THE TOP 7 LIES YOU’LL HEAR AT COLLEGE
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: WHAT AISLE IS THE POLISH SAUSAGE ON?
1. People today over-react, especially about politically correct topics. There was a customer who asked, "In what aisle could I find the Polish sausage?"
2. The clerk asked, "Are you Polish?" The guy, clearly offended, said, "Yes, I am. But let me ask you something.”
3. "If I had asked for Italian sausage, would you ask me if I was Italian? Or if I had asked for German Bratwurst, would you ask me if I was German? Or if I asked for a kosher hot dog would you ask me if I was Jewish? Or if I had asked for a Taco, would you ask if I was Mexican? Or if I asked for some Irish whiskey, would you ask if I was Irish?"
4. The clerk said, "No, I probably wouldn't."
5. The guy said, "Because I asked for Polish sausage, why did you ask me if I'm Polish?” The clerk replied, "Because you're in Home Depot."
B. THESIS
1. Denzel Washington started out the “Great Debaters” saying, “I am here to help you to find, take back, and keep your righteous mind.”
2. That’s the goal of this talk, to equip you to stand strong in your faith in the midst of an onslaught of secularism and anti-christian bias.
3. There are a ton of lies you’re going to hear in college. Many professors you’ll have will have some kind of agenda. You need to learn to be discerning and wise about what you believe.
4. The message this morning is “The Top 7 Lies You’ll Hear at College.”
I. BIBLE IS UNRELIABLE
Today in schools, atheists commonly declare that the Bible is primitive, full of contradictions and errors, etc. The truth is the Bible is most the reliable ancient document in history.
How do we know?
A. THE ACCURACY OF BIBLE DOCUMENTS
1. The Dead Sea Scrolls, found in 1947, verified the accuracy of transmission of the Old Testament. These manuscripts dated as far back as 400 BC, and were virtually identical to the Masoretic Text dating to around 1000 AD.
2. The MSS evidence for the New Testament is far stronger than authors like Plato, Aristotle, or Socrates, yet no one dreams of questioning their authenticity.
3. We have more than 25,000 ancient mss of the N.T., some dated to within 10 years of the authors! The accuracy & integrity of the N.T. is unparalleled.
4. Dr. Carsten Theide, German papyrologist’s list of 16:
1. Magdalen Papyrus(P64) Mt. 26…Before 66 A.D.
2. Dead Sea Scroll MSS 7Q5 Mark 6:52-53…Before 68.
3. Dead Sea Scroll MSS 7Q4 1 Tim. 3 …Before 68.
4. Barcelona Papyrus (P67) Matt. 3 & 5…Before 66.
5. Paris Papyrus (P4) "not much later" than 66.
6. Pauline Codex (P46) Paul's Epistles ….85 A.D.
7. Bodmer Papyrus P66…125 A.D. 8. P32…175 A.D.
9. P45…150 A.D. 10. P77…150 A.D. 11. P87…125 A.D.
12. P90…150 A.D. 13. John Rylands P52 ...100-125 A.D.
14. Papyrus Oxyrhynchus P77...150 A.D.
15. P. Oxyrhynchus 2 ...100 A.D
16. P. Oxyrhynchus …125-150 A.D.
B. ARCHAEOLOGICALLY ACCURATE
1. Most ancient historians (Librarian of Alexandria, Ptolemy, and Herodotus) frequently give wrong or misspelled names. No so the Bible.
2. Bible people, places, etc. previously declared to be myths such as Sodom & Gomorrah, the Tower of Babel, evidence of the Exodus, the ‘falling outward’ Walls of Jericho, the Hittites, King David, and Pontius Pilate all have been verified as accurate.
3. Archaeologist Sir Wm. Ramsey, an atheist archaeologist, of atheist parents, went to Asia minor to disprove the Book of Acts. He discovered and verified the names and locations of 32 countries, 54 cities, and 9 islands, exactly as the Bible stated. Convinced of the Bible’s truthfulness, he became an outstanding Christian.
4. Archaeologist Nelson Glueck says: “It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a single biblical reference.”
C. PROPHETIC ACCURACY
1. Specific prophecies are conspicuously absent from the 26 other religious books that claim to be scripture, including the Muslim's Koran, the Book of Mormon, the Hindu Vedas, and Buddhist writings.
2. This in itself should be a major eye-opener to the honest skeptic. God challenged other supposed gods to "tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods (Isaiah 41:23)."
3. Of the Bible's 31,124 verses, 8,352 contains predictive material (27%). 81% of its prophecies have been documented as being fulfilled. The remaining 19% deals with the events yet future. God Almighty says, "I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come" Isa. 46:10.
II. ALL RELIGIONS ARE THE SAME
A. DISTINCTION BETWEEN RELIGIONS
1. People who say that all religions lead to the same God are ignorant of what those religions teach.
2. The 5 major world religions don't have the same God (one of them has 450 million gods, & another, no god), the same holy book, or the same goal to gain eternal life.
3. In addition, most of the world religions disavow the other religions as not being true.
4. All the world's religions depend on works to gain heaven or its equivalent except one. Jesus Christ taught that, not his teaching, but his death and resurrection alone can save you.
5. Christianity is the only religion that has a Savior; all others depend on the believer being perfect in his/her works to gain heaven.
6. Therefore, Christianity is the only religion that can offer assurance of salvation, i.e., you can know while you're still living, that you’re pleasing to God & are assured of heaven.
B. CHART OF WORLD RELIGIONS
[it did not transfer to this outline]
III. NO EVIDENCE OF GOD IN HISTORY
A. SCIENTISTS BELIEVE IN EVOLUTION MIRACLES
1. Some people claim there is no evidence that God intervened in history. They usually are anti-supernaturalists.
2. The Scientific Method requires repeatable experiments in a laboratory as proof of reality. Because miracles are non-repeatable, materialists say they can’t be accepted.
3. Strangely – the origin of the universe and the origin of organic life are both non-repeatable events and yet scientists believe in them and devise elaborate theories to explain them.
4. Where did the complex, orderly universe composed of over 100 billion galaxies and containing an estimated trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion tons of matter come from?
5. Second, what caused it to go "bang?" It's unavoidable -- there must have been a "First Cause."
6. Harvard biologist Stephen Jay Gould described humans as "a glorious accident" of evolution requiring 60 trillion contingent events. That would require more than 36 necessary events per day, each day for 4.55 billion years -- just to get Homo sapiens. And conveniently, each of these 36 daily events had to occur in the right place at the right time in the right sequence.
7. EVOLUTION AS A MIRACLE. In their book, The Anthropic Cosmological Principal, Barrow and Tipler lay out 10 steps necessary to the course of human evolution, EACH OF WHICH is so improbable, that before it would occur, the sun would have ceased to be a main sequence star and would have burned up the Earth. If evolution did occur, then it would have had to be a miracle.
8. HUMOR. Speaking of transitional species, I heard about a marine biologist who tried to take one of these beautiful shell creatures called an abalone and cross it with a crocodile. What he got was a crock of baloney. And, anytime anybody tries to cross species, that’s exactly what they come up with.
B. GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY
1. History DOES RECORD events where God stepped in: the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the flood of Noah, and the Israelites coming out of Egypt in the Exodus -- were all events in which God altered history. They have been archeologically verified.
2. The history of the Jewish race is itself an evidence of God’s reality.
IV. THERE’S NOTHING BEYOND PHYSICAL MATTER
In the material worldview, only matter exists. There is no life after death, no innate morality, no human spirit, and even the existence of God is ruled out.
A. THE HUMAN SPIRIT
Books such as Life After Life by Dr. Raymond Moody, and Beyond Death's Door and To Hell and Back by Dr. Maurice Rawlings also confirm the existence of the human spirit. These two surgeons documented patients who experienced clinical death and were later resuscitated. In non--corporeal form, the patient's hovered over the operating room and could tell the doctors exactly what procedures and in what order were performed to resuscitate them.
B. NON-MATERIAL ASPECTS IN HUMANS
The existence of self-consciousness, morals and the consciousness of right and wrong in humans are evidences of the non-material aspect in humans. Evolution cannot explain these aspects.
C. HARDWIRED TO CONTACT GOD
In 2004, Dean Hamer, PhD, a behavioral geneticist at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the NIH, published The God Gene: How Faith Is Hardwired Into Our Genes which was showcased in a Time cover story. His research shows that spirituality is a real phenomenon and has a genetic basis.
V. SCIENCE & CHRISTIANITY DON’T MIX
A. CHECK YOUR BRAIN AT THE DOOR
1. IDEA: One of the myths of our modern educational system is that a truly intelligent person won’t believe in God.
2. To accept the Bible, you have to check their brain at the door or commit intellectual suicide.
B. TRUTH: MOST GR. SCIENTISTS ARE CHRISTIANS
1. According to 100 Years of Nobel Prize (2005) by David Ould (2005), a review of Nobel prizes awarded between 1901 and 2000 reveals that (65.4%) of Nobel Prizes Laureates have identified Christianity as their religious preference (423 prizes).
2. Overall, Christians have won a total of 78% of all the Nobel Prizes in Peace, 72% in Chemistry, 65% in Physics, 62% in Medicine, 54% in Economics and 49.5% of all Literature awards.
3. This tells us that the majority of the people “acclaimed” to be the smartest people on the planet in the last 100 years have been Christian believers. Obviously Science and Christianity DO MIX!
C. HUMOR: Just For Kids
1. An astronomer and a pastor sat next to each other on a coast-to-coast flight. The astronomer asked, “What do you do?” Pastor, "I am a pastor of a church."
2. "Oh," said the astronomer. "I don't believe in this religious stuff. It's for kids, you know, like the song 'Jesus Loves Me This I know, for the Bible tells me so...."
3. The pastor politely laughed and asked the other man what he did for a living. "I am an astronomer," he said.
4. "Oh, that stuff," said the minister. “That’s just for kids, you know - 'Twinkle, twinkle little star....'"
VI. MONEY, POWER, PLEASURE & PRESTIGE ARE THE GOAL IN LIFE
A. THE EMPTY PROMISE
1. Academic honor, the high paying job, the position of prominence and the "good life" are all dangled before the college student as enticements for pursuing a college education.
2. But even if you should attain those things, will they really satisfy?
B. THE REAL SOURCE OF SATISFACTION
1. Long ago, King Solomon, one of the wisest men who ever lived achieved incredible wealth, power, and pleasure, yet found those things gave no true meaning to life.
2. Gallup polls show more money doesn’t equal happiness. Wealthy people are usually more stressed. People with too much time & money often become self-destructive.
3. Materialism neglects the spiritual aspect. Jesus said, "For what will it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Mark 8:36.
4. David talked of the joy relationship with God brings, “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” Ps. 16:11.
VII. WE’RE ALL GOOD & ACCEPTED BY GOD
A. IF WE’RE GOOD, THEN WHY….
1. It is amazing in the light of human history that men still see themselves as basically good.
2. Think of the last 100 years: two world wars, the Nazi concentration camps, Viet Nam, 66 million Russians exterminated since the Bolshevik revolution, many millions murdered under Mao Tse-tung, etc., for an estimated total of 203-258 million dead in war & political carnage.
3. Still we try to deceive ourselves with flattering thoughts of our goodness and supposed evolutionary progress.
4. The Bible points out our Achilles Heel, our innate problem: a sinful nature. Part of us wants to do right, but our dark side draws us to break the rules and do wrong.
5. Jesus exposed our jealousy, resentment, unforgiveness, lust, anger, greed, etc., and concluded,
"No one is good except God alone." Luke 18:19.
6. There’s a lot of people talking about heaven who aren’t going there!
B. TRUTH: WE ALL NEED A SAVIOR
1. The truth is, “No one’s good enough to merit heaven by their own righteousness.” But at college, we’re told another lie: “I’m OK and you’re OK.”
2. This happens when we compare ourselves with one another, instead of measuring their lives by God’s righteous and holy standard.
3. In the 12 step program of Alcoholics Anonymous, one of the first steps is to admit you’re an alcoholic. The process of recovery can’t start until that truth is acknowledged.
4. It’s not until we admit we’re sinners in need of a Savior that God can save us. Like the life guard waiting to rescue the drowning man until he was too weak to save himself.
5. Likewise, come to Christ, confessing your sinfulness, asking God, for Christ’s sake, to receive you and save you from your sins.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: FAMILY FEUD HOST IGNORED FAITH
1. Raymond Neil "Ray" Combs, Jr. (April 3, 1956 – June 2, 1996) was an American comedian, actor, and game show host.
2. Combs began his professional career as a stand-up comedian in the 1980s. His popularity on the stand-up circuit led to him being signed as the host of game show Family Feud (1994-96).
3. On one show he had a contestant with a button that had 2 question marks. He asked, "Why do you wear that?" They answered, "They are the 2 most important questions."
4. He responded, "Oh" and moved on down the line, because he didn't want to talk about Christianity. Then he got curious, went back, and asked, "What's the first question?"
5. "If you died tonight, would you go to heaven or hell?" He said, "I’d go to heaven!" He walked on, got curious, and came back;
6. "What's the second question?" "Why would God let you in?" He responded, "Because I’m the host of Family Feud and everybody in America loves me!"
7. Several years later he was fired from that job, had marital problems, entered a psychiatric ward (Glendale Adventist Medical Center) and hanged himself!
8. Don’t take salvation for granted!
B. THE CALL
1. We want to pray for our college students, that God will give you discernment and not let you be swayed by false persuasions. Please stand. [Pray]
2. Are you here today and you want to take your first step toward God? You want to accept the forgiveness and peace Jesus Christ offers you? Slip your hand up. [Prayer]
3. Prayer for minds renewed after the Scriptures. “How many will commit to reading the Bible daily? Stand. [Pray]
[This is an adaptation of Richard Och’s “10 Lies College Students Hear.”]
