Who are the NEPHILIM in the Bible?! (EXPLAINED) | Live Free with Josh Howerton

He is Lord over every square inch of my life and over every square inch of creation.

“Politics and government is not the one exception to the place where he is Lord over.”

We don't want to deify politics, but at the same time we don't want to deny politics. Well, hey, live free nation. Before we jump into the episode, this podcast is recorded right here at late point church in Dallas, Texas. But the live free nation is spread all over the country and all around the world. So if you've been watching and thinking, man, I wish I could be part of something like this. We want to invite you to take a simple next step and that is join us for church

online. Every weekend, we stream our services live on YouTube, Facebook and our church online platform. And it's more than just watching a service. There are live hosts and chat prayer teams ready to stand with you and people all around the world worshiping together in real time. And so whether you're exploring the faith, coming back to church or just looking for a place to start, church online is a great way to jump in and experience what God is doing here at late point. We would love to see you

in the chat this weekend. And now, enjoy the podcast. Well, hey, welcome back to another episode of the live free podcast. My name is Carlos Rosso and today I'm here with Pastor Paul Cunningham, AKA Chaggi Pocie, AKA the Epistle Missile. Okay, how many nicknames you got, bro? Wait too many.

Too many. I've always been a nickname guy. People always give me tons. Coming to you from Lake

Point Church in Dallas, Texas and today we're going to be talking about Matthew 21. What Christians get wrong about politics and power? And we're going to be talking about the strangest passage in the Bible and answer one of the most mysterious questions people ask about the Bible. Who are the Nephilim? Top two or three questions I get. It's like, why does a good God allow bad things to happen? You know, what about the Trinity? And oh yeah, who in the world did the Nephilim? And the Nephilim?

“That's how the order usually goes. Yeah, usually. Hey, where is Pastor Josh? I think”

did he go to his favorite place in Earth, Disney World or something like this? Is that his favorite place on Earth? No, it's really not. I'm just good. I'm just ripping a little bit right now since he's not on with this. I think he went to a phone play store with this family this time. Pastor Josh is having a great time right now. Yep. He just sent me a photo of him and truck and Hudson. Okay. And so, you know, he preached on the Sabbath and then he takes a week off. That's a man who practices

what he preached it. That's the same. That's right. So he just took a full week off. I think he went down to a universe or something like that. He's been, he's been putting pictures out all week man. We're at the time of his life. We have a little holy jealousy right now. Yes, we do. Speaking of Pastor Josh, did you see, did you see those like videos going viral right now? Like like all these like burger CEOs? Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, yeah, I think we can

phone it. I think it was McDonald's CEO who yeah. So if you haven't seen it, we basically, you know, there's like a McDonald's CEO started doing this trend where he's like filming himself like trying like a McDonald's burger. And then apparently like he went viral and then all the CEOs of all the burger joints are basically doing the same thing. So it's funny because if you haven't seen it, this is a real brief clip. Check it out. And of course, some lettuce. So oh, there's so much going

on with this. First of all, let's try to get this thing. I don't even know how to attack it.

It got so much to it. That's amazing. There's lots of stuff you've got to be on here in the

universe. Well, it's actually coming out. All right, the moment of truth. That is so good. That's hilarious. Okay, you can stop it there. Bro, when I saw this, I'm like, and you know, I went super viral. I'm like, hey, we did this first with Pastor Josh. Yes, like a month ago. Yeah. And so we have evidence before we went viral, Trinity play the evidence. This is literally a month ago. And take a look at that. Bro, if you guess, if you guess,

I cannot, I gotta already know this. Yeah, so say you're feeling around it. All right, take a bite. It's like, each year's a little bit out there. Is there anything for real? No, there's not a lot of it. I'm sorry. I don't like mustard. That's a real burger. Okay, okay. What is on, is there anything on this? Okay, great. And just to reiterate for people, we did not ambush him. That was not setting him up because we were for context for this. You haven't

seen it. He thinks what a burger is the best. You're more than a guy. And at the time, I was more like, I think, they're pretty much the same. So we did a break. Which I disagree, but go ahead. Yeah, I might revise my opinion for the record. And so we gave this, but unfortunately, what a burger his favorite place for got to put the cheese on there. And so I think the next thing

“he says is, this is the worst thing I've tasted since I was four. Did they forget? Or is that”

just how they give their burgers? I don't know. I've heard that it was a very common

of what a burger experience for them to forget. So if it's something like that. Well, here's what

I want to do. Let's, let's put the type. So we got, you know, the McDonald's eat, you know, then we have a pastor Josh on the other side. My question for this week's giveaway, Paul, is who did it better? So we want to give away some hats. And so go ahead and comment if you're on YouTube or Spotify. Who did it better? McDonald's CEO or Pastor Josh. And we will give away

The OG. He beat everybody. That's right. He started it. I'm just started it. Yeah, man.

“Man, hey, I like you shirt by the way. Well, thanks, Man. I like you shirt too. What is it?”

You mentioned yesterday says, I love my church, man. I love my pastor Paul. What is this shirt about? Every year we do something called free t-shirt weekend, which we have coming up, but believe this next weekend. And the idea of it is that we just want to give people a very easy way for them to share their faith and to invite other people to church. And so we literally will give away, I think, over 20,000 or something like that. T-shirts in a weekend. That's right.

And it's just a way to say, hey, man, would everybody wear this shirt now. It's a great thing to wear in general, because then people like, oh, like, who's your shirts and what's your shirt about, but then also it's a great thing to wear in the week's leading up to Easter, which is just if there is a time when you're going to invite people to church a couple great times of yours, Christmas and Easter. And so it's a way just to make it easy in our people, because we know that

is sometimes a hard thing for someone to share their faith. All you got to do is wear a t-shirt and then people ask you about your church and then just simply invite them in. That's that easy.

“That's why, man. So this weekend, yeah, this coming weekend, free t-shirt weekend at Lake”

Point coming out. By the way, if you're part of the liberation and you're ever visiting or you ever come see us, come say hi, find the first time guests tent and we got some free merch for you as well. We'd love to say hi. Also speaking of Lake Point celebrations, recently, Pastor Josh preached on marriage. And he invited those in our church that maybe are living as if they're married, but are not married to take that step of obedience and get married. But we had

a huge celebration. Yeah. We had over 52 couples take that next step of obedience and faith in marriage. And we have a big party, big celebration. We got some photos here at Trinity. But look at that. That's literally like on stage Lake Point, I love how many cowboy hats we have by the way. And I was counting them with the first time I still a picture. I was counting them back.

Amazing celebration. And I think we're at another photo over here. That's amazing.

Quick story, because I love this so much. This is a sort of Brendan and Ashley. They met in May 2021, which by the way, their first date was actually a Sunday service at Lake Point. Come on, let's go. Brendan proposed in February 2022, but they didn't set a date. They had gone through significant hurt and betrayal. And their previous marriages, they got connected to Lake Point and realized, hey, we need community. We need support. They attended re-engage and learned about how to handle

a Christian marriage. They jumped into region, started healing. They were convicted that they needed to be married and live in a marriage covenant. Last year, they started the process to get married and they actually set a date for May 22. But then await on marriage weekend. They felt a strong conviction to not wait. And so they said, man, we need to do this now. The act of fast. They got married at Lake Point. Here's the photo. Brendan and Ashley. Congratulations. That's so awesome.

That is amazing. That's right. Well, now I just have to slow that story. And then so many others. So Steve Harden, who is in the first picture, he's on my team and he actually got to fish eight all of them at one time. And then got carpal tunnel after from literally signing like all the certificates. He had decided, I'm all said to give an ice back for his name. But he was just told me so many stories that came out at night and just the vibe. Because like people coming in, they all

knew if they were there, that there was some kind of story of brokenness or disobedience in life. And yet what they all were talking about when these people and their families were coming in is that they felt so like welcomed. That's right. And not judged. And it was a place where they were celebrated for their step of obedience now. And the new story that was gone was writing their

lives together. And even just things like, oh, like, we could have never afforded this wedding

cake in this photographer. And it's like, it's actually a beautiful example of why I love my church. Right. And why you love your church. It's like the church stepping in and not judging me to be in a place of restoration and second chances. And even just like I'd encourage you, if you are part of liberation and you're not around the Dallas area, we're at, you know, you're listening to in San Diego or Minneapolis or all the Ohio, Ohio, nine years and Ohio, man. You're dead.

Yeah, nine years in Cincinnati, Ohio. Oh, it's interesting. Wow, man. I don't know much about Ohio. I'm not going to lie. It's like one of those stages. A few good pockets with a lot of nothingness in between. I guess I know Lebron James came from there. Right. Did you come from there? Sorry, we don't. The bronze especially subject. Oh, I guess we're going to get into that conversation. But yeah, I don't know where this is going to go ahead. Lebron. Okay.

Lebron, it was there. But anyways, where was I even going with that Carlos? You were saying that somebody from the Lithuanian? Yeah, yeah. So you're from in this place. Let me just encourage that love that you're listening, love that you're part of the conversation and get into dive into the world together, talk about things that are happening in the world and how to

“see it from biblical lens. But like the best thing happening on planet earth is the local church.”

That's right. Like once I've heard someone say that the church is the hope of the world. I'd actually like to modify that to the local church is the hope of the world. And so if you're not a part of a local church, I encourage you in almost every city in town, there is a bubble believing life-giving church. Go and plug into one. And by all means, why you're doing that continued to tune in, in this and to us. But our one of our biggest encouragement is wherever you're

at, plug into a local church. There's nothing like it on earth, man. That's really good. Speaking of the discipleship, to find our daily Bible reading plan, plus the weekly sermon, plus an early release of the weekly live free podcast, plus the discipleship guide to

text toward app to 2-0-4-1-1 or go to Apple or Google Play Store. Okay, man. Right time about the term. Yeah. I can ask you a question. Oh, go ahead. Okay. I need to preach it.

But that's right. Oh, please. Okay, I will out. Thank you. Sorry, never get a mic.

“I don't know what you're going to do right now. What's it making this thing?”

Oh, okay. Great. Well, first of all, Pastor Mike preached an amazing sermon. Yes, he could. So I'm not sure what it makes to the sermon, but here's what I do know. Pastor Mike preached an incredible sermon, so you can go find actually on our YouTube channel. And basically, the whole sermon is the Matthew 21, where basically Jesus is walking towards Jerusalem. And the whole point was, Jesus deliberately chose the road to the cross.

Instead of becoming the political king, the crowd wanted. And yet, at the same time, Jesus did come in asking for filling the prophecy in Zach Orea. Zach Orea. Zach Orea.

Zach Orea. Zach Orea. Zach Orea. Zach Orea. Zach Orea.

Zach Orea. Zach Orea. Zach Orea. Zach Orea. Zach Orea.

Zach Orea. Zach Orea. Zach Orea. Zach Orea.

“prophecy, even. I mean, that this prophecy that was made, that the king, the Messiah would come in,”

riding on a donkey, happened hundreds of years. So Jesus comes in and he is that king. And later in the text, in the Old Testament, it says that his dominion would be from sea to sea, that his dominion would be vast. Love that. But one of my favorite things is something that is easy to miss if you weren't aware of the culture at this time, is that we often call this the triumphant entry, that Jesus enters into the city of Jerusalem triumphantly. We, later, he's crucified, but this was his triumphal entry

asking. He wasn't that guy. But there is actually, but most people don't know, two triumphal entries, two triumphal entries at the same time, around the same time, is Jesus would have come in from one side of the city, but then another guy from the other side. So actually, we have a map of Jerusalem at this time that we can bring up to kind of give some context. Man, so we're out here, we have a depiction of Jerusalem in the first century. Jesus would have come in

from the east side. So if you're looking at the picture on video, there would have been from the right from the Mount of Olive's area. So he comes in on the east side. And so he comes in riding on a donkey, humble people are appraising him as king and the Messiah, but still more of a humble entry. On the opposite side of the city around that same time and same day, pilot would have come in, but he would didn't come in riding on a donkey, just came in riding on a horse with a huge

garrison of troops. Reason why is because at that time, they would have been had the Passover was coming up. And so hundreds and thousands of Jewish people would have been coming in and there

is always this threat since Rome was the political occupier of the city that maybe when all these

people get into the same place at the same time and, by the way, they're celebrating the Passover, which is when what they celebrated of how God delivered them from their oppressors and from their enemies. That maybe the people were going to start getting some ideas about, hey, why don't we band together? We've got numbers right now and this rise up. So pilot would come in with this huge garrison of troops and saying, do not mess with us right now. Interesting. So he came in on a horse,

basically as a symbol of power and authority and dominion. And yet on the other side, Jesus comes in from the opposite side of the city humble, but he is the true king. And rather than actually putting people to death who opposed him, he died for the very people who opposed him. On the cross, Jesus says, as people are putting him to death, some of the same people who had cheered him coming in, he says, Father forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. So there was a triumphant

entry, but Jesus is actually juxtaposing the way his kingdom is with the way most world the kingdoms are. That's a good man. Wow. Okay man. So two triumphant entries. Two triumphant entries.

“And you said Jesus is one by pilot. Did you just had the same time or about the same time?”

About the same time. It's been approximately the same time that they would have been coming in from different sides. Okay. Yes. Is that in the Bible or somebody would be like, oh, is that in the Bible? How do we know that? No, that would have been from Jewish historians like Josephus and others who would have recounted that this was a normal thing for the Roman procurator to do at this time. Well, that's fascinating. Yeah, man. That's amazing. Cool. Well, man. So, okay. So this is crazy.

I've literally read the Bible my whole life and I just learned it this week. Okay. So here's Matthew 21. Jesus is traveling towards Jerusalem and which is basically like a 17 to 19 mile walk and this was not to be a lot of people don't know this, but this was supposed to be an extremely dangerous walk. Okay. Right. Apparently there's the criminals hidden in caves. People would get mugged. And what most people don't know is that this is the same road that Jesus described in the

parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. So here's Jesus literally walking in this road and he already used this road as an illustration. And so the question is why would he do that? And here's why

in the Good Samaritan story, here's what happens. Listen to this. There's a man who's dying

and multiple religious people see him and they don't help him. But then another man comes and he

for him. So he goes to him. He touches the wounded man carries him and he pays a price for his salvation

“and recovery so that the man can be restored. And then this gracious man leaves this diamond under”

the Good Care with a promise of what? That he will return soon. That's literally what happens in the Good Samaritan. Now here is Jesus walking on this same road and Jesus is traveling towards Jerusalem and encounters not a diamond man but a dying people. And these people are not in a dangerous road but they are in a dangerous world, cursed by sin and these dying people are unable to save themselves. And the religious leaders of the time they will not help them. But then Jesus comes. He sees a

dying people. And Luke 19 tells us that he had compassion for them. So much so the Bible says literally that he cries for them. And so he goes to them. Jesus pays the ultimate price for their salvation and recovery so that the dying people who put their trust in him are saved, rescued, and restores. And listen, I love this. He leaves them on this earth for now under the Good Care of the Holy Spirit with a promise that he will return soon. Come on. The parable of the Good Samaritan

ultimately points to the gospel of the Good Savior. His name is Jesus. Brought. So good man. Come on.

It's such an easy thing to overlook and don't get mad. Like the parable of the Good Samaritan and it should teach us to love people who are in her neighbors and things like that. But sometimes what people miss is, and Jesus showed that way. He mulled it for us. And even like first on says, we love others because he first loved us and he showed us this by dying on the cross for us. In fact, the parable of the Good Samaritan literally, Jesus ends it by saying, "Now go and do

likewise." Yes, exactly. Little that people know, Jesus was going to go first. Exactly. And even like you see just echoes of this throughout the gospel. So it's just Jesus says to us, "As I have loved you, so now you go and love all this right." And so any command that Jesus

gives us, he leads the way and shows us this but ultimately first laying down his life for us.

And I think the whole sermon was just a good reminder because I know in a minute we're going to

“get into just some mistakes that people make about politics because we have to remember that while”

Jesus did come in primarily to die, he also says that he was a king and he was the king of king. I want to ask you about that. Yes, yeah, and we'll get to that in just a minute, but it is just such a good reminder. This is what I love about what Mike preached is that hey, the primary mission of Jesus, both then and now is to save souls. Is that man, we have each of a sin. We fall in short of the glory of God, Romans tells us. And then because that we deserve judgment from God,

and yet the gospel is that Jesus went to the cross to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. I think I said this a few weeks ago that on the cross, God did to Jesus, what he should have done to us because of what we've done to him. And he did that to save us. That's the primary thing. It's so easy to miss. So he's in a miss in our days where I think all of us have expectations of Jesus. We think we have things that we want from Jesus, but it might not be what we most need

from Jesus. And so it's just a reminder that what Jesus's biggest goal was to save us from our sins. It's going to save us in the penalty for sins, yeah, man. It starts there. It starts there. It continues. We're going to talk about this in a little bit. Okay, so let me ask you this. So the context of Matthew 2-1 again for people that may be not this familiar. The Jewish people were under an oppressive Roman Empire, basically. And in fact, the Jewish people had had a history

of being under the oppression of multiple empires. We got, they were under the Babylonian, suppression Greeks, and now they're under Rome. And so there were scriptures and prophecies, basically, expecting a figure, somebody that would come in and restore Israel's kingdom, and overthrow any political powers and bring political freedom for Israel. And so when people saw Jesus, they thought, man, this is him. This is the person. And so we're excited. Finally,

the time has come. And so Jesus was actually on his way to the cross. What they didn't know is like you said, man, his purpose was higher. And so, and yet at the same time, Jesus came in as king.

“That entry was a kingly entry. And so I think when people hear that story today, let's get”

really practical here. When people hear that story, I think it confuses some people because people think, well, yeah, I guess he did come not to be a political figure to restore Israel. He came to die for a sin. But at the same time, he did come as king. And so just as we try to figure out, what does it mean? I think it confuses people. So let me just set up the conversation this way. So Paul, there are two mistakes, well-meaning, but misguided Christians make in how they engage

with politics. And I explain why both are wrong. And if you're not careful, your heart will naturally

drift first one or the other. And so on one hand, here's what I would say. On one hand, some people

inadvertently deify politics. So the more secularized our culture becomes religion doesn't just

today will say things like, man, don't ever talk about politics in religion. You know what? Because for many, those two have become the same thing. And so this is why, you know, and by the way, many have said this before, this is why, when this is why this happens, when you deify politics candidate to perceive the saviors, rallies feel like worship services, campaigning feels like evangelism, and elections feel like salvation or damnation. And when you deify something,

and it lets you down, and it fails you, you're left angry, miserable, and hopeless. And honestly, if you just look around, that's literally our culture today. There's a sense of desperation and hopelessness,

“and people are just dissolution with the political narrow right now. And so that's what happens”

when you deify politics. And so, by the way, you also see this in scripture, in 1 Samuel 8, when Israel asks Samuel for a king, they think, man, if only we had the right leader, if only we had the right political leadership, then we will solve all our problems, and they place their ultimate hope in this one person. And they ask Samuel for a king. And this is what God tells Samuel, they said, they have not rejected you, they've rejected me from being king over them,

and obviously it does not go well for them. Now, that's one extreme, the other extreme, it's not to deify politics, it is to deny politics. As if it had nothing to do with your Christianity. And so, by the way, when you read the Bible, it is undeniable. Politics is all over the Bible. Yeah. Politics at the core is about organizing people to live together in a society, Christians care deeply about politics, because Christians care deeply about people, because God cares

“deeply about people. That's right. And so, this is why, like Lila, you go through the Bible,”

you have, we have whole books of the Bible called judges and kings. Those are political terms. Profit after profit in the Bible, they confront kings and rulers, and whether they act in accordance

to the standard that God has set for them. First and second chronicles are basically an evaluation

of political authorities. This was a good king, this was a bad king, this was a mediocre king, this was not so much, Jesus taught us to pray, let your king dumb come. On earth, so it isn't heaven. Romans 13 says government is God's idea. The Bible literally commands Christians to pray for political leaders, and those in authority, like in First Timothy, too. By the way, that's not a suggestion. We are called to pray for our political leaders, even the ones you don't

like, even the one exactly, especially the ones you probably don't want, that's right. And so, when, and so we don't, we don't want to deify politics, but at the same time, we don't want to deny politics. Jesus said in Matthew 28, all the authority, all the authority in heaven, all the authority on earth is given to me. Jesus also said, you are the light of the world. That's right. And so, when Christians speak up, and when we engage in politics, we do so with revelation

chapter 11, 15, and mine that says that history ends with Christ ruling the nation. So with our amount of king, Jesus is king. He is ruling over the nations. Why? Because Jesus is the seeer, Lord of all, or He's not Lord of all. It's good. Or sorry, He is either Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all. Yep. And so, those are two places we don't want to go. Now, let's make this super practical, Pastor Paul, water's in practical, watch out. Like, let's, let's talk about real light here. Yeah,

actually before before I get down on it, just backtrack for one second, it's like a few things to

point out. In addition to some of the people who pointed out, people missed this, like, in the New Testament, John the Baptist called out authorities. Like, that's actually how he got in trouble, and eventually got beheaded. Was he called out the ruler at the time, and he said, hey, you're not living the way God would have you live. And that got him in trouble. And so, I think there's this idea sometimes, like, oh, we can only, like, go on. But I mean, why we're bringing this up,

as well as like, and Pastor Mike preached so well, and it is the primary thing is about making disciples. But we don't want people to swing to the opposite. Like, you're talking about the two fellows. I like the thing that's two ditches. Like, one ditch on one side is to think, oh, this is just about politics. Like, the way to make the most good is only to focus on politics. And yet, we leave out the whole idea of the great commission. But no, we first are called to make disciples,

“because that's what Jesus told us to do, and his ultimate mission was to save us from our sins.”

Conversely, we don't want people to go into the other side, the other ditch, and then to make it about politics. Also, it's like, don't make it all about that, and don't make it none about that, as well. And so, like, even just a few suggestions before I go to some watchhounds, hey, if your ditch is more that you make politics the biggest thing, like, if you deify it,

and you're a Christian, and all you ever do is post about politics, it's what you always talk about.

I'll just give you this simple encouragement, is before you're allowed to post about politics again, you have to share your faith with at least one person, or help one person take a meaningful step of your sins in real life or in social media or in real life. I was literally about to give that qualification. Can't be social media or could be for sure if you want to do that, don't have social media.

is more of the deification, that's all it takes. That's good. I'd say, hey, a good thing for you

would be, if you're talking about politics all the time, go back and this make the main thing, the main thing, and go share your faith with someone in a personal way and invite them to church, do something like that. I think that's just a good way to get you out of the ditch. It's going to be firstly, you don't want to go all the way into the Bible. What's the Bible verse? Hey, once in a while, man, post a good Bible verse. Yeah, post a good Bible verse, but don't

have it be like, post a live free podcast episode. I'm sorry, but don't have it be like a really a verse that's meant as a jab against whoever don't like the political verse. That's right, share your faith in a real way. I think that's just maybe a good way to kind of keep us in checks that we don't overly deify it. Let's go ahead and make it the main thing. Conversely, I think when

people were maybe go the other ditch, which is they don't make it a thing at all. They tear words

deny politics. I think the problem here is that we misunderstand what discipleship is and what politics are. So actually, let me go in the reverse. That politics, you kind of hit on it, but I'll give a different definition here. Politics is simply the organization and administration of power for justans and the common good. That's all it is. It's how do you organize and administer power for the justans of the people in society and for the common good of a people in society.

So when I hear people say stuff like, oh, man, politics doesn't belong in terms. You shouldn't be preaching about politics. Just preach the gospel. What I hear them actually saying is, don't tell me how to love my name or very well. Because one of the practical ways and that's something by the way, we're commanded to do. We're called to love our neighbors. I mean, hello, that's the as the parable to get Samaritan. It's called to love our neighbors. Part of how

we do that is politics. It's how we love our neighbors in a systematic organized way and promote

“justans for them. That's all that politics is. So that's a, hey, if we understand that's what it is,”

and that's a big deal. Part of why we should want to be involved in politics and bring the kingdom of God to bear in them is because we want to love our society in our neighbors well. I think the other problem is that we misunderstand what discipleship is. Because a lot of people say, oh, don't, don't preach politics. Don't talk about politics. Just disciple people just preach the gospel. But that sees the discipleship in relationship with Jesus almost like as one hat of many

that you wear. I actually brought up a bunch of hats with me that are over here in the background. A lot of times I think how people approach life even before the relationship Jesus is, they've got all these different hats that they wear. So I was like, okay, it's like, I'm a dad or you know, I'm a dad or I'm a husband, I've got my family life kind of thing. Oh, but then I've got another hat that I put on whenever I go to work and I've got to kind of do my work thing. Oh,

I've got some hobbies that I do and so on and so forth. And I've got this hat that I wear when I'm doing that way. We're in all these different hats. And then a lot of people that think, oh, when I become a disciple of Jesus, that's now just another hat that I wear. It's like,

“I've got the Jesus hat. I got the discipleship hat on. And that's what I do. So usually for a lot of”

people, that's my Sunday hat. Yeah, it's my Sunday hat. The sum total of my Jesus hat and of being a disciple is, okay, this is what I wear when I go to church or when I'm reading my Bible or when I'm praying. By the way, all good things and all necessary things, but that's actually not what discipleship is. And that's not what a relationship with Jesus is. Actually, really what it is is the idea of, hey, when I begin a relationship with Jesus, I really just put on a hat that I wear

all the time. He's he's great. He's a lot thinner because of the hat than I'm wearing. I thought it would be a nice little Easter egg for an in light of the video we showed earlier. You're only listening. Paul is wearing an in an albergra hat. But it just happened to be on the bottom. I'm not in questioning it with Jesus. I'm not. It just happened to be on the bottom. But anyways, I'll allow it. Thank you. Becoming a disciple. And man, it's really an idea. If I hate, this is

not the hat that I'm wearing all the time. When I am with my family, when I'm at my job, when I'm doing my hobbies, when I'm taking my Sabbath, which we talked about last week. It's like, I'm walking to every situation, trying to say, hey, how do I live as the disciple of Jesus in this area of my life? And how do I see his kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it

“is in heaven? Now, here's the thing with that. That means that basically what I'm saying is,”

Jesus, and you said this earlier, he is Lord over every square inch of my life and over every square inch of creation. So then what that means is when we come to politics, a Christian should ask, how should I live as a disciple in the nation that I'm in when I am called upon to use my influence and use my vote? We live in a society where I get to elect the leaders of our nation by the way, thank God that we live in that sound of a society. Praise God. And so what we had to think of even

historically in the church, is that man, people were going out making disciples. Matthew 28, they're going out making disciples. But at some point, guess what happened in Emperor became at a

disciple of Jesus? Constantine. And all of a sudden, he started to have to ask a way to second.

I am an emperor, obviously, and that was not a democracy, but he's willing power and he's building influences. He's like, hey, I'm a disciple of Jesus. How would Jesus have me go from?

going off of the Sabbath last week. He was the first one to pass the Sabbath fall.

Let's concentrate saying that Sunday should be a day of rest. And so because the thing is, is he's going to impose some kind of a more moral value system. And since he's a disciple, he says, well, hey, I want to do what Jesus would have me did. So he was a Christian in politics. And he instituted a law around Sabbath. And that's just one of many. It's just an example where what he did is he's like, hey, I'm the emperor. And obviously, he exerted total authority.

“But he said, hey, I'm a disciple of Jesus. Now, which means how would he have me be in Emperor?”

Now, fast forward. Now, that was the beginning. Now, fast forward, you know, 1400 years later, to America. We live in a society where we're not all imperts, but we all do have a vote. And we do have a voice. And so Christians should be asking how would Jesus have me use my vote? How would he have me lean into politics? Because guess what? Politics and government is not the one exception to the place where he is Lord over. He is Lord over every square inch, not just

of my life, but all sorts of society. And that includes the politics and the government in it. The reason I kind of went off that whole thing is like, I think when people who just wanted to dismiss politics all together, they're misunderstanding what politics are and what discipleship is. Actually, if you're a good disciple, you will be asking, how can I live up my faith in politics as I'm voting and how can I influence my nation so that we can love our neighbors? Well, that's great.

All right. That being said, yeah, I think it'd be good. Maybe as we're doing that, I've got so many hats now on the table. May I just go, I'm just going to throw these on the ground. So I don't get distracted from them. Yeah, I just wrote down some watchouts. Some like things of, hey, here's some things to watch out for as you are a disciple of Jesus and you're trying to interact with politics and government and all that kind of stuff right now. Here's some things to

watch out both for and others, but then also in for yourself so that you're not deceived and gastled and either not being valid in politics or into supporting something God would had not have you support. But then also just some things in your own heart to watch out for. I'm going to start with some things to watch out for and others. Number one, watch out for people who reference Jesus, they use Christian buzzwords and maybe vaguely refer to the Bible, but they advocate for

things that are actually in biblical. So they may refer to the Bible that refer to Jesus, but they will then advocate for things that Jesus and the Bible do not like. Yeah, and I'm sure you're not thinking about anybody in particular. No, no, no one does this. No one on either side of the house. We haven't heard about this in a bit. No, I think they're just for for a reason to say, we got to give at least an example to make this magical for people. So

we addressed this guy last week and we're going to address them. I'm sure plenty in the coming months. So I won't believe it, but I do think you see a prominent example of this right now

in James, Telerica. Never heard of a guy. I know, man. It's like, it's not like he's on social media

all the time. Oh, sure, the time. He kind of is right now. Right now, he's big there right now, but what's interesting is is that I'm actually seeing people have talked to multiple people this week, not just here, but people from Tennessee and all of a place in the country who their friends with people there and people who love Jesus, love his word, but they're like, oh, man, this guy is great. He talks about Jesus and he kind of vaguely quotes the Bible and Bible verses,

not realizing that the very things he advocates for Jesus hates and the Bible speaks against. So plenty of examples I could give. I'm not going to give. I want to give one. We actually

“showed a clip of this video starting to last week, but I think it's important because what”

will often happen is they will people like Telerico will reference Jesus or reference the Bible verse, hoping that you then don't go investigate and look further into it. They're just hoping that you're going to some, hey, I reference Jesus. I use some Christian terms and so now you're going to think, I'm team Jesus. You should support me in everything that I'm speaking for and everything that I'm speaking against. Hope in that you won't go check double check. So let me

give an example. We actually have the video where he was given a sermon and we showed again a clip of this, but I think it's really important to highlight it again. In the Gospel of Thomas, which is later emitted from the Bible. Let's pause for just one second. Said this last week, but just to remind for people who didn't see it, Gospel Thomas was not omitted from the Bible because

it was never there. There was never in the Bible. Never in the Bible. In the early few first few

centuries, you had collections and lists of different books that they considered canonical or inspired by God. Thomas was in none of them. It was written literally 150 to 200 years after the time of Jesus, not written by the Apostle Thomas whatsoever. It's known as the form of narcissism, which was a false teaching. And so what narcissism would do is it would reference Jesus and it would reference some of the language, but it was advocating for things that none of his Apostles would have recognized

as the actual teachings of Jesus. So I was like, are you right here? He's saying this,

“hoping that your average person in that room, or that's washing this, isn't going to go look it up?”

They're going to be like, oh, of course, it was omitted from the Bible, but this is what Jesus actually said. Well, it's a church. And yeah, and front. Speaking of preaching. And so what he's going to do now, he's going to, he's just vaguely reference that, hoping you don't go to your homework. And now he is going to apparently quote what Jesus said, although just for again, for reminder,

pretend it is, but I think this is where it's important. It shows what people sometimes do. Let's keep

“plain. By church officials, the Gospel of Thomas quotes Jesus as saying, when you make the male”

and female one in the same, when the male is not male, when the female is not female, then you will enter the kingdom of God. Okay, Jever, here of a show named Mori Pulvich, or Ganymur Pulvich, he had like those daytime TV shows and he became known for kind of this bit where people would say stuff, okay, I'm not the father, or I'm not this, or I didn't do that, and they would have him take a light detector test. And what he became not famous for is, you said this, that's a lie.

That's pretty much what I thought of when I saw this clip, because literally, the Gospel of Thomas

does not say what he just said it says. Here's what happens in the Gospel of Thomas. So Peter,

in the Gospel of Thomas comes to him, and he says, let Mary leave us for women are not worthy of life. So he thinks women are less than Peter in this text, thinks women are less than their evil, because in this form of narcissism, women were not as good as men, they were evil, only men were worthy of the kingdom of heaven. And then here's Jesus' response. He doesn't say what James Rodrigo just said, here's what he says, I myself shall lead her

in order to make her male. For every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven. Okay, so if I'm hanging out with James Rodrigo, and we're hanging out, maybe one day we will, I would just love this. Go, I'm okay. To me, there's only seems to be two options here. Either one, you are incredibly ignorant in this moment. And you're just referencing someone

“of someone that told you, but you should probably apologize to women, because you basically”

just said they're in fear and evil, compared to men. Probably apologize. But it more of seems

like the second option, which is you straight up lied to make a point. He's trying to say,

hey, there's no distinction between men and women couldn't go to the actual Bible and find that. So he went to a false Gospel, heretical Gospel, and even then he didn't quote it actually as he twisted it, because again, I'm just showing this as an example of what Talereco and so many others do. The vaguely reference Jesus, the vaguely reference of Bible book, in this case of false one, hoping you don't go check it out. So I'm just some people on this one. You need to watch out for it.

Do your homework, don't immediately say a thing that just because someone references the name of Jesus, that they're actually on team Jesus. Yeah, and I think I would say, you know, because when it comes to some politicians like this, it seems like some people would look at somebody like this and be like, well, I'm not sure that I agree with what he's saying, but he's so nice. He's so nice. And so Ben, I would also say just to add to what you're saying, Paul,

"Niceness is not a Christian virtue." In fact, the Bible never commands Christians to be

quote unquote nice. It commands Christians to be so much more than that. To be nice today in our culture generally means to be pleasant, polite, to be agreeable, to try not to offend people. And there is a superficialness to how our culture defines nice, because if you pay attention, like you said, you can be nice and you can be manipulative. You can be nice and you can be irresponsible and unloving. You can be perceived as nice and be dangerous. In fact, Jesus has a term for this. He calls people

like this, wolf and sheep's clothing. That on the outside, they seem like they're nice. They're seem like they're tender and gentle, but inside they're actually a wolf, they're dangerous. And so to add on to what you said, be careful not to judge people primarily if somebody seems to be nice. And I would say this, there is this general idea today that Christians are just supposed to be quote unquote nice. And I would say to that, I would say Christians are supposed to be

Christlike. And to be Christlike is to demonstrate the fruit of the spirit, to be to show love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and kindness. And that right there is a much higher bar because unlike being simply quote unquote nice, to be kindness, to speak the truth and love, to be kindness, to be bold and courageous and to confront what is evil. And God is the one that defines what is true and what is evil and what is good. And so

“that's why you look at Jesus and He was compassionate and He was tender. And the most loving”

person who ever walked on earth in at the same time, he also did things like calling here a fox, which some would say that would be an insult. Jesus rebuked Pharisees. He called him white-watched tombs and brood of diapers and he flipped tables and spoke hard truth. And so and he got angry. And so some would say, man, he's not being really nice. Maybe, but he was being loving, righteous and holy. And so again, Christians are not called to be nice at the expense of

truth, accountability, holiness, and love. That's right. That's exactly right. So, watch out for that. Another thing to watch out for, people who say things like, if you're a Christian, you must or you have to or if you're a Christian, you can't do this thing. And so I actually got an example, this from a Shane Clayborn, something he posted on X, I will forever call it Twitter. And so

And so he's against the war in Iran against really any war. And this is his reason. He says,

“no one kills was more passion than someone who believes that God is on their side. I'm going to”

actually stop against the thing. That is probably one of the more really bad ignorant historical statements I've ever heard, or at least heard recently. Like, if we just took the 20th century, and I took Mao installing and Pol Potting Cambodia and added up all their deaths, it's literally

between 50 and 70 million people that killed and they were atheistic regimes, vastly dwarfing any

other crusades, but by the way, most of them were actually just wars, like vastly outnumbering. So when we say no one kills with more passion, I do that is literally one of them want to historically ignorant things I've heard in a long time. So different subject for another time, but I can't correct that one go. All right, he then says every major religion has been distorted by folks who want to justify their hatred and camouflage, their bigotry. That actually

is true. A lot of them have done that, including Christians. Christians are not exempt people who claimed to be Christians are promoting unimaginable violence right now. Listen to kind of what he just said he's okay, people who claimed to be Christians. And he's kind of setting this up to say, hey, if you're a Christian, you cannot before the war in Iran. It is evil, it is wicked, it is an offense to God. And then he goes in and you later start saying, Jesus is the Prince of

peace. He bless the peacemakers and commit it as all to love our enemies. And then he says,

God is love. And by the way, Jesus did do all those things, but we'll get to that in a second.

What this shows is kind of this idea of like, hey, there's a tactic that if you're a Christian, you have to do this or you can't do that. Other versions of this would be like, hey, if you're a Christian, you have to welcome every single immigrant that wants to come in with that acceptance. No matter the harm it does, the actual nation or anything, you have to let them in.

“Because that's what Jesus would have you do. You have to watch out for that. So just using this as an”

example, we could do a whole podcast on war and how there is just war, but even just let me just point out a few things. Like number one, he's advocating for something that there's actually been huge differences across the history of Christianity. There have been some people's or Christian history, especially in the first hundred years before Axie Christians held any kind of political power, where some Christians were pacifist for sure. But then there's others, especially starting with

the gusts and who literally created something called the just war theory. They're saying, well, Christian should not rush into war. There's actually some situations where Christians should go to war as long as it's for a just cause. So one thing here is that there's actually a huge disagreement on, but yet he's acting like if you're a Christian, there's only one thing and one attitude you can't have. Yeah. And then even with this, like just thinking this is an example,

like don't be on, we should we war is not going to be in heaven. One day there is going to be peace. But in the meantime, we live in a falling world where there are evil people who do evil things. And sometimes that requires in war, but in other places, people willing to step in, and if necessary, sometimes use violent means to stop evil people. So let's just take it off for example. I would want to ask Shane, Shane, so you're telling me that if you heard one of your

neighbors suffering a home invasion, and they're coming in and robbing them at they're also beating them and going to kill them, you're not going to do anything. You're just going to sit there because hey, Jesus would have us love. And if I go use physical violence to stop the person, that's an unloving thing to do, turn the other cheek, turn the other cheek. No, of course not. And that moment, you're called to, yes, to love everybody. But in that moment, you're actually

called to protect the innocent and to love them by stopping the evil person. Love your family. Yeah. And so in this case, while obviously it's not a perfect one to Monday or something, you're like, any Ron, they were killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians. And us just quoting turn the other cheek would not have stopped them. It would not have. There are times when war, why we're not being the kingdom of heaven. It is here now to stop

evil people from doing evil things. Romans 13, you referenced at earlier talks about God gave us governments to will the sword. Right. And as listen, as Christians weren't a society now, in the early few centuries, they were pacifists, pacifists, because guess what? They weren't having to administer donations. But now, as Christians, we do, and part of what we do on this side of heaven in is administer justice and bring justice to people who are being oppressed

and to those who can't fight for themselves. That's really helpful, Paul. So you're basically saying,

“you know, watch out for somebody that says, hey, if you're a Christian, you need to blank and then”

they just give their own best thing or position. But I would say, so somebody might be here in the and be like, what? Wait a minute, but Paul, but you're doing the same thing. You're saying, well, I believe the Bible, therefore, anybody that doesn't agree with this from the Bible, if you're, you know, you can't believe in it. If you're not a Christian, like, what would you say to that object? Yeah. It's like, not to bring them up again. It's literally what Talereco and others do.

It's like, well, wait a second, you can't impose your values about abortion or about on the same six marriages of like that honest. Like, people will say, you can't be a Christian and support abortion. So you're doing the same thing. Exactly. Well, so my response that would be this is the reason I

issues that are open-handed issues, were Christians for thousands of years have disagreed

on how the Bible would have us act and approach these issues. There's other issues though that are close-handed, where Christians for thousands of years have all believed the exact same thing.

“So for example, on abortion, we did, I think I was back in the fall. We did a whole podcast”

ago and in response to I think Talereco's interview, but again, it's not just him, it's others. And we addressed this issue and literally, from the earliest days of Christianity, they spoke against abortion. And consistently, up until really about the last 50 to 70 years, every Christian from every major stream of Christianity would have come to the same conclusion. So that's an example of saying, hey, if the Bible has spoken clearly and loudly, and if church history has spoken clearly

and loudly, then yeah, there is a Christian way to go about something, but on places where there's been differences of opinions, don't try to gas like people when saying, oh, if you're a Christian, you can't do X, Y, and Z when there's been differences of opinion. To often people will take open-handed issues where we can disagree, but then turn them into close-handed issues saying, hey, we have to agree. Or they'll say, hey, even though these have been closed-handed issues that we've all

degree on for all time, actually now they're open-handed issues that we can agree to disagree.

“Sure, sure, sure. You got in that mix those up.”

Okay, give me some watchouts for, like, because you're talking about watchouts for other people, what about watchouts for, like, hey, what about me, like myself, my heart, like my mind, what do you got? That's good. I actually started with this because for last few minutes, we've been

kind of critical. One thing is that I have to watch out for myself is that when I'm talking

about others or I'm examining others' views and especially doing these watchouts and others, that I need to make sure that I'm talking about them and treating them as if they are created and made in the image of God because they are. It's so easy to begin thinking about people or talking about people in a way that forgets it. This is a person who God knit in them together and there's mothers in some 139 sets. That is not just a verse or a passage that applies to me and the people

I like. That applies to everybody. Actually, when I teach on the doctrine of humanity, it's called, when I do this with staff, I'll often put a bunch of pictures after I've talked about the image of God. And I'll start with a picture from light points. So if you're listening to some of the churches to imagine, the people in your church gather together and say, hey, every single person that image is made in the image of God been crafted by God and is loved by God. And then I'll say,

it's true if every person in this image, it'll be an image of homeless people in the street. And then every person in this image, it'll be a transgender person. And if every person in this image in the last one that I love doing last is back when Trump and Biden were running against each other. It's both of them sat beside and different rallies with them in the program and their followers and background. I said, it's true if every person. Both in the foreground and the background.

And then I'll joke and say, people are like, oh, no, this is the exception. One of them isn't, kind of, and it's like, no, every single person is out. It is totally fine to expose false ideas and false teaching. And to oppose people who do it, as I'm also remembering that there are person made in the image of God who is loved by God, who God wants to save, who God wants to save.

“I just got to make sure and watch that in myself. There you go. Can I give one more?”

God, please, one awesome man. I say another big thing is not being able to criticize my own party or candidate. If you can't say one thing that your party or candidate has done wrong or fallen short on, there's really one of three options. Their Jesus, your brain washed. Okay. Or, and I was going to go across harsh, but for you're being a coward. Okay. So in that moment, their Jesus goes, oh, I guess they're perfect, but only perfect one of Jesus. So let me tell you

that's not an option. One is your brainwash. You actually think that your party or your candidate can do no wrong and it's got nothing wrong or you're just too afraid to speak up. And I'll just be honest about this one. Even just like my cards, it definitely conservative person when it comes to obviously my faith, but then for sure even my politics. Like I've been really frustrated. I have our current administration has road backs so many of our pro-life stances that we've built up

over the previous decades. And I should be willing to say, hey, that's wrong. Even if I support so much of this up, I need to in this place to be able to say, that's wrong. And one thing I would encourage people to look at is kind of a subset of this is I've had so frustrated about it,

is what I call what aboutism. Because the second that my party or my candidate or my person

does something and I don't like what I was easy for me to do is say, well, what about their person or their party or their candidate? They actually did something even worse. And when we do that, it reminds me of my kids when they were taught there's your little kids. This I'm sure this isn't like your kid, but like a minor, your ears are perfect, but mine, like what my would do is like one of them with hit the other one. And which was wrong. We don't do that in our house. And so when we

start to get them in trouble, well, what about them? They called me a name. Which, well, okay, great, we can address that. But hey, guess what, that doesn't excuse what you do. I didn't actually say this to my kids, but what I wanted to say is own your own crap, like own your own stuff. And so I just like, if we get support, we're not able to call out the failures of the people that we generally

God and they don't want to say because no, we can support the general side, but when that side fund short, we should have the courage to speak up and say, hey, we want to hold you to a hundreds of higher standard because we believe God is called you to it. All right, a lit free nation. Listen up, this is one of our favorite weekends of the year, March 21st and 22nd is free, T-shirt weekend at Lake Point Church. And yes, we're talking free T-shirts for the whole family,

all campuses, youth and adult size. All you're going to do is just show up and here's why this matters. If this isn't about free merch, it's about mission. You put that shirt on and you're representing what God is doing through Lake Point Church. You're showing people, you're not ashamed of your faith. And when somebody asks you about it, that's your moment, that's your open door to say,

“hey, you should come with me to Easter. It's one of the easiest ways to represent Jesus in”

invite someone to church without it being awkward. This, by the way, is an in-person only event

and shirts are first come first served. So don't roll in late. Get there early and grab yours

while supplies last. March 21st and 22nd, free T-shirt weekend. Let's wear the mission. Let's invite courageously. We will see you there. That's good, man. Okay. Well, hard gear shift right now. Yeah. So Paul, we did an episode like, I think it was what three months ago, something like that? No, was it more? It's like that. On the book of Enoch. Oh, yeah. And honestly, like, some of us were a little surprised to see the response because, you know,

I think you got like 300,000 views on YouTube and, you know, thousands more. But then people were asking, hey, but you, you haven't really addressed the Nephilim. Yeah. And so, you know, we're having conversations with friends and some people are like, wait, what's in the Bible? Like this is, and so I just want to, we're going to talk about this probably one of the most mysterious passages in the Bible. Yeah. And it's related to the book of Enoch. But we'll explain here in just a second,

what exactly we're talking about here. And so, let's start with here. We're going to talk about the Nephilim. There's a, there's a Babylon B article. This is the same Peter getting tired of answering questions about the Nephilim. Peter, a bunch of dudes in their computers researching Nephilim videos on YouTube have a lot of questions. Yeah. I've thought before about actually making my own t-shirt occasionally that says, I don't care who the Nephilim are. People ask you that a lot all

of that. And it's not that I don't have opinions. It's just I'm asked so much we can just cut their conversation. Next time you see Paul and the lobby, please ask him about the Nephilim.

Okay. So, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to read the passage because we start with the Bible.

And then I'm going to ask you what in the world is going on. Yeah. So Genesis chapter 6 verse 4, this is what it says. The Nephilim, where on the earth in those days, and also afterward, where the sons of God came into the daughters of man, and they bore children to them. And these were the mighty men who were of old the men of renown. Do we have some photos of what people think that Nephilim could have looked like? This is from the internet. We're just trying to find

visual aids. Here's one. Okay. So that's one. This is like a world war z. Was it a bread pit? Yes. They built skyscrapers back and that's true. There's building. That's right. I don't know where those came from. But it's like a fire. There's another one. That's a cross-fit athlete with wings. What's that? Is taking some creatine and maybe some other substances as well to kind of get that body?

“Yep. That's what I think. And this is the first one I found actually. This looks like a”

what does it look like? So like that's something you may see in the cover of book. If you take a turn down the wrong out Barnes and Noble. That's right. It's like by the new 50 shades book or whatever. Okay. So some awkward stuff. So literally like there's two parts in the Bible where the Bible talks about the Nephilim. I just read one. The other part is a numbers chapter 13 verse 33. But then I'm seeing here this visuals and what the visuals you'll see on the internet

is basically like these jacked men that look like science sometimes.

Giants that's right with wings and some of them are like demonic slash. But then they're flirting with like these women that are human. And so Paul. Yeah. Chad G Paul C. What is going on? First of all, for people that don't know, this is in the Bible. I just read the Bible. What is going on? Yeah. This really is when the top two or three questions that I get. And it is because it is probably the strangest section of the entire Bible. And if you're

freezing the Bible for the first time, you get to it within a few chapters. And so people get to this and they're like, what, what? Why does the sense of God took human wives and they

“married and they created this like Nephilim, giant race, like what in the world is going on here?”

Historically, historically there've been three dominant views. There is a fourth minor view that I actually get first. But what I'm going to do for the major views is I'm going to really say, hey, here's the view is of then I'll give pros and cons like arguments for an argument

opinions on this. It's like right up there with your view of the millennium or some of the other

things like our Calvinism and the marminism is like right there. People are adamant about it. But historically there's been three different streams that people have disagreed on. And you can be a faithful, a Jesus love and Bible, even Bible believe in person and hold a different view on. So I just want to put that out there. So people don't start taking shots at each other if they disagree with each other on this. One minor view that actually is held by a good amount of

credible scholars today is that the Nephilim aren't related to what happened with the sons of God and the daughters of man. That it's simply that they're different for people. That's a theory is like, hey, it says that they were there when the sons of God went into the daughters of man. And so some people would say, hey, they're not actually related. It's just about the book of Genesis and the Old Testament. Sometimes it'll put these like little rain and bits of stories in

“there out of nowhere, even in the middle of a genealogy. Some people are like, hey, that's what”

happened here. And if you go to number 13, it actually could support that because the Nephilim in this view were like, hey, these were like, simply like a short term for really valiant warriors. And it would make sense of number 13 because one of the pushbacks against the other views is

saying, wait a second, if they were on the earth at this time, well, how are they on the earth

after the flood happened? Because that's why I got everybody but no, it's family. So this view would say, hey, and you say that because a number is 33 later, they're meant to be mentioned. It says, hey, these are descendants of these guys. Well, how can they be descendants of our white house? That's a minor view, but I actually think it's a little bit of a credible view. I've tossed, loaded with it myself. Okay. But three main views that people have and I'll just

be honest, I've switched my views on this multiple times, multiple times. So if you're not sure, if you're listening to this, you're not sure where you land. Tweet the cool. So this first view though, you say the nephew is something else and it has nothing to do with these. Yes, it's definitely a minor, not as one of the helled view, but. So who are they? Oh, that's it. It was just kind of a short term thing for these are mighty men of her now. These were famous warriors, mighty men of her

now. It kind of became a short term like these were like the Rambo's like how Rambo kind of became a short term like, I mean, I got that reference. That's kind of like that. Do you

“have you ever watched Rambo? I think I have, but it's it's a little bit, I'm a little young for”

that by go ahead. I'm not letting you off the hook right now. Did you ever watch good wheel hunting? I will. I will. It's going to be a day and I won't be going to go ahead. All right. Three main views. Number one, there's the view that in really each of these come down to the major views, who are these sons of God? Because it talks about how the sons of God took daughters of humans, who are these sons of God? So one view is that they are fallen angels, basically they're demonic

fallen angels. They're angelic beings who somehow took human women as wives and then the nephaleme were their offspring. So here are some arguments and favor that. Number one, in the Oatestment

sons of God are almost always used at terms almost always used to refer to heavenly beings.

So what we often will call angels. For example, in Job 1, 6, Job 2, 1, 2, 1, that phrase is used to reference angelic beings of some kind. So it's like, hey, that's usually how it's used everywhere else. These seems like how it would be used here. A second thing in favor of it is a lot of ancient Jewish interpretation took this view. So those that were closest to the text took this view of the text. Not everyone, there were some still some different schools that

thought within Judaism, but a lot of people held this interpretation that they were actually angels, the sons of God were angels. Also, if you go to second Peter 2, 4 and Jude 6 through 7, it seems like it's referring to Genesis 6 and each of those places it talks about angels who stepped out of their proper bounds and they transgress some kind of a sin. It doesn't give a lot of explicit stuff, but it seems like they're referring to Genesis 6. It's since they seem to interpret

that as angels. Oh, this must be angels. Okay. A final one is it simply explains why Genesis 6 sounds so strange. And why this event seems to be treated as particularly severe. It kind of festifies that. But there are some cons. There's some good arguments against this view. Yeah, I was going to ask your question about it. I'm going to let you go. Yeah. Number one, like Jesus literally says that angels do not. That's going to ask that. Yeah. Yeah, it literally

says that angels don't marry. And so that challenges this view. Now we're response to that.

“Well, people who will this view it go through they, but can they still meet daughters of men?”

Well, I'm going to get to that as another thing that you don't marry. Another thing is for you to do something else. Oh, exactly. Exactly. Well, that's actually that's another common in this view. How could like an angel is a spiritual being that can't manifest itself physically. But it's a spiritual being. How does that even make sense of how a spiritual being could procreate with a human being? That's that's part of that. But a response of some people who say,

well, Jesus said that angels don't marry. When Jesus says that he says that we are going to be in the new heavens, they are not going to have wives or husbands if you're a wife. We're not going to have those because it will be like the angels in heaven. The response to the subject is like exactly

Okay. And that's something that seals the deal. But that would be a response to that

“objection. I already raised that like this raises hard questions about how spiritual beings could”

actually have physical offspring. There is a group another one that we kind of said already. There's a group of people called the Anakin and number 1333. It says they're descendants of the Nephilim. How could that happen if the Nephilim are all taken out by the flood? Sure. There's a few responses that are given to this one. It's simply that maybe a number 1333. These people had heard stories about the Nephilim because, you know, Noah and his sons were telling

then stories that their families and it kind of passed their generations. And it's not that they were descendants, but they were so afraid of these people. They're like, oh, these people must be like the same thing as the Nephilim. Like those were actually giants. Exactly. The Anakin rappers really tall people. And so maybe in their fear, they attribute it to them even if that's not actually who they were. Okay. That's one response. Okay. So angels. That's the fear. Number one.

Number two. Number two. This is probably the second one. That's usually probably the most

dominant view that a lot of people hold is that they are angels. The second view is what's called the Sethite view. This is the idea that the sons of God are people from the godly line of Seth. Sorry, from the, yeah, from the wicked line of, sorry, of Cain. And they marry daughters of men. I'm sorry, I can, I missed this, I'm sorry, let me read back, back of my nose. There's sons of God, who enter, who were from the godly line of Seth, while the daughters of men are women from the

ungodly line of Cain. The reason people hold this view is because just before this in Genesis 6, it had gone into the dueling lineages of Seth and Cain, who were sons of Adam and Eve. And so the thought is, is, hey, one of these is God, one of these is ungodly. Seth is godly. Cain is ungodly. Hey, they're supposed to be separate. And then immediately after this, guess what happens? They intermarry. So they transgress this boundary. Some things in favor of this, it best fits the

immediate context. Okay, if that just happened in Genesis 4 through 5, this best fits the context in Genesis 6. Like if I'm reading this, it makes sense that, hey, it's just been talking about this. One is a godly line, one's non-godly line. And now they're mixing when God had one of the new remains. God says, man, there's only evil in men's hearts. Yeah, exactly. That's another thing in favor of it. Is that the emphasis in the passage seems to be on the sin of human beings? Whereas

if these are angels, all of a sudden it's putting it on the sins of angels. That's another thing

“in favor of us. That's not the same as the best one, but that's what people would say. There are”

times when sons of god language is used for people who belong to God. Like in the Old Testament, it's rare, but there are an occasional place where those who belong to the family of God and belong to God are called sons of God. And this has actually been in popular interpretation in Christian history. And so this one has been the most popular one. It's been a very popular one. Especially in the early church reformation, a lot of people held this view. Okay.

Here's some problems with it. The sons of God has simply the most not the most natural phrase, like of Seth Slime. Like to all of us that have come across this, if you're reading this in the context from us everywhere else, sons of god refers to angels, that's not going to be the most natural way you're instinctively going to read this. The other thing is that there seems to be a juxtaposition of sons of god, daughters of man, one type of being another type of being. It

doesn't seem to make as much sense if there's a juxtaposition that this could be it. So that's of you. Third one, and I'll do this one briefly. It's not as a wide-the-held one, but it's kind of

caught on some steam over the last, as they 50 years or so. The sons of god are powerful, human,

rulers, and kings. Oftentimes kings were known as divine or sons of divine beings. And so the ideas that these were powerful kings, maybe even demon possessed kings, by the way, and they forcibly took people, took wives from these other lines, made them their own, and that was a violation of what God wanted. Again, some things that are like there that would support this kings are known for kind of being divine or semi-divine. Genesis 6, 2, emphasizes seizure and power.

So they took them, which again, a king, if you're a king, hey, I'm going to take whatever I want. And this surrounding context, again, stresses human wickedness, not in jealous wickedness. A con is simply that sons of god is not an obvious title for kings in Genesis. So whereas that might be used in some context in ancient areas, that's not used in Genesis. It would be weird if all of a sudden it was used at this way. So this is a three main views that people would

“do. You lean towards the second one? Or what's the more popular one? Or more accepted one?”

I'm right now. Right now, I've changed in this. Right now, I would actually hold the view

that they were likely angelic beings. The first angel. Yeah. Oh, interesting. I actually hold that view.

Okay. I've switched. At times held more of the Sethide view. I've even a few times forwarded with the more minority opinion that they're not related. That these are a different thing.

a verse where angelic beings, who stepped out of line. And really the thing I would even tell

people now is, wow, this is a debated issue. Sometimes when people look at this passage, they miss one of the big points that's trying to make is that this is a continuation of the evil that started in the Garden of Eden. And the Garden of Eden, it says that Eve saw that the fruit was attractive from the tree. And it says she found it attractive and she took it and ate of it. Here, these people see that they're attracted and then they take. So those same words are being used.

And then one of the main points is, I'm just trying to say, is like, hey, humans fail. Now, angels are following. The creation is getting so out of control. This is a bombination. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's where I'm at. Look at you. Well, those in the word, Neffelin, mean fallen. Yeah. Like non-sfallen. It's fallen.

So there's that parallel being, you know, fallen. Yeah. Okay. Well, well, before I tell you what

“I think, because honestly, like, some of these are fairly new to me, but I want to, let me rapid fire”

some quick misconceptions and this in light of what you just said, because people believe all sorts of things right now in internet. And some of these are actually pretty fairly common. I suppose in some circles. So number one, Paul, the Neffelin, according to the book of Enoch, were angels who descended to earth and their children became giants who devastated the earth. Now, the Bible doesn't say that, obviously, because I just read the text and I've heard nothing about giants or necessarily,

you know, them devastating the earth. But the book of Enoch does is the book of Enoch. Right. Yeah. And we did an episode we mentioned earlier, where we can do it deeper dive. So writers, people to go look it up on our YouTube page, look up it on on the app or whatever, and do a deeper dive. So I don't have time to retrace all of that. But a few things here. Number one, they may have been right in the sense that the Neffelin were offspring of angels and human women. Okay. And so we're

the first theory comes from the first there. So they were called that theory. So they may have been

right. I said, maybe because, again, there's multiple options. They may have been right in that regard,

“but they're wrong and saying, that's what devastated the earth. The blame in Genesis is on the”

sin of humans and the flood is what devastates the earth because of their sin, even if angels were somewhat involved. Another thing to remind people who haven't seen that episode yet is the book of Enoch is basically like a fan fiction account that gives more detail to these verses, but it was not written by Enoch. So Enoch was a man that says he walks with God and he was no more. And I'll hear people say, well, hey, this is written by a guy who walks with God and then he was on more. So hey, we should

trust everything he says. So it's myth. So we'll say it's true. They'll say it's actually this belongs in the Bible and there's only one group ever in Christianity. He's ever thought this was not wild by the way. Yeah. Everyone else has said, no, we don't accept this. And that's because Enoch didn't write it. Enoch would have lived about 3,000 to 3,500 BC. This was written more around 400 to 200 BC. Okay. So we're okay. Let's just put that perspective. Three thousand years difference. So that's

it. If, like today, I wrote a story about the fight between David and Galois. That's how much distance there is. Interesting. Now imagine I write this story and it has all these details. And then some of the details end up actually being true. Now that means that I said some true things does that mean that everything I wrote about that account was true. Probably not. Absolutely not.

“And so that's what we have to remember as I say and hey, they might have gotten some things right.”

It may have been actually angelic beings, but that doesn't mean that everything that the book of Enoch says is not an inspired text and we should look at for it for absolute truth. I'm not going through these quicks, because we're lining the plane here. The Nephilim built the pyramids. That's what some people will claim. No. Which is why I found my game just saying Enoch, there's literally no evidence of that. It was built. The pyramids were built. I think

2,000 to 2,500 BC. So it had been number one, much like it would have been later. That this story would have been. We've literally have pay records of Egyptian laborers who built it. We have tools that were recovering. Guess what? They weren't really giant tools that were meant only for the hands of giants. This is just one of those myths that circulated. I think because people were finding like they were saying oh bones of these giant people being found throughout

the world. Hey, these pyramids are so big. There's no way a regular human could have this. Oh, it must have been the Nephilim. But there is actually no evidence that supports us whatsoever. Settled. Here's another one. There are people today that claim that they are descended. Is that true? No, the Bible says they were literally wiped out. And my thing is, how would you even prove that? Like, how are we going to do a DNA? Like, you're not that tall, bro. No, you're not that tall.

It's like, oh, a shack or like, windy. Like that. Maybe, maybe, maybe, like, maybe we do need to do some kind of a DNA test on windy. Okay. Kind of a thing, man. Spiritual looking good, by the way. But like, I want to say this gently but clearly. If like Christians believe this or that the Nephilim bit the pyramids far too often, Christians are weird and all the ways we should be normal

stuff like this and most of the world was like, "That's really weird." When most of the world

is just normal, it doesn't believe this silly stuff. But then as far too often, we also look

“just like the world and we should be weird. And so I think that's just a general admission.”

I would give to people who get in caught up. And some of this stuff is like, "Hey, like far too often we're weird and ways we should really just be normal people and we're often also normal and ways should we be weird." And we should get those things right. That's good, man. I got one more. That's one. The Nephilim proves that the Bible teaches mythology. Like, this feels honestly, somebody might be thinking, man, this just feels like a

lot of the rings, kind of Greek mythology got sleeping around, like weird history, channel, alien thing. Yeah, yeah. If you think, if by myth, people mean, "Oh, it's a false story." Like in the way that people thought that a George Washington chopped down a cherry tree. And I, obviously, would disagree, I might not. I believe this actually did happen. But to your point, if it's more because, hey, there seem to be elements in this story that would have also been

in stories from the ancient Near East, or even like Greek mythology of the idea of like,

God's coming down and sleeping with humans and, you know, basically making these demigods.

A few things, they're in real one. Somebody would say, hey, the presence of a lot of those stories seemed to show that it didn't happen. I would actually argue the opposite. That if around that culture, and every of the different cultures in their text, it says stories like that happened,

“I think it's more likely because something like it did happen. So like, let's say we found”

texts all throughout the United States of America from Native American tribes. And they all told these different versions of this huge fire that took place. I think most historians would say, hey, they're most of been an actual fire that took place. In the same way, if we got all these stories that are happening, it would actually to me show that something really did happen. And what the Bible is trying to tell us is, hey, this is what actually happened that all these

other stories have corrupts. And here's what I mean about corrupted. And all the other ancient

Near East stuff that kind of hits anything like this, or even like within Greek mythology, these demigods, these kind of few who were like this hybrid mix between something divine and something human, they would be like worshiped and revered. They were known as heroes. We're in this story. That's right. The emphasis is like, no, this is evil. These people stepped out of the bounds and the boundaries that got accrated. And so what this is trying to say, hey, this is what

happened. And by the way, this isn't something that we should say was good. This is something that was really, really bad. Yeah, and just to emphasize what you're saying, that's where you land this

“plane here. You know, I think for people that are maybe like, oh, I can't wait to dive deep into”

all of these documentaries and, you know, go down the rabbit hole of the Nephilim. Man, you have to consider what you just said, Paul, that Genesis 6-4, where you hear about the Nephilim, the way the Bible describes them were men of renown. But in verse 5, literally right after that, the Lord saw the wickedness of men was great in the earth. And every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, continually. So verse 4 gives us a human perspective of these men being

called men of renown, mighty men. And then the next verse gives us the God perspective of men of evil. And so humans are saying, these men are great. They're mighty men. God is saying, these men are evil men. And verse 6, God grieves and verse 7, God pronounces judgment. And so the Nephilim is this peak corruption state. And so just as we as we land as we, you know, circle back a lesson that I think we get from from this text and a little bit of a warning, I think it's really

relevant to our conversation, even as we talk about politics. Oftentimes what most people celebrate from a human perspective, God is grave by it and calls it evil. And when evil is celebrated, judgment eventually follows. That's Genesis 6 right there. 100%. And so may we be a people marked by repentance? Yeah. May we be a people that seek to be humble before God, before a holy and just God, and may we be a people marked by being the light of the world and and we proclaim Jesus's King.

And I would say it is an encouragement on the one hand, because like, because you read here all these like, okay, like, so what? What is this matter? And actually, I would say that would be part of my point was they so many persons obsess over this. And a question I would sometimes like to ask people when they bring me this question or others like it to say, hey, man, there's some things that we can't know for sure, like even if you found out today who the Nephilim

were, what would change about your life tomorrow? Yeah. And so it's just to remind of like, hey, on the one hand, it is a good thing to want to know God's word deeply. Every word in the Bible is inspired by God. And we should want to know it well, because we want to know God. Well, so I want to encourage people who like have a hunger to figure this out and to die, die, but I'm like, I, I want to encourage an honor that and say, hey, we should want to know

God's word deeply and profoundly and well, because then we can come to know God well. On the other hand, I think I would say, hey, the desire to know God's word well can turn into an unhealthy obsession

I thought about this as we were prepping is just this juxtaposition of like, I literally am just

“holding up here. I can hold up for the camera. This is literally how many words that we have on”

the Nephilim is the extent of. I mean, I literally just copy and paste it, everything from the Bible. And if you're not watching this, it literally only covers up about one fifth of a page. A few

years ago, I began keeping this list of all of the verses that talked about God's character

and his work. And so it'd be like, oh, he's a creator and that would go find all the verses about

“him being a creator and being a savior and his power and his might, his omniscience and all the”

things. And I just begin copying and pasting. And over time, I literally like just compiled this massive of list of all these things. That's right. And what happens is that we will obsess over these things that we have so little on. And if I had a pin, I would start writing all these conspiracy theories and everything, we will obsess over this. But we will spend so little time on this,

“on coming to know who God is and knowing him more deeply. So again, I want to encourage people,”

my all means no God's word. Well, I'm couldn't even these strange parts. But don't let you have session with this, the things that we can't know, keep you from what we can know. And that is the God who wants to be known. Okay, prayer. Yeah, Heavenly Father, thank you so much because there are things that we do not know, but you do know. And it's okay that we don't know, but today we just trust you. Thank you because of the treasure that scripture is that we get

together. And we can just type deep and Lord, ultimately, we know that Jesus, you are King. And so

Father, may you give us wisdom to be a church that is discerning, that is sober-minded, that is trusting, ultimately, your word about every other word. Father, help us be in the light of the world, give us wisdom as we navigate, especially as we have conversations around politics, may your church be the light of the world and be salt. And Lord, I pray, I thank you for what you're doing in our church in the season. May we continue to just be open to receive whatever

it is you have. I thank you for the lift for nation as we dive deep every single week in your word. Thank you. We love you. We thank you for your word and we pray all this in your mighty name, Jesus. Amen. Amen.