Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

Born to Win
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Born to Win's Daily Radio Broadcast and Weekly Sermon. A production of Christian Educational Ministries.

  1. 1 day ago

    American Prophets

    When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed[.] You recognize those words, of course. I wish every American child had them committed to memory because they are among the most important words ever committed to writing by the pen of man. This is the opening of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. The thinking behind this document is at the core of the most fundamental liberties of man. And while many of the men who signed this document were slave owners, these same men set in motion the wheels that would bring an end to slavery in the civilized world. The Declaration was, in the main, the words of Thomas Jefferson, but the leadership of all the existing states signed it, and it honestly reflected their values and beliefs. Perhaps the most stunning idea put forward in this Declaration is that men—all men—are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. I say stunning, but that’s only in the light of modern politics. To the men who signed this Declaration it was obvious, it was a self-evident fact that men were created and were endowed with rights by their Creator. In other words, they believed in God and they considered God to be the guarantor of the liberties man, including Life, and Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. For these men to speak of God as Creator was as natural as breathing, for they were all believers. One of the most interesting things about them, though, was they were not much inclined to sectarian religion. Perhaps there had been too much suffered at the hands of a state church for them to feel comfortable in any way with an established church, or maybe with any particular church at all. But the belief in God, now that was another matter. In the minds of the men, far and away the majority of those who signed this Declaration, the belief in God was beyond question.

    28 min

  2. 2 days ago

    Christian Origins #20 - Thessalonians

    Everyone knows the end of the world is coming. The only questions left are when and how. Scientists tell us that in 3 to 4 billion years our sun will blow up and turn our planet into a cinder, so there really is an end to all this. It doesn’t matter to us whether it 3 billion or 3 million, our end is a lot sooner than that. Even the Bible tells us there is going to be an end to this world, this system. It suggests that if God doesn’t stop us, we will end up destroying ourselves. But it speaks of time called the Day of the Lord, when Christ will return and God’s wrath will descend on disobedient man. There are little snippets here and there in the New Testament about this time and what it means for mankind. Paul had just written to the Thessalonian Christians about the resurrection and he adds this little passage: But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that are drunk are drunk in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Therefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also you do. 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11 KJ2000Now, put yourselves in the place of these new Christians. They are gentiles in the main. They have what Paul told them about Jesus in a short three weeks to go on, plus the Old Testament prophets that could be read in the synagogue. There is no way they thought the return of Christ was 2,000 years into the future. They thought, from what Paul said, that it was imminent—it could happen any day now. This conception apparently led to some unfortunate behavior which Paul has to address in his second letter.

    28 min

  3. 3 days ago

    Christian Origins #19 - Thessalonians

    Is it hard to be a Christian? I suppose it depends on where you are and what you are doing. There are people in the world, right now, who are being shamefully and brutally treated because they profess the name of Jesus. But you are probably not one of them; I certainly am not. Who do you know, personally, who has been killed because of his belief in Jesus Christ? Do you know anyone who has been beaten? Do you know anyone who has been jailed because he refused to deny the name of Jesus? Do you know anyone who was put up on an auction block and sold like a slave because they were Christian? I don’t, but it happens. It’s happening every day. I think there will be a lot of saints who will laugh when we meet them one day and tell them it was hard for us to live a Christian life in the modern world. When the church was new, it was worth your life in some places to do nothing else but admit your Christianity. There were times and places where you were relatively safe if you didn’t do anything—just mind your own business. But any overt Christian acts (like preaching the gospel) meant your life was in immediate jeopardy. Some of the early churches were born in trouble and never had a day of peace. One of these was the church in Thessalonica—a town in northern Greece and home of the people to whom Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians was written. Paul wrote this letter just a few weeks after he left the town, because he had heard what had happened there after he left. He had only spent three weeks in that town. It’s amazing how short a time he was able to stay there. He spent a year and a half in Corinth—in Thessalonica…three weeks. After Paul began preaching, the Jews from the synagogue there prompted a bunch of ruffians to make an assault on the house where Paul had been staying. Paul wasn’t there at the time, and the disciples hustled him out of Thessalonica by night. Reading between the lines of Paul’s letter, we know that the disciples there had been the object of a lot of violence. Some of them had even been killed in anti-Christian rioting. The people were really discouraged. This word came to Paul in Corinth, not long after he wrote his letter to the Galatians. The year appears to be AD 52. Listen carefully to the tone of Paul’s letter as he tries to encourage those embattled saints.

    28 min

  4. 4 days ago

    Above and Beyond

    The Law of God is a great gift. The 119th Psalm, in a way, summarizes our attitude toward the Law and our gratitude for it. It's a lamp to our feet. It's a light to our path. It's a great source of wisdom and knowledge. We are wiser than our teachers because we give attention to God's statutes and his commandments. The Law tells us what works and what won't. It shows how to come to know God and to relate to him. It's our teacher about how to live a life. And it's what tells us the difference between right and wrong. We understand that man walks into the world ignorant and has to be taught—taught what's right, taught what's wrong, taught who God is and who God is not—and that God in his graciousness, instead of letting us find out everything the hard way, has given us a teacher to tell us what is right and what is wrong. But I do think occasionally we carry some aspects of our understanding of the Law a little further than it will reach. Because the Law is not an end in itself. It is a teacher and only a teacher. I suppose over the years we've addressed this subject in such great detail as a reaction against those people who want to argue that the Law of God is done away. But the Law, as I said, is not an end in itself. It's a teacher, and it is only a teacher. There's a peculiar mindset present in the Pharisees of years gone by (and it hasn't gone away today) that when you have kept the Law you have done all there is to do. If you just somehow manage to keep the Law perfectly, then you will have essentially fulfilled what God requires of man. However, there's this rather odd scripture back in Luke 17…

    56 min

  5. 26 Jun

    The Courageous Christian

    I’m always grateful when the news media gives credit to people who have done very brave things. It is so good to see these people and to hear what they have to say about how they felt and why they did what they did. One of the best things is to see them so often made uncomfortable, even a little embarrassed, at being called a hero. I can appreciate that. Because, in a strange way, calling them heroes diminishes what they have done. I think of that often when I watch some talking head on television gushing over someone who took responsibility and calling them heroes and watching ‘em squirm a little bit when they’re called that. Thinking of this there is a man (actually he was little more than a boy at the time) in the Bible who comes immediately to mind and from whom we can learn. The man I’m thinking about—his brothers had gone off to war and his father had placed him in charge of the sheep in the field… Peggy Noonan - Patriots, Then and Now Link 1 | Link 2

    28 min

  6. 25 Jun

    Christian Origins #18 - Galatians

    I know sometimes it is a little hard to grasp, but the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees was a matter of power and control. When this conflict reached the churches of Galatia, it split them wide open, and is a classic illustration of what happens when you put new wine in old wineskins. Paul wrote of those who caused this problem: They are zealous of you, but not for good; yea, they would exclude you, that you might be zealous of them. Galatians 4:17 KJ2000It is in the nature of legalism to divide people in pursuit of control. So when Paul writes of liberty in Galatians, he is talking about liberty from men who wanted to get them under their thumb. For, brethren, you have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another. Galatians 5:13–15 KJ2000In Galatia, brother had turned against brother and they were biting and devouring one another. In the end (perhaps as a result of this) these churches seem to have disappeared from history, but we can still learn much from Paul’s exhortations to them as we continue our look at Christian Origins.

    28 min

  7. 24 Jun

    Christian Origins #17 - Galatians

    I know this may seem obvious, but it must be said: Christianity and Judaism are two very different religions. I think Jews know this better than Christians. We speak of things Judeo-Christian as though they were two denominations of the same faith. Jews and Christians share one thing: that book we call the Old Testament. At some level of understanding, we may share a belief in the same supreme being, but there are some who would even dispute that: Christianity believes that Jesus is God, and Judaism most certainly does not. Christianity believes that salvation is by grace, through faith, and not of ourselves. We believe we are made righteous and saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. Judaism believes that salvation, whatever that may mean, is something achieved through the study and application of the law to our lives. In a sense, they believe we save ourselves. To that end, they believe in obedience, not only to the written law of the Old Testament, but to the traditions of the Fathers as well. Christianity sees the law as defining sin. Judaism sees the law as defining righteousness. Both are correct, but in Judaism, one pursues righteousness by works of law. In Christianity, one pursues righteousness by faith in Christ. It is in this fundamental conflict that a great deal of misunderstanding arises when people read the New Testament. They assume that there is a conflict between Law and grace, when in fact, the conflict is between Judaism and Grace. The New Testament writers do not make this easy for us. They can’t, because they are writing to their own world—there is no way they could have anticipated our difficulties with their writings. Nevertheless, if we can just understand the nature of the real conflict, then most of it will fall easily in line. Let’s begin today by seeing how Paul clarifies the issue in Galatians, chapter 4.

    28 min

  8. 23 Jun

    Christian Origins #16 - Galatians

    Sometimes we answer questions too quickly, when we would be far better off saying I don’t know and waiting until we do. Nowhere is this more true than in religion. It is hard to discuss theology and make any progress because everyone thinks they know already. They already have an opinion—have their mind made up—because when they were first asked they gave an answer instead of saying I don’t know. Let me think about that. And because religious and theological arguments have raged back and forth for centuries, it is especially difficult to think about these things from a fresh point of view. The terminology has been corrupted, so that we often don’t mean the same thing when we use the same words. I find it very hard, for example, to talk to people about Old Covenant and New Covenant issues because the words have been overused and have special meanings attached to them. And those special meanings aren’t the same to everyone that you talk to. Covenant is a perfectly good word in law, but if you use it in a doctrinal or theological discussion, things will go south in a hurry. That’s why, when I come to a passage in, say, Galatians, I try to get a fresh look at it without all the baggage we carry with us. Take Galatians 3, verse 15: Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannuls, or adds thereto. Now to Abraham and his descendant were the promises made. He says not, And to descendants, as of many; but as of one, And to your descendant, who is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before by God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of no effect. Galatians 3:15–17 KJ2000Paul has a bad habit of dropping little ideas into his letters without any explanation. Just keep in mind that you are reading someone else’s mail, and the person or people to whom these letters were originally directed probably understood what Paul was saying more clearly than we might. One little idea you might miss is that this deal with Abraham was confirmed by God in Christ. It would not be wrong to call Abraham’s covenant a Christian covenant. There are also two other important ideas here—one is covenant and the other is the law that came later—and what Paul says about them may surprise you.

    28 min
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Born to Win's Daily Radio Broadcast and Weekly Sermon. A production of Christian Educational Ministries.

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