All language subtitles for R.C. Sproul Post-Christian Christianity

Oh

hey hey this is not a graduation

ceremony I didn't just like get a

diploma

I got a marriage renewal thank you so

much and thank you so much for coming we

really love to come to Seattle you know

why because we know that this is a

barren wasteland for the Christian faith

and so the Christians who come to this

conference from the northwest come

really hungry and excited to be renewed

and encouraged for their work and

ministry in their neighborhoods and

communities and so again thank you very

much for being a part of this I'd like

to take a moment to read a portion from

the Gospel according to st. Luke

beginning at chapter 13 and verse 22

which will be my text for this afternoon

he went on his way through towns and

villages teaching and journeying towards

arou silom and someone said to him Lord

will those who are saved be few and he

said to them strive to enter through the

narrow door for many I tell you will

seek to enter and will not be able when

once the master of the house has risen

and shut the door and he began to stand

outside and to knock at the door saying

Lord open to us then he will answer you

I do not know where you come from then

you will begin to say we ate and drank

in your presence you taught in our

streets that he will say I tell you I do

not know where you come from

depart from me all you workers are evil

in that place there will be weeping and

gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham

and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets

in the kingdom of God but you yourselves

cast out and people will come from the

east and the west from north and south

and recline at table in the kingdom of

God can you pray with me my father and

our God as we contemplate in this hour

the abysmal spiritual condition of this

world and of our nation we know that our

only hope is in you and in your

redemptive power and so we plead that by

thy Spirit you will give us the capacity

to rest our confidence and our hope and

you and to rejoice in your reign as our

King for we ask it in Jesus name Amen so

far throughout this conference we've

looked at various questions of how the

culture came to be what it is through

past endeavors and we could answer that

question by pointing to various

watersheds in human history before

Socrates and Plato and Aristotle came on

the scene as ancient philosophers there

was a widespread period of skepticism

which some have called the birth of

humanism with the philosopher Protagoras

whose motto simply was this

homo men surah meaning man the measure

the idea was that man is the measure of

all things but I don't for a minute

think that Protagoras was the real

father of humanism

I think the father of humanism predated

protagonist's when he approached the

young woman and said to her you shall be

as gods so the birth as we've heard

repeatedly in this conference of the

secularism and materialism that we've

been examining was in genesis 3 but in

terms of more recent history and various

watersheds that have taken place we've

looked at the powerful influence of

Charles Darwin and others but I'd like

to consider another point in the history

of theoretical thought before I get to

this text in the year 1776 some

colonists and the Declaration of

Independence which provoked a war called

a Revolutionary War that lasted until

1783 and many historians have argued

that the American Revolution was the

most significant revolution in the

history of Western civilization now I

don't deny that that was a significant

revolution but I personally believe that

there was a more significant revolution

that took place five years after the

writing of the Declaration of

Independence

and it took place in Germany when a

philosopher and a book entitled critique

their einen fur moved the critique of

pure reason the heretofore obscure

philosopher Immanuel Kant had been moved

to write this critique by one of his

philosophical predecessors from Scotland

David Hume who took the philosophy of

empiricism which was the major movement

among scientists at that time to a

conclusion of radical skepticism now

many people think that David Hume

disproved or denied causality one of the

most fundamental laws of thinking and

certainly fundamental to the whole

scientific enterprise but I think a

close reading of Hume will reveal that

he did not deny causality what he denied

was our ability to perceive it we know

that when the rain falls the grass gets

wet and we rush to judgment assuming

that the reason why the grass got wet is

because the rain fell on it the Hume

said that's an assumption we cannot

prove well this philosopher in Germany

said if humans right with the skepticism

of the ability of the senses to perceive

reality accurately that would spell the

death of science and so it was said that

Hume took empiricism to its graveyard

and because of that Immanuel Kant said

he was awakened from his dogmatic

slumbers by the scepticism of David Hume

and he said about the task to create a

philosophy that would resurrect as it

were the trustworthiness of the senses

and of scientific inquiry in in order to

do that what he did was that he made one

of the most important distinctions in

the history of theoretical thought

caught divided reality into two spheres

an ultimate metaphysical sphere that he

called the Newman 'el realm which he

distinguished from the lesser realm that

he called the phenomenal realm now when

he talked about the phenomenal world he

didn't mean it was phenomenal in the

sense that it was terrific what he meant

was the phenomenal world is that world

of phenomena that world that we can

interact with in terms of our eyes our

ears our hands and so on that the five

senses can analyze evaluate predict and

manipulate through scientific inquiry

and practice and he said as people with

minds and senses we can come to some

meaningful understanding of the reality

of this phenomenal world that is open to

our perceptions but he said this other

world

the transcendent world the world that

goes above and beyond physics the realm

of metaphysics which we would call the

realm of the supernatural

is beyond our ability to penetrate and

he said there are three things located

in the Newman 'el worlds he delineated

them as God the self and the Dingaan

Zeke or the thing in itself and many of

you probably have no idea what he meant

by the thing in itself and could even

care less but philosophers through the

ages have sought to know not only

outward appearances but the essence of

things not simply being able to observe

a tree but understand the significance

of tree-ness why acorns produce oak

trees and not elephants there's

something essential found in that acorn

something like DNA or intelligent

formative design that Kahn said we can't

penetrate to that essential level of

things nor can we know with any degree

of reasonable certainty than nature of

the self something we take for granted

that we ourselves that we are persons

that we have souls but no one has ever

measured a soul no one's ever looked at

a soul under a microscope the

non-physical aspect of our human

existence in personality is unknowable

through scientific inquiry well

so far so bad the ultimate problem came

with the location of God in the new mono

world beyond the reach of scientific

inquiry again Conte didn't say there's

no God what he's saying is if there is

one

we can't know anything about it because

you can't get to the Newman already

narration Lessing said that there was an

unbridgeable chasm between the

phenomenal world and the newman 'el

world this became known as Lessing's

ditch it's so wide you can't get over it

it's so deep you can't get under it

there is no way across the chasm between

this world and the next in order to

demonstrate that caught gave the most

thorough going virtually exhaustive

criticism of the classical traditional

intellectual arguments for the existence

of God such arguments were the glue of

the medieval University that said that

God that theology is the queen of the

sciences and philosophy her handmaiden

but in consecrate ich the queen was not

only de throned but basically sent off

into exile he tried to argue and did

argue too many people's satisfaction

that the classical arguments for the

existence of God the argument from

cosmos or the cosmological argument the

teleological argument the argument from

design

the ontological argument the argument

being and even the moral argument for

the existence of God all failed in their

attempt to give us real knowledge of

transcendent reality that was

revolutionary because prior to that even

though not everybody in the world was a

theist and every professor in the

university in Europe would admit to

existing the existence of God it was

politically incorrect to deny the

existence of God because it seemed that

the arguments for his existence

heretofore were so compelling that no

rational creature no educated person

would dare to challenge those

conclusions until Kant's critique I

didn't come here today to praise Him or

to bury him but only to point out this

great watershed before I continue let me

say that though he was convinced that

his critique was valid we could have

Steven Maher wrote a book on Kant's

doubt because he had a doubt at two

points he was bothered and restless by

two things he just couldn't shake he

said the two things that haunted him

were the starry skies above and the

moral law within his famous study of the

categorical imperative and his later

book on the critique of practical reason

indicated that he knew that there was

nothing up there there was fundamentally

no basis for ethics as Dostoyevsky said

if God does not exist

anything is permissible

but God couldn't get rid of that

haunting sense of the moral law within

or as a physicist the overwhelming

impact of the starry sky above and the

intricate design that it seemed to

display but you know when you follow the

history of philosophy you'll see that

generally speaking what happens is one

school of thought solves a problem

raises a new one the new problem is then

resolved by the next school of

philosophy which leaves certain

anomalies that haven't been answered

until the next school comes along and

improves but when you get to Conte

Kant's like that evolutionary tree

turned upside down after quant

a whole host of philosophies were

spawned including Marxism including

humanism includes including logical

positivism including existentialism

including relativism and including

pluralism now those are all I can

mention secularism those are all

different isms that have their

distinctive characteristics that

differentiate one of them from the rest

but they all had one thing in common

skepticism with respect to the

supernatural and to God and so all of

them shared a common premise of

phenomenology that it was manifested

ultimately in materialistic natural

that we've heard so wonderfully examined

by dr. Mohler

and dr. Maier and but the the point was

if you take God out of the equation

there is no way to come to ultimate

reality you must be satisfied with the

here and now you can still speak of

having truths but no truth purposes but

no purpose existences but no essence

humans but no humanity and so it goes

and so what emerged was a form of

relativism which in every period of

skepticism in the history of theoretical

thought in the West skepticism has led

to relativism and it's twin sister

pluralism because if there's no absolute

truth and all truth is relative

then all truths are equally valid or

invalid and so pluralism is that

philosophy that says there is no

singular truth as we've heard but rather

plural truth and no one ever has the

right to claim exclusive truth the claim

exclusivity in truth is to be guilty of

the worst politically incorrect sin that

of narrow-mindedness

rather the supreme virtue of relativism

and pluralism is broad-mindedness

now that idea has not only captured the

University and the scientific community

but it has also in many regards captured

the church I often hear people either

being described as or describing

themselves as being broadly evangelical

you ever heard that term broadly even

now what is a broad evangelical that's a

hard term for me to define well I'm

going to go ahead and take a crack at it

I can think of two possible definitions

for the concept of the broad evangelical

the first one is an evangelical who's

overweight

in that regard I am a broad evangelical

the other definition for broad

evangelical is it's an oxymoron

describing a pretend Christian an

oxymoron describing a pretend Christian

because if you are a Christian and think

like a Christian and believe as a

Christian then you are by definition a

narrow thinking person which by today's

cultural standards is a vice but by the

measurement of the incarnation of truth

and the perfect son of God is a virtue

now to the text Luke tells us that Jesus

went on his way through towns and

villages teaching and journey toward

Jerusalem he was on his way to his death

he was on his way to fulfill his mission

as the Lamb of God to be sacrificed

there but in one sense he was taking his

time not missing any opportunity in

Galilee to proclaim the kingdom of God

and so on the way to Jerusalem he would

stop at every village and every town he

would heal the sick and he would teach

concerning the kingdom and Luke tells us

that while he was making this journey

somebody came up to him with a

fascinating question listen to the

question and before I ask this question

repeat this question I want you to as

you hear it ask yourself for just a

moment because I don't want you to go to

sleep for the rest of the message

but ask yourself for just a moment how

would I answer this question if somebody

came up to me and asked me this question

what would I say well what's the

question the person comes and said Lord

will those who are saved be few have you

ever wondered about that you know I

watched these polls and how people

answer them and everything and it seems

like on any ethical issue or any

theological issue those who are giving a

sound biblical response to the poll or

always in a very small minority usually

under 10% and you wonder when you hear

these things how can so many people be

so desperately wrong and what in the

world and what out of the world will

happen to these people well a majority

of people who have ever lived on this

planet go to heaven or will be just a

remnant will the majority of people who

are alive today go to heaven or will

they go to hell

if you go to funeral services of your

friends or Queens who died the only

answer you can give to that question is

obviously an overwhelming number of

people who are now in this earth or

recently departing from it will

certainly go to heaven how must be

reserved for people like Hitler and

Stalin Idi Amin and those guilty of the

worst kinds of atrocities against

humanity but when you go to funerals you

know I've never been to a funeral where

the minister said

our poor departed brother is roasting

right now in hell

have you ever heard that now in our

supreme doctrine of justification in

America is not justification by faith or

even justification by works but

justification by death all you have to

do to go to heaven is to die because

obviously the overwhelming number a

people so broad and wide is the mercy

and great grace of God then almost

everybody gets to heaven

isn't that right Jesus or is it a

minority a small minority a few well how

does our Lord answer that question he

answers that a couple of ways that I

want us to consider Lord will those who

are saved be few and he said strive to

enter through the broad door because

there is so much room in that broad door

and that road is so wide that it will

never get too crowded

am i inching towards catastrophe

you know that's not what he said he said

strive to enter by the narrow door now

there's a parallel passage that Jesus

gave at the end of the Sermon on the

Mount and I think you're familiar with

it where he said at least it's in my

Bible I can't I find it 7:13 son this

page that's right where he says

similarly thank you by the way I was in

the right church the wrong Pew

enter by the narrow gate for the gate is

wide and the way is easy that leads to

destruction and those who enter by it

are many for the gate is narrow and the

way is hard that leads to life and those

who find it are few again this is not my

opinion this is the teaching of the Lord

Jesus and he sets before his disciples

two contrasts a narrow way and a broad

way or a straight way in a narrow door

and a wide way and a broad door and the

other contrast is with respect to the

number of those who go each way those

who go the broad way that leads to

destruction are many those who go the

straight way to the narrow gate are few

now here's what I hear Jesus say that

most if not the vast majority of human

beings that you know and that I know on

their way to hell and if they were to

die tonight would go to hell

you could also say to me statistically

that there's a significant number of

people in this room right now who if

they die tonight would wake up in hell

because they're on the broad way that

leads to destruction now Jesus is not

denying justification by faith when he

says strive to enter in to the narrow

gate as he does here in Luke's version

strive to enter through the narrow door

for many I tell you will seek to enter

but they won't be able they think they

can get through the narrow door by

living on Broadway here's the problem it

gets worse

Jesus doesn't stop there about the few

and the many the narrow and the wide but

he said when once the master of the

house has risen and shut the door and

you begin to stand outside to knock at

the door saying Lord open to us they

don't just say who's ever in there

please open to us they say Lord Lord

open the door and Matthews first he said

they will say to him Lord Lord didn't we

do this in your name didn't we do that

in your name

and Jesus said and I will say to them

who are you please leave you workers of

iniquity now he knows cognate a

cognitively every one of those people

that's knocking at the door but he

doesn't know them savingly

and so he says you are not known by me

in a redemptive way

so I can't hear your knocking at my door

it's too late I can remember walking and

down a hall in a house back in

Pennsylvania there was a mirror on the

wall and as I walked past that mirror I

caught a reflection myself which if not

a pleasant experience but as I looked in

the mirror the thought struck me what if

you're deceiving yourself about the

state of your soul what if you are going

to hell

I was terrified Jesus said Lord open to

us and he will say I do not where you're

from and you'll say well we ate and

drink and your president we came to the

Lord's table we celebrated Holy

Communion you taught in our streets I

was there when you came through our

village and healed the paralytic I saw

that I was at the wedding feast that

came and I saw you turn water into wine

I've seen many things of mercy and grace

that you have done I tell you I don't

know where he come from depart from me

all you workers of evil and then he

describes the nature of that place where

they're going and the human response of

being in hell do you ever wonder what

people are doing who are in hell Jesus

doesn't describe every activity that

takes place there

but he does describe two responses of

humans who have been consigned there

where he says in that place there will

be weeping and gnashing of teeth some

people when they wake up in Hell will be

devastated and they won't find enough

water in their eyes to satisfy their

need to weep

they'll be solving Oh No not here Oh God

please have mercy upon me be the

greatest disappointment they could

possibly experience to wake up in hell

but then the other group will be there

won't be weeping a bit they'll be

gnashing their teeth which is a biblical

metaphor for human fury how dare you God

put me here

the angry or the anger of the Damned

will know no bounds now as I said I sure

don't want to end up in hell but one

thing I know for sure that if I do if

I've deceived myself all these years and

if I'm one who says well Lord Lord

didn't I do this and didn't I do that

and he looks at me said please leave I

don't know you and he sends me to hell

one thing I can promise you that I'll be

a weeper not an Asscher

because I know anything about theology I

know that if he sent me to health a

night I could make no just complaint

against him I've been guilty of treason

cosmic treason every time I have sinned

I've asserted my will over the will of

my creation creator I have declared that

I am sovereign not the Lord God

I've worked against his kingdom not for

it I've sinned

I guess the holy and infinitely

righteous being who owes me nothing and

if I wake up in hell

I will realize I've only received what

my life has merited not cruelty not

injustice but perfect justice I

understand that so I don't want to go

there I don't want any way else to go

there even though I love the majesty of

God as a fallen human being I have so

much more in common with my comrades in

the flesh and so I have so much sympathy

to think of anybody in Hell in fact I

don't think I would believe in Hell if

it were not taught so clearly by Jesus

himself did you know that Jesus taught

more about Hell than he did about heaven

but I don't want to end on a hell of a

note I want to go just a couple of

verses before this we're in verse 18

Jesus said what is the kingdom of God

like and to what shall I compare it it's

like a grain of mustard seed that a man

took and sowed in his garden it grew and

became a tree and the birds of the air

made nests in its branches

Jesus every time we listen to you're

talking about the kingdom of God we

don't even know what you're talking

about

what's it like and he says what's like

that almost infinitesimally small seed

that you plant and you water and then it

pokes its little head through the earth

a little sprig that begins to grow and

expand not just to a bush but to a tree

of ten or fifteen feet high with a vast

outreach of branches so thick that birds

of all kinds of different varieties can

come and nest in its branches

not just lander for a few seconds but

build a nest in there the kingdom of God

is something that begins so tiny that

it's imperceptible but blossoms and

blooms and grows and expands to the

whole world

we are mustard seeds in a dying world

not just a neo-pagan culture a barbarian

culture but we are sons and daughters of

the kingdom we are sons and daughters of

the king who takes every see that we

plant every leaven that we put into the

meal so that it grows and expands and

fills the world so in the final analysis

if we want to overcome the world we

don't have to worry how strong the world

is we don't have to worry how many

pagans there are out there all we need

to know is who the king is because he's

the one that will determine the destiny

of this nation this world and this

people may you find yourself in agony

because that's the word Jesus used when

he says strive to enter in the narrow

gate the word igon which means use a

Herculean effort work out your salvation

with fear and trembling your works will

never get you into the kingdom but once

in there you're to work with all of your

might and like pilgrim and pilgrims

progress don't turn to the laughter to

the right no matter how many obstacles

how many enemies how much opposition

there's a door you know Christians were

first called the people of the way it

was the narrow way that leads to life

tonight as you put your head on the

pillow I plead with you to ask yourself

am i numbered among the few or the many

god grant that your answer will be among

the few let's pray whether we thank you

for the truth of your word for the

comfort that you were determined to save

your people

that you have given to your son that no

one can snatch out of his hands we thank

you that Christ has already overcome the

word amen