul, and it's hard to argue with dead people and academic scholarship that preaches more than it teaches. The bias in academia becomes glaringly obvious as we shove off from the shore further from the 19th and 20th centuries. There is a laziness in academics now that assumes historical and textual criticism is unassailable, that tradition has nothing important to say. The Reformation's disgust with tradition led to the dumping of all capital-T “Tradition,” and if I learned anything at all from Fiddler on the Roof, it's that Tradition is valuable. The death of wonder and enchantment is the greatest tragedy of the last five hundred years of human history. Death of belief in the soul is tragic for atheists because even if you fell for the lie, you still have a soul and just need to get back in touch with God to have him pull the string and turn your light on again. You have to get your soul out of coat-check and write a bad review of the devil's bar service. Recall that the devil is allowed to tempt and test us, and it is on us to muster the courage to leave the casino. That is what God wants us to do: to ask for help, to fight for faith, goodness, and truth. If you haven't experienced soul death, or the perception of soul death (because your soul is there even if you don't believe it), consider yourself blessed. You are blessed with the gift of faith. Literally. You are in cooperation with God's grace, and he has chosen you, and you have answered. Faith is the greatest gift we can receive, but it requires surrender and action. The good news, really, the greatest news, is that soul death is not a real thing. Just as atheists mock God as a kind of Santa Claus, I mock atheists' unbelief in the soul, because the joke is actually on them. It's just not a funny joke, it's sad. You have a soul. You may not believe it. But that's because much time is spent in convincing you that God and the devil are not real. You may accept the idea of a soul, but reject God and the devil. But all three exist. Losing your sense of the soul is the greatest tragedy of a life. If you've already lost that connection, I'm sorry. Start today in earnest to get it back, beginning with the simple prayer of request: “God, help me be willing to be willing.” Or you can say, “God, I want to believe, help my unbelief.” In your de-programming from the modern cult of unbelief, that's the diet you have to start on in order to get you back on solid spiritual food. Because God has a sense of humor, if or when you reconnect with your soul, it will be the greatest awakening you can possibly have. With all spiritual physics, you have to do down to go up. You have to die to be reborn. This is how it works.The non-believers like Voltaire, Rousseau, Locke, Hume, Whitman, and Jefferson severed the soul from the body. For many years, they kind of pussy-footed around the issue, with people like Descartes still clinging to belief while he killed the soul. Then later Hume and others just came out and said, “There is no soul!” That's why we have bold atheists today just declaring it, like Yuval Harari and every middle schooler on TikTok. If there was ever a “spirit murder,” as anti-racists like to talk about today, it is not what happens in public school with white male teachers. But it did happen by white men. They are right about that. Truly, the modern scapegoat, a.k.a. White Males, performed the greatest spirit murder of all time. But I'm not talking about what modern atheists are talking about when they talk about “spirit.” I suspect that most modern people don't even know what a spirit is (to find out yourself, listen to this Lord of Spirits episode). No, the real “spirit murder” happened from the white guys of the Enlightenment. The “death of God” declarations from the 19th and 20th century all came from white Europeans and Americans and Russians, so as far as I'm concerned, a spiritual genocide happened that is still being felt across the West. But then there was a “body murder” as well, which happened in the Reformation. What do I mean by that? I'm talking about the idea of “faith alone.” When “faith alone” became the basis for salvation, the body was cut off from the soul. So we had one group deny the soul in the Enlightenment, and the Reformers kill the body with faith alone. How? What am I talking about?Because we no longer needed a body. God was all in our head and heart. We can be saved just by laying on the couch. A brain in a vat kept alive by electrodes can be saved by “faith alone.” A software program can emit a string of text that fulfills the requirements of “faith alone.” With “faith alone,” our soul doesn't have much need for this lump of fat, muscle, blood, bone and cartilage. With faith alone, religion moved out of the physical world and took up residence in the ether, the mystical mind. There is much I'd like to go into right here about the Eucharist, but briefly, let me just say that the reason Protestant churches are dying is quite different from the drop in attendance from Catholic churches. The reason Protestant churches are shrinking is because they have always just been “Four walls and a sermon,” and if there is one thing that the internet has shined a light on is that, “sermon alone” does not make a church. It makes for a show. It's just entertainment. Whereas physical Sacraments, like Confession and the Eucharist, require the body to come along. But faith alone requires no works, so why leave the house? Why bother, when you can watch the best preacher in America from your house? Literally, a brain hooked up to a computer can do all that is required of a Protestant. I'm sorry if it sounds cruel, but we're not that far away from brain-vats and wetware, so let that by my prophecy. See, a brain cannot consume the Eucharist, which is why Jesus is so amazing - no matter how we try to box him in, he always rises over us. However, let me back up from bashing the Protestants. The Reformation axe caused less damage than the Enlightenment. Again, I have not come to bury Luther, nor to praise him. To me, the loss of the soul was far more damaging, because as soon as the soul is gone, so is God, along with the devil, and so is the meaning of life. After I had moved on from Catholicism, I wandered about, but the situation felt precarious, as if I were living on a ridge, with infinitely steep sides. Along the ridge I saw a tiny table and a chair at a mysterious little two-dimensional restaurant. The menu had two options. The first option on the menu was simple. Atheism. It had some fancy garnishes, like agnosticism or positivism, but atheism was the entree. The second option was Faith Alone, but it came with a million options, none of which appealed. I could see other people at their little tables, trying to decide, and trying not to look into the Big Empty that was on both sides of the ridge. Many wanted to choose Faith Alone, but the description of it went on for miles. A scroll rolled out of the menu and dangled over the cliff edge. It wasn't clear what Faith Alone was. It seemed like it could be whatever you wanted it to be, and I never saw any food delivered to those who ordered it. Eventually, I realized that there was nothing to eat. It was a trick. There was no food. This was a two-dimensional restaurant. There was no bread at all. Everything on the Faith Alone menu was a symbol, not real food. Some people were pretending to eat from empty plates, laughing, and taking drinks from empty cups. Many ended up ordering Atheism because of the confusion, and then the waiter just came and dumped the people off their chair, over the cliff into the Big Empty. That, too, provided no food. At least falling into the abyss provided an initial thrill. But there was still no food, there was just waiting to hitting bottom and feeling lost. It took me a long time to realize that there was a second restaurant, one with art on the walls and music, even statues (again, not for worshipping!) and there was actual food, real food there. There were four walls and a sermon, but also a meal. It was three dimensional, too. Actually, it was four dimensions. Maybe five. Honestly, I don't even know how many dimensions there are yet. That's the exciting thing about it. There's just so much to discover, and it's timeless, endless, eternal. It's better than any drug. It's wholeness. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.whydidpetersink.com

Happy New Year! We're back with a paranormal story about the demonic possession of a woman that went a bit awry. Was it the spirits-turned-demons of her deceased abusive father and witch/aunt that hexed her with spices during their lives? Was it the infamous apostle, Judas Iscariot? Was it Beelzebub? Or was Anna Ecklund simply a woman suffering from mental illnesses who was failed by the countless doctors she saw? This week, Hannah and Katy go through it all, from the 23-day exorcism that included wall-climbing, and barnyard noises, to the dramatic “first-hand” account recorded in a pamphlet appropriately titled, Begone, Satan! We are grateful to get to spend 2023 with you guys! And we hope you enjoy this Spooky Story! Send in your episode suggestions and/or irrational fears to us on Facebook or Instagram, or at thetaleswetell@gmail.comSources:https://diabolicalconfusions.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/begone-satan-rev-celestine-kapsner.pdfhttps://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1906A29.pdfhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Ecklund#cite_note-FOOTNOTEEbon1974129-15https://medium.com/exploring-history/the-most-terrifying-and-spectacular-exorcism-in-history-76587b507164https://the-line-up.com/the-exorcist-father-theophilus-riesinger-and-possession-of-anna-ecklundhttps://www.historicmysteries.com/anna-ecklund/Support the showFollow us @thetaleswetellpodcast on Facebook and Instagram, or thetaleswetellpodcast.comSupport us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/thetaleswetellpodcast?Click here for merch!

Why Put up with the life of a disciple (Matthew 10:24-31) The Life of a Disciple.You would think that serving the Lord would always be enjoyable, it is after all working for a wonderful boss who is gracious and generous, and all of that's true. In reality having served the Lord for decades virtually all of my adult life I have found that to generally be true. However, there's another side of serving the Lord because the work can be difficult. Serving the Lord can involve suffering as well. It's sort of like well to use Jesus' own analogy sending sheep out among wolves when he sent out the 12 apostles, he gave them some instruction warning them that their call to service might involves suffering. He even told them that they might suffer persecution from religious leaders, civic leaders, even family members. He told them that some would be arrested even a whipping was possible, and of course he said they would be hated by everybody. “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. (Matthew 10: 24)We need to pause right away; he's saying in this verse you are the student the and the servant and so don't think that you're somehow going to be above the teacher or the owner of the slave. In those days they treated the teachers the way a servant treated a master. But you should not expect any better treatment than they will give your master and leader. In the next verse he gets more specific he says in verse 25. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house ]Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!(Matthew 10: 25)Therefore, do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known.  (Matthew 10: 26)Do Not Fear.And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.  (Matthew 10: 27) And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10: 28)Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.  (Matthew 10: 29-31).......................................................................................The Bible Project Podcast (Daily - Monday-Friday)https://thebibleproject.buzzsprout.com.This podcast was brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon.The Lady Hewley Trust,  Hilary Tulloh, Adeline Israel, Stefanie Eichenberg, Stephen Longton, Bob Clough, Valerie Sims, Lisa Look, Robert Holloway, The Creative  Fund, John  Van Mulligen, Sergey  Kochergan, Bobbi  Patchin, Thomas  Unitt, Colin  Evans' Martin  MPW.www.youtube.com/@JeremyRMcCandlesswww.youtube.com/@JeremyRMcCandlessThe LIFE Podcast - The Bible Project | FacebookJeremy McCandless is creating podcasts and devotional resources | Patreonlinkedin.com/in/jeremy-mccandless-68353b16soundcloud.com/bonadventurebonadventure.bandcamp.com

We start the new year with an old foe. Satan, Mephistopheles, Old Scratch, Beelzebub, Beelz to his friends. that's right we begin our epic journey to the dark side with the Spanish Inquisition. A time where the Catholic Church decided that it didn't want to play with anyone else. 32,000 people would be executed under the inquisition, an organization that killed its last victim in the 1800's and technically is still in existence to this very day.

a. The Lord's Prayer (11:1-13) b. Jesus and Beelzebub (11:14-23) c. Return of the unclean spirit (11:24-26) d. Trye blessedness (11:27-28) e. The sign of Jonah (11:29-32) f. The light in you (11:33-36) g, Woe to the Pharisee's and lawyers (11:37-53)

 Expecting a Kingdom Various passages  December 18, 2022     Introduction: This Christmas we are looking at the rest of the story of Christmas as we learn that Jesus came for more reasons than just to die for our sins!  Last week we learned that Israel was waiting for a king whom they called “Messiah,” the New Testament calls him the “Christ.”  Even getting a bit closer to home with our personal lives, we call him Lord! You cannot have a king without a kingdom  A kingdom is simply made up of a territory or realm, and people over whom a king rules.    That means the kingdom of God is simply the territory, the realm and the people over whom Jesus rules as king.   Therefore, at the first coming of Christ Israel was not only waiting for a king but a kingdom that he was going to set up as well! Today I want to try to better understand what the kingdom is turn to Matthew 3 The kingdom is at handJesus and John the Baptist both began their preaching with the same message:  the “kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Read Matthew 3:1-2; 4:17.  Jesus and John were saying that the kingdom of heaven was so close to appearing that they could reach out and touch it, they could smell the aroma of it like a fine cooked meal in the next room.  It is interesting to note also that neither one of them felt a need to explain just what that kingdom was or what it would be like That is because when they heard John and Jesus preach about the kingdom of heaven the Jew could not help but think about God's covenant promises and what the prophets said in the Old Testament.    The one that Daniel 2 would simply summarize as a kingdom that would crush all the other earthly kingdoms!   Read Daniel 2:44  (note heaven)People try to make a distinction between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God –  I think that is reading our current theology into the text rather than letting the text inform our theology! What they would have known is what we learned in the series of the people of promise and particularly the sixteen promises we summarized for you on the handout we gave you.  Review quickly:Abrahamic a land forever innumerable descendants that would be  blessings in his seed all the nations will be blessed God will be their God forever Deuteronic future repentance of Israel restoration to the land regathered from dispersion nation converted Israel's enemies will be judged nation receive full blessings in the land Davidic king forever kingdom forever reign forever New covenant  Spiritual blessings – forgiven, new heart, the Holy Spirit.  Abiding material blessings in the land This is the nature of the kingdom that John the Baptist and Jesus were offering, this is the kingdom the Jews were looking for but something significant happened in Matthew 12 The kingdom has come upon youTurn to Matthew 12:28.  Context is that Jesus had just cast a demon out of a man and the Pharisees said, “He cast out demons by Beelzebub the ruler of the demons.” Listen to Jesus' response.  Read v25-28No longer is the kingdom at hand but now it has come upon them. Jesus said when he cast out the demon by the Spirit of God, and then the kingdom has come upon you. The Old Testament taught that during the kingdom the Holy Spirit would be doing extra ordinary works. Right here is one display of that.   Listen to Luke 17:20-21 when the Pharisees were questioning Jesus as to when the kingdom of God was coming.  Listen to what he said.  Read Luke 17:20-21 The word “in your midst or within you” cannot be referring to the fact the kingdom is residing in their hearts because Jesus was talking to a largely unbelieving group who rejected him! What Jesus was saying is that the kingdom of God is in your midst.  The kingdom of God is standing right here, right now, right in the middle of all of you.  The king and the kingdom go hand in hand.  Where King Jesus is, the kingdom is. In the parables Jesus teaches them and us the …  Mysteries of the kingdom Read Matthew 13:10-11 A mystery is something that has not been revealed before but now is going to be.  New revelation comes in light of the fact that the religious leaders have just rejected and denounced Jesus, their Messiah.  The parables are the mysteries of the kingdom!   Jesus is going to tell them and us something new about the kingdom of God, and it is much different from the kingdom they expected and learned about in the Old Testament.   The parables teach us the nature of God's kingdom from the time of Israel's rejection of him as their king until the time he returns to set up his kingdom here on earth, the kingdom they expected from the Old Testament. I will only read a summary of what the parables teach us about the kingdom, as it would take a whole series to understand it all.  See passages in the notes!The parables teach us new features of the kingdom that have been in operation from the rejection of Jesus as Messiah by Israel and will continue until the judgment at the end of this age (Matthew 12:28; 13:30, 39-40, 49).  During this time the righteous and wicked will co-exist (Matthew 13:24-30) and Satan himself will be very active (Matthew 13:39).  At the end of this age, no one else can enter the kingdom (Matthew 25:10-13) and there will be judgment for the wicked and rewards for the sons of the kingdom at that time. (Matthew13:30, 40-43, 47-50; 20: 1-16; 25:14-30).  The kingdom will start very small but powerful and will grow and advance until it surpasses all other kingdoms (13:31-33).  But it is a kingdom of supreme importance and value, worth everything a person has (Matthew13:44-46).  Because Israel rejected Jesus as Messiah /King, the kingdom is taken away from them and given to a people producing its fruits ( Matthew 21:33-44; Luke 13:28-29)  the invitation to this kingdom will now go out beyond the people of Israel to many others (Matthew 22:1-10).   People will respond differently to the word of this kingdom (13:18-23), since many are called but few are chosen (Matthew 22:14).  Entrance into this kingdom will not be based upon bloodline or religious heritage but rather upon repentance and belief (Matthew 21:28-32).  This kingdom will be an internal invisible powerful spiritual kingdom. It is a kingdom of receiving and giving forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-35).  Where Jesus is, the kingdom is, because the king and the kingdom go hand and hand. (Matthew 12:28; Luke 17:20-21).  Because no one knows the day or hour when Jesus will return and bring a close to this age, everyone should be prepared, watching, and serving the Master by doing his will until he returns (Matthew 25:1-30) Jesus told his disciples that his literal earthly kingdom would not be right away but in the future, after the king takes a long journey and they will be rewarded according to their faithfulness during that time. (Luke19:11-27) Simply stated, the kingdom of God during our time is the rule of God by his Spirit over the hearts and lives of men and women.  I believe the visible manifestation of this kingdom during this time that Jesus must be in heaven is the church.  In reality, the kingdom has already begun but it is not fully here yet!   Theologians call this already but not yet!The “already” part is the fact that since the kingdom is where the king is and the Spirit of Christ dwells in our hearts right now, then he is king over a group of people who have been born again by the Spirit of God.  It is a spiritual kingdom “right now” where Jesus rules as king over his people. The “not yet” part is the fact that when Jesus returns to earth, he is going to set up a literal earthly, kingdom where he will be king over all the earth from Jerusalem.   Application   As believers, we are not just waiting for a kingdom but we are a part of God's powerful invisible kingdom right now with our King Jesus ruling over his church as its head and over his people as their lord!   Here is the reality that we live in.  We live in the midst of two kingdoms, each with their own kings – the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan- the god of this world. Each kingdom has its own program/system, ways, pattern, mold, basic principles, standards, philosophy, values, goals, methods, wisdom, viewpoint, loves, and use of its money. etc.The world puts constant pressure on us to squeeze us into the mold of the world we live in buying into its ways and values God's kingdom is seeking to transform us into the mold of Jesus Christ.  Each kingdom is vying/competing for our allegiance to its ways and its king While we are in the world, we are not of the world as God transferred us out of the kingdom of Satan and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son.Read Colossians 1:12-13  Believers – which kingdom are you living by?  Which one reflects more of your thinking, values. loves and lifestyle?This is not about how many Bible studies you go to, how many times you go to church or even how much worship music you listen to! This is about who really is your king and which kingdom is influencing your life.   If you do not know Jesus, today you can transfer your membership from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of Jesus!Turn and listen to what Jesus said in John 3:3  You must be born again!  Born again by the Spirit of God.   Read John 3:7-8  Turn to John 1 and listen to what John the apostle said in v11-13Note what it is not – read 13b It is by God through faith in Jesus.  Read 12b Simple as ABC and invite

The amazing deliverances and miracles worked by God registered in Scripture are reminders against faithless forgetfulness. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - I. Two Different Cases of Forgetfulness Turn in your Bibles to Mark 8, the passage that we're going to walk through it today. This morning, we have a layered story, I think, of forgetfulness. That's the unifying theme, of individuals that in some different ways forgot the mighty works and wonders of God and of Christ, and each of them will be instructive for us. Here are two different cases of forgetfulness. Right away in verse 14, we have the disciples having forgotten to bring bread, so we have the issue of their forgetfulness except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. This is a big deal. After all, Jesus and His disciples are moving around from place to place. They are always moving often in remote places where there was no one, there was no place for them to find provision, so it must have been someone's job to get the bread, and they blew it. They didn't bring the bread. We'll talk about that, there's that forgetfulness. But we also have this sinful forgetfulness before that of the Pharisees. Look at verses 11-13, "The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test Him, they asked for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, 'Why does this generation ask for miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it.' Then he left them and got back into the boat and crossed to the other side." This constant demand for new signs, not the desire for the signs they had already had. It was as if the signs Jesus had done up to that moment meant nothing. Jesus' enemies dismissed all the prior evidence of His wonder working power, and they stood there again demanding a new sign from Him. This is unfolded in detail in John 6, the day after the feeding of the 5,000. Now, this account is after the feeding of 4,000. But then in John 6, after the feeding the 5,000 earlier [ John 6:28-30,] the crowd came the next day, as we've mentioned, looking for breakfast, looking for another meal, and Jesus challenges them. “Then they asked Him, ‘What must we do to work the works of God?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.’ So they asked Him, ‘What miraculous sign, then, will You give it that we may see it and believe You? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the man in the desert, as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” That's stunning. The very next day after the feeding of the 5,000, they're asking for another sign, "What sign will You do?" It seems that they wanted a continual river of signs, day after day after day, like Moses did, the manna down day after day, miracles every day, and they sinfully forgot the works of Christ as if they were instantly forgettable. We have stories of forgetfulness, that's what I want to draw out today. II. The Indispensable Role of Christ’s Miracles In order for this, we need to understand the indispensable role of Jesus' miracles, of the signs and wonders that Jesus did. The miracles are the fundamental proof of the deity of Christ. They were then, they are now. For example, in John 4, a royal official whose son lay dying came and asked Jesus to heal him. Jesus said in John 4:48, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you'll never believe." In John 5, the next chapter, Jesus gave layers of testimonies of proof of His personhood, of His deity. He talked about the ministry of John the Baptist and his testimony of Jesus, and then He spoke of His works, His miracles. John 5:36, “'I have testimony,’" Jesus said, “'weightier than that of John. For the very work the Father has given Me to do, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me.'" Later in John's Gospel to His own disciples, He openly says that the miracles are valid basis of faith in Him. John 14:11, "Believe Me when I say that the Father is in Me and I am in the Father. Or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves." John 14:11, valid basis of faith. Without the miracles, we would have no reason to believe in Jesus. The primary, the central miracle of Jesus' whole ministry is His bodily resurrection from the dead. Romans 10:9 says, "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." And so, we have to believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the grave in order to be saved. In John 20, doubting Thomas represents the unbelieving world, needing evidence. Jesus had come the week before and given physical evidence of His bodily resurrection from the dead, but Thomas hadn't been there. "Thomas was not with them," it says in John 20:24, "when the disciples came. So the other disciples told him, 'We have seen the Lord.' But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand in the side, I will not believe it.’" A week later, as disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them, though the doors were locked, “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here. See my hands. Reach out your hand, put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’ Thomas said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen me you have believed. Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed.’" On what basis are we going to not see and yet believe that Jesus is God, that He rose from the dead? On the basis of this alone: scripture's testimony to the miracles of Jesus. On the basis of this alone will you be saved. You have to believe the miracles that are written in this book. Remember them and believe them. In the very next couple of verses it says, "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded in this book," [Gospel of John] "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And by believing, you may have life in His name. These are written that you may believe." That's the basis. You read it, believe that it's true, and you have life in His name. "That's the basis. You read it, believe that it's true, and you have life in His name." III. Israel’s Tragic History of Forgetfulness Similarly, we see in the Old Testament the same issue. The miracles that God did for Israel were the basis of their whole faith in Him, the signs and wonders. He showed Himself to them in Egypt and then in the desert, and He proved His wonder working power that would be the basis of their faith in Him. But they had a tragic history of forgetfulness. These Pharisees here in Mark 8 stand in the place of their ancestors, standing right there in the place of their ancestors with the same attitude of forgetful unbelief. We saw this during the exodus itself. Remember at the Red Sea, after the 10 plagues? Ten plagues, that's a lot of evidence, a lot of miracles. Now the Israelites have made the exodus, and they're there at the Red Sea. They suddenly look up and see Pharaoh in his army ready to exterminate them, filled with rage, drawing near to slaughter them. They cry out in faithless forgetfulness, faithless forgetfulness of all of God's wonder working power. Exodus 14, "They said to Moses, 'Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us out here in the desert to die? What have you done to us bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone. Let us serve the Egyptians.”'? It would've been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die here in the desert.'" Faithless forgetfulness of God's wonder working power. How could they forget so soon? So God dealt strongly with Moses and with Israel. Exodus 14:15-17, "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them.’” With that new miracle, the most spectacular of them all, with the water walling up to the right and to the left, God proved His power again. On the other side of the Red Sea, Israel celebrated and worshiped, but their habit of forgetting God's wonder working power is just getting going. They go out in the desert and need food, and they start complaining about the food. They need water, and they start complaining about the lack of water. So with no food, they cry out against God and against Moses as if nothing had happened up to that point. Exodus 16, "The Israelites said to them, 'If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt. There in the good old days, we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted.'" Just let me stop there. Do you remember the account that way? Is that how it was for them? I remember something about task masters and bitter life and all that. But anyway, I return. "'We just sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.' Then the Lord said to Moses, 'I will reign down bread from heaven for you.'" Shortly thereafter, in the next chapter, there's no water. Exodus 17:3, "The people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, 'Why did you bring us out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?'" We're not going to starve to death, but we're going to die of a lack of water. That's what's going to get us. "The Lord answered Moses, 'Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile.'" What's that? A reminder of the previous miracles. "'Take that staff and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.' So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, 'Is the Lord among us or not?'" Then again, on the brink of the promised land, after Sinai, after all of these wonders, after many meals, miraculous meals of manna, water from the rock, they come to the brink of the promised land. They send out twelve spies, they come back, and ten of them spoke terrible words of unbelief concerning God. They turned the hearts of the people away from God despite all that God had done for them up to that point. Moses pleaded with them, but God judged them. Moses rehearsed this whole thing in Deuteronomy 1. "Moses said, 'Then I said to you, 'Do not be terrified. Do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God who is going before you will fight for you as He did for you in Egypt before your very eyes. And in the desert, there you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.'" Remember how faithful God was to you. Remember the wonders He did on your behalf, but “in spite of this, you did not trust the Lord your God, who went ahead of you on your journey in fire by night and the cloud by day to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go. When the Lord heard what you said, He was angry and solemnly swore, 'Not a man of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give to your forefathers.'" Why? Because they forgot God's wonder working power on their behalf. He judged them, they would not be permitted to enter the promised land. Eventually they did go in and conquer the promised land. The walls of Jericho fell, an amazing miracle. Then just incredible provision, all the military conquest, they took over most of the promised land. Amazing things. But then you get the Book of Judges. What a wretched book that is. In Judges 2 it says, "After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up who neither knew the Lord nor what He had done for Israel." How did that happen? I'm going to tell you: bad parenting. They didn't know anything about it, never heard of it, never heard about the wonders God had done. They didn't know anything about it. No baby is born knowing the wonders of God. They have to be taught. They didn't teach them. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. Psalm 78 gives a summary of all this, the very kind of history I've been walking through with you, Psalm 78. It says this, "What we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us, we will not hide them from their children. We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power and the wonders He has done. He decrees statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which He commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them." To know what? The wonders, the miracles God has done. The next generation would know the miracles, the wonders God has done. "And even the children yet to be born. And they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget His deeds but keep His commands." A few verses later, "The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle. They did not keep God's covenant. They refused to live by His law. They forgot what He had done, the wonders He had shown them. He did miracles in the sight of the fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan. He divided the sea and led them through. He made the water stand firm like a wall. He guided them with the cloud by day and with light of fire by night." The psalm is just recording that same dreadful history I just did, God's miracles for Israel and their wicked pattern of forgetting those miracles and sinning against God. Psalm 78:32-33, is a kind of a summation, "In spite of all this, they kept on sinning. In spite of His wonders, they did not believe." In spite of His wonders, they did not believe. "So He ended their days in futility and their years in terror." The rest of the psalm just continues to recount the same tragic pattern: God's amazing power unleashed for Israel and then their sinful habit of forgetting that power soon afterward and lurching again into sinful idolatrous rebellion. IV. Jesus Judges the Unbelievers’ Forgetfulness Now back to Mark 8, these Pharisees stand in a long tradition, in the place of their ancestors, of forgetting the mighty wonders of God which they had just seen done. Look at verse 11, "The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test Him, they asked Him for a sign from heaven." Jesus judges the unbelievers' forgetfulness here. They're here to test Him. This was exactly the same motive, don't you remember, of Israel at Massah and Meribah: testing to see if God was real? Exodus 17:7, "He called that place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled because they tested the Lord saying, 'Listen, is the Lord among us or not?' So it is with these Pharisees, putting Jesus to the test, ‘Is the Lord among us or not? Is God with us?’" Do you know what the word for “God with us" is? Emmanuel. Is God with us or not? He is. Jesus is Emmanuel. He is God with us. They're doing the same thing, testing, saying, "Is God with us or not?" They've already made up their minds that He's not. They've made up their minds that Jesus did his miracles by the power of Beelzebub. Remember that? That's earlier in Mark's gospel. They've already made up their minds, so Jesus sighs. It's a sigh of judgment and exasperation. They have tested the patience of God. "He sighed deeply and said, 'Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it.' Then He left them, got back into the boat, and crossed to the other side." Judgment. No more signs. The sigh here is radically different than the sigh at the end of Mark 7, which He used to heal the deaf mute man. Remember how He gently put His fingers in the man's ears and spit and touched his tongue and then sighed deeply? That was a sigh of healing like the breath of air, the breath of the Spirit moving. This, though, is a sigh of exasperation and of sorrow over their unbelief. He takes no pleasure in the death of His enemies. If their wicked, testing, unbelieving hearts are not converted, those unbelieving hearts will lead them to hell. He knows that better than they do, better than anyone does, and so He sighed, but He also refuses to give them any sign at all. Actually, in Matthew's Gospel He does say, "Except." There's additional information. It's always interesting as you compare the accounts, Matthew and Mark. Whenever there's additional information, you know it's true. Mark for his own wise purposes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit truncated the answer, “No sign will be given.” Period. But Matthew said a little more, Matthew 12:38-41, "Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Him, 'Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from You.' He answered, 'A wicked and adulterous generation asked for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the Prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And now, one, someone greater than Jonah is here.'" What is the sign of Jonah? It's a resurrection. On the third day, He would come out of the grave, but they wouldn't see Him. What they would get is the same thing the men of Nineveh got: preaching. They get preaching. They get representatives of the resurrected Lord who would stand in downtown Jerusalem and proclaim that Christ has risen. That's the sign they're going to get. They'll believe or they won't based on the preaching. But we know, the great tragedy is this, even this, the greatest sign there has ever been in history, the empty tomb, still wasn't enough. They still didn't believe. V. Jesus Heals the Believers’ Forgetfulness Now let's talk about Jesus's disciples, that forgetful bunch. You're like, "Are they forgetting too?" They are, but Jesus decides to heal them from their forgetfulness, not to judge them. Aren't you glad? It's like, "Well, actually, pastor, I don't need that, I don't forget God's mighty wonders and His works in my life." Yes, you do. We all do. But isn't it wonderful how patient Christ is with us and how He is willing to train us and to deal with us. He heals us as He healed the believers. Look at verses 14-21, "The disciples had forgotten to bring bread except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. 'Be careful,' Jesus warned them, 'watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.' They discussed it with one another and said, 'It's because we have no bread.' Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them, 'Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? You have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear. Don't you remember?'" I circled that in my manuscript. Do you see that? Don't you remember? "'When I broke the five loaves with the 5,000, how many baskets full of pieces did you pick up?' 'Twelve,' they replied. 'And when I broke the seven loads of the 4,000, how many baskets full of pieces did you pick up?' They answered, 'Seven.' He said to them, 'Do you still not understand?'" First, let's talk about the smaller issue, they forgot to bring bread. Whose job was that? I mean I think they must have been on a rotating schedule kind of thing. "It was your turn." "No, I had last week." "No, it was your turn." They're going back and forth. It's interesting how Jesus didn't know what they're arguing about. They're doing it off to the side, they don't want Jesus to know about this discussion. I know it says discussion, we don't know they're arguing, but come on, what do you think? So they're going back and forth, they're talking about forgetting to bring bread. Now, I want to stop and apply this. Isn't it wonderful that God has our back even when we are stupid and forget things that we should take care of? I mean this is a takeaway. You're going to make mistakes in life. You're going to forget. You're going to mess up. God has your back, don't sweat it. I'm not saying be irresponsible. I'm not saying go to the airport and forget your passport. What I am saying is God has your back, He'll take care of you, because we do forget. The topic here Jesus wants them to focus on is some special instruction and teaching and training He's doing for the apostolic ministry. He wanted to warn them about the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. They're thinking bread. He's not talking bread, He's using an analogy. In case we don't really know what He's talking about, Matthew elucidates, makes it very plain. Matthew 16:12, "Then they understood that He was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Mark mentions Herod. I think all three were discussed. You always combine them. He's warning about the yeast, the teaching of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herod, or Herodians. Yeast is bad teaching. Why is it called yeast? Because it spreads through the whole lump. It permeates. It poisons. Paul uses a disease analogy about bad teaching spreading like gangrene, but it's the same idea. In the passage on church discipline, 1 Corinthian 5, he talks about getting rid of a sexually immoral member of their church and says, "A little yeast leavens the whole lump." If you don't get rid of that person, the sin's going to spread. You got to get rid of it. So that's the yeast analogy here. What is He specifically warning about? The teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and Herod. What is it? We don't have anything elucidated here, but we know from other places. The Pharisees were self-righteous legalists who were whitewashed tombs. They look good on the outside, but inside they're corrupt. They thought by their law-keeping they were good enough for heaven, and they weren't. They were merciless toward others. They tied up heavy loads and crushed people with them, but didn't lift a finger to help them.Matthew 23 goes through the sins of the Pharisees and what they're like. We also find out that they had a taste for widows' homes. They were worldly and wealthy and wicked Pharisees. Then the Sadducees, these are the ones that deny that there is a resurrection of the dead. “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die and there's nothing beyond the grave.” That's the Sadducees, that's a bad way to live. This world is all there is, that was the Sadducees. They also denied that there is a spirit world with angels and demons. They denied the teaching of the Word. They were ignorant because they don't know the scriptures are the power of God. Then the Herodians. Herod was a wicked, worldly, pleasure-loving, birthday-feast-celebrating guy who collaborated with the Romans and did whatever he needed to do to keep power. He saw his brother's wife, wanted her, and she divorced her husband and married him and all that. John the Baptist warned him plainly, and he killed him. That's Herod. The Herodians were those kinds of people who celebrated Herod's power. That's what they taught. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herod. The disciples didn't understand that. They thought He was talking about literal bread. They should have been [Matthew 6] seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness and letting God take care of their empty stomachs. It's not about what you're going to chew and swallow today. We've got a higher calling here than feeding your bellies. He has to address their hardened hearts again. You remember back in Mark 6 when Jesus walked on water and then the storm instantly stopped when He got in the boat? Do you remember the editorial comment that Mark gave? Mark 6:51-52,"They were completely amazed for they had not understood about the loaves. Their hearts were hard." The lesson of the loaves is that Jesus can do anything, that they shouldn't live for physical bread, that Jesus is God. The lesson of the loaves is belief in Jesus and then seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness, not worrying about earthly things. The lesson of the loaves, who Jesus is, how they should live, that's the lesson of the loaves. They didn't understand. Now with the second feeding, they still don't understand the lesson of the loaves, so He has to address their hardened hearts. Jesus can care for their physical needs, and they should trust Him for it. Listen again to Jesus's rebuke, verse 17-21, "'Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? You have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear. Don't you remember, when I broke the five loads to the 5,000, how many baskets full of pieces did you pick up?' 'Twelve,' they applied. 'And when I broke the seven loaves to the 4,000, how many baskets full of pieces did you pick up?' They answered, 'Seven.' He said to them, 'Do you still not understand?'" In Matthew’s Gospel, He's very clear, He's zeroing in on their unbelief. He's zeroing in on they're having little faith. Not no faith, they believe, but their faith isn't strong enough like it should be. This is a very important theological principle, I want to give this to you, something that I hadn't known for many years but God showed it to me in this direct account. That is, yes, faith comes by hearing the Word [Romans 10:17]. Faith comes by hearing the Word, but faith also comes by experience. By living through certain things, you should learn some lessons that will stand you in good stead for the future. Isn't that the basic principle here? You remember what we walked through, you remember that? You should know the lesson. Then we lived through that. You remember we walked through that? You were there, your own hands picked up the baskets. Did you learn nothing? Faith comes from a combination of the ministry of the Word and life in God's world. They go together. There's this beautiful system, this symbiotic relationship between ongoing teaching of the Word and the lessons you learn in life. Together they get you ready for the next challenges. The idea is, the next time you're hungry, don't faithlessly think you're going to starve to death, trust God to meet your needs. The next time you have a financial crisis, remember how faithful God was the last time. The next time you have a medical crisis, receive the faithfulness of God all of the ways He has dealt with you. Faith comes by experience as well as by the ministry of the Word. They go together. That's a fundamental concept here. Paul says he said he learned the secret of Christian contentment, Philippians 4. He said, "I've learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who strengthens me." How did he learn the secret of Christian contentment? By living through it and seeing God's faithfulness. Also, maturity comes by suffering. You have to live through suffering to become mature. Paul talks about it in 2 Corinthians 1:8-10, "We do not want you to be unformed brothers about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death, but this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." Do you hear that? We went through this suffering to strip us of self-reliance. VI. Lessons Self-reliance is the number one idol that God wants to kill in saving us through faith in Christ, that you would not think you can save yourself, that your righteousness is enough, you can do these things by yourself. "We," Paul says, "had to go through this immense trial in Asia to teach us to not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." Why do you think he adds that extra phrase, "God who raises the dead."? Because that's the finish line of your salvation, when you have been raised from the dead, you'll be done being saved. What's coming in the future, that's the big test. Your death, your burial, and then what? Let me just ask you, you self-reliant folks, what are your plans for raising yourself from the grave? What's your strategy? That's a big one. What are you going to do to raise yourself from the grave? You can do nothing. Therefore, learn to trust the God who raises the dead. For lesser things, be stripped of self-reliance and learn to rely on God. That's the lesson of life, the lesson of suffering. "Self-reliance is the number one idol that God wants to kill in saving us through faith in Christ." Are there some other lessons to learn? Yes, there are. What about our forgetfulness? Do you have any forgetfulness? I just said that we all do. How are we living out a faithless forgetfulness of God's amazing works in the past? Ask God to show you, "How am I forgetting your kindness to me, God?" How do our anxieties and fears with new trials show that we haven't learned the lesson of the loaves yet? We still need to trust Him. How does our murmuring and complaining against God when we're in trial show that our hearts are hard like the Israelites at Massah and Meribah? How are we murmuring against God? Just ask God to show you. Secondly, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Go back over the scriptures regularly, read about the miracles. These miracles are for us. The beauty is, even though God won't necessarily do the same miracles in your life that He did then, He's the same God now that He was then. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, so trust in Him. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Go through the Word of God and remember, study the miracles of Israel. Study the 10 plagues. Study the Red Sea crossing. Study the manna and the water flowing through the rock and say, "God is able to provide for me." But even more, I would say, even better, study the miracles of Jesus. I just love walking through this, the effortless healings, effortless, and creative healings, and the fact that He's going to do that to our dead bodies, instantly fixing every system of your body so that it will never experience death, mourning, crying, or pain again. He will do that, that’s the power of Jesus. Thirdly, I'm advocating good parenting. Teach your children the mighty works of God so that they will not be faithless and forget about God. Psalm 78, "What we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us, we will not hide them from our children. We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders He has done. He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which He commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then, they would put their trust in God and would not forget His deeds but would keep His commands. They would not be like their forefathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation whose hearts were not loyal to God and whose spirits were not faithful to Him." So look at the lessons we Christian parents should be teaching to our children daily. The praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power, the wonders He has done. Start with creation. Start with the astonishing universe God created by the word of His power. By the breath of His mouth were the heavens made. Then teach them the history of God's wise dealings with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and with the Jewish nation in all of their history. Walk your children through the history of God's workings with Israel. Keep going and show them Israel's sins, but also their righteous acts and their times of trusting in God. Especially, saturate your kids in the life of Jesus, in His amazing miracles, all of the things that He did. Let them know the miracles from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Don't spare them, but pour them out on your children and teach them so that they would know how great Christ is, the magnitude of His person, the greatness of His work, especially His bloody death on the cross and His mighty resurrection victory. Saturate your kids in the greatness of God. The reason Psalm 78 gives for this parent-child instruction is, "So that they will put their trust in God, would not forget His deeds, and show their faith by their obedience to His commands." That's just good parenting. Let's do it. Finally, my lost friends who came here this morning, who walked in here this morning not yet saved, not yet forgiven, do you realize all of the miracles of Jesus that are written in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are written for sinners like you and me, so that we would find forgiveness of our sins? I'm pleading with you, look to Christ, trust in Him. All you need to do is repent of your sins and call on the name of the Lord. Believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved. Close with me in prayer. Father, thank You for the lessons that we've had from this sad story of forgetfulness, the unbelieving and wicked forgetfulness of the Pharisees who tested Jesus asking for a sign, but then the weakness of the faith and the weak forgetfulness of the disciples who needed to be strengthened and who needed to understand the lessons and to take them to heart so that their faith would develop. O God, work with us, heal us. Help us to not be without understanding, but that we would see the significance of these gospel accounts and trust in Jesus for the salvation of our souls. In Jesus' name. Amen.

He's here, he's there; Dr. Hillman brings drug safety everywhere! So given the rules and regulations he needs to follow, the title “vigilante” could be nothing but ironic.We chart David's progress through choosing pharmacology as a subject to study, and settling on pharmacovigilance as a career to pursue. Listen: The Bollywood beats come courtesy of Cambridge-based artist Anish Kumar whose music you can also find on Bandcamp: anishkumarmusic.bandcamp.com, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter.Watch:Subscribe to our YouTube channel now for all future recordings. Episode transcript[Background intro music playing is "Nazia" by Anish Kumar]Parmvir: Hello everyone. And welcome to another episode of the 2Scientists podcast, where inspiring scientists share their work with you, wherever you like to listen. Today we come to you from a rather unique spot, rather than a cafe or bar we are camped out in Kensington Gardens in London, because it's a glorious day and our podcasting equipment allows us to do that. But enough about me and us, we are here today, of course I am your host Parmvir Bahia here and we're here with David Basanta, but we also have with us another David who is very special to me, he is an old friend of mine from my PhD program, and we shared much time and much swearing over experiments together at University college London. How are you David Hillman? David: I'm doing well. Thank you. It's, as you say, it's a, it's a lovely day and, it's nice to be back with old friends. Parmvir: Yes, yes. Of course everything rotates background to COVID and whereas we would normally see each other once a year. It's been three, four, possibly? David: Three, I think that's yeah.Parmvir: Miserable. David: Yeah. Sad times we shall have to make up for it. Parmvir: We will, we will. There's a bottle of Cava with our name on it. Once we've done with this. David: And onion rings. Parmvir: And onion rings. Yes. Fancy Marks and Spencer's one's though. So let's start at the beginning. I'm not talking about like, where were you born kind of thing. Although you can mention Kidderminster if you'd like. So as I understand it, we had a relatively similar track as undergraduates. So you did a bachelor's in pharmacology, correct? David: Yeah, that's right. Parmvir: So tell us why, why pharmacology? David: So this is gonna age me, age us.So I, for my A levels, so for my senior school exams, I, studied chemistry, biology, and maths, and I wanted to study something at university that combined chemistry and biology. And so this is the bit that will age us. So back in the day, if you remember, you would go to the, career advice department who were trying to help people to steer people towards what options they might want to pick at university.And they had this huge telephone directory effectively, which, mapped together people's different, combinations of A level courses and then gave you a list of options that you could, study at university. So I was sat in this little tiny room with this career advisor person, and they were basically running through this list of different courses.And when they came to pharmacology, they'd already mentioned pharmacy, which, you know, most people know what it is, but then they said pharmacology and I stopped them and said, well, what's, what's the difference? And they actually gave a pretty good summary. They said, it's more the biology of medicine. It's more the, the research and development of new medicines. They said it's potentially a controversial topic because it's the pharmaceutical industry is itself sometimes controversial and there's other aspects to the industry, which are, challenging sometimes. But yeah, that's how it started. So I picked a few different pharmacology courses, one of which was King's College London. I was always very practical, so I liked the idea of doing a year in industry at some point. So I chose a sandwich course like you and yeah, so that took me to KCL all that time ago. Parmvir: Mm. So I didn't realize how similar our tracks had been, because I also did biology, chemistry and maths, and I wanted to do something with the chemistry and the biology.And I got put in that direction by David: did you pick it out of the phone book as well? Parmvir: I did. What was it called? There was a name for it. David: It was pretty like a UCAS publication. Parmvir: Yes. It was just, it was enormous. David: Yeah. Parmvir: But yeah, in any case, I also, I did a sandwich year and I got to go and hang out in Germany for a year, which was fun.But yeah. So obviously after that you came to do a PhD at UCL where we were, well, I was a year ahead of you, I think. David: Yeah. You were. Parmvir: Why? Why did you do a PhD? David: So well for the reasons that I guess a lot of people do them, which is that I wasn't sure what to do next [both laugh] and a PhD seemed like a good way to string it out for another few years before I figured that out.But the reason I landed on UCL was that when I did go and do my year in industry, which like you was for a large pharma company, I worked in a lab looking at some non-clinical safety models. And we were using electrophysiology techniques at the time that was sharp electrode electrophysiology.Parmvir: You're gonna have to explain what electrophysiology means. David: Oh, don't make me do that. It's been 20 years [Parmvir laughs]. Oh, it's basically where you take either isolated cells or tissues and you put tiny, tiny electrodes into them and measure the changing currents across cell membranes. And as you put different drugs on, you can look at different effects of those drugs how they affect the electrical signals that you can measure.And really it's ions moving back and forward across membranes by little things called ion channels. So yeah, so I'd done sharp electrode electrophysiology there. I went back to university to finish my last year, and then the question came up about what to pick for a PhD. And I thought, well, although I hadn't enjoyed electrophysiology, it's something that I had started to, I guess, gain an interest in. Plus I had some skills that in that area. So, yeah, so I found a course, rather a PhD studentship at UCL, which seemed to fit the bill. It was looking at using a slightly different electrophysiology technique, so patch, clamping in a different area, but I thought it was something that I could use what I'd learnt in my year in industry Parmvir: I gave you some of these questions beforehand. David: Yes, because I'm incapable of spontaneous reaction to questions [Parmvir laughs]. Parmvir: Actually, I loved it so much that I have to read out your description of what your memory is like. David: I was quite proud of that. I coined that yesterday. I used to think of my memory as a lobster pot. Parmvir: All right. So you said I've just come up with a good analogy for my recall memory. It's like a reference library. You have to put in a request and then go away for a bit. When you come back, I'll have retrieved something from the vaults. Hopefully. David: Yeah, exactly. Parmvir: But aside from that I wanted to say this might be something of a loaded question, but what did you think of your PhD experience?David: You know, I really, I look back on those years with fond memory. Now it's partly because looking back, you edit out all of the stress and anxiety associated with doing a research project like that. I remember at the time when I first started UCL ran some induction courses where they pulled together PhD students and other postgraduate students from all sorts of backgrounds and John Foreman who you'll remember who was the Dean of students at the time, he gave a little introduction to UCL, but also gave some interesting advice let's say and pointers.And one of the things he pointed out in that session was the high degree of mental illness that is encountered by students in general taking these types of courses because they are stressful. And you often feel like you are kind of on your own. Driving your own research project forward. Sometimes through difficult times. So I do remember that in particular, but you know, what I remember mostly is just how impressed I was with all of the people that surrounded me because our department was not particularly flashy in its kind of presentation, but there were some seriously impressive people there.So I always like to think of our lab in the sense of, you know, it was run by effectively by Dennis and, and Guy when we got there. But before then it had been run by Don and before then it had been run by Bernard Katz who was a Nobel laureate. So it felt like we were the either grandchildren or great grandchildren of a Nobel Laureate and the whole department was a bit like that. It had a lot of very understated people who were world experts in their, in their field. And I always felt like the dumbest person in the department. But that didn't bother me too much because you know, being surrounded by all this greatness and even just, you know, the little glimpses of things you would see at the kind of coffee breaks and in the corridors, some of those memories still live with me, you know. Bearing in mind, this was back in what, between 2001 and 2005.So very, very early days of smartphones, things like trios and things like that, which seem antiquated now. But I remember coming across two old professors, so probably in their seventies or eighties comparing their smartphones and that like little microcosm, are the things that I loved about the department.Parmvir: Actually, I mean, I think you're, you're definitely selling yourself short. Like nobody would say that you weren't smart enough to be there. And I think one of the things that kind of ties into the, the mental health aspect is that we all felt that way. David: Yeah. Parmvir: Except we didn't express it to anyone else. It's, it's utterly ridiculous. How can we all be the least smart person in the room that's just not possible. David: Yeah. Parmvir: And after that, we all got our PhDs anyway, so, you know yeah. David: I certainly have no regrets about it. And I look back on those times with, with very fond memories, for sure. Parmvir: Yeah. Just talk briefly about what you did for your project and what the difficulties were.David: So the lab that I joined, so which, which you were a part of as well, their specialty was calcium activated potassium channels. And over time, the lab had looked at these ion channels in various different settings. The project that I was given was looking at these channels in vascular endothelial cells, which was a cell type that no one in the lab had ever studied before.Parmvir: Mm. David: So one of the biggest challenges that we were hit with straight away was that no one in the lab could really help that much with firsthand experience of how to obtain these cells, how to isolate them, how to culture them, how to grow them and really how to manage those cell types. So you might well remember that, the first, probably nine months of my PhD was just spent trying to culture these cells. Parmvir: Mm-hmm David: and it started with you know, available tissue from rats and other small mammals.But then eventually we were not having success with culturing cells from those models. So I switched onto pigs and, you know, I'd done a bit of reading that, you know, these vessels, because they were much larger the blood vessels, it was easier effectively to culture cells from, so I looked in the phone book and I found the address of an abattoir out in the middle of Essex.And there began my weekly trip for getting on for two and a half years to the deepest, darkest corners of Essex to go and retrieve pig, coronary artery cells once a week. Parmvir: Yeah. And essentially you suffered because these things were so flat. [David laughs] And when you're trying to, so you, for anyone who's listening, you have to picture trying to get a very, very fine tube onto something that is incredibly flat, and essentially you need this thing to form a vacuum seal and that just wasn't gonna happen. David: No, so, you know, vascular endothelial cells, they're the cells that line blood vessels, which is why they're, they're very flat. They're like tiles almost on the inside of veins and arteries.And you know, with other cells in the lab that were being looked at like the ones that you were looking at, like DRGs and like neurons and things like that, you know, you were basically putting the, the electrode down onto like a ball. Parmvir: Yeah. David: So the gap between the bottom of the dish and the top of the cell was who knows, 10, 20 microns, something like that. The cells that we were looking at, they flattened themselves out so much, they were about one micron, I think we estimated and therefore the tiniest vibration in the room would destroy the cell. And yeah, so the first stage was trying to culture, the damn things, and that was extremely challenging. It took a long time, but nine months of the way through managed it, and then began the whole pain of trying to get electrical recordings from them, which turned out to be as difficult. Parmvir: Yeah. So one of the things, I don't know if we ever talked about this, but what did you aspire to do after you'd done your PhD originally?Like, did you have any kind of idea? David: I mean, I think I was always headed into the pharmaceutical industry, which is where I landed up. In my undergrad degree in, I think my either first or second year, I did a very nice course, which was a kind of practical introduction to the pharmaceutical industry and from very top level, how drugs are developed and how pharma companies are organized internally and how the research progresses. And that, I'd always found that interesting. I mean, I find the entire pharmaceutical industry absolutely fascinating. And still do to this day. It's such an amazingly complex industry. And so, yeah, so I think I'd always been heading in that direction. Sure enough, the PhD certainly made me decide I was done with bench science [Parmvir laughs]. So, you know, by the time you've spent three plus years plodding along with these experiments that have a success rate of one in 50 sometimes. Parmvir: Yeah. David: You know, days and weeks without getting any data, and towards the end, still being in the lab at three o'clock in the morning, trying to get something to work and breaking more and more glassware as time goes on [Parmvir laughs]Yeah, I decided I was done with bench science, although I loved being in the labs, I loved playing in the labs. But I was never that into the kind of reading of the scientific papers and that sort of thing. Once it came down to maths and things like that, I wasn't so engaged. I needed to see practical things. Parmvir: Yeah. I feel like at some point we realized we were both some kind of engineer at heart rather than David: Yeah. Maybe Parmvir: scientist, David: maybe. Parmvir: It's more like, how does this work rather than trying to answer a bigger scientific question. David: Yeah. Parmvir: But obviously you were, you were a little bit scarred by your experience there, and you ended up going off in, I guess, a very different track from what the standard academic education leads you towards. So I think at this point this might be a good place to put your disclaimer in. David: Yes. So I work in the pharmaceutical industry and over time I've worked for, and with a variety of different companies.Any of the content that I describe today are my opinions and my opinions alone, and often they're really based off things which are in the public domain. In fact it's all based off things that were in the public domain and also some of the education that I've received, because actually, even after I finished my PhD, I then years later went on to study a, another academic course specifically in pharmacovigilance and pharmacoepidemiology.Parmvir: Oh, where did you do that? David: London school of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Parmvir: Oh. David: And it's interesting because it's a short course and I felt was a very valuable course. It's a course where regulatory authorities also send their people to learn too. Parmvir: So there's a lot of questions I can ask next.But one of the things that your job description throws up is this word "pharmacovigilance". What does that mean? David: Okay. So somewhere because I'm not gonna do it justice from memory, I'm going to read out the WHO definition of pharmacovigilance. It doesn't roll off the tongue, unfortunately, which is why it's never quite there in my head.So per the WHO: pharmacovigilance is the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects, or any other medicine, or vaccine-related problem. So essentially it is the process and the science relating to drug side effects. Now as you'll remember from pharmacology days, very early on, you're taught that all pharmacologically active substances, if it applies to the human body have side effects. The same side effects are not encountered by every person.And you know, some of the side effects might have obvious clinical manifestations. Some might not, you might get side effects, never know you've had them. And of course they vary massively in severity. So when you are looking at a medicine, particularly one that you're introducing to kind of general use in humans, you have a trade-off to make because you have an expected therapeutic benefit, but you also have to be mindful of potential side effects, particularly serious side effects and how much tolerance you have for those versus the good that the drug is supposed to do.And achieving that balance is one of the big challenges that's faced in drug development.Parmvir: So what you do really, it kind of comes at the end of the whole process of clinical trials and so on for given products, right? David: It actually starts right at the beginning of clinical development.So. Parmvir: Oh, hang on, I have to ask David's question: does that make you a Pharmacovigilante? David: [David and Parmvir laugh] I've often wondered the same thing myself. But yeah, so pharmacovigilance takes off really where toxicology leaves. So before you can put a drug into clinical development, by which I mean development in humans, drugs first have to go through preclinical development and that's where all the various toxicology studies are run.Parmvir: Can you quickly define toxicology for us? David: Sure. It is really focusing on the well, the potentially toxic side of medicines. So before you put a drug anywhere near a human, you want to be absolutely certain that it doesn't cause various catastrophic side effects in humans.So, for example, you need to be confident that it doesn't cause cancer. You need to be confident that it's not gonna cause a heart attack immediately, or cause a stroke immediately or things like that. So as per regulations in pretty much every country in the world, before you put a drug anywhere near a human in a clinical trial, it has to go through a standard set of tests.And there's various ways to achieve that. You know, sometimes those are tests using computer simulated models. Sometimes they are using individual cells or cultured cells or tissues. And sometimes as is well known in the industry they're using animal models and these are legally required tests.So every drug that goes through the process has to go through these. So that's done before it gets to clinical development. And then you start with phase one clinical trials which are studies on, usually on healthy volunteers and they're very small trials. They involve perhaps a few tens of patients. And the only purpose of those trials is to look at the safety and tolerability of the drug. So this is the first time you're putting the drug into humans. There is a bit of an exception to that. So although these are usually conducted on healthy volunteers, for some drugs, including, for example oncology drugs. Those drugs are usually along the more kind of toxic end of agents, so it's not ethical to put those into healthy volunteers. So sometimes those studies are conducted in a patient population. So once a drug moves into human studies into phase one, from that point, really for the rest of the lifetime of that drug as a human medicine pharmacovigilance is involved. So all the way through the phase one, two and three studies and then once the drug goes onto the market, pharmacovigilance continues.So the companies or the pharmaceutical or biotech companies that are developing these assets have a legal requirement to collect and analyze this data on an ongoing basis pretty much forever. Until that drug is eventually, perhaps if it's lucky enough to get to the market, until it's withdrawn from the market, perhaps many decades later.Parmvir: Very good. And I think that there are probably some very topical things that have come up recently as a result of COVID 19, which is important to consider when we're talking about these things, in that we are not just relying on these clinical trials that have gone out to ensure that these things are safe, but once they're out there that you have to continue to get feedback from people who are taking these to ensure that they continue to be safe in the long term, right?David: That's true. So, you know, ordinarily in clinical development, once you get through phase 1, 2, 3, and if you are lucky enough to have a drug, which is sufficiently efficacious, tolerable to go to market, then yes, you know, the drug's released to market and you continue to monitor for this stuff.Vaccines are in a particularly special category because they are drugs that are given to healthy people. Mm yes. And so therefore the benefit risk balance is more complicated in some ways, because , you know, it's, it's hard to consider the benefit to the individual of taking a product when they don't yet have that disease.So now there are other drugs that are in a similar category, other drugs that are given to healthy people. This is where I can ask you some questions. So what, what do you think those other drugs include? Parmvir: Oh, goodness. Um, I'm trying to think off the top of my head, what they might be. David: Yeah. It's very unfair. Parmvir: All I can think of at the moment are the other vaccines. David: Okay. So, Parmvir: but there are lots of prophylactic things. Yeah. Yeah. I can't think of anything David: Contraceptives. Parmvir: The obvious prophylactic. Yes. David: Drugs used for travel. So things like anti-malaria tablets. Parmvir: Oh yeah. David: Drugs used for things like smoking cessation Parmvir: mm-hmmDavid: stuff like that.So again, these are all drugs that are generally given to healthy people. So, you know, and this is where benefit risk balance comes into sharp focus, because if you have a drug that has been developed to treat a very hard to treat cancer, let's say, then when you consider benefit risk balance you know, if these patients are effectively going to die without a treatment, and this is the only treatment available, you might be able to accept that a drug has a one in a hundred chance of causing a fatal stroke. Particularly if that drug is given in hospital and these things can be, can be managed. If however, you are developing a cough medicine, then your tolerance for any type of dangerous side effects is basically zero, and of course, many drugs elsewhere on that scale. So yeah, benefit risk balance is a key part of what has to be looked at during drug development. And yeah, as we say, vaccines are particularly challenging. Often these days when a new drug is developed the clinical development and the studies don't stop necessarily when the drug is released for marketing. So, often as a condition of the marketing authorizations that are granted for these drugs, there have to be continuing studies to look at safety. These are called post-authorization safety studies. And so there's ongoing collection of data in a rigorous way to keep monitoring for various things. Either new things that we didn't know about the drug before, because of course when you're in clinical development, your number of patients is normally quite small Parmvir: mm-hmm David: so you're less likely to spot very rare side effects. You wouldn't usually detect a one in 50,000 probability side effect in a clinical trial cohort. Parmvir: Yeah. David: But sometimes these post authorization safety studies allow you to pick up more of that and enable you to characterize some of the side effects that you do know about more in detail.Parmvir: Yeah. So David B here asks essentially how long do these things go on after the drug's been on the market? For example, is there still pharmacovigilance for aspirin? David: Yes. Every single drug that has a marketing authorization out there it is the law in pretty much every country in the world that all safety data that becomes available to the marketing authorization holders, that's the company that owns the rights to the drug and effectively sells the drug, they're required by law to collect process, analyze and report this data. Now as drugs age, the natural reporting rate for some of these drugs drops so the probability of a physician or a pharmacist or a nurse, or even a patient reporting a side effect probably drops over time because theses are not new medicines anymore, but even so, any data that is collected has to go through that process, which is the pharmacovigilance that we were referring to earlier. In addition to that, all companies with marketing authorizations have to look at scientific and medical literature. It all has to be reviewed, so in European requirements, including the UK on a weekly basis, companies have to trawl some of the big literature databases, such as PubMed and M base, they have to trawl that information for any articles on their drugs. And any indication of side effects or other similar challenges. Parmvir: So how is this information collected and processed? Cause you've said obviously doctors, nurses, patients, they will all report certain things. Mm-hmm how do you kind of get them to a central place and cataloged and how do you decide what are actual side effects versus David: So if we think about the front end of the process, most pharma companies out there will have medical information help lines. So these are help lines that are set out there so that healthcare professionals. So that's the physicians, the, the pharmacists, the nurses and others but also consumers can contact the company for more information about the medicine and also potentially report adverse events, side effects. In parallel to that the same thing's going on with the regulators. So in the UK, for example, we have the yellow card scheme, which these days is a web portal system where anyone can go in and report side effects of medicines they're taking. In the us, you have the MedWatch scheme, which is very similar. Most companies around the world have similar things. Plus you've also got ongoing clinical trials, clinical studies, so data is coming in that way too. We've got data coming in from literature that I've mentioned. The regulators, when they receive stuff directly, they often pass that information over to the pharma company.So essentially all this information is coming towards the pharma company. It all gets directed to a pharmacovigilance department. And then we go through the process of processing that data. And so that data comes in from everywhere around the world where the drug is available for patients to take both in clinical trials and on the market.So the process basically consists of firstly translating the data, if it needs to be translated that gets captured into a safety database and there are various commercial safe databases out there. This is where companies collate all the information received on their drugs. And it goes through a process whereby data is kind of standardized it's put into standard terminology in a way that is compatible with the regulatory requirements. A narrative is constructed. So we write a story of what's happened to the patient from beginning to end. We look at various things like if the information is available to us, you know, what other medications were the patients taking? What's their medical history? What was the sequence of events? So what was the time to onset if possible, if we have that information between the patient taking the drug and them reporting the side effect, what the clinical course of the side effect was, so did the patient recover? Was any adjustment made to the the, the dosing or any treatments given? And so all that gets written up, we then decide what other information do we need to know?And then there's a feedback loop to go and ask the reporter if they'll provide additional information. Usually we ask for more information on more serious adverse events. We don't wanna overburden the reporters. Now reporters in clinical trials, so physicians involved in those, they're legally obliged to help with that process. Spontaneous reporters that we refer to, which is just where any healthcare professional or consumer contacts, the company, that's a voluntary reporting system, so we can ask them for additional information, they don't have to provide it, but we have to ask the questions anyway. So the information gets pulled together. It then goes, usually goes through a medical review, so we have kind of scientists pulling the data together. And then we have physicians reviewing the case, making sure it makes medical sense. And then depending on the seriousness of the case and other attributes, that case might have to be reported out to regulators worldwide.And a lot of the reports which are serious, have to be reported out within 15 days of what we call day zero, which is the first day anyone in the company became aware of the report. Parmvir: Mm-hmm. David: But to give you an idea, the large pharma companies are dealing with potentially tens of thousands of reports a week that are coming in on all of their products. So these are vast systems that are set up and they have to be set up to be able to meet all of the regulatory requirements in terms of timelines, for reporting. So the data's coming in, the expedited reports are going out in the format that the regulators require. We also have to pull together what we call aggregate reports. So these aggregated analyses of data over time for newer drugs, for example, those are submitted in Europe every six months. And then over time as the drug gets older, the gap between reports gets longer. And then also we're doing something, what we call signal section, which is where we are analyzing the data. And we're looking for trends in the data. Where we think we've got patterns we're starting to then look into researching those patterns a little bit more, you know, if we start to see, for example that I don't know that we are getting what appears to be a disproportionate number of nose bleeds, let's say, in a patient cohort, we would, you know, do background research on, well, you know, is there a plausible biological mechanism that we know about through the development of the drug? Was there stuff seen in the animal studies or even the human studies that might indicate that there's a, there's a root cause here.We'll look into confounding effects. Are all these patients on other drugs, which actually are likely causing that? And yeah, so kind of an appraisal is done: what's going on? Is it likely to be caused by something else? And if not, you know, we, keep on looking and those conversations then have to be shared with the regulatory authorities.And over time, what you'll see is the labeling of the product, the professional labeling which in Europe, including the UK, is the SMPC, the summary of product characteristics, which is a bit like the instruction manual for the product, which is available to healthcare professionals and the simplified version of that PIL those little leaflets you find inside of packs, those eventually get revised on an ongoing basis to accommodate the new knowledge that we are gaining on the side effect profile of the drug. So this is an ongoing process and it happens throughout the entire lifetime of the, of the drug. Parmvir: But yeah, so here's a subject that no one's talked about for a little while. COVID 19 David: mm-hmm Parmvir: [laughs] Obviously I know there's probably a collective groan from people listening right now, but it seems like a relevant subject, given the conversations around safety that people are having with regard to the vaccine. So do you know if there's been like a major uptick in these reports by individuals, of side effects from the vaccines, or do you take account of the fact that so many billions of people essentially at this point have received at least one shot of the vaccine versus how many reports you get coming in?David: Yeah. So this is one of the big challenges, and one of the things I should have said about drugs like vaccines is because they're given to such vast numbers of people, it becomes a particular challenge to differentiate between things which are being caused potentially by the vaccine and other things, which unfortunately are just bad luck of being a human being.And by that, I mean, so years ago when I was doing one of the academic courses we were being taught about the vast amounts of research that had to be done in terms of epidemiology before the HPV vaccines were released. So these vaccines were being released for use in teenage girls, and at the time it was felt that there was perhaps an insufficient understanding of the general health of that population, including things like what is the probability of a freak occurrence that a teenage girl is going to have a stroke or something like that? Things which we think of as of course, they're exceptionally rare, but they do happen.Parmvir: Mm-hmm David: and I'm talking about in untreated populations. Parmvir: Yep. David: But of course, you know, some of these patients are also on birth control and things like that, that also have other risk factors associated with them so my understanding is before the HPV vaccines were released, a huge amount of epidemiology research was done so that when the new vaccines were released, we knew that we would expect, and I'm just gonna make up a number here that, you know, one in 500,000 teenage girls would have, I don't know, some kind of fatal event which would just naturally occur, you know, even without them having the vaccine. And so that's similar for other vaccine rollouts as well. There has to be a good understanding of the background events of other things that, people will have happen to them, which have nothing to do with the medicine that you are giving.So, you know, that data is kept available and kept an eye on by the regulatory authorities and also the pharma companies. We don't have background rates for everything, so being prepared for what might come and then, you know, there perhaps isn't so much panic when the first case comes in of a patient that has one of these catastrophic events but if you start to see more than that, that's when you start to perhaps get more interested in: is this really being caused by the vaccine or the drug of interest. So, yeah, a lot of upfront work has to be done before you even put the drug out there. I mean, in terms of the COVID vaccines and the treatments, because of the high degree of public interest and scrutiny a lot of these drugs when they were first given and the vaccines were first given, so adverse events, side effects were tracked through post-authorization safety studies. So actually a lot of people, when they got their first doses, consented to have maybe a follow up call from an investigator who would ask them about various side effects that happened. So in addition to all of the natural spontaneous reporting that was coming in, there were very large cohorts of past study data coming in which is a robust way to look at these things. I know as well, there were legitimate questions about, you know, the COVID vaccines in particular were produced fairly quickly compared to the usual 10 to 15 years in development of, of a product. But you know, there are various reasons for this. So vaccines are perhaps one of the medicines where it's more possible to template out the product and therefore switch out components. But they still have a product which is similar to other products that have previously been used. But also, the COVID era in terms of vaccine development and treatment development was, in my opinion at least a completely unique event in terms of drug development so far. If you think of drug development as a kind of universe, or I'm gonna use some wonky analogies here, but let's say as galaxies, which have solar systems within them that have planets within them.So if you think of the galaxy of drug development you have all of these different stakeholders involved. You have the pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies and the service companies that support them, that's one area. You have the regulatory authorities but you have many other stakeholders.You have patients, of course they're the most important. For chronic diseases you might have patient advocacy groups. But also, you know, you guys are part of this universe as well, because you are the ones doing basic research, which is the foundation on which all, you know, all of this is, is ultimately built. So you have universities and other research organizations. You have the funding bodies that sit behind those that decide where the research money goes. And then out the other end of the process you have ethics committees that are involved in approving clinical trials. You have payers. So these are the organizations that ultimately pay for medicinal products in the UK, for example, that's the NHS. Parmvir: Yep. David: In the US, that would be insurance companies. Parmvir: Yeah. David: You have many other stakeholders. So you have obviously healthcare professionals at the end of the day, new drugs have to be woven into the fabric of medicine. And so you have to bring HCPs along with you. There are the learning bodies as well in relation to HCPs, the kind of professional bodies.So that's really at a kind of galaxy level, these are all the different solar systems. And then within them, if you look at the pharmaceutical biotechnology and service provider solar system, within those you have an incredibly complicated set of different skills departments, functions, you have the functions that are doing discovery.So these are the early days of, development where, you know, biologists and chemists are working out, you know, what are the new therapeutic targets we can look at? Then you have the clinical development division. You have the patent divisions, you have the regulatory affairs functions. You have the pharmacovigilance functions. You have the medical affairs functions, you have the medical information functions [Parmvir cackles]. There are, and I'm going to miss out many, many. You have the, the bio stats folks, you have the medical writers. And then of course you have the manufacturing, which is in itself a completely different, you know, specialized world.So yeah, you're dealing with a very complicated process with lots of things which are interlinked. But for me, if you think of all these things, like if you use layout or different compass, let's say, and I'm talking about the compass you use to check direction, not the ones you used to draw circles [Parmvir laughs] and if you scatter them all out they'll all be pointing at different directions. You know, all of these different entities have their own priorities. Because of course the industry as a whole is developing many different medicinal products for different reasons. I think when COVID came along, it was like drawing a magnet across the top of all those compasses and it got all the needles to point in the same direction.So you had governments who had a clear incentive to try and support the development of treatments. So you had governments putting up money, which was perhaps slightly unusual. They were putting money into basic research, such as the type of stuff that you guys do. They were putting money into diagnostics, which are critical for things like COVID.They were putting money into the development of vaccines and into treatments. And then of course, you know, you have the pharma companies where there was a scramble to try and develop something, to help humanity in its hour of need. You had the regulators with a lot of focus on them you know, and everyone watching their, every move and trying to ensure that you know, as many processes that often might take months, or perhaps even years were made as efficient as possible.Parmvir: Mm-hmm David: And it was a unique point in time because everyone was lined up with the same objective. So it meant, for example, that, you know, parts of the industry, which are normally a nine to five job, became a 24/7 job. Parmvir: Yeah. David: For a short period of time.And there was a huge amount of collaboration, which happened between the different stakeholder groups, you know regulatory authorities offered perhaps free scientific advice to companies that were developing this stuff. They met very regularly with companies that were in development. They gave a lot of advice as to what their expectations were when the data was received by them. They shortened some administrative pathways let's say which usually take a lot of time. They prioritized resource. So there's resource specifically waiting for this data to come in. And so, yeah, a lot of normal processes were adapted so that things could be done as efficiently as possible.And the outcome was that, you know, these drugs went through the entire process in a much more efficient way than would usually be encountered. I think another thing as well is with things like vaccines, the side effects that we anticipate to see, including the rare unusual ones ordinarily these manifest within, you know, days or weeks.It's not something that usually we anticipate things to occur years later. So there was that aspect too, but yeah, it was a, it was a unique time. Parmvir: Yeah. And actually this is a good throwback to Dr. Carina Rodriguez's podcast because she ran one of the clinical trials for the vaccine in children at USF where I work.David: Oh, fascinating. Parmvir: Yeah, so she talked about some of the things that you mentioned as well. David: I should say I was not involved sadly in any of the COVID vaccine development, but you know, it was fascinating to watch and actually to see my profession become a talking point in the news every day. Parmvir: Yes. David: It was very interesting to see all of this play out.Parmvir: Yeah. So actually, that's probably a good point to pause and ask you, what do you actually do? David: Okay. So [everyone laughs]. So as I've kind of indicated the process of pulling in adverse event data of coding it, which is the term we use for tidying up all of the data, putting it into a safety database, writing those narratives, getting the medical review, getting the important cases out the other end to the regulators, writing the reports, doing the signal section.These are very complicated processes and every company will develop them slightly differently. You know, small biotech companies, they might only have one product. It might only be approved in one or two countries. A top five pharma company will have hundreds of products authorized in many countries around the world. But all of these processes are put together in compliance with extremely strict regulations. Regulations that as I said exist in almost every country in the world and actually the regulations kind of cross over in the sense of, if you have a product that's authorized for marketing in the UK and the US, for example you know, the UK requires you to collect all the data and analyze it as does the US.They also require you to collect the data from each other's territories so companies are in the middle of the very complicated regulatory framework, which is a little bit different in each country, but fortunately is harmonized through some international bodies and international terminology. But building pharmacovigilance systems is complicated and it has to be done right. Firstly, for the obvious reason that we want to protect patients it's in no one's interest that that that patients are not protected. But also, you know, the penalties for not complying with these complex regulatory requirements are severe. And so my job really, as a, let's say senior leader within a pharmacovigilance department is to make sure that we build the right structures.And for these companies that we that we keep an eye out on all the areas, which are potential challenges and that companies are being compliant with the legislation to which we're all held. And so, so yeah, so building pharmacovigilance systems, I think is the simplest way I can describe it.Parmvir: It sounds pretty heavy and pretty complicated. David: Yeah. I mean, if you look at the larger pharma companies, if you add up all of the resource that they put into pharmacovigilance that they're legally required to put into pharmacovigilance, to service the needs of their products. A lot of things are outsourced these days, if you the count everything that comes from the outsourcing organizations as well, the big pharma companies have thousands of people like me involved in the processing and analysis of this data. So it is a big area, and that is all we do. You know, we are not involved in any other aspect of the drug. Not involved in the sales and marketing, for example, with the product, that's almost the complete opposite side of the company to us, all we do is you know, work in this very professionalized, very standardized discipline, which is pharmacovigilance. Parmvir: So David has a couple of questions. So first one should be relatively quick, which is that, is there a regulatory authority that is the gold standard? David: [David laughs] This is a very politically sensitive one.There are certainly some regulatory authorities who, particularly in some of the larger markets who are let's say more prominent. So examples would be the US FDA, the food and drug administration that is the drug regulatory authority for the United States. In the UK, we also have an extremely prominent regulator, the MHRA they're one of the oldest regulators, I believe in the world. So that's the UK medicines and healthcare products, regulatory agency. But you know, every country has its own regulator and whilst there are some who put themselves out there, perhaps as world leading regulators, there are just as many others that are doing the same important job for their countries. The European Union and European Economic Area has a slightly more complicated system because they have a coordinating regulatory authority, which is the European Medicines agency, the EMA, who many of you all have heard about in news reports, particularly during the COVID situation. But at a national level, you also have all of the national regulators who are working in tandem with the EMA. Parmvir: Okay. So this sounds quite different from, obviously it's very different from what you were doing during your PhD. David: Yes. Parmvir: He also wants to know, how did your PhD work, prepare you to do what you do now. David: If I could sum it up in one phrase, and this is a phrase which is overused, but I think in this case, it is really true: problem solving.Parmvir: Mm-hmm David: because it's interesting, you mentioned earlier that you and I we're almost engineers. Well, I went from becoming a physical engineer, at least in a lab environment to a process engineer. And, you know, I always used to think very naively when I was doing the basic research with you, I used to think, look, we are solving problems that no one knows the answer to. This must be the hardest job in the world. [Parmvir laughs] We're not solving manmade problems. Manmade problems must be so easy to solve. But no manmade problems [Parmvir laughs] are also particularly challenging. And when I say manmade problems, you know, I'm not talking about problems that someone is deliberately created, it's just, you know, logistical challenges, and just the challenges caused by working in, you know, different regulatory envionments with different sets of requirements and how to build processes that meet all of the requirements at the same time. And react to events, of course, because it might well be that you've had a product that has been ticking along nicely for a long time. And then suddenly there is a safety concern with the product. And if that safety concern is in the public domain, you will be deluged with reports in relation to that product called stimulated reporting. And you know, of course sometimes companies will be subject to class action lawsuits particularly in the US. So they might also receive large volumes of reports all in one go. All of those reports have to meet the same legal timelines, but now suddenly you've got 10,000 reports landed on your desk. Each one takes four hours to process and they're all due to the regulators in 15 days. So yeah, it is challenging working in a hyper regulated environment. Parmvir: Essentially these are problems that come about because we are humans. David: Exactly. Yeah. Parmvir: And we have to somehow live together. David: Yeah. Parmvir: So I had a couple of questions from my little sister and these might not be directly related to your work, but they are related to the fact that you work within an environment that involves clinical trials and patients and so on.And so Sukhy wants to know are side effects from drugs, usually the same for healthy people versus patients. David: This is a great question and cause me a little bit of head scratching. I think, I mean, the answer is it depends, I think by and large. Yes. But there will be some exceptions and those exceptions include things like some of the oncology treatments, because obviously there is an interaction often between the drug and the tumor, for example, so in a healthy person you can't emulate that because there is no tumor. So an example would be a phenomenon called tumorlysis syndrome which can only occur when there's a tumor to react to the particular drug. But by and large, yes, we extrapolate safety data from healthy individuals initially, which is why the earlier phases of studies are done often in healthy volunteers with some exceptions. But yeah. Then when we move on to phase two and then phase three, phase two and three are conducted in patients that have the indication of interest, I have the disease that we're trying to treat.Parmvir: So another question she had: how do you know people who are not healthy will be able to tolerate the drugs given that initially that they're tested on healthy people?David: So the first thing I would say is I'm not an expert in the design of clinical trials, but as I said, as you go through phase one which are the trials that are normally on healthy patients, you actually start out with a tiny, tiny dose. So you have an idea of dosing from your animal studies, but the data isn't always transferrable. But you take the maximum tolerable dose in animals, including in the most sensitive animals. And you then cut that by huge factor by perhaps 500 fold. Parmvir: Right. David: So you start out with a tiny amount and then you escalate up the doses to see how the patients are tolerating the drug, not the patients subject, I should say. So these are healthy volunteers usually. Parmvir: Yep. David: So that's phase one, but yeah, then of course, when you go into phase two, you're dealing with a different patient population. I don't know exactly how that's always done, but of course, you know, trials are put together by experts in the field. And they involve, you clinicians whose expertise is this particular area of medicine.Parmvir: Yeah. David: And of course it's not just the physicians at the pharmaceutical company and the biopharma company and the scientists, I should say as well. Also, this stuff is going to regulatory authorities, it's going to ethics committees, all of whom will have their own areas of expertise. So, you know, protocols are designed around the patient and to ensure the patients are not put at unnecessary risk.Parmvir: Ah, sometimes David sends me one of those questions that really makes me giggle. And this is if regulations are so important and onerous, how do I start my own biotech in the garage? David: [David laughs] Well, it's interesting, you know, companies don't necessarily have to be that big themselves to get started, but what they will need is a lot of help.Parmvir: Yeah. David: So what you'll see these days is you know, new biotechs starting up. But they rely very heavily on outsourcing. So they will partner with service providers with contract research organizations, with contract manufacturing organizations, all sorts of other parties that have the expertise that perhaps they aren't able to pull together themselves.But yeah, there are some companies out there, particularly smaller companies in earlier development that are, you know, pretty small might have 20 people in the company. Parmvir: Yeah. David: But they will need to rely on the help of many others, because going back to the kind of universe description that I gave, you know, there are so many specialized areas that you need to have covered in order to pull together everything you need, both to run a clinical trial. and also to submit a marketing authorization application. And then also keep your product compliant with all of the legal requirements that are out there.Parmvir: It's a lot.David: It is a lot, and you know this is why drug development is so costly because it needs a truly vast number of specialists involved. And, you know, quite a lot of physicians as well. And also, you know, most drugs that enter drug development don't make it all the way through the other end, so the end costs of medicinal products also have to cover the cost of the drugs that didn't make it.And plus companies only have a certain period of exclusivity before their drug becomes generic, i.e., other companies can start making it. Parmvir: So this is purely from a personal perspective, from your point of view: what do you think about the fact that obviously you have these companies who have put so much money developing these things, which were designed to treat a global pandemic. And yet we found that for example, like entire continents, like Africa still don't have a lot of people vaccinated against COVID 19, and those companies will refuse to open up the patents to allow them to be able to get people to stay healthy. David: Yeah, it's an area that really I'm not really sufficiently qualified to talk on. And I'm not just saying that, you know, through not wanting to put my foot in my mouth, but particularly with some of the vaccine technologies that were used, they were not simple medicines to manufacture. So not simple to manufacture, not simple to store, not simple to distribute. And sometimes I guess, it is perhaps a legitimate concern of a company that if other companies start making their same drug to a lower quality, that can have ramifications elsewhere. Now I'm not saying that that was the reason behind some of what you mentioned. Now there was a vaccine that was developed the UK vaccine which was specifically developed from the outset to be made available in developing world countries, let's say, and specifically to be made available at cost. And even the way that product was designed, it can be manufactured and stored at fridge temperature Parmvir: mm-hmm, which is a big deal. David: Exactly. It is a big deal, you know, those are all very important components to consider. A vaccine that could be used in those environments. But even, I remember because I vacuumed up all of the documentaries I think on television, Netflix, everywhere else about all of the challenges that were being faced. And, you know, there were even things that you just wouldn't think about, which was, you know, because the mRNA vaccines had to be stored at -80 [degrees Celsius], there wasn't enough minus 80 freezers in the developed countries, let alone figuring out how to develop and ship these to other countries with different climatic conditions.And so you even had the manufacturers of that type of equipment, having to up their game and suddenly churn out much more equipment than they previously had. So, yeah, there's no simple answer. I mean, historically there've been other challenges in the past with other types of drugs, such as the HIV medications. In the end access to those drugs was resolved through very careful dialogue between companies, regulators others. Access issues, I believe to those drugs, and again, this is just basically what I see on documentaries and other things; where are access problems these days, they're not in relation to the drug supply chain they're in relation to other things like people not wanting to come forward and receive treatment because of the stigma associated with things like that.Parmvir: So in short, do you enjoy your work? David: I do. I mean, I can honestly say that in my work every day is different. I'm very privileged in my job to support a number of different companies that are developing different products with a very wide variety of indications. And also, you know, just when you think you've seen it all worked with a wide variety of medicinal products, suddenly something completely new will come along. For example, we are now on the precipice of many commercial gene therapies coming out. Parmvir: Ooh. David: And you know, those products have some different considerations. Perhaps some of these interventions are irreversible Parmvir: mm-hmm.David: So, you know, what happens if patients do start developing something rare and unexpected. You have patients surviving a lot longer than was originally envisaged so, you know, are there other things which come about you know, as a result of the underlying disease that just no one had ever seen before. And yeah, many other types of technologies and the regulations are always having to evolve to take into account of these new therapies and the challenges associated with them.Parmvir: Well, it sounds like you will continue to live in interesting times. David: Yeah. I don't think I'm going anywhere anytime soon . Parmvir: Well, thank you so much for your time today, David. That was fantastic. And yeah, as I say, we kind of thought of you as soon as we started thinking about the safety surrounding things like COVID vaccines and knew that was your jam.So yes, we very much appreciate your time today. David: Okay. Thank you very much. [musical interlude]David: So I mentioned earlier that at an early point in my PhD, I switched to studying vascular endothelial cells that were harvested from pigs. So essentially these were pigs that were being slaughtered for the meat industry. And so I had to look through a phone book and identify an abattoir that I could go to and get the tissue that I needed to do my experiments so obviously this all had to start somewhere. So I put in a call to an abattoir in deepest, darkest Essex. And I gingerly made my way on the train to this place, which of course was in the middle of rural nowhere. And unfortunately the first day that I picked to go, it was snowing. Now we don't get vast amounts of snow in Southern England, but this was a decent sprinkling of snow. So I arrived in this quiet rural destination and I walked across various fields. I think I'd perhaps just got GPS on my phone, but it was very early days. And I was lost in fields of white in no time at all. So I ended up putting in a call to, the guys, to, come and pick me up, which they very kindly did. So then, you know, at that time I really didn't know what a coronary artery looked like so what I decided to do for that first trip was I just collected the fresh hearts that they were able to bring out the processing facility. So these were kind of warm pig hearts, freshly harvested from animals. I think I had three hearts or something like that. And so I had a large polystyrene box with me with some ice in it. And I think they were kind enough to give me the ice, as I put these hearts inside bags and put them in the box and then started making my way back to London. And of course, you know, this being a cold day, the heating was on, on the train, and so as I was sat on the train, in fact, I think it was when I got onto the tube, I suddenly became horrified that my polystyrene box was starting to leak water. And of course I knew, but no one else knew on the tube that within that water were bags, perhaps not secured, very tightly containing hearts and containing probably a fair amount of blood.And I suddenly started sweating that this puddle that was starting to pull around my polystyrene box on the floor of the tube would suddenly start to go pink and then red. And then before I knew it, I would be in serious trouble. So it was just one of those situations where the tube journey seemed to get longer and longer, and I was sweating more and more and then it got to the point where I felt that I couldn't wait any longer, so I kind of dashed outta the tube at the next station went up what was perhaps one of the longest escalators on the underground and managed to just get out the other side before I caused perhaps a fake terrorist incident or something like that. I was trying to think about how I would explain that I'd got three hearts in my polystyrene box and a set of scalpels bearing in mind that pig's hearts are very similar size to human hearts as well. So, yes, I managed just about to get to the lab. I clearly looked quite distressed, I suppose when I got back to the lab. So I started telling this story to my PhD supervisor, Dennis, and uh a retired professor that had come into the department, Don. And before too long, the two of them were crying with laughter at my story.So, um, so yeah, so that was my very first trip and yes, never, never forgotten.[musical outro]David: Our lab, when we first joined, it was quite old and a bit dog eared. And there was one particular chair in the office, which was, I mean, it was like a typical office swivel chair, but it had definitely seen better days and it was extremely uncomfortable. And when we had lab meetings, no one wanted to sit on this chair. And so Parmvir and I nicknamed it, Beelzebub's stool.

On this week's Podcast, we talk about Patty Michelle White, Beelzebub, and Frank Lenz.

The Tower of Babel story is a strange one. It's strange enough that I'm going to spend a lot of time on it, to the point that you will surely switch over to YouTube in about ten minutes. My hope is that this blog/podcast does not drive you back into the arms of the politics, porn, and video games, so I'll do my best to keep it moving. I may have already lost most of you just at the mention of those candies. On the surface level, the Tower of Babel reads like a tale of where languages came from, in the same spirit of fables, such as, “How the Tiger Got its Stripes.” You may pass over the text and think, “Isn't that cute. A story of where the many human languages came from.” Like the Garden of Eden story you can read this one literally, yawn, close the book, then return to your sportsball and Door Dash. And doing so you will miss the entire point of the story of the Tower of Babel. There is another layer, much deeper than the literal, and you can scratch the surface using your fingernail and realize that there are multiple layers of paint. This is why it is a timeless story. First, understanding that “Babel” means “Gate to God” or “Gateway to God” should tell you there is more happening than a simple tower construction project. You could even call it a “Stairway to Heaven” but I am not here to talk about Led Zeppelin. Still, that song title is a phrase that is relevant, or even possibly a reference to the Tower of Babel. If you ask five people the meaning of the lyrics, you will get five answers (my money is on the Lord of the Rings interpretation being closest to the mark, since Led Zeppelin band members were Tolkien nerds). However, even if “Stairway to Heaven” is about Arwen and Aragorn, the Lord of the Rings is the most Catholic novel ever written, so in a wide circling way, from classic rock back to Genesis all the way to the rock of the Church, we have to drive by the Tower of Babel story anyway. The same variety of interpretations that happen with “Stairway to Heaven” can come from readers of the Tower of Babel story, and I think if we called it the “Gate to God” story we would probably be at a better starting point. The Gate being built is a Ziggurat, which is a pagan temple. The location may have been Eridu, in modern day Iraq. Or it may have been elsewhere. It's not particularly important where it was built, because lots of these Ziggurats existed in ancient times, and they are remarkably similar in shape and purpose, even across cultures that had no contact. Now, if you have the idea of some giant tower that touches the sky, you need to first stop and understand that ancient people were not stupid. They knew that a tower could not be built to the sky, probably better than we do, since they didn't have steel and even one hundred feet in height would have been an engineering marvel. So if you want to get anything out of the story, you have to put aside your presentism and unconscious bias. Presentism is the modern bias and assumption that people that didn't have smart phones were only slightly higher than baboons in terms of mental and intellectual acumen.What is a Ziggurat? It is a temple built as a home base for rituals and sacrifices to gods of the lower-case mythological variety. Archaeologists have found these structures with staircases to a central altar, where worship and sacrifice was made to gods. The most famous god of the ancient world was the storm god, or sky god, like Baal, or Marduk, or Zeus, or Jupiter (who are actually all the same god just shifted from one culture to another and that, too, is important to keep in mind as we go along.) At the core of the story is God observing the construction of this Gate to God, and the people in charge are intending to build it “to reach the sky.” Why the sky? Because that's where the sky god lives. Sometimes he lives in a mountain, but the sky god throws the lightning bolts. Along with the sky god, there is a whole list of other gods, like the moon god, the sun god, etc. There is even “Father Sky,” who was a more primordial god in these same cultures, but this elder god was knocked out by the storm god in a battle on the spiritual realm. This too is important to keep in mind, as the tale of Zeus defeating his father Uranus plays into the story of the Tower of Babel very much. The interesting thing about mythology is how celestial objects, like the moon, and natural phenomena, like storms, get translated into spirits. This is mythology in a nutshell, and we assume the ancient people were just trying their best to explain away what could not be explained by science, since there was no such thing as science. There were no telescopes, so in our Present Bias we look at these tales as explanations in a pre-scientific age. These are cute tales from primitive people, who, if they were around today, we would pat on the head and send away with a dum-dum sucker. What non-believers and soul-deniers today have use today as a shield against all things supernatural is a saying known as the “God of the gaps.” The idea is that we only assume God exists for things that we cannot explain yet. This is full blown presentism. If you are not an anti-presentist, you are a presentist. For example, the reason the Irish no longer believe that fairies bring illness is because we know what germs are. We can see germs under microscopes. Until we knew about germs, we blamed fairies. In other words, since we couldn't explain illness, we pawned it off on fairies and God. However, right now, in 2022, science is still claiming to look for a mythical “bat of the gaps” in the Covid story, while we all know that there was no bat, but there most certainly was a very large virology lab. The great irony is that a bat that doesn't exist has been invented and mythologized now by the very same people who mock any idea of fairies or spirits. We could get lost here in talking about scapegoating and human nature, but let's stay on track. The “God of the gaps” idea is a modern argument to reduce all religion to superstitious nonsense. It's an idea that modern writers like Carl Sagan and Richard Dawkins have campaigned hard to sell. There's just one problem with both the fairy stories and Carl Sagan. Neither of them match the concept of the God of Christianity. A quote from Carl Sagan illustrates the problem perfectly, and he was very close to understanding the God of Christianity, but he was bothered by fairy believers who kept moving God into the gaps. This illustrates the problem with how bad conceptions of what the Christian God is brings so much confusion:“In some respects, science has far surpassed religion in delivering awe. How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, ‘This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant. God must be even greater than we dreamed'? Instead they say, "No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.'“In other words, Carl had clearly never read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Carl is actually very close to understanding the awe of God in the way that Catholics understand God. Whoever he is talking about in that quote has no understanding of God as he is understood in the Catholic Church. The God of Israel, is unique, in both conception and power, as Yahweh does not live in the universe like the pagan gods. The God of Christianity, the Trinity, is complete, a whole, that encompasses both the universe and our hearts. God is far simpler to understand than Zeus, in that he is One God, existing forever, outside of space and time. At the same time, he is infinitely more complex in that we can never understand him at all. We can understand God, and we can never understand him. There is another jarring quote where Carl Sagan showed that he was talking about believers that did not understand the Christian God. He said, “Your God is too small for my universe.”To which anyone who spends time in the Catechism can tell you, “No kidding, Carl.” That's been a known fact for 4,000 years. Cave people knew that, and they didn't have telescopes. What amazes me most today is how science assumes that all religious people are merely superstitious buffoons, but when they begin to talk about God, they are describing a pagan concept of lower-case gods, not the understanding of the God of Israel and certainly not the Trinity. This is where bad instruction of the faithful leads to a mess, and as far as bad training and catechesis goes, Catholics have a lot of explaining to do. We have dropped the ball horribly for about three generations now in teaching something as basic as, “How can we speak about God?”God is bigger than Carl's universe. The universe alone can't explain Carl Sagan. As Peter Lawler said, “Physics can't explain the physicist…Physics, by itself, simply explains away the physicist—and much else.” Far bigger than our conception or intellect can handle, God transcends our minds. He is not in the gaps, he created all the gaps, and no matter how many gaps we figure out, there will be more gaps. Like Sagan, who seemed to think that we have overtaken God in terms of knowledge about the universe, the brightest minds of the middle ages thought God kept the planets afloat with crystals. Sagan and company are no different than the confused thinkers of the “Dark Ages” who thought they had figured everything out. But here's something important to realize: the incorrect concepts of the universe was never doctrine. The idea that the earth was at the center of the universe was never part of Christianity. That's only what the intellectuals of the middle ages believed. This is why the Church moves and decides slowly, like the Ents, the trees in Lord of the Rings, who take a long time to decide anything. This is also why the Church doesn't leap in when economic and tech fads offer utopia. The wisdom of the Church plays out in a couple of ways, one in its patience, and second by recognizing heresies and bad ideas long before they are proven to be bad ideas, such as the theories of Marx or calling out Transhumanism (before it gets started). The truth comes out over time, and science is a small part of revealing God's world to us. It's one kind of knowledge, but it's not wisdom. It's worth noting that in a hundred years we may realize that much of modern science is wrong. This happens repeatedly in our history. What is a solid “known” today could be laughable later. Phrenology had its day as a serious science, when people interpreted bumps on our heads. Now it is a joke. (Sociologists beware!) But God does not change, nor does the proper concept of God. To assume otherwise is to be exactly like the intellectuals of the middle ages, who were surely certain of their ideas, too. To assume all is known today is the classic mistake of the falls in Genesis, too. What often seems to be the case is that non-believers have a bad concept of God, stemming from various causes. I think the main problem is that they just don't understand the Trinitarian God properly. I certainly didn't. The reason we don't is because the loudest voices proclaiming God today confuse the right meaning of the word. In fact, I don't think most Christians know the meaning of the word God, because he just seems to be a vending machine to so many. (Here is where I resist ranting about the message preached in the “Prosperity Gospel”. )If you think Zeus and the God of Israel are the same thing, you cannot read the Tower of Babel story. Don't do it. Don't even try. Why waste your time? You cannot understand it if you don't even understand what the writer was talking about. If you don't have the proper idea of God in place, you will fail before you start. It's like beginning a calculus problem when you only made it through Algebra II. It's like interpreting a modern biology book using the theory of the four bodily humors from Galen, the ancient Greek physician. It doesn't work. You will be lost on reading the first sentence. To understand the God of Israel, you have to backtrack and realize a few things. First, you have to rip out your modern assumptions and biases and reset, because all of the noise around God in our media has created a windstorm in your head. Everyone is trying to put their spin on what God is, and until you find the right language, the crazy interpretations will continue to spin. In my own surfacing into the light, I slowly realized that I had cut myself off with a little of help from my friends and much help from the media around me, not to mention a giant pool of Captain Morgan. I had sliced myself off, walled myself in, because of various reasons. In trying to “find myself,” I got lost, and the reasons I lost God was because of exactly the list of reasons listed in the intro of the Catechism. I had forgotten the right concept of God, overlooked what I knew was true, and rejected the entire idea of God. …this "intimate and vital bond of man to God" can be forgotten, overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by man. Such attitudes can have different causes: revolt against evil in the world; religious ignorance or indifference; the cares and riches of this world; the scandal of bad example on the part of believers; currents of thought hostile to religion; finally, that attitude of sinful man which makes him hide from God out of fear and flee his call. (CCC 27-30)Yes, all of those things. The pain and suffering of this world confused me, I was ignorant of what the word God really meant in the Bible, I was drawn to pleasures like drinking, I saw many bad examples of believers that made me question faith entirely, and my education, along with movies and books I read, was purposefully leading me by the nose to a path of belittling and laughing at those with faith. I remember trying to read Genesis and thinking, “This is ridiculous,” and only fifteen years later did I realize that my understanding of God was all wrong. I had to reset completely. Life has a funny way of beating you into a state of reasonableness so that you can try again. To reset, I started with this: God transcends all creatures. We must therefore continually purify our language of everything in it that is limited, image-bound or imperfect, if we are not to confuse our image of God--"the inexpressible, the incomprehensible, the invisible, the ungraspable"--with our human representations.16 Our human words always fall short of the mystery of God. Admittedly, in speaking about God like this, our language is using human modes of expression; nevertheless it really does attain to God himself, though unable to express him in his infinite simplicity. Likewise, we must recall that "between Creator and creature no similitude can be expressed without implying an even greater dissimilitude"; and that "concerning God, we cannot grasp what he is, but only what he is not, and how other beings stand in relation to him." (CCC 39-43)He transcends all creatures, including myths like Zeus. He created everything, including our ability to invent myths like Zeus. We are continually learning more about creation. We are not done learning or discovering wonders here, because we are not God. This should be a cause for awe - Carl Sagan is correct. If he met people who understood God in this sense, instead of reducing all Christians to knuckle-dragging fundamentalists, he could have had terrific conversations about that very fact. God is nothing like the pathetic Zeus. He's way beyond us, transcending our world, while at the same time reaching down to us and saying “Boo!” from time to time. He alerts us that he's present. Most importantly, we cannot control God. This is critical to reading the Tower of Babel story. The pagan gods are far more mundane and limited than the God of the Trinity. The pagan gods live in mountains or in the forest. They are the moon. They are the stars. They are within the universe. The classic blunder of so many non-believers is that they assume God is an object in the universe, like how we think of Zeus. Whenever you hear, “All gods are the same,” you know immediately the speaker does not understand the Christian concept of God. Sagan's “small God” comment and Bertrand Russell's famous “teapot god” betray their fundamental misunderstanding of what the word God means to Catholics. The architect of the universe is not standing in the solar system like a tour guide; he transcends all creation. He transcends all tings, but is still a living God that can reach us on a very personal level. So when you read the Tower of Babel story, the important things to keep in mind are: * The Tower is a Ziggurat built to “reach the sky.” Babel means “Gate to God.” The ancient cultures believed that these pyramid temples made a connecting point between heaven and earth. They often have a stairway to an altar on the top. These exist across the world, even in Aztec and Mayan cultures that never had any apparent contact with Mesopotamian cultures. (This should start raising hairs on your neck but resist the urge to blame aliens here.) * Ziggurats were built to worship gods of mythology, most commonly the “sky god,” a.k.a. storm god, a.k.a. thunder god, a.k.a. fertility god, a.k.a. the rainmaker. This god goes by various names in history: Baal, Marduk, Zeus, Jupiter, Thor, and more (Perkūnas, Perun, Indra, Dyaus, and Zojz). This god was usually depicted with bull horns and/or holding lightning bolts. In mythology, the sky god “defeated” the primordial god (or gods). This tale is called the succession myth and it gets repeated in Babylon, Greece, Rome, and many other places. This god is a shape-shifting rapist who can appear as a bull, a serpent, a swan, an eagle, or even a shepherd. As Éomer says in The Two Towers, “The white wizard is cunning,” so is the fertility god. * Satan is the storm god. Yes, the “S” word. This came as a shock, since I enjoy reading Greek and Roman mythology. But really, how did I miss it for so long? The horns often depicted on Satan are exactly like the bull horns of Baal. And Baal = Marduk = Zeus = Jupiter = Thor = Satan. Baal is Zeus. Baal is also Satan. They are all the same character. Jesus even calls Satan ‘Beelzebul,' which is a version of Baal-Zebub, the Philistine deity of Baal/Zeus equivalent. Better yet, Beelzebul is actually a mocking name that riffs on Beelzebub. “Prince Baal” or “Lord Baal” is modified by Jesus to mock “Baal of flies” or “Lord of dung.” This mockery also took me aback, because if Jesus mocks the sky gods, it proves that God does indeed have a sense of humor. There is word play going on. Jesus again mocks the sky god a second time when he gives the nickname “Sons of Thunder” to James and John (Mk 3:17), which means sons of the sky god, a.k.a. Zeus. Like most nicknames, it is not a compliment. When they call for revenge on those who oppose Jesus, James and John are acting like Baal or Zeus or Satan. James and John ask, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” Jesus turned and rebuked them. (Lk 9:54) Jesus is the polar opposite of the cruel and vengeful sky god. In other words, Jesus is God, and God is love. This is the opposite of the fallen angel named Satan, who shape-shifts and goes by many other names. (Yet for some reason God allows Satan to divide, distract, and deceive us in this world, which is the great head-scratcher for us all and takes a lifetime to understand.) * Keep in mind that all myths are victory tales and founding narratives. They are written and told to justify for the current state of affairs in the world. When you read any myth, you have to read it from the perspective of the myth-makers. Babel is part of Israel's story, but if the other side told the story of Babel, it would be a very different tale, where the temple at Babel would be seen like St. Peter in Rome or Notre Dame in Paris. * The intention and goal of building the Tower of Babel versus the intention building St. Peter or Notre Dame is starkly different. The “Gate to God” is being built up to “the sky.” The Tower is meant to bring god down to earth (just like in Ghostbusters - more on that later) and make a name for the people. St. Peter and Notre Dame are built to give glory to God, not to people. This fundamental misunderstanding of God makes all the difference, both in our individual lives and in the pursuits of nations. * The God of Israel cannot be controlled. He does not need us. We need him. If you read the Tower of Babel at only the surface level, at the “How the Tiger got its stripes” level, where it's only about how the various languages came to be, you will get something out of it. That is a valid, literal reading, but you will miss the greater significance of the story. Know before you start: God doesn't make transactions with his creatures. Praying for what you want can work out in strange ways, but it always works out in how God wills it. He gets the last laugh, you might say. Even the great destroyers of faith, Marx, Voltaire, Hume, Russell, Dawkins, et al. are part of God's plan somehow. He allows doubt and struggle for reasons we cannot understand, but like Joseph in Egypt, when we realized that all his struggles had a purpose: “Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good.” (Gen 50:20) Without this understanding of God, we are trying to manipulate him and make him dance. But he is the one who makes us dance, and it's much easier to dance with him than to try to lead. He is Tolkien and we are Frodo. We are his characters. We cannot reach up and grab the author, and that is exactly what the builders at Babel are trying to do. This is a really, really bad idea for us to try, both then and now. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.whydidpetersink.com