Will you see Stephen Spielberg's new movie? Do we need more things in our culture causing us to question the existence of God? Luke 19 has some insight into what we should do with Spielberg's offer.
Welcome to Politics by Faith. This is where we take the news of the day, we bring it to the Bible, so we can walk away with peace and perspective. New headlines every day. But Ecclesiastes says he's not the new one of the sun. So thanks for being here. To get the true story, the story of the day, Steven Spielberg says his new movie, Disclosure Day, will leave Christians questioning their faith in God.
So we got a new movie coming out. Disclosure Day, it's a story of a cybersecurity expert and a TV meteorologist who race to leak classified government archives proving non -human intelligence exists. Yet, they're pursued by a shadowy establishment determined to suppress the truth to maintain the world order. Steven Spielberg hasn't had a good movie in like 20 years. Breitbart's, our friend John Nolte is the senior writer at Breitbart. He's one of the main culture writers there.
massive movie expert. He watches like two movies a day for his life. He says Spielberg's on about a 20 -year losing streak, had some of the big hits early on at Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders of the Lost Ark, got it, E . T. Then a couple other ones, I'll throw Saving Private Ryan in there. That was 1998.
All right, so really since 1998, Nolte, who's seen them all, said Lincoln And Bridge of Spies, he said, we're all OK. But in that same period, you got the Indiana Jones with the ghost or the crystal skull, the adventures of Tin Tin, War Horse, BFG, The Post, Ready Player One, West Side Story, The Fablemans. The Fablemans and West Side Story were two just massive box office disasters. So he's going on this publicity tour for he's trying to make this as big next. And here is what he said on CBS Sunday morning. This truth were just known overnight.
If the government announced, yes, we have been keeping this from you since 1947, that would mess up a lot of people. And the movie also takes the position of the church. What does this do to the fundamental beliefs that many of us have? And, you know, is God our God only on this planet? Or is God a God for us? So what's broken of this story?
Why talk about it here? I don't need my belief in God question. The devil's working overtime to try and get people to not believe in God. I don't need Steven Spielberg to join in on that effort or work as a tool of the devil. Romans 10 17 says faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. This needs to be our top priority.
To increase our faith in God. I would say most people's problem in America is not that we don't question God's existence enough. It's that we question it too much already. You with me? The problem with America is there's too many people that believe in God and they haven't really thought it through. The problem is not enough people believe in God.
Or they say they maybe kind of do, but they don't understand the ramifications of God. We need to spend more time in this country increasing our faith, not questioning it. I also don't need non -Christians telling me and other Christians what we should believe or not believe or what we should question. No thanks, Steven. Did you see the other day, the Pentagon, they reduced the number of recognized religions.
How many religions could you name? If we sat down and brainstormed religions, how many could we name? We've got Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrianism or something. I don't know, five? Maybe we could sit here and get to eight. They've removed uh so they had uh 211 they had 211 religions and they cut it down to 31 and that's still like what 31 so they removed atheism that was a recognized religion humanism paganism wicca witches druidism asatru unitarian universalism which is hilarious that's the that's the funniest religion because it's just all of them they're like we believe in all the things of all the religions and they're all true as they what one is pronounced magic m -a -g -i -c -k i don't know shamanism deism n -car n -kin -car bathomet b -a -t -h -o -m -e -t i don't know and troth troth t -r -o -t -h what in the world so the ones that remain are a bunch of christian denominations and then agnostic bahai Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikh.
Those are the main ones. But the idea, I bring this one up here because the idea that we had 211 recognized religions in the military, and by the way, still have a handful of blasphemous religions allowed in the military, shows how far we've fallen and how much we've already been questioning the existence of God. and coming to our own ridiculous conclusions. 211 different, after all, let's say Christianity is one of them, let's say. So 210 false, wrong conclusions after all the questioning of his existence. If I may make a suggestion before we get to the Bible, I hate to be a cultural prude here, but be careful of anti -Christian culture being I was going to say being pushed into your home and into your heart, but it's not, I mean, it's being pushed, but in the end you still allow it.
So be aware of what you allow into your home and into your heart. C . S. Lewis wrote a lot about this. He said, the world does not need more Christian literature. What it needs is more Christians writing good literature.
So I'm not saying every book you read has to be the Bible or that every book you read has to be about the Bible or that every book you read has to be explicitly Christian. But we need more Christians writing good literature of all genres. Read old books, right? The older authors are often usually more informed by Christian culture in their writing. And it's just better. See, this is Lewis's advice to read old books, at least every other.
Secular books by secular authors can stumble upon a truth here or there. And again, I don't want to be a prude about it, but if I can just encourage us all, there's so much good stuff out there. There's so much good literature that's been written. that so many of the greats we haven't read before. Go to the good stuff. There's so much good literature and poems and movies and tv shows that have been made
Why do we have to fill the short time that we have here on earth with more modern secular slop? There's enough good stuff there. I don't need new. My last C . S. Lewis quote of the day, it's one of my favorite quotes of his.
He says, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half -hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition. When infinite joy is offered us, Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. Like a vacation. That's a British word for vacation. Vacation at the sea.
We are far too easily pleased. Here we are messing around with Steven Spielberg's latest stupid movie, which it promises to question your existence of God. Oh yeah, I can't wait to play with that mud pie in a slum. What a fun night that'll be when God has so much more available to us. We are far, far too easily pleased. Let's go to the Bible.
I read this, uh, this morning, Luke 19. And I got a minute, I read it and I was like, ah, this, I don't get it. This parable made no sense to me. So obviously I had to do more research on it. And I think it fits in here pretty nicely. We'll see if it does.
So this is Luke 19. It's right after Zacchaeus climbed the sycamore tree. And he decided to give half of his goods. He's a thief. So he decided to give half of his goods away and then restore the people he defrauded fourfold. And then Jesus goes right into the parable of the ten minas.
Minas, M -I -N -A -S. So one minas is three months. It's money. It's three months of wages, three months of labor. One is. So he gave ten servants each one amount of money, a lot of money.
money, three months worth of money. So I don't know if you make 60 grand, right? So it's like a good chunk of money he gave people. So he gave each of those, each of the 10 servants, the same amount. Let me pick up here. He said, therefore, a nobleman went into a far country.
This is the parable. To receive for himself a kingdom and then return. Calling 10 of his servants, he gave them 10 minus and said to them, engage in business until I come. But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, We do not want this man to reign over us. More on that in a second. When he returned, having received the kingdom, he offered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they gained by doing business.
What have you got? What did you do? I've been gone. What have you done with the money? The first came before him saying, Lord, your mina has made ten minus more. And he said to them, Well done.
good servant, because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over 10 cities. " Pretty good. And the second came saying, Lord, your mina has made five minas. And he said to him, and you are to be over five cities. Then another came saying, Lord, here's your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow. And he said to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did, taking what I did not deposit, reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank? And at my coming, I might have collected it with interest." And he said to those who stood by, take a mina from him and give it to him. who has ten minas. And they said to him, Lord, he has ten minas. I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given.
But for the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me. is even if you are that third servant who did nothing and was scolded, at least we're not the enemy who were slaughtered, who were killed right there on the spot. The point of this part here is that everyone has to answer to the master, just like we will all have to answer to God. The main point of this parable is that Jesus's kingdom will not appear immediately. There will be a period of time when the King of Kings is absent before the kingdom will be fully set up. So this nobleman left, his master left, and he put in charge, he gave his servants a commission.
to see if they would faithfully execute it until he returned. Go do business. Some did, some did not. We similarly have a short time here on earth to do God's will well. We need to be good and faithful servants. Now, I pray that we're not going to be the ones who reject God outright, like the people who hated the master and who were executed when the master got back.
But everything we do on earth should be done in the hope of hearing well done, good and faithful servant. And I would argue part of being a good and faithful steward of our lives is how we spend our time, and what we consume, and who we support with our money. I suggest we choose accordingly. If you're watching this, listening to this on the podcast, you can join us over on YouTube, youtube . com slash atpoliticsbyfaith for free.
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