Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 424 | Shocking Practices at the Temple of Aphrodite & Dodging Theological Mudholes

Episode Date: February 9, 2022

Phil, Jase, and Al are extremely excited to sit down and discuss Jesus with guest Larry Bowles from Athens, Greece. Larry reveals contextual meanings in scripture often overlooked by churches unfamiliar with the practices of ancient Corinth. Al interviews Larry about how God used him to minister to refugees, and Larry teaches about the temple of Aphrodite and the shocking practices that took place inside. Larry explains how to avoid misunderstanding scripture by using historical context to find relevance in texts. Watch the Unashamed overtime show, only on BlazeTV: https://BlazeTV.com/Unashamed Get Uncanceled by Phil Robertson, available now: https://www.amazon.com/Uncanceled-Finding-Meaning-Accusations-Condemnation/dp/1400230179 To celebrate the launch of Phil's new book, Blaze has Uncanceled T-shirts and mugs you can get at https://PhilMerch.com - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Yeah, so, Jayshy, people are making fake cologne with your picture, aren't? Is that what I understand? Buddy, I mean, Adam Rowe's the baseball player. He sends me a pitcher. It's me. It says, James Robertson, and it's like, I forgot the name of it, but I don't want to, I guess, advertise it. Downrange or something. Cologne for men. I was thinking like swamp water, right? You selling Cologne?

I went, no, but I will look into this. I want to call a lawyer. Well, I'm not sure if it would be a brilliant marketing strategy because it's like, who could need it more than you. So join the people that need it. Or if it's terrible because they're like, well, this guy, he's no Johnny Depp, you know. I'm stinky and dirty, a bigger percentage of the time than I, I've never used Cologne in my life. I've never put any of them. But if I saw your face on a bottle of Cologne,

the very first thing I would want to do, I want to see what that's going to smell like. See? Because, I mean, I'm saying it's going to be a brilliant market. So maybe instead of the fake stuff that's out there, you need to actually look into that. You and Missy need to come up. I'm going to look into it and shut it down. Oh, what's wrong with our society? You won't shut it down.

They had me selling marijuana oil. Now, here we go. I got a whole of the local lawyer at the farm. Ex-farmor up here, Gary Glenn. Yeah. I said, Gary Glenn is there's any way to stop that from people? saying that I'm selling marijuana all. He said, no.

Let it ride. Isn't that fraud? How'd you know about it? I said, somebody told me about it. I don't know. It was on the internet. I like it around here. Our lawyers are ex-farm.

The ex-farmor lawyer. Do you notice that? You picked that up? No, that's great. Yeah. So we're all into re-branding ourselves. The lesson learned for me is it could be worse. It's Cologne.

It's better than CPD. Yeah. So we got Larry Bowles on today. Larry, welcome back. Thank you. Thank you. It's great. It's always a pleasure to have you in the, in the lair.

This time you brought your lovely wife. Kathy's right over there. Which is awesome. She gets to see this place. Dad, I wanted to start out by mentioning this is a huge week because this is book release week, which is big. So show them your book, Dad. We've talked about the book quite a bit. And, you know, just to prove, Dad, that the book is relevant in our culture, they're still, they're round two after Rogan.

this week. What's happened is now that left wingers have gone back, started listening to more episodes. So they're, you know, a guy that's on air, I mean, we do this, you know, a few hours a week. He's on three hours a day, five days a week. So 15 hours of talking, you're going to say some things that people can take the wrong way. And so now I noticed they've doubled down. I noticed the Obama's bailed on him today off of Spotify. So like it just rages on the idea that, I mean, they're going to try to cancel just because he's a, a juggernaut, you know. And he's really, Jay's talked about him on a couple of podcasts ago. He's not a right winger. And he's not even a far left. He's just kind of a middle of the

road person, you know, but at the same time, boy, when they get after you, I mean, they're after. So, Dad, to your point. Well, in the midst of my point, I make one point, it's not that lengthy. It's pretty short. Paul was, the apostle Paul was writing about how, how one, looks and behaves based on his behavior. So he came up with two groups of people on planet Earth at the time this was written about 2,000 years ago, mid, mid first century. The acts of the, here's one group of individuals on planet Earth.

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious. So this is easy to spot. Look up whatever culture you live in, whatever date. Top of the list. It's always there, sexual immorality. The Corinthian letter, we're discussing those matters, impurity, the Corinthian letter, and debauchery, the Corinthian letter is where we are, but I'm just showing you two groups of people on planet Earth. Then and now, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you as I did before, those who live like this, they will not inherit the kingdom of God.

That's one group. The other group is the saved, the disciples of Jesus. The fruit of the spirit is love, instead of immorality, there's love there. Joy, instead of hatred, there's joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-controlness. and self-control against such things, there is no law. That's why I love is a fulfillment of the law. Therefore, the book shows you the two groups, uncannselled, finding meaning and peace in a culture of accusations.

It was there 2,000 years ago, heavy. Look what they did to the savior of the world. Shame and condemnation. So primarily written to the saved with the hope that the people who go around and judging others pass judgment on their neighbor would in fact figure out that there is a gigantic love deficit going on in these United States of America. And the same things were going on 2,000 years ago. nothing has changed except Jesus is being preached then and now so and I think your point's been that's come across well because you know last week Wopi Goldberg was suspended from the view so I'm saying it doesn't matter whether you're left right no middle no it doesn't matter

the idea of cancel culture eventually comes for everybody I mean that's the concept it eats its own you know and the point is we don't hate these people the Apostle Paul just gave you the groups, the ones without Jesus and the Spirit of God, and the ones with Jesus and the Holy Spirit in them that was given when they obeyed the gospel. He just gives you an update. Right. So since we live in the Spirit, let us keep, live by the Spirit. Let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Let us not become conceded. Now check this out. and envying each other. Well, that's the council culture. They provoke. They take it to the streets. They put it in their hearts and minds of others, and they form factions.

Well, it seems to me they just want to... Nothing has changed. It's an attack on speech. They don't want you to speak. I mean, you think about you read the book of Acts, what's the whole problem? What got them into trouble? They wanted them to stop speaking about Jesus.

Right. So when it comes to us, that's why sometimes... I guess you're right. I never thought about that. That was cancel culture even back then. The idea was you got to shut them up. Oh, right. If you shut up, you probably won't be canceled.

That's right. When you think about it, when your belief system is not centered in truth, then you're constantly having to defend that. Right. Because you've got to defend it because it'll fall apart if you're, you don't. And when you can't defend it, you begin to attack those that center on truth. Well, we're always talking about defending the truth. Well, the truth is kind of like the word of God. I think it was Spurgeon, said, you know, that the word of God is a little bit like a lion.

A lion, you don't have to defend a lion. You open the cage, the lion's going to defend itself, you know. And so, I mean, truth does not have to be defended because everything else is. an untruth. And so anything I set up as a truth in my life that's not founded at Christ is going to fall apart. So if I build a belief system in some bad theology, it's ultimately going to fall apart because it goes from bad to worse. And imagine it's built on pop culture or whatever, whatever these temporary stands are that make you popular in the moment. I mean, I mean, it's not hard to huff and puff and blow that house down, right? No.

And that's what's happening. What comes out of it is the mindset of, well, let's see, these Bible thumpers, I want to love Jesus, but I have to hate him. And the reason they say that is their ideology. Right, right. It does not allow a belief in a supreme being that became flesh died on the cross, was buried and from the death. They just, I've kind of,

it's like this. It's like, it's funny that because I've marveled, I've been watching, you've done a lot of press, a lot of podcasts, a lot of people's shows the last couple of weeks about the book.

I got about five lined up today. I know. And so I've been chuckling, though, because, you know, you're, and that's the power of this book, by the way,

by coming at it from biblical truth, it's been interesting watching because you're talking to most of the people that are on the political spectrum, trying to, you know, come up with solutions left and right. And it's really interesting because if dad comes in, some of it, a few of them, you know, that understand it, but some of them that don't, and they have a hard time wrapping

their mind around just some of the simple ways, you know, that he's putting the book to deal with it. Somehow they think that if it's a political fix, and they're saying if we can just fix it, we can fix it politically, not spiritually. We don't need God for that. So we're going to fix it. but the truth sets them free from Satan. The truth sets you free from sin. The truth sets you free from guilt.

The truth sets you free from law. And the truth sets you free from the grade. Well, you know, that's a lot of freeing going on there. That's right. If you just look into it, at least they can take everything away from us, but they can't take away our hope. That's exactly right. So let me tell folks where to get it.

Do you have something else to add to? Well, I was just going to say, when Larry preach yesterday had a really really good point about because some things in the Bible

are hard to understand where was that second Peter 3. Yeah, 316. But your point was you have Christ as the foundation

or the filter to have these and it made me think when Phil said that about people they'll come up with an accusation and counsel you

before you tell them where to go when that letter to the Colossians when Jesus, I mean, when Paul wrote about Jesus is the image of the God, image of the invisible God, by him, things were created on heaven and earth. You know, 17, he's before all things, in him, all things hold together. He's the head of the body, the church.

I mean, that's who we represent. He's running things. God was pleased to have his fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile himself all things on earth or things in. heaven by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. So he gives this image of who Jesus is. And then it gets to us and it says, once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has brought you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy without blemish. And then it has this phrase and free from accusation. Yeah. And then he goes on to say, this is the

gospel you heard and there's been proclaimed, which to my point, we proclaim Jesus and people try to stop that from happening. But it's because of God's plan and who he is and the peace that can happen through that experience with Jesus. That's right, you know, which is powerful. So let me tell you how to get it. So a lot of you have already ordered or pre-ordered. And of course, you know, now that it's released, you'll be getting those. Nick, who's a long-term listener up in Pennsylvania, send me a picture of him holding the book and he said he read it like two days and he was like you know i didn't think one could be better than theft that's his favorite book he said but this one's there and i said look

it's my i think it's my favorite one so far so it's a great book you can go to amazon all the big booksellers to get it if you haven't gotten one yet this is a very important week for us to get it because it pushes dad up the bestseller list talk shop dot live still has some sign copies so if you want to go there to get one there and also uh blaze has done a shirt dad You hadn't seen this yet. Uncanceled t-shirt with Colossians 2, 13 and 14, the scripture reference there on it. So you can get this in mugs also if you go to fillmerch.com. So if you want to get a mug or a shirt to be able to show folks that you got it, you can do that too.

So just want to encourage you guys to do that. This is the perfect week. You'll see dad all over the place. He's been doing a lot of media. So you're about ready for the week to be over time. I really am. I mean, you know, at least we don't have to go to New York like we used to, so you could do it off. They're going to New York.

Which is a little bit better. All right, well, let's take a break. So, Larry, anytime you're in town, it's why we always love having you preach, and we always love you having on the show. I want to talk a little bit about your sermon yesterday at Deb F.R. Because you came, and what I love about you, Larry, is that wherever we are, you're just like, I'll plug in and preach. you know, which says a lot. This is the preacher coming out of now. I've noticed a pattern.

When him and Mike get to a difficult part of Scripture? When's Larry? They call you and say, hey, hey, Larry, been a while. When I did Roman 7, Mike called and said, you know, me and Al didn't really want to go there. And so then I tell them the date that I'm coming. And Mike calls me back and said, hey, Larry, guess which chapter you drew, pardon I? You know, and so. And he just stepped right in, which is, you're going to throw around.

They're going to hire you. No. And that's the thing about First Corinthians is it's full of these mud holes, I guess, you know. And we come to these, you know, like the very first verse of chapter 7, it's good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman. That's where it begins, you know. When that's your lead, get ready, right? Yeah, exactly. People who marry will face many troubles in this life.

That's exactly. I'm trying to spare you this. I'm trying to save you a lot of pain. And so we're reading all of our things into this. But we treat these areas in First Corinthians like a sleeping pit bull in somebody's front yard. It's like, I see you, but I'm going over here to peace and joy and love. And I just don't need all of that. Well, these mud holes or these theological pit bulls are there for a reason.

And that is to give us insight into why. I mean, we're always so worried about what it says and what it means about me, you know, and that's the thing about the Bible is it's not about you. Right. These words are for you. They've been preserved for you. They're written to you, but they're not about you. Right.

And so as we look at what Paul is writing and the words that he's using and the things that he's making reference to that we just want to avoid, those are really where we find, I guess, meaning in and draw parallels into our own lives because we see those very same issues. And so all of these hot button issues today that this book is about in addressing and trying to make everything you just listed that we know is wrong and obvious, the acts of the sinful nature, we're trying to make that right. So they're all defending that. Well, that's exactly what the Corinthians are doing.

And they'll use any logic to get that done. and they want to justify their behaviors before God. They care more about being justified before God and being right in what they're doing than they do about Jesus. So we talked about before. I first met you, we first met you, we're connected through One Kingdom, which is Onekingdom.org, if you want to see more about his work and other stuff, we're doing. And you were connected to the work in Athens, working with Muslim immigrants or refugees. Yeah, that's where we were, I guess the last time I saw you.

Yeah, four months ago. You were there with us. Yeah. In Greece. That's what hit me yesterday when I heard you because I was coming back from Tennessee, so I was listening online. And I told you before we started, I thought it was top five dissertations I've ever heard on anything.

It was amazing. Look, I sent Missy a text, and I said, you need to stop what you're doing, because they were meeting with our two sons. And I said, and listen to Larry's presentation. And she's like, oh, I will. I was like, no, you don't understand. I was like, if I was a woman, I would run out the building, perhaps through the wall and just scream and say, yes. And so after she listened to it, she shared my enthusiasm.

But that's what came out to me because I think a lot of people, when you get to the later verses in Corinthians, they're like, well, why does Paul disapprove of women or demean women? And I thought your first 30 minutes was more historical. It's the context. It's the context. But it would take a man. Here's what hit me in why I'm bringing this up. Because when I was over there, I thought, why is Larry here? Because I thought he's from Oklahoma.

He's kind of a country boy, so I can do this. I was thinking, well, he's over there. When I got over there, how many people in that city? That's six million. Six million in a place that should be. 156 square miles. Yeah, it's just to say that I was... Yeah, dad and I've seen it too, yeah.

To be claustrophobic is an understatement. I felt like a trap rat. I just like... However, because of the refugee angle and what God, you know, led you in the ministry over there, I thought, I mean, this is brilliant. And everybody talks about a war on terrorism and different things you can do.

Well, this is really how you change hearts and change countries through the God. of Jesus. They come over, broken, glad to be alive. I noticed every story they had a near-death experience just to get out of these countries that were suppressing them just as a human being. Yeah. Everybody was running for their lives out of the Middle East, Northern Africa. 80% of them come right through Athens. It's kind of like standing in a doorway in all these countries. I mean, we've encountered people from 22 different Muslim countries that we couldn't get into, but the Lord's just bringing them to us.

through the door. And so we're, we're just standing there waiting on it. I got up via an interpreter and spoke to, I guess they call themselves Persians, but Iranians in that area. Christ love Persian church right now. Yeah. And it was just surreal because I thought this is, this is spiritual warfare. I mean, the front line. Yeah. Because when you think about what Jesus did with just a few chosen, a few women along that grew to what in Acts 1, 120? You just look, it changed the whole world. And I'm like, Jesus inside of them, because now I feel like they're fearless. What's not you get to know any person who has committed to Jesus and is led by the Spirit,

but in such a volatile region of the country with plans to go back and share and creative ways to their country at the risk of their own life. I don't know. It just sends a shiver down your back. But it hit me when you were speaking yesterday. I was like, yep, that's how God works. He takes the last person you would think of, a firefighter from Oklahoma,

to go over there and figure out the history, because you've been going over there for 10 years. And now he got up and made complete sense of First Corinthians because I was always confused about some of the issues, but it made perfect sense to me. God can speak through Balaam's donkey. He can speak through retired firemen. You just don't listen to the donkey.

You listen for what the Lord is saying. I've actually used that same thing about myself. Really cool is how the kingdom of God works. We're always trying to just make these massive changes in societies by this broadcast message. And all of that has an effect. Because it's like Luke 8, this is the parable the soar. We're just slinging it with both hands. But the kingdom of God is a turnstile.

You know, Jesus talked about this broad road that leads to destruction. Man, they're just going down there. But there's this narrow road. And Jesus says, I am that gate. And the kingdom of God multiplies one person, one heart at a time. That was Jesus' whole ministry. One conversation after another. That's why love, joy coming forth from the spirit inside.

human being. Peace, patience. Yeah. Patience. Exactly. You know, we, we want things to happen. Oh, yeah, right now. We want, we're standing in front of a microwave, making instant coffee going, come on, you know, I mean, we want it like, these people save. Yeah, and we don't, we don't know how to wait on Christ, because apart from him, we can't do anything. And anything I do in the power of the flesh only strengthens the flesh. So I don't think I've ever asked you this, but was, so when you, you've been there, been going there 10 years. Yeah, we're in our 11th. So, was this, uh, was this exodus? Did that happen after? Like all this influx of people? Is that why you went? Or was there, what was the original reason for this place? Because I don't think I've ever asked you the origin.

Yeah. We ask ourselves, we're standing in Athens going, really? Lord, this is why? Why? Why are we here? I'll ask it for him. It's not that Athens is where we want to be. I know the story he's going to tell, but I mean, I'm telling you there's absolutely zero. You get out of that. I mean, it's a complete. You can tell the story, which is a cool story. This began about 2009 and really, really, really began to ramp up in 2011, 2012.

We went in 2012 to visit somebody that was in that ministry. when we got there and we went, wow, this is, Jesus is doing his thing right here. And this is where we, you know, need to be. Francis Tann made a point. He's like, everybody's like standing around a pond and they're all fishing and the lions are all getting tangled and everything. And then somebody catches one fish and everybody goes to that guy. Man, what bait are you using?

I want to know what the formula is. And Francis is like, no, I'm going to go to another pond. You know, where there's plenty of fish and that sort of thing. So we kind of took that idea. And, I mean, we got over there. Evangelism is kind of where we began, but we didn't pursue anybody. We just dealt with those that Jesus was bringing in front of us. And so we adopted this phrase that we're looking for those who are looking for Jesus.

And 80, 90 percent of them, Jesus came to seek and to save the loss. Guess what? he's still doing, seeking, and saving. He had already found them. They're coming to me to find out more about Jesus because they've already had this. You did not choose me. Yeah. But I chose you to go and bear fruit, fruit of alas. Then you get whatever you want. Exactly. Hey, on, let's take another break. Yeah. Well, you can tell you how y'all got started. So we, yeah, we get there. And so the refugee crisis, as it came to be known, it's always been a crisis since about 2009.

But I think, you know, in 2017, 2018, we had a million refugees crossed the island of just Lesbos. So there's three primary entry islands, Lesbos, and Samos and coasts. And so all of these islands are just less than a mile off the Greek, I mean, off the Turkish coast. And so anything that will float. And I mean, it's just been one of the deadliest places in the world. You know, three, four thousand people drown. And these are people that have never been in a body of water, and they'll get hooked up with these smugglers.

And smugglers will put 30 of them in a three-meter raft and just set them adrift, you know. And it's just, it was crazy. The cell phone age hit. And they, somebody makes it through, and they get on them. They call back home and say, hey, man, we made it. Come on. It just began to ramp up and that sort of thing. And so anyway, there was a picture that finally hit the media.

And it was a little Syrian boy, two-year-old Syrian boy that drowned and washed up on the shore. And, you know, it hit the AP wire. It hit the news. And now all this had been going on for all these years, and now it was a crisis. Right. And so now there's people parachuting in. humanitarian groups and all this coming from everywhere. And they were there about a year and like, this is hard.

You know, it's really hard place. It's a horrible environment to do ministry, which kind of, it rang true in my heart when we're in First Corinthians, Paul's like, this is hard. But the thing that was encouraging to me in First Corinthians, actually, it's in Acts 18, I mean, the Jews are trying to kill Paul, this culture, and all of these crazy people doing the crazy things that Phil was just talking about. And Jesus says, don't be afraid. I got people in that town. And he's already there.

He's already prepared these hearts. This is that turnstile. This guy, that guy, that guy. And I'm going to run the Jews out of Rome. Claudius is going to send all the Jews. Priscilla and Aquila are going to be there. They're tent makers, you're a temp maker. Why is there a market for tents?

Because of the Ismian games that happened five miles east of ancient Corinth. I mean, and so all of these contextual things that we know from history is that the Greco-Roman world is so well documented. The Roman Empire, the reading and research that you can get, all this stuff's laying there, but we never really go take the time to look at it. Why is he talking about, you know, a resounding gong and a clinging symbol? Why is he talking about if I give my body over to hardship, if I give everything I possess to the poor, the stoic philosophy? Right. Yeah, so, you know, in Acts 17, you've got Epicurus and Zeno and these Stoic philosophers, Epicurean philosophers. We read right over that.

We don't know what the arena was. Well, what it was was one's just pure hedonism. this is all we got in life. Let's go get that pleasure. And Zeno's like, what are you talking about, man? Restraint is the key. And so I'm going to give all my possessions away, status humanitarianism, no sex, no food, no pleasure. I'm going to offer my body over to hardship.

And that's exactly what Paul's talking about in 1st Corinthians 13 in verse 3. Right. Yeah. And so he's addressing all of these things going on. Well, I thought we could talk about your lesson. Yeah. You started off talking about the heart. heart or that's where I tuned in.

I wasn't sure you were. That's pretty where it began. Yeah. Which I thought was an interesting place to start. But I mean, because really it comes down to God, you know, if you, it's like the verse, where do we read that where God, it's not about me knowing God, but being known by God. Where was that? He judges the deep motives of the heart.

I think it was three. I think it was eight, wouldn't it? Yeah. I think the first one where it says. God searches all things, even the deep things. Of the heart. Yeah, of the heart, which I like. Then he got to eight, and it said that about the, that God knows me.

We had talked about that last time we were here. So the language of the heart is all over the place. You talk about Hebrews 412, the Word of God is living inactive, sharper than any to it is a sword. It shoves you in the corner, makes you choose. And it judges the thoughts and intentions of the human heart. we think we read the Bible, the Bible reads us. 8.3 is where I was looking at them.

But the man who loves God is known by God. And we talked about just having that one acknowledgement that God knows me. Not that where I live, I mean, he knows me. He knows what's going on deep down in my heart is a chilling moment for people. So I love how you started there. And then you went into the three components of the heart. Talk about that a little bit because you were talking about from a Jewish perspective, right, the idea of how they saw the heart.

So so much of it, because a lot of times people read the Bible and they're like, I don't get it. I mean, the pumping thing in your chest. So tell about the. You know, I mean, these ancient Israelites, you know, Bibles, writers, the prophets, in Hebrew, there's not really even a word for brain. And so they have these different conceptions throughout history of how the body works, you know. And so we all understand this is this physical organ in our chest that sustains life.

But in order to describe the idea of the mind, they always use the word lavov, which is a Hebrew word for heart. And so like in Deuteronomy 8, you know in your heart. It's a place where you think and make connections. You understand in your heart. And so it's the intellectual processes. And then if so much more, it's like, you know, you experience joy in your heart to be happy in Hebrew is to be of good heart. Something salt water could not produce. Yes, exactly.

Exactly. A reference to salt water being the origin of life. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, exactly. But, you know, even in the, but you come forward, Larry, even the modern vernacular, you know, if a person dies in, in. They donate their body of science. They take the brain out and they cut it in all these cross sections. And I mean, it just, it looks like what it looks like.

But how could you get a love and a talent and giftedness and everything that comes out of a human life? What department in saltwater dream net up. Yeah. So really we see the results of what you were describing. Yeah. Even in the modern world. Yes. And it's still a bigger mystery as ever as to how does this, how does this, you know, physical piece that's protected in a skull?

produce what it produces in love and in acknowledgement of other people in the ability to create. I mean, how does all that just happen? And that's right. There wasn't a saltwater department that just said, hey, this is it. So we still, even after all these years later, have a hard time understanding the creativity of the heart, how that works with intellect, all those things. And I mean, just to understand that, you know, this is what we're talking about when I have a belief system that's not centered in truth. I have to defend it because I know the truth in my heart.

And this is what Paul is saying in Romans chapter 1, all people know of God. Right. My favorite verse you read, though, was for where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Yeah, Matthew 621. Well, I'm a treasure hunter. Yeah, exactly. Some of that, Jason, always goes about treasure. Honey on just, let's take a break.

It was God's idea. I know it was. That's how I got into this. I agree. I like it. So, but I mean, I'm with you. Your motives and your deep down concerns and the things that you think, nobody knows but you, God knows that. Yeah.

It's deeper than the hairs on your head. Yeah. That was his point. Yeah. So we talked a lot about the temple of Aphrodite. Obviously, because you got into this yesterday, and I thought you did a really nice job of describing. You said something that we had not discussed on here. I had not even heard before about that.

that that temple may or may not have been active by the time we get to this writing, right, in the first century. When Rome came in and destroyed Corinth or conquered Corinth, this is 146 BC. Right. Most historians kind of agree. There's not everybody, but I mean, most historians. Because there was a hundred-year dormant period before it was repopulmonary. Yeah, before they built it again.

Right. And so, and that was, so everything you see there was a Roman building, not ancient Greek. Right. And so this is the melding of two cultures. But so everything, what that meant was, you know, all that was going on. We know that. Right. And that's the, you know, even the fact that temples there, there's these thousand temple

prostitutes, male and female and all of that, was probably not happening on Akro-Corrent anymore. This is 1,800 feet up on this mountain. It's a two-hour walk to walk from ancient Corinth all the way to the top of that. that means that all that weirdness that was going on up there is now going down in the streets of the city. Yeah. Yeah. And so they've got all of these, they've identified like eight of these pagan worship temples, and Dionysus is one of those.

And that's in addition to the Jewish synagogue where we see Paul get drug out of in Acts 18 and brought before Gallio the Pro Council. Right. So, I mean, there's just so many details throughout Acts and First Corinthians, 2 Corinthians. and the relationship that Paul had and the fact that we we step into the conversation almost into a third leg of that because he's already written them once. Yeah. We don't have that letter. Right.

And so they've written him back. We don't have that letter. Yeah. And so it's like listen to one half of the, you know, phone conversation. We talked about that on the podcast that we didn't have the questions. Right. You know, it's really hard to understand sometimes the answers when you don't know what the questions were to begin with.

Like I pointed out yesterday, when you look at the context, you can see not what the questions are, but where they're coming from out of these different Greek philosophical schools of thought. And you're like, that's exactly what he's talking about. I used your line last night because I was telling Willie our other brother how good it was last night. But Willie started asking me practical questions. And I said, no, he made that point. You're asking the wrong questions. That's it. Go listen to it.

Then let's talk about it. Yeah, he's like, okay. Produces bad questions. But I like that point you made about people go to First Corinthians 7, like they're trying to make 100 on a test score and have all these difficult questions and try to put them into a box. Right. And that's the way, that's the mistake that we make with First and Second Corinthians is that it is not a theological dissertation. I thought that was a good point. Okay.

And we try to make it be that. Right. Because we draw so much theology out of this, but it's not. It's not like Hebrews. Hebrews is a, you know, is a thesis. And even Romans, to a certain extent, is the exact same way. But this is not like that. This is discipleship in action.

This is, quote, applied theology. And so we think that maybe he's contradicting himself here in chapter 7 telling widows and virgins they should not marry. And then he's telling, you know, Timothy in 1 Timothy 5 that the widows in Ephesus should marry, you know, and so what's up with that? Because what's going on in Corinth is not what's going on in Ephesus. You made a point yesterday, which was so strong to that point, is you said context matters, and after that context matters after that context. If you don't read the Bible and understand the context of where it was written and why, then you will

start crossing over and start making some serious mistakes. Well, that's the thing. You know, we talk about exegesis and hermeneutics, you know, when we're talking about setting Bible, what it meant to them and what it means to me. We never read the Bible. We're always reading the Bible. How is it all about me? How does it affect me? That's a total hermeneutical approach. Well, the only control that that has is context. It can't mean something to me that it never meant to them. Right. And so without that control, I can make these verses mean anything that I want. Right.

We see that every day. Every day. Every day. Yeah. That's why we got how many different groups? Yeah. So what people do is they'll rip a verse, a verse, totally out of its context. They'll build a theology on their idea of what that means.

Then they'll go look for other verses that seem to support that idea. And then they apply it universally. And you end up asking the wrong questions of the text. and that leads to bad theology and when a belief system begins in bad theology, it's only going one place and that's from bad to worse. I think that's why

he tried his best to bring it all together by the time you get to 1st Corinthians 15. I just want to remind you of something here now. I'll sit down here. Well, yeah, it was back to the gospel I preached to. Back to the basic.

If you received, what you're standing on, this is what saves you. Right. If you hold firmly, of what I told you are you believed in vain you know what I what I've told you as the scripture say Jesus died Jesus was buried Jesus was raised from the dead he just brings it down to that right I think that's maybe the the the basic wrap-up of what the whole thing's about it is and hey well let's take our last break go ahead throughout you missed that yeah it wouldn't make any

difference what kind of theology you have if you miss that that's what he's doing is bringing you back to the point, the heart of the matter that we're talking about, is that if you stop and Paul says, therefore, I've always heard that said, when you see a therefore, you need to stop and ask why, what is there for? Exactly. Yeah, because he is building a case and now he's come to a conclusion. We jump to the conclusion. And the thing about Pauline literature, and you mentioned Peter, 2nd Peter 316, is that Paul

writes the same way in all his letters. Peter just tells us. Some of his things are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort as they do with all the scriptures to their own destruction. And so it's a mistreatment of scripture. It's a mishandling of God's word. And so you always have to go back to what is the context, why he's he telling me this, and now he's come to this point. We go through that mud hole. And now we understand. We've, got the mud on us, now we understand where we're going from here, why we need to be clean and stay out of the mud hole. I think, yeah, and I think the power,

the underlying power of all that is these guys, you have Peter over there elaborating on the final days and how the earth and all the elements would be, let's see, everything in it would be destroyed, earth and everything, and it would be laid. bear he's talking about the final days you have a guy and i've since i've commercial fished in my life he's the only job i know that he had was catching fish out there you take that kind of mind discussing these kind of matters right you better pay attention because we're in the world with

an ordinary unschooled man come up for that yeah about like a firefighter from oklah yeah i mean i love it i'm just saying i love it when they say these These are ordinary unschooled men. If you look at the Latin. One of my favorite verses in the Bible. The Latin Vulgate. It's like idiote. It's like these are common idiots is what they are.

You know, so he said that from me. He said, oh, God, they used to be a firefighter in Oklahoma. Yeah. I don't know how many times Larry said in the sermon yesterday. I'm an idiot. Don't listen to me. I'm an idiot. Listen to Jesus.

I like that because it's humbling. But Paul said that in 1, Corinthians. two four he said my message and by preaching were not with wise and persuasive words but a demonstration of the spirit's power and he just said i didn't come to you an elegant or superior wisdom i mean he's just basically saying i'm an idiot but i have the holy spirit of god and i know who jesus is something in acts too here's peter on the day of pentecost yeah and he's just quoting the prophet joel verbatim. And then he is able to articulate who Jesus is, why he came, why he died, why he resurrected, and what is happening now. He had not been up all night studying before he gave

that speech. He had been schooled somehow. Exactly. And he was way more than ordinary. He was introducing Jesus. I mean, it's like, I don't have to go take a course on how to introduce my wife at a get-together. Yeah. I got it. I know her. Yeah. And I I think that's where what the difference is, you know, where you're trying to explain something where people are meeting in buildings with these various different groups and trying to get all the answers right instead of, oh, we're a reflection of a real living being. Right. That's a lot more complex than we are, but became simple in a man, Jesus on the earth.

Here we go. And I think that's just what we do. We underplay what the spirit is doing in us when we have the courage to stand up. and speak the name of Jesus. Very much so. Okay. So here's the deal. This happens all the time to me in Athens.

Again, I'm an idiot. I go over and sit down. I open a Bible. There's 30 guys from Afghanistan and Iran. Never seen a Bible, never held one. And so I put a Bible, a Farsi Bible, in their hands, and the first thing they do is look over their shoulder. Because to see who's coming through the door,

because they can go to jail for 10 years for even possessing one of these. Wow. Okay. And so they open this and they start reading this and they jump right in the middle of one in the mud holes. It's like, what about this? Women are supposed to wear something over their head. And this is First Corinthians 11. That's why I've had to go learn this stuff.

But they're asking me questions that I don't have answers to. And I'm like, Jesus, if you don't show up, I got nothing at all. And this is Peter and Acts. But here's my testimony in the thousands of times that I have done. that he has never left me hanging one time. Yeah. He's given me words that I needed. He's led me to scriptures.

I barely even knew that we're there. He's always there. And it hasn't got nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with what he, you know, it even says, don't worry. I'm going to give you words when you need them. Well, I wanted to, because your last five minutes, I mean, people can go back and listen to it, but I was wanting to somehow get there because basically what you went through the history and you You've taken tours.

You took us, I mean, when we were there, we were half mission-minded and it was half teaching because you would take us to the different sites. And you had all this knowledge that, I mean, you weren't even reading from anything. You got there and I said, I'm going to treat you like students. I don't know what else to do. Oh, yeah. You were just pontificating after pontification. It's a spew.

I can't. Well, my subconscious was getting it. But I was trying to say. You're saying that about it, but Jason and I were soaking it up. Did you see notice me on the front row with my no pan? Oh, you were writing. You were writing. One of the biggest joys for me, and I don't get to do this very often anymore, because I'm usually up front.

Yeah. Is to be able to sit at the feet of someone else teaching context in God's word and soaking it up. So yesterday was a true joy. I wanted to get to the last five minutes. I mean, when you made the transition for the practical application, because I thought it was real inspiring, especially for the women. Yeah. So how did you, where, where did you live? launch from there. What is first, what is first? The Corinthians 7 really about. Here it is. And I

preached that in four minutes. Yeah. That's what I was after. So give us the nuts and bolts of that because I thought it was truly inspiration. And I, you know, I felt it in me. I wrote it down. It's Christ's first purity and the character of the heart. Pretty much. That was your essence of what you took. I didn't even know that. So I feel really good. The character. And what was it? And character of the heart, purity, in Christ first. So ultimately at the end of it, your rally was, right? I just, it was so, there was, Robert mentioned this.

He's like, there was a switch that, you had a switch. Well, it caused the audience to erupt and applause. I rolled down the truck of my window and went, woo. I hate all of this historical, just, you know, evil garbage, you got to get through it. And when I'm done with that, man, now I get to talk about Jesus. And that, I don't, you know, you just, that is what I want to do. That's, but I have to go through that to get there. And so what's really going on in this chapter. That's what I appreciate about your ministry, is that you teach Jesus because he saves. Yeah.

And he changes destiny in life. Yeah. But then you're set up mission-wise, but then you have a school there where you teach these guys the context of the Bible. Because if you don't, as they go for them and disciple others, they're, I mean, they got Jesus, which is the most important thing. But then if you're going to teach out of this book, you got to know the context or else you can make these mean anything you want to mean. Right. And this is a, you know, Kathy brought this up yesterday afternoon.

She said, that's exactly how you teach a class. You do all of that. And then it's about Jesus. That's where we go. That's the, you know, discipleship is what this is. And I always say the discipleship happens really in the teaching, but it ends there. We always end to Jesus. That's the only place we're going.

We just got to get through this and have some controls in how we read scripture to understand it. Because the things that people that come out of Islam are struggling with are chapter 7, chapter 9, chapter 11, chapter 14. and that's the only reason I've been shoved in a corner. So I want to talk about that more. So we've got, Larry, since the last time you were on, we have a segment we call Unashamed Overtime. Okay. So it's on, it's blazedtv.com slash unashamed,

where people go to get it. And if you subscribe, you get this extra bonus. So I want to talk about, to me, what's going to help us when we get to 11 and 14. Yeah. By a point you made about the role of women. Right. In Corinth and in Greek culture that we didn't have time to get to here.

So if you go to WFRchurch.org, you can watch this sermon. We highly encourage you to do it. No, you must. It's really going to help this podcast even be better for you. I mean, I'm not easily impressed, mainly because I got ADD. But I listen to the whole thing, and it hit me, I'll say this before we go to overtime. It hit me that I was like, yes, you brought many people to Jesus and God used it over there. But at the same time, only a man who,

who bathe themselves in the culture and the history would have come up with that platform to then understand First Corinthians. There's a lot of people around here that have a terrible view of women or, you know, miraculous gifts and based on their study of First Corinthians and I'm like, here it is.

A firefighter, spirit-led from Oklahoma. Awesome. So I mentioned one kingdom.org. That's a place they can see what you're doing with us. And then what's your website? Acrocenter.org. All right, excellent. So check.

Put that at the bottom. Yeah, check that out. We'll be back for those of you that are subscribed for a little bit of more with Larry Bowles. Thank you, Larry. Thank you. It's a pleasure. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes.

And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else. Subscribe to Blaze TV at blazedtv.com slash unashamed.