(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

We're here in Genesis chapter 6 and as I mentioned during the first announcements, this is the most complicated sermon I've ever preached and I kind of warned everybody ahead of time yesterday in Pampanga and everyone kind of agreed afterwards, oh you're right, that is the most complicated sermon. Well I just said that the job of a preacher, a teacher, is to make things simple so I guess we'll see if I'm good at my job, right? And so the name of this sermon is The Myth of Ancient Polytheism. The Myth of Ancient Polytheism. Now this is actually a two-part series and next week's sermon is about the end times and you say what does that have to do with ancient polytheism? Well we're going to find out next week as I go in detail about that because you have to realize all of the religions in this world are gonna get on board with the Antichrist when he comes. How is it that all of these religions can set aside all differences and be on the same page and it's really understanding the nature of God and these various different religions that's going to explain that to you. I mean even Christians are waiting for the return of Jesus and it's like well the Antichrist is coming first, but all of these religions are going to be on board for this. I mean Hinduism is waiting for the return of Kalki, Buddhism is waiting for the turn of Maitreya Buddha, so how is it that they can set aside all differences and just get on board with one another? This sermon is actually very important to understand that, okay. And next week we'll talk about the end times implications of oneness heresy that will explain that, okay. But first off when it comes to this topic of ancient polytheism, one thing we need to understand is this. There are basically two worldviews out there. One worldview says that God created us, which is what we believe. Another worldview says that nothing created us, and here we are, okay. One worldview is we're created, one worldview is we're evolved, and you know we used to be kind of amoebas and there was an explosion and everything like that. Depending on what your worldview is you're gonna have very different beliefs on topics. If a discussion comes up about abortion, everybody that believes the Bible agrees that's murder. It's not complicated, but if you believe that the world created itself, your opinion is going to be very different, right. Well when it comes to this topic of religions and how they came to be, it's pretty similar. Here's the view of a famous anthropologist that lived a hundred years ago named E.B. Tyler, and he talked about the evolution of various religions. And what he said is this, that societies go from being savages, to barbarians, to civilized. And he applied that to all areas of life because he believes in evolution, right. So he says everybody was a bunch of savages, you know, just hitting each other with rocks and just living like monkeys in a cave, right. Then you become barbarians and then you become civilized. And how he applied this to religions is that you go from being animists. Animism is when you believe that God is represented in everything like this is God, animals are God, you know, this is God, everything's God. Everything is a soul, everything is living and everything, that's animism. So he says societies start believing in animism, then they go to polytheism, believing in multiple gods, then they go and go to henotheism, which means worshiping one God but believing there's other gods as well, then they go to monotheism, and that's when you're at the barbarian stage. The civilized stage is when you go to atheism and you don't believe in any gods. That's kind of funny because atheists are the ones that believe that we used to be animals, right, and they're saying that they're civilized. It's like, no, you know, you're considering man like animals and you're living like animals, okay. But see, here's the thing, that logically makes sense if you believe that worldview that there's a random explosion, okay. And so what he says is this, modern religious belief in God, this is a famous person, he's got a Wikipedia page and everything, he's a famous anthropologist, modern religious belief in God is a survival of primitive ignorance. So basically when people still believe in God, it's because they've got that primitive ignorance that they're holding on to. So we're dumb because we believe in God. That's what he's saying. That is what the view of Richard Dawkins and those evolutionists are. That's where religion came, they started off just worshiping the ground and everything, and then they came to eventually be polytheists, eventually monotheists, and once they arrive at true civilization, they reject God completely. Here's the thing though, does that make sense with what the Bible says? Because Adam and Eve were directly created by God, and God directly spoke to Adam. They'll tell you that the first monotheistic religion is Zoroastrianism, and they'll say that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are Muslims evolved from Zoroastrianism. But wait a minute, Adam and Eve were directly created by God, and God spoke to Adam. It's not that man was just out here in the middle of the jungle saying, how did I get here? Man, maybe this is God, maybe this created me, right? No, man was actually spoken to by God. They weren't just randomly here saying, man, where am I? No, they were spoken to directly by God. So here's the thing, it actually is the exact opposite of what he said. Man started off monotheistic, okay? Now here's the thing, the time before the flood we really don't know a whole lot about. There's six, seven, eight chapters in the Bible, and there are no historical records because the flood kind of wiped those away. So all we have are the first eight chapters of the Bible, right? So let's go to after the flood, okay? Let's look at Genesis chapter 6, verse 10. Genesis 6, verse 10. And Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, God said unto Noah, see the first point is this, man was monotheistic, meaning believing in one God at the very beginning. Now we understand and believe in the Trinity. We believe God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost have eternally existed and always will, that God exists in three persons. We understand that. Here's the thing though, we believe in one God, and Adam and Eve believed in one God, and Noah when he got on the ark believed in one God, right? And it's not that Noah just randomly built a boat like, man, maybe I think it was it's gonna rain. Maybe I'm just gonna start building up the suns. Let's come over here and build a boat, because I just get this feeling that, you know, it's good. No, God directly spoke to Noah. Noah knew exactly what was gonna take place. He wasn't just randomly here trying to figure it out, and then all of a sudden it started raining, and he tried to get shelter, and he's like, I made it. No, he knew exactly what was gonna take place, okay? God said unto Noah, the Bible says here in Genesis 6, and then it says, what did God say? The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold I will destroy them with the earth. So God told unto Noah, I'm gonna destroy the earth because it's wicked, okay? Go to Genesis 6, verse 22. Genesis 6, verse 22. Now look, I am sure a lot of people were mocking Noah and his family building an ark. Like, what are you doing, right? I mean, obviously they didn't really believe that. I mean, I'm sure Noah told a lot of people, hey, a flood's coming. God's gonna judge the world. They believed in God, but they didn't believe what Noah said. You say, what's the proof they didn't believe? Well, if they believed, then they would have been like, man, please let me get on the ark with you. What do I have to do to get mercy from God, right? Obviously they didn't really believe him, okay? Noah built this ark. He knew it was gonna happen. Verse 22, thus did Noah according to all that God commanded him, so did he. So God gave specific instructions to Noah, very detailed instructions. He told him exactly what type of wood, how long it was gonna be, the window, and everything. It's not like he said, hey, build something because there's gonna be a flood. He actually gave them direct instructions. And you know, honestly, it's the same way with our lives with God. God gives us very specific instructions how to live our lives. Read therein all the days of our life. Read the Bible every day. Don't commit adultery. Don't kill. Don't steal. I mean, he directly tells us. We're not just trying to randomly figure it out. Like, hey, you know what? Serve me and just do what I want you to do. Man, what do you want me to do, God? Figure it out. No, I mean, he directly tells us. And it's the same way in the day of Noah. Now, keep your finger here in Genesis. Go to Hebrews 1. Let me show you a verse here. We are very fortunate in today's world because we live in a day where we have the Word of God at our fingertips all the time. I mean, right now I hear people turning to Hebrews 1 because you have a Bible at your fingertips. Now, throughout the Bible, though, there's probably times when a man of God would preach and people didn't necessarily have a Bible in their hands to turn to, right? I mean, we live in a day where everybody has a Bible, but the reality is that has not always been the case. There are parts of the world right now where people probably don't have a Bible. I'm sure you look at Muslim countries and North Korea and countries like that, it could be dangerous to own a Bible. There's stories about how, you know, Christians had to smuggle Bibles into communist countries in the past. That's reality. It's not like in everywhere in the world they can just openly serve God and preach the Word of God and go soul-winning. No, they're going to be persecuted by their governments. That's reality. Hebrews 1, verse 1, God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds. So Jesus Christ came here, and as we saw last sermon, Jesus is the Word. And so here's the thing. In the past, God spake in diverse manners, meaning different ways, different manners, different ways, diverse ways, diverse manners. God in times past spake to us in different ways, meaning sometimes a prophet would come and preach a sermon, but it means that not everybody necessarily had the Word of God directly in front of them. And also sometimes God spoke directly to people. God spoke to Adam. You know, he heard his voice when he was walking in the garden in the midst of the day, it says in Genesis chapter 3. And it's like, why are you hiding, Adam? I'm naked. How do you know you're naked? Like who told you that? God's speaking to Adam. Now when you read these stories in the Old Testament, you could try to arrive to your own conclusion on how God's speaking. Sometimes you see the Son of God appear in the Old Testament, okay? Old Testament appearance of the Son of God. Other times maybe it's a voice from heaven. The point is it's different ways or different manners God is actually speaking to the people. So it could be different ways depending on the situation. Now here's the thing though. If you told me, Brother Stuckey, I know what you're talking about. Last night, last night I was in my room and I was praying to God and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, and I saw this light. And then all of a sudden God appeared to me. Look, that's Mormonism, my friend. That's the story of Joseph Smith. I was just out there in the middle of the woods and then all of a sudden I just saw, you know, the angel moron or Moroni, my bad. I saw the angel Moroni and then all of a sudden I think John the Baptist and some, I can't remember who it was. I used to know this. But it's like, no, I mean in today's world God spoke unto us by His Son. And here's the thing, after Jesus Christ died and was resurrected, people wrote down exactly what took place. We don't have any modern-day revelation. The Word of God is complete. It's finished. He's not going to speak to you in a diverse way today. He speaks to you when you pray to Him and then you open up His Word and see what He says. It's like, God, help me in this area of my life. What's the answer? Then you're reading your Bible. Man, that's the answer. That is how God is speaking to you. It's not that you hear some voice and you see some vision, okay? God is speaking to you through His Word. Go back to Genesis. Go to Genesis 7. Genesis 7. Genesis 7. But with Noah, God directly spoke to Noah. Now I do believe at times in the Old Testament that they have a book because it talks about in 2 Chronicles, they went out with a book and they're going soul-winning, okay? But it doesn't necessarily mean they have a completed book. We don't know what parts they have. They had some of the Word of God, but now we have all of the Word of God. There is no modern-day revelation, okay? Here in this story, God is speaking to Noah. It's not though that Noah is just randomly here and he doesn't have a Bible so he doesn't know what's going on, right? No, he actually knew because God spoke to Noah. Genesis 7 verse 1, and the Lord said on to Noah, come now and all thy house into the ark for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. So Noah and his family were spared from the flood because Noah was righteous, okay? Now it's not just saying Noah was saved. It's saying that he was saved and he was actually living for God, okay? Now of course there is none righteous, right? But compared to other people, Noah was righteous. Now when it comes to the other seven people in the ark, we don't really know a whole lot about them. I assume Noah's wife was saved, right? I mean I think all of us would probably agree with that, but there's not a verse that I can point to that says here's the proof she was saved. You know, sometimes when it comes to characters, you form your best guess. Like I agree with what Brother Ehrman said on Wednesday. I think Gehazi was saved, but the reason why we're given our reasons why we think they're saved is because there's not a verse that said this person was saved, this person wasn't. You're forming your best guess based on various things. Quite honestly, if we talked about every character in the Old Testament, there'd probably be some that we would disagree on because we don't necessarily know. You can't necessarily base someone's salvation on their actions because people do wicked things that are saved. So we don't always know if somebody's saved. I assume Noah's wife was saved. I'm assuming probably everyone agrees with that. Whether all eight of those people are saved or not, that's a discussion for another day, but my point is this. Whether they were saved or not, they were monotheists. They believed in one God. You say, how do you know that? Because God directly spoke to Noah. You say, well that's Noah. Well God didn't just directly speak to Noah. Notice what it says in Genesis 9 verse 1. Genesis chapter 9 verse 1. God actually directly spoke to all of them. Okay, Genesis 9 verse 1. And God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, plural, right? Now I personally presume the wives are also hearing this as well. Maybe you disagree. That's fine. It's not really a point of division, but regardless of whether or not the wives heard this, we know that Noah and his three sons heard exactly what God told them. Because he said unto them, plural, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. So basically the world was just destroyed and then God's giving them instructions. Well first thing, I want you to repopulate this earth. Basically have children, right? Replenish the earth because it's been destroyed. Not only that, verse 2, and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth and upon all the fish of the sea. Into your hand are they delivered. So he says in verse 2, animals will be afraid of human beings. This is a new thing. Before the flood, animals were not afraid of humans. Animals are afraid of humans in today's world. In areas where there's people, animals usually vanish away. Look, I have proof of this because I remember, you know, one time I was going hiking, you know, my parents, you know, in their backyard they have, there's like a like a forest, you know, hiking for miles. And I was hiking and I was listening to like the audio Bible or memorizing the Bible or something like that. And I had my head down and I was listening on my, whatever it's called, listening the audio, okay? I'm not a technology guy, right? And then all of a sudden, I think it was an iPod. That's like very makaluma, right, compared to today. But then all of a sudden I heard this thud. I had my head down and I heard this thud and I look up and this bear dropped out of a tree, just like 15 feet in front of me. And the bear is like five times my size. I mean, I'm kind of intimidating, right, you know? But and that bear just ran away from me. You say, why? The bear was afraid of me. You say, Brother Stuckey, you know, why was it afraid of you? Well, the Bible says the fear of you is going to be upon every animal. And that bear ran away 20 miles per hour and I ran this way 100 miles per hour. It's like, it ran away from me. I ran away from it. I ran down to my parents' house. I was praying. I mean, I was like 30 minutes from my parents' house. But you know, it's amazing how fast you can run when you need to, right? And I was running and running and running. Here's the thing, though. That wouldn't make sense if you don't understand the Bible. Because the Bible tells us animals are afraid of humans. That's not going to make sense if you don't believe the Bible or you don't know what the Bible says. To me, that made perfect sense because I know animals are afraid of humans. And it's true when you have your house. I mean, think about it. You know what? You don't find that the EPs and the mice and the daga everywhere, except at nighttime when you go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Then all of a sudden, you hear the crawling. You see a bug scamper. They're afraid of humans. That's reality. Animals are afraid of humans. Like in the U.S., Detroit, Michigan is a very famous city, and it's become just a dump. It's just, it's Basura now, okay? Because basically, you know, it got destroyed financially, and then everybody moved away from Detroit. And since there's so few people, now it's like a zoo. Literally, they're like, man, animals own Detroit, Michigan. Because as the people left, the animals will say, hey, you know what? I'll just hang out here now. In the Bible, you see this. Talk about driving out the animals. The animals will flee when there's people. That's the way it works. They're afraid of humans, okay? So I want you to understand this, that as Bible-believing Christians, we're not just randomly here trying to figure everything out. We actually understand it. The world doesn't understand what's going on because they're not basing it on the wisdom of God, right? Now look down at verse number 18. Verse 18. Let me turn there myself. Genesis 9, verse 18. Because some people say, well, it's just a local flood, even though it's a flood that covered every mountain, okay? No, it flooded the entire world, and only eight people got saved. Now, I don't know what you've seen in your Noah movies that you've seen out there. I remember a movie I saw 15 years ago, and Noah was out on the ark, and then all of a sudden he saw some other man on this, like, you know, just small little boat. He's like, you made it, too. That's not in the Bible. Actually, in the movie, I think it was a lot, and so I literally thought, because I hadn't really read the Bible, I thought Noah and Lot were, like, related or something. It's like, you know, Hollywood movies for you. There's like a Noah movie, what, like five years ago with Russell Crowe, and I didn't watch it, but I saw the trailer, and then they're, like, fighting all these people trying to get on the ark. I'm like, what in the world? That's not what the Bible says. It's just like, the story's already entertaining. You don't have to change it, right? But in Genesis 9 verse 18, and the sons of Noah that went forth of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah, and of them was the whole earth overspread. So the earth was overspread by Shem, Ham, and Japheth and their lineage. There was nobody else, because, well, there's this local flood. Look, if there was a local flood, then God would have told Noah, move, right, where it's not going to flood. There was a worldwide flood to destroy everyone because everybody was wicked, okay? But the whole earth was overspread by these people. Let me ask you a question. If you believe in one God, which you do, obviously, what are you going to teach your kids? Are you going to teach them that there's 50 gods or one God? One God, because we believe in one God. You teach your kids the things that you believe. Isn't that true? And Shem believed in one God. He directly spoke to God. What is he going to teach his children? There's one God. What's Japheth going to teach his children? There's one God. Whether Ham was saved or not, he's still going to teach his children there's one God. He directly spoke to God. So look, everybody in the world were monotheists. They believed in one God. Everybody believed in one God. This is why, around the world, every country, every area, they have stories about a flood that took place. And they have a lot of the details from the book of Genesis. And what they'll say now in China and Japan and all these countries, it's just a flood myth. No, actually, it's pretty accurate. Eight people, a flood that covered the entire world. It's all over the world they have this story of the flood. Now it's changed a little bit from what the Bible says, but they have this story. You say, why? Because it actually happened. And in those areas, when man first moved to China and man first moved to Japan and they first moved to those areas, guess what? It was monotheistic. That's what you see in their stories. That's what they were teaching. Now, of course, as time goes by, religion goes further away from the truth. See, what they're trying to tell you is religion is getting closer with time. No, it's getting further from the truth. Because Noah understood pretty well, and as time goes by, man goes very far from the truth. It's actually the opposite of what they're trying to tell you. Now turn in your Bible to Romans 1. Romans 1. Romans chapter 1. Now, that point's probably not that complicated, because that should make sense to us, right? That man was monotheistic. Adam and Eve, Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth, their wives, they believed in one God. So doesn't it make sense that when 4,000 however many years ago, everybody was a monotheist, right? And so, you know, here's the thing. Your kids generally believe you when you tell them something. Isn't that true? If you tell your kids, I directly spoke to God, there's one God, they're gonna believe you. They're probably gonna believe for several generations, because they were living a long time. It's not like, hey, you know, Shem just died five days later. No, they lived a very long life, so they're telling their great-great-great-great grandsons, hey, you know what, there's one God, because I actually talked to God. It's like, man, grandpa, tell me that story about how God spoke to you, right? This is reality. They believed in one God, and that's what they're gonna be teaching their kids. But not only was everybody monotheistic at the beginning, here's another thing. People are born monotheistic. Everybody's born with a belief in God, but people are not only born with a belief in something, they are born believing in monotheism. You say, prove it to me, Romans 1, Romans 1, Romans chapter 1, Romans 1, verse 16. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Notice what it says in verse 19, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it on to them. The Bible says there are certain things that could be known of God that is manifest inside of us, and what that means is it's made visible, clearly seen inside of us. Now that does not mean that you can take an x-ray and there's that knowledge that you see with your eyes, but what it's saying is God has showed us something, and on the inside of us we know it. He's manifested to us, and it says, for God hath showed it on to them. God has showed us certain things about himself. You say, what are those things? Verse 20, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. So the Bible says there's invisible things of God that are clearly seen. I have never seen God with my eyes, right? Jesus Christ rose again. It's like, you know what? You're not seeing. You say, I saw God last night. No, you didn't. There is a Pentecostal church, I don't know, somewhere nearby, right? But if you see visions of God, I really think that Pentecostal church where you can speak in tongues with them would be great for you, okay? We don't see God with our eyes. God is invisible to us, but yet from the very creation of the world he's clearly seen, even though we don't see him. You say, how is that possible? Because there's certain things that were born inside of us about God that we knew from birth, okay? It says, being understood by the things that are made. So the things God has created bears record of who God is, even his eternal power in Godhead so that they are without excuse. The Bible says the eternal power of God we can comprehend because God has made it manifest onto us. That shows that God is eternal and he's all-powerful. And based on what he's made in nature and based on what he's shown inside of you, you already know that. You don't have to convince a kid. It's not like kids are born atheists and you've got to convince them God's real before you can get them saved. They believe in God. You say, how does that work? Well, it works because you go outside and they're like, Dad, who created the sun? God did. Makes sense to them, doesn't it? It makes perfect sense. They look up at the clouds, looked up at the sky. I mean, unless you've had 10 years of evolution brainwashing, you look up at the sky, you come to the conclusion it didn't make itself, right? I mean, you look out and common sense says, somebody had to make that. And then they asked, Daddy, who made that? God did. And they believe it. It makes sense. It's common sense because built inside of them, it's like, Dad, you know, how was I creating? I mean, God created you. And it makes sense, okay? Even his eternal power. So how does his eternal power work? Well, we can see that God is all-powerful many different ways. One way is through natural disasters. I mean, when there's a natural disaster like a typhoon or a Mount Pinatubo, you're like, wow, God is powerful, right? And we know God is eternal just by what he's created. I mean, tomorrow morning you can look at the weather on your phone and it will tell you exactly when the sun is gonna rise, right? It's gonna tell you exactly when it's gonna set. It's not like it's a 95 percent thing that the sun's gonna come out tomorrow. You know it's gonna come out, I mean, just day after day. I mean, the book of Ecclesiastes talks about that. The things just happen over and over and over again, and it just kind of shows you that things are underneath the power of God, okay? God has borne record that he has always existed, that he's not created. Because once again, if you look up at the sky, something had to create it, and you can't just say, well, there was nothing and everything just created itself. That's not logical. That's not common sense. What is actually logical is we serve an infinite, all-powerful God that we cannot fully comprehend because he's outside of our dimension. That actually makes sense. It also says, though, his Godhead. And the Godhead is the very nature of who God is. It's the state of being God. And what is God? Well, God is a Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. And we can understand the very nature of God, you know, by actual nature. We can understand the actual nature of God by what he has created. Probably the best example of the Trinity is the fact that we have a body, soul, and spirit. There is one of me, and yet my body is just like, it's like a turtle shell, right? It's like the outer covering. It's not really your character and who you are, though. It's just, you know, your body. But you have a soul and you have a spirit. And we understand that. We know that, although it is obviously very complicated to fully grasp, okay? Well, here's the thing. We can understand that God is three. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. And Jesus Christ was fully God, perfect, never sinned, and yet he's also the Son of God, okay? This is what the Bible teaches. Now this is a deep concept, but the Bible actually says, you know, people are without excuse because they can actually understand this by what he's made. And it's actually built inside of us like it makes sense. And man is made in the image of God, and we have a body, soul, and spirit. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost. It actually makes sense, okay? Go to Romans 2. Romans 2. I mean, literally, kids will believe anything that their parents tell them, right? It's embarrassing to admit, but I used to believe in Santa Claus. I'll admit it. My parents taught me Santa. And by the way, don't teach your kids Santa Claus is real because it's a lie. And because Santa Claus is like, you know, kind of like a fake version of Jesus Christ. You know, work your way to do good works, and you're gonna get a reward. Well, salvation is a free gift, okay? But I used to believe in Santa Claus. My parents taught me Santa Claus and everything. And of course, you know how it works. There's that one kid at school that finds out Santa Claus is not real, and he's so excited to ruin it for everybody. I still remember the kid's name, Joseph Conrad, who told me that Santa Claus was—I don't know why I remember his name. He actually used to be my friend. But, you know, we go to school, and he's telling everybody Santa Claus is not real. And you know what the defense of everybody was? It wasn't common sense or wisdom. It was just, that's not true because Dad told me Santa Claus is real, right? The reason why people defend it is, well, wait a minute. Mom and Dad told me Santa Claus is real, so I'm gonna trust them more than I'm gonna trust you, okay? But I have an interesting story because I was going soloing a long time ago in West Virginia. I knock on this door, and this dad answers this phone—or answers the door, I should say—and he told me he did not believe in God. And his son comes over during the conversation, and his son is arguing with his dad. The son is like five years old. He's not very old. And he's telling his dad, Dad, you're wrong. God is real. I know he's real. Now here's the thing. That dad's trying to convince his son God is not real, and yet he's arguing God is real. You say, why? Because it's born inside of him. It's born inside of you that God is real. Somebody made some comment on our YouTube a while back. They were mocking what I said about God or something. What convinced you that God is real? And I said, well, everybody's born believing in God, so the better question is, what convinced you God is not real? And look, that angers people like that. It confounds the wise, but it's still reality. It's just like we are born with a belief in God, and we are actually born understanding certain things. You say, Brother Secchi, I don't know about that. Look, the Bible says many things we know by nature, and it's not talking about Mother Nature. The Bible even talks about in 1 Corinthians 11, we can understand that men have short hair, and women have long hair by nature, and what that means is inside of you, it's born into you. It's built into you. You just know that. There are certain things... I mean, we know by nature that, you know what, a man's supposed to marry a woman, and a woman marries a man. You don't have to be convinced of that. It makes perfect sense, and you're born with that understanding. There are things about God that God has revealed to us just by how we were born. He has revealed it inside of us, and we know they're true. You can probably point to things in your life, and look, here's the thing. I have always thought it was weird for guys to marry girls. It's disgusting. It's strange, but here's the thing. I didn't have any Bible verses to tell me this 20 years ago. You said, Brother Stuckey, how did you know that? I just knew. Same with you, right? When you were 10 years old, it just didn't seem right. I mean, I remember when I was... I remember the first time, the first time, because I grew up in West Virginia. I always tell people it's the whitest state in the US. It was actually voted the whitest, least ethnically diverse state in all of the US out of 50 states. Everybody is white, okay? Very little diversity, and so I remember, you know, when I was like 12 years old, I went to watch a baseball game with my dad in a big city away from there, and I remember it was the first time I saw somebody that was not white, right? First time I had seen somebody who was black. There's one kid who was Hispanic in our school, but I'd never seen somebody who was black in real life. I'd just watched athletes. I'd watched Michael Jordan on TV, but I'd never seen that in real life. Everybody was white, but I also saw homos for the first time, and I just remember. My parents, they told me. I don't really remember, but they told me they had to quiet me down. I was like, Dad, what in the? They're like, son, don't say anything, right? Because they're afraid. I'm thinking, what are they doing? What in the world? It's like guys holding hands. I just knew it was wrong. Now, absolutely teach your kids these things, but here's the thing. You know, your kids already know this. You're just reinforcing what is born inside of them. They understand that by nature, the Bible says. There are things we can understand about God. Romans 2, verse 11. You say prove it to me. Romans 2. I'll show it to you. Romans 2, verse 11. Romans 2, verse 11. For there is no respect of persons with God, for as many have sinned without law shall also perish without law, and as many have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. Verse 14. For when the Gentiles, and the Gentiles is a term where it's basically referring to anybody who doesn't have the scriptures, so somebody who doesn't really have the Word of God. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, so those that don't have the scripture, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves. See, the Bible says people by nature do the things contained in the law. There are certain things that the average person does or does not do because they know inside of them it's wrong. I mean, a perfect example is with Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. Once they sinned, all of a sudden they're just like, oh man, they're naked. They're trying to cover up. They know it's wrong. Now, a child born into this world, they're not at that age they understand that. I mean, you give your kids a shower or whatever, they get out, and they're having fun just running around without any clothes on and everything, and you got to stop them to get those diapers on and stuff, but here's the thing. They're gonna reach an age where they're embarrassed. All kids are gonna reach that age, and they're gonna just know, and they don't have a Bible verse for why that is. They just know it's wrong. This isn't right. You say, what? And look, here's the thing. I'll tell you what. Societies become very departed from the Word of God, and yeah, you know what? There's a lot of cultures all over the world. You think of native tribes that are running around without any clothes. They know inside of themselves that's wrong because they are born with that understanding and the belief, but they're rejecting the truth found in God's Word. They know it's not normal, right? Many African tribes running around without any clothes on, they know that's not right. They know that's not normal. I mean, in India, you got the Jain priests where it's a religion. It's kind of like an offshoot of Hinduism, and the Jain priests, one of their denominations, they literally walk around without any clothes on, no clothes on. They know that's wrong, but they're perverted. It's wrong, right? They are born with an understanding. There are certain things that people know. It says in verse 15, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another. And here's the thing. People are born with an understanding of certain things that are right and certain things that are wrong. Look, my son knows it's wrong to murder someone. Now, of course, I teach my son that. I mean, he's still young. I try to teach him things, but he already knows that. You say, why? Kids are born realizing that's wrong. Nobody's born into this world of psychopath. We're just like, oh, I just want to harm people. No, they're born understanding that's wrong, okay? It's inside of their conscience, and look, people feel wrong committing sins whether they believe the Bible or not. I've told this story before. I had an old friend of mine in Arizona, and I was trying to give him the gospel, so I ate lunch with him, and he was involved in a relationship with a married woman. He was committing adultery, basically, and he didn't believe the Bible, but I'm showing him how we're all guilty, and we need a Savior, and I'm going through various sins, and I just mentioned adultery in passing, not to bring it up because of him. I wasn't trying to, and all of a sudden he's like, don't say that word. It's like, you know, if you don't believe in this book, why are you so worried about the word adultery? Because inside of him, he knew it was wrong. It's not that he wasn't a reprobate. I mean, he wasn't a wicked person, but he was committing a wicked sin, and he knew he was committing a wicked sin. Look, people are born with certain understandings, and we are born with a conscience, and we're born with an understanding of the very basics of the nature of God. So here's the thing. Thousands of years ago, off the arc, everybody was monotheistic, and guess what? People are born monotheistic. They've actually done studies, because you look at tribes like the Aborigines in Australia and everything, because they looked at that guy E.B. Tyler, and they thought that made sense, that man had basically just been, you know, animists, and eventually polytheists, and eventually monotheistic. They thought that made logical sense, and it would make logical sense if there is no God. That would actually make sense, okay? But then all of a sudden, you know, other anthropologists, they assumed that was true, and they started to find out actually, we're studying these Aborigine tribes, and we're finding out if you go back far enough, they were monotheists. And then all of a sudden, what they're finding is they actually were monotheistic 100%, and then all of a sudden, they ended up having strange beliefs. Now, part of it's hard for us to understand here in the Philippines, because you think of Ferdinand Magellan landing here 500 years ago, and you think, well, before that time, they were believing in all kinds of weird things, and that's true. But if you go back far enough, far before Lapu-Lapu, monotheistic 100%. No question. What happens is, over time, societies go very far from the Word of God. Now, nowadays, things are very centralized. There's a few very dominant religions in this world. It didn't used to be that way as much, okay? But if you go back far before Lapu-Lapu, what you're going to find is strict 100% exclusive monotheism. However, it ended up becoming very far from the Bible, and you see old photos, and yeah, you know what? They're walking around not dressed right. You say, why? Because they don't care what the Bible says. Now look, as I've said, I said in a sermon. I preached on the Battle of Mac Ten. I'm against the events that took place, but it's actually very good this is a Catholic country. This is the most receptive country in Asia. Is there any doubt about that? It's like, what Ferdinand Magellan did was very wicked, but you know, praise the Lord for Spain, because it makes soul winning great, and this is the reason why you're actually a Christian, because of the fact, you know what? It, you grew up Catholic. That's actually a good thing, or something that's divergent from it, or whatever. So here's the thing. People are born monotheistic, and they were monotheistic at the beginning, but here's the other thing. People are monotheistic today. If you look at the religions of the world, what you're going to find is monotheism, monotheism, monotheism, belief in one God. Look, there are, last I saw reports on religion, 7.8 billion people on this planet. I believe it just crossed the 8 billion mark, but they haven't really done religious studies since then, but 7.8 billion and 1.2 billion are atheist, agnostic, or non-religious, meaning they're not going to even tell you what they believe. Once again, we need that atheist challenge. Let's throw them in the middle of the ocean, and we'll find out what they believe, right? But let's just forget about those 1.2 billion that aren't telling us what they believe, okay? That leaves us 6.6 billion. 2.4 billion would say they're Christian. That's a large percentage of 6.6 billion, right? 2.4 billion say that they're Christian. That's roughly 36%. Now obviously that Christian includes everything that is even close to being Christian. It probably includes Apollo Kibiloy and his followers. I'm not 100% sure, but that's probably underneath the realm of Christian. Anything even remotely close to it, right? Every religion, whether it's Mormonism, that's going to be included under Catholicism, Orthodox, 2.4 billion. I'm not saying 2.4 billion are saved. I'm saying 2.4 billion would say they're Christians. 1.9 billion say they're Muslims. So that gives you 4.3 billion. Well, Christians believe in how many gods? Muslims believe in how many gods? Now Islam's a false religion, but they do believe in one God. This is why I don't think it's that big of an achievement to convince somebody God is real, because Islam believes in one God. They're not saved, right? That leaves you with 2.3 billion people out of 6.6. Out of that 2.3 billion, 1.16 are Hindus. That is just over 50% because 1.15 would be 50%. 1.16 billion are Hindus. You say, Brother Stuckey, there you go, polytheism. Wait a minute. Is Hinduism a polytheistic religion? It's monotheistic. Say, Brother Stuckey, Hinduism is a polytheistic religion. Well, the name of their God is Brahman. It's a fact. Listen to any Swami speak, and you know what they're going to say? It's a big myth that we believe in multiple gods. We believe in one God. What they believe, and this is where it gets important for next week's Chairman of the End Times, they believe in 300 million manifestations of that one God, and you can worship God in different ways. So I'm not saying it's bad to call them polytheists because they worship a lot of gods, but they believe that it all comes from this one all-powerful presence, this one all-powerful spirit. This is very complicated, and I'm not sitting here saying that they believe in monotheism like we do, okay? The actual term is exclusive monotheism is what we believe. They believe in a very strange idea of God, but Hindus do believe in one God. They just believe there's a multitude of different ways to reach that one God. I mean, Gandhi said we're Hindus because we're searching after truth, right? They believe all of these different ways are different parts of that one God. That's what they believe. In the Christian realm, you would call that oneness, and what that is is where you have one God that manifests himself in different ways. Now, what we believe is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost have eternally existed and always will exist. What oneness would teach is something like this, and there's divergent types of oneness. This is complicated. I'm trying to keep it simple. What they would believe is at the beginning there was God, and then God decided, you know what? I'm going to be God the Father, and later on he said, you know what? I don't want to be God the Father anymore. Now I want to be God the Son, and then no, no, no. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost have always existed because in the beginning was the Word. But see, what oneness teaches is that God chose to manifest himself in three ways. We don't believe that. We believe God is one, but he's also three. Three persons in one God. That's what we believe. God cannot be four. He cannot be two. Now, we believe in one God, but we believe God is a Trinity, and God cannot become more forms. We can't just have a modern-day manifestation. Well, here's a fourth part of the Trinity. Now we got a mother God. You got a God the Father. You got to have a God the mother, right? It's like, no. We have God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost. That can't be changed because we believe in the Trinity. So what oneness teaches is there's three manifestations of God. What Hinduism teaches is there's 300 million manifestations of God, and not only that, you got the main manifestations of Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu, and then you've got avatars of those manifest. It's like a movie. Didn't they make a movie called Avatar? I didn't watch it, but you know, it was a big movie. It's like, what in the world? It's like science fiction. That's what they believe, though. Now, it is a very, very, very strange idea of God, but it is underneath the realm of monotheistic. Here's the thing. All of these religions and societies, and we'll look at it in a second, that you're thinking of, you think they're polytheistic. They're not. They have a strange idea of monotheism, okay? Let me explain something to you. If God was writing the Bible today, you know what he'd probably say about this country? He'd probably call all of these saints gods as false gods. What Catholics call saints, the Hindus call gods, but there's no difference. Hindus still believe in one God, and look, Catholics believe in one God. Well, you could have fooled me with all your idolatry, right? But what Catholics call saints, the Hindus call gods, it's what Voodoo calls Loa, it's what other religions call spirits, but they still believe in this one powerful presence above that. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's just a difference in terminologies, and here's the thing. Part of it is because the devil's trying to confuse us about the creation of the world and a belief in God. Part of it's confusing about the end times. The other thing is it's just confusing in general. It's like the devil doesn't really have to confuse us that much because Christians have enough trouble understanding the nature of God and what the Bible teaches about this, much less the secular world writing about Hinduism. I'm sure if I was unsaved and I went to India, I'd be like, man, these polytheists, look at all these gods, right? I remember being shocked when I learned that Hindus actually believe in one God. I was like, what? But it's like it's not really different than Catholicism. It's really not. It's like you make an idol with your hands, you pray to that idol. It's like that actually sounds a lot like Hinduism. The only difference is Hinduism will openly say they worship idols, and no, we're not idolaters. You remove the second commandment because you know you're worshiping idols and just turn this 10th commandment into two, okay? Turn to Acts 17. Acts 17. Acts 17. The other thing you need to understand is this. Every culture in every country has myths, right? Nobody believes these myths are actually true though. Let me give you an example. Remember the story about the fully baked, unbaked, and baked correctly? Like I'm the unbaked, right? You know, because I'm white. And then the fully baked or too baked is like the black person. And then you're baked just right. You're the Filipino, right? Do you think anybody actually took that story like a fact exactly like this? Or is it just like an entertaining story they were telling people? Nobody actually took that exactly like a fact like, oh yeah, you know. It's just a myth. There's a lot of myths that say a lot of things, but look, people don't actually believe those are literal facts like this actually happened. Let me break it to you. Hindus don't believe those events actually took place in the Hindu scriptures. They don't. They believe their stories to represent something. Because you can point to a Hindu and show them, well, here's this story of this happening, and they're saying, well, that's true in its own way. We don't literally believe that happened, but it's teaching us something. Look, I literally believe this happened. We literally believe everything the Bible says, but in these other cultures they don't. Look, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the books by Homer, no Greeks actually believe those things actually took place. In the U.S. that's mandatory reading. Here you got to read Jose Rizal. We had to read the Iliad and the Odyssey. Who read the Iliad and the Odyssey? Do you guys have to read that? People didn't actually believe that as a fact. It's just a myth to represent the things. And basically those stories show that Zeus is all-powerful a lot of times in the Greek myths, it doesn't mean people actually believe this actually happened just like it says. Now in Acts 17, notice what it says in verse 18. Acts 17 verse 18, then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. Now Epicureans, these were Greek philosophers, and their goal was basically to avoid pain and seek pleasure. Sounds like our false philosophy series, doesn't it? There's nothing new under the sun, right? It's like avoid pain just like the Buddhists, seek after pleasure, there's hedonism. Epicureans were considered light hedonists. So basically seek after pleasure but don't go overboard with it was their philosophy, and avoid all pain, right? Make sure you don't get a paper cut, you know, that's going to destroy your life, right? And then all of a sudden the Stoics, the Stoics were all into morality by nature, and by nature not in terms of nature inside of you, like what's born in, but basically by mother nature. So basically look at the dogs to determine your morality, okay? That's what their religion was. And some said, what will this babbler say? Other some, he said it to be a fourth setter forth of strange gods because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. So Paul preaches to them, and then they say Paul sounds like he's setting forth strange gods, plural. We don't believe in gods, do we? We believe in one God. But they heard obviously God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, and it's like, man, it sounds like strange gods, okay? Because what the Greeks believed was very similar to the Hindus of this oneness sort of philosophy, where basically you have all of these gods and idols that you worship, they didn't understand what Paul was saying. Verse 19, and they took him and brought him on to Aeropagus saying, may we know what this new doctrine where of thou speakest is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears, we would know therefore what these things mean. For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time and nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with its inscription, notice this, to the unknown God. They were ignorantly worshiping, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship him declare unto you. See, these Greek philosophers had this statue to the unknown God. What they're saying is, we believe in this unknown God, but they didn't know how to worship that unknown God. And the way they chose to do it is make all these idols and bow down to them. So they have God's lower case, but they still believed in this one all-powerful unknown God. This is very strange, but this is what oneness teaches. And they're trying to worship him however they're trying to figure it out. You say, this is complicated, Brother Stuckey. Well, you know what, I was reading a book on the history of India, and then there's a chapter that starts talking about the unknown God. This was written 2,000 years ago, the Bible. It's really the same religion as the Greeks. And they're talking about how in this, you know, Hindus believe in this unknown God, but they don't know how to worship him, so they make idols, and they pray to those idols to represent God, even though that's not God, and you can't fully comprehend God, to try to get to know God, because he's above our comprehension. This is what the Greeks were doing as well. I mean, think about this. Roman Catholicism, they worship saints, just like you'd worship a god in another religion. Where did Roman Catholicism come from? Roman paganism. Where did Roman paganism come? The Greeks, right? I mean, don't they always link the Greeks and the Romans together, and here's the name of the god in Greece, here's the name of the god in Rome, and then they just show you that big list. It's the same, okay? Here's the thing, though. In Rome, they had all these lower gods they worship, but they still believed in this one powerful presence of God above that. For most Greeks, it was Zeus. Not all Greeks, though, okay? But for most Greeks, they believed Zeus was the all-powerful god running it. Look, nobody actually believed that story that the Greeks have, where basically his mom had eight children inside of an egg, and then the father ate seven of the eggs, and then she hid Zeus, and then Zeus cracked out of the egg and survived, and then he ended up killing his dad and becoming all-powerful. It's a myth. Don't tell me they actually believe that. They didn't believe it. It's just a myth, an entertaining story to say Zeus is all-powerful, just like there's entertaining stories of Batala. Do you think people actually took those stories literally as a fact, every single word? No, they just believed that Batala here in the Philippines was the all-powerful god, okay? Notice what it says in verse 29. Verse 29, for as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like on a gold or silver or stone graven by art and man's device. What Paul is saying is, you know what? The very nature of God and who God is, you cannot make him out of gold and silver, okay? There are things we can know about the invisible God, but you can't turn the invisible God into a visible God with your hands, okay? He's saying, don't worship idols, Greeks. Don't worship idols, Hindus. And yet, you know, around the world people worship idols, and they believe in all these lower gods, but they still believe in this one all-powerful God that they worship. Verse 30, and the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. So basically what God's saying here in verse 30 is, God basically gave the society kind of a pass on their ignorance. It doesn't mean that they're going to go to heaven, but basically they have more of an identity, but now that Paul is preaching the gospel to them, you're held accountable for what you hear. Now it's kind of like, you better change your mind about what you believe and believe on Jesus Christ now that you've heard the true message, okay? Now turn to 2 Kings 18. We'll close up there. 2 Kings 18. Now look, I'm not saying that there has never been someone who's a polytheist who's ever existed, but I'm saying if there have been polytheists, it's a very, very, very small percentage, because even the idea of God kind of goes against polytheism, because if God is all-powerful, how can there be another God fighting against him for control of the sky or whatever? It doesn't even make common sense. In fact, the words monotheism and polytheism, they're modern-day words, because everyone always understood it's just people are trying to understand the nature of God and how to worship him, and they had different beliefs about that. Now here's the thing. Off the ark, they were right on the money. They knew there was one God, and that's the religion they were spreading. Now of course, we see with the story of Nimrod, obviously we have unsafe people appearing very early, but it doesn't change the fact that there's still going to be a progression before they get into madness, like having 300 million gods, and still at the end of the day, the Hindus still worship one God. Now what's interesting about this is in societies like that, they don't necessarily believe these gods that are good, that they're worshipping are good. What they believe though is many of them worship Shiva, which is a very angry God. It's like, why do they choose to worship that facet of God? Because they're afraid if they don't worship Shiva, Shiva is going to destroy them, because he's a destroyer. That's literally what they say. So that's why they choose to worship the destroyer instead of the preserver. In voodoo, they believe that their relatives die, and are just spirits that are floating out there, and they believe those spirits are evil oftentimes, but that's why you got to make them happy. And so in voodoo ceremonies, sometimes those spirits will come upon people, and people literally get possessed, and then if the spirit comes upon a guy, and this spirit decides, this is like your dead relative, that the spirit decides he wants to sleep with a woman, you have to go along with it, because you don't want to make that spirit mad. So literally adultery, fornication, rape are taking place in these religious ceremonies in voodoo all the time, because they got to keep the gods happy. But they believe in one all-powerful God at the end of the day in voodoo. Those are just spirits that are underneath that guy. It's strange. I'm glad I grew up in a Christian country. I'm glad I grew up with the Bible as the Word of God, because some of these beliefs are very strange, okay? People, point number one, people are monotheistic at the beginning. Point two, people are born monotheistic. Point three, people are monotheistic today. Point four, people have always been monotheistic, which is the logical conclusion of everything I've said, because if they were monotheistic before, and they're monotheistic now, they would have to become polytheistic, and go back to monotheism, because everybody's monotheistic today. It's just they have strange ideas of God in many civilizations. But let me go through a lot of these ones to show you that they're not polytheists. There's a song in the U.S. called The Spirit in the Sky. And this song was basically referencing all of these natives and their religions. And all of these religions are, you know, like the Idas would be, worshiping the sun and the moon and the stars and the river. They're worshiping all of these things. But here's this song, okay? It says, when I die and they lay me to rest, gonna go to the place that's best. When I lay me down to die, going up to the spirit in the sky. In this song, it's expressing what all of the natives believe. They're worshiping all these other things, but at the end of the day, there's this one spirit in the sky overseeing and above everything. Some people believe, well, he created a lower God that's underneath him. Others believe it's part of the power or part of the presence of that one God above. But at the end of the day, all these natives that are worshiping the sun, moon, and stars in the U.S., they're worshiping this one spirit in the sky. Now, they have a different name for it, depending on what tribe it is, but they believe in one God. It's like, well, you could have fooled me when you were praying to the river. Okay? Now, I'll tie this together with the end times. This will be next week's sermon. It's gonna all tie together what I'm saying. You say, what does this have to do with the end times? It's gonna make sense at the end of the sermon. And look, the American Indians, very similar to the tribes in the Philippines that are worshiping all these other things. They still believe in that one all-powerful presence. In voodoo, voodoo is essentially a monotheistic religion which recognizes a single and supreme spiritual entity or God known as Mawulisa among the Faun, Oloran among the Yoruba, and Bande or Granmet in Haiti. What's interesting is if you ever watch a documentary in Haiti and voodoo, what they'll say is, man, you know what? Voodoo really caught on Haiti really well because it was a Catholic country. And what they'll say over there is, you know what? What voodoo caught on because those that were practicing voodoo says, man, Catholicism really lines up with our religion. And they just changed the name of the god in voodoo to the saint in Catholicism. So what it'll say is, you see this, it'll say, well, 80% of people are Catholic and 100% are voodoo. Catholic by morning, voodoo by night. It's like, man, I wonder why God sent that massive earthquake 10 years ago when you're worshiping devils in your ceremonies, right? But look, it's no different, though. It's really no different than in Catholicism where they're worshiping saints. It's literally the same. They're just calling it a different word. Is it really any different if you're bowing down before it and praying to it rather than praying? It's no different. But Catholics believe in one God. Is that not true? No question about it. But what they're doing is very pagan, and they're getting that from other societies, right? You say, Brother Secchi, what about Greeks? Because the Greeks believed in all of these gods. I've always heard that. Well, let's just look at three very famous Greeks and see what they actually believe. Here's what it says about Plato. Philosophical monotheism and the associated concept of absolute good and evil emerged in classical grace, notably with Plato and the subsequent Neoplatonists. Look, it says Plato was a philosophical monotheist. Now, look, I'll be honest. I don't fully know all the distinctions in all these forms of monotheism, but it's a form of monotheism Plato was believing in. Say, what about Aristotle? Aristotle, I think, was the teacher of Alexander the Great, wasn't he? Many scholars of Aristotle regard him as a monotheistic theologian, one who sees humanity's ultimate end as tied to a divine first explanation. So people read about what Aristotle wrote. It's like, man, he sounds like a monotheist. Socrates, in a conversation with Aristodemus, Socrates presents an extended argument from design to strengthen religious faith. The concept of God here manifested is strikingly monotheistic. You know what I read online when people talk about Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates being monotheists? It's just because they were the wisest Greeks. That's why they were monotheists and everybody else was polytheists. No, how about everybody was a monotheist? How about they had different understanding about who that God is? I mean, we looked at the three most famous Greeks outside of Alexander the Great. Monotheism, monotheism. Now, look, they had strange beliefs, but it's very similar to oneness, okay? Now, Assyria and Babylon, I'll look at a few more things, then we're going to go to that last verse we looked at. And it says about Assyria, Asher had no actual history of his own, such as those created for Sumerian and Babylonian gods, but borrowed from these other myths to create a supreme deity whose worship at its height was almost monotheistic, according to scholar Jeremy Black. Asher was the god of Assyria, and what the Assyrians believed is that Asher is their main god, and basically all of these lower gods are part of the power of God. So basically, I don't know, I don't know if they do this in video games, but let's say, like, I was God and I've got a hundred percent of my power. I'll put five percent of my power over here to deal with the river, five percent to deal with it. I mean, this is strange, okay? This is what they believed, though. That's what Assyria believed. You say, well, where did Assyria get this from? They got this from Babylon. It says here, Asher had power over the kingship of Assyria, but in this was no different from Marduk of Babylon. So basically, Assyria, they didn't have their own myths. It says they got it from Babylon, and Babylon, their god was Marduk, it says, okay? What am I showing you? I'm showing you all of these societies that you thought were polytheists and we've always heard. Actually, they're not. They just have a very strange idea of monotheism. 2 Kings 18, verse 19, referring to Assyria. 2 Kings 18, verse 19. It says this, And Rabshaki said unto them, Speaking now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest? Now here, what Rabshaki says is the great king is the king of Assyria. What he's basically saying is your god is a false god because the true king, the great king, is a king of Assyria. Because they thought that when somebody was the king, it was like the divine right of kings sort of thing, where the king on earth almost had the power of God in his life, where he sort of is God. Look, very strange. I'm not sitting here saying they're Bible believing Christians. These are strange beliefs. But what I'm saying is Assyria were monotheist. And what he's saying is this will prove. So when Assyria conquered, what they're saying is this proves we have the truth and you don't. We have the true God. You don't have the true God. Okay? Muhammad Ali, when he used to fight, you know, he had the famous fight, the Thrilla and Manila. When he won fights, he would mock Christianity after every fight and say this proves Allah is the true God. Okay? He's a Muslim. Now here's the thing. It's kind of like this. Now for me, I mean, Manny Pacquiao won a lot of fights too. That doesn't prove Christianity. Surely you have a better proof of Islam than the fact that you beat somebody up, right? But here's the thing. That's kind of like what it is here. Basically, when you conquered somebody else, that proved we have the true God and you don't. Okay? Verse 28, then Rabshaki stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language and spake, saying, hear the word of the great King, the King of Assyria. It's the same thing, the great King, the King of Assyria. So you'll see it mentioned in the Bible where it talks about gods of nations, but that doesn't negate the fact that they believe in this one all-powerful presence. You say, Brother Stuckey, what does this have to do with the end times? Here's what it has to do with the end times. During the end times, we know that the Antichrist will come back before Jesus Christ. But how is it that every religion is going to get on board with the Antichrist? Because the Antichrist is going to declare himself to be God in the temple, according to 2 Thessalonians 2. Let no man deceive you by any means. For that day, referring to the day of Christ, shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. And the Antichrist will declare himself to be God. How is it that everyone will get on board with that? Because every religion is going to be like, this is a manifestation of the God we worship, because they believe in oneness. They don't have a problem with several manifestations of God. How is it that the Hindus are waiting for the tenth avatar of Vishnu with Kalki, and the Buddhists are waiting for Maitreya Buddha, and they disagree on a lot of topics? Here's how they can get on board with it. When he comes, he's going to be a culmination of all their beliefs. He's going to be a manifestation to the Hindus. Hey, we believe this is a manifestation of God, and he's bringing peace on earth. He must be God, right? He's bringing peace. By peace, he's going to destroy many, the Bible says. And then Buddhists are going to think, this is Maitreya Buddha. It's a manifestation of, and look, all these religions are going to get on board with it. Now, I'll talk about that in more detail next week. I don't claim to have a perfect understanding of the end times, because a lot of it, we're just going to have to be there to fully get it. But I am saying, this is the method to get all these religions on board, because it's not like when this anti-Christ comes, all these religions are like, no, I mean, he's ours. No, they're going to all say, hey, you know, he's a manifestation of what we believe, and they can get on board behind that. It's not like all these religions are competing against one another. Look up these religions. They're okay with there being lots of manifestations of their God in different locations. I mean, Gandhi, we quoted in the first sermon, he says we're Hindus because we're searching after truth. It's like, you know what? Kalki is going to be a manifestation of the Hindus, and they're like, well, it's okay if we call it a different name, because God manifests himself in different ways to different people. And he's manifesting himself to me as Kalki is manifesting himself to you as Matrya Buddha, and they won't have a problem with that. See, it's the nature of God understanding, but see, as Christians, we don't believe that God can choose to manifest himself in another way, because God is a Trinity. Now look, unfortunately, Christians are not doing any favors for this world by telling people Jesus can come back at any moment, because the one coming back is the anti-Christ. And you got a bunch of Christians that are preparing the world for the anti-Christ and it's like, do you ever read your Bible? What are you doing? But it's like the way this is going to work is the fact that he's going to come here, the anti-Christ, and you know what? It's going to be a oneness God. It's going to be a God that's just a manifestation. He's not going to negate all these religions and say, well, you know what? I'm Hindu. Buddhism's wrong. This is wrong. No, no, no. He's a manifestation for everybody, because all these religions pretty much believe that God just manifests himself in different ways, and it's always been like that. See, the truth was perfect at the time of the ark. Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth, they knew the truth, but as time goes on, man starts worshipping the creature rather than the creator, and then you got these insane religions where people are literally worshipping devils. Hindus are literally bowing down before devils as are many religions, but this is the way it's going to work. So look, what's the point of the sermon? Well, part of it's just preparing for next week about the end times. Here's the thing, though. Polytheism has never really been common in terms of believing there's hundreds of gods, and they're competing against one another. Those are just myths. That's not actually what they believe. Even with the Greeks, their religion was not Greek mythology. The name of their religion is Hellenism, which is a very good name. Hellenism. The Hellenic time period. It's like, yeah, that's a very good name. They still believed in one all powerful guy, which most would call Zeus. So anyway, let's close in order of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see your word on this topic. And I know this is a very in-depth sermon, and there might be some stuff that is hard for everyone to grasp here, God, but help us to understand that we believe in a Trinity. We believe God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost have eternally existed and always will. We don't believe there's going to be another manifestation of God or that you can change your nature because we believe you are a Trinity God, but many religions do believe that there are many manifestations of what they believe, God, and it's preparing for the end times. Help us to know our Bibles, even the deep things, not just the simple things. Help us to know our Bibles and understand them, God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.