Atlas Apologia
Observable data vindicates the God of the Bible, let us show you.
Atlas Apologia
Ep. 175: The Birth of Christ & God's Perfect Timing.
Join us as we embark in this new, yet familiar endeavor into apologetics...
Welcome to Atlas of Paliya. This is Aleco, and all glory is due to Christ. So, as you've noticed by now, we've moved from IDC podcast to our new moniker, atlas of Paliya, and I'm going to explain that, god allowing in a few minutes here, but I thought I'd open with something interesting that I just picked up as a record here on Christmas Eve 2023. So very often, christ is depicted as being born in a type of stable or barn, and this is because the scripture says that he was placed in a manger. Right, and my simple understanding of it was a manger was the, and it's almost always depicted as sort of a makeshift wooden structure. But that's not what the scripture says. The scripture says that he was merely placed in a manger, and that's like the feeding trough that most animals eat out of. Now, based on the gospels, we know that Christ was born in the city of Bethlehem, as was foretold in the Old Testament, but thanks to an early church father, we might have a clue as to what the actual setting was of his birth and what that might have looked like and how it might be significant. So this is just a quick aside before we get into the actual podcast. Justin Martyr, who was born around 8100, some 40 miles north of Bethlehem, knew the people of the area quite well and he knew the sight of a certain cave that locals venerated as the birthplace of Jesus even at that early date, which is quite significant In that time period. If you know how history works, it's almost a heartbeat away from when the event took place. I think in recent times we would consider a heartbeat away to be minutes or even hours away from an actual news event. But in that time, if something was reported within 100 years, oral history was actually quite good and people were, generally speaking, much more reliable when it came to delivering reliable news. That goes for societies at hold, and societies acted as a system of checks and balances to make sure that if somebody wanted to go astray or maybe alter a point, you had a whole township that would say no, no, no. That's not how it happened. It actually happened like this and I dive into that a little bit further in my book, the Pillars of Intelligent Design, which is on episode 137 of the IDC podcast. You can get into that. It's kind of interesting.
Speaker 1:But long story short. He was born within a heartbeat of the time that Christ walked the shores of Galilee and near the area that he was born in, basically, the local scent. He was born in a cave and in his histories he mentions that local Christians took care to preserve the historical memory of this nativity cave. In the century after Justin's account origin, the historian origin made his own pilgrimage to Bethlehem and wrote, quote At Bethlehem the cave is shown where Jesus is born, and this site is greatly talked about in surrounding places, even among the enemies of the faith. They say that this cave is where Jesus was born, so really interesting that Christ would enter the world in a cave and that he would also be resurrected in a cave.
Speaker 1:Now, if I think about this more and I apply more thought to it, as I'm sure many other people might, there seems to be some very important symbolism there and it's something to chew on as we move into the Christmas season and into the new year. I think that's really fascinating. Obviously, it's not a theology changer or a paradigm shifter, but just a beautiful little symbolism to dwell on and just to add a little button to the end of this. I don't believe that God does anything arbitrarily. I think every choice that he makes is perfect and with God there are no mistakes and there are no coincidences. So, yeah, fun little nugget to divulge. So, being that I am Greek, I am going to roll with the Greek pronunciation of Apollia in the title Atlas Apollia, but not offended by Atlas Apologia either. I think that's how many people know it in the English speaking world. It's a change.
Speaker 1:We did decide to change the name of the podcast as well as the logo, so what I want to do is briefly get into some miraculous things that have led to this change, as well as the inception of this podcast that some people might already know, and after that I want to discuss why Christ showed up in the world when he did, and how perfect his timing is in terms of history. And I only realized after the fact that when I began writing the beginning of the podcast, which had to do with timing and how I believe that one of God's signatures is timing, I was also concomitantly writing about Christ showing up in the world at a very specific time in history. It was this beautiful little synchronicity where I realized the whole podcast was cohesive and had to do with timing, and so we're going to do that. So timing in my life just a little miracle story, just a tiny little thing. And then timing in Christ's appearance in history, and how perfect God's timing is, and I do thank him for allowing me that little synchronicity to dwell on and boost my faith.
Speaker 1:So we will be still using the same website for now idcpodcastco and we're going to put updates there, and you can still find our mailing list. We don't send out many updates, so if you do sign up to the mailing list, we'd love to have you and we'd love to share things with you, like updates on our book club, and you can also participate in our book club if you go there and you know I try to send out emails, maybe once a month or so, but be sure to head over if you'd like to say hello and even if you'd like to support the podcast. You'll also note that the book that I wrote that was on Audible and has been on Audible since 2021, the Pillars of Intelligent Design has been taken down or will be taken down soon from Audible and Google Play Books. This is because we intend to publish through another company and this time, thank God, we have the finances for a good marketing campaign. But it did receive a number of sales and I am very grateful for that, and it did help boost the podcast, so we have exponentially more listeners because of it and I'm very grateful for that.
Speaker 1:And forgot allowing me to do that. I'd also like to release a physical copy as well as a Kindle version of it, so I will try to keep you updated on when that's going to happen. You can still listen to it for free on episode 137 of this podcast. The intention was to always keep it for free, and if people wanted to support the podcast, they could do that by buying it, but I would like to go with a more versatile publishing company and, god Allowing, that will happen. Finally, our Buy Me A Coffee page is back up and running, so if you'd like to support our humble efforts, we aim to produce this podcast as often as possible, and the more support we have, obviously, the easier it will get. Our new Buy Me A Coffee URL is buymeacoffeecom forward slash atlas podcast, so that's buymeacoffeecom forward slash atlas podcast, and there you can buy us a coffee and we can always use more of it, because there's a lot of writing that goes into these podcasts.
Speaker 1:One thing that I think that you'll find with our podcast, juxtaposed with other podcasts, is it's not strictly conversation based. A lot of it is very research based. So where you might get some folks maybe talking about a thing or interviewing an interesting person, which I would say is generally more I would say generally less labor intensive, the research that we do in terms of gathering information from books and writing this podcast, it takes a little bit more time, so any support you would have in the form of a coffee is fantastic, so we thank you for that. Lastly, I wanna bring up the ancient Greek study from the summer, which we haven't finished yet. From the particular study that we were doing I believe it was about 10 more words to go, but I would like to continue it just for my own personal edification, as it's fun to dive into and it builds me up and I find it very satisfying. What's more, I got some pretty nifty camera equipment and recording microphones to do an actual video version of the show that we were planning for YouTube, instagram, maybe another platform. I began recording before my trip to Greece in late summer, but I wasn't happy with the output and I planned to work on it more.
Speaker 1:Currently, I work in supply chain at the number one small aircraft company in the world, which I'm very grateful for, and when I returned from my trip to Greece in mid-October, I came back to a bevy of tasks that needed to be completed. We, unlike the rest of the company, we're in supply chain and we are constantly purchasing and monitoring the arrival of parts, as that is the lifeblood of the company, and if the parts don't come in, then people have to go home, they can't work, and supply chain is a very it's in a very strange place right now, given all of the global conflict, especially with Russia and Ukraine, obviously, israel and Palestine. So a number of our parts come from those areas, or at least the raw materials do, and so it's a very time consuming task at the moment and we've been very busy, but I am thankful for the hard work and for the learning experience, but it has consumed a lot of my time, so some things have been shelved, but as I'm about to get into here, I feel that it has been put on my heart to move forward as much as possible with this endeavor, and I hope to elucidate some of the details in just a moment here. So at IDC and now at Lyssa Palligia, we're firm believers that one of God's many signatures is timing, which I believe is one of the many reasons that a personal connection with God is so important and why it might be so difficult to daisy chain a group of people into believing a thing that happened to you, even if it was divine intervention. Sometimes the timing is so right that there's no other explanation than divine intervention. Humans are skeptics by nature, and I might be chief among them, or at least I was. This is highlighted by the Bereans and the Acts of the Apostles, who chose to search out the scriptures to confirm all of the things that they were being taught. Paul considered them noble. Myself being a high skeptic, coming from a science background, anytime something significant happens to me, I try to test the spirit that is behind it and ask for a dual, or sometimes triple, confirmation. I believe that God delights in these types of things and that all people have access to this humble request when given earnestly to the creator of every atom in the universe. Such was the case of me becoming an apologist with the IDC podcast unofficially over five years ago, but officially about four years ago. So I'll start at the beginning and work my way up to Atlas, apollia.
Speaker 1:In the summer of 2012, I was stabbed in the back during a street fight while living in China. I nearly lost all of my blood and I was shivering and getting close to passing out and subsequently dying. There were a series of miraculous events which led to me being saved, not the least of which being a local farmer throwing me on the back of his three-wheeled motorcycle and racing me to a local hospital, in direct violation of China's missing Samaritan laws, as there, if an injured person claims that a passerby injured them, even if it's a lie, that person is required to pay the hospital bills. Therefore, we saw a number of people get severely injured on multiple occasions during our five years traveling through roughly 35 cities in China and would see nobody come to their aid but my wife and I.
Speaker 1:So after both of my six inches worth of stab wounds were stitched together and my blood pressure normalized from the recent loss of blood, I began talking to God during a one-month recovery in a bed, praying that the Chinese guard holding a pistol and standing watch over my room was not going to send me to one of the famed gulags or reeducation camps that so many of their countrymen are dying in today for some hyperbolic public misconduct charge. So I continue to say that one of God's many signatures is timing, and I do believe that, for the month that I spent recuperating in bed and attempting to figure out which direction to take my life in, and several years to follow, many astounding events happened which led to a paradigm shift in my life, some more personal and others which led directly to the inception of this podcast and the book that I wrote. The first was a simple prayer asking God, if he was real, to provide me with some quantifiable proof. Within 24 hours, without prompting and unaware of the request I made to God, a family member sent me a digital book by MIT physicist, dr Walt Brown, where he makes a cumulative case for God using only the natural sciences. Being a person who loves science myself and a former science teacher, having read many of Michio Kaku, carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking's books, it was the exact type of work that I loved no filler, no superfluous narrative and I know I'm guilty as charged sometimes but just facts and references alongside more facts and references, using inferences as sort of glue to create a linear thread for the book. The sheer timing of it was really interesting to me, but I kept that in the back of my mind. From there I explored Lee Strobel and his investigative work, which I thought was important and enjoyable, and that was back in 2012. I continue to read Lee Strobel today. I like a lot of the things that he puts out, so kudos to him.
Speaker 1:The next major win for change was something much deeper and unimaginably more personal. While I was learning Mandarin in my spare time in China, the internet would frequently cut out due to government regulatory monitoring of specific regions. This, consequently, would make it difficult to use the online software which I had supplemented my learning with. So one day after the program had failed for the third, fourth time, whatever it was, I remembered a sermon that I had heard about laying on of hands and speaking to the mountains in the name of Christ and being raised Greek Orthodox. This concept was somewhat foreign to my understanding, but I knew it to be scriptural and I gave it a try. So, without hesitation, I placed my hands on my computer and commanded it, in the name of Christ, for the internet to come back on and for this program to work, with complete belief and faith that it would happen, and within a moment. In less than a moment even, the program was working for the first time in weeks without impedance, and I was able to successfully use it all afternoon While astounded, much like the people of Galilee and Jerusalem who witnessed Christ perform miracles directly, this was still not the same thing as having a direct relationship with him, in my opinion, and while it seems he may have rewarded my faith, doubts still crept into mind as to what may have really happened, as I was not really seeking his heart as much as I should have been and more.
Speaker 1:I don't know what you would call it experimenting. Maybe the next few steps were a little more noteworthy for me and caused me to begin writing the events down and keeping records of them. I had experienced severe ulcer pain for about 36 hours. Just a week or two after the internet miracle. I couldn't even stomach saltine crackers if I wanted to, and the pain was unpleasant and persistent. When night rolled around, it had suddenly dawned on me that there might be something worth trying that could remedy the situation and, out of fear of embarrassment and overall shyness I am a very shy person I waited for my wife to head to the bathroom for a shower and proceeded to shut the bedroom door and get on my knees, burst. I prayed and reminded Christ of the Scripture and the words he gave to those who would exhibit faith. I then proceeded to put my hands on my stomach and commanded it, in the name of Christ, to be healed, with full belief that this would happen. I could physically feel my stomach moving within me and within a moment, all of the pain was gone. I was suddenly hungrier than I had been in days, and I went to the kitchen and gorged on cheese which, in China, is worth its weight in gold. I also ate bread and fruit. There was a tear of joy and from then on, I knew that I had to take a different path in life. I met a Christian named Aaron in Dalian, china, and soon after I was baptized by him in a kiddie swimming pool, in the bathroom of an underground church service, of course.
Speaker 1:Over several years, I continued to study contrasting literature in an attempt to put my experiences in a box and better understand them. During that time, I experienced several more incredible miracles, which seemed like lavish rewards for small amounts of faith. However, more important than anything, as I began to learn, was complete and total reliance on Christ and a continued relationship with him, which was meant to be the focal point of everything, as I know now and this is the channel which breathes life into comprehension of the world around us Springs me to 2018, when I felt it written on my heart that I should become an apologist for Christ. I wasn't absolutely sure that it wasn't my own ego fabricating this belief as, regardless of what I thought might have been my calling, it was something I wanted to do. I drove to a park one night in Southern California and decided to consult the creator directly. I asked for an unmistakable answer, as I was thick-headed and I could be egotistical from time to time. I got into my car again after seeking God and turned on a sermon for the drive home. It was Charles Stanley, and his first words were that believers should be dynamic and actively seeking to learn and defend the word of God. For those of you who know what the word apologetics means and I'll get into it a little bit more in a moment it is a defense, creating a defense for the scripture. The synchronicity of hearing Charles Stanley, right after that prayer, say those things struck me instantly, but, similar to the miracle of the internet being fixed, I had my doubts that it could have been a coincidence, so I asked for a second confirmation and I went to sleep. The next morning, as I was getting ready to go to work, my wife waved me down and told me she had an unprompted message from my affable and extremely intelligent nephew, liam, who lives in England. She said Liam wants you to know that he thinks that you should become an apologist. He said that they are the new counterculture, they are the real rock stars of today, and that was my second confirmation and I thank God.
Speaker 1:Now for the second part of the story, the shift to the title Atlas Apollia and the slight shift in the podcast. I will say that I've had many answered prayers point me in the direction of moving to more of a hybrid of apologetics and evangelism, and that's something that's already been seen in the IDC podcast. It's not something that is really going to be a dramatic change for me, but it will be more of a forthright title, something that represents the podcast a little bit better, and we have gradually moved away from science partially. There's still science and there's still much research involved in what we do, but this is going to be a little bit more apologetics heavy and this is something that has been the result of several let's call it still small voices. And Atlas Apollia is just going to be one aspect of my service to God. I believe that it's going to be much broader than that, but if I were to summarize it so that it's a little bit more pithy and maybe not as drawn out as the last story, I will say that one night I did pray about it and I had fasted for about 24 hours on the topic and I felt it very strongly on my heart that I am to move into a type of evangelism that involves apologetics.
Speaker 1:So after this very confident answer that I received, I decided to head to bed and I have a Bible next to my bed and my wife was asleep. She wears a blindfold while she sleeps, so one of those sleeping masks. So I had the light on and I opened my Bible directly to Matthew 10, where Christ sends out the disciples, and it's a synchronicity that aligns perfectly with what I had just been praying about. This is a chapter all about how Christ sends out the disciples in groups of two to go and evangelize and preach the Word. Right? But I was so tired that I didn't even notice it and I had my big, heavy Bible that was next to the bed. It was my CSB Gosh, which one? Oh? Csb Ancient Faith Study Bible. It's one of my favorites. It's a really beautiful Bible.
Speaker 1:But I was tired and I had taken half a melatonin that was getting a little sleepy and groggy and I thought you know what I want to go grab? Just arbitrarily, I decided to go grab the smaller Bible which was under a TV in the living room and I hadn't opened this Bible in a while it had been, I don't know. I had been there for weeks because I had been reading from the larger Bible. So I closed the larger Bible and I brought the smaller Bible in and again, granted, I hadn't picked this one up in weeks, maybe even months, and I opened it directly to the bookmark, matthew 10, where Christ sends out His disciples into the world. And then it dawned on me that there was a double confirmation, a message that was being shared. So I wrote it in my journal and I thought this is really, really interesting and I don't think I need much more.
Speaker 1:But I decided to call friend of the podcast, michael, the next day and see how he was doing, check in on him and Michael, before I even got to my side of the story, told me that he had felt it written on his heart that he is to get into some type of evangelism, and what that is he wasn't very clear about. But what he said was somebody gave him a prophetic word that indicated that's the path that he was going to take. Knowing Michael, who is a very hardworking and he's a fantastic man, he has never been particularly inclined to go out and preach. It's just not his style. But for him to say this was quite significant because he's got almost no ego, he's very chill, very relaxed, and he's not the type of person who likes to be in the center of the limelight, so to speak. But for someone to give him this prophetic word and for him to indicate this to me as I'm about to tell him this is what I found out it was quite significant. And another beautiful little timing or synchronicity event. So I want you to also keep in mind as I say all this stuff. There have been many other numerous little confirmations, but these are a couple of the more significant ones that were a little less personal and a little bit better for sharing in a podcast, and I might even be inclined to share some of the more personal ones when we have the Book Club for David Bentley Hart's the Experience of God, which I believe is in early January, and if you'd like to join that, please head over to the website so you can sign up to the mailing list. I'll leave it at this one.
Speaker 1:There was one more thing that happened and it was along the same lines. It was a third confirmation. I decided to clean the dishes and I often do and don't talk to my wife about that she might argue about it, but I clean the dishes pretty often and I try to, even after a very long day, and I like to listen to audiobooks when I clean the dishes. Oftentimes it'll be a book on apologetics where I'll kind of jot down notes as I'm cleaning, or or maybe you know something kind of fun. Like Miss Ler, I love Chuck Miss Ler, he's fantastic. But I just decided to pick up my my audio Bible and just listen to it and I hit play and I hadn't listened to this audio Bible and Again, it had been months, akin to the small Bible that had been under the under the TV. I hadn't really hit hit play on that thing for a while and I hit play and it was the very end of Matthew, chapter 9, leading into Matthew, chapter 10, where Christ sends out the disciples.
Speaker 1:So there's a lot to be extrapolated from all this and a lot of assumptions can be made and Obviously I don't want to make assumptions. I want to be prayerful about it because I know that, as I just said, atlas of poly here is One aspect of what my ministry will be, but I know that there are going to be other aspects and I can't fully clarify what that's. What that's going to mean. It could mean me finishing the Master of Divinity, which I've been thinking about for a while now, and it may be moving into some type of Ministry service, or it could mean something else. But, needless to say, the Title has changed for the podcast and, if I'm being perfectly honest, the overall modus operandi will remain somewhat the same. So I want to continue with apologetics on this podcast. But I have been on a steady path to discussing scripture and theology and more edifying faith-based things for a long time now.
Speaker 1:So why Atlas of poly here, or rather apology here as a name? It became apparent to me within the first year of the podcast that, while I have a love of intelligent design, I wanted to go with a wider net. So Atlas is simply a reference to a map, and Apollo here is a Greek word for apologetics. So make no mistakes, we are not apologizing for anything for those of you who are unaware of what Apollo here actually means. Apollo here is merely a written or spoken defense for the scripture, as we see many times in the Gospels.
Speaker 1:One example of this would be when Christ was explaining to the disciples of John why they should believe. So in Luke, chapter 7, verse 20 through 22. When the men had come to him they said John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying are you the coming one or do we look for another? And that very hour he cured many infirmities, afflictions and evil spirits, and to many blind he gave sight. Jesus answered and said to them go and tell John the things you have seen and heard that the blind see the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf here, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them and, and blessed is he who is not offended because of me.
Speaker 1:Note that the New Testament is replete with examples of apologetics where somebody is explaining a Reason to believe everything, ranging from Christ himself to the Apostles and the Acts the book of Acts, as well as Paul and every other Epistle that we find in the New Testament. We see examples of apologetics. I find it interesting that there is a direct correlation between faith and the mind, and while it is God that Promulgates our faith, there is a mysterious relationship between a choice that we make and Him moving our heart. I know that we're dabbling in on the whole free will conversation and that's a big one to discuss later, but just know that this is something that is endorsed by the scripture. And finally, I should also note that I have always intentionally avoided naming this ministry after myself or plastering my handsome mug on all of the marketing, and this is partially to avoid scaring off audiences I'm kidding aside. It's also because I believe it's improper to name a ministry after yourself when you are a conduit for the Holy Spirit, as we are promoting the word of Christ and not our own personal word. So now that I've gotten on all of this off the table, I'd like to discuss a little bit of God's timing in the arrival of Christ in world history.
Speaker 1:So Christopher Hitchens and Dr William Lane Craig had a really interesting debate years ago just before the death of Christopher Hitchens and if you don't know, christopher Hitchens is one of the four horsemen of the New Atheism movement. Hitchens made an interesting point. He said here's what you would have to believe if you thought that everything surrounding the Christ was designed. Let's say that humans have been on earth for 100,000 years, and I'm paraphrasing his words here that humans were born and most of them, or a good number of them at least, died in childbirth in the early years of humanity. They were born into a terrifying world where everything around them, from disease to volcanic eruptions, could kill them, and life expectancy wasn't very good as well in the early times of human beings. So for many tens of thousands of years, they would be lucky to live into their 20s, probably dying agonizing deaths from something as mundane as a tooth problem or an appendix issue. They also faced things like scarcity, war, famine, competition from other countries, and would continue to do so for thousands of years.
Speaker 1:How are atheists supposed to believe that, with 2,000 years to go on the clock, the creator intervened and said we should send my son to Bronze Age Palestine, where he'll be rejected and tortured in order to renew humanity and create good in them once again? Now, william Legg-Greg's response was quite famous and I recommend you look it up, but it was very interesting. He says and this is a paraphrase again the timing of Christ was rather magnificent. The Population Reference Bureau estimates that the number of people who have ever lived on this planet is roughly 105 billion. Two percent of them, that means, were born prior to the advent of Christ.
Speaker 1:Eric Kreps of the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research said that God's timing in the arrival of Christ couldn't have been more perfect. It happened just before the exponential explosion of the world's population. The Bible says that in the fullness of time God sent forth his son, and when Christ came the nation of Israel had been prepared. Roman peace dominated the Mediterranean world. It was an age of literacy and learning. The stage was set for the advent of God's son into the world and I think that in God's providential plan for human history we see the wisdom of God in orchestrating the development of human life and then bringing in Christ into the world in the fullness of time and paraphrase. So I've been reading Jay Warner Wallace's book Person of Interest and I've read a couple of Jay Warner Wallace's books. I think he's got some good stuff out there.
Speaker 1:He made a couple of interesting points, that sort of built off of what Dr William Lane Craig said. Things like had Jesus appeared prior to when he did? Complex forms of writing on paper would have been far more challenging, as it was far more scarce and writing was exponentially more prominent after the time of Alexander the Great due to Greek and Roman influence. He also noted that the growth of the Roman Empire also allowed the message of Christ to be spread through three languages almost instantaneously, and not just the obscure dialect that the Jews spoke in Galilee. And for those unaware, the languages were Aramaic, greek and Latin. Prior to the rule of Augustus Caesar, war was common and peace was fleeting throughout most of the known world. The Romans were surprisingly sympathetic to other ideologies as long as they did not impede Roman success, which allowed Judaism to continue and Christianity to eventually grow, as prophesied. This doesn't deny the eventual persecution of the Christians, but it does show that historically, the timing of Christ's arrival was very important. The development of fast transportation, including roads, introduced by Romans, also allowed the message to travel far. This was not something widespread before the time of the Romans. The combination of 250,000 miles of Roman roads and the Silk Road established by the Chinese allowed for the message to be spread to all types of diverse areas of the world. Finally, the Roman mail-carrying service, known as Cursus Publicus, was also the first of its kind allowing for messages to be spread quickly as needed.
Speaker 1:Now I'm not going to get into the hundreds of prophecies, which were fulfilled with great accuracy, one of my favorites among them being the prophecy of Daniel's 70 weeks, and I have gotten into that a couple of times. On the podcast, you can probably look for the episode. I'm not sure which one it is, but it's also on episode 137 if you want to go listen to the Pillars of Intelligent Design. But the key takeaway for me, at least in this opening part of the podcast, is that God's timing is always perfect and that there are no coincidences. So if you begin to think that you're seeing coincidence in your life and you are talking to God, you are praying, then I would pray that you look into it a little further, as these synchronicities are signs of something much greater happening.
Speaker 1:Okay, today's ancient Greek word is methanoya. So for those of you who haven't been introduced to methanoya, this is one that we have talked about a little bit in this podcast, and the term is repentance in English, or repent rather. So thank you. It is often used to convey the idea of turning away from sin or expressing remorse for wrongdoing. However, the Greek word methanoya in the Bible carries a more nuanced and profound meaning that goes beyond mere remorse or behavioral change. Methanoya can be understood as a transformative change of mind, heart and direction.
Speaker 1:And, to be clear, heart doesn't mean the organ which pumps blood through your body. So if you get into the Old Testament, the Hebrew word commonly translated as heart, which is lev, it represents the core of a person's being, including their thoughts, emotions, will and moral character. The Hebrew understanding of heart is holistic, encompassing the entire inner life of an individual. So the Hebrew Bible often uses the term lev to describe various aspects of human experience, for example intellect and understanding. The heart is considered the seat of wisdom and understanding. It represents the center of thought and intellectual activity. In Proverbs 2-2, it says Making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding. So heart meaning the center of your being. So the heart is also associated with emotions and feelings, such as joy, sorrow, love and compassion. For example, in Deuteronomy 36, it says and the Lord, your God, will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. So I won't go too much further down that tangent, but I will say that Meta-noia is a transformative change and it literally translates into, you know, from Greek, meta-change-en-noia-mind, and mind is also a transliteration of heart, right.
Speaker 1:So change your mind or change your heart completely. Do a 180, do a complete change of direction in your life, right. Thus, meta-noia involves a deep and fundamental shift in one's thinking, leading to a change in behavior. While repentance may focus well, the word repentance rather may focus on the outward actions, meta-noia encompasses a holistic transformation of inner self. This concept is crucial for understanding the biblical message, as it emphasizes a spiritual and moral renewal that goes beyond surface level changes. So there are a few examples. Obviously in the scripture it's all throughout the New Testament, matthew 3-2, for example.
Speaker 1:Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Change that word out for. Change your mind or change your heart, right. Acts 3-19,. Repent, therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out. Change your mind. So this is not saying that anything can be done. Christ's substitutionary death is the reason that we are able to live and we can't do anything about it. But there is something to be said for the actions that we take. Right, we can accept that gift of Christ by changing our mind, and if we don't change our mind, we are refusing that gift of Christ. And in 2 Corinthians 7-10, for godly grief produces a repentance, or rather change of heart that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. Alright, that is the end of the podcast. I hope that you all have a fantastic New Year celebration and that you stay safe and that you continue to seek the Creator of the universe. All glory due to Christ. Copyright © 2020. All Rights Reserved. No part of this recording may be reproduced without the permission of our own. All rights reserved.