No Sanity Required
No Sanity Required is a weekly podcast hosted by Brody Holloway and Snowbird Outfitters. Each week, we engage culture and personal stories with a Gospel-driven perspective. Our mission is to equip the Church to pierce the darkness with the light of Christ by sharing the vision, ideas, and passions God has used to carry us through 26 years of student ministry. Find more content at swoutfitters.com.
No Sanity Required
Our Modern Day Babylon pt. 2
We live at a time where everything ordained by God is under attack in the world. The danger we face today is being influenced to embrace a new brand of Christianity that isn’t Christianity at all. In this episode, Brody continues to look at the life of Daniel and compare it to what is happening in today’s generation.
Daniel and his faith outlasted the Babylonian empire; we will outlast this cultural current. God will always preserve a remnant that will outlast cultural ideologies. Let’s impact and equip this generation to be faithful in culture today.
“Daniel was living in Babylon, but his eyes were fixed on Jesus. We are living in Babylon, and we must fix our eyes on Jesus.”
Resources:
- Daniel 1
- The Baker Compact Bible Dictionary by Tremper Longman III
- Contact Brody at: Brody@swoutfitters.com
- Contact SWO at: Thebird@swoutfitters.com
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Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.
All right, we're gonna Jump in in this episode and pick up where we left off in the last episode. This will be part two of of the kind of a look into Daniel, chapter one in the life and times of Daniel, who's one of the great prophets of scripture, and we're gonna we're gonna try to just walk through Daniel chapter one and unpack the parallels of what's happening in Daniel's generation and what's happening in our generation. So, if you're back, you heard Episode one. Thank you for coming back to listen to what, what, what we have to talk about in this episode. If you didn't listen to the previous episode, you need to go back.
Speaker 1:I know you hear people say that podcasters and YouTube people but it is really. I think it would be good To go back and listen to that one first. It's okay. If not, we're gonna jump in and just study the word of God. So you don't have to. You can just follow along and I hope this will be both challenging and encouraging to you. Thanks for for joining us and for listening to this episode of no sanity required.
Speaker 2:Welcome to no sanity required from the ministry of snowbird wilderness outfitters. A podcast about the Bible culture and stories from around the globe.
Speaker 1:This week we're dropping episodes pretty close together. The reason for that is Well, it's funny. We're sitting in my house the other night and a lot of I know a lot of our listeners are fans of the show, the British television show, all creatures, great and small. The new, you know, the new one that's out right now. They're, I think they're there. They've done five seasons and you can watch the first three seasons and we're in season four now and we had watched a couple of episodes last week and then we went to watch an episode a couple nights ago as a family and realized that they're dropping an episode a week. And it was so good for my kids because we're like this is how it was when I was growing up.
Speaker 1:You didn't just binge watch stuff. We're such a binging society when it comes to how we watch or listen, but I also I get that. I mean, I think it's good to have to wait for some things, but this, this episode, I needed to do it in two parts and I didn't want to keep you waiting a week. I think it's gonna flow better to listen to them pretty close together. And so and I man, I'm in the middle of the travel season and I was traveling last week and I had to run out to Raleigh and back to speak at a campus crusade event and I listened On the way out. I listened to some sermons, some, you know, some, some devotional type stuff. But coming back afterwards that not just driving from Raleigh back to the mountains, you know, leaving out there pretty late, it was a late night need to listen to something that's more gonna engage your imagination. So I'll listen to like a five or six part podcast series, and it was. It was, you know, it was entertaining to be able to just go from one episode to the next. Anyway, that's what we're doing here. So we're gonna jump in to Daniel, chapter one. We read it in the last episode and so we're just gonna we're gonna jump in and pick up and Daniel chapter one and Just walk through the chapter. So the first thing is just by way of review.
Speaker 1:Daniel and and Is one of a group of young men who have been carried from the, from the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Judah, god's people, in a fulfillment of an old, hundred-year-old prophecy. They've been carried away as slaves and captives to a greater, larger kingdom called the Babylonian Empire, and they've been carried to the capital of the Babylonian Empire. Once there, they've been immersed into Reeducation program. Along the way, they've been castrated, they've been put on to a Babylonian diet and they are described as really Handsome, good-looking kids. They're strong, they're athletic, they're they're highly intellectual, they're they're the best of the best, they're multilingual, they understand Every, you know, all matter of subjects, and in terms of education they're just really good, and it says literally they're well versed in every branch of learning. They're gifted with knowledge and judgment. So they're suited to serve in the royal palace, which makes sense, because they were being trained. These young men were being trained and equipped to serve in the royal palace of Judah and God's Royal palace. So they would have been taught in Old Testament law, they would have studied the law of Moses, they would have been versed in ancient Hebrew texts. These, these are the most promising men, young men, teenage young men that that Israel or that Judah had, and they've been carried away to be Reeducated and brainwashed, to be emasculated and degendered.
Speaker 1:In Daniel, chapter 1, three times the phrase God gave is used. It's used in verse 2, verse 9 and verse 17. It's this underlying reminder that God is in control, even under conquest and exile. God had told, and through the prophet Jeremiah, god had said that this was going to happen. He had reinforced and reaffirmed what he had said to Isaiah hey, my people are gonna be carried off into Babylon, into captivity, and it's gonna be rough. But here's a promise I'm gonna give you I'm still in control and I'm gonna go with you into this captivity. I'm gonna go with you into Babylon. I'm not gonna leave you. So God's not gonna send you off to captivity by yourself, he's gonna go with you. This is such an important thing, I think, for us to remember right now.
Speaker 1:Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, right now we are under the regime of what seems to be evil and wickedness and darkness in our culture. We're in a cultural moment where it seems like all semblance of faithfulness to the Lord has been abandoned. But no matter how bad it gets, god's favor will continually be displayed through the lives of His people. God is with us. Even in our own Babylon, god was with Daniel and these three young men as they were emasculated, as they were being brainwashed, got spirit rested on them. His favor was with them. He will always preserve and raise up a remnant of His people and we see that with these young men in Daniel, chapter one.
Speaker 1:It's just what we're so passionate about at Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters being the hands and feet that God uses to raise up a generation of young men and young women, to engage the cultural moment that we're in, to jump into the cultural current and combat, swim against that current. If you imagine the swift moving current of a river and you got across that river, we teach this with our Whitewater Guides. You teach them how to swim in a swift current and it's not the same stroke or the same approach to swimming as you would have in a calm lake or pool. It's an aggressive movement. That's what we're doing. We're training students. We're training our young college leaders 35 of them a year in our institute, over 100 of them in our summer internship, 12,000 teenagers this year. We're training and challenging and equipping them how to survive and swim in the cultural current that we're in.
Speaker 1:Daniel and these boys did so and it was because God was with them and he gave them favor. Jeremiah said hey, you're going to go into this horrible experience, but I'm going to be with you and because I'm with you, it's not going to be as horrible. In fact, it's going to be nothing like it would have been if I would have abandoned you. But God will never abandon us. He won't leave us, he won't forsake us.
Speaker 1:I want to consider the word Babylon, because you can see this come up in the story of Daniel, because Daniel is a story that takes place in the life of this man, daniel. Over the period of his life. He is first under the influence of the nation and the empire of Babylon, but 70 years later, babylon collapses and falls to the Persian empire. And it's interesting because in Daniel, chapter one, verse 21, it says Daniel remained in the royal service until the first year of the reign of King Cyrus. Here's the first principle that I want to consider Daniel, with the hand and favor of God resting on him. Though he was emasculated, he was de-gendered, he was assaulted mentally, intellectually, physically, he was abused, he was brainwashed, he stood firm and stood fast and was faithful to the Lord. And Daniel and his faith outlasted the Babylonian empire.
Speaker 1:Listen, we're going to outlast this cultural current. We're going to outlast the Church of Jesus Christ, the young men and young women that he's preserving as a remnant. We're going to outlast the assault of the progressives. We're going to outlast the sexual revolution. We're going to outlast progressive Christianity and progressive liberalism and politics and in academia, we're going to outlast the brainwashing that's being attempted in our universities and is working whole scale, large scale. It's working, but it's not going to work in the hearts and minds of those who are redeemed, washed in the blood of Jesus, filled with the spirit of God, young men and young women who have their minds sharpened and in tune to the word of God, given the spirit of knowledge and wisdom and understanding that Daniel was given.
Speaker 1:From the very beginning of the Bible the word Babylon is associated with God's judgment. It's seen as wicked. So you think of Babylon as this picture of the world. So Babylon was this literal kingdom and Daniel's time it was an ancient kingdom, but it was also and it was rooted by the way, at the tower of Babel. Heard of Nimrod. Nimrod was the father of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empire. So the global empire before the Babylonians was the Assyrians. Nimrod was kind of the father, he was the George Washington of the Assyrian Empire, he was the guy, kind of that both those empires looked to as the first in a line of many powerful men and kings. And he establishes the kingdom of Babel in the land of Shinar. You can read about that in Genesis 10, at the tower of Babel.
Speaker 1:But then if you jump all the way to the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation, you'll see the word Babylon resurface. So you've got a historic empire, but also in a physical empire. But also it's a metaphor for the ideological and spiritual empire of Satan and the world throughout history, right up to the end. So think of Babylon in both of these contexts. That'll help us work through this. There's a historic context. Babylon is a place, a city, a succession of earthly kings. But then Babylon is an ideological kingdom, that's that's governed and ruled by the prince and power of the air, satan, who is at work. That gives us modern application. This is ideological. But as the book of Daniel opens, in this Daniel chapter, one passage Babylon is in power. Judgment has come to Judah from the Lord. The prophecy of Isaiah and Isaiah 39 that we talked about in the last episode, the prophecy Isaiah made to Hezekiah, has been fulfilled.
Speaker 1:In one other note, 70 years is how long this exile will work and this Babylonian empire will be in power over Judah for 70 years. Now why is that significant? If you go back and you read God had put in place an institution of the Sabbath where not only one day a week were the people to take rest, but one out of every seven years the land was to be given rest. And the people of Israel did not abide by that. For 490 years they disobeyed that. So for 490 years they didn't give the land rest. So God's like OK, one year for every seven, that's 70 years. I'm going to take the rest from that, from my people that they robbed me of. That's pretty intense, isn't it? So 70 years of exile exacts the 70 years of rest the people of Israel and Judah had robbed from Yahweh. So that's how long this Babylonian oppression is going to work. I'm going to read verses three through seven.
Speaker 1:The king ordered Ashpanaz, his chief of staff, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah's royal family and other noble families who had been brought to Babylon as captives. Select only strong, healthy and good looking young men, he said. Make sure they are well versed in every branch of learning, are gifted with knowledge and good judgment, are suited to serve in the royal palace. Train these young men in the language and literature of Babylon. The king assigned them a daily ration of food and wine from his own kitchens. They were to be trained for three years and then they would enter the royal service. And then it names Daniel, hananiah and Mishael Azariah. These are the four young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah. The chief of staff renamed them with Babylonian names. Daniel was called Belteshazzar, hananiah was called Shadrach, mishael was called Meshach, azariah was called Abednego.
Speaker 1:The most give you some observations from those verses. Three through seven, the most gifted young men are carried away to Babylon from their home city of Jerusalem. Daniel and his friends are named among these gifted young men. As young men and teenagers remember, they would have been trained in the legal and seminary school system under King Josiah In Judah. This means that from a young age they were selected because they were very competent and mature and gifted. But they're also part of the royal lineage and then also they're being trained both in history and law and but also in theology. So these are, these are the best, the best of the best. They were marched 700 miles or taken from their homes, from their boarding school at the palace or whatever it looked like in the, whatever it looked like. You know, they're taking their march 700 miles.
Speaker 1:It was common practice in ancient times that the Babylonians would assimilate people that they had conquered through work and indoctrination they were. They were strategic in the way that they would immerse people. So they take the best they take. They take the dumb people that were strong and it make them slave labor. They take the, the prettiest girls, the most you know, the most attractive and an intellectual girls, and they would marry them off to their young men. And then they would take the best of the best of the young men and they would castrate them and immerse them into a reeducation you know indoctrination and then use them in their own. You know divisions of technology, science, education, and so what they do is they would assimilate this culture into their cultures and take a culture like Judah Israel. They'd absorb them up and this is what Babylon did to a bunch of different cultures that absorb them into their. That's how they grew the Babylonian kingdom.
Speaker 1:They wanted to expand their kingdom, their empire, but not only physically, but they wanted to do it ideologically and religiously. And it doesn't mean they wouldn't use a heavy hand, like I said they would. They would implement slave labor. They would kill people to make sure they you know this is more like kind of think of what the Nazis did. I just listened to that book the boys in the boat. They did a really good job of talking about the just that the way the Nazis operated under Hitler was. It wasn't. It wasn't barbaric on the surface. It was. It was evil and barbaric but it was like it was very calculated.
Speaker 1:So Daniel and and these boys are put under the care of this guy. His name is Ash Panaz and the ESV. Most modern translations refer to him as the, the chief of Unix. This goes back to the fulfillment of a prophecy that Isaiah made that has a guy that they would be castrated. His descendants would be castrated. Castration would have meant that they were erased from the lineage of their people. It was like they're erasing their Jewish identity and heritage and they're reassigning them Babylonian heritage. They had been removed from their families physically. Now they're being removed from their families biologically. They're literally being erased from Jewish history.
Speaker 1:See this picture in scripture that multiplication and reproduction is blessed by God. God calls male and female good. God has a plan for men and a plan for women, and it's beautiful and powerful and strong. God has designed men as as he's designed men. He's designed women as he's designed women, male and female, with, with the idea of reproduction, but also of compatibility, companionship, that that they work together, that there is that God designed the two genders, the two sexes. See this all the way back in Genesis.
Speaker 1:The spirit of Babylon, however, goes against the spirit of God. So as God raises up a people for himself through whom he'll bless the entire world, says Israel, the Old Testament story of the Jews God raises nation up and what's happening to these boys as descendants of that nation is a reversal of God's design and God's plan from the beginning. Now, it doesn't mean it doesn't fit into God's sovereign plan. We saw that three times. It says God gave, but what's happening to these boys? I think of it as like the reverse effect of conversion and baptism into the Christian faith, like when you accept Christ and you're baptized, you're, you're buried with Christ in that symbolic act of baptism and you're raised in that symbolic act of resurrection to walk in newness of life were new creations. But the spirit of Babylon, which is governed by Satan in one sense, who's the God of this age? Wants to reverse the plants to reversal, rather than being baptized and raised in resurrection, it's, it's this broadened spiritual death. He wants to deconstruct and destroy what God has established, to give life, life to our minds and our hearts, and and and and to to, to bring death, spiritual death. That's what Satan's at work to do here.
Speaker 1:Sexuality and gender are under attack from Babylon. Remember, we're talking historic Babylon and Daniel one, but ideological Babylon, spiritual Babylon in our own generation, cause that's why it sounds familiar Sexuality and gender are under attack in Daniel, chapter one. You're living in a time when everything ordained by God is under attack from the world. The world has always been broken and dark, ever since the fall of man, but what we are experiencing in this generation is an ideological attack. Babylon celebrates that which breaks the heart of God. Think of this in terms of modern, symbolic, ideological Babylon. God creates man and woman, male and female, gives them purpose and definition to marriage and sexuality. Babylon says this is oppressive and bigoted. Babylon celebrates gender reassignment as heroic which I would say, by the way, even when it includes chopping the body parts off of teenagers and then calling it heroic. But at the same time, babylon will label patriarchal headship in a home where a father leads and governs and guides and instructs. They'll label God's design for man as toxic. Babylon celebrates coming out of the closet is brave, but attacks the very idea of biblical order of sexuality.
Speaker 1:Babylon celebrates an all inclusive embrace of pagan ideologies and worldly religions in the name of tolerance, and yet they ridicule and mock and oppress and punish and call out and cancel those who trust in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and who believe in and submit to the authority of God's word. What God calls good, babylon calls evil. And Babylon celebrates as good that which the Lord, our God, appores, what Jesus Christ died to rescue us from. Babylon calls pornography freedom of expression and celebrates it as art, while the Lord calls it debauchery and warns of its enslaving effects.
Speaker 1:Babylon celebrates the idiotic and obscene and absurd theories of Darwinian evolution which, by the way, have never and will never be proven because they're not scientific fact. Regardless of what you're told in the halls of academia, there's a cursory review and study of what scientific fact is. It's based on the collection of data that reveals concrete truth. We have no fact at all when it comes to Darwinian evolution, so we're left with nothing more than a theory. So let's call it what it is it's a fear, the theory of evolution. It's a it's it's, it's a Babylonian idea in the, in the ideological sense, babylon ridicules things into existence and upholds them by the word of his power. By the way, let me just rant for a second here I'm reading from a note, but let me rant for a second.
Speaker 1:Isn't it fascinating that set this, this is the confusion that Satan creates In evolution. If we believe that to be true, then what's happening in the sexual revolution right now doesn't make sense, because it's contrary to the evolutionary process. There's no reproduction allowed. If we, if we regender everyone, then babies will not be made. And that in that fascinating it's. It's contradictory, but yet it's the same world order at work against God's plan and design.
Speaker 1:Babylon champions the rewriting of history, regardless of the lies, rejecting the biblical narrative and record in the process. Babylon paints with a broad brush a picture of a mankind that celebrates that which is sinful and condemns that which God has come to redeem and recreate. Babylon calls slavery to send freedom and freedom, and Christ, babylon calls slavery and bondage. If Daniel and his brothers experienced exile in a foreign land, rest assured we are experiencing a similar type of exile, albeit an ideological one. But know this, brothers and sisters those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. Babylon will never rob us of our strength. Those who walk in truth will remain upright and just. The grass withers, the flower fades, the kingdoms of the earth rise and fall, like ancient Babylon, but the word of our Lord will remain forever and just as Daniel was there, still remaining in royal service when Babylon collapsed, god will always preserve a remnant that will outlast the ideological movements of this world and this Babylon. From him and through him and to him are all things Paul writes to the Romans. To God be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Brothers and sisters, daniel was living in Babylon, but his eyes were fixed on Jesus. We are living in Babylon and we must fix our eyes on Jesus.
Speaker 1:Daniel and these boys were then reeducated. After being castrated and massaculated March, 700 miles away from their family and kin, they're reeducated and brainwashed at the University of Babylon for three years. Sound familiar? The typical four year degree in our society? It's a four year program, unless you're like a lot of people I know who squeeze those four years into about seven. But if you, if you think of the parallel here, it's a three year undergraduate program at the University of Babylon.
Speaker 1:There's an Old Testament scholar. I'm sitting here at my desk and looking at I've got his name is Trimper Longman. I've got his a really cool resource. He does a lot of Old Testament stuff, but the Baker Illustrated Bible Dictionary is a really huge cool resource book that I you know if you're not a pastor, you're not teaching a lot, but you really want to study some cool things and resources. This is an awesome thing to study. The Baker Illustrated Bible Dictionary features over 5000 clear and accurate entries, an essential A to Z dictionary with scripture references, more than 400 full color illustrations. People like me and my buddy, butch Pendergrass, we like pictures. We like to read, but we like to look at pictures too. I gave Butch a shout out because he's uh, we were talking about this episode the other day, um, but anyway, trimper Longman uh, he edited that, but he's also written extensively on Old Testament history and theology. He's he's long considered a scholar, um, so here's his comments on what's going on. So so some comments from Trimper Longman.
Speaker 1:On once these boys were put into the Babylonian university at this point, they've been, you know, put on this diet. They've been you know which. They didn't you know. There's that moment where they refused to abide by the king's diet and that that's kind of a cool moment, but but at any rate they're. They're being fed in the king's palace, they're being provided for all of their needs are being provided for by Babylon and they're immersed in this education process.
Speaker 1:Listen, this is so parallel to where we're at. How have you not noticed how even our own president right now is saying that the government knows best how to raise your sons and daughters? The government knows best how to raise your sons and daughters? That is a lie. That's the line. You know it and I know it. The last thing that, like, you heard this saying once you lose a freedom to the government, you don't get it back. You'll hear this concern in the second amendment and gun control issue. You hear people arguing for gun control or against gun control, and argument will be look at what's happening in Canada as soon as you give up a freedom, you do not ever get that freedom back, and that's that's pretty accurate. The same thing is true when it comes to, like you know, if we, if we hand over our sons and daughters to the brainwashing of this government, this culture, this progressive movement, there's a good chance we won't get them back. So we got to fight. We got to stand in the gap and fight for that.
Speaker 1:Listen how Trimper Longman describes this. The young men were to be immersed in the culture of their enemies. Aramaic was the native language of the of the Chaldean tribe that was in power in Babylon at the time. This Northwest Semitic language was becoming the language of the Near East. Nonetheless, the native language of the Babylonians was Akkadian, a Semitic language like Hebrew, but with an extremely complex writing system. So they're being completely immersed in this educational process. Through archaeological discovery, we know something of the literature of the Babylonians. This is Longman writing here. Now listen to what he says. This is crazy. Crazy what he describes. Today we have examples of historic writings, economic tablets, religious myths, heroic epics, love poetry and more. So we got a bunch of content from the Babylonian Empire that helps us understand what Daniel and these boys were being taught and tested on. However, from later descriptions of Daniel's wisdom, we should highlight the importance that pagan oracles play in the Babylon of Daniel's time. Daniel clearly, then, would have been trained in the arts of divination through such means as interpreting unusual terrestrial and celestial phenomenon, astrology and even one strange practice the examination of sheep livers as a means of reading the future and so forth.
Speaker 1:The art of divination, or reading omens, is well attested. In ancient Mesopotamia, according to William farber, omens were the primary way by which the gods revealed their will, intentions or faithful decisions to people. This type of divine revelation is different from what we know as biblical prophecy. Divination was a learned practice in that it portended events that were associated with certain signs. So here's the signs that they would study, whether the shape of a liver, unusual births, the flight pattern of a flock of birds, the stars, dreams, etc. Diviners used reference books to tease out the significance of a sign. Omens could be solicited or unsolicited. In the case of dreams, they could be solicited by an incubation right where the subject induced sleep expected of a significant dream. So this is crazy. He's describing how, I mean, this is all like it's omens. It's demonic.
Speaker 1:Pagan, you know, spiritual worship and study like it's that all of their decisions were informed on these things. It reminds me a lot of the things you read about from native tribes here in North America that would use the created order. You know, studying a flock of birds or an animal's liver. It's, it's wild. You ever study the Comanches. It's crazy. Some of the plains Indians are. It's wild to study some of their pagan practices, and you can do the same thing with the Celts, with the Germanic tribes. You know, like like this world has been governed by Satan and demonic influences that you can study pretty much any, any culture that is descended from the Tower of Babel. You know.
Speaker 1:The bottom line is that the text is telling us that Daniel was educated in the ways of Babylon, which surely included these dark arts. I'm back quoting Longman now. Not only did he take the class, but he graduated from the Babylonian University as a valedictorian with high honors. We know that because Daniel is ultimately placed in charge of the educational system. He's basically the minister of education in the king's cabinet. It's a huge I mean just such a such a huge honor. But we know that Daniel remained faithful to Yahweh. So even in Babylon he's being faithful.
Speaker 1:Additionally, in this education, reeducation program I'm not quoting Longman anymore here, but I will pick back up and quote some more in just a second. So some thoughts. In this education program they're given names that reject those names that they're given in verse seven. They reject their association and affiliation with Yahweh and Yahweh's people and they're given names that associate them to the service of the pagan kings of Babylon. So they're brought into the king's service. They're celebrated now in their new identity, and there's a principle here that this is something that we try to teach students the world will promise you things that will appeal to your flesh. There's the scene where they walk in, they're given new names, they're celebrated as Babylonians and they're after marching 700 miles how hungry they must be they're brought into the king's banqueting table. This is the way the world works. It offers us things that appeal to our flesh. Alright, back to no. We're not going to quote anymore anymore of Longland, let's, let's just keep going. We're going to wrap it up here in the next 15 minutes, don't miss what's happening here.
Speaker 1:The Babylonians are working to assimilate the exiles physically, ideologically and religiously into their culture. It's exactly what we're seeing occur in America and in the West today. The danger that our generation faces is not the danger of becoming Muslim or Buddhist or even a secular human. It's the danger that the sons and daughters that we are raising face is the danger of embracing a new brand of Christianity that is not Christianity at all. It's quote unquote progressive Christianity that comes about through quote unquote deconstruction, which is what the Bible calls apostasy. By the way, the danger that we face our sons and daughters in particular face and grandsons and granddaughters is an ideological brainwashing that promises that if you embrace the spirit of Babylon in this new age, that you will live at peace with the world. Only, this is not the world we were created for. The Christ follower will never be at peace with the world. We can live at peace in the world, but never with the world. Jesus said I did not come to bring that kind of peace, I came to bring a sword.
Speaker 1:There's a rise in progressive Christianity that embraces the secular ideology of a moral and sexual revolution that rejects everything. Jesus Christ died to establish and rose to establish and ascended to his rightful position and throne and authoritative over all of creation that he has established for us. The scary thing is, christians in our day are abandoning the historic beliefs of our God and his word, trying to recreate and reimagine a secular version of Christianity that is compatible with the world's ideologies. But to do so you have to reject the gospel. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. The progressives will tell you either you have to choose the Bible or Jesus. They'll tell you that the Bible is outdated and not literally the word of God, but that Jesus has shown us the supreme earthly example of how to live and love and be inclusive and embrace what God calls sin. It's a dilution and perversion of the word of God and we must reject it and we will reject it.
Speaker 1:And as hard as the world is going on educating and reeducating and brainwashing teenagers and college kids, let me tell you something right now, at Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters, we're going just as hard to shine the light into that dark space of academia and to bring light and truth into their hearts and minds. Greater is he that is in you and me, greater is he that is in our sons and daughters, if they're in Christ, and our grandsons and granddaughters, than he that is in the world. Greater is the spirit of the living God inside each one of us who professes faith in Jesus than the spirit of Babylon, who's the prince and power of the air, who is at work in the hearts and minds of kings and nations and kingdoms. So think about this, that statement the spirit of God at work in you, just in your heart and your mind, my heart and my mind, just me, just you, just one person. The spirit at work in us is greater than the spirit at work in all of the universities and governments in the world that are in contradiction and opposition to that spirit. The spirit of Babylon, who is the prince and power of the air, who is at work in the hearts and minds of people. Who is at work driving worldly governments, controlling like puppets presidents and prime ministers, dictators and congresswomen and mayors and senators and congressmen, greater than the puppeteers and the halls of our universities. Greater is the spirit of Yahweh in the hearts and minds and mouths of those who will faithfully stand in the puppets of our churches and preach the gospel than the God of this age. The spirit of Babylon who is loosing the tongues of false teachers and preachers, who are amassing huge followings of those who would prefer to have their ears tickled and their souls teased and their consciences appeased. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in them. And I wanna finish by looking at verses eight and nine.
Speaker 1:Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the chief of staff for permission not to eat these unacceptable foods. God had given the chief of staff respect and favor toward Daniel. So Daniel resolved and God gave him favor. He put himself in a situation where only God could deliver him. Brothers and sisters, I would say this we're in a situation right now where only God can deliver us. We'll fight like Daniel fought like the prophets of old fought. We'll fight for our sons and daughters. We'll fight for truth. But Daniel resolved and he was in a situation where only God could come through. So he resolved to be faithful to the Lord. He resolved here not to eat the king's food.
Speaker 1:That word resolved is such an important part of who Daniel was. We have to be men and women of resolve and we have to raise men and women and our sons and daughters and teens and children and college kids who will be people of resolve. I mean that resolved carried Daniel and these boys through the fiery furnace episode, the rise and fall of Babylon, the rise of Persia under the Persian Empire. That resolved carried Daniel through the den of lions incident. I mean, think about this not only did Daniel outlast the Babylonian Empire, he rises to the position of minister of education, and he's so under the favor of God that when you go into Daniel too, when or not Daniel too. But if you read out the Babylonian Empire's influence and you get over to Daniel's chapters five and six, that's when Babylon falls and Persia comes into power, daniel goes for.
Speaker 1:Check this out. Daniel was the minister of education over the university system in the world. Power of Babylon. When Babylon falls, the Persian Empire rises to power. Daniel becomes the chief justice of the Supreme Court. Who's the chief justice of our Supreme Court? John Roberts, I think it's John Roberts, chief justice of the Supreme Court. Most powerful judicial position in the government.
Speaker 1:Daniel held that. So he was. He was in the two of the most powerful, definitely two of the most influential positions. It's because he had the favor of the Lord and he resolved to be faithful to God and let God be the one who, who, who defended him and promoted him. And if we can teach that principle to our sons and daughters listen, if you're sending your kids to Snobbard wilderness outfitters, you know that's what we're teaching Be faithful to the Lord. He himself will be faithful. And I would say to you mom, dad, uncle, aunt, friend, pastor, grandparent, pray. That God's hand of favor would rest on our sons and daughters. Daniel's faithfulness is held in sway and intact by the faithfulness of God. That's a powerful thing, man. We're faithful to a faithful God.
Speaker 1:So let me give you a, in closing, four important observations and and and applications. The first one is this God is sovereign. He has a plan. It seems hopeless to the exiles when they're being carried off. They remember Jeremiah's prophecy God's gonna go with them. God gave, god gave. God gave three times. In that passage, god was in control. It was all part of his sovereign plan. Where we are right now is the society. God is still sovereign. Y'all. Joe Biden ain't sovereign, but guess what? Donald Trump ain't sovereign either. We serve a sovereign God, and so kings and kingdoms will rise and fall, presidents will come and go, and God is in control and he's working out a greater plan.
Speaker 1:Second point observation, application we have to resolve to live with conviction. The biggest hurdle to this is gonna be that the world is offering us something in exchange for that resolve. Maybe the world offers us peace, maybe they will offer us profit, maybe they offer us what appeals to our flesh, but we resolve to live with conviction, even if it brings us into a ostrich. The world's gonna ostracize us, the world's gonna marginalize us, the world's gonna persecute us, but we live with conviction. Next, third one Daniel built his entire life on a pursuit of holiness and faithfulness to the word of God and prayer.
Speaker 1:We followed Daniel. We get to follow him for about eight decades and he never changes. He's consistent and constant. He's not perfect, but he's like Joseph. The story of Joseph that we walked through last fall like go through this person's life and you see, man, he was faithful, wasn't perfect, but he's faithful. At one point Daniel was sentenced to death because of this. And what he did then? He did what he had always done as an old man.
Speaker 1:At the Lines Den, daniel was an old dude, he was in his 80s. At least, at least in his 80s, maybe his 90s, he could stand before the Lord and declare his innocence when the king of Persia called on him. By the way, in the den of the Lines Remember that scene he's cast into the den of Lines and the king doesn't want to do it. But he's got to live, he's got to carry out this decree. He fills the pressure of maintaining it. This is where he comes to the Lines Den the next morning and calls out to Daniel and Daniel basically declares his own innocence. You know, I'm innocent and the Lord has proven it. And the fourth and final observation. This is so cool. I love this. It's a big what if? So this happens, you know, five centuries before Jesus comes into the world. But Daniel is put over.
Speaker 1:We read all that stuff from Longman, where these people studied the stars. They studied, you know, animal livers. They studied flocks of birds. They got signs from symbols and creation, and we know that the study of the stars in the heavens was a big part of that and Daniel was put in charge of all of that. So then he carries that influence into the Persian Empire.
Speaker 1:500 years later, these Persian magi come from this very area and they follow the star to Jesus the cross child. Imagine Daniel being raised to the position of minister of education and then transferred to the position of chief justice in the Persian Empire, their Supreme Court. And Daniel, somehow, I believe his influence is still seen 500 years later by these Persian magi who are think about how else would they have known to follow the star? You know that wouldn't have come from their pagan. I don't know, man, it's just a cool thought to think about. They follow the star 700 miles to. It's a reverse. So Daniel and these boys are March, 700 miles to Babylon.
Speaker 1:He then institutes over the next century the teachings of Yahweh. That influences a culture. That then two things that are huge that happen. One, 500 years later, the 700 year journey is made backwards for these kings, these magi that have come and worship the cross child. How would they have known? I think because of Daniel's prophecies. But then because later, and if you study the book of Daniel, he prophesies the coming of Jesus and any eternal, perpetual kingdom that'll conquer all kingdoms.
Speaker 1:But then not only that, but the world stage is set through the spreading of the Israelite people, so that when the gospel begins to be spread, paul says it goes to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. Through the spreading of the gospel to Jewish people throughout the world who receive the gospel, they then take the gospel to the Gentile nations. Daniel's influence goes on for centuries. So cool, so cool to think about. By keeping our eyes on Jesus, remaining true and faithful to his word and obedience and submission and worship, and by rejecting the lies of the enemy, we will remain faithful. We will not shrink back. Thanks be to God, we'll stop there. We'll stop there. There's a lot, two episodes worth, and we'll link the sermon where I basically preached through this outline, this manuscript, and just a lot to think about. I think right now, with everything that's going on in our society, it's just crazy times and as we go into 2024, we as a ministry are preparing to this summer. We're gonna be teaching on the authority of Jesus and we're not gonna compromise.
Speaker 1:And I encourage you as parents and teachers and small group leaders and coaches and influencers, let's impact this generation. Let's impact them and equip them to live in Babylon and remain faithful. Thank y'all so much for being faithful to listen to this podcast Really grateful.
Speaker 2:I really am.
Speaker 1:And the Lord is using it in a huge way. It blows my mind. So thank y'all and I hope this has been helpful and meaningful. Give us some feedback, let me know what you think. Shoot us an email brody at SWOutfitterscom. Brody at SWOutfitterscom. Or you can email snowbird the bird at SWOutfitterscom. We'd love to hear from you. Maddie will read. If you email directly to snowbird, maddie or Cassie will read that If you email brody at SWOutfitterscom, I'll get that.
Speaker 1:I'm not a social media guy, so you can't find me on Facebook. You can't get me on like any social media platforms. I am on Twitter, but I try to remember to post something every once in a while, but I'm not very good about that. I don't have those things on my phone, so I have to like actually go open them up, get on there. But anyway, best way to get up with me is going to be to email me or to email camp and let us know. Give us some feedback questions. We've got some meetings over the next couple of weeks to lay out some content. We'd love to get your input and feedback. So we'd love to hear from you. Have an awesome week. God bless you. God loves you. Jesus died for you. Don't forget that we live under the power of God's grace, so let's live as more than conquerors, because greater is he that is in us than he that's in the world. Have an awesome week. See you next week.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to no Sanity Required. Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a rating. It really helps. Visit us at SWOutfitterscom to see all of our programming and resources, and we'll see you next week on no Sanity Required.
