Brett Kunkle of Maven / Life Experiences, Apologetics & Outreach

ryan reece show from southern california this is the ryan reese show post your questions using ryan reese on his instagram twitter or facebook are you ready it's going down tonight we are live in studio i got my boy brett kunkle in studio right now from maven uh he's been on this show i don't know at least three times four times i think it's been three times yeah at least and i love when you come on it's always amazing you've done some seriously epic topics uh we talked about social media um the effects of it i actually saw you at a conference at calvary chapel costa mesa while uh years ago and i remember you're up there judger uh uh you you're wearing now uh the checkered uh vans and you went up there they are yup represent classics and you were up there talking just a very simple language of complex stuff and i was like i gotta get this dude on the show and turns out you do conferences all over the united states and your testimony is very different than mine yeah i grew up i grew up a church kid like you yeah um but i was like that church kid who got involved in my youth group became a student leader i had a youth pastor who mentored me right into ministry so my junior year in high school i actually made this public kind of decision to go into ministry and um and so i was kind of like that that kid that every youth pastor once in their youth group like totally committed you know i put youth group and god before sports or you know even school and you know and so i was um i was quote unquote a good kid yeah and um and there's you know it's not that that uh you know maybe sometimes people think like that crazy exciting testimony where god rescues you out of this you know amazing uh you know difficult circumstances or whatever trouble and um but you know what i think back on that and i see my testimony is there's just as much grace there you know for god sustaining me and guiding me but but you know when i was a freshman in college i was taking a philosophy class here in at a college in southern california i grew up in the church for the first 18 years of my life right going into ministry take this philosophy class and my professor dr david lane he proceeded to dismantle my faith that next semester and you know it's philosophy so we're talking about all the big issues of life we're talking about god's existence whether there is a god we're talking about ethical and moral issues we're talking about you know all these different religious views the meaning of life and the way he would conduct his class is he would give us you know reading assignments but he would come in typically the first 10 or 15 minutes of the class he would lecture on something you know kind of open it up and then he would have us get into discussion in the class and we talk about things debate things dialogue about stuff and and so i would start to give my input in class and it became apparent that i was a christian right and so professor lane began you know he picked up on that so he would begin to challenge me in class in front of all my my classmates and so many times i did not know how to answer his questions and he just started putting these like doubts in my mind and i remember what i would do is you know because i couldn't answer his questions i didn't want to make myself look like a fool in front of all these you know these classmates and i didn't want to make christ look foolish so i would chase him down to his office and try to debate him in the privacy of his office and the last time i was in his office he said brett you got a bible on you of course i was a good christian kid right so yeah i got my bible i pull out my bible he says okay now pull out a piece of paper and a pen and he had me draw two lines on that paper and at the top of the first uh column he said right matthew top of the second column right mark top of the third column right luke and then he he took me for like the next hour through the resurrection accounts in matthew mark and luke had me write down details and then showed me the differences between matthew mark and luke right the accounts yeah and he and of course his claim where where the these were these were contradictions right and he said you know the the new testament's completely unreliable why you know i really think you ought to look carefully into this i sat there completely stunned and speechless i'd never seen this before i never heard this in church before and i remember just having no answer for him folded up that piece of paper put it in my bible said thanks dr lane walked out and on my way to my car i was like trembling and i was but i was thinking oh my gosh if if my professor is right he's the phd right he's the smart guy yeah yeah if he's right and the bible's filled with all these errors and you know christianity is unreliable like you know i can't keep believing exactly yep so it just sent me in this major episode of doubt where i started searching for answers so i started to think look if this stuff is really true yeah then there ought to be answers and if it's false i don't want to believe it so let's have at it and so i just started going around asking my church leaders my youth pastor elders at my church hey here are the questions my professors give me you know what do you say how do you answer these things and i just started searching for answers and uh i found that a lot of people probably the majority of people i i talked to were not equipped with answers they could they would say things like well well brett you just gotta have faith yeah i'm just gonna say just believe my faith dude don't worry just just i just believe and i'm thinking i number one that's completely unsatisfying to a college student who's getting slammed by the phd number two i'm not going to go into my class and say well i just have faith because that faith yeah sounds like oh you just okay throw your mind out and just believe this fairy tale yep exactly you know and but thankfully there were some people who introduced me to something called apologetics yup apologetics is just a defense of the faith something i didn't even know existed before this and i discovered that we have all these answers uh to the the most difficult questions out there and uh and apologetics was really something god used to actually rebuild my faith i doubted but that doubt was a tool discovered solid answers and reasons which of course we're commanded to do in first peter 3 15 right we're when anyone asks us to give a reason for the hope that it is we're we're always to be prepared to do that to make a defense that the greek word there's apologia and that's where we get the word apologetics apologetics is making a defense or giving a reason for the hope that we have in jesus name i remember that no that's amazing i remember when i first got saved i would go to you know different services or or just being around people or christians that would talking about faith and you know what they believe in but i just remember me personally i wanted to know and this is actually my my new book kill the noise uh i was literally just like hold on i hear what they're saying but i need to know that i know like where is this at where can i find out proof and it and i dove like this doubt or just not knowing i want to know more and a lot of people just go oh yeah i just believe by faith and just that wasn't good enough for me and that biblically is not good enough for just christians yeah we need to know what we believe yeah it's a misunderstanding of what faith is faith is trust in what you have good reason to believe is true faith is is trust and sometimes because the word faith comes with this baggage like it's blind or it's somehow the you know contradictory to reason or evidence or logic or anything like that we it actually short-circuits our faith when we have this in this uh this incorrect view of what faith is faith and reason faith and evidence faith and proof these things go hand in hand according to the scripture i mean jesus would give evidence the apostle paul would give evidence in fact acts 17 says that he would go into the synagogue as was his custom and he would give evidence and it says that people were persuaded and so god the holy spirit can actually use evidence as a tool to bring people to faith in christ and so our faith is built firmly on truth and that truth is backed up by good reasons so uh so how'd that class end as you continued to to grow did you keep going back to the class and talking about it yeah i mean i finished up the class but i i at that point i was just kind of defeated you know yeah until you got out and actually did your homework and and learned yeah and that's and that's what you do now with uh maven right yeah maybe i mean one of our our our missions is to help the next generation know the truth know what they believe know why they believe it and also know why why it matters you know that this stuff that we believe if it's actually the truth about all of reality then it will influence and affect every single area of your life it's not just your sunday morning thing it's not just your devotional thing it's not just your church activities but if christianity is the truth about all reality it will permeate every single area of your life this is so important i mean even since because i haven't seen you since the chronovirus thing started but even now with the state of just how the world has changed politically and with the churches shut down because the coronavirus and the lack of education of christianity of people just like dismissing them they have any reason now not to go to church because the chronovirus and everything that the pulse of even like with music videos that are coming out like little nos you saw that whole thing just all this craziness that's just uh invading people's minds i was just listening on the way up here uh the gospel of mark when it talks about you know jesus is talking about that that that the eyes light to the body you know basically if what you see if you think you have light but it's really truly darkness how deep is that that darkness inside of you and i feel like people are just getting brainwashed and manipulated by just screen time yeah i'm not saying politics i'm saying like screen time whatever's going whatever's coming out of there these these videos and this music and everything it's just these lies and and doubt right and doubt and it's literally like right now is the the most important time because i know i think it's like revelations talks about in the last days even though like what can be deceived right like it's like and i'm seeing like with the church itself dude i can't tell you how many people are getting divorced that i know in the church why the lies i can't tell you how many people are walking away from god or have left the faith that are just just like gone during this time yeah yeah and it's because they don't have the truth yeah and and sadly uh the church in the u.s has actually been very anti-intellectual because of their mistaken view of faith it cuts it off from the mind but if you think about the great commandment that jesus gives us in matthew 22. he says love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind and mind god the love for jesus requires every part of me and we have just been overly emotional we've been overly focused on the experiential of course i'm not saying it's the experience is important absolutely but we have done all of that to the detriment of our minds and so we don't bring our minds in so we don't think clearly about these things so then if you don't think clearly about the truth if you don't know the truth and know why you believe these things then yeah you can be easily manipulated by a a world full of screens a social media world because the way that culture influences us so powerfully is just simply by presenting to us what's the norm yeah so you scroll through picture after picture after picture and what those pictures are doing is they're presenting to you what here's the norm and we simply absorb that this is how things should be and we we absorb that just like sponges and it will influence us if we are not grounded in the truth it's funny that you say that because i'm thinking about these these there's like some pivotal videos that that came out uh there was like the uh the miley cyrus the wrecking ball right where she was like naked on a ball or whatever swinging and i remember when that came out we were like oh my gosh this is insane but then olsen like a nicki minaj album cover came out and you're like oh my gosh that is really insane and then all of a sudden this little nos video coming and you're like what that and you're just like that's crazy like this that's even worse than it makes a wrecking ball look like she's a saint you know you know i say that lightly but what i'm saying is like the progression of what we're seeing it makes it the norm it's the standard it's almost like i know lady gaga she's in there somewhere she did something you know at the awards keep up with it i can't but you watch over the progression over the last like just say 13 years or whatever you're just now it's like you know i tell people i'm like who's going to do the next whatever like i'm just like what can possibly be next after this little nos video right and um it's just because what we're seeing the eyes of light to the body and what you were saying with um the culture they just keep feeding the stuff it gets more intense and more intense but then it's the norm yeah yeah we live in a culture now where we listen with our eyes and we think with our feelings meaning our our you know we're influenced by all the stuff that we see it shapes us and we just now react and and act out of just desires and this is why the church needs to recapture good thinking so we can be grounded in the truth so the truth can be that anchor for us as the culture does the cultural waves just keep pounding a pounding away well speaking of pounding and pounding you know jesus says you know if you build your house on the sand you're gonna be washed away right but if you build your house on the rock which is him then you're gonna withstand the storms right and the only way we could combat this thinking is that if we have the truth jesus says i'm the way the truth and the life and the truth is the word of god and this is why we have to have that word of god as as this false false reality or false truths or lies and doubts and all stuff comes in from as you're saying watching with our eyes if we're reading the bible then we've got to be able to bounce that stuff off of uh scripture to see what is true yeah what is true because scripture you know i think a lot of times we again we we think about the bible and we think oh that's faith and you know something like science gives us knowledge right right but the bible properly understood is actually knowledge uh in fact if you look at the new testament the new testament talks about knowledge more than faith in john 17 3 jesus says eternal life is knowing the one true god in jesus christ whom you've sent and so knowledge is this key component and what scripture does if this is indeed god's word to humanity and god is the creator of all reality then what the bible does is it gives us knowledge of reality it's not fairy tale no it actually it accurately describes this world around us and so it's the truth about reality so yeah you're absolutely right ryan then everything should be compared against that standard that's the standard of knowledge for us i'm going to go ahead and open up we're gonna keep chopping it up because i love having you in here it's always awesome and we gotta get you in here more yeah you gotta do that we gotta do it um i'm gonna throw out the number of those in case some uh any of you guys have questions i have brett kunkel in studio from maven is it maven ministries this is maven just maven yeah maven and how do they find maven uh go to maventruth.com or find us on social media there it is uh okay so triple eight five six four six one seven three triple eight five six four six one seven three and if there's any slow typers out there like me i'm gonna give it out one more time triple eight five six four six one seven three we are in studio taking live calls and i think we got we got picked up by a couple more stations here recently so i'm gonna have to find out what station that is maybe at the break and then i'll plug it but yeah we got picked up on a couple more i know arizona is one spot and somewhere in the midwest we got picked up in another um as you guys are calling in i just want to throw out we have the whosoever's tour we're doing the who servers mega tour check it out wherever the camera is here um i don't even know how many dates that is it looks like it's definitely over it could be over like 60 dates but this is the first leg of the whosoever's tour call us book us at thewhosoevers.com we want to come to you and tour we are doing a united states tour to bring the gospel to skate parks churches schools juvenile detention centers anywhere there's youth we are coming because why because it's important because the times that we're living in people are getting lied to they're losing their faith and we want to come and let them know that god loves and he has a plan for them and when people get saved we want to plug them into church so they can get disciple because that's what jesus says preach the gospel baptize in the name of the father the son of the holy spirit and teach them to obey my commandments that is and where do you find the commandments in the scriptures so is there as uh actually my my screen's not even working here i'm gonna have to get one of these guys from the back to pull up my phone lines here do you guys you have your phone line up there do you see any phone lines available okay we'll send someone in here to fix it um speaking of uh speaking of the truth uh what else would you like to say for maybe someone that's watching right now or listening um through the airwaves is um well i would say some you know a lot of times these questions that we have they end up being uh obstacles to either to the gospel itself or there are obstacles in our relationship with god and so if you are struggling with questions if you have doubts the best thing to do is to be honest with those things and get them out on the table and talk about them and you know in churches and and christians and parents we got to be better at dealing with those kind of questions and doubts realizing that that's that's just part of being human in fact uh sometimes when you doubt you kind of feel like you're alone or you're the only one and like you're somehow your faith is deficient but all you have to do is flip through the pages of the bible and you see guys like abraham and moses and david and peter and john the baptist i mean all these great you know followers of god and they all every single one of them had some serious episodes of doubt and so if you struggle with questions and doubt you're not alone the pages of the bible are filled with with doubters and so be honest with those things bring those things up because they can be a real obstacle in your relationship with christ yeah no i think everybody everyone has doubt here and there i think it's a it's a normal thing and all it does is it should take you into a place of going deeper and digging in and learning and wanting to know more and you know the holy spirit he's the teacher as well and as you read the bible as you know he will he he's the author god is the author and he will speak to you personally as you dig in your reading like god i'm struggling with these things i'm having doubt jesus isn't surprised right i just tell people you know if they're like well i'm mad at god i got problems people go tell them say dude i'm actually mad at you why because i lost my mom how could this i'm bitter i'm angry go tell god about this or god i'm having doubt that you even exist like can you prove that you're real and it's not like you're looking for a magic trick or anything like that but it's like dig into the scriptures it's his voice and and ask him and he will show up yeah and you know there's two primary ways in the world that god reveals himself one is his word and the second one is his world you know paul talks about this in romans chapter one he says uh you know what may be known about god is evident to them because of what has been created and so this is what you know theologians have called it general revelation meaning generally this is this is this is available this revelation this knowledge of god is available generally to all people just by looking at the world that we live in and that you can actually know that god exists just by looking at the world in the created order name yeah just break down a couple of these things that you yeah so so one of the you know one of the things that i did when i got questioned and when i started experiencing doubt is i said okay i'm gonna kind of go back to step number one is there even a god like are there good reasons to think that god exists beyond because the bible tells me so right and uh so i started looking to see what's what's the evidence for god and i discovered uh in there there are actually at least a dozen uh solid arguments for god's existence one of them is is called the cosmological argument yeah it's just a big fancy word uh but you'll notice cosm cosmos in there it just refers to the world and this is where you look at features of the world and then you reason to the conclusion that god exists and so the cosmological argument starts with the fact that science philosophy points to a beginning of the universe and if there is a beginning of the universe the the question then is what's the best explanation for that beginning and i actually a kind of an easy way to think about it is to think about just a series of dilemmas okay we the universe exists right um you've got this this dilemma there's two choices here either it had no beginning or it had a beginning right okay well what science and philosophy tell us is that there's a beginning okay now the second question then becomes all right if the universe had a beginning was that you was that beginning caused or was it uncaused and that's where you just again use good reasoning and and scientific observation and realize that things don't pop into existence out of nothing for no reason right right we don't have we don't have evidence that that things are coming into existence out of nothing uh the law of cause and effect if you didn't have this basic law of cause and effect that every effect every event has a sufficient cause to it to explain its existence well then all of science actually breaks down if you can't rely upon that law of cause and effect so basic uh thinking tells us okay if the b if the universe had a beginning then it must have been caused so then we got one more dilemma okay so there's a cause to the beginning of the universe the cause is either impersonal or it's personal and if you think about cause what kinds of things cause other things well impersonal causes can cause things so let's just say you're you walk into a room there's a pool table there and you see an event happening the let's say the eight ball right is rolling across the table so that's an event well that event could have been caused by another event right it could have been the cue ball striking the eight ball and that event caused the event of the eight ball rolling right so that's what that's just what philosophers call event causation that just means that some events cause other events right now uh the problem with that being the cause for the beginning of the universe is that we know that all events have causes right so if you say well the beginning of the universe was caused by another event an impersonal cause well then you've got a problem that new event that you said was the cause becomes the new beginning of the universe and you have to ask well what caused that event because that if you say well it's another event well then what caused that event and you're left with what philosophers call an infinite regress i mean this thing goes back and you have no answer yeah and that's it that's that would be impossible for a number of reasons and so that the only other option is that agents persons cause other things so the reason that eight ball was moving across the table could be an event but it could also be hey some dude picked it up and rolled it across the table and it was just caused by a person and that helps us to understand that persons can cause things and and it's simply out of their own willpower so i can cause my arm to to rise up and there's nothing else that's causing that except my decision to do so and so now if events aren't a good explanation for the beginning of the universe the only other possible cause is a person well what kind of person would have to be well at the beginning of the universe all time comes into existence so whatever cause it has to be timeless all space comes into existence so whatever causes it has to be spaceless uh you know that's good so so you've got this timeless yeah uh spaceless non-fit like all physical matter comes into play non-physical yeah so you've got a timeless spaceless non-physical person who has to have incredible power yeah to bring a universe into existence out of nothing what are you describing and he has to be massive yeah the only candidate for that person is god yeah you know and so what we do is we reason and we the best explanation is that there is a personal powerful creator who brought everything into existence now that doesn't quite get us to the god of the bible yet but that is a huge start it tells us that atheism is false right it tells us hey there is a god that's just one of many arguments i mean you can look at the design of the universe design points to a designer you can look at the fine-tuning of the universe these scientific facts about these initial conditions for the universe to be a life-permitting universe and fine-tuning implies or points to a fine tuner you got moral laws that govern this universe like you know things that are obvious like murder is wrong or racism is wrong well if these things are truly wrong they're these objective moral facts then moral laws point to a moral law giver you know and so these are just a handful of the powerful arguments that god is really real amazing amazing brett kunkel in studio from maven um i'm seeing some numbers come in uh and call so i'm gonna give the number out again triple eight five six four six one seven three triple eight five six four six one seven three so i seen a phone drop so if your phone drops please call in i might have a little issues here but uh go ahead and give us a call at triple eight five six four six one seven three we're going to go to uh break in a minute i do i've been talking about this uh new book i have coming out kill the noise finding meaning above the madness if you're watching the video this is it right here it drops it comes out may uh may 11th which is this tuesday which i'm gonna be back on pastor's perspective uh talking about it but um it is a faith-building tool it is a discipleship tool uh it is tons of bible teaching in it with life application because obviously if you guys heard me teach before that's what i love to do because uh i want to show how relevant the bible is where you know this happened here this is how god did it now check it out here it is in the scriptures and and uh it's um it's gonna take you on a journey whether you don't know god whether you want to know god or you're dealing with addiction or maybe you're you know maybe you have a testimony uh like like brian and there's no no addiction no suicide or nothing like that but you just want to uh find your call in life it's this book has it all and it's gonna it literally it will help you and any of your friends and your family members check it out pick it up give it to a friend and just watch what god does i believe that god is going to use this for many people to get saved because i go out and give the great commission everywhere but i'm only in front of people for a few minutes i share my story or whatever say that's like 15 minutes to an hour then i got to leave and i'm like you know what i need something i can literally you know we give the gospels to john right now from the gideons but i mean i'm like i want to give them a tool that can you know it could be the bible teaching and they can like disciple at the same time to grow them but we'll be back in two minutes right after break with brett kunkle peace [Music] more of the ryan reese show coming up post your questions at ryan reese on his instagram twitter and or facebook now back back to the ryan reece show all right we are back and we are getting some phone calls in and we want to take your calls uh with questions about uh faith um we got brett kunkel in here and he's dropping the knowledge right now and um just love what he's saying i'm gonna go and put the number out one more time triple eight five six four six one seven three triple eight five six four six one seven three we're gonna go ahead and grab uh this call right here we got melody calling in from uh palm springs melody how you doing tonight i'm good but i'm not calling from palm springs i'll tell you that oh again all right where are you calling from uh guillermo california which is uh near barstow okay wrong direction it's further than palm springs thanks for calling in you're welcome i just wanted to add something that um i heard the other night it was really mind-blowing to me i was listening to a secular show that i listened to late at night does not purport to be a christian anything it's just different people coming on in the last time was an astrophysicist that just wrote a book about black holes and about you know just the sky so the interviewer in time was saying well i just want to know i just want to know what was before the big bang just tell me what was before and he said okay i'll tell you what was before god spoke and nothing happened without god speaking and he said let there be light and there was light and then he said and john 1 1 says [Music] in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god and i would add and the word became flesh and dwelt among us but he it i i never heard anybody quite say that as a an apology for the um what was before the anything before that we're talking you know we've been taught about the big bang or whatever uh and and i thought and he he said it again nothing happens without first god speaking it yeah i said cool okay i'm uh that's good for me yeah well that that's exactly what the psalmist tells us in in psalm 33 6. it says by the word of the lord the heavens were made right and that so that fits with genesis 1 1 in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth well how did he create he simply spoke and god as an omnipotent or all-powerful being can simply speak the universe into existence and that's the power of his word right and and and it actually it helps you to understand even kind of human beings made in his image and the power in in our words right you know we certainly can't create things uh out of exist into bring things into existence out of nothing like god but there's still power behind our words and now you take a being like god uh and he can he can simply speak the universe into existence and that's what uh you know uh that's what the the scriptures tell us i love that even in like we were talking about in genesis uh one one you know in the beginning gods which you know that word gods is what the elohim right the three and one and and well yeah so what's interesting is melody brought up uh you know john 1 1 which tells us in the beginning was the word the word was with god and the word was god and then it goes on to say he was with god in the beginning but verse 3 the word right we know from verse 14 it's referring to jesus right the word became flesh and dwelt among us then verse 3 talking about the word says through him all things were made without him nothing was made that has been made so what does that tell us well that tells us the word jesus took part in creation and that nothing was made aside from him well how can that be well it can it can be if if jesus is the second member of the trinity and so god the father god the son god the holy spirit all together are the one god who brings the universe into existence and so this is one this is one of the arguments we we we have biblically that jesus is god because he spoke everything into existence yeah he he does the same things that god does he creates all things you know and and so genesis 1 1 put together with john 1 3 tell us yeah this is the father and son cooperating together as the one god bringing the universe into existence yeah i love it when people or they'll say well why do i pray to jesus well because nothing was created except through him he is the god he is the beginning he's the creator and nothing was uh the word became flesh yeah in fact if you ever get in a conversation with like say um you know maybe a mormon friend or a friend who's a jehovah's witness who you know they don't believe that jesus is god they don't believe in the trinitarian view of god uh point them to to john 1 3 because they believe that jesus is a created being and and if jesus is a created being keep going if jesus is a created being well that contradicts what it says in john 1 3 that says nothing was made without him and so jesus if if he didn't already exist he couldn't have created all things so he must have already pre-existed this uh you know this universe what do they believe what are the jehovah's witness and the the mormons believe about jesus like what else do they believe that he's not the son of god yeah no well they'll use the phrase son of god they will use it yeah but in like let's take mormonism for example mormonism what they mean is that he's the literal son of god so this is why when it's got it so this is why it's so important to ask clarification questions just say when someone you know a mormon says what son of god ask what do you mean by son of god right and it turns out that according to the lds church the latter day saints what they mean is that he is the literal son of the heavenly father and the heavenly mother because they believe that even god the father was once a man who became god and now he rules over this universe and there is a heavenly mother and they are procreating and having spirit children and those spirit children are awaiting bodies here on earth and jesus was the first spirit child so uh you and i actually turn out to be spirit children and so jesus is literally our older brother and this is where then also in their view lucifer right is also a spirit brother and jesus is the eldest brother so that when they say son of god they mean literal son of god not the scripture's view that son of god is a reference to uh is interesting so that's it so then what about when they when when the verse says in the beginning god or first john talks about nothing was created except through him through jesus how do they react to that yeah well oftentimes when you have a good kind of conversation with mormons and you can kind of point them back to scripture right as the standard because mormons will say they believe that the bible is the word of god of course they'll qualify that they'll say as far as it's been translated correctly but just set that aside for a moment they believe the bible's the word of god so you can point them back to scripture then showing that their church views the official views of their church don't fit with what scripture says and typically what will happen is that um they will fall back on their experience they'll fall back to their testimony this is generally generally what happens when they can't answer when they when they see these contradictions they'll they'll either try to throw the bible under the bus a little bit and just say well you know we don't we believe as far as it's been translated correctly or they'll just say well you know what i i read the book of mormon or and i prayed about it and god god told me it was true until they fall back into a an experience wow okay um what about the uh jehovah's witness what is the difference yeah so they're they they would view uh jesus as the actually the archangel michael and they will they will take um so what they do is they they actually have have done their own translation of the bible it's called the new world translation and in the new world translation they will take problematic passages like john 1 1 is you know a prime example and in in the new world translation in translation it says in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was a god a so they just so manipulated they add that wow and to try and get away what about revelations when it says if you know anyone that adds anything will be cursed well so yeah the the the challenge with that one with that passage and in fact i encourage christians if you're talking to like you know mormons or jehovah's witnesses and and you know mormons clearly they have three additional scriptures the book of mormon uh the doctrine and covenants and the pearl of great price uh don't actually use that revelation passage because a couple of reasons number one if you look at that revelation 22 verse that says don't add it says don't add to this book of prophecy it's referring to what john wrote in revelation because really the bible is a library it's not just one single book but it's a collection of 66 books and so that is just referring to revelation you have a similar warning actually in deuteronomy 4 2 that says don't add to these commands and so the mormon the well-versed mormon is going to say well if you want to try and use revelation 22 you know as a this uh outlawing any kind of adding to scripture well then well what about deuteronomy 4 2 and then we should have added the new testament right that's good yeah so that's so that's how they would respond to that if you try to bring that up very interesting okay i think the best way is just to show how those other scriptures contradict the bible and uh and if they contradict one another they can't both be the word of god yep got it all right good stuff love having you here always learning new stuff all right we're gonna go ahead and grab uh ryan from san diego you are from san diego right [Laughter] what's up man what uh what's your question tonight um all right so i was just gonna ask you if it's important for you know um a believer to share to an unbeliever about prophecy you know in the bible oh it's such a for like a new believer yeah or yeah like a non-believer to anomaly yeah like just you know yeah like to like a a person that doesn't really believe like because my pastor said like it would be a good idea to or i mean he said that he would just um that's the reason why he believes in the bible is because it's prophetic got it yeah go for it you know i think the way to approach um our non-christian friends is to take them as individuals and rather than saying hey let take you know here's a five-step approach that you take with everybody instead i think the first thing to do is to get to know that individual find out what they believe so i think one of the best ways to start these kind of conversations is just to ask questions say hey you know uh what do you think about god what do you think about uh you know the meaning of life what do you think about the bible do you think that god has communicated to us ask lots of questions ask you know clarifying questions really you know find out what they mean uh when they say certain things and then and then also ask them why they believe what they believe so if you can just say hey what do you mean by that and like why do you believe that those two questions alone can get can really help you to understand where someone's coming from and so i would say look if once you do that then it'll help tell you what you should start with or what kind of things that that person might be really interested in hearing first and so i wouldn't just kind of say hey whoever you're talking to start with prophecy i say find out what they're interested in find out what they actually believe because if someone doesn't believe uh you know the bible is god's word they may often just dismiss anything you say about god's word you might have to kind of especially when it comes to prophecy yeah exactly so you might need to go back a step first and say hey here are the reasons why we even think the bible is reliable and trustworthy and i think prophecy can can be used to show that the bible is god's word so if you've got someone who's wondering okay like i lo you know maybe they're interested in the bible or they want to read it but they don't have kind of confidence that it's god's word then hey you can show using prophecy that there are good reasons to think that this is no ordinary book and so you know you point to like just the messianic prophecies you take an example like micah 5 2 which talks about the messiah being born in bethlehem which is written and around you know at least kind of even by most liberal scholars dating at around 700 bc right 700 years prior to the birth of christ and then we have then christ fulfilling that that's just one of many of the messianic prophecies that tell us that yeah this book is no ordinary book it's got like these divine fingerprints all over it and prophecy is one of those examples so i think first start by getting to know the individual finding out where they're at because if i'm talking to my atheist buddy david like he just he won't listen to anything i say about the bible if i say there's prophecies it's like he just checks out yeah and so i gotta start with square one i get to start with god's existence is there even a god and uh and so that's the way i think is kind of the best and wisest approach to these kind of conversations and i think it also is really dignifying for people because when you start with questions versus sometimes we as you know christians are so anxious to just start kind of preaching at people but if you start with questions and then really do a good job of listening to people that dignifies them that that demonstrates that you really care that you're you're not just about you getting your message across but that you want to hear their heart find out where they're at and it'll help you know exactly where to start so it's such a dignifying approach i love that you said that because we've talked on the show so many times because obviously our whole thing with the movement is the outreach it's it's the great commission to get in front of people and to let them know that god exists and he loves them but to do that you know a lot of christians just want to close the deal i'm going to go tell them they're wrong they don't believe in god which it's it it's true we have the truth we know what the truth is but to these other people they don't they don't know god's real they don't know the books it's a book it's not a divine book it's nothing to them you know just like all the other you know spiritual books out there but you have to go to them and you have to start a relationship and and hear what people have to say and just see where their heads at yeah basically that that will tell they'll just you just ask questions people want to talk yeah and they'll just lay it all out and maybe they don't need to hear prophecy or maybe like i was talking to this person the other day that was in the conspiracy theories and one world order and all this stuff and i'm like you know what let me tell you what the bible said let me get into some prophecy stuff because prophecy works great for these moments of like end times one world order you know everything that's going on at the elites and all this all this stuff and you start going into like the antichrist movement when he comes what you know what what these these events that will happen no one will buy or sell and you start looking at the pulse of this he's gonna be he's going to bring world peace and now and more than ever when you look at the world of like fear and people are scared and there's writing and there's black lives matter and then there's there's you know everyone's a rapist and then there's like the racism and you know uh war and it's just like it's just crazy like there's just so much fear and and and unrest we'll just say but we know that the antichrist when he comes he's gonna be in world peace and it's never been like this ever before you could see like the whole world is affected by this and people just want peace yeah safety you know and and and you've got to ask people questions you got to listen to find out where they're at and so i hope i hope ryan that helps you um with that with that question yeah so that's definitely um it's just basically just being that spirit led and seeing uh what what god's downloading to you as you're as he's as these people are talking to you you're hearing what they're saying and then god will will lead you in the right direction and often if you listen well enough and you do it over time uh with that what that does it builds a platform of trust where then that person you've earned their trust and then they will also then turn the question back to you and and be like well what do you think about this and when they have done that when they ask you what you think or what you believe on this then they're really ready to listen and that's when absolutely we we share the truth and we speak the truth but generally speaking in relationship really getting to know someone will tell you exactly where to start with them heck yeah relationship and that's what jesus did we always go back to jesus he was out there hanging out with people hanging out with you know says that there was many sinners amongst his uh crew he was out in the streets going from town to town village to villages with the people having conversations breaking bread and surfacing in the in the in the synagogues or the churches and then back to the streets but that's uh where it's at yeah and that doesn't mean that there's never a time for people for you to meet a stranger and to share the gospel i'm just talking about a general approach i mean i i travel a lot so i'm on planes and i'll jump into a conversation with uh you know a person on a plane or an airport or you know wherever i'm at and you you know i don't have time to build a relationship with that person but you end up talking and they just want to know what you know and so there's time for that as well dude that's amazing all right we got we have about nine minutes left um really quick uh have you been traveling doing stuff uh are you back in business yeah things are open back up man i've been on the road i think for like the last uh three or four weekends in a row where were you speaking at the states we did a conference in colorado uh in march and partnered with a really cool ministry called summit uh summit ministries and then uh did one up in the sacramento area with them and then did a conference in fort worth texas and i'll be going back to fort worth later this month and then man this summer's full full-on busy heck yeah that's good dude that's awesome so dope okay here let's give this number out one more time triple eight five six four six one seven three triple eight five six four six one seven three every question is a good question yeah yeah you know i if if if people uh have some general questions i i i want to give some recommendations because you know we get to do a show for you know 45 minutes or to an hour or so and and uh but there's a ton of good resources out there now more so than when i first struggled with my own episodes of doubt yeah 20 years ago uh there's so many resources so many really smart christians who have written great books who have started organizations who have great websites and and and if you're if you ever come across a question you can't answer i guarantee you that there are christians out there who have uh who have answered it in fact typically when i struggle with a question and i want to find out hey what what's the answer i'll type that question in to uh you know a search engine and then i'll then i'll add the word apologetics and there's a great apologetic answer for that particular question but um you know i'd say if someone wants a good foundation a good maybe a book yeah that's like a a good starting point um there's a bunch of them but there's a great book by a friend of mine frank turek who wrote a book called i don't have enough faith to be an atheist well the thing i like about that book is it's not like too technical but it doesn't dumb it down yeah and then it covers the the cumulative case for christianity because i mean you think about it there's questions about god there's questions about truth there's questions about the bible there's questions about jesus there's questions about pain and suffering and frank's book just kind of covers all of that to make the case that not only does god exist not only has he revealed himself in christ not only as he revealed himself in the word but that all put that all together and it shows you that christianity is absolutely true so that's a great book out there another book that i love uh that kind of hits on some of those those those key questions but then also talks about the meaning of life is a book by a christian thinker uh jp jp moreland who wrote a book called um the god question and that's a really good book that gets into okay not only is this stuff true but how does it impact my life and uh and so that's a good one if you're looking for a good website i used to work with a great organization a good friend of mine greg cockle uh started an organization called stand to reason and their website is str.org and whenever i had questions when i was like a youth pastor my kids would ask me tough questions or i have my own questions i'd always go to str.org and they they just cover so many of the challenges that we're facing from the culture so there's a ton of ways to write that down say that again str.org the the organization called stand to reason str and so that's a great website and there's just there's a ton more out there that there's just no excuse for christians today to to to not to not find the answers that are out there and uh there you know these answers can be such a powerful tool in building your faith in god i mean if you think about think about how our knowledge and our evidence impacts relationship like so for instance if ryan if you said hey brett do you have we have one minute left if you said tell me about your wife and i said oh yeah she's got brown hair and two eyes yeah you're like no tell me more and i said that's all i got you would say oh i bet you don't have a very good marriage but if i was able to just spew knowledge about her yeah and and and all the knowledge i've gained all the evidence i've gained about that woman for the last you know 20 some years man that has given me such a huge deep uh trust in her and in the same way our knowledge and our reasons can build our trust in god there it is brent kunkel look him up thank you for being on the show i have one i have one minute left and i completely forgot i'm actually speaking at my dad's church on sunday may 16th it's coming up the 8 a.m to 10 a.m and the 12 p.m calvary chapel golden springs raul reese's church this sunday i'll be doing all three sunday services teaching i'll be doing a uh i'll have the books there because it's for the book release they'll be there i'll be out there uh um with you guys hanging out and uh it's gonna be epic the book comes out uh this tuesday killthenoisebook.com uh it's sold everywhere amazon uh barnes and nobles target walmart everywhere where books are sold it's there kill the noise book.com get it buy one for a friend come out to uh calvary chapel golden springs on sunday for the morning services i'll be there hanging out love this meet you pray with you chill with you after and not only that hit us up at the whosoever's dot com and book our tour we are doing the whosoever's mega tour we're going to be do we already got like 60 dates booked and we're going to continue to book another couple hundred we're going to hit it hard right now is the most important time in world history ever since the coronavirus and what's going on with the youth they need people need to know that god loves them and he wants to touch their life he wants to encounter them and he wants a relationship and that's what it's all about it's a relationship with the god of the universe yeah knowing the one true god that's it it's that simple um where can people find you maventruth.com i've got a book uh a couple books out uh yeah talk about it for adults a practical guide to culture helping the next generation navigate today's world we got a book for students it's called a student's guide to culture and that's where we deal with all the challenges young people are facing like gender identity homosexuality and on and on and uh yeah so go to the website and grab his books how many do you have three two two there it is hey thanks for being on man thanks for having me [Music] this has been the ryan reese show to connect and find out more about ryan click on ryan reese.com check us out next saturday for the ryan reese show

Channel: Ryan Ries

Views: 785

Rating: 4.9148936 out of 5

Keywords: The Whosoevers, K-WAVE, Ryan Ries, Calvary Chapel Golden Springs, 107.9FM, Kill The Noise, Tour, Holy Spirit, God, Truth, Purpose, Hope, Love, Outreach, Students, Jesus, Faith, Suicide, Depression, Anxiety, Trials, Healing, Drugs, Pornography, Sex, Identity, The Ryan Ries Show, Radio, Talk Show, Saturday Night, At, 9:00PM, Brett Kunkle, Founder of Maven, Maven, Life Experiences, Apologetics

Id: FlrqslIk8Mo

Length: 57min 59sec (3479 seconds)

Published: Wed May 12 2021