Latest / Brandon Fogal Evolution / #136 - Could Alex O’Connor Become the Next Apostle Paul?

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#136 - Could Alex O’Connor Become the Next Apostle Paul? · Brandon Fogal Evolution

• 0:00
  So who will be our modern day Apostle Paul? I don't know if you've ever tried
• 0:05
  this exercise or this hypothesis.
• 0:08
  Is there somebody in our world today that is seemingly against Christianity,
• 0:14
  seemingly trying to tear it down, but they would be the best story if they converted to Christ?
• 0:21
  We're going to take a look at this and I'm going to give you,
• 0:23
  you might have saw the title so you might see who I'm going towards,
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  but there are a lot of candidates out there. There are a lot of candidates out there.
• 0:30
  So I immediately think of Bill Maher.
• 0:33
  He would be a huge one for me because it would be tough to take him off of that
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  throne that I would put up because I think of him as the guy who is usually
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  he made the movie Religious.
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  He made Christians look crazy. He is equal opportunity, though.
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  He goes against all faiths. So I like him about that. He doesn't just completely
• 0:57
  go after Christianity. He throws in Islam as well, as well as any other ones
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  that are out there that seem a little nuts.
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  And I understand that Christianity on its face is nuts, and that's the way it's supposed to be.
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  On its face, it seems crazy. So I respect his candidness when he goes after
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  all the face and he throws in Christianity as well.
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  Christianity is just an easy target. It's an easy target. You know,
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  it's not one that's really going to fight back.
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  We're told to turn the other cheek. So if we did fight back,
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  we really wouldn't be doing what the master says to do.
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  So as opposed to Islam, there you get in a little more dicey water.
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  Then I also go to Richard Dawkins.
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  He's another guy I think of when I think of, he is very combative against Christianity.
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  He's very smart, but even the smartest guys out there, that's what is very puzzling,
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  that you can be so smart. the most brilliant scientists out there.
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  But if you are putting your face against the creator and you're not seeing the creator behind it,
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  the artist behind the painting, you might be missing the boat compared to a
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  little child who looks at a flower on the field and is like,
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  that's awesome, praise God.
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  That's the difference, you know, because you can look at somebody who builds
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  something, who creates something and what they made looks awesome and you can respect it.
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  But if you're not kind of given your honor and just respect to the person behind
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  it, you might be missing the boat.
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  All right. I'm going to turn this towards Alex O'Connor because he,
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  I saw this video yesterday.
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  I mean, let's actually take a short, a clip of it. It's really good.
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  It's from him as well. He was on a podcast and they asked him,
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  are you going to be the next Apostle Paul?
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  I'm going to show you the whole clip.
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  It's very good from beginning to the end and the very end of it.
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  I want you to see if you can catch this, what he says, which is really eye opening.
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  Maybe you're the next Apostle Paul, you know, and it's your wonderful conversion
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  straight after this show, Alex.
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  Yeah, well, all I'm asking for is something just like what Paul experienced.
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  I tell you, Justin, if I experience even just in the form of a flash of light, like St.
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  Paul, although, you know, dubious circumstances, I have to say,
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  but even something just like that, just once, just one time,
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  listen, here I am, and then gone.
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  I could live on that for the rest of my entire life. Because a lot of people
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  say, well, one reason why God is hiding himself is because if he made himself
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  constantly present in your life, he's like having a father figure staring over your shoulder.
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  I agree, but I'm not asking for God to sort of hold my hand through this lived experience.
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  I'm asking once, just, and not even, not even for like an overwhelming religious
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  experience with a big waterfall and, you know, I fall to my knee,
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  but just, just enough to form a belief that he exists.
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  If I can have just that just once, then I'll become the most prolific Christian
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  apologist that you've ever met. All right, right there.
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  So, and before I kind of analyze what Paul, what Paul was that,
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  am I speaking just into the existence, you know, what's going to happen?
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  And before I start speaking about Alex and what he's saying right there,
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  because a lot of it stood out to me, I want to read to you the actual conversion
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  of the Apostle Paul, Acts chapter 9. It's about 21 verses.
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  But Saul, that's his name at first.
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  But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord,
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  went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus,
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  so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
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  Now, as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from
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  heaven shone around him, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying
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  to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And then he said, who are you, Lord?
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  And he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise and enter the city
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  and you will be told what you are to do.
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  The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.
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  Saul rose from the ground and although his eyes were opened,
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  he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
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  And for three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank.
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  Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in
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  a vision, Ananias. And he said, Here I am, Lord.
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  And the Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called Straight.
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  And at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul,
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  for behold, he is praying.
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  And he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on
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  him so that he might regain his sight.
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  But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man,
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  how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.
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  And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name.
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  But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry
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  my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.
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  For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.
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  So Ananias departed and entered the house and laying his hands on him,
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  he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which
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  you came, has sent me to you so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
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  And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight.
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  Then he rose and was baptized and taking food.
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  He was strengthened for some days. he was with the disciples at Damascus and
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  immediately he proclaimed Jesus is in Jesus in the synagogue saying he is the son of God.
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  That's the conversion story of Paul.
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  Later, we find out his name changes to Paul. Saul is kind of like his Hebrew name.
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  And then it changes to his more kind of diaspora name when he's out in the world
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  and go into all the Gentiles, go into all the nations.
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  His name changes to Paul.
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  A lot of people have their Jewish name, just like Peter. He had Cephas was his
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  Hebrew name or his Jewish name or Shimon.
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  And no, God or Jesus changed his name to Cephas. His name was Simon, Shimon.
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  And he changed his name to Cephas, which is in Greek, Peter.
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  A lot of languages out there. You know, we don't deal with that as much in America.
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  We have primarily English, English, English. It slipped out English.
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  We have primarily English, but there's also, you know, Spanish and all that.
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  We're not as entrenched in it. But could this guy, like, could Alex O'Connor,
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  what he says in the video that we just watched, is this at all in line with,
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  would it be as fundamental of a transformation if he turned to Christ?
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  He is, in a way, breathing threats, you know, kind of.
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  He's going against and tearing down Christianity by his arguments.
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  But I have suddenly questioned in my heart whether Alex is already a believer.
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  Because what he is doing, he is bringing Christianity to the forefront.
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  And any question that is in any person's mind out there that disagrees with
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  Christianity, he is voicing it.
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  And the answers are coming back to him. And he is reflecting on it.
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  So it's like, I'm wondering, I know he's not a Christian right now.
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  And I don't think he believes it at all yet and he is looking for an experience
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  because he's seen that so many Christians out there have an experience.
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  I myself had an experience, but I wasn't.
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  I didn't believe in God at the time, and I was just kind of just caught off
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  guard and made to believe in him because I was confronted.
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  I can't even explain to you what it is. And I don't know if Alex is looking
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  for something like that, but there are places in the Bible where an event will
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  happen and people will look at the same event and come to different conclusions.
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  Because God speaks from heaven.
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  And some of the people are like, oh my gosh, God just spoke to you,
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  Jesus. He just called you his son. Others were like, no, it was an angel.
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  And other people were like, no, it just thundered.
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  Everybody can look at the same scene with the same evidence and come to different conclusions.
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  But how it's not saying he is, what caught me the most was at the end when he
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  says, if God did this, I would be the most staunch.
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  I don't remember how exactly he said it of like the apostle Paul.
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  I would be out on the forefront of Christianity like no other.
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  And that's what I see happening.
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  I see him different than other people because right now he is already talking about it.
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  He is already, his mind is being flooded with Christians, with ideas about Christianity.
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  So he knows what it's all about.
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  And he's going to have these years and years of experience of knowing what it
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  was to be an atheist because that is kind of like the name of the game right now.
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  It's a lot of people that are atheists. They just don't want to think about
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  it. They don't believe in God.
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  They think all of this can be explained through evolutionary processes.
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  He's had this background. And for Alex, if he was to turn to Christ,
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  it would be game changer. It would be game changer.
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  But then I think about his many followers that he has out there.
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  And if you are one of them and you're listening to this and you really,
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  you buy into a lot of the things that Alex promotes, preaches, argues for.
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  And really, he doesn't preach anything. I think he's a lot of times just open
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  and he wants the truth. He wants the truth.
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  But if he was to convert to Christianity, would you immediately discount him?
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  Would you immediately say, okay, Alex, he's drunk the Kool-Aid.
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  We've lost him. We've lost him. Or would his conversion to Christ,
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  would it mean anything to you? I think for everybody, it is different.
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  Everybody, we have our own internal struggle that we are going through,
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  and nobody is going through the same things.
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  Nobody is in the same exact circumstance, and we are all chemically composed differently.
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  You know, we are all made up differently. And so many times I remember like C.S.
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  Lewis, he would talk about how it might be easier for someone to behave nice
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  or act nice because they have a better digestion system.
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  It's easier for them. Their chemical makeup is better than someone else that
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  has it all together, that has it all together.
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  And they don't struggle through that, you know, and there might be more honor
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  or blessing or altruism for somebody that is having to fight as much as possible
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  to smile as opposed to someone that smiling just comes natural and you just,
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  it comes out, it bleeds through.
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  But Alex, him, like I, the guys I go to, I go to Bill Maher,
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  I go to Richard Dawkins and then Alex, all three of them would be huge.
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  Bill is, Bill is just so like a comedy. He makes fun. It's all,
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  so silly and funny and everything like that.
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  But if he was to turn, that would be, that would be shocking.
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  That would be absolutely shocking.
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  I think of those three guys, those three guys, but the one I wanted to focus
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  on was Alex, because he is kind of the front and center right now in this kind
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  of debate atmosphere that people are going, he's going into every conversation,
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  wanting to be convinced. He wants to be convinced.
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  If Jesus is true, he wants to believe it. And the things that are pushing him
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  back are he doesn't look at the historical manuscript evidence of Jesus's resurrection
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  and he doesn't buy into it. He doesn't think it's reliable.
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  If you want to believe anything in history that happened, there is no event
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  stronger recorded than the death, burial, and then the resurrection.
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  I know it goes against our natural laws and.
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  But the only thing that could explain the massive conversion of the apostles,
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  that these scared guys of doing this, having nothing to gain,
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  because they didn't gain anything in this life.
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  If they just died and they're gone, what did they get out of it?
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  What did they get out of believing in Jesus and preaching Jesus?
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  You know, I think, and to get someone to believe, like there's nothing you can do or say.
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  God is the one who has to change the heart. God is the one who has to give you
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  that experience, I guess.
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  And all you can do is tell people is trust in the Lord, because it also says
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  in the Bible, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord, anyone will be saved.
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  Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
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  And it's when you call on him in truth, you know, but this was just is very interesting to me.
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  And, and, and Alex actually talking about this, this looked like a little,
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  a few years ago, he looked younger than probably not.
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  He's probably not in the exact same spot. now, he's probably a little bit closer
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  to Christianity and belief than he was even in that video.
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  So when it happens, because I, I mean, just mark your calendar.
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  I think God's got it on the calendar, you know, and it's going to eventually happen.
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  And, but there's nothing out there. There's not a bolt of lightning that's going
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  to come down and just like,
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  oh my gosh, I believe it's if you really are open to it, if you really are open
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  to God and you throw away everything else and you just start talking to him,
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  just start talking to him.
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  And you actually try to believe as much as you can.
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  And you, I think you will eventually like the, the, the walls,
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  the scales will come crashing down and your heart will be opened to him and
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  he will get you at that point.
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  He will get you. And once he's got you, he ain't going to let go.
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  So I, I, I long for the day that Alex says, because I think he would be a kind of a figure.
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  A 21st century figure of the apostle Paul that would just be,
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  because he could go into the circles with all the atheist, his atheist friends
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  and talk about this and just tell him, you know, because he would be from that
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  other side, just telling him from the new side, this is the new side, you know,
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  everybody get on, get on board. All right.
• 15:18
  If you've enjoyed this video, hit this link and I'll see y'all in the next one.